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Hello world!
5 years ago
Monday, February 2, 2009
A New Day
Good Monday Morning. I hope to make this a regular thing for all Brookview goers and seekers.
Yesterday we were out of service, litterally. But we'll get back in the swing of things tonight with the 7pm Bible Study concluding our Share Jesus Without Fear study. I had also hoped to add in one service/outreach project per month in our normal routine of things. For example, I have a friend who recently got a personal email from Rick Warren who recommended taking the Sunday School Class out to a corner and hand out hot coffee. (I guess he was trying to be sympathetic to how cold it is here compared to Southern California.) But I think it is a great idea. Not to much time spent doing it, after all, Sunday School is just one hour, and if we did it everynow and again for the Monday Night Bible Study, it would still only be an hour and a half. Please, give me some feedback on this if you can.
Energy bills are skyrocketting. Without putting the nubmers up on the web here, I am going to talk to our groups about doing more outside of the basement of the church. I believe it is the single most difficult space we have to heat. (Ex. We have hosted two meals for families following funerals in the last two weeks. Both times, the heat did not shut off all day. This does not happen in the Education facility or the Sanctuary.) So, lets see if we can't do some things in a different place within the church.
Now we have a new question. How do we define ourselves? The reason I ask is that after reading the words of Jesus I must wonder which direction we are to go. In the NIV, Mark 2:21-22 we read Jesus saying, "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."
Fellow workers of the Kingdom, do we not seek the new wine? I always thought we did. I mean, in this example, the new wine is representative of the new covenent between us and the Lord, bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus. (Church talk, yes, but true for those who understand it.)
The question of how we define ourselves, must be answered. And as we define ourselves, if we figurativly define ourselves as 'old wineskins,' then we are only fit to be filled with old wine. i.e. those who have been raised in and around the church. To fulfill the great commission, and reach those who have no previous church contact, we will have to find a way to be involved with and support a new church, i.e. a new wineskin.
On the other hand, if we define ourselves as a new wineskin, then we must behave as one. We can not be held back by the slightest bit of tradition, be it preaching style, chairs in a certain place, coathangers in a certain place, music we sing, or instrument used. We can't be held back by the type of building we meet in or worry about whether there is a steaple on top it or not. It doesn't matter.
With that said, I don't think we need to move for the sake of moving (at least not yet, I hope we'll have to as the Lord Blesses, and the Chruch grows.) But I think we have conflicting mindsets within the church, i.e. we are not unified. There is nothing wrong with hymns, and pews, and piano's and organs. But there is alot wrong with the feeling that you or I have more of a right to ANY position or stance within the church than the newest believer in the church. Once a person has joined the church, there voice is as loud and important as any other. And to tell you the truth, when it comes to the true work of the church, often the new Christian is far more faithful than the one who has been with Christ for years. i.e. A new Christian tells others about Jesus. And they care about the other persons faith and well being. Can you say that about your life?
Jesus said Old Wineskins will burst if he pours in the New wine, while the New wineskin will handle the new wine. The wine is God's blessing, and the wineskin is the vessel, i.e. you and/or the church. Are you an old wineskin that will burst if you actually recieved God's blessing? Or are you a New Wineskin, read to recieve as much as he will give? The choice is actually yours. Because Jesus has also said that he will make all things new. You will be made new if you will just recommitt your life to him. EVERYDAY. He is the priority in every situation. Praise Him, that we still have a hope and a future. I am a New wineskin, ready to recieve his blessing. Are you?
Yesterday we were out of service, litterally. But we'll get back in the swing of things tonight with the 7pm Bible Study concluding our Share Jesus Without Fear study. I had also hoped to add in one service/outreach project per month in our normal routine of things. For example, I have a friend who recently got a personal email from Rick Warren who recommended taking the Sunday School Class out to a corner and hand out hot coffee. (I guess he was trying to be sympathetic to how cold it is here compared to Southern California.) But I think it is a great idea. Not to much time spent doing it, after all, Sunday School is just one hour, and if we did it everynow and again for the Monday Night Bible Study, it would still only be an hour and a half. Please, give me some feedback on this if you can.
Energy bills are skyrocketting. Without putting the nubmers up on the web here, I am going to talk to our groups about doing more outside of the basement of the church. I believe it is the single most difficult space we have to heat. (Ex. We have hosted two meals for families following funerals in the last two weeks. Both times, the heat did not shut off all day. This does not happen in the Education facility or the Sanctuary.) So, lets see if we can't do some things in a different place within the church.
Now we have a new question. How do we define ourselves? The reason I ask is that after reading the words of Jesus I must wonder which direction we are to go. In the NIV, Mark 2:21-22 we read Jesus saying, "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."
Fellow workers of the Kingdom, do we not seek the new wine? I always thought we did. I mean, in this example, the new wine is representative of the new covenent between us and the Lord, bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus. (Church talk, yes, but true for those who understand it.)
The question of how we define ourselves, must be answered. And as we define ourselves, if we figurativly define ourselves as 'old wineskins,' then we are only fit to be filled with old wine. i.e. those who have been raised in and around the church. To fulfill the great commission, and reach those who have no previous church contact, we will have to find a way to be involved with and support a new church, i.e. a new wineskin.
On the other hand, if we define ourselves as a new wineskin, then we must behave as one. We can not be held back by the slightest bit of tradition, be it preaching style, chairs in a certain place, coathangers in a certain place, music we sing, or instrument used. We can't be held back by the type of building we meet in or worry about whether there is a steaple on top it or not. It doesn't matter.
With that said, I don't think we need to move for the sake of moving (at least not yet, I hope we'll have to as the Lord Blesses, and the Chruch grows.) But I think we have conflicting mindsets within the church, i.e. we are not unified. There is nothing wrong with hymns, and pews, and piano's and organs. But there is alot wrong with the feeling that you or I have more of a right to ANY position or stance within the church than the newest believer in the church. Once a person has joined the church, there voice is as loud and important as any other. And to tell you the truth, when it comes to the true work of the church, often the new Christian is far more faithful than the one who has been with Christ for years. i.e. A new Christian tells others about Jesus. And they care about the other persons faith and well being. Can you say that about your life?
Jesus said Old Wineskins will burst if he pours in the New wine, while the New wineskin will handle the new wine. The wine is God's blessing, and the wineskin is the vessel, i.e. you and/or the church. Are you an old wineskin that will burst if you actually recieved God's blessing? Or are you a New Wineskin, read to recieve as much as he will give? The choice is actually yours. Because Jesus has also said that he will make all things new. You will be made new if you will just recommitt your life to him. EVERYDAY. He is the priority in every situation. Praise Him, that we still have a hope and a future. I am a New wineskin, ready to recieve his blessing. Are you?
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Imitate Christ -- Patience
Series: Imitate Christ Topic: Patience Scripture: Genesis 50:15-21
Today, we are talking about Patience.
That is a need that we see daily. We see it in others, and in ourselves. We all wish, and would be better served to see more patience on our highways for example.
Have you ever been driving, or even just trying to park somewhere. And all the sudden you hear the blare of a horn and a person goes by waving angrily... As that person goes by, don’t you wish they had more patience with you.... I do. Of course, its worse if you are the person who is driving by making the disruption. In either case, more patience was needed.
Today we are going to look at patience as I said, but in a specific way. We are going to look at examples of how to demonstrate patience with people who have wronged you in some way.
Last week we talked about Peace. And one of the stories we talked about came from the Bible. The story is found in the book of Genesis, and it is about a man named Joseph.
Joseph had 10 older brothers, and 1 younger, but he was his Fathers favorite. The 10 older brothers resented him for that so they cought him away from home one day, and sold him as a slave to a caravan on it’s way to Egypt.
The brothers told the Father, that Joseph was killed by a wild animal and devoured. But in the mean time, Joseph was busy in Egypt succeeding in his new masters house, only to be betrayed again and thrown into prison on false charges. In the Prison, he succeeded to such a degree that they made him the manager of the very institution that imprissioned him. But even then, when he successfully interprited a positive dream for the cupbearer of the Pharoah, he was forgotten for another two years.
But after that time, Joseph was remembered and he was called to interprate a dream of the Pharoah himself. He interprited the dream that God was revealing to Pharaoh that the land would have 7 years of plentyful harvest, and 7 years of famine. Pharaoh was so impressed with Joseph, that he made him Prime Minister of the land, and gave him the task of preparing the land for the upcoming famine. Which Joseph handled masterfully.
But that did not change the pain that Joseph had endured. He had still been sold into slavery by his own brothers.
And that is what leads to the lesson of today. This story is often used as a lesson on forgiveness, and rightly so. But today, I think we can learn alot about having patience with those who have wronged us.
We all can learn to be more patient with those who have harmed us by following the examples that Joseph lives out.
Envision with me --- There sits Joseph, managing the sales of the grain to the foreigners. When who should appear before the counter, but 10 brothers from the land of Canaan, Joseph’s childhood home. It is the same 10 men who had sold him into slavery years before. They are his brothers. But, where as Joseph recognizes them, they do not recognize him.
How would you or I have handled this? How would the average person handle this? I think we would handle it very harshly. I think we would say, oh - I have you now. But that is not what happens. Joseph does mess with them a bit, holding one brother in prison until they return. But he also returned the money that the brothers had paid for the grain.
Over time, Joseph reviels himself to his brothers, recieves and accepts them. They go back to Canann and tell their father of what they had done years ago to Joseph. Then the entire family moves to Egypt under the care of Joseph.
Joseph endured much sorrow and much pain, yet he had pateince, and faith, and exhibited forgiveness toward those who had hurt him. But even with that, when the day came that their father passed away, the brothers who betrayed Joseph were pretty worried.
Read Genesis 50:15-21
So, remember, what we are looking at is how Joseph responded to those who had hurth him. Hopefully we can learn and grow from his example.
Joseph responded to those who had hurth him with Humility.
v. 19b, “Am I in the place of God?”
We often want to be the one in the place of the decision maker. We want to be in control. Just the other day, I walked in and saw a cartoon on TV. And the cartoon character was talking about how he liked being in control. Our control is an illusion. We like to think we are in control, but in mear moments, we can totally loose every assemalence of it we ever had. Either through anger, or an accident, or any number of situations. The only one who can be in control is God. He allows us to make our own decisions, but we know that whatever we decide to do, he still has control to work if for his good, and ours.
Desiring to be in the place of God is the original sin. (Isaiah 14:12-15) (note, Morning Star = Lucifer) Lucifer is Satan. He fell not because of anything that Hollywood relates to the idea of original sin, he fell becaus he desired to be equal with God. Remember, anything that Satan does, is something we need to aviod.
In Philippians 2:5-7 we read. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality whith God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
Jesus took on the roal of Humility.
Joseph accepted this principle in his life, not desiring to be in control, or even to take out his frustration on those who hurt him. But he took up the position of humility and not only recieved those who had hurt him, but cared for and provided for them and their families. Joseph Responded to those who had hurt him with Faith.
v.20, “You intended to harm me, but God inteneded it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
This is the final statement of Joseph taking what God gives by faith. He just accepts that God had a plan and he worked it out for the good of all, even with many people in the mix trying to put an end to it. Do we live by that faith?
Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Joseph understands that God is in control, even when we feel that we are lost and forgotten by God and the world around us. We continually seek that comfort of approval from others and from God. God shows his acceptance and love of us through the Cross, his love was displayed as Jesus died for our sins. Joseph had faith that God knew what he was doing, that he had a plan, and that he had not abandon Him. Do you ever wonder if God is really interested in your life? That is what the message of the Cross of Jesus is all about. God loves you and cares for you. And he asks that you have faith in him through Jesus his son.
Joseph had faith in God throughout his life, and many were saved through it. Joseph also responded to those who had hurt him with encouragment.
v. 21, “So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.”
The point there is that Joseph found a way to encourage even those who had betrayed him.
Hebrews 3:13 says, “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” Notice in that verse, we are told not only to encourage one another, but we are told what will happen if we do not. We will be hardended by sin’s deceifulness.
To be hardened by sin will leave us more and more susseptible to sin, and therefor leave us walking further and further from the will of God. Lack of encouragment, both coming and going, is a dangerous thing. The example Joseph sets for us is that we are to not only forgive those who hurt us, but care for and encourage them as well.
Do you live that way? Remember, it is easy to care for and encourage our favorite people. But not so those who are not our favorites. The oposite is also true. Human nature is to love to correct those who see things different than us. But those we like, it is often difficult to find a way to offer that constructive criticism. But Joseph shows us that we are to help even those who have hurt us. Seek those opportunities. Don’t just wait for God to back you in a corner. Rather proactively look for a way to do good to whomever may need it, regardless of any past you may have.
These responses of humility, faith and encouragment, are how Joseph demonstrated patience toward his advesaries.
Now, if you are sitting there, and saying, yes pastor, that is right, they do need to have more patience with me.... Then you probably are missing the point. If you feel like others owe you more patience, than in truth you probably owe them some kind words, some smiles, some grace, happiness, and encouragment. If you feel others need to be more patient with you, what that means is that you need to be more patient with them.
Remember, Jesus himself, in Matthew 7:12 was the first to teach the idea, “Do to others, what you would have them do to you.”
Jesus taught it, then he modeled it. He said, I love you so much, that I can not let you live forever seperated from me unless you choose to. So I give myself for you, asking you to simply ask for forgiveness for what you’ve done wrong, and believe in me and I will bring you to live with me, and save you from the pain of life apart from God.
He set the example with his life and death. And now we are called to believe in him and follow him. And show patience toward others in our lives. Just like Joseph modeled, and just like Jesus shows us.
What about you? Will you have patience with those around you, and encourage them regardless of how you feel in the moment? And will you follow Jesus and live the life he calls you to, doing to others as you would have them do to you.
The truth is that it all starts with Jesus. He is the creator, he is the savior. To live the way he calls us to, we have to have faith that he is with us, and he’s working with and around us.
Today, we are talking about Patience.
That is a need that we see daily. We see it in others, and in ourselves. We all wish, and would be better served to see more patience on our highways for example.
Have you ever been driving, or even just trying to park somewhere. And all the sudden you hear the blare of a horn and a person goes by waving angrily... As that person goes by, don’t you wish they had more patience with you.... I do. Of course, its worse if you are the person who is driving by making the disruption. In either case, more patience was needed.
Today we are going to look at patience as I said, but in a specific way. We are going to look at examples of how to demonstrate patience with people who have wronged you in some way.
Last week we talked about Peace. And one of the stories we talked about came from the Bible. The story is found in the book of Genesis, and it is about a man named Joseph.
Joseph had 10 older brothers, and 1 younger, but he was his Fathers favorite. The 10 older brothers resented him for that so they cought him away from home one day, and sold him as a slave to a caravan on it’s way to Egypt.
The brothers told the Father, that Joseph was killed by a wild animal and devoured. But in the mean time, Joseph was busy in Egypt succeeding in his new masters house, only to be betrayed again and thrown into prison on false charges. In the Prison, he succeeded to such a degree that they made him the manager of the very institution that imprissioned him. But even then, when he successfully interprited a positive dream for the cupbearer of the Pharoah, he was forgotten for another two years.
But after that time, Joseph was remembered and he was called to interprate a dream of the Pharoah himself. He interprited the dream that God was revealing to Pharaoh that the land would have 7 years of plentyful harvest, and 7 years of famine. Pharaoh was so impressed with Joseph, that he made him Prime Minister of the land, and gave him the task of preparing the land for the upcoming famine. Which Joseph handled masterfully.
But that did not change the pain that Joseph had endured. He had still been sold into slavery by his own brothers.
And that is what leads to the lesson of today. This story is often used as a lesson on forgiveness, and rightly so. But today, I think we can learn alot about having patience with those who have wronged us.
We all can learn to be more patient with those who have harmed us by following the examples that Joseph lives out.
Envision with me --- There sits Joseph, managing the sales of the grain to the foreigners. When who should appear before the counter, but 10 brothers from the land of Canaan, Joseph’s childhood home. It is the same 10 men who had sold him into slavery years before. They are his brothers. But, where as Joseph recognizes them, they do not recognize him.
How would you or I have handled this? How would the average person handle this? I think we would handle it very harshly. I think we would say, oh - I have you now. But that is not what happens. Joseph does mess with them a bit, holding one brother in prison until they return. But he also returned the money that the brothers had paid for the grain.
Over time, Joseph reviels himself to his brothers, recieves and accepts them. They go back to Canann and tell their father of what they had done years ago to Joseph. Then the entire family moves to Egypt under the care of Joseph.
Joseph endured much sorrow and much pain, yet he had pateince, and faith, and exhibited forgiveness toward those who had hurt him. But even with that, when the day came that their father passed away, the brothers who betrayed Joseph were pretty worried.
Read Genesis 50:15-21
So, remember, what we are looking at is how Joseph responded to those who had hurth him. Hopefully we can learn and grow from his example.
Joseph responded to those who had hurth him with Humility.
v. 19b, “Am I in the place of God?”
We often want to be the one in the place of the decision maker. We want to be in control. Just the other day, I walked in and saw a cartoon on TV. And the cartoon character was talking about how he liked being in control. Our control is an illusion. We like to think we are in control, but in mear moments, we can totally loose every assemalence of it we ever had. Either through anger, or an accident, or any number of situations. The only one who can be in control is God. He allows us to make our own decisions, but we know that whatever we decide to do, he still has control to work if for his good, and ours.
Desiring to be in the place of God is the original sin. (Isaiah 14:12-15) (note, Morning Star = Lucifer) Lucifer is Satan. He fell not because of anything that Hollywood relates to the idea of original sin, he fell becaus he desired to be equal with God. Remember, anything that Satan does, is something we need to aviod.
In Philippians 2:5-7 we read. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality whith God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
Jesus took on the roal of Humility.
Joseph accepted this principle in his life, not desiring to be in control, or even to take out his frustration on those who hurt him. But he took up the position of humility and not only recieved those who had hurt him, but cared for and provided for them and their families. Joseph Responded to those who had hurt him with Faith.
v.20, “You intended to harm me, but God inteneded it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
This is the final statement of Joseph taking what God gives by faith. He just accepts that God had a plan and he worked it out for the good of all, even with many people in the mix trying to put an end to it. Do we live by that faith?
Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Joseph understands that God is in control, even when we feel that we are lost and forgotten by God and the world around us. We continually seek that comfort of approval from others and from God. God shows his acceptance and love of us through the Cross, his love was displayed as Jesus died for our sins. Joseph had faith that God knew what he was doing, that he had a plan, and that he had not abandon Him. Do you ever wonder if God is really interested in your life? That is what the message of the Cross of Jesus is all about. God loves you and cares for you. And he asks that you have faith in him through Jesus his son.
Joseph had faith in God throughout his life, and many were saved through it. Joseph also responded to those who had hurt him with encouragment.
v. 21, “So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.”
The point there is that Joseph found a way to encourage even those who had betrayed him.
Hebrews 3:13 says, “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” Notice in that verse, we are told not only to encourage one another, but we are told what will happen if we do not. We will be hardended by sin’s deceifulness.
To be hardened by sin will leave us more and more susseptible to sin, and therefor leave us walking further and further from the will of God. Lack of encouragment, both coming and going, is a dangerous thing. The example Joseph sets for us is that we are to not only forgive those who hurt us, but care for and encourage them as well.
Do you live that way? Remember, it is easy to care for and encourage our favorite people. But not so those who are not our favorites. The oposite is also true. Human nature is to love to correct those who see things different than us. But those we like, it is often difficult to find a way to offer that constructive criticism. But Joseph shows us that we are to help even those who have hurt us. Seek those opportunities. Don’t just wait for God to back you in a corner. Rather proactively look for a way to do good to whomever may need it, regardless of any past you may have.
These responses of humility, faith and encouragment, are how Joseph demonstrated patience toward his advesaries.
Now, if you are sitting there, and saying, yes pastor, that is right, they do need to have more patience with me.... Then you probably are missing the point. If you feel like others owe you more patience, than in truth you probably owe them some kind words, some smiles, some grace, happiness, and encouragment. If you feel others need to be more patient with you, what that means is that you need to be more patient with them.
Remember, Jesus himself, in Matthew 7:12 was the first to teach the idea, “Do to others, what you would have them do to you.”
Jesus taught it, then he modeled it. He said, I love you so much, that I can not let you live forever seperated from me unless you choose to. So I give myself for you, asking you to simply ask for forgiveness for what you’ve done wrong, and believe in me and I will bring you to live with me, and save you from the pain of life apart from God.
He set the example with his life and death. And now we are called to believe in him and follow him. And show patience toward others in our lives. Just like Joseph modeled, and just like Jesus shows us.
What about you? Will you have patience with those around you, and encourage them regardless of how you feel in the moment? And will you follow Jesus and live the life he calls you to, doing to others as you would have them do to you.
The truth is that it all starts with Jesus. He is the creator, he is the savior. To live the way he calls us to, we have to have faith that he is with us, and he’s working with and around us.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Peace. draft.
A gentleman I heard once was talking about getting upset in general in life... he says his normal habbit is to buy a tub of ice cream and some snickers and nuke’s it up into a homemade blizzard. He sits and eats it with his fat boy britches on. You know the ones, the ones that do not allarm you that you are overloading. He says that is his normal practice when he is upset over something in his life.
Does anyone else have a pattern of what they do when they get upset. Most of us do. I hole up. I get quiet. But that is not the kind of Life that Jesus calls us to live. He wants us free from anxiety and worry.
Now, as we beging talking about peace in our lives, and the anxiety we sometimes feel, I want to be clear. There are moments that we will be anxious. Jesus himself experianced a couple different types of anxiety. Some might say that he was feeling a bit of anxiety as he cleared the temple of Jerusalem of the cheeting moneychangers. But one time we can be sure he was anxious was in the garden of Gathsemeny as he sweat great drops of blood before his arrest and execution. So we will have moments of anxiety, but it is not supposed to be a continual way of life.
John 14:27, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (NIV)
We can all live in the peace that Jesus intends for us to live in by accepting his authority over our lives and this world, and believing the lessons we find in this passage.
Romans 5:1-11 (read it)
We can have the peace of Jesus through the events of our lives. (vv. 3-5)
These verses start with suffering and take us through the steps that we undergo when we suffer and at the same time allow Christ to be Lord of our lives. We go from suffering to perseverance, to character, to hope.
Do you want to be know as a person of character? Yes, we all do. but to get there, we must persevere through suffering. And it says that character leads to hope. So if we continue to grow in character, our hope will also begin and then grow.
How important is hope? If a person is ill, or in a highly stressfull financial situation and looses hope. The experiance of the world has shown us that all to often they give up. Whether a person has faith or not, we all cling to some hope that things will get better in times of hardship.
Sometimes we feel that we are in a spot where there really isn’t any hope of it getting better. We’ve looked at the situation. We’ve evaluated it from every angle. And nope, there is just no way for this one to get better. You pray, but you know deep down, there is no way for this one to get better. It’s just unrealistic to even expect it to get fixed. My life is stuck.... Right???? No, not according to the Bible.
There was once a man named Joseph....
Joseph was hated by his brothers so much that they caught him out away from home and sold him as a slave. As a slave he succedded in managing his masters estate. But then a temptation came into his life. And Joseph was no fool. He realized that this temptation could ruin everything he had worked so hard to accomplish. So he ran from it. Got as far away from it as he could while still trying to fulfill his responsibilities.
The woman who was tempting him was his Masters wife, and she didn’t like being turned down. So she lied about Joseph and had him thrown in prison. In prison, Joseph again worked his hardest and God blessed him, as he was put into a position of managment in the jail that he himself was imprisoned in. Most of us would loose heart there. (most would have lost heart before there...) We’d turn cinical. Develop a what hope do I have kind of attitude. Not Joseph.
Joseph had multiple gifts, and he used one to encourage a fellow prisoner. A cupbearer to the Pharoah of Egypt. When the cupbearer was restored to his job, Joseph asked him to remember him and to plead his case before Pharoah. But the man did not... Until 2 years later when Pharoah had a dreem and no one could interprate it. But the cupbearer knew that Joseph could so it was then that he approached the Pharoah on Josephs behalf. Through the corse of events, Pharoah was so impressed with Joseph, and so pleased to have his wisdom, althought the true wisdome had come from God, that he made Joseph second in command only to Himself.
Now the question. When Joseph was in the cage on the way to Egypt. When Joseph was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, and when Joseph was forgotten for 2 years by the cupbearer of the king... What do you think was going through his mind?
We must guard against sell pity even in times of suffering. If Joseph had given into self pity, he would have failed. We can have the peace of Jesus through the events of our life, but trusting that our character will grow, and hope will begin....
We can have the peace of Jesus through the salvation the Lord gives (vv. 6-8, and vv. 1-2)
Many times we sit through a sermon on salvation or the security we have through our faith in Jesus. But we just miss what it really means to be secure in Christ.
In other faiths, you spend your life working to attain a certain level of ‘goodness.’ Not in Christianity. Notice here in our passage, ‘while we were STILL sinners Christ died for us.’ That is so signifigant. It shows that Jesus came to us. He did the work, not us. We don’t get our lives straight and then come to God, rather we come to God and he starts helping us step by step in our life.
Eph 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (NIV)
i.e. It’s not about what you have done, but what he has done. He saved you, He did all the work.
I have a friend, a very successfull Pastor. He told me of a time where the church was allowing people to get up and give their testemonies after being Baptised. One gentleman got up to share, and he made the statement that anyone who will accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and follow the ten commandments will be saved. Now the pastor saw the problem with that statement immediatly. Do we? That is not the formula to Salvation.
The ten commandments are good, and it is wise to follow them. But obediance to the ten commandments can not and will not save you, or anyone else for that matter.
Romans 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.” (NIV)
Now, if you want to you can pick up your Bible and read the verses that precede or follow that, but you will find nothing that says that there is anything that saves you other than your faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died on the Cross for your sins, and rose again to eternal life.
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the father, but by me.”
So when you question if you have been saved, and I do believe that is a good question to ask. Go back to the Bible. Have you really surrendered to Jesus, and believe in him with all your heart? Is he your Lord and Savior? or do you base your salvation experiance on how well you behave compared to those around you? The Bible says that even their, or your, good deads, are but filthy rags.
The only thing that saves us is Jesus. So we can have peace in Jesus throught the knowledge of the Salvation he alone provides. We can have the peace of Jesus through the knowledge that the Lord has a purpose in for lives. (vv. 9-11) This is the combination of our suffering leading to perseverance, character and hope, WITH the salvation we have in Christ. It shows there is a purpose in life, and we are not just another life form floating through space. When God brings the good and allows the bad, and he sends his Son to save us, then we see already, that he is more invovled and interested in our world than some would accept.
Some folks, even those who believe in God, would assert that God made the world and spun it off and watched it go, but he has nothing else to do with it after that. That is far from the truth.
A well know verse from Romans 8, verse 28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.” That says plainly that God is involved, and that he has a purpose for our lives. J.R.R. Tolkein, author of The Lord of the Rings, was often known to take biblical principles and intertwine them in his stories. At one point in the story, two of the main charachters, Gandalf and Frodo are talking. Frodo, realizing what a tremendous burden the ring is to bear, makes the comment that he wishes the ring had never come to him. To which Gandalf replies, ‘so do all who live to see such times, but that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us.”
Now that is a huge lesson. We spend so much time thinking about the what if’s. Asking God to consider changing our circumstances, or altering something around us. But God works all things for the good of those who have been called according to his purpose. So what we see is that our world around us is not for us to decide. We must decide what to do with the time give to us.
When you sit in those seets, or you go home, and the worries of life creep in around you. And you are tempted to endulge in some self pity and a tub of Ice cream... Perhapse we can stop and remember, that we can have peace.
The Lord Jesus Christ has allowed it. He said that in this world you will have trouble, but he also said to take heart, I have overcome the world. He is the victor over all trouble.
Does anyone else have a pattern of what they do when they get upset. Most of us do. I hole up. I get quiet. But that is not the kind of Life that Jesus calls us to live. He wants us free from anxiety and worry.
Now, as we beging talking about peace in our lives, and the anxiety we sometimes feel, I want to be clear. There are moments that we will be anxious. Jesus himself experianced a couple different types of anxiety. Some might say that he was feeling a bit of anxiety as he cleared the temple of Jerusalem of the cheeting moneychangers. But one time we can be sure he was anxious was in the garden of Gathsemeny as he sweat great drops of blood before his arrest and execution. So we will have moments of anxiety, but it is not supposed to be a continual way of life.
John 14:27, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (NIV)
We can all live in the peace that Jesus intends for us to live in by accepting his authority over our lives and this world, and believing the lessons we find in this passage.
Romans 5:1-11 (read it)
We can have the peace of Jesus through the events of our lives. (vv. 3-5)
These verses start with suffering and take us through the steps that we undergo when we suffer and at the same time allow Christ to be Lord of our lives. We go from suffering to perseverance, to character, to hope.
Do you want to be know as a person of character? Yes, we all do. but to get there, we must persevere through suffering. And it says that character leads to hope. So if we continue to grow in character, our hope will also begin and then grow.
How important is hope? If a person is ill, or in a highly stressfull financial situation and looses hope. The experiance of the world has shown us that all to often they give up. Whether a person has faith or not, we all cling to some hope that things will get better in times of hardship.
Sometimes we feel that we are in a spot where there really isn’t any hope of it getting better. We’ve looked at the situation. We’ve evaluated it from every angle. And nope, there is just no way for this one to get better. You pray, but you know deep down, there is no way for this one to get better. It’s just unrealistic to even expect it to get fixed. My life is stuck.... Right???? No, not according to the Bible.
There was once a man named Joseph....
Joseph was hated by his brothers so much that they caught him out away from home and sold him as a slave. As a slave he succedded in managing his masters estate. But then a temptation came into his life. And Joseph was no fool. He realized that this temptation could ruin everything he had worked so hard to accomplish. So he ran from it. Got as far away from it as he could while still trying to fulfill his responsibilities.
The woman who was tempting him was his Masters wife, and she didn’t like being turned down. So she lied about Joseph and had him thrown in prison. In prison, Joseph again worked his hardest and God blessed him, as he was put into a position of managment in the jail that he himself was imprisoned in. Most of us would loose heart there. (most would have lost heart before there...) We’d turn cinical. Develop a what hope do I have kind of attitude. Not Joseph.
Joseph had multiple gifts, and he used one to encourage a fellow prisoner. A cupbearer to the Pharoah of Egypt. When the cupbearer was restored to his job, Joseph asked him to remember him and to plead his case before Pharoah. But the man did not... Until 2 years later when Pharoah had a dreem and no one could interprate it. But the cupbearer knew that Joseph could so it was then that he approached the Pharoah on Josephs behalf. Through the corse of events, Pharoah was so impressed with Joseph, and so pleased to have his wisdom, althought the true wisdome had come from God, that he made Joseph second in command only to Himself.
Now the question. When Joseph was in the cage on the way to Egypt. When Joseph was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, and when Joseph was forgotten for 2 years by the cupbearer of the king... What do you think was going through his mind?
We must guard against sell pity even in times of suffering. If Joseph had given into self pity, he would have failed. We can have the peace of Jesus through the events of our life, but trusting that our character will grow, and hope will begin....
We can have the peace of Jesus through the salvation the Lord gives (vv. 6-8, and vv. 1-2)
Many times we sit through a sermon on salvation or the security we have through our faith in Jesus. But we just miss what it really means to be secure in Christ.
In other faiths, you spend your life working to attain a certain level of ‘goodness.’ Not in Christianity. Notice here in our passage, ‘while we were STILL sinners Christ died for us.’ That is so signifigant. It shows that Jesus came to us. He did the work, not us. We don’t get our lives straight and then come to God, rather we come to God and he starts helping us step by step in our life.
Eph 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (NIV)
i.e. It’s not about what you have done, but what he has done. He saved you, He did all the work.
I have a friend, a very successfull Pastor. He told me of a time where the church was allowing people to get up and give their testemonies after being Baptised. One gentleman got up to share, and he made the statement that anyone who will accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and follow the ten commandments will be saved. Now the pastor saw the problem with that statement immediatly. Do we? That is not the formula to Salvation.
The ten commandments are good, and it is wise to follow them. But obediance to the ten commandments can not and will not save you, or anyone else for that matter.
Romans 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.” (NIV)
Now, if you want to you can pick up your Bible and read the verses that precede or follow that, but you will find nothing that says that there is anything that saves you other than your faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died on the Cross for your sins, and rose again to eternal life.
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the father, but by me.”
So when you question if you have been saved, and I do believe that is a good question to ask. Go back to the Bible. Have you really surrendered to Jesus, and believe in him with all your heart? Is he your Lord and Savior? or do you base your salvation experiance on how well you behave compared to those around you? The Bible says that even their, or your, good deads, are but filthy rags.
The only thing that saves us is Jesus. So we can have peace in Jesus throught the knowledge of the Salvation he alone provides. We can have the peace of Jesus through the knowledge that the Lord has a purpose in for lives. (vv. 9-11) This is the combination of our suffering leading to perseverance, character and hope, WITH the salvation we have in Christ. It shows there is a purpose in life, and we are not just another life form floating through space. When God brings the good and allows the bad, and he sends his Son to save us, then we see already, that he is more invovled and interested in our world than some would accept.
Some folks, even those who believe in God, would assert that God made the world and spun it off and watched it go, but he has nothing else to do with it after that. That is far from the truth.
A well know verse from Romans 8, verse 28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.” That says plainly that God is involved, and that he has a purpose for our lives. J.R.R. Tolkein, author of The Lord of the Rings, was often known to take biblical principles and intertwine them in his stories. At one point in the story, two of the main charachters, Gandalf and Frodo are talking. Frodo, realizing what a tremendous burden the ring is to bear, makes the comment that he wishes the ring had never come to him. To which Gandalf replies, ‘so do all who live to see such times, but that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us.”
Now that is a huge lesson. We spend so much time thinking about the what if’s. Asking God to consider changing our circumstances, or altering something around us. But God works all things for the good of those who have been called according to his purpose. So what we see is that our world around us is not for us to decide. We must decide what to do with the time give to us.
When you sit in those seets, or you go home, and the worries of life creep in around you. And you are tempted to endulge in some self pity and a tub of Ice cream... Perhapse we can stop and remember, that we can have peace.
The Lord Jesus Christ has allowed it. He said that in this world you will have trouble, but he also said to take heart, I have overcome the world. He is the victor over all trouble.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Everything I do... 9-4-8 draft
I Corinthians 10:31-33
We can all learn to balance our lives for God by living out these actions.
Everything we do is for God.
We have talked before about the dangers of compartmentalizing your life.
That is to say my home life is this way, my work life is this way, my social life is this way, my church life is... and you can continue to break it down into lots of little boxes.
Now that doesn’t sound to bad, but the danger is that you will try to leave God out of one or more of the boxes. To do that is to be inconsistent with our faith.
God can and will healp with everything, so be sure to include him in every action and decision we make. To illustrate this, I have a few verses from Colossians that bring it to a simple understanding of how God is to be involved in one of those boxes. The Work box....
Colossians 3:23-24. (read them)
So in everything we do, we do it for God. No matter where we are or what we are doing.
That makes us consistant in our faith, home, work, and all other aspects of life.
We all seek to be an honerable person who is consistantly admired. The Best way to do that is to obey the scripture and put God in his proper place.... That is everywhere to help us with every situation. Everything we do is to build up others.
The passage says we are not to cause anyone to stumble. It is similar to a do not offend message. This does not mean ‘do not offend’ for we will do that enough just staying true to Christ. But we don’t have to seek out the oportunity to offend someone else. Also, offend here is used in the context of the verse meaning to cause a problem. In other words we are not to teach incorrect information for our own self serving ideas.
This has been seen in history through the Crusades of the Middle Ages. The Bible was written in Latin, which only a priest had enough eductation to read. In the intrest of wealth, the priest or King would direct the people to retake lands where Christ had walked or the early church had been. The motivation was that this was the will of God. But nowhere in scripture is that stated. Hence many Christian soldiers killed and were killed believing that they were following the will of God because someone had taught them something that was not in the scripture.
We have a great responsibility to stay true to the Word of God.
Everything we do is to reach out to those around us. That is to be our motivation. If we say, I like for it to be 79 in the sanctuary, that way I don’t get cold, but that makes those around you sweat like it’s 102, then you probably need to start bringing a sweater.
Please remember it is a church, you can always put more clothes on, but we frown on taking to many clothes off.... In a serious observation, Paul says that we are to seek to please everybody, and he’s talking about reaching people who don’t know Jesus. (We’ll talk about how we know that in a moment.) That means that we have to band together and work to reach those who don’t know Jesus.
If you have not read the book “Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren, I encourage you to pick up a copy, turn to chapter one. Skip the first quotation he offers and read the first sentance that the author himself writes. When I first picked up that book, I was skeptical, until I read the first sentance. “It’s not about you.” That brings us full circle, that everything we do, is for the glory of God.
Lastly, Everything we do is so that they may be saved. This last statement refers to all that we have been reading. And it is ment to share with us the goal of our efforts. It is easy to ask the question, why, when we are saved, doesn’t God just take us home to be with him right then.
The answer is because once we have been saved through our faith in Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death on the cross, that is when the real work begins. Because from then on, we live not for our own desires and goal, but for his goals, for his kingdom. And to love of other people by helping them in any way we can.
The biggest part of that is to share the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them.
The short version is as follows, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
We work for the Glory of God, We work to encourage and build up and better the world around us. Everything we do is an effort to reach out to those around us. And we do it all so that the people of this world will be saved.
Those are the ideas I see come out in this passage. Remeber, we are to conform our lives to aling with what the Bible teaches, not just take what is convenient for us at the time.
So I encourage you to take this and learn from it, and seek the will of God in all you do.
We can all learn to balance our lives for God by living out these actions.
Everything we do is for God.
We have talked before about the dangers of compartmentalizing your life.
That is to say my home life is this way, my work life is this way, my social life is this way, my church life is... and you can continue to break it down into lots of little boxes.
Now that doesn’t sound to bad, but the danger is that you will try to leave God out of one or more of the boxes. To do that is to be inconsistent with our faith.
God can and will healp with everything, so be sure to include him in every action and decision we make. To illustrate this, I have a few verses from Colossians that bring it to a simple understanding of how God is to be involved in one of those boxes. The Work box....
Colossians 3:23-24. (read them)
So in everything we do, we do it for God. No matter where we are or what we are doing.
That makes us consistant in our faith, home, work, and all other aspects of life.
We all seek to be an honerable person who is consistantly admired. The Best way to do that is to obey the scripture and put God in his proper place.... That is everywhere to help us with every situation. Everything we do is to build up others.
The passage says we are not to cause anyone to stumble. It is similar to a do not offend message. This does not mean ‘do not offend’ for we will do that enough just staying true to Christ. But we don’t have to seek out the oportunity to offend someone else. Also, offend here is used in the context of the verse meaning to cause a problem. In other words we are not to teach incorrect information for our own self serving ideas.
This has been seen in history through the Crusades of the Middle Ages. The Bible was written in Latin, which only a priest had enough eductation to read. In the intrest of wealth, the priest or King would direct the people to retake lands where Christ had walked or the early church had been. The motivation was that this was the will of God. But nowhere in scripture is that stated. Hence many Christian soldiers killed and were killed believing that they were following the will of God because someone had taught them something that was not in the scripture.
We have a great responsibility to stay true to the Word of God.
Everything we do is to reach out to those around us. That is to be our motivation. If we say, I like for it to be 79 in the sanctuary, that way I don’t get cold, but that makes those around you sweat like it’s 102, then you probably need to start bringing a sweater.
Please remember it is a church, you can always put more clothes on, but we frown on taking to many clothes off.... In a serious observation, Paul says that we are to seek to please everybody, and he’s talking about reaching people who don’t know Jesus. (We’ll talk about how we know that in a moment.) That means that we have to band together and work to reach those who don’t know Jesus.
If you have not read the book “Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren, I encourage you to pick up a copy, turn to chapter one. Skip the first quotation he offers and read the first sentance that the author himself writes. When I first picked up that book, I was skeptical, until I read the first sentance. “It’s not about you.” That brings us full circle, that everything we do, is for the glory of God.
Lastly, Everything we do is so that they may be saved. This last statement refers to all that we have been reading. And it is ment to share with us the goal of our efforts. It is easy to ask the question, why, when we are saved, doesn’t God just take us home to be with him right then.
The answer is because once we have been saved through our faith in Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death on the cross, that is when the real work begins. Because from then on, we live not for our own desires and goal, but for his goals, for his kingdom. And to love of other people by helping them in any way we can.
The biggest part of that is to share the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them.
The short version is as follows, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
We work for the Glory of God, We work to encourage and build up and better the world around us. Everything we do is an effort to reach out to those around us. And we do it all so that the people of this world will be saved.
Those are the ideas I see come out in this passage. Remeber, we are to conform our lives to aling with what the Bible teaches, not just take what is convenient for us at the time.
So I encourage you to take this and learn from it, and seek the will of God in all you do.
Monday, August 25, 2008
sermon notes (rough draft) for 8-17-08
Series: Immitate Christ Topic: Joy Scripture: Philippians 4:10-19
Nehemiah 8:10 says, “...the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Do you have that Joy today? That’s what we are going to be seeking.
We can all experience the Joy of God in a greater way if we will apply these models to our lives.
This morning, I would like to share with you all a passage that really took hold of me when I was about 14 years old, and it never let go.
Philippians 4:11b – 13 “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
(#1) Paul here is a model of what it is to rely on God for his strength. How many of us can relate to what he says here. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty.
I do. I’m 33 years old. I don’t remember the 70’s more that an image here or there. But I do remember the 80’s. In 1982, I was 7 years old. My Daddy was a farmer in a little town called North Middletown, KY. We lived in a great big house. And my family had a lot of money. At that point in life the only reason to do without, was because my Mom didn’t want to drive into town to get whatever it was. But it was that same year that all that changed. I remember the conversations and the tension that went on. But I didn’t know what it ment that the Bank was calling the note due, nor did I know what Bankrupsy was. But they kept telling me we would have to move. That was ok w/ me. Just a different location I thought. To settle all that out took about 3 years. And in 1985, we moved to Winchester. Oh wow, we were going to live in the city. COOL!. Friends, stores, paved roads. Just awesome. But I was a heafty little boy. I mean, I could eat. We went from having a wide aray of food on that big farm opperation to having Brown beans every night. Now, I like brown beans as much as any contry boy would. But when the idea of daily variety consisted of “Son, would you like white bread, or crackers with your beans tonight?” It did get a bit worn out.
-But I was learning a lesson at that point. I was learning what it meant to live in plenty and in want.
-The model that Paul sets here says that he had edured hard times, and enjoyed some good times. But thru it all, the secret to that happiness has been Jesus.
-His faith in Christ has enabled him to edure.
-His faith in Christ has enabled him to stay focussed.
-His faith in Christ has enabled him to enjoy the life set before him through all the experiances life throws his way.
-Paul exhibits the true understanding of faith in God. That we do not exhit our faith by getting from God what we want. But rather our faith is exhibited by accepting from God what he gives.
Examine your own life. Are you content whatever the circumstances? It is a hard thing. I struggle with it even to this day, even with the experiances that God has allowed to come my way.
You can not experience joy without contentment. But you will experiance the joy of the Lord by accepting whatever God gives through faith that he will use it for the good in every situation.
Well, Bob, you may say, this speaks of contentment, but you said we’d have the model for joy in our lives. Where is the rest. Well, lets keep reading in our passage here and see what we find. Continuing on in Philippians 4, this time vv. 14-19.
(#2) Here is the another model that we have to pay attention to. Paul was encouraging the Philippians. Where was Paul when he was writing this letter? He was in prison in Rome.
-Paul was spending his time encouraging others, while his own circumstances were miserable.
-Paul took joy in the fact that he was also counted worthy to suffer on account of his faith in Jesus and he took joy in watching God work through his own situation as well as that of the Philippians.
-In other words Paul found his Joy in the workings of God through him and thouse around him.
-Two points that we can learn from there.
-The first, Do we put effort into really encouraging others at every chance we get? That doesn’t mean that we refuse to tell them the truth if they are messing up.
-But it does mean that if you see someone struggling with something, -- do you offer an encouraging hand, or an encouraging word, or do you just look at them and say, well what’s wrong with you? You should be able to handle that.
Those aren’t the kinds of comments that help. They are destructive.
Here in his letter to the Philippians, Paul, in jail, took the time to encourage those who were meeting at teh church in Philipi.
Do you encourage others, even when you are in a difficult circumstance. The model we see here says we should.
The second lesson here, Do we enjoy seeing God work through us and arround us?
You know, first things first. you can not see God at work in your life, or anywhere else if you aren’t looking. If you close your eyes to the movement of God, then I promise you, you won’t see it.
But if you would open those spiritual eyes and look at what we see here, a man relishing the success and glory that God is recieving and pouring out, then you will be full of the Joy of the Lord because you’ll begin to see God work in, around and thru you in a supernatural way.
So we can experiance the joy of the Lord by encouraging others and watching God at work.
(#3) The final model that we are going to look at here springs from the final verse that we read. v. 19, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
-That is Pauls faith coming through even in prison.
-We have been looking for joy in this passage.
-In real life, when would we say something like this. We may say it when we are down and trying to encourage someone else. But I think that most of us, myself included, would be more likely to say this in a moment of excitement, in a moment of joy.
-Paul is wrapping up his letter to the Philippians, and he is trying to convey how happy he is with what the Philippians are doing.
-The statement here may sound like a promise of provision, possibly given to a people who were struggling financially. But I doubt that because Paul usually paid his own way. He was a tentmaker, and usually did not accept gifts. But he does from this church. So that tells me that Paul evaluated the situation and determined that the Philippians could bear the burden to help finance the ministry accross Israel, Asia, and Europe.
-So that leads us to conclude that this statement is a word spoken out of exuberance, and confidence that regaurdless of what the Philippians would ever give, they could not out give God.
-And so we see the model come into modern terms... We can not out give God in any way, be it time, money, property, or posession. Regardless of what we give, God can give more, and will meet every need we have. The question for us is will we trust him.
To conclude here, I’d like to tell you the story of a man who gave to God what he could out of his joy for the Lord.
I told you at the begining of the service that this passage took hold of me when I was 14. A young man at the church I was going to took an intrest in me. I was 14 and he was about 20, long curly blond hair, had his own car, and a girlfriend... I thought he was cool.
He was always kind to me, but I thought he was just bing nice, after all, he was my sunday school teacher. I thought it was his job to act like he liked me.
But he had a passion for God. He wanted us boys to know God and to love God and to trust God. He knew that Jesus Christ had died on the cross to save him and all of us. And he wanted to convey that to us.
Oh he had such passion. He had the joy of the Lord. And that was his strength. He was my teacher for one year. And in that year, I can’t tell you what the sunday school lessons were. But I can tell you that his passion for God made a tremendous impression on me.
Then the end of the year came, and he told us that he would not be remaining as our teacher. I was dissapointed, as were the others. We asked why, and all he would say was that he was just going to have to give it up.
The last Sunday he was there, it was in August, when Sunday School graduation was taking place, he came to me with a gift. He said that he had forgotten to get me a Christmas present, and that I had meant alot to him. I really to this day don’t know what I did for him. But I opened up the gift. And in it was a Bible. And on the inside cover, he had written a note, and he had signed it.... Then there was a note which simply read, Philippians 4:13.
I can do everything through him who gives me strength. That is what he wanted me to remember when he gave me this Bible. It has been with me eversince.
Do we live like we believe this?
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.....
Or do we allow the distractions and circumstances of life to convince us that we can do nothing about our situation or about advancing the cause of Jesus Christ.
Do we think, wow, there are people out there who need help. But what can I do? I don’t have the ability to help them.
That is a form of disbelief and rebelion. We are called to trust him. Paul, from prison would write letters to the churches to encourage them. WOW! He would wrestle with the Roman prison system for years before finally being executed for his faith in Jesus Christ. And we think we can’t do anything because of the obstacles we have.
All Paul did was write letters. Some of them are inerrently inspired by God and considered worthy of scriputre.
My point is this. I don’t know what God has laid on your heart. But I do know that as long as you are still hear on this earth, that he has a purpose for you. And if he has a purpose for you, then we can be sure that he will equip us for it.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strenght. Act and live in faith, that is your charge.
Nehemiah 8:10 says, “...the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Do you have that Joy today? That’s what we are going to be seeking.
We can all experience the Joy of God in a greater way if we will apply these models to our lives.
This morning, I would like to share with you all a passage that really took hold of me when I was about 14 years old, and it never let go.
Philippians 4:11b – 13 “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
(#1) Paul here is a model of what it is to rely on God for his strength. How many of us can relate to what he says here. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty.
I do. I’m 33 years old. I don’t remember the 70’s more that an image here or there. But I do remember the 80’s. In 1982, I was 7 years old. My Daddy was a farmer in a little town called North Middletown, KY. We lived in a great big house. And my family had a lot of money. At that point in life the only reason to do without, was because my Mom didn’t want to drive into town to get whatever it was. But it was that same year that all that changed. I remember the conversations and the tension that went on. But I didn’t know what it ment that the Bank was calling the note due, nor did I know what Bankrupsy was. But they kept telling me we would have to move. That was ok w/ me. Just a different location I thought. To settle all that out took about 3 years. And in 1985, we moved to Winchester. Oh wow, we were going to live in the city. COOL!. Friends, stores, paved roads. Just awesome. But I was a heafty little boy. I mean, I could eat. We went from having a wide aray of food on that big farm opperation to having Brown beans every night. Now, I like brown beans as much as any contry boy would. But when the idea of daily variety consisted of “Son, would you like white bread, or crackers with your beans tonight?” It did get a bit worn out.
-But I was learning a lesson at that point. I was learning what it meant to live in plenty and in want.
-The model that Paul sets here says that he had edured hard times, and enjoyed some good times. But thru it all, the secret to that happiness has been Jesus.
-His faith in Christ has enabled him to edure.
-His faith in Christ has enabled him to stay focussed.
-His faith in Christ has enabled him to enjoy the life set before him through all the experiances life throws his way.
-Paul exhibits the true understanding of faith in God. That we do not exhit our faith by getting from God what we want. But rather our faith is exhibited by accepting from God what he gives.
Examine your own life. Are you content whatever the circumstances? It is a hard thing. I struggle with it even to this day, even with the experiances that God has allowed to come my way.
You can not experience joy without contentment. But you will experiance the joy of the Lord by accepting whatever God gives through faith that he will use it for the good in every situation.
Well, Bob, you may say, this speaks of contentment, but you said we’d have the model for joy in our lives. Where is the rest. Well, lets keep reading in our passage here and see what we find. Continuing on in Philippians 4, this time vv. 14-19.
(#2) Here is the another model that we have to pay attention to. Paul was encouraging the Philippians. Where was Paul when he was writing this letter? He was in prison in Rome.
-Paul was spending his time encouraging others, while his own circumstances were miserable.
-Paul took joy in the fact that he was also counted worthy to suffer on account of his faith in Jesus and he took joy in watching God work through his own situation as well as that of the Philippians.
-In other words Paul found his Joy in the workings of God through him and thouse around him.
-Two points that we can learn from there.
-The first, Do we put effort into really encouraging others at every chance we get? That doesn’t mean that we refuse to tell them the truth if they are messing up.
-But it does mean that if you see someone struggling with something, -- do you offer an encouraging hand, or an encouraging word, or do you just look at them and say, well what’s wrong with you? You should be able to handle that.
Those aren’t the kinds of comments that help. They are destructive.
Here in his letter to the Philippians, Paul, in jail, took the time to encourage those who were meeting at teh church in Philipi.
Do you encourage others, even when you are in a difficult circumstance. The model we see here says we should.
The second lesson here, Do we enjoy seeing God work through us and arround us?
You know, first things first. you can not see God at work in your life, or anywhere else if you aren’t looking. If you close your eyes to the movement of God, then I promise you, you won’t see it.
But if you would open those spiritual eyes and look at what we see here, a man relishing the success and glory that God is recieving and pouring out, then you will be full of the Joy of the Lord because you’ll begin to see God work in, around and thru you in a supernatural way.
So we can experiance the joy of the Lord by encouraging others and watching God at work.
(#3) The final model that we are going to look at here springs from the final verse that we read. v. 19, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
-That is Pauls faith coming through even in prison.
-We have been looking for joy in this passage.
-In real life, when would we say something like this. We may say it when we are down and trying to encourage someone else. But I think that most of us, myself included, would be more likely to say this in a moment of excitement, in a moment of joy.
-Paul is wrapping up his letter to the Philippians, and he is trying to convey how happy he is with what the Philippians are doing.
-The statement here may sound like a promise of provision, possibly given to a people who were struggling financially. But I doubt that because Paul usually paid his own way. He was a tentmaker, and usually did not accept gifts. But he does from this church. So that tells me that Paul evaluated the situation and determined that the Philippians could bear the burden to help finance the ministry accross Israel, Asia, and Europe.
-So that leads us to conclude that this statement is a word spoken out of exuberance, and confidence that regaurdless of what the Philippians would ever give, they could not out give God.
-And so we see the model come into modern terms... We can not out give God in any way, be it time, money, property, or posession. Regardless of what we give, God can give more, and will meet every need we have. The question for us is will we trust him.
To conclude here, I’d like to tell you the story of a man who gave to God what he could out of his joy for the Lord.
I told you at the begining of the service that this passage took hold of me when I was 14. A young man at the church I was going to took an intrest in me. I was 14 and he was about 20, long curly blond hair, had his own car, and a girlfriend... I thought he was cool.
He was always kind to me, but I thought he was just bing nice, after all, he was my sunday school teacher. I thought it was his job to act like he liked me.
But he had a passion for God. He wanted us boys to know God and to love God and to trust God. He knew that Jesus Christ had died on the cross to save him and all of us. And he wanted to convey that to us.
Oh he had such passion. He had the joy of the Lord. And that was his strength. He was my teacher for one year. And in that year, I can’t tell you what the sunday school lessons were. But I can tell you that his passion for God made a tremendous impression on me.
Then the end of the year came, and he told us that he would not be remaining as our teacher. I was dissapointed, as were the others. We asked why, and all he would say was that he was just going to have to give it up.
The last Sunday he was there, it was in August, when Sunday School graduation was taking place, he came to me with a gift. He said that he had forgotten to get me a Christmas present, and that I had meant alot to him. I really to this day don’t know what I did for him. But I opened up the gift. And in it was a Bible. And on the inside cover, he had written a note, and he had signed it.... Then there was a note which simply read, Philippians 4:13.
I can do everything through him who gives me strength. That is what he wanted me to remember when he gave me this Bible. It has been with me eversince.
Do we live like we believe this?
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.....
Or do we allow the distractions and circumstances of life to convince us that we can do nothing about our situation or about advancing the cause of Jesus Christ.
Do we think, wow, there are people out there who need help. But what can I do? I don’t have the ability to help them.
That is a form of disbelief and rebelion. We are called to trust him. Paul, from prison would write letters to the churches to encourage them. WOW! He would wrestle with the Roman prison system for years before finally being executed for his faith in Jesus Christ. And we think we can’t do anything because of the obstacles we have.
All Paul did was write letters. Some of them are inerrently inspired by God and considered worthy of scriputre.
My point is this. I don’t know what God has laid on your heart. But I do know that as long as you are still hear on this earth, that he has a purpose for you. And if he has a purpose for you, then we can be sure that he will equip us for it.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strenght. Act and live in faith, that is your charge.
Monday, August 18, 2008
sermon notes (rough draft) for 8-10-08
Series: Immitate Christ Topic: Love Scripture: John 13:34-35
I have been reading a book lately called “Unchristian”. I really didn’t like the book at first, but now that I am getting into it, I am taken by the observations of the writers. The purpose of the book is not to promote an unchristian point of view, quite the contrary. The point of the book is infact to better equip the church with information about how the poeple in the world who are not church goers view those of us who do go to church. Sometimes the observations are almost offensive, but I have to remind myself that if the comments I am reading accuratly portray what the average person outside of the church thinks, then we have to be aware of that and we have some things to address.
-- sight statistics from book... (I don't have permission to republish these, so you'll just have to email me with questions, or get a copy of the book and see, but in short, we as church people are often viewed as hypocrytical and judgmental amoung young people.)
--Pray, Oh God, help up us to see the truth, and to act accordingly. We know that we often don’t live according to how you would have us to. Change our hearts and our minds and give us the wisdom to know what we need to do. Give us the eyes to honestly see ourselves and to recognize the parts of us that do not reflect who you are. Help us to change, and Become more like your Son, Jesus. We pray in his name, Amen.
What can we garner from this data? I can see many things that we need to address just from this, and the research goes much deeper than just what I have sared with you. But if we are going to be relevant in this changing world, we have to actually build from the ground up, and start adjusting our behaviors to more closely come in line to that of Jesus.
If you are sitting there thinking, well this is a waist, I already have my foundation. I’m a mature Christian, I’ve been at this long enough to know. Then, you may very well be part of the problem. I advise you to do what Peter says, and work out your salvation with fear and trembling. In this case it means, be careful that you have built on the truth. You can label your life in anyway that you want, but we have to be sure to evaluate ourselves in a truthful manner, in other words we don’t want to lie to ourselves.
Now with all that said, I want us to honestly evaluate the question, Do we truely try to immulate Christ? Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at some of his virtues. Today, we are looking at the baseline. Love.
We have sang of his love today, and many of us have verses that speak of his Love memorized. (John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not parish, but have everlasting life.)
Our verse that we will focus on today is another verse on his love. But it also speaks of our love.
Lets read it. John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The Goal here today is to learn to show that Love that Jesus commands us to have. Or at least recognize what areas we need to work on to better represent God in our lives, and have peace in our hearts when we lay down at night.
I think we can all learn how to better show the love of Christ by watching for some of these habbits in our life and working to overcome them.
Listen closely, because some of these hurt, I know they did me....
Habbit #1. We say, “I’ll forgive them, but I won’t forget.”
-- Is that the kind of forgiveness we want from our Lord and savior. (Imagine, one day we’ve been in heaven for a couple thousand years one afternoon, and Jesus looks over and said, remember that time that you stole that money from that guy? -or- A person walks by on one of the streets of gold, and the Lord says, hey, remember that time you were lusting after that person back on earth....) That is not the kind of forgiveness that we are seeking, nor is it the kind that we are asked to give.
-In Psalm 103, we see the explanation that God removes our sins from us as far as the East is from the West.
n The problem is that we actually think that that is how we should deel with one another. -- We tell people that we forgive them, then we take action against them. That is not forgiveness. That is the very reason we have the reputation of hypocrisy.
n If we are to truely love and forgive people, we must unconditionally forgive them. (and sometimes that calls for a painful or sacrificial act on our part.)
Habbit #2. We say, “It’s not personal, It’s business.”
n We often use this line as a way to sperate our feelings or morality with what we are actually going to do. If this line creeps into your vocabulary, then watch out. What is happening, is you are compartmentalizing your life. And you are basically saying that there are parts of your life that God is not in. Specifically the business part.
o The story of Joseph, found in the book of Genesis, tells us how He included God in every area of his life. And God continually blessed his life and protected him. That did not stop bad things from happening to Joseph, but he was blessed beyond measure in this life.
§ So, that is not a story of name it and claim it, but it is an example how a man can live in a right way and still be successfull in the business world, even in a land that rejects your faith.
Habbit #3. The attitude, “Well he started it.”
This last one, we think is restricted to small children. Nothing could be further from the truth. We don’t come out and say it so much anymore. But this attitude is one of the most prevelent among all people of all age groups.
I have not done much marriage counsilling. Probably about 4 or 5 couples total. But one thing I noticed in the cases where the two just could not get along was this attitude. Now it sounded more mature when it was presented. But what it came down to was the wife wasn’t going to start talking nicely to the husband until he appologized for all these years of making fun of her. Or all the times he’s dismissed her in conversation. But when you turn around and talk to the husband, he denies viamently that he needs to appologize, but rather feels that she should appologize for her dismissals of his ideas, and what he percieves as her ignoring him.
So you see, neither is willing to appologize until the other does, because deep down they feel it is the other ones, fault. i.e “HE/SHE started it.” And it goes on for years.
n What do you think? Do you ever find yourself in those positions?
n Do you even remember what first started those feelings of resentment, or anger? Most people can not even trace it back to the true begining. They just can’t remember it.
o Now if you can, ok, but that doesn’t change the goal. Whether you remember it spacifically or not, the trick is not remembering how it got started, but rather committing to how we are going to end it.
Back in our passage we are focussing on today, John 13:34. In it Jesus says, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
--How are you doing with that so far?
--Truth is that I had a hard time thru those habbits that we talked about, and that list is far from exaustive. They are just a few examples of how we word things and justifiy our actions to act one way, and believe something different about ourselves.
Jesus charges us to love each other as He loved us. That is a tall order.
He left heaven for us.
He gave up a crown of Gold for the crown of thorns.
He left the praises of angels for the curses of men.
He left the thrown for the cross.
Tell me, the last person you got upset with, did you stop to consider that you are called to love them the same way Jesus loves them. Or were you to occupied with getting even, or making sure your voice was heard?
Some may say, yeah, but even Jesus confronted folks. You know who he confronted? He confronted the religious people of the day. Jesus confronted peopel for Hypocrisy. You can read all the stories of Jesus and his confrontations, and in each case, the bottom line is he was confronting the misuse of scripture, position, or power. He was confronting Hyporcrisy. And in many ways, he was confronting people like us.
What hope do we have to truely overcome this reputation, and for that matter, what hope do we have to truely overcome the actions that leed us there?
The answer is Love. We have to truely develope the love of Jesus inside each of us. It’s hard to pretend to love someone. Impossible really for any length of time. But if we can allow God to work in our lives to grow the love that Jesus charges us to have, then we have a hope.
I recomend writing down this scripture reference and working on memorizing it. It is another passage on love, but it will help us to live what we have claimed.
I John 4:10-12 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
You see, it is God’s grace that enables us to forgive people who have hurt us. It is Gods grace that enables us to rejoice when good things happen to other people instead of us. It is God’s grace that enables us to give up what we want for the sake of others.
That is what we want to do. In our love for others, we want to forgive unconditionally. We want to celebrate for other people when good things happen to them, regardless of what the circumstances in our life bring. And we want to have the grace to choose to give of ourselves for the well being of others.
This is the kind of love that Jesus gives us. Romans 5:8 says that. it says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
What that means is before we came to him to appologize for what we had done wrong, he took the steps to forgive us, and to show us that he loves us.
He’s not like that couple who kept waiting for the other one to appologize before they would change their behavior toward one another. No, he took the step toward you, and is reaching out his hand asking you to come to him as well. And asking us to do the same toward one another.
Will you come? Will you live like that?
A personal way of understanding John 3:16, God loved YOU so much that he gave Jesus, his only son, that if YOU will believe in him, YOU will not die, but have eternal life.
Will you do that today?
If you would like to establish that relationship with Jesus, and know that you will live with him through all eternity, then here in a min, you come forward while we sing this last song. If you have already done that and you want to follow the Lord in baptism, you come forward as we sing, and we’ll lead you down that road as far as you want to go.
I know that sometimes, people wonder, what kind of prayer is it that people pray to accept Jesus, is it a secret until you go see the preacher.... No, there are no secrets. The prayer is simple, it goes something like this. You pray it with me if you want....
Oh God, I know that I am a sinner. That I have done wrong things in my life. I ask you to forgive me of what I have done wrong. And I recieve your Son, Jesus Christ as my savior. I believe he lived and died to pay for my wrongs, and that he rose again. I want to live my life for Him. I pray this in Jesus name, amen.
I have been reading a book lately called “Unchristian”. I really didn’t like the book at first, but now that I am getting into it, I am taken by the observations of the writers. The purpose of the book is not to promote an unchristian point of view, quite the contrary. The point of the book is infact to better equip the church with information about how the poeple in the world who are not church goers view those of us who do go to church. Sometimes the observations are almost offensive, but I have to remind myself that if the comments I am reading accuratly portray what the average person outside of the church thinks, then we have to be aware of that and we have some things to address.
-- sight statistics from book... (I don't have permission to republish these, so you'll just have to email me with questions, or get a copy of the book and see, but in short, we as church people are often viewed as hypocrytical and judgmental amoung young people.)
--Pray, Oh God, help up us to see the truth, and to act accordingly. We know that we often don’t live according to how you would have us to. Change our hearts and our minds and give us the wisdom to know what we need to do. Give us the eyes to honestly see ourselves and to recognize the parts of us that do not reflect who you are. Help us to change, and Become more like your Son, Jesus. We pray in his name, Amen.
What can we garner from this data? I can see many things that we need to address just from this, and the research goes much deeper than just what I have sared with you. But if we are going to be relevant in this changing world, we have to actually build from the ground up, and start adjusting our behaviors to more closely come in line to that of Jesus.
If you are sitting there thinking, well this is a waist, I already have my foundation. I’m a mature Christian, I’ve been at this long enough to know. Then, you may very well be part of the problem. I advise you to do what Peter says, and work out your salvation with fear and trembling. In this case it means, be careful that you have built on the truth. You can label your life in anyway that you want, but we have to be sure to evaluate ourselves in a truthful manner, in other words we don’t want to lie to ourselves.
Now with all that said, I want us to honestly evaluate the question, Do we truely try to immulate Christ? Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at some of his virtues. Today, we are looking at the baseline. Love.
We have sang of his love today, and many of us have verses that speak of his Love memorized. (John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not parish, but have everlasting life.)
Our verse that we will focus on today is another verse on his love. But it also speaks of our love.
Lets read it. John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The Goal here today is to learn to show that Love that Jesus commands us to have. Or at least recognize what areas we need to work on to better represent God in our lives, and have peace in our hearts when we lay down at night.
I think we can all learn how to better show the love of Christ by watching for some of these habbits in our life and working to overcome them.
Listen closely, because some of these hurt, I know they did me....
Habbit #1. We say, “I’ll forgive them, but I won’t forget.”
-- Is that the kind of forgiveness we want from our Lord and savior. (Imagine, one day we’ve been in heaven for a couple thousand years one afternoon, and Jesus looks over and said, remember that time that you stole that money from that guy? -or- A person walks by on one of the streets of gold, and the Lord says, hey, remember that time you were lusting after that person back on earth....) That is not the kind of forgiveness that we are seeking, nor is it the kind that we are asked to give.
-In Psalm 103, we see the explanation that God removes our sins from us as far as the East is from the West.
n The problem is that we actually think that that is how we should deel with one another. -- We tell people that we forgive them, then we take action against them. That is not forgiveness. That is the very reason we have the reputation of hypocrisy.
n If we are to truely love and forgive people, we must unconditionally forgive them. (and sometimes that calls for a painful or sacrificial act on our part.)
Habbit #2. We say, “It’s not personal, It’s business.”
n We often use this line as a way to sperate our feelings or morality with what we are actually going to do. If this line creeps into your vocabulary, then watch out. What is happening, is you are compartmentalizing your life. And you are basically saying that there are parts of your life that God is not in. Specifically the business part.
o The story of Joseph, found in the book of Genesis, tells us how He included God in every area of his life. And God continually blessed his life and protected him. That did not stop bad things from happening to Joseph, but he was blessed beyond measure in this life.
§ So, that is not a story of name it and claim it, but it is an example how a man can live in a right way and still be successfull in the business world, even in a land that rejects your faith.
Habbit #3. The attitude, “Well he started it.”
This last one, we think is restricted to small children. Nothing could be further from the truth. We don’t come out and say it so much anymore. But this attitude is one of the most prevelent among all people of all age groups.
I have not done much marriage counsilling. Probably about 4 or 5 couples total. But one thing I noticed in the cases where the two just could not get along was this attitude. Now it sounded more mature when it was presented. But what it came down to was the wife wasn’t going to start talking nicely to the husband until he appologized for all these years of making fun of her. Or all the times he’s dismissed her in conversation. But when you turn around and talk to the husband, he denies viamently that he needs to appologize, but rather feels that she should appologize for her dismissals of his ideas, and what he percieves as her ignoring him.
So you see, neither is willing to appologize until the other does, because deep down they feel it is the other ones, fault. i.e “HE/SHE started it.” And it goes on for years.
n What do you think? Do you ever find yourself in those positions?
n Do you even remember what first started those feelings of resentment, or anger? Most people can not even trace it back to the true begining. They just can’t remember it.
o Now if you can, ok, but that doesn’t change the goal. Whether you remember it spacifically or not, the trick is not remembering how it got started, but rather committing to how we are going to end it.
Back in our passage we are focussing on today, John 13:34. In it Jesus says, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
--How are you doing with that so far?
--Truth is that I had a hard time thru those habbits that we talked about, and that list is far from exaustive. They are just a few examples of how we word things and justifiy our actions to act one way, and believe something different about ourselves.
Jesus charges us to love each other as He loved us. That is a tall order.
He left heaven for us.
He gave up a crown of Gold for the crown of thorns.
He left the praises of angels for the curses of men.
He left the thrown for the cross.
Tell me, the last person you got upset with, did you stop to consider that you are called to love them the same way Jesus loves them. Or were you to occupied with getting even, or making sure your voice was heard?
Some may say, yeah, but even Jesus confronted folks. You know who he confronted? He confronted the religious people of the day. Jesus confronted peopel for Hypocrisy. You can read all the stories of Jesus and his confrontations, and in each case, the bottom line is he was confronting the misuse of scripture, position, or power. He was confronting Hyporcrisy. And in many ways, he was confronting people like us.
What hope do we have to truely overcome this reputation, and for that matter, what hope do we have to truely overcome the actions that leed us there?
The answer is Love. We have to truely develope the love of Jesus inside each of us. It’s hard to pretend to love someone. Impossible really for any length of time. But if we can allow God to work in our lives to grow the love that Jesus charges us to have, then we have a hope.
I recomend writing down this scripture reference and working on memorizing it. It is another passage on love, but it will help us to live what we have claimed.
I John 4:10-12 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
You see, it is God’s grace that enables us to forgive people who have hurt us. It is Gods grace that enables us to rejoice when good things happen to other people instead of us. It is God’s grace that enables us to give up what we want for the sake of others.
That is what we want to do. In our love for others, we want to forgive unconditionally. We want to celebrate for other people when good things happen to them, regardless of what the circumstances in our life bring. And we want to have the grace to choose to give of ourselves for the well being of others.
This is the kind of love that Jesus gives us. Romans 5:8 says that. it says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
What that means is before we came to him to appologize for what we had done wrong, he took the steps to forgive us, and to show us that he loves us.
He’s not like that couple who kept waiting for the other one to appologize before they would change their behavior toward one another. No, he took the step toward you, and is reaching out his hand asking you to come to him as well. And asking us to do the same toward one another.
Will you come? Will you live like that?
A personal way of understanding John 3:16, God loved YOU so much that he gave Jesus, his only son, that if YOU will believe in him, YOU will not die, but have eternal life.
Will you do that today?
If you would like to establish that relationship with Jesus, and know that you will live with him through all eternity, then here in a min, you come forward while we sing this last song. If you have already done that and you want to follow the Lord in baptism, you come forward as we sing, and we’ll lead you down that road as far as you want to go.
I know that sometimes, people wonder, what kind of prayer is it that people pray to accept Jesus, is it a secret until you go see the preacher.... No, there are no secrets. The prayer is simple, it goes something like this. You pray it with me if you want....
Oh God, I know that I am a sinner. That I have done wrong things in my life. I ask you to forgive me of what I have done wrong. And I recieve your Son, Jesus Christ as my savior. I believe he lived and died to pay for my wrongs, and that he rose again. I want to live my life for Him. I pray this in Jesus name, amen.
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