Chris'sermons

2012-02-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

"Think Long"
Daniel 9:1-6, 20-23
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Series: "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson

Introduction: In the last two weeks we have talked about dreaming big, and praying hard. We learned about how Honi the sage, who in a time of drought decided to draw a circle, kneel down in it, and pray for rain. He did not stop praying for rain until God brought them rain! We have talked about how when we pray within God’s will, God will answer. When we understand God’s promises, and pray for these in our lives, then God will respond. But we must not give up hope when we pray.

There is another story of Honi, who near the end of his life was walking down a dirt road, when he saw a man planting a carob tree. Curious of why the man was planting the tree he asked, “How long will it take this tree to bear fruit?” The man replied, “Seventy years.” Honi then asked, “Are you quite sure you will live another seventy years to eat its fruit?” The man responded, “Perhaps not. However, when I was born into this world I found many carob trees planted by my father and grandfather. Just as they planted trees for me, I am planting trees for my children and grandchildren…”

This encounter changed how Honi prayed. He realized that praying is like planting. Each prayer is like a seed that gets planted in the ground. It will eventually bear fruit, if not for him, then for future generations. Our prayers will outlive us. That is what it means to “Think Long,” which is what we will be talking about today.

I. Thinking Ahead- (Daniel 9; Psalm 5:1-2)

Example- On the Swedish island Visingso, there is a mysterious forest of oak trees; mysterious because oak trees aren’t indigenous to the island. The origin of these oak trees was unknown for more than a century. Then in 1980, the Swedish Navy received a letter from the Forestry Department reporting that their requested ship lumber was ready. The Navy didn’t even know it had ordered lumber. It turns out that in 1829, the Swedish Parliament, recognizing that it takes oak trees 150 years to mature, and anticipating a shortage of lumber at the turn of the twenty-first century, ordered 20,000 oak trees planted on Visingso and protected for the Navy! THAT IS THINKING LONG.

a. The change of prayer- When it comes to prayer, we need to

understand that prayer doesn’t just change circumstances; more important it changes us. It alters both our external realities and our internal realities. It enables us to see beyond our circumstances, beyond ourselves, and beyond time!

Think about the prophet Daniel. Daniel was someone who was committed to prayer. In fact, even when prayer was outlawed, Daniel continued to pray. Three times a day Daniel would pray. Daniel even prayed with his windows open so that everyone could see him praying. Few people have prayed with more consistency or intensity than Daniel.

When we talk about thinking long, we see that Daniel was one who did just this. Daniel had a big dream of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Daniel understood that this dream would probably not be fulfilled during his lifetime. But he prayed for it just the same. When he prayed, he would make sure he was facing the city of Jerusalem, knowing that even though he wouldn’t see it with his physical eyes, yet he saw it with his spiritual eyes. Daniel knew all this because God had given him a prophecy that it would take “seventy years” for the desolation of Jerusalem to come to an end.

Daniel never stopped dreaming this dream, and never stopped praying this prayer. Daniel gives us a great example of thinking long. That is what prophets do, because the nature of their prophecies is that they will not happen until far into the future. Yet, Daniel had an even greater dream, and that was the second coming of Christ. Understand that I am not saying/ the first coming of Christ/ that we already know about, and talk about at Advent season. I am talking about the second coming of Christ, when Christ will come down from heaven and appear AGAIN! Daniel’s prayers and prophecies were about the blessings we will reap when Christ returns.

Hear the answer to Daniel’s prayer in Daniel, chapter 9. In verse 25 Daniel is told: “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’” In this verse Daniel is told about both the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the coming again of Christ, which will happen long into the future.

When we try and pray like Daniel, it can be seen as long and boring. You draw a prayer circle, you circle the promise of God, and you start to pray. But what if you are praying for something that won’t happen in your lifetime. How do you get excited about that? You get excited, because you know that God is a God of eternity, to whom time has a much different meaning. God hears our prayers now, and will answer them in the future. We get excited knowing that our prayer will change us inside, and will change the external reality in the future. It is simply about praying with faithfulness.

b. Praying on your knees- Daniel was one of the most brilliant

men of all time. Daniel was able to explain riddles and solve problems unlike anyone in his generation. Daniel had the most amazing dreams from God, and God gave him the gift to interpret dreams as well. But what really set Daniel apart was the fact that he would regularly humble himself before his God by getting down on his knees and praying! With his prayers he brought kings and kingdoms to their knees.

Daniel was not one to pray just when he needed God’s help. Daniel was one who prayed every day. I’m sure Daniel was praying when he was in the lion’s den, face to face with a hungry lion, but he approached every day and every prayer with the same intensity. Yet, it was his prayer posture, of getting down on his knees, that was the true power of his prayer.

Daniel was a person who in essence was a prisoner of war. Babylon came and besieged Jerusalem, and in doing so took many of the people back to Babylon; Daniel being one such person. But Daniel ultimately was placed in the position of Prime Minister. How does one move from captive, to Prime Minister? Only by God, and only through prayer.

Prayer invites God into the equation like no other act that we do. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do. If you will humble yourself and get down on your knees to pray to God, then you never know what God will do in and through your life, or what you will do, or who you will meet.

While you can pray standing up, lying down, or walking, our posture sets the tone for our prayers. If your words are what you say in your prayer, your posture is how you say it. There is a reason that one of the postures the Bible talks about in prayer is kneeling. When we kneel, we help our heart and mind to understand the seriousness of prayer, and our status to God.

When I extend my hands in worship, it symbolizes my surrender to God. When we kneel down in prayer, we show that we desire to be humble before God, and that the only reason we can even come to God in prayer is because of the great work that Christ did for us on the cross!

Now don’t misunderstand me. There is nothing magical about kneeling in prayer. When you kneel it doesn’t make your prayers more powerful. But it is biblical, and it is helpful for our mental state. When we practice this prescribed posture, we are saying something to God about our hearts, and we are saying something to God about our faith.

The Bible is very clear that Daniel prayed three times a day, upstairs in his room, down on his knees. He opened the window to Jerusalem. He did this because Daniel was facing towards his dream. His physical posture matched his mental posture. It was his way of staying focused. And when we get on our knees, it helps us to stay focused.

It is also about developing a daily rhythm with God. As King David said in Psalm 5:1-2, “Give ear to my words O Lord. Consider my sighing. Listen to my cry for help, my king and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation.” Every morning we should pray to God. During the day we should find time to pray to God. Before we end our day we should pray to God. Develop this daily rhythm, and like Daniel, you might try kneeling when you pray.

II. Our Goal List- (Mark 9:29)

a. The faith barrier- On October 14, 1947 a four-engine B-29

plane took off in the California desert. Attached to its belly was a Bell X-1 experimental plane piloted by Chuck Yeager. At 25,000 feet the X-1 dropped from the fuselage and its rocket engine fired up. It then ascended to 42,000 feet… As the plane approached Mach 1, it began to shake violently. As Yeager’s plane hit Mach .965 the speed indicator went haywire. At Mach .995 the g-force blurred his vision and turned his stomach. Then, just as it seemed the plane would disintegrate, there was a loud sonic boom followed by an almost instantaneous and eerie silence. As the plane crossed the sound barrier, 761 miles per hour, the air pressure shifted from the front of the plane to the back. Yeager reached Mach 1.07 before cutting his engines and coming back down to land the plane. The unbreakable sound barrier had been broken!

Just as there is a sound barrier, so there is a faith barrier. The only way to break the faith barrier is through prayer. You must “pray through”. As you get close to a breakthrough things might start to seem as if they are coming apart. If you allow your disappointments to create a drag, your doubts will nosedive your dreams. To break the faith barrier at these challenging times you must pray through!

Similar to that sonic boom that Chuck Yeager heard when he broke the sound barrier, we will experience a boom in our spirits when that moment comes, where we know God has answered our prayer. In that moment, frustration and confusion give way to quiet confidence. You are at peace and experiencing calm, because you know it is out of your hands and in the almighty hands of God.

There are times when we need something more than prayer to get past the faith barrier. This something is fasting. Jesus told His disciples, in Mark 9:29, in referring to how evil spirits can be cast out: “He replied, ‘This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.’” Some miracles are only accessible by prayer AND fasting. It takes the combination of the two to unlock the spiritual power we need to accomplish the work of God in and through our lives. If you have never fasted, I encourage you to combine your prayer times with a time of fasting. It is wonderful to see how God works through the combination of these disciplines.

b. Life list- Have you ever made a life list? In 1940, a fifteen-

year-old named John Goddard did. He listed 127 life goals. This was no ordinary list. By the time he was 50 he had achieved 108 of his 127. Listen to some of what he accomplished: milk a poisonous snake; skin-dive to forty feet and hold breath two and a half minutes underwater; study primitive culture in Borneo; land on and take off from an aircraft carrier; light a match with a .22 rifle; circumnavigate the globe; and on and on his list goes!

The truth is, goal setting is a great way of doing what we have talked about thus far in our series: dreaming big, praying hard, and thinking long. Goals are the cause and effect of praying hard. The more you pray, the more God-sized goals you’ll be inspired to go after. But prayer doesn’t just inspire godly goals, it also ensures that you keep praying hard because the only way you’ll accomplish a God-sized goal is to pray! Prayers naturally turn into goals, and goals naturally turn into prayers. Goals give you a prayer target. As I have talked much about dreaming big, praying hard, and thinking long, let’s take the rest of our time to get practical…

1. Start with prayer. Your goals should come from your prayer time.

The reason for this is that through your prayer time God will direct you to the goals He wants you to have. And as we talked about before, it is when our goals are in line with God’s will that God will say “yes” to our dreams.

The other night I was praying and I felt God give me two dreams: grow the church with those who need Jesus; and that God would bring a family to the church that would be healed and strengthened through Him. I am now circling these goals and praying for them to happen!

2. Check your motives. If you set selfish goals, God is not going to give

them to you. You need to take a long, honest look in the mirror and make sure you’re going after your goals for the right reasons.

At the last Session meeting someone mentioned how we need more people in our church. I asked them why? They then said that we need to be fulfilling our mission statement of bringing people to know Jesus Christ. God will honor this goal. God doesn’t want us just to bring lots of people to church. God wants people to come to know Him and have their lives changed because of knowing Him!

3. Think in categories. This will help make sure your goals are balanced.

You might divide your goals into the categories of: family, those who you can influence; your physical well being; and your spiritual well being. Then have God lead you into what He wants for you in each of these categories.

4. Be specific. If a goal isn’t measurable, then there is no way of knowing

if you have accomplished it. For example, losing weight isn’t a goal, unless you will be satisfied with losing just one pound. List the specific amount you want to lose. Going back to my goal of growing the church with people who need Jesus, that should become more specific for me as I pray more about it so I know what God desires. Should it be 2 people, or 200 people? I need God to guide me in this.

5. Write it down. There is a good saying, which goes like this: “The

shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory.” What this means is, that when you just try and remember it, it will easily leave your thoughts. But if you write it down and put it in a place where you see it regularly, then you will be constantly reminded of it and where you stand with it. This is then combined with the next one…

6. Include others. At some point it is important to verbalize your goals

with someone that you trust. Nothing cements a relationship like a shared goal. This person can encourage you in your goal, pray for you in your goal, and help to keep you accountable in your goal. This way, you will be less likely to forget about the goal and you will not give up so easily.

7. Celebrate along the way. This is what I like about our new “praise

report” sheets! These praise reports allow us to give thanks to God for answered prayer. It is always energizing to see the success that we have in achieving our goals. It is also helpful to our faith and our dreams when we see that God is leading us forward by achieving what He has placed on our hearts.

8. Dream big. Our dreams fall into the categories of both short-term and

long-term; small and big. It is important to make sure that you have some big dreams on your list. It isn’t a goal that is big/ for the sake of being big. It is a goal that is big because you know this is what God wants to accomplish through you!

9. Think long. Most of us overestimate what we can accomplish in the

next year, and in the next two years. If we want to dream big, then we have to think long. We have to have dreams that will take years to achieve, or might not be achieved until after we are gone. We might have dreams that start with us, where we just plant the seed and get it going.

10. Pray hard. Goal setting begins AND ENDS with prayer. God-

ordained goals are conceived in the context of prayer, and prayer is what brings them to full term. You need to keep circling your goals in prayer. As you circle your goals, it not only creates God-ordained opportunities, it also helps us to recognize God-ordained opportunities.

Conclusion: I love this thought of “thinking long.” I love it because like Honi, it has stretched my thinking about how I am called to dream and pray. If I don’t put this concept of thinking long into my life, then I will be fearful of having big dreams, because I won’t believe that my actions today will lead God to do a great work beyond my lifetime. I will lose the perspective that a seed planted today becomes fruit somewhere down the road. I hope you are challenged today to dream big, pray hard, and think long. Amen.

2012-02-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

"Pray Hard"
Luke 18:1-8
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Series: "The Circle Maker," by Mark Batterson

Introduction: Today we are in week two of our 4 week series on Mark Batterson’s book “The Circle Maker.” Last week we talked about God wanting us to dream big, and pray big. However, we need to understand that the dreams that we have need to come from God to us. As we understand God’s will for our lives, and what God wants to do in and through our lives, we then pray for this believing that God will answer our prayers.

God wants us to believe that we can achieve big things, because we have a big God walking with us. God wants us to believe that we can accomplish whatever is within God’s will in spite of what might seem like limited resources. God wants to work in and through our lives for the purpose of bringing glory to His name.

Today we are going to look at how God wants us to pray hard!

I. Being Persistent- (Luke 18:1-8)

a. The habit of persistence- More than a decade ago a man named

Anders Ericsson and some of his colleagues at Berlin’s elite Academy of Music did a study with the musicians. They divided the violinists into three groups: worldclass soloists, good violinists, and those who were unlikely to play professionally. All of them started playing at roughly the same age and practiced about the same amount of time until the age of eight. At this point there was a divergence in their practice habits. The researchers found that by the age of twenty, the AVERAGE players had only put in about four thousand hours of practice time, the GOOD violinists totaled about eight thousand hours, and the elite performers practiced for ten thousand hours! While innate talent has something to do with it, effort had an even greater effect on making someone really good.

As Neurologist Daniel Levitin says: “The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again…No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time…”

Should prayer be any different? Should we expect to be expert prayers and yet not develop a habit of persistent prayer? Habits need to be cultivated and practiced. Prayer is no different. This is what we talked about last week when we talked about praying through. It isn’t about praying just once. It is about praying over and over again. Prayer is a discipline that needs to be developed; a skill to be practiced. The bigger the dream, the harder you must pray!

b. Persistently praying the promises of God- Take the widow we just

read about. Luke 18:1 says, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” This parable Jesus told is for the purpose of teaching us that prayer is something we should do with persistence. Jesus uses the example of a woman persistently bugging a judge to get justice against her adversary. Because of her persistence the judge granted her justice! She got what was right to come to her because of her persistence. Then Jesus says in verse 7: “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?”

Another example of this is Elijah. During the prophet Elijah’s life there was a drought. This drought lasted three years. Then the Lord promised Elijah that He would send rain, but it would require Elijah to pray. So Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, fell on his face, and prayed for rain. Six times Elijah told his servant to look toward the sea, but each time there was no sign of rain! This is when most of us give up. We have prayed a few times, nothing seems to happen, we doubt God will act, and so we stop. But Elijah didn’t stop. He prayed a seventh time. In essence, Elijah was saying, “I will not move from here until God answers.” After the seventh time Elijah’s servant saw a small cloud.

What if Elijah had stopped after six times? The obvious answer is that Elijah and his people would not have experienced the miracle of rain. But Elijah did pray through, and God came through! The sky turned black and the raindrops fell for the first time in three years.

The reason many of us give up too soon is that we feel like we have failed if God doesn’t answer our prayer. That isn’t failure. THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN FAIL IS IF YOU STOP PRAYING.

II. God’s Favor on us- (Psalm 84:11, 23:6)

a. Standing on the promises of God- The Bible tells us that the Lord is

watching over His word to perform it. There is nothing that God loves more than keeping His promises. He is actively watching and waiting for us to simply take Him at His word. He promises to forgive us when we confess, but we must pray. He promises to not leave us nor forsake us, but we must pray. He promises to take care of our needs, but we must pray.

Praying hard is standing on the promises of God. And when we stand on His word, God stands by His word. His word is His bond. We sometimes think that we are asking too much of God, but if it is in accordance to His will, it is never too much. As Psalm 84:11 says, “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” A good prayer to pray persistently is for us to walk uprightly.

Don’t think that God is holding out or holding back. It is not in God’s nature to withhold any good thing from us. He doesn’t bless us in our disobedience, but He will definitely bless us in our obedience! If we take God at His work, we will joyfully discover that God wants to bless us far more than we imagine. And God’s capacity to give is far greater than our capacity to receive.

Listen to the first half of Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life…” When we walk in a right relationship with God, God will make sure that His goodness and mercy will follow us; be ever upon us. How could we ever doubt God’s intentions once we really come to know who God is and what God wants to do? God reminds us time and time again of His promises; His promises which He wants to fulfill for you and me!!

b. The favor of God- I hope you agree with me that the greatest

moments in life, are the moments when God intervenes on our behalf, and blesses us way beyond what we expect or deserve. When this happens, it is a humble reminder of God’s sovereignty. It is when God bestows His favor on us.

As I was writing this, I stopped to think of one of these moments. The first thought that came to my mind was when Tami and I got pregnant with Tyler. We had been trying to get pregnant for about 2 years, with no success. Then, out of the blue, in the midst of moving to Colorado, setting up our house, getting established at my first pastoral ministry, in a time you would think would be very stressful, we found out Tami was pregnant. Tami and I immediately thanked God, because we knew that this was God’s favor bestowed on us!

When God’s favor comes upon us, it doesn’t mean that we won’t still go through challenging periods. It was very challenging to find out month after month Tami wasn’t pregnant. It took great perseverance to continue to pray for this in the midst of it not happening. But when you pray in this way you begin to pray like it depends on God. The more it doesn’t happen, the more we have to pray, and the harder we have to pray. And as we patiently wait, we will come to experience God’s miracles taking place.

III. The Promptings of the Holy Spirit- (Acts 12)

a. The answer as we pray- Sometimes we are led to pray, and while we

are praying God is working on the prayer to be answered. There is a great example of this in the book of Acts, chapter 12. In this chapter King Herod decided he was going to arrest many Christians, including Peter. The church started to pray for Peter’s release. The night before Herod was going to bring Peter to trial, while Peter was sleeping between 2 soldiers, an angel of the Lord appeared, woke Peter up, and caused the chains to fall off his wrists. The angel told Peter to follow him, which he did, but Peter didn’t know what was really happening. Peter thought he was just seeing a vision. Peter followed the angel past 2 guards and the angel then opened the iron gate leading to the city. At this Peter knew that this was all the Lord’s doing in answer to the church praying for him. Once he realized this he went to the house where the church would be praying. Let me pick it up for you in Acts 12:13, “Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. ¹⁴ When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!” ¹⁵ “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” ¹⁶ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. ¹⁷ Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison.”

While the church was still praying for Peter to be released from prison, Peter was standing at the door of the house where they were praying!! They had been prompted by the Spirit to pray, and the answer to their prayer came to them while they were still praying. They weren’t expecting God to answer in that way. They probably thought that Peter would go to trial, and there would be a long fight, and in time, Peter would be released.

In the Old Testament, when the people were hungry as they wandered in the wilderness, Moses prayed to God for food. What did God do? He provided manna for them. As God told Moses, the manna would come down from heaven at the start of each day, and they would have ‘just enough’ for that day. The manna was a daily reminder of their daily dependence on God./ We are prompted to pray, and God provides, but too often we don’t think that God provides enough, and because of this we miss that God has answered our prayer!

b. Prayer is hard- We are talking in today’s sermon about praying hard,

but we forget that prayer can be hard. It is hard to pray for something that doesn’t exist yet. It is hard to pray when there doesn’t seem to be any answers. It is hard to pray when things don’t make sense, or when your life isn’t working out very well.

One reason many people get frustrated spiritually is that they feel like it should get easier to do the will of God. The will of God does not get easier the longer you are a Christian. The reason it doesn’t get easier, is because the more you understand about God’s will, and prayer, and how they relate together, the more you realize you have to pray. You realize that you have to pray hard for God’s will to come about.

God will keep putting you in situations that stretch your faith, and as your faith stretches, so do your dreams. As God brings about each dream, you start to have bigger and bigger dreams. Therefore, the will of God actually gets harder and more complicated. But complications, and God’s answers to these complications are evidence of God’s blessings!

When you hear the word complication, what do you think? Many people think that complications are bad, but this is not always true. There are actually good complications. When Tami and I got married, our lives became more complicated, because we had to learn how to live together, and work together, and compromise our lives for each other. And when we had children our lives got even more complicated. But I would not trade these complications for anything!

This is true of our spiritual life as well. Blessings not only bless us, but they also complicate our lives. But they complicate our lives in ways that God wants our lives to be complicated. When I became pastor of this church, it was a blessing, but it also has its complications. When we pray for God’s will to happen, and it happens, that opens a door for God to use us all the more. So our prayer should be: “Lord, complicate my life.”

For example, I have recently had the conversation with a couple of people who told me they prayed to God for patience. We know that this is definitely in God’s will for our lives, because the Bible often talks about us needing patience; patience is a fruit of the Spirit. But, to grow in the ability to have patience means that you have to go through situations that will potentially cause you to be impatient. So this prayer, and the blessing of God giving us patience, actually complicates our life and makes it more challenging!

IV. Unanswered prayer is an answer- (Deuteronomy 29:29)

a. When God answers “no”- Some of the hardest moments in life are

when you’ve prayed hard, but the answer is no. Usually, if we don’t get what we pray for, we think God isn’t listening, or that God didn’t answer our prayer. But we have to remember that “no” is an answer. I know that I answer “no” to my kids’ requests all the time. Why do I answer no? Because it isn’t the right time for them, or it isn’t the right experience for them, or because they need to earn it, or because there is something else they need to be doing!

The question I have for you is this: Do you trust that God is for you even when He doesn’t give you what you ask for? Do you trust that God’s ways are better than your ways and God’s understanding better than yours?

Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” There are secret things, some mysteries in life that won’t be revealed to us until we get to heaven. I don’t understand why God won’t heal my back. I don’t understand why some people, who I think would be great parents, can’t get pregnant, while others who aren’t good parents do. There are many questions that come to us because of prayers that are answered “no” by God.

However, sometimes prayers that God answers “no” to, provide opportunities for God to answer “yes” to something else. Ruth Graham, the wife of the great evangelist Billy Graham, says that she almost got married twice before she said “yes” to Billy Graham. Both of them would agree that God’s answer of “no” to others, was in the end a great blessing!

b. Just in Time- All of us love miracles. However, we don’t like being in

situations where a miracle is needed. You don’t want to find yourself between an Egyptian army and the Red Sea. We want God to provide for our need before we even know we need it. But sometimes God tells us to “wait.” Sometimes God leads us to a place where we have nowhere to turn but to Him; our only option is to trust Him. So why does God wait until the very last second to make His move?

Praying hard is trusting that God will fight our battles for us. Praying hard means that we take our hands off the challenges we face and put them in the hands of God. Praying hard is believing that God can handle what we give to Him. And the truth is, He can! The hard thing is to keep our hands off of them once we have given them over to God.

We have a sanctuary that can hold over 200, but each Sunday we have 50-60 people. I can’t solve this problem on my own, I need you, and we all need God. We come up short about $2,000-$3000 in our collection every month. I can’t make up that difference. These are challenges that I must, we must hand over to God. But once we hand it over, we must PRAY HARD!

The exciting thing is to see God answer our prayers when we pray hard; when we pray persistently. Sometimes God needs to take us to the brink of death for us to admit we need Him. Sometimes God will close doors so that we have to trust Him to open the ones that need to be opened; doors we wouldn’t have even thought of opening had we not had the other doors close.

Conclusion: Remember the words of Daniel Levitin: “No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time (than 10,000 hours of practice).” How often do you pray? When you pray, do you pray with great energy and faith, or do you just go through the motions? Do you pray persistently, or do you give up easily? Do you allow the challenges of life to cause you to trust God all the more, or do you let them cause you to question and doubt God? I encourage you to pray persistently, pray with faith, PRAY HARD. Amen.

2012-01-30T15:34:00.000-08:00

"Dream Big"
Joshua 6:1-10
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Series: "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson

Introduction: I want to tell you of a story that happened in the first century, B.C. called The Legend of the Circle Maker. This story motivated minister Mark Batterson to write a book called The Circle Maker that we are going to look at over the next 4 weeks. I believe this story, and the material from this book, will challenge our prayer life, and forever change how we pray!

The story goes like this: In the first century there was this terrible drought that threatened to destroy a generation. This was the generation before Jesus. The last of the Jewish prophets had died off nearly four centuries before this. Many struggled to believe that God did miracles anymore. In the midst of the drought an eccentric sage name Honi believed that God could still hear them.

The people believed that Honi was there only hope as he was famous for his praying for rain. It was on this day, come to be known as The Day, that Honi would live up to what people believed about him.

Honi carried a six-foot staff, and as he walked within the walls of Jerusalem, to where the people were standing, he used his staff to draw a circle around him. Honi dropped to his knees and raised his hands to heaven. With the authority of the greatest of the prophets, Honi called out to God with these words:

“Lord of the universe, I swear before Your great name that I will not move from this circle until You have shown mercy upon Your children.”

The words of his prayer continued from the depth of his soul with confidence and yet humility.

Then it happened. The raindrops began to descend to the earth. An audible gasp went out from the people. The people rejoiced over each drop. But Honi wasn’t satisfied. Still kneeling within the circle, Honi lifted his voice over the sounds of the celebration, and said: “Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain that will fill cisterns, pits, and caverns.”

The sprinkle turned into a torrential downpour. And Honi continued: “Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain of Your favor, blessing, and graciousness.”

At this it began to rain calmly, peacefully. The rain was a tangible reminder of God’s grace. Because of this rain, it was impossible for people not to believe in God as a God of miracles; a God who hears the prayer of His people.

This prayer was deemed one of the most significant prayers in the history of Israel. This prayer stands as a testament to the power of a single prayer, and the ability for all to make a difference with their prayers!

I. Circle Makers-

The theme behind this book, behind this series is this: BOLD PRAYERS

HONOR GOD, AND GOD HONORS BOLD PRAYERS!

If your prayers don’t go beyond what you are capable of doing, then you are

not praying like you should! Why is this? Because anything that doesn’t require diving intervention is unnecessary to pray. If you can do it, why do you pray to God? Prayer is designed to connect us with God in a deep relationship, and then lead us to pray within God’s will. When we do this, God rejoices in our prayers, because God loves to keep His promises! God is a God who answers prayers, performs miracles, and fulfills dreams. That is who God is, and what God does.

God therefore wants us to draw circles around the impossible situations. God

is ready and waiting for us to do this. This is because God is for us, and God has created us as people who are to dream. If you don’t believe this, then your prayers will be small and timid. And this might be the way you are praying now!

Like Honi, we need to determine what God wants for us, draw a circle

around it, and then pray for this diligently, fervently, and with sincere faith. The key is that it all starts with what God wants; what God wills. Getting what you want isn’t the goal; the goal is glorifying God. That is where too many people falter in their prayers. Their prayers are not prayed with the purpose of glorifying God, but trying to get what they want.

As we are told in James, chapter 4, verses 2b-3, “You do not have because you

do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” So, one mistake we make is to not ask. The second mistake we make is to ask for our own pleasures. These both lead us to not experience answered prayer.

When we ask with the right motive, and faith, and trust in God, in the

context of wanting to see God’s will happen in our lives, and with the desire for it to glorify God, then we will see God answer our prayers. It takes faith, determination, and perseverance.

II. The Jericho Miracle- (Joshua 6:2-5)-

There is a book called The Book of Legends, that contains some teachings of

Jewish Rabbis. The story of Honi the Circle Maker is in this book. It is a reminder that people have been praying to God for centuries, and God has been answering their prayers. It is a reminder that we are a part of a great work all around us. It is a reminder that prayer is not something that we just do because we want something, or because all of a sudden we have a need.

Prayer comes out of our ongoing relationship with God. In this relationship we form a bond with God, so that we can begin to know the mind of God and the will of God. It is a connection that is made so that when we do pray something big, we not only believe God will do it, but we know why God will do it! Through this we

are inspired to pray big prayers because we know that we worship a big and powerful God who is able to answer these big prayers. We know that when we experience circumstances beyond our abilities or control, we have a God who can come alongside and take care of the need.

One great example of this is the story in the Bible of the Israelites circling Jericho for seven days. Imagine when the Israelites came upon Jericho! What they saw was a six-foot wide lower wall and a fifty-foot high upper wall that encircled the city. It appeared to be an impregnable fortress. God had promised Jericho to Israel, but God had promised the impossible, they must have thought.

Then God gave the Israelites the battle plan: “Then the LORD said to Joshua,

‘See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. ³ March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. ⁴ Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. ⁵ When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.’”

Have you ever wondered why they didn’t use a battering ram? Or cut off the water supply? The soldiers must have felt foolish doing this! By their obedience God answered a 400-year-old promise. He proved that what He promises to will true. He did it this way so that the people would know that it was God’s doing, and not theirs!

What is your Jericho? What is mine? I believe one of mine is the success of this church. We are facing a challenge with attendance, and with finances. But I believe if we pray to God, God will answer! The key will be to pray this prayer with the idea of glorifying God. We can’t pray a vague prayer, but a very concise and purposeful prayer: “Lord, help us to bring Your word of truth and life to those who are lost so that they might come to this church. Give us the finances we need to continue doing ministry for years to come, FOR YOUR GLORY!”

III. Praying through-

I’m sure you have heard the name Mother Teresa; a missionary of charity to the poorest of poor in Calcutta, India. But have you ever heard of Mother Dabney? In 1925, Elizabeth J. Dabney and her husband went to work for a mission in the City of Brotherly Love. The mission was in a literal hellhole. Her husband was called to preach. She was called to prayer. She didn’t just pray, she prayed through.

One afternoon as she was thinking about a bad situation in their North Philly neighborhood, she asked God if He would give them a spiritual victory if she covenanted with Him to pray. She felt strongly that God promised He would. She felt the Lord prompting her to meet with Him the next morning at the Schuylkill River at 7:30 a.m. sharp. The next morning she went down to the river outside the city walls, and the Lord said to her, “This is the place.” She said that the presence of God overshadowed her. She drew a circle in the sand and prayed this prayer:

“Lord, if You will bless my husband in the place You sent him to establish Your name, if You will break the bonds and destroy the middle wall of partition, if You will give him a church and congregation—a credit to Your people and all Christendom—I will walk with You for three years in prayer, both day and night. I will meet You every morning at 9:00 a.m. sharp... Furthermore, if You will listen to the voice of my supplication and break through in that wicked neighborhood and bless my husband, I will fast seventy-two hours each week for two years...

After she ended her prayer it was like a cloudburst of God’s glory that fell from heaven. And so she faithfully prayed every morning at 9:00 a.m. Soon the mission was too small to accommodate the people. The more she prayed, the more God came through! Mother Dabney’s prayer legacy was published by The Pentecostal Evangel under the title ‘What it means to pray through.’

The truth is, most of us don’t get what we pray for because we quit circling. We give up too easily. We give up too soon. We don’t commit ourselves to what God wants to do in and through us, and we don’t PRAY THROUGH!! We don’t refuse to move from the circle until God moves.

IV. The Foolishness of Prayer-

We are called to pray before anything happens. It can look foolish to others because we are praying for something beyond ourselves! Think about Honi, drawing a circle, kneeling down, lifting his hands to heaven, and praying to God for rain. Drawing prayer circles can look like an exercise of foolishness. But it’s shows faith. Think about Noah, exercising his faith by building an ark in the middle of a desert. The Israelite army looking foolish marching around Jericho and blowing trumpets. A boy named David using a slingshot and some rocks to defeat a giant.

Jesus Himself exhibited this same faith when he took 5 loaves of bread, and 2 fish, and prayed that it would feed over 5,000 people! If you add it up, 5 + 2 = 7! But if you add God to the equation, 5 + 2 equals whatever God wants to do with it. God is in the business of multiplication. This is God’s economy. In fact, for God, 5 + 2 equals 5,000 plus 12 baskets left over.

The challenge for you and for me is to pray when we don’t understand; to trust when we don’t see a way out. We have to ask ourselves if we are willing to draw a circle and pray even when things don’t add up. Are you and I going to really add God to the equation, or will we fail to pray through, because we think it might look foolish? Will we carry on with the Lord at our side, or will we quit?

God isn’t offended by big dreams. However, big dreams require the foolishness of prayer. Actually, God is offended than less than big dreams, because we are selling God and ourselves short. Without big dreams, there is no need for God in our lives. The bigger the prayer circle, the more God can multiply.

V. The Surprise of Prayer-

There is a wonderful phrase in the book, in chapter 6. The phrase is this:

“VISION BEYOND YOUR RESOURCES.” Most people do not have vision beyond their resources. They look at what they have and try to come up with a plan using the resources they now possess. But you cannot dream big by only using the resources you have now. The whole idea of a dream is achieving something that doesn’t already exist. A dream is there to take you to where God wants you to go next.

I have a minister friend who is the minister of a church that has an abundance of money and resources. I told him about how a few years ago we did something called Return to Bethlehem, which required us to make back drops, and props, and costumes, and transform our Fellowship Hall into a first century market place. It also cost $1000 and took 55 people to pull off. We gave it to God, and God accomplished it for us! I could tell you many stories where this has happened in our church.

As I told him stories like this, he was amazed, because he said that their church never decides to do anything until they have first figured out if they could afford it. They don’t step out in faith in this way!!

When you circle a promise in prayer, the truth is, anything can happen. To presuppose what the Lord will do with your prayer, or to put expectations on God in the prayer, is not what praying is about. Prayer adds an element of surprise to your life. Once you have circled the need and prayed the prayer, the rest is up to God. The surprise comes in wondering what God will do with the prayer and how God will answer it. God is predictably unpredictable.

His timing is also a surprise. I have seen God answer prayers at the last minute so many times. I have had so many people tell me God waited until the last minute to answer their prayer. I believe that this enhances our trust and faith in God. We know, when the answer comes, that it was from God.

Conclusion: Sometimes when you hear the answers to prayer that others have experienced, it can be discouraging instead of encouraging because you wonder why God has answered their prayers but not yours. Let me help you to understand that the answer to their prayer, while seemingly happening shortly after they prayed it, is something that God was working on for them over much time.

Sometimes the power of prayer is the power to carry on. It doesn’t always change your circumstances, but it gives you the strength to walk through them. When you pray through, the burden is taken off of your shoulders and put on God’s. Don’t think that your dream or your prayer is too big. If it is in accordance with the will of God, for the purpose of giving glory to God, God’s answer will come for you. Amen.

2012-01-23T15:14:00.000-08:00

"Becoming More Like Jesus"
Genesis 41:46-52; Galatians 5:16-23
Sunday, January 29, 2012

Introduction: As parents, we are constantly trying to make sure our kids stay safe. We also regularly teach them how to make good decisions. Not too long ago I was driving in the car with Tiffany when this teenager made a wild U-turn in front of me. I began to talk with her about being careful whom she rode with in a car. Or maybe we are watching a television show and something comes on the TV that we need to process together.

The truth is we live in a world that has all kinds of dangers and horrors around us. We pray that our kids will stay safe; that we will stay safe. But sometimes it can happen where we face some deep hurt. It might come from a relationship gone bad, or a bad investment, or even something happening in our families. We cannot completely control what we will experience. In these times of deep hurt it is good to know that the Holy Spirit is there for us.

Today we finish our series on the comfort of the Holy Spirit, understanding that the Holy Spirit can help us even when we are hurt deeply!

I. The Walking Wounded- (Genesis 41:46-52)

a. Parting with resentment- There are many people, many Christians,

who are ‘walking wounded.’ Meaning, that they have some deep hurt that they have experienced but have not been able to let go of. There are many people who don’t know how to get rid of these hurts in their lives! Part of the problem is that when we are hurt deeply, when experience resentment toward the person or event. This resentment can cause even further damage in our lives.

Often times we either try to mask the hurt or go through the motions in trying to find healing. However, because the hurt is so deep, we have trouble letting ourselves deal with it completely, and so the hurt stays in our lives. It might be dormant for a time, and then one day just pop up out of the blue. We think it is gone, but it is not… There is hope though.

Thanks be to God for the Holy Spirit, who comes to us to heal our deep hurts. Because the Holy Spirit can delve deep into our spirit, the Holy Spirit can do the work that needs to be done to rid us of this pain. However, for the Holy Spirit to be able to heal our deep hurts, we must be willing to part with the resentment that is in our hearts. When something deeply hurtful happens to us, more often than not we respond by feeling sorry for ourselves. We wonder, why me?

The only way to abandon the resentment is to give it to the Holy Spirit. We need to let the Holy Spirit completely remove the resentment from our lives! Only then can there be the deep healing that will help us to get past the hurt and live our lives again free from concern. The Holy Spirit can’t bring healing where there is bitterness. But once the bitterness and resentment are removed, then you will be amazed at how life will seem worth living again.

Let me give you a couple of examples….

b. Joseph being sold into slavery- You might be familiar with the story of

Joseph, in the book of Genesis. Joseph was given a gift from God. This gift enabled him to see the future. In one of his dreams he saw that he would be over his brothers (who were all older than him). When Joseph told the dream to them they got so incensed that they concocted a plan to sell Joseph into slavery. So, one day they staged his death, put blood on his coat, sold him to travelers, and then took the coat back to their father to tell him that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.

How do you think Joseph felt having been sold into slavery? He was probably fearful about now being a slave. He was fearful having to live in a strange land; in Egypt, far away from his family! He was angry and bitter that his brothers would do such a horrible thing to him. How could they sell him as a slave? How could they hate him so much? He felt unloved and troubled by where he was now in his life. Deep pain. Deep bitterness. Deep resentment.

It took much time for Joseph to deal with this resentment. Joseph spent many days and nights praying to God. Joseph had to deal with the loneliness of being in a strange country. He had to deal with the humiliation of being a slave. But Joseph, with God’s help, sought to make the best of it. In time Joseph became a high ranking person in the Pharaoh’s land.

Joseph continued to use his gift and continued to live his life, instead of dwelling on his hurt and resentment. God gave Joseph a dream that there would be a famine. So Joseph began to store up extra food so that the people of the land would not starve. In time, this led Joseph’s family to have to come and buy grain from him (although they didn’t know it was Joseph at first). In this way Joes

We saw in our reading from Genesis 41 that Joseph also got married and had two sons. In Genesis 41:52 we see Joseph’s frame of mind, where he says: “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.” Joseph was able to give his resentment to God, and God’s Spirit was able to free his from his pain. Because of this Joseph led a prosperous life for the Lord. Because of this, Joseph wasn’t crippled by his pain. Because of this, Joseph wasn’t controlled by his bitterness!

c. Joni Eareckson- Have you heard of Joni Eareckson? As a teenager,

Joni loved life. She enjoyed riding horses, hiking, tennis, and loved to swim. But on a hot summer day in July 1967, that all changed. While on a beach with some friends, Joni dove into Chesapeake Bay not knowing how shallow the water was. She broke her neck—a fracture between the fourth and fifth cervical levels—and became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down. While her friends were preparing to go to college in the fall, Joni was fighting for her life and facing the fact that she would have to live the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Joni’s rehabilitation was not easy, and she struggled through it for the next two years. She was angry, struggled with depression, and had frequent thoughts of suicide. She wrote a book in which she questions how God could let this happen to her. She decided to immerse herself in the Bible to become spiritually strong.

When Joni became paralyzed, she had a choice to make. She could become bitter at God and at her circumstances. OR, she could seek out God and ask for His help. Joni chose to seek out God and God’s Spirit came to her and strengthened her in her spirit! Instead of holding onto bitterness, she took hold of God’s comfort. Instead of dwelling on why this happened, she sought God in how she could still live a full and meaningful life.

What became of Joni’s life? Despite her severe disability, she has led an adventurous life. She has written over forty books, recorded several musical albums, starred in a major autobiographical movie of her life and is actively involved as an advocate for disabled people. During her two years of rehabilitation, Joni learned how to paint with a brush between her teeth, and later began selling her artwork.

We do know that at first Joni was angry and bitter. That is natural and expected when something painful happens. It was how she chose to act after this anger and bitterness, that is so important. She didn’t let the bitterness and anger control her. She gave it to God, and let go of it. In doing this, she experienced inner healing. Outside she remained the same, but inside she was made anew.

We all have a choice when we experience hurtful things in our lives. We will probably experience bitterness, anger, and resentment in the beginning. But the question is, will we let the resentment win? Will we let the bitterness control us and confine us? OR, will we seek the Holy Spirit and let God’s Spirit give us inner healing? If we do, then we can be free of that hurt and pain and bitterness.

II. The Holy Spirit contributes to our Growth- (Rom. 8:29; Philippians 1:6; Galatians 5:16-23; James 3:9)

a. More like Jesus- In the midst of the 5 hurts that we experience

(rejection, false accusation, disappointment, failure, and deep hurt) there is another aspect where the Holy Spirit helps us: in helping us to become more like Jesus Christ. It is important for us to understand that part of our being Christians is that we are to be followers of Christ; disciples of Christ, so that we can become more like Christ.

I have said before that one of Jesus’ reasons for coming to this earth was to give us an example of how to live. Because of our sinful nature, we have a tendency to default to our sinfulness and not live as God created us to live. We love with conditions. We fail to forgive others. We are selfish and willful. We seek to be independent and not listen to God. And on and on it goes. We often don’t live like Christ, and therefore don’t live as God intended for us.

The good news is that the Holy Spirit comes alongside us in our lives and assists us in becoming more like Jesus. This is good news because on our own we would struggle to understand how we are to live, and not have the strength to carry it out once we do understand.

Have you ever considered what is God’s chief goal for your life? It is not to make you like some other person you admire. God’s chief goal is to mold us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. We are told in Romans 8:29, “For from the very beginning God decided that those who came to Him…should become like His Son.” That is a very wonderful and telling verse! The Holy Spirit comes within us to order our lives and to contribute to this goal of being like Christ.

The apostle Paul encouraged us in this as well in many verses in the New Testament: In Philippians 1:6 we are told, “I am confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” The good work that was begun was our becoming Christians and asking Jesus to be our Savior and Lord. The work that continues is the work of becoming like Christ.

In Galatians 5:16-17 the apostle Paul instructs us how the Holy Spirit assists us in this good work: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” To even desire to be like Christ we must walk in the Spirit; we must let the Holy Spirit have control of our lives. Our natural tendency is to walk in the flesh, not the Spirit!

When we walk in the Spirit we are told of what becomes of our nature in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” When the Spirit is active in our lives, the result will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be living with these qualities, than to live with unforgiveness, and selfishness, and a willful spirit!

b. Understanding Christ’s nature- Galatians 5:22-23 helps us to

understand what the nature of Christ is. We need to understand that this is what we are trying to achieve. We are trying to develop these important qualities, fruit in our lives… If you were honest with yourself, you know, and I know, that we need to do better with how we love, how we experience joy, how we allow peace to reign in our lives, and so on!

The nine fruit of the Spirit were exemplified in the life of Jesus. The Holy Spirit wants to infuse them into our personalities. The reasons they are referred to as “fruit” is because they are to become a natural outcome of who we are. We are not to have these fruit forced upon us, but rather enhanced in our lives. We already know how to love, just not unconditionally. We already know how to enjoy life/ to an extent, but our enjoyment of life is based on the good experiences. God wants us to experience joy in all aspects of life.

Wouldn’t it be nice to experience true peace in life? Well, when the Holy Spirit comforts us from our hurts, and worries, and anxiety, and replaces them with hope, then we do experience peace. We have times when we are patient, but many times when we are not. With the Holy Spirit our patience will increase. We can be truly good people, doing good works, if we allow the Holy Spirit to come fully into our lives.

We exhibit kindness when we open the door for someone, or give someone a ride. But our kindness is tempered by our propensity for anger. And in our anger, our kindness disappears. It is one thing to be gentle with a baby, because we know the baby is fragile, or in our praise of God. We can be gentle when we encourage another person. But then we turn around and curse someone else. As James says in James 3:9, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.”

We are faithful when we keep our commitments and do what we say we will do. Yet, how many times have we let someone down? How many times have we not kept our promises? One of the areas we all struggle with the most is self-control. This shows itself to be true differently for different people. For one it might be a tendency to eat too many desserts. For another it might be the inclination to gossip about another person. We have trouble exercising self-control in all areas of our lives! But with the Holy Spirit the fruit of the Spirit can be evident in our lives.

Someone once said, when we are in Christ, (through the power of the Holy Spirit), evil is alien, but goodness is natural.” Remember Adam and Eve, back before they sinned. They didn’t know evil, just good. It wasn’t until they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they knew evil. Once they ate, they knew they were naked, and their nakedness became evil. Because of this they covered themselves with fig leaves!

The nature of Christ is love. The nature of Christ is joy. The nature of Christ is kindness. The nature of Christ is self-control. That nature can be ours. The more we are able to let the Holy Spirit dwell in us, and work in us, and comfort us, and strengthen us, the more we will have the nature of Christ!

Conclusion: Our prayer to God should be one of praise and thanksgiving. If you would like, please pray this prayer with me. It is printed in the outline of your bulletin. “Holy God, we know that we are far from what we should be. Forgive us. We thank you that Your Holy Spirit is here, active in our lives. May we be open to Your Spirit. May we allow the Spirit to comfort us in our pain, and lift us up to become more like Christ. Help us to desire to take on the nature of Christ by allowing the Holy Spirit to cause the Fruit of the Spirit to blossom in our lives. Let our lives bring glory to You, O God, so that those around us will see the light we shine, and see that this light shines to You. We praise You for being a God who created us with great care and concern. We thank you for being a personal and loving God. We thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to bring about the expression of the Fruit of the Spirit out of our lives. We commit ourselves to You in this, O God, this day, and every day. Amen.”

2012-01-16T13:24:00.000-08:00

"Comfort in Disappointment"
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Psalm 43:1-5

Introduction: A number of years ago the army came up with the slogan “Be, all that you can be.” It is a slogan that is challenging, encouraging, and speaks to having a purpose. It is a positive statement that tells you that you can be special. It helps people to feel that they have something to live for. It speaks to people who have experienced disappointment and failure in life, offering them a chance to overcome those experiences.

Last week we looked at two of the top five hurts that people experience: rejection and false accusation. Today we look at two more: disappointment and failure. The truth is, when we experience failure and disappointment in our lives we can feel less than what we were created to be. These feelings can affect our self-esteem and our excitement for life. So let’s take some time to look at how the Holy Spirit comes to us in these times to offer us comfort and support!

I. Dealing with the hurt of Disappointment- (Psalm 43:1-5; James 1:2-4)

a. Expectations- I find it interesting that we are a people of expectations.

What I mean by this is that we expect certain things to happen in life. To name a few: we expect to not only be educated, but to have the best education we can have. We expect that we will be treated fairly in life. We expect that we should make a better living than our parents. And I on and on I could go.

I believe these expectations come from our sinfulness; the selfish part of us that only thinks about what we want. These expectations start from when we are young. If you notice how when a young baby wants something, that baby will be determined to get what he or she wants. She will cry until you give it to her. Or, she will continue to reach out and grab for it until she has gotten it. From our wants and desires we form our expectations.

The problem with expectations is that when they don’t happen, you will feel let down. To put it bluntly, you expect to get what you expect to get. An expectation is something you “hope” you get. So by the nature of the definition, there is great disappointment when it doesn’t come to you as you thought it would. It is something that you count on getting, but it is not something that is required for to have.

Let me give you an example: People can have the expectation that at the end of the month they will get a paycheck. If they don’t get their paycheck, they will be disappointed. But since it is something that is required that they get, since they worked for it, then it WILL come to them. But let’s say a parent expects that their child will respect them. If they don’t get respect from their child they will be disappointed. But it is not something that is required for children to do. It is beneficial for the family structure, but not necessarily required. Maybe the children don’t respect the parent because the parent is never there for the child. Maybe the parent is abusive. Maybe the parent withholds any kind of blessing. This can lead the child to stop respecting the parent. The parent needs to earn the child’s respect.

It is not good to live your life with expectations. This is because there are too many variables in life, and too many ways that things can change or not come to us as we think they should. There are not many guarantees in life, and so living with expectations just set us up for frustration and heartache. That doesn’t mean you live your life without goals or desires, but you do it with a humble spirit.

b. God letting you down- We also tend to put expectations on God. These

expectations again come from our sinfulness and selfishness. We believe that God should answer our prayers just the way we ask. We think that God should heal people every time we pray for healing. While we don’t expect people to live forever, we blame God if a loved one dies because God didn’t heal them. We think that we shouldn’t ever be in want, or have struggles in our lives. And when these things come about, we are disappointed in God, because we feel like God let us down!

As we just read the words from the psalmist in Psalm 43:1-2, “Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked. ² You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” The psalmist here is questioning why he and God’s people are having to experience oppression from their enemies. He has the expectation that God will always come and rescue them from the deceitful and the wicked. There is great disappointment here because God is not doing what is expected of Him.

We do the same thing. We are disappointed in God when He doesn’t do what we expect. We want a particular job, so we pray to God. We go for the interview but don’t get the job. Who do we blame? God. We are struggling in our finances and we are having trouble paying our bills. We are disappointed that God hasn’t taken care of our needs.

This is particularly hard because God should be the only One we can truly rely on. We know that God is powerful. We know that God is loving. We know that God promises to never leave us nor forsake us. The problem is that in our expectations we correlate God’s love with our never having any problems. We believe that God would never want us to experience hardship. And so when hardship and trial come, we are disappointed in God.

We forget that much of our hardship comes from our own poor choices. We forget that sometimes God allows us to experience trouble to make us stronger or to learn a lesson. In these times we have to remember James 1:2-4, which says: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

The problem is not God, but in our expectations of God!

c. Others letting you down- There is a third area of disappointment, and

that is with others around us. Because we have many relationships in our lives, and because our relationships are flawed, we will be let down by others. The let downs run the gamut from parents not showing up to a child’s event when the parent gave his or her promise. It happens when one spouse says they will do something and then they don’t follow through. It happens when you need your friend to be there for you but they are too busy.

Again, we have expectations in our relationships. These expectations aren’t necessarily bad. It isn’t wrong for a child to want his or her parent to come to the performance. It isn’t wrong to expect your spouse to do what they say they will do. It isn’t wrong to expect that your friend should be there for you when you are going through a trial. The problem is, because we are not perfect people, we will not be able to live up to the expectations put on us.

What makes a relationship strong is having appropriate expectations, and learning how to resolve the disappointment when it comes. If you realize that you will experience disappointment, then you can prepare yourself for it when it comes. Of course, some disappointment is greater than others, and some might end the relationship. This you have to put in proper perspective.

The key in all of this, is that when you are disappointed, know that the Holy Spirit can bring you comfort. Instead of trying to deal with it on your own, or push aside how you feel, bring it to God. God is not going to get angry if you are disappointed with Him. God is not going to ignore you if you are disappointed in one of your relationships. If you open yourself to God, God will bring the comfort of the divine Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and make you whole.

II. Dealing with the hurt of Failure-

Another area of hurt in our lives is that of failure. Many times when we feel we have failed, we want to give up. I’m sure you have heard the saying, “If you fall off a horse, get right back on.” The meaning is that if you don’t get back to trying, then your failure will not only be painful, but it will ultimately destroy you! We must understand that failure is part of living.

a. When what you try doesn’t work- Failure is when we try something,

and it doesn’t work. There is a great commercial where a dad is cooking some eggs for his son. As the son walks in the father says: “Son, would you like an omelet?” The son responds: “Yes, dad, that would be great!” The father then tries to flip the omelet over, only to have it completely break up. To which the father says: “I guess we’re having scrambled eggs!”

Our family just watched the Miss America pageant last week. Miss Wisconsin ended up winning. Miss Oklahoma took second. For many, second place would seem like a failure. Especially when we live in a society, which lifts up winners, and remembers winners. At one point in the show they brought out Miss America 2011. They didn’t bring out the second place finisher from 2011… We have to remember though that Miss Oklahoma won her city and state competitions!! In fact, every one of those women who made it to Miss America did not fail, because just competing in the event was success!

Or how about the Green Bay Packers? They were undefeated for most of the year. They only lost one football game during the season, and were picked by many to return to and win the Super bowl. Yet, they lost last week in the second round of the playoffs. For them it was a failure, because since they had already won the Super Bowl the year before, the only goal for them was to win it again. Anything less would be failure.

FAILURE. We have a warped view of what is success and what is failure!!

A few years ago I had a friend who was offered a promotion. The promotion would mean she would make more money. It was a recognition of her accomplishments and capabilities. However, it would mean she would have to take on new responsibilities. It would mean she would have different duties. In the end she decided to not take the promotion because it wouldn’t be what God wanted for her! She actually did what some would think of as a demotion, and took a lesser job, because that job fit more with her giftedness! Some would think that would look like failure in her career. But to her, and to God, it was fitting with what God would have her to do!

C. S. Lewis once said in his book The Screwtape Letters, where he was describing Satan’s strategy against Christians: “Satan gets Christians to become preoccupied with their failures; from then on, the battle is won.” The battle is won because when we think we have failed, we beginning to lose energy and enthusiasm for life. We stop trying as hard. We think that God doesn’t love us anymore, because no one loves a loser!

b. Believing a lie- If we were to use the criteria that the world uses for

success and failure, many would look at Jesus and say that He was a failure. Jesus was rejected by His nation and His life ended on a cross. He was crucified as a criminal. He had failed to meet the expectations of so many. Jesus didn’t turn Israel into a national power. Jesus didn’t take a leadership position. Jesus wasn’t respected by the religious leaders of His time. Jesus wasn’t even respected by the masses of people who shouted out at His trial for Him to be crucified.

But what can seem like failure can become success; especially in the hands of God. For three days later His failure turned into triumph as He rose from the dead and proved Himself victorious over all His enemies!

The truth is, to believe the statement “I am a failure” is to believe a lie. The fact that you have failed something does not make you a failure. Because you are a child of God and a joint heir with Christ, you have eternal life in Christ. Because of your faith in Christ, you will be forever be loved by God. There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 8:38-39. How then can you say that you are a failure? Some things may have not worked out in your life as you might have liked them to, but that might not be all that terrible.

Success or failure is not so important, as being true to what God has asked you to do. We are not called to be “successful” as the world would consider success, but to be faithful to God in how we live. If we are living the way God calls us to live, and doing what God calls us to do, then even in those times where we fail at something, or when something doesn’t go right, we can still know that God will pick us up, put us back on the road, and get us going again!

Again, the Holy Spirit is there for you. Whatever you feel about the failures in your life, don’t feel like YOU are a failure. God has created you. God has created you to do good works. God has created you to be a blessing to others. As Jesus said, if we love God, and love others, then our lives will be a success.

Conclusion: Disappointment and failure will be a part of our world. But we can minimize its affect on our lives. We can change our expectations so that we aren’t disappointed. We can learn how to resolve our conflicts. We can look to God whenever these disappointments come. We can trust the Holy Spirit to comfort us and keep us strong. We can ask for God’s help to give us the right perspective on life.

Even more, we can understand that failure is a part of success. I read a great quote the other day on Facebook from one of my Facebook friends. The quote comes from Michael Jordan, where he says: “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

So, whatever pain you are experiencing from disappointment and failure, let the Holy Spirit comfort you. Let the Holy Spirit lift you up and strengthen you to keep moving forward in life. Let the Holy Spirit help you to live a life where at the end you will not be disappointed in what you accomplished and you won’t feel like a failure. Live in a way so that when you get to heaven, you will hear God say to you: “Well done my good and faithful servant.” Amen.

2012-01-09T13:56:00.000-08:00

"Comforted in Rejection"
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Isaiah 53:1-12

Introduction: Today is our second week of a 4-week series we are doing on the Holy Spirit as our comforter. Last week we talked about how the Holy Spirit comforts us in many ways: He prays for us; He takes a hold of our problems and removes them; He counsels us when we are needing guidance; He brings guilty feelings upon us so that we realize we are doing wrong; and on and on it goes.

The Holy Spirit does this because He wants to make sure that we walk according to the will of God. The Holy Spirit wants us to live the best and most productive life we can live. The Holy Spirit wants to remind us that Jesus spoke the truth when He told us that He would not leave us nor forsake us. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in our lives!

Over the next 3 weeks we are going to look at the five main hurts that people experience, and how the Holy Spirit is there to comfort us in the midst of these hurts. Today we will look at rejection and false accusation.

I. Rejection- (Isaiah 53:1-12; John 14:26-27)

Have you ever been rejected? I ask this question, and then think it is actually a foolish question, because I would be surprised if there is anyone in this room who hasn’t been rejected in some way, at some time in their life!

a. As a child- Probably the most common time for someone to be

rejected, is in their childhood. Children can be extremely cruel to other children. They use put downs to reject others children: such as telling them that they are fat, or ugly, or uncoordinated. They can use their name against them, often times rhyming the name with something hurtful: for example, they might call someone fat Pat. They can even reject others by making groups or clubs that exclude them.

However, rejection doesn’t just come from other children. Rejection can be experienced from a child’s parents. One of the greatest ways a parent is to be there for his or her child is to love them and help them feel accepted. A parent’s role is to train a child to become the wonderful person that God created that child to be. A child looks up to his parents and needs to be accepted by them. Whether it is by harsh words, or not giving approval to the child, or even by abandoning the child through drugs or divorce, the child can feel rejected.

Since childhood is that period where a child is learning how to love and give and trying to understand what it means to relate to others, rejection can cause great pain in the child’s life. Rejection is quite painful, because we have been created to be in relationship with others, and in this rejection the relationships are withheld. This, we will see, can affect our lives as we move into adulthood!

b. In your family or career- But even as adults rejection is experienced.

One of the hardest things for people to do,is to date. In dating you are putting yourself out there for the other person. You are giving your heart to someone else, and if they decide they no longer want to date you, then rejection is felt. You might wonder if you are worthy of being loved. You might question what is wrong with you because you were not fully received by that other person. Even though in dating there will be many break-ups before you find the person you will marry, these break-ups still hurt a great deal.

Someone once said: “I would rather love and be rejected, than to never have loved at all.” I would agree with this statement, but it doesn’t take away from the hurt of rejection. It doesn’t minimize the pain that is felt when a relationship doesn’t work out.

Or, getting back to the parent/child relationship, you can be rejected by your parents even when you are an adult. Maybe they don’t agree with whom you marry, or the career you choose. Maybe you feel judged or condemned by your parents. Again, this relationship that is suppose to be so vital in our lives has brought rejection to us, and it is painful.

A third way that rejection happens is in our career. I’m not sure what the statistic is, but I have heard that many college graduates end up getting a job that is outside of their major. Meaning, that they went to college to become an engineer, or a musician, or a lawyer, but they end up in a different career. This can feel like rejection because you chose the career that matched what you like to do, and end up doing something different.

Even more, is the fact that many college graduates find it hard to get a job. They work hard at completing their major and getting a degree, but then they are rejected by one company after another! They take the time to fill out the job application and then go for the interview. They get themselves mentally and emotionally ready for the job, only to be told ‘no thank you!’

The truth is, whenever we are rejected, it is as if every rejection we have ever experienced is remembered. The current rejection triggers the memories within us, and we play back all the feelings of rejection we felt in earlier years.

EX. Folding a towel- When Tami and I were first married it didn’t take long to realize that I like things a certain way, and so does Tami. One way I discovered this was after I had washed my hands, dried them on the towel, folded the towel, and then hung it up. Without even thinking, while we were still talking, Tami walked over to the towel, and refolded the towel! I actually got angry over this thinking that she thought I didn’t know how to fold a towel. The truth was, somehow I felt some rejection from this. As I analyzed it, I realized that it brought back feelings of when my dad would ask me to do something, but I didn’t do it the way he wanted, and he would come along behind me and redo it! These feelings of rejection resurfaced.

What are we to do with this hurt?

c. Jesus understands our pain- We need to understand that Jesus is

there for us; Jesus understands our pain. Jesus has experienced rejection Himself. Listen again to Isaiah 53:3-5, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. ⁴ Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Jesus was despised and rejected. Jesus had come to bring the love of God and presence of God into this world, and instead of receiving Him, they crucified Him! Through this crucifixion, Jesus took our pain, bore our suffering, and healed us from our hurts. Jesus did this so that our self-esteem, which is lowered by the rejection, would be lifted up in the fact that Jesus has such high esteem for us! Jesus also did this so that we can know that Jesus understands what we are feeling, and in understanding these feelings, can bring healing to our lives!

This is one of the main reasons that we have been given the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave us the Spirit so that we would not be left alone. As Jesus told us in John 14:26-27, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. ²⁷ 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.” The peace comes from the Holy Spirit being there for us in our times of trouble and pain. God’s Spirit can give us peace in the midst of the hurt we feel from rejection. So draw near to God. Receive the Holy Spirit’s help.

II. False Accusation- (Matthew 5:11-12; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

a. The accusation- From time to time in our lives we will face having a

false accusation made against us. This is a statement about us or against us, which is not true. However, when the statement goes out, and people hear it, they don’t know it isn’t true, and so it can affect what others think of us! This is where the hurt comes in.

EX. The Party for my Junior Higher- A number of years ago I was the Junior High Director at a church in Alta Loma, California. I had gotten close with this one particular family whose son was in my junior high school group. They regularly invited me over for dinner or even to hang out. Their son’s birthday was coming up, and so I planned with the parents, and the junior higher’s sister to have a party at my house. On the day of the party I picked up the sister (who was 16 years old at the time) about an hour before the party was to happen, and was going to take her to my house to decorate. On the way to my house I noticed that the church high school group was having a car wash, so to support the youth I stopped and had them wash my car. I then proceeded to my house, where we decorated, and then had the party. Everything went great.

Except one thing. The next day I heard that someone had started a rumor that they saw me kiss this girl!! This was false, of course, but the rumor could cause great problems for me. The one good thing is that it did not come from the girl, but from someone from the church. The girl knew it wasn’t true, and her parents knew it wasn’t true. So I got on the phone and called many people telling them the truth, and asking them to pass the word that this rumor was false. Fortunately, the rumor was squashed pretty quickly. Later I confronted the person who started this rumor and told them I didn’t appreciate what they had done!

When an accusation is made against you, especially one that isn’t true, it is hurtful. I was hurt that someone would think I would do something like that. I was hurt by what this rumor could do to my reputation and my job. It is not always easy to get others to believe that a false accusation is not true. It takes a lot of time and energy to deal with this false accusation.

b. The response- People have many ways in which they respond to false

accusations. These responses show the pain that false accusations can bring to people.

One way that people respond is to turn to alcohol or drugs. They want to dull the pain that they feel inside. Maybe they aren’t in a place to fight the accusation. Maybe they have tried to fight it, to tell the truth, and people didn’t believe them. So they take the easy way out and drown their pain in alcohol or drugs. But it doesn’t work, because when they wake up the next day, the pain is still there, and the false accusation still exists.

Another way that people respond, is through isolation. Because of the embarrassment they feel from what has been said, they might isolate themselves. They decide to not go out in public. They get lost in reading books, or watching television. The problem with this, is the longer they isolate themselves, the harder it is to face people. The accusation still exists. Isolation is not what God wants from us. God does not want us to close ourselves off from the world. God also doesn’t want us to avoid our problems.

The best way to deal with it, is to respond to it. The way I tried to respond to it was to go first to the people who knew me and who knew my character. These people then became ally’s for me. In this way I wasn’t fighting the accusation alone, but had the help of trusted friends.

c. Let the Holy Spirit heal you- In the end, there will be some pain

experienced. If you are able to bring the truth to light about the false accusation, there is still the hurt of the accusation being made in the first place. There is the pain of having others believe what is said. There is the negative affect on your reputation, because you can never really undo what some people will think.

If you aren’t able to get others to believe the truth, then there is the pain of having to deal with the outcome of this false accusation. Again, there is the pain of what others now think of you. There is the fallout of how this negative accusation affects what you are able to do. It might limit where you can work or who your friends will be.

Either way, healing is needed. The best place for healing is the Holy Spirit. As we talked about last week, one of the great roles of the Holy Spirit is to be a comforter to us. The Comforter can come alongside us and soothe our hurt. The Comforter can come alongside and give us strength. The Comforter can minister to the deep parts of our being, and give us peace, even in the midst of the uncertainty and turmoil.

The Holy Spirit, the Comforter can make things right again. The Holy Spirit, being the Spirit of God, can exercise power beyond our capabilities. The Holy Spirit can lead you to a new job, or a new relationship. The Holy Spirit can help you to restore your name. The Holy Spirit can give you the confidence you need to believe in yourself again. The Holy Spirit can lead you to others who will believe in you, and help you, and love you through the pain!

As Matthew 5:11-12 says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The Holy Spirit can use this experience in our lives so that ultimately we can have a purpose for helping others. We are told in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble, with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” We are comforted in this experience, and by our being comforted, we can comfort others who will go through similar experiences!

Conclusion: I don’t know what kind of rejection you have experienced in your life, but I do know that we all have experienced rejection. Some of the hurt from those rejections is probably lying dormant in your life. You haven’t allowed yourself to deal with it and overcome the pain and hurt. I encourage you to give it over to the Holy Spirit, and allow the comfort of the Spirit to come into your life and bless you.

I don’t know if you have had false accusations made against you. The odds are that in some way, at some time there have been. Again, these accusations cause hurt and pain. More often than not the pain has been masked over and not dealt with. Give it away to God! Let God give you peace where there is turmoil. Love where there is emptiness. Strength where there is weakness.

Let God comfort you through your experiences of rejection and false accusations. Be blessed because you hold fast to the Lord, this day and every day. Amen.

2012-01-01T18:31:00.000-08:00

"Counselor and Comforter"

Sunday, January 8, 2012; John 14:15-18

Introduction: There is a poem called “Slowdance,” by Dr. David L. Weatherford that says: Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight? Or gazed at the sun into the fading night? You better slow down Don’t dance so fast Time is short The music won’t last

Do you run through each day On the fly

When you ask “How are you?” Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed

With the next hundred chores running through your head?

You’d better slow down Don’t dance so fast

Time is short The music won’t last

Ever told your child,We’ll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste, not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch, Let a good friendship die

‘Cause you never had time To call and say “Hi”?

You’d better slow down Don’t dance so fast

Time is short The music won’t last

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift….Thrown away…

Life is not a race. Do take it slower

Hear the music Before the song is over.

Today we start a 4-week series on the Holy Spirit as our comforter. It is too easy to speed through life and not do what we need to do and experience what we need to experience. As we start 2012, I want us to slow down enough so that we can allow the Holy Spirit to comfort us when we need comforting, and counsel us when we need counseling.

I. Another Comforter- (John 14:15-18; 2 Corinthians 4:7-9)

a. Penetrate our being- The Bible talks about learning how to live a

‘Spirit filled life.’ What the Bible is talking about here is allowing the Holy Spirit to live within us, not as a guest, but as our guide. It is about believing that the power of the Holy Spirit can not only fill us, but flow through us and out of us. Our self is still there, but now it is not a self-centered self, but a God-centered self.

So living a Spirit-filled life means that the Holy Spirit helps to guide how we function. If we are faced with temptation, the Holy Spirit helps us to resist and see a way out before we give in to the temptation. If we are led to be angry with someone, the Holy Spirit helps to temper our anger and use it in an appropriate way. If we become unfocused in our life and start to make decisions outside of God’s will, the Holy Spirit emits guilt into our being and reminds us that we are making wrong choices.

In essence, we allow the Holy Spirit to penetrate our personalities. Our personalities are still our own, but directed by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The inner conflicts we might have between our sinful desires and our desires to please God subside.

Hearing again from John 14:15-17, “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^] in you.” As we live according to God’s commands, we are given an advocate, the Holy Spirit, who comes alongside and helps us.

How does the Holy Spirit help us? By directing our thoughts to God. By directing our actions outward towards others. By empowering us to believe in ourselves. By giving us the wisdom we need to make good decisions. By helping us to desire to follow God more than the world. By leading us down the path that God has ordained for us. By giving us the faith we need to trust and follow.

The Holy Spirit coordinates our inner forces and directs our lives toward one great purpose and end: to be a faithful servant of the Lord. There is no greater way to live our lives than to be a servant of God. We even see Jesus teach this and live this. Jesus was constantly reminding the disciples that the greatest way to live life was to be God’s servant. With the Holy Spirit’s presence in our being, this is possible for us to achieve!

b. Ministry of comforting- A second way that the Holy Spirit is there for

us, is to give us comfort. The Holy Spirit offers to us the ministry of comforting. He seeks to apply in our lives the ministry of comforting. One of the Greek words that Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit is the word ‘paraclete.’ This is actually two Greek words put together: para, which means alongside, and kaleo, which means call. It is used to describe one who comforts another, or one who ‘comes alongside.’

Illustration: I don’t know if you have seen this on the internet, but there is a story of a woman who found a lion in the forest, injured and on the verge of death. This lion was very malnourished. So the woman took the lion home and for many days nursed the lion back to health. This woman loved the lion and comforted the lion as he was going through a very weak time. Once the lion had been restored to health the woman couldn’t keep him because he was far too big, so she gave him to the zoo where he would have a place to live, and would continue to be well cared for. The woman wanted the lion to get acclimated to his new home, so she didn’t visit him for a while. After some time the woman went to the zoo to see the lion. I saw a short video of what happened, which I will describe to you. As soon as the woman walked up to the cage the lion put his paws out of the cage bars and around the woman’s neck and pulled the woman toward him. The lion then gave the woman a kiss and a hug! This lion remember the care and comfort the woman had given him, and had formed a deep, loving bond with this woman!

The Holy Spirit wants to come alongside us and helps us in our times of weakness, and distress, and discomfort, and struggle, and trouble. The Holy Spirit wants to nurse us back to health and make sure we are healthy and strong. The Holy Spirit wants to minister to our hurts and bind-up our wounds. But we have to let the Holy Spirit do this. We have to humble ourselves and get past our willful spirit. We have to be thankful for the many times the Holy Spirit has helped us, and allow the Spirit to continue to do this for us!

c. Ministry of counseling- Even more, the Holy Spirit comforts us by

giving us counseling. One of the best ways to counsel someone is to be there for them and offer them some comfort. Good counsel and advice can bring great comfort to someone who is struggling along in their life. Good counsel and advice can make a great different in helping someone overcome their problems. And who better to offer us this counsel than the Holy Spirit? God’s Spirit come to give us the wisdom we need to live this life God has given us.

The truth is, this life we are called to live is not an easy life. We have many responsibilities. There are many pitfalls along the way. We create many problems for ourselves by making poor decisions. We live in a world that is challenging to navigate through: we have to make choices of college, and career, choices of spouse, and lifestyle. We have to live with the responsibility of having children, of what we will possess, of where we will live, and on and on the choices go.

People don’t like to admit that they can be overwhelmed by this world, but the truth is, many are! It is important to know that when we hit the rough times of life the divine paraclete comes alongside to advise. Someone once said: “Now that I am fully in the hands of the Holy Spirit, I know that I may be shaken, but I cannot be shattered.”

The apostle Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” The all-surpassing power of God is given to us by the Holy Spirit! Because of this we will prevail!

Don’t think that you are better off going it alone. To dismiss the help of the Holy Spirit would be like stopping your schooling when you were just a child. We cannot think that we have all wisdom and knowledge. We should not seek to live this life without the help of God. Jesus has promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are foolish if we don’t receive this generous gift.

II. The Help We Need- (Romans 8:18-27; John 14:16)

a. Accepting help- I know that you are either going through problems in

your life now, or have gone through some big problems, and will face big problems again. A text that is very comforting in these times is Romans 8:18-27. Let me read it for you….

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that^] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. ²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

There are 4 phrases I want to look at deeper:

1.“Present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” While it is true we regularly have times of suffering, if you looked at these times as you gave yourself over to God, and saw the blessings that came out of these sufferings, you would understand that God’s glory is revealed through our times of weakness. God’s Spirit can come and bring glory into our lives. In fact, a little later in this chapter, in verse 28 the apostle Paul says: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…” A few years ago we did our Focused Living training, and in this training we were asked to make a time line of our life. On this timeline we were to put yellow post-it notes for the “good” times and pink post-it notes for the times of struggle. Then it was pointed out that almost always there was a yellow post-it note right after a pink one! The next phrase we read is…

2. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness.” There is nothing wrong with receiving help. If you are sick you go to the doctor. If you have a legal issue you get a lawyer. We have people in this world whose job it is, to help us. So in the spiritual realm we have the Holy Spirit who is there to help us in times of weakness. Embrace this wonderful truth and let the Spirit help you when you are weak! The third phrase is..

3. “The Spirit intercedes for God’s people.” How many times have you wanted to pray, but didn’t know how to pray for the situation? Maybe you asked me to pray for you because you were at a loss. Well, even better than having me pray for you is to have the Holy Spirit pray for you! Isn’t this a wonderful thought? The Spirit of God will intercede for you and pray what needs to be prayed when you don’t know what to pray! As hope sustains believers in their time of suffering, the hope that is received through the presence of God’s Spirit, so the Holy Spirit offers us a prayer in our time of need. The last phrase is…

4. “In accordance with the will of God.” If God created us, then to live in the will of God is by far the best way to live. However, because of being unfocused, or willful, or lost in our own ways, or led astray by the world, we often do not live in accordance with the will of God. With the Holy Spirit at our side we have the Spirit praying for us to know and follow the will of God! This is very important for our lives. When we receive the help of the Holy Spirit, we can live more fully according to the will of God.

b. Where do we receive it?- Where do we receive this help? The answer

to that question is ‘the Holy Spirit.’ We receive help from the Holy Spirit. And yet, even as I have talked about what we receive and the benefits that come from receiving the help from the Holy Spirit, you still might be confused about how to put that into practice. If I were to offer you a hand, you would see me standing there in front of you and could verbalize that you want my help and then experience my help. But how does this work with the Holy Spirit?

Listen again to Jesus’ words in John 14:16, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate (helper) to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth.” We might paraphrase it like this: ‘I will send you a Helper who comes alongside when you call and who will take hold of any burden or problem and carry it with you.’ Instead of physically taking hold of your hand, the Holy Spirit takes hold of your problems, infirmities, weaknesses, and heavy loads, and gives you the help and comfort you need.

The Holy Spirit is doing the action for us, even though we cannot visibly see it. As we cooperate with the Holy Spirit by our call for help, the Holy Spirit continuously does the action of taking hold of our problems. As I was writing this sermon I had to go online to get one of the scriptures, and my security system, Fix-It asked if I wanted to run a virus check. I said “yes,” and while I was continuing to write my sermon, it did the action of checking for viruses. If it had found any it would have deleted them.

In a similar way the Holy Spirit is always there checking for problems. When a problem arises, the Holy Spirit prompts our mind and asks if we want help. If and when we say yes, the Holy Spirit goes to work on the problem. It might call for the Spirit to pray for us, or give us extra strength, or a dose of wisdom, or some extra faith.

The key is for us to recognize where our help comes from. Instead of thinking first about doing it ourselves, or even asking someone else, first go to prayer and call on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will hear your call and come to your aid. Through the aid of the Holy Spirit you will be able to receive the help you need at the time you need it. You won’t have to make an appointment, like you do with the doctor. You won’t have to clear your schedule, as if you were making a lunch appointment. You just call, and the Holy Spirit is there!

Conclusion: In my life I have people with whom I can share my troubles. It is nice to have them listen, and in this way comfort me. They might even give me some advice. But they are all human, and they do not always know how to help me in my struggles. It is good to know that God allows us the blessing of having the Holy Spirit as a part of our lives. God has set it up so that the Holy Spirit is there to comfort us in time of grief and heartache.

Even more, God has designed it so that He can dwell within us through His Spirit! We don’t have to think that God is far away, because He is not. God dwells within us through His Spirit, and is there to give us counsel and guidance. With this truth, I hope you leave here today all the more encouraged and prepared to face 2012, as you allow the helper, the comforter, the counselor, the Holy Spirit to assist you each and every day or your life. Amen.

2011-12-19T13:10:00.000-08:00

"Her Firstborn"
Christmas Day, 12/25/11
Luke 2:1-7; Colossians 1:15-20

Introduction: I remember when Tami was pregnant with Tyler and the day came when it was time for her to give birth. Actually, it was on a Sunday. She woke up about 5:30 a.m. and realized she was starting to have contractions. However, it was the busiest Sunday of the year for me. I had 2 services at church. I had new members joining at both services. I had a baptism. So we went to church. She seemed okay in between services and so I went to the second service. After the second service we went to the hospital. Tyler wasn’t born until 6:30 p.m., so there was much anticipation all throughout the day!

Mary and Joseph had a long anticipation too. They were trying to find a place to stay. The Inns were packed! They finally found a stable where they could go and find shelter. Then the time came for Jesus to be born! JESUS. THE SON OF GOD. THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD. IT WAS TIME!

I. Gave birth to her firstborn-

For Mary this experience would be like none other. Not only was it her firstborn, but it was Jesus Christ. This child was the fulfillment of prophecy; God in the flesh; the Messiah come to save the world from their sins!

It is not too often we celebrate Christmas on a Sunday. It is not too often that we have church on Christmas Day. We need to appreciate this day. We need to really seek to understand the significance of this day. It is too easy to start opening presents and get together with family and eat the food.

It is too easy to forget that there is an important reason why we celebrate this day. It is the birthday of Mary’s firstborn. Jesus Christ. Our Savior!

Let me just highlight for a moment, remembering from Colossians 1:

1. Jesus is before all things. Jesus came to be our Savior AND our Lord. He is to hold first place in our lives. He is to be more important to us than our relationships and our possessions.

2. Jesus is the one who holds all things together! He guides us in our lives. He makes our relationships better. He allows us to enjoy what we do have in life. He helps us to understand how we are to live our lives.

3. All things are reconciled through Jesus. Our sin is removed. We are given new life. We are restored in our relationship with God. We are given the Holy Spirit. We are filled with new gifts.

II. No room for them-

So the question is, do we have room for him? The fact that there was no room

for Jesus in the Inn is a profound one. During Jesus’ time there were many who did not have room for Jesus in their lives. The religious leaders, the Pharisees, did not have room for Jesus in their religion. During Jesus’ life there were many who did not follow Him; many who did not give their lives over to Him; many who did not pick up their cross and follow Him. They had no room for Jesus.

This is still true today. So many people do not have a place for Jesus in their lives. They think that there are more important things in life. They forget that they would not even be here without God. They don’t understand that they have no eternal future without Jesus. They don’t want to ‘mess around’ with Jesus because He will complicate their lives. But aren’t people’s lives terribly complicated now? Are people’s lives so wonderful that they don’t have room for Jesus?

It doesn’t make sense to me.

This Christmas Day is to be a time we celebrate Jesus. Listen to this song “I Celebrate the Day,” by Reliant K. You will find an insert of the lyrics in your bulletin (3:05).

And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let You know how much You've touched my life
Because here is where You're finding me, in the exact same place as New Year's eve
And from a lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I want to be
Chorus: And the first time, That You opened Your eyes,

did You realize that You would be my Savior
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever
And so this Christmas I'll compare the things I felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might [ really ]live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life

Conclusion: Christmas day is about realizing that Jesus Christ is our Savior, come to change the world forever. Christmas day is about opening up the gift of Jesus and finding that He is here to save you. Christmas day is about really receiving Jesus like you never have before and committing yourself to Him.

Christ has given you a gift. He has given Himself as Your Savior. He has given Himself as the one who removes your sin. There is no greater gift than this. On this Christmas Day would you give Him a gift? The gift of your heart? Pray with me: Jesus, we praise You for this day; this Christmas day. The day of Your birth. The day You came into this world to change it forever for me. I receive Your gifts of lift and love, hope and joy, peace and forgiveness. I give You back a gift. MY HEART. Please receive it this day. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

2011-12-12T13:38:00.001-08:00

"You Have Found Favor"
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Luke 1:1:11-13, 17-20, 26-38

Introduction: In looking over the scripture passage this last week I noticed that angels played a prominent role in the Christmas story. Yet, I don’t think people think too much about angels, and they really don’t understand much about the power and presence of angels in our lives (although I did preach a series on angels back in May of 2007).

Angels are servants of the Lord and play a large part in God’s work. An interesting fact is that angels are mentioned in 34 out of the 66 books in the Bible. The word angel appears more than 250 times in the Bible. Both in Hebrew and Greek, the word for angel means “messenger.” We see here in our passage that the angel Gabriel comes as God’s messenger to Mary. And the message is that she has found favor with God!

As we think about the fourth Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Peace, it is important to note that we will have peace in our lives if we have the favor of God upon us. And if we can know that God’s angels are here to bring God’s favor to us, then that should comfort our minds and hearts all the more.

I. The Lord Responds- (Luke 1:11-13, 17-20, 26-38)

a. Gabriel- Illus., Amusing Grace, #717, p. 205- In the play “You’re

A Good Man, Charlie Brown,” Charlie Brown explains why he hates lunchtime:

“I think lunchtime is about the worst time of the day for me. Always having to sit here alone. Of course, sometimes mornings aren’t so pleasant either, waking up and wondering if anyone would really miss me if I never got out of bed. Then there’s night, too—lying there and thinking about all the dumb things I’ve done during the day. And all those hours in between—when I do all those dumb things. Well, lunchtime is among the worst times of the day for me. Well, I guess I’d better see what I’ve got.” (He opens the bag, unwraps his sandwich, and looks inside). “Peanut butter.” (He takes a bite and chews). “Some psychiatrists say that people who eat peanut butter sandwiches are lonely. I guess they’re right. And if you’re really lonely, the peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth.”

This season of Advent and Christmas is supposed to be a joyous one; a season of hope, and joy, and love, and peace. But for some, it is a time when they are very lonely. They are not at peace in their lives because they are lonely. The truth is, you don’t have to be alone to be lonely. You can be in a crowded room and still feel lonely. This feeling may come from not feeling loved or appreciated. It may come because your thoughts are far away. It may come because you feel like God is not there for you and your prayers are not being answered in the way you had hoped. It may come because you have unrest in your life.

As we look at the Christmas story, we’re not sure, but it is possible that Mary and her cousin Elizabeth were feeling a little lonely. Elizabeth was unable to get pregnant, and both her and her husband Zechariah were advanced in years. But then an angel comes to visit Zechariah to tell him they will get pregnant. This wasn’t just any angel, this was Gabriel. Now there are only 3 angels in the Bible that are given names: Michael, the archangel; Lucifer, the rebellious angel; and Gabriel, whose name means “mighty one of God.” Gabriel is described as “one who stands in the presence of God.” Gabriel’s most common responsibility is to bring messages of great importance to God’s servants. And so we’re told in Luke 1:11-13, “Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹²When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.”

Zechariah and Elizabeth were not alone and didn’t need to feel lonely. They discovered that God was indeed with them. They discovered that God had heard their prayers. They had been visited by an angel, and blessed by his message. They were not alone. They were given great peace through this knowledge and experience!

b. Highly Favored- But Gabriel comes again and makes a second

visit, this time to Mary. Listen again to Luke 1:26-28, “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. ²⁸The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”/ Now, let’s take a step back and reflect on this for a moment. Try and put yourself in Mary’s place. You are a young, unmarried girl. You are poor, and living in a forgotten, and depressed part of the world (Nazareth, in the town of Galilee). One day you are greeted by a man, dressed in white, who tells you that you are going to have a baby!

The Bible says in verse 29 that Mary was “greatly troubled.” This is an understatement. What it probably should have said is that Mary was scared to death by this thought. In fact, it was probably more like what was said of Zechariah, in Luke 1:12; “gripped with fear.” When Mary realized that it was an angel who was speaking to her, it calmed her a little, but it still was troubling. Knowing that it was an angel, meant that what was said was probably going to come true; God was going to do something new and great, and God was asking Mary to be a part of it.

So Mary asks: “Why am I being asked to do this?” Answer: “You are highly favored of God.” Mary wonders if this is the true, or is the angel just stroking her ego to get her to go along with it? Mary: “How will this be since I am a virgin?”

Answer: “By the Holy Spirit. For nothing is impossible with God.” Then Mary is frustrated, thinking: “The angel would have to say something like that. How can you argue with “nothing is impossible with God?”

Illustration: "A Cup of Coffee," http://www.Spiritual-Short-Stories.com

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

You see Mary felt initial stress by the thought of what she was being asked to do. She was questioning God about choosing her (Who am I that He should choose me? she asked. She was comparing herself to others who might be greater than her, others who she thought were more capable); she was concerned that she was young, and she was concerned that she was a virgin. This all concerned her and initially took away the peace that God had for her in this experience.

II. The Lord is With You- (Judges 6:12; Hebrews 1:4, 14)

a. Insecurity- One of the amazing aspects of being a father, is what I

learn about my relationship with God. As I relate to my children, it helps me to understand, in a small way, how God relates to me. I know that sometimes my children feel a little insecure. In those times, they want reassurance from me; they want a word of encouragement, or maybe they just want a hug. They want to know that everything is okay, and that I love them.

There are times in our lives when we are feeling a little insecure; when we need a little extra love. There are times when we feel alone or afraid, or struggling to believe in ourselves. There are times when we doubt that God could ever do anything in and through our lives. There are times when we don’t believe God loves us. IN THESE TIMES WE NEED TO KNOW THAT GOD IS THERE.

In the Old Testament, in the book of Judges, we read in 6:12- “When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said: ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.’”

Here we have a mighty warrior, Gideon, who needed reassuring. Sometimes, just because we are human, we need some reassurance. It is hard to feel confident, and to venture out to do God’s work, when you are insecure. And when we are insecure we will not feel God’s favor, even though it is there in our lives!

Example- Many people have low self-esteem. And if you were to draw what they felt, it would be the picture of a person who is bowed over; a weary traveler. They would be holding over their shoulder a mile-long chain, and attached to this chain are many pieces of metal. Each piece of metal is inscribed with the details of past humiliations, failures, embarrassments, and rejections. This weary traveler could let go of this chain, and be free from this heavy burden, which immobilizes and exhausts him. But he chooses to hang on; he chooses to struggle to take each step as he pulls this baggage along. Paralyzed by the weight, he plods along, feeling like there is no other choice; this baggage has become a part of who he is! (taken from …The Tardy Oxcart, by Chuck Swindoll, p. 510).

Insecurity comes from not believing in yourself because of your past. In this, you keep from believing that God would do something wonderful in your life, or through your life. Your past keeps you from realizing how God is present. Your past causes you to think that God would not show you His favor.

Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary all realized that the Lord was with them because of God’s angel being with them. It took a visit from an angel. But not only did the angel Gabriel deliver the message to them, he was visibly present with them when he delivered it, and by his presence, brought the presence of God to them. And while most of us will not have a visit from an angel in visible form, God’s angels are with us, and God’s presence is with us. We need to believe this. We need to believe that God’s favor is with is. With this belief, we have great peace.

b. The Lord is there- Whether you feel alone right now, or not, we all

need to know that the Lord is with us. We all need to know that when we seek out God and follow God’s will, His favor will be upon us! It would be nice if it could be so dramatic, like the visit from an angel. But it will probably come in a way that is less dramatic. Maybe it will be an unsolicited hug and kiss from my daughter; maybe it will come from an unexpected gift from a friend. Maybe it will come in an e-mail of encouragement.

EX. A few months ago I was feeling a little down, a little frustrated, when I got an encouragement card in the mail. On the front of the card you see a person going under the water; his hands are outstretched; the only part that is out of the water is from the forearms up. Then you open up the card, and it says: “Not to worry…I have everything perfectly under control.” And it is signed, GOD.

EX, 2- Last week I knew someone was down and so I sent them a word of encouragement. I got an e-mail back from them saying, “You put a smile on face helping me to know that God is speaking through you to me.”

To me, this IS a visit from God. To me, this is something where God makes His presence known. This is something that should lift our spirits, and break the feelings of insecurity. And if we allow ourselves to be aware, we will see God visiting us in these ways all the time. Why do you think Jesus so often said, “To those who have ears to hear and eyes to see?” It is because we so often close ourselves off from the voice of God and the presence of God and the favor of God in our every day lives.

Hebrews 1:4, 14 says- “So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs… Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

First, there is no greater name than Jesus. Angels are in no way superior to Jesus; they are not to be worshipped. They are servants of the Lord. Christ is above the angels. Second, angels are called to minister to people and to bring them closer to God. Third, scripture tells us that they are sent to help those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. Angels bring peace and favor into the world by this ministering and helping. When we understand this, then we can take the events that happen in our lives, and understand them in the context of how God is constantly reaching out to us by the presence and the working of His angels.

There are many times in my life when I get this sense of unexpected peace. Nothing particular has happened, but I feel a sense of peace. In my life I try to pray continually throughout the day. I recite memorized scripture throughout the day. And I believe that because of this constant seeking of God’s presence, this sense of peace might be God’s messenger of peace coming into my life!

Conclusion: This fourth Sunday is the advent Sunday of PEACE. People search for peace in their lives; they search for it in trying to have a problem free life; they search for it in having a conflict free life. But that just doesn’t exist.

Story: There is a true story of a retired couple that was alarmed at the threat of nuclear war. So they decided to study the world and what was going on in the world. Their goal was to find a place where they would least likely be affected by a nuclear war. They were looking for a place of ultimate security. They studied, and traveled, and traveled and studied. Finally, they felt they had found the place; the Falkland Islands. They believed that this was their “paradise.” However, this paradise was soon turned into a war zone by Great Britain and Argentina.

War can happen anywhere; unrest can happen anywhere, because people don’t know how to get along. Jesus tells us in John 14:27: “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.” As you leave here this morning, I encourage you to remember that even though we find peace in Christ, Christ Himself was born with turmoil all around. Know, that Christ can impart to you, PEACE, even in the midst of struggle, turmoil, and insecurity. Open yourselves up to receive His peace. Amen.

2011-12-12T13:38:00.000-08:00

"You Have Found Favor"
Sunday, December 21, 2011
Luke 1:1:11-13, 17-20, 26-38

I. The Lord Responds- (Luke 1:11-13, 17-20, 26-38)

a. Gabriel- Illus., Amusing Grace, #717, p. 205- In the play “You’re

A Good Man, Charlie Brown,” Charlie Brown explains why he hates lunchtime:

b. Highly Favored- But Gabriel comes again and makes a second

Illustration: “A Cup of Coffee,” A Cup of Coffee- There is a story of a group of alumni, all highly established in their respective careers, who got together for a visit with their old university professor. The conversation soon turned to complaints about the endless stress of work and life in general... Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen and soon returned with a large pot of coffee and an eclectic assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal - some plain, some expensive, some quite exquisite. Quietly he told them to help themselves to some fresh coffee… W hen each of his former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the old professor quietly cleared his throat and began to patiently address his old students... ''You may have noticed that all of the nicer looking cups were taken up first, leaving behind the plainer and cheaper ones. While it is only natural for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is actually the source of much of your stress-related problems." He continued… ''Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In fact, the cup merely disguises or dresses up what we drink. What each of you really wanted was coffee, not a cup, but you instinctively went for the best cups... Then you began eyeing each other's cups....''

II. The Lord is With You- (Judges 6:12; Hebrews 1:4, 14)

a. Insecurity- One of the amazing aspects of being a father, is what I

In the Old Testament, in the book of Judges, we read in 6:12- “When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said: ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.’”

b. The Lord is there- Whether you feel alone right now, or not, we all

2011-12-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

"Have Seen A Great Light"
Isaiah 9:2-6
Third Sunday of Advent, 12/11/11

Introduction: Story- “The Kiss,” Stories for the Heart, p. 53. There is a story of a young woman, who was lying in a hospital bed. Her husband was right beside her. The woman had just had surgery, and her mouth was all twisted. The woman looked at her mouth in the mirror, and then asked the doctor, “Will my mouth always be like this?” “Yes,” the doctor answered. “It is that way because I had to cut the nerve to remove the tumor from your cheek.” The woman nods and is silent. The husband sensing his wife’s concern looks at his wife and says: “I like it. I think it’s cute.” Then he leans down to kiss her, and as he does, he twists his lips to accommodate hers, and to show her that their kiss still works!

Who are the people in your life that touch you? Who are the ones who can encourage you and lift you up when you’re down? Your spouse? Your parents? Your children? Your grandchildren? A good friend? Maybe even me as your pastor? These people are the ones who love us and who challenge us. Today is the advent Sunday of “Love.” And I want to talk about how God loves us, and how He has accommodated Himself for us.

I. How Does God Touch Us? (Isaiah 9:2-6; Matthew 11:28-30)

a. What God gives- In our scripture passage that was just read, Isaiah 9:2-

6, we heard some wonderful news about what God gives to us. Let me break down the passage, and point it out to you. Verse 2- “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light…” Verse 3- “…You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy…” Verse 4- “…You have shattered the yoke that burdens them…” Verse 6- “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…”

In each of these verses, we are told some of the ways God reaches out to touch His people; how God shows us His love. First, we are told that He gives us light to see. Now the light that is referred to, is not so much the physical light of the sun (although this is a gift to us from God). But what is talked about in verse 2 is how God gives us the ability to see better how we should walk in our lives, and what we should do. By having this wisdom, we can make better decisions that will keep us on the right path for our lives. Without the light of God, we get confused, and distracted, and will tend to make decisions that lead us away from God and God’s will for our lives.

Next, we are told that God increases our joy. In verse 3 of Isaiah chapter 9, we see that the joy comes to Israel by their nation being enlarged. Israel’s nation was enlarged by God freeing them from captivity. Once free, they were able to live for God and serve God and seek to become who God had created them to be. By being restored as God’s people they experienced a realization of God’s profound love for them.

The same is true for the church. When we realize that we are not captives, but are free to live for God and serve God, then we can begin to dream about what God has for us. As the pastor I try to make sure Session is constantly thinking about what God wants for us. Each month we have devotional time together before our Session meeting as we try to keep in our minds what God has for us. When we think about our stewardship theme, we try to do it with God’s will for our church in mind. As we live for God in this way, we will experience God’s love all the more.

Then Isaiah talks about God shattering the yoke that burdened the people. God does not want us to live in slavery. I talked last week about how God has redeemed us, or paid the price for us, so that we would no longer be slaves to our sinful desires. We must live like people who are free. We must live with purpose and meaning. We must live out the passion that God has given us. Only then can we be free from our burdens. / But even more, God breaks the yoke of our burdens by taking our burdens from us. Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

God fully reaches out to touch us by giving us His son. This of course is the story of Christmas; the birth of Jesus Christ. This is what the advent season is all about. This is the culmination of what we are talking about each week. This is why we can have hope, and joy, and love, and peace in our lives. This is how God can be in a personal, intimate relationship with us. This is how God can instill His love in us.

b. How do you see him?- In the book “A Gentle Thunder,” by Max

Lucado (p. 163), Lucado challenges us with this question: “Suppose Jesus came to your church. I don’t mean symbolically. I mean visibly. Would you recognize Him?”

That is an interesting question, isn’t it? We think that we would recognize Him; we think that we would receive Him. But what if Jesus, as the Savior, came to our church, like he did back in the first century?

Lucado goes on to say: “It might be difficult to recognize Jesus. Jesus didn’t wear religious clothes in his day. So it is doubtful that He would wear them in our day. If he came today to our church, he’d wear regular clothes. Nothing fancy; maybe just a jacket and a tie. Maybe not even a tie. He would have a common name. Jesus was a common name in Jesus’ time. So maybe he would have the name Bob, or Terry, or Jim. He wouldn’t be from Nazareth, he would be from somewhere local: perhaps Lakewood, or Long Beach, or Marina del rey. And he’d be a laborer. He was a carpenter in his day; no need to think he’d change. But if he did, he might be an electrician, or a painter, or a contractor. God in the flesh; a contractor?…And one day he shows up in our church. He sits in the back. After a few songs he moves forward. Then after a prayer he walks up to the front and says: “You are singing about me. I am the Son of God. I am the bread of life.” Jim, the contractor, tells us that we are singing about him! Then he lifts up the bread and says that it is his body; and he lifts up the cup and says that it is his blood. And he invites us to celebrate with him. Would you do it? Jim the contractor is saying this. What would you think? Would you be offended? Would you be interested? Would you take him seriously? Would you believe him?”

It is easy for us to criticize those who doubted Jesus when Jesus was here. But would we do much better if we were in the same situation? Jesus didn’t fit their conception of the Messiah. Jesus didn’t come to them in the way they expected. And the challenge for us today, as we talk to people about Christmas, is that Jesus doesn’t fit into their concept of what a savior should be and how a savior should come.

And so we think about this concept of God touching us, and we sometimes wish that God were here with us, to physically touch us, so that we could really experience His love. We wish that Jesus would be with us, so that we could have someone to talk to us; someone to challenge us; someone who can physically show us how to live, and how to talk, and how to love. But I think it would be harder to let God touch our lives if He were physically here. I think that we would be less likely to receive God, and listen to God. I think we would struggle to allow God to be a part of our lives. I think we would be swayed by the doubts and concerns of all of the people around us.

The good news, is that there was a time when God was here; there was a time when God took on flesh and lived among us…

II. When God Was Present- (Matthew 1:18-25; 2:1-2)

a. And Mary gave birth- Now that we have a clearer sense of the challenge

it would be to have God the Son come into the world, we can maybe understand the challenge it was for Joseph to believe that Mary was pregnant with the Son of God. Joseph, who was pledged to be married to Mary, decided that he wanted to release her from this pledge, because he found out she was pregnant. Knowing that it wasn’t his baby, Joseph no longer wanted to have anything to do with Mary and the marriage.

Matthew 1:18-19 tells us, “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” So here is the situation. Joseph gets engaged to Mary, which in those days was binding. People were considered to be married for all intensive purposes once they were engaged. But then Joseph finds out Mary is pregnant. I’m sure Joseph was hurt by this; confused by this; probably angry at this. Joseph had a time when he no longer wanted to be Mary’s husband. Yet because of his love for Mary he did not want to embarrass her, so he was going to divorce her quietly.

Joseph had trouble believing that Mary could be pregnant any other way than the natural way of getting pregnant. Joseph had trouble believing that she could become pregnant by an act of God’s Spirit. So Joseph was going to walk away and try to come up with a plan B for his life!

Because Joseph was a very important part of God’s plan, in fact Joseph was the one who was in the line of King David, God acted by speaking to Joseph in a dream. It doesn’t say an angel appeared to Joseph in his dream, but the Lord Himself! And this is what the Lord said to Joseph in Matthew 1:20-21, “… ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

This dream gave Joseph a calm about how Mary had become pregnant, who the baby was, and the role Mary and Joseph were to play in Jesus’ life. Joseph began to understand the great love God has for His people as He let the words of God become real to him.

And the scripture tells us that Joseph did stay with Mary, and they traveled to Bethlehem, where Mary gave birth to Jesus. And the shepherds came to praise Jesus; and the wise men came to worship Jesus. And they were touched by God!!

b. “A Celebration of the Star”- [(by Fay Angus) from “A Christmas

In a more contemporary setting, there is a story of a small girl who was watching the other children take their turns whacking away at the piñata at the PTA’s annual school Christmas party. She nervously twisted her fingers on the corner of her dress. One of the mother’s saw that she wasn’t participating, so she went over to talk to the girl. “Don’t you want a turn?” the mother asked. “I’ll go with you.” But the girl only stood there and continued to watch. A noise got both of their attention, as they turned to see another girl splitting open the star. It crashed to the floor and candy and trinkets flew all over to the delight of all the children. While the other children were going after the candy, this shy, small girl suddenly darted across the grass to pick up the star. She clutched it closely to her heart and shouted: “Look. I got the star!”/ It was reported by her mother later on, that she took this star home, and hung it on her bedpost. And she kept it there for several years.

Matthew 2:1-2 tells us, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’” The star should remind us of Jesus; the morning star; our guiding light. The star reminds us that God was present, in human form, and came to touch His people with God’s love.

Story: Last Sunday, after church, I was told that there was a man who wanted to talk with me. Usually this means that someone wants me to give them money. I have to confess that was my first thought. So, as I began to talk with him that was what was on my mind. I could find myself wanting to end the conversation even before it began. He told me that he had just moved into the area, and that he and his girlfriend had been talking about Christmas. “Here it comes,” I thought, “he’s going to ask for some money for Christmas gifts.” But then I was surprised by what he said next. He told me that they were looking for an opportunity to serve, where they could give of themselves to those who were in need. Did we have any opportunity for that at our church?

Christmas season isn’t about what presents we will get, rather, it is about under-standing God’s love. It is about receiving God’s love. It is about giving God’s love!

Conclusion: This third Sunday of Advent is about focusing on the love of God. Yet so many struggle to be able to focus on God’s love, even during the Christmas season. I believe this is because people’s minds are clouded with too many worries and concerns and problems. People’s minds are too busy to see clearly. In essence, they are walking in darkness.

Our scripture passage today, Isaiah 9:2-6 starts out with these words, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light…” This light has come to them because of God’s presence among them. Christmas is about God’s presence being seen in the most profound way. It is because of the birth of Jesus Christ that we can be touched by God in the personal way that God touches us.

The words Jesus spoke; the things He did, the way He shone His light, were all meant to show us God’s love and to give us God’s touch. YOU KNOW HOW YOU CAN TELL IF YOU HAVE BEEN TOUCHED BY GOD? You are changed. You are changed in how you think, in how you love, in how you forgive others, in how excited you are about life. Those who have been touched by God want to share that excitement with others. They want others to experience the hope of God, the joy of God, the love of God, and the peace of God. As we celebrate this Sunday of love, let us let God touch us with His love; a love that transforms us into people who care. Amen.

2011-11-28T14:35:00.000-08:00

"The Gracious Deeds of the Lord"
Isaiah 63:7-9
Second Sunday of Advent- 12/4/11

Introduction: As December has come upon us do you find yourself busy with the business of Christmas? We talk about Christmas Joy, but it seems hard to be joyful when you are so busy with all that the Christmas season requires. This season is supposed to be joyous, but is often overwhelming. It can be a challenge in our world to remember that Christmas is really about the birth of Jesus Christ. That is why it is good to come to church, so that we might talk about and remember why Jesus came here to earth. In the birth of Jesus Christ, we remember that Jesus came to be with His people; to love them and to be an example for them. But even more, Jesus came to bring joy to those who were suffering and lost by becoming their savior. Jesus knew what He was here to do, and what was going to be coming His way. This morning I want to talk about how joy comes to us because Jesus came to suffer on our behalf. What Jesus did was gracious on our behalf!

I. Jesus the Sufferer- (Matt. 2:13-15; Heb. 2:10-13, 18;

1 Peter 1:6-7; Mark 14:34-36)

a. The hardship of suffering- So, let’s first look at Jesus’ role as a

sufferer. You would think that when God the Son chose to take on flesh, and come into the world, it would be a wonderful experience. He was coming to dwell among His people. But this isn’t how it was. Jesus didn’t have a soft, cushy, easy life. From the very beginning, it was challenging, and there was suffering.

It started when Mary, Jesus’ mother, had to give birth to Jesus in a stable. This was not the place anyone would expect the Son of God to be born. Why not a palace? Why not in a safe and protected setting? Because Jesus was born to suffer on our behalf, and to show us that in life there is suffering.

Think for a moment about the stress of Jesus’ life; the travel to Bethlehem, the birth in a stable, and then having to travel to Egypt.

1. Why did they have to go to Egypt? Well, Jesus’ life was in danger the moment King Herod heard about Jesus. Herod heard that Jesus was the answer to the prophecy about the birth of a savior. Egypt was outside of Herod’s jurisdiction, so God led Mary and Joseph to Egypt. More traveling; more danger; more stress; more worry. We read about it in Matt. 2:13-15, “When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." ¹⁴So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son.”

2. Galilee- Mary, Joseph and Jesus stayed in Egypt until Herod’s death in 4 b.c. After Herod’s death, Joseph again received a message from God through a dream. Matthew 2:19-23, “After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead." ²¹So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²²But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’”

WHAT A FIRST FEW YEARS JESUS HAD: ONE OF

STRUGGLE, HARDSHIP, TRAVEL, AND DANGER.

However, if we remember how Jesus suffered, and that God was there to watch over Him and protect Him, then, maybe we will accept the suffering of our own lives and know that God is there to watch over us and protect us. To bring us joy in the midst of our suffering.

b. Made perfect through suffering- In Hebrews 2:10 we read, “In

bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” We read these words together, “perfect,” and “suffering,” and it doesn’t make sense. How can suffering cause one to become perfect?

Think about a pearl. Pearls are formed inside the shell of certain bivalve mollusks. As a response to an irritant inside its shell, the mollusk creates a pearl to seal off the irritation. Pearls are formed by the suffering of irritation.

Or how about gold? Gold is refined in a hot fire to burn away its impurities. The suffering of the heat causes the gold to be more perfect. As we are told in

1 Peter 1:6-7, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

Sometimes our suffering leads us in a new direction. Sometimes our suffering gives us new insight. Sometimes our suffering teaches us an important lesson. But if we allow God to be there with us, and we seek to persevere, suffering always makes us stronger. We can be joyful about this!

God allowed Jesus to suffer so that all could be saved. But Christ’s suffering also gave Him a more complete understanding of what we experience when we suffer. In this way, Christ is here for us in our time of suffering.

c. Suffering helps us in our temptation- The book of Hebrews also reminds us that Christ suffered in the temptations that He faced. In the Gospels, we read about the distress that Jesus was in, when He faced His temptation of not going through with the crucifixion. Mark 14:34 (Jesus tells the disciples as He goes off to pray alone)- “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” And then in Mark 14:36 we hear Jesus praying: “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me./ Yet, not what I will, but what You will.”

Do you hear the struggle? Do you hear the distress? There in the garden, the Bible tells us that Jesus sweated blood as He agonized over this decision. We read of its affect on us, in Hebrews 2:18- “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Have you ever tried to help someone who was struggling, but found it difficult because you couldn’t relate to what they were going through? This is not the case with Jesus. Jesus has been there; He has experienced temptation. He knows what you and I are going through when we suffer in our temptations. And He is here to help! In the midst of our weakness, we have One who is strong, and who can make us strong.

II. Jesus the Savior- (Hebrews 2:14-17; Isaiah 63:7-9)

a. Redeemed by Jesus- So we come to understand that there is a

reason that Jesus went through this suffering, and why He chose to come here and be with us. The reason is so that He could be our Savior. Hebrews 2:17 tells us, “…that He might make atonement for the sins of the people.” And Isaiah 63:9 says: “…In His love and mercy He redeemed them.”

EX. “A Picture of Atonement,” p. 34, Illustrations Unlimited, #1.

Think about a one-room school house, in a time where severe discipline was used, to keep students from getting rowdy, and to keep students in check. It was just after lunch and the teacher was interrogating the class about the disappearance of Sally Jane’s lunch. A small cry was heard; it was little Billy; a thin, undernourished boy. His family was the poorest of the poor. “Did you take Sally Jane’s lunch?” demanded the teacher. “Yes, sir,” Billy struggled to say through his tears. “I was hungry.” “That is no excuse,” replied the teacher. “You stole the lunch, you must be punished.” The teacher ordered Billy to the front of the room as he went to get the leather strap. Billy’s shirt was removed, but just before the teacher hit Billy a shout came from the back of the room. “HOLD IT TEACHER. LET ME TAKE THE WHIPPIN’ FOR HIM.” This comment came from big Jim. The teacher reluctantly consented. So big Jim took the whipping, and Billy never forgot it.

ATONEMENT is the sacrifice that Jesus made to free the people from the penalty of our sins. REDEMPTION is buying a slave out of their slavery. So in our case, Jesus’ sacrifice paid the penalty for our sins and bought us out of our slavery from sin. Without Christ, we would be forever slaves to our sinful nature. And just as Billy remembered what big Jim did for him, so we should never forget what Jesus Christ did to pay the price for our sins.

b. Jesus lifts us up- But Jesus goes even further than that, as the

Scriptures tells us in Isaiah 63:9- “…He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”/ As our savior, He doesn’t just take care of our punishment for us, He also carries us throughout our life. EX. If you have ever tried to climb a rock climbing wall, you know how challenging it is to move from one small rock to the next. You know how difficult it is to keep your footing and keep hold of the rocks as you slowly move up, and as you take the time to decide where to move your hands next, and where to move your feet next, all the while hanging there and getting tired. Yet when you slip and fall you don’t fall very far because you are attached to a harness and secured by the Guide. And so even if you make it up almost to the top, because you were saved by the guide, you give thanks to the guide who kept you secure. Then you can swing back to the wall, and continue on in the climb.

That is what Jesus does for us. Jesus is our GUIDE, here for us to help us when we fall, and to lift us up when we stumble, and to carry us when we are too weak and tired.

We should never speak of Christ/ His purpose, His mission, without thinking about how we should respond. To talk about it without responding to it, is merely information without action; reason without purpose. SO, what should our response be?

Our response is not only to be grateful, but it should also be one of action as well. Most of all, our response of action should be to talk to people about Jesus, the One who has come to make a difference here in our lives; the One who makes a difference in this world. We should be telling others of His love, mercy, and sacrifice. We should tell them how Jesus came to suffer and be tempted, so that we could have One who is able to help us in every way. One who can bring us joy in all situations! We should tell people that Jesus is the One who has made it possible for us to live eternally with God in heaven.

I’m not here today just to tell you about what Jesus did. I want this message to impact your life. I want you to know that Jesus loves you so much that He did allow Himself to suffer and be tempted and to struggle. Jesus wanted to provide a way for us to experience the joy of this life, and the joy of our life in heaven. Without Jesus we could not experience any of this.

Conclusion: You might wonder why I am talking about Jesus’ suffering and temptation. How does this fit with the Advent season? Well, even before Jesus was to be born, God made a plan for all this to take place. Advent is a time to remember who God is, how He came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ, and why He came into this world.

Illus. “Legend of the Taj Majal,” The Applause of Heaven, by Max Lucado, p. 131.

There is a story of the legend of the Taj Mahal. The story goes like this: the favorite wife of the emperor Shah Jahan died. The emperor was devastated at this loss, and so he resolved to honor her by building a temple that would serve as her tomb. Her coffin was placed at the center of where the tomb was to be constructed, and the temple was begun around it. The place was to be magnificent, no expense spared. Weeks turned into months, and the Shah’s grief was replaced by a passion for the project. It no longer was about being a memorial to his wife, but it was about the magnificence of the temple. One day while walking the site, his leg bumped into a wooden box. Angry that he had been injured by this box, he ordered for the box to be thrown out; the box of his dead wife’s coffin. The one, who was to be honored, had been forgotten.

Does this sound familiar? Do we remember that Jesus is the reason why Christmas exists? Do we worship Him as He deserves? Do we allow His gracious deeds to bring us joy? Today is the Sunday of Joy, the day to remember the Joy we receive because Christ was born. Because of Christ’s existence, He suffered so that we might have Joy. The Joy of Christmas is in honoring the One who is here for us. Let us never fail to do this. Let us give ourselves over to Christ, and to His deeds, this day and forever. Amen.

2011-11-21T14:45:00.001-08:00

"Hope is Found in Jesus"
Luke 5:1-11
First Sunday of Advent, Sunday of Hope, 11/27/11

Introduction: I have said this many times, but Advent season is my favorite season of the year. This is because it is a time when people seem to be more open to who Jesus is. People seem to want to experience God in a deeper way. The Advent season consists of the Sundays of hope, joy, love and peace, and concludes with Christmas Eve when we remember the birth of Jesus Christ.

The text we are looking at today is not your typical Advent text. It is not a text about Jesus’ birth, or the angels, or the wise men, or even Mary and Joseph. But it is about hope: how hope is found in Jesus. On this first Sunday of Advent, I want us to have a clear understanding that hope for this life, and in the life to come is only found in Jesus Christ. This is the reason that Jesus came into this world, to bring us hope. This is the reason why Jesus has called us to Himself, to give us hope.

I. The Word of God Spoken- (Luke 5:1-11; John 6:64-69)

a. The hearing of the word of God- Our scripture passage opens up

with Jesus by the Lake of Gennesaret. Jesus is teaching the word of God, and they were so enthralled by what He was teaching that they began to crowd around Him. Jesus realized that He didn’t have much space and wanted to find a way to separate Himself from the people, so He goes over to the boats on the shore. He gets in one of the boats and asks Simon to put the boat out a little ways. Now with newfound freedom He teaches the people.

It is interesting to see how the word of God was so stimulating to the people. I’m sure some of it was the charisma of Jesus and how He taught it, but God’s word is indeed captivating. This is because it is the Word that changes lives. It is the Word that challenges people’s thinking. It is the Word that brings hope to the hopeless. It is the truth of God!!

After Jesus is done teaching the people He decides He is going to teach the disciples. Jesus is going to use an object lesson to teach them. He has them put out for the deep water so they can let out the nets and do some fishing. Now you need to know that at this point the disciples have been fishing all day and haven’t caught anything, so they aren’t too excited about doing more fishing. They are tired and frustrated, and they probably just want to go home.

b. The Gospels reveal three types of disciples- Using this passage and

one from John chapter 6, we can see that there are three kinds of disciples, or followers of Jesus. This is important for us, because the truth is: hope is only found in those who truly seek Jesus. Those who walk away from Jesus walk away from hope. Those who can’t stay on the path Jesus sets cannot stay on the path of hope.

The first kind of disciple is the CURIOUS. We can see an example of this in the gospel of John, chapter 6, verses 64-66 “‘Yet there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. ⁶⁵ He went on to say, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.’ ⁶⁶ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.’” We see in this passage that there were people who came to hear Jesus speak. They were curious about who He was and what He was teaching. They even followed for a while. But Jesus knew that they didn’t really believe in what He was teaching. These people who were curious, were not true followers. They were not willing to commit to Jesus, and when the call for commitment got too great, they stopped following.

The second kind of disciple is the CONVINCED. We can learn about the convinced in John 6:67-69, “‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.’” Jesus knew that when some walked away from Him, it would cause others to question their commitment. People tend to be followers of others, and so some were thinking about leaving too. But when hit with the question, ‘You do not want to leave too, do you? The twelve reflected on what they should do. In the end they realized that Jesus did have words of eternal life; words of hope!

The third kind of disciple is the COMMITTED. It takes more than being convinced in your mind that Jesus has words of eternal life, to be a true disciple, because ultimately Jesus will ask for commitment. Jesus will ask us to follow Him, and He will expect that we will be willing to do whatever it takes to follow Him. At this point, some who think they are convinced will not take that last step of commitment.

It is this last group that make up the true disciples of Jesus. Some estimate that in the beginning there were only 100-120 who were part of this last group. Of course we know about the 12 disciples, but there were others who followed Jesus faithfully. The 12 were the ones Jesus spent the most time with and spent the most time teaching.

So which group do you fall into? The curious? The convinced? OR are you willing to make the full commitment and receive the hope of God by being a true disciple? Are you willing to be like the people we read about in Luke 5:11, “So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him”?

II. The Power of God Demonstrated-

a. God uses the ordinary things of life- Of course we know that Jesus

continued on in His ministry; continued on in His teaching. One of the keys to Jesus’ ministry was showing the power of God. One way that Jesus showed the power of God was using ordinary things and ordinary people. Jesus placed mud on a blind mans eyes and healed him. Jesus fed over 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread. Jesus changed the life of a woman who had lived a sinful and then used her to share the truth of God with others. Jesus uses the ordinary things of life to show how powerful God is. God can work in and through you and me. God can use whatever resources we have to exhibit His power!

The problem is the more intelligent and/or capable we are, the more we try and solve our own problems. We try to do things on our own, forsaking God. Sometimes we might succeed, somewhat. Ultimately, we will not succeed. When things don’t work out, and we have nowhere else to go, we lose hope.

We see this in our passage, where Jesus turns failure into success. The disciples had failed to catch fish. They had fished all day, they had come up empty, but Jesus takes them back out and they catch so much fish that they can’t contain it all in their nets!

I have seen this all the time, people who come to me without hope. They have forgotten that God is there, or think that God no longer cares. They have stopped giving themselves over to God. They have walked away from the commitment it takes for God to work His power in their lives. And now they tell me they have no hope. All it takes is to turn back to God, and hope will be found; God’s power will be seen!

b. God’s miraculous results are only realized as we obey- This is

because it takes obedience to be a part of God’s power. It takes obedience to be on the path of hope. We have to seek out what God is doing, and then join in. God wants us to join in and be part of the ministry of the Kingdom.

In verses 4 and 5 we see how Simon didn’t want to fish more, didn’t think there were fish to be caught, be he was obedient just the same. Because he was obedient and put the nets into the water, he saw the power of Jesus at work. Simon realized that the catching of fish was a great miracle, and this was seen because of Simon’s obedience.

My children all the time think they know what is good and what is bad; what is true and what is false; what is right and what is wrong. They have limited perspective, since their perspective is often a perspective of what they think is best for them. They fail to take into account information they might not know. They fail to take into account the repercussions of their choices.

We are often the same with God. We think we know how things will turn out, not taking into account the power of God at work; the wisdom of God at work; the will of God at work. When we give ourselves over to God through obedience, then God’s results WILL ALWAYS exceed our expectations. There is great hope in this!

III. The Presence of God Experienced- (Luke 5:8-10)

a. His presence bring awareness of sin- When I talk about sin, many

people are not excited about this. This is because most people don’t want to think about their sin much. Last week I talked about how our generation tries to downplay sin, even going so far as saying that the wrong they do, isn’t wrong; it’s relative. But if we want to talk about hope we have to talk about sin, because as long as we live in sin we will not experience the presence of God. Without God’s presence in our lives, we have no hope.

God’s presence brings awareness of sin because we see in God what it means to be holy. As we compare ourselves to Jesus we see that we do fall short. This is what happened with Simon Peter in Luke 5:8. We read again, “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’” Simon Peter recognized his sin, as he doubted Jesus. Once he saw all the fish, he was convicted of his sin as he saw the glory of God in the event.

People react to God’s presence in one of two ways: either they are embarrassed by their guilt and turn away from God, or they are convicted of their sin, confess their sin, and are forgiven of their sin. Don’t you see how hope is at work in the awareness and confession of sin?

b. His voice calms all fear- Jesus doesn’t leave us in our sin, nor does

He leave us in our fear. When we have lost hope we tend to get fearful. We are fearful of our future. We are fearful of the outcome of some event. We are fearful that we are lost.

The disciples were fearful of what Jesus had done. In Verses 9-10 it says: “…For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.” They couldn’t believe what Jesus had done. They couldn’t believe all the fish they were seeing. It caused them to feel fear. Who is this man? What is He capable of doing? He possesses such great power…… They were fearful.

When we trust and obey, Jesus will not leave us fearful. When we turn to God, we will not experience fear, but the calming of Jesus’ voice. “Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.’” Jesus was in essence telling them that this was all just a lesson. As Jesus had taught the people on the shore, now Jesus was teaching the disciples. He was just doing it through an object lesson; the lesson of catching fish. Then He shows the disciples how they will do greater things than catching fish, they will catch people for the Kingdom of God!

c. His claim requires complete commitment- We see in the Bible,

time and time again, Jesus wants complete commitment. It doesn’t work any other way. If you are kind of committed to Jesus, there will be times when you choose to do what you want to do, and not what God wants you to do. How can you be a follower of someone you only follow sometimes?

I have told you about how I love to mentor people one-on-one. I love this because it allows me to help people walk forward in their being a disciple of Christ. It allows me to help people discern God’s will for their lives. But there have been times when I thought someone was on the verge of a breakthrough, only to see them fall back into their old patterns of living. They stopped being committed to Christ and started making their own choices.

This doesn’t work. God loves you too much to force you to do anything. If you don’t choose Him, then He will allow you to forge your own path. But don’t be surprised when you feel a lack of hope in your life!

Conclusion: We see in this passage in Luke 5 the message of hope. The disciples didn’t think there was any hope of catching any fish. They had fished all day and not caught anything, so they were sure they wouldn’t catch any fish when Jesus told them to drop the nets. Yet, when they obeyed, they caught more fish than they had ever caught before.

Hope is found in believing beyond what we think we know! Hope is found in being obedient to God, trusting that God will lead us where we need to go. Hope is found in knowing that God’s power can and will work in and through our lives. So I hope this day you would be more than curious of Jesus, even more than convinced, but you would be committed. You will see your hope turn into promise, which will be seen in God doing miracles all around you. Amen.

2011-11-14T13:33:00.000-08:00

"Your Favorite Disney Movie"
Series: My Most Popular Blogs
1 John 4:7-12
Sunday, November 20, 2011

Introduction: If you don’t know what a blog is, a blog is a type of website or part of a website that is supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. People use blogs for many different reasons: some use it to chronicle what is going on with their kids. Others use it to share thoughts and ideas. I use it to post thoughts on different topics. It gives me another avenue to share God’s word and God’s truth with others.

I have been blogging now for over 4 years and have enjoyed this opportunity to express my thoughts. The last year or so I have blogged with others. What I mean by this is there has been a topic on which several people blog independently. The people involved all share blog ideas, and then we put them in an order and blog on one per week.

Back in May of this year the topic was ‘Your Favorite Disney Movie.’ As I looked at this topic I wondered if I wanted to take the time to write a blog on this. I wasn’t sure what I could say about this that had any relevance to people’s lives. I figured that if I was going to take my time to construct a blog, then I wanted it to have relevance.

In the end I did choose to blog on it, and to my surprise I not only got many ‘hits’ on my blogsite, but I also received a number of comments from it. People seemed to really relate to this topic and the themes in the Disney movies. So, this morning I would like to share some thoughts for you that came from this idea of ‘Your Favorite Disney Movie.’

I. The Movies I Like-

As I thought about this topic I wanted to make sure that I had a good

understanding of all the movies Disney had done. I realized that there were some movies I might think are Disney, and maybe they aren’t, and there were some that I might not realize are Disney movies and are. This is because when you think of Disney movies you usually think about animated movies, but Disney has produced many non-animated movies as well.

I did some investigating, and I found that Disney started making movies in 1937. The first movie they made was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In making this movie they set the bar for imagination and creativity, which is what Walt Disney desired for all that was associated with Disney productions. Disney set the standard for movies that entertain both kids and adults alike.

As I was thinking about the many Disney movies, I started to wonder which one I would choose as my favorite. So I went online and pulled up a list of all the Disney movies. There are so many good ones, that I found it difficult to choose. So I decided to not just choose one, but to list several. Here is my list of animated movies that I love the most: Pinocchio (made in 1940), The Jungle Book (1967), and Toy Story (1995).

While it could definitely be argued that all of the Disney movies are of high quality and entertainment, there is something about these three that stand out to me. I enjoy the music in each. I enjoy the characters. I enjoy the story line. In some way these movies just capture my attention more than the others and I just have fun watching them. They are movies I could watch over and over again.

I also like several non-animated movies made by Disney: National Treasure (2004), The Chronicles of Narnia series (2005, 2008, 2011), and Bridge to Terebithia (2007). Without going into great detail about all these movies, what I like best is how you can be drawn into a world of adventure and fun, but also experience the reality of conflict and resolution. In each movie, in their own unique way, they teach us about friendship, love, and sticking together. They challenge us with the idea that life should and can be enjoyed.

I am so glad that Disney decided to venture into the animated movie business, because there is so much that can happen in animation. I am also captivated by how these movies were put together literally one drawing at a time!! I have one of the drawings from The Jungle Book framed and sitting on my desk. Imagine how many drawings it took to make these movies. And now with computers the possibilities are endless.

II. The Message of Love- (1 John 4:7-12; John 3:16; Deuteronomy 7:7-8;

Jeremiah 17:9; Mark 7:21-22; Romans 3:23)

a. Love- An overriding theme in all of the Disney movies, is love. We

see in the movies how love helps to conquer all situations. For example, in Pinocchio you have the puppet maker Geppetto who creates Pinocchio one day. Geppetto wishes to be a father and begins to hope that Pinocchio could become a real boy. A Blue Fairy hears Geppetto’s wish and turns Pinocchio into a wooden boy. Geppetto loves him just the same…. However, there is a catch. The fairy tells Pinocchio that if he wants to become a real boy of flesh and blood he must prove himself to be brave, truthful, and unselfish and able to tell right from wrong by listening to his conscience. Geppetto believes that Pinocchio needs an education and so he sends him to school. Pinocchio never makes it to school as two con artists meet him along the way and sell him to the owner of a puppet show…. The movie goes along with Pinocchio getting into all kinds of trouble. Geppetto, because of his great love for Pinocchio doesn’t give up on Pinocchio but goes searching for him. In the process he gets swallowed by a whale. Somehow Pinocchio ends up in the same whale. Pinocchio risks his life to save Geppetto, and in the end, because of their love for each other, the Blue Fairy makes Pinocchio a real boy!!

This message of love is one that is seen in every Disney movie. The message is that love is powerful; love is the overarching power of life and relationships. With love, and in love, and by love all things are possible. Without love there is darkness, as the evil characters in the movies are devoid of love. These evil characters try to take away the loved ones from the main characters. They try and keep them from experiencing the love they so desire and seek after.

If I were to caution you at all about the movies, it is that the love that is demonstrated is a humanly love, not a godly love. While there is great sacrifice shown in the movies, it still comes from the heart, and being of the person sharing the love. It is important to note that on our own, our love is frail and weak. Without the Lord we cannot love others as we need to love. Our human love is conditional and prone to change.

While it might seem that the love displayed in these movies is all-sufficient, we know that these are fairy tale stories, and they fail to point out the insufficiency of our love shown to each other. Anyone who has loved, and been loved, knows that there are times when the one whom we love lets us down, disappoints us, and/or leaves us in the midst of our loving them!

b. God’s love- So let me take a few moments to expand on this theme

of the power of love. In 1 John 4:8 we are told, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” We are told that God is love. Love is not just part of God’s make-up, it is at the core of His being. Love is what caused God to create human beings, so He could be in a relationship with us. Love is what led God to give up His Son, Jesus Christ, to death on a cross. You know the verse so well, but let me share it with you again: John 3:16, “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.”

You could read this verse over and over again, and never take in the full meaning and result. As you read it over slowly, you take in the fact that God is not a angry, condemning God. God is a God of love! He isn’t a God caught up in declarations, rules or edicts. He is a God of love. So much so that He gave His only Son for us. WHY? So that All who believe in Him would not perish. He loved us so much that He made sure that He did everything He could do to ensure us that we could spend eternity with Him!!!

How does God really love us? That is best answered by reading 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, the great chapter on love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails…”

God is patient with us, honoring of us, trusting of us, hoping in us, persevering with us. God’s love will never fail us!! There is no other kind of love like this. The only love that comes close is fairy tale love.

Think about this: in the midst of our defiance, our constantly turning away from God, our hard-heartedness, God still loves us. God loves a hard-hearted, stiff-necked world. We stick our noses where it shouldn’t be, and yet God still pursues. We run from the one who can help, but He doesn’t give up. HE LOVES. He pursues. He persists.

When it comes to God, we don’t have to worry. Because “God so loved the world…

LOVE. Unfortunately, we have worn out this word. I can tell my wife I love her, and then in the next sentence say that I love my breakfast. Deuteronomy 7:7-8 tells us: “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. ⁸ But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” WHY DOES GOD LOVE US? Because He created us, and chose us to be His children.

c. The love we are to have- Going back to 1 John, chapter 4, verse 7,

it says: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” We are told to love. Since I just explained to you God’s love, we should be able to understand the kind of love we are to show one another. We are called to love like God has loved us. As I share my love with my children, I then expect them to love others in this way. I love them because of who they are to me, but I also love them so that they will learn how to love others.

Some people don’t think that much about love: God’s or their own. They don’t think that they struggle to love as God loves. They have trouble understanding the significance and need for Jesus’ death. But let’s think about this for a moment:

Jeremiah 17:9- “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”

Mark 7:21-22, “For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual

immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²²greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” Romans 3:10-11, “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; ¹¹there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.’”

Romans 3:23- “For all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory."

It is disturbing to see how this generation is oddly silent about sin. There is a new philosophy out there that believes in moral relativism. What this says is that everything is relative, and so things are only wrong if I deem them to be wrong. There is no ultimate right and wrong.

This leads to a great problem when it comes to love. If all things are relative, then how I love others is relative also. If I choose to “love” you one day, and not love you another day, that is okay, because it is okay for me. This is not only far from fairy tale love, but even farther away from God’s love and how we have been created to love.

The power of love is that it gives us strength, and hope and purpose. Love is what leads us past our struggles and gives us the reason to believe in a better life and a better world. Love is how we are empowered to excel and thrive in this life.

Conclusion: I’ve gotten away from Disney movies, but not totally. The point I’m trying to make is that Disney movies are full of loving others with a pure and deep kind of love. In these movies we see that love is what empowers the main characters. Without love these main characters would lack strength and motivation. Their purpose for doing what they do comes from love.

I mentioned how others shared their thoughts about their favorite Disney movies. Let me share a couple with you. One person says: “I like Mary Poppins because she is strong & it is about family & love. I also like Cinderella because what she believes in good and pure.” Another person says: “I think Pollyana is my all-time favorite Disney film. Every emotion was portrayed in the film, but LOVE won out. It was clean, funny, sad; a great love story. She won the whole town over and made everyone "glad;" a new thing for their town.” Love won out!

We too need to have the kind of love that gives us strength, and motivation, and purpose. This can only come to us by our first being loved by God, and then taking this love with which we are filled and passing it on to others. Listen to this powerful verse from 1 John 4:12, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” When God lives in us, His love will live in us, and we will love in a way where others see God. Amen.

2011-10-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

"Living for An Audience of One"
3-Week Blog Series
Hebrews 12:1-7a
Sunday, November 6, 2011

Introduction: If you were to stop and think about it, you would realize that much of your life is spent trying to please others. As we grow up we try to please our parents, teachers, and coaches. As we get older we continue with this pattern by trying to please our friends, our boss, our spouse, our children. It is difficult to go through life and not try to please others; and not allow ourselves to be influenced by others.

This morning I want to propose to you that there is a better way to live. The truth is, there is only One whom we should try and please, and One whose influence should impact our lives. GOD. The best way to live our lives is to try and please God. If we are doing this, then overall we should be able to live in a way that others should approve of as well. So let’s take some time to think about how we can avoid living our lives with the goal of pleasing others, but rather trying to please the Lord.

I. Great Cloud of Witnesses- (Hebrews 12:1-7a)

a. Surrounded by witnesses- EX. When I was in college I was a music

education major. My main instrument was the tenor saxophone. As a music major, I had to perform a senior recital. This was part of my requirement for graduating. My saxophone teacher and I chose the three pieces of music I was to perform, and then I began practicing. I worked hours each day on this music. Each week I would come to my lesson and play what I had learned for my teacher. He would listen, make comments, and help me to know what I needed to work on for the next time. All semester long this went on, until I was ready to perform my recital!

The day came for me to perform. I was concerned that I would get nervous and not be able to perform the way I had played it for my teacher. So I took about an hour where I just sat quietly in the presence of God, and let God lay upon me His Spirit of peace. I prayed that I would be able to perform it to the best of my ability. And I am happy to say that I played that music the best I had ever played. It was even recorded, so I have it on tape as a forever reminder.

You see, I was so concerned with the audience and what they would think of my playing. The truth is, my teacher knew what I could do, and I knew what I could do. I shouldn’t worry about what others think. This reminds us that we often live our lives in this way, being concerned with what others think of us. As Hebrews 12:1 starts out: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.”

There are always going to be people all around us. Some of these people are friends and family; some are acquaintances; some are strangers; some might even be enemies. If we allow ourselves to be concerned with what others think, then we are going to live trying to please them. But this is not how God wants us to live.

Hebrews 12:1b-3, “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” We are told to not concern ourselves with others and what they might think, but to set our eyes on Jesus. Others challenged Jesus when He told them that He was to be crucified. Jesus had to throw off that which hindered Him so that He could be faithful to His call. So we too need to not be concerned with what others think so that we will stay strong and continue to live the way God wants us to live.

b. Being disciplined- The truth is though, that we will not always live

in the way that God desires for us. Think with me for a moment what you do as a parent when children behave wrongly. The right course of action is to discipline them. Now discipline takes on many forms, anywhere from a time out, to talking with them, to taking something away from the child, to giving them work to perform, and even grounding them from going out. The design of discipline is to help them see where they are making wrong choices, so that they will make the right choice in the future.

Anytime that we do wrong, whether it is by our own doing, or we allow ourselves to be swayed by the opinion of others, then the Lord disciplines us. As Hebrews 12:5b-7 tells us: “…‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, ⁶ because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.’ ⁷ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?”

This passage reminds me that there are too many people (witnesses) who surround me and influence me. Often times this influence is not helpful. I need to be thankful that God brings discipline into my life. Both the discipline of correction, as well as helping me to be disciplined so that I will stay the course. While I didn’t enjoy being disciplined as a child, I know that the discipline was helpful for me to become the responsible, caring person I am today. In the same way, the discipline of the Lord, and even the threat of discipline, helps me to make better choices; including whom I choose to influence me!

Instead of being focused on what others think and say, I need to stay focused on Jesus. When I am focused on Jesus I can know what God has for me, and I can feel good about the life I live. When I stay focused on Jesus, then I AM LIVING MY LIFE FOR AN AUDIENCE OF ONE. This is really the profound truth that we need to learn. We must live our lives for an audience of ONE.
So, think about this: are you living your life for an audience of one? Do you let God’s voice be the one voice you follow? OR, are you allowing others to lead you astray? You have a choice: you can live following God’s voice, or the voice of others. You can’t do both. Are you only concerned with what God will think of your life, or are you concerned with the opinions of others? And if you listen to others, are these voices leading you to become the person God created you to be?

II. Word or Deed- (Colossians 3:17; James 3:1-2; Philippians 4:9, 12; James 1:17; )

a. Word or deed- If you were to break down your life, it really comes

down to two components: your words (what you say), and your deeds (what you do). That is what your life consists of: words and deeds. Both are important, and both need to be guided by the Lord. We are told by Paul in Colossians 3:17, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

I know that I am challenged all the time with living for God in what I say. My job demands that I talk, and teach, and guide others with my words. James 3:1-2 reminds me of the responsibility I have with my words, as it says: “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If any one does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.” James reminds us that it is not easy to live for the Lord with our words.

Our children aggravate us, and we get angry with them. Maybe a little too angry, and maybe we say something that we shouldn’t. Our spouse frustrates us and we get into an argument. Again, in our frustration we say something that we shouldn’t say. You tell your friend to invest in a stock, but in the end the stock crashes and they lose money. Time and time again we speak words that are not honoring of God. What are we to do?

Colossians 3:17, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus..." Do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. The more we remember this the better we live it out.

But our deeds pose a similar challenge. Again, we are not perfect people, so we struggle to do the right thing throughout the day. The apostle Paul, in Philippians 4:9 said: “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Can you echo these words of Paul? Do you want others to put into practice what they have seen you do? Most of us would probably answer, ‘sometimes yes, sometimes no.’

Illus. There is a story of a boy, whose father leaves the home every night to go to the bar. The boy is curious to know what his father does and so one night he follows his father. He is surprised to see his father getting drunk. The boy continues to follow his father each night. One day the father comes home after work, showers, and gets ready to go out, but before he leaves he goes to his son’s room, only to discover his son drinking out of a bottle of whiskey. The father gets angry at his son, yelling at him about how bad it is to drink alcohol. And then he shouts out the question ‘Where did you learn to do this?’ To which the boy shouts back: “From watching you at the bar every night!”

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus..." If we live according to this verse, then our focus will be on living for God. I believe by doing this, we will be much better able to discover our purpose and be fulfilled in the life we live.

b. Giving thanks to the Lord- Colossians 3:17 continues by telling us

to give thanks to God the Father. We need to live our lives constantly giving thanks to God. In fact, this is one of the most profound aspects of living; living with a thankful heart. What will this do for our lives? Our mindset? Our motivation?

First, it will help us to focus on what we have, not on what we don’t have. It is so easy to lose our focus, because we are constantly reminded of what we don’t have. I live in a condo, not a house. I drive a Toyota, not a Lexus. I don’t have a big screen TV, or a blackberry phone, or a boat. I don’t get to go to a cabin on the weekends, or travel to Hawaii on my vacation….. A thankful heart helps me to understand that I have a wonderful wife, with two great children. I have a job that I love, and friends and family who are there for me. I am thankful for this, and more!

Second, it will allow us to understand that all that we have has been given to us by God. As James 1:17 says, “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” We work so hard trying to get everything that we think we want to provide for ourselves. Or we try and provide for our children and grandchildren things that we ourselves didn’t get. Instead, acknowledge that what you have is a gift from God, perfect for you.

Third, what this will do is help us to be content in life. Paul had a great philosophy when he said in Philippians 4:12, “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.” If you can’t be content with what you have now, then no matter what you add to your life, you still will not be content. Contentment doesn’t come from things, but from being thankful for who you are and what you do have!

Fourth, it will remind us that we are to seek to please God only. It will help us to live for an audience of one.

Conclusion: I believe that the importance of talking about this subject is the fact that we don’t even realize we are living for others. We don’t realize that we are seeking to please others around us. We don’t believe that we allow others to influence our decisions. We have to stop this cycle of caring what others think about us. We have to ONLY be concerned with what God thinks of us.

Galatians 1:10 says, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” As followers of Jesus Christ, we should be concerned with pleasing God. As God’s children, we should live in a way that pleases God. In this way, we will live a life that is more pleasing to others as well. So let us LIVE FOR AN AUDIENCE OF ONE, this day and every day. Amen.

2011-10-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

"Next Steps"
Luke 19:1-10
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Series on Bill Hybels' book: Just Walk Across the Room

Introduction: I have been preaching these last couple of weeks about being open to the opportunities that God has for us to talk about Jesus to others. Just this last week I had a couple of interesting opportunities. Both of these opportunities came from my sending out my newest blog called “A parable re-told.” The first opportunity came through my blog post online. A man named John came across my blog, told me he liked it, and asked if I would go to his website to look over what he was trying to do for the Lord and give him my opinion; my guidance. The second was a high school girl who must have come across my blog via Facebook. She sent me a nice e-mail, let me read it for you: “I am seventeen about to turn eighteen. I stumbled upon your blog while on the internet, and I was wondering if you could help me. I want to be closer to God especially before I go off to college, but I feel like I don't know how to be closer to him. It's like I'm afraid or something. I know I do not know you, but I don't know who to go to at this point. Thank You for your time.”

The exciting thing about being available to God is that you don’t know how or where God is going to use you. It is about being ready to go out and tell others about Jesus and fulfilling the great commandment in Matthew 28 to ‘go and make disciples.’

I. Discern appropriate next steps-

a. The first steps- Highlighting what we’ve talked about the last

couple of weeks is how we need to take the first steps. We have to walk across the room, introduce ourselves, and start to get to know the person. Or we have to be open to conversing with someone we don’t know if they start a conversation. The first step is the hardest, because you have to break the ice and get things going.

The truth is, if you have a willing heart, and trust the Lord, then it will get started, and you will be able to build a relationship. Remember, your initial goal is just to get to know the person, and take the conversation as far as they are willing to go with it. Be sensitive to their needs and comfort zone, and let them tell their story.

b. Initial interactions- Let’s say you are in your child’s classroom

and you hear the teacher tell another parent that she isn’t going to get to go see her family for Christmas. That could be an opportunity for you to have an initial interaction, and maybe invite her to the Christmas Eve service. OR, you’re in a restaurant and you overhear a man talk about the loss of his father. Will you take a risk and create an initial reaction by telling the man you will be praying for him in his loss?

In our day-to-day life, there are countless opportunities where forks in the road like these show up. Situations where we have to declare to ourselves and to God that we will take the next step and seek to impact the life of another. It isn’t about having all the knowledge and charisma, it is simply about being willing to be used by God in everyday ways.

It is not uncommon for you to meet someone, and introduce yourself to them, and then have them share something about their life. For example, a new neighbor moves in, you go and introduce yourself to them, and then they start to share how everything is busy, they are struggling to get connected with the right things (hair stylist, grocery store, dentist, doctor, etc…). You could easily wish them well and be on your way, OR, you could realize that this is an open door for at least a dozen ways that you could become a sphere of influence for them.

It isn’t that hard to suggest a dentist, a doctor, to tell them about the various grocery stores and what you know about them. And in the process you might even mention the church that you go to. It’s not about having a bag of tricks that you can pull out and evangelize them. It is about realizing that God puts opportunities in your life all the time to be there for other people; being a friend, being an encourager, being a listener.

c. Being a resource provider- As I said before, the key is to have a

willing spirit, an open heart, and a mind-set that says, ‘If there is any resource I can provide that will ease their burden and solidify their trust in God, then I will be open to providing it for them.’ If you perceive yourself as a resource provider, then you tend to relax in the fact that it isn’t up to you to do all the work. You realize that the person is walking on a journey, and you have an opportunity to give them some things that help them in this journey.

What kinds of resources might you pass on to them? A Christian music CD that has positive lyrics. A good book that you read that helped you in your faith journey. If you don’t know of any books, you can ask me. I regularly preach on books that I think will benefit you in your faith journey, just like how we are now doing a series on Bill Hybels book “Just Walk Across the Room.” You might tell them about my Daily Bible Reading, which might be a simple way to get God’s word into their lives on a daily basis.

And if your offer goes unaccepted, don’t take offense at it. What it does for you it helps them to see that you are willing to help them in their journey. There may come a time when they do need something, and they think of you because they know you are willing to help them. Or they come to you for some advice because they feel like you care and are a trustworthy friend.

Because you are ready for this, you can now spring into action. You can reap the fruit of being a faithful, patient, and caring friend. At this point you get to serve as a conduit to point them to what will benefit them the most. Again, don’t think that you have to have counselor training and theological background. Because they now trust you, you can help lead them to the right person, book, or organization that can help them in their time of need.

d. Just show up- Think about Jesus for a moment, even though He

was God in the flesh, and possessed all power and knowledge, what made His ministry with the disciples so powerful was the fact that He was ‘with’ them. Jesus invited the disciples into His world, but He also got into theirs. I believe that as powerful as seeing Jesus do miracles, it was just as powerful to just ‘be’ with Jesus and have Him be with them in the mundane of life.

We can easily mirror this concept. It is not difficult for us to ‘be’ with people in the mundane of life. This is really how God wants His believers to interact with each other; to do life together. You have to be with people if you want to be a resource provider for them, because they won’t think to come to you otherwise. Once they know that you’re in it with them for the long haul, then they will allow themselves to listen to your suggestions of resources that could benefit them.

Now you might be thinking to yourself: ‘I just don’t seem to have opportunities in my life like you’ve been describing.’ If you think this is true, let me challenge you for a moment. Over the next week, focus on the group of people whom you already have a relationship with; your friends, and family, and neighbors that are already a part of your life. I bet that if you think hard enough, you can come up with several people in your world that would like a deeper life of community.

There are so many people who want more community in their life, but don’t know how to get it or where to go to get it. As you walk with these people, and open yourself up to listening to what they are saying, you will find that you will have opportunity to bring community life to them.

STORY: There is a story of a man named Dave who wanted to see community experiences happen in his circle of friends. He got a creative idea, and challenged one of his neighbors with this challenge: “I bet I can put together a better kickball team than you.” His neighbor took him up on this challenge. Not long after this challenge they had a picnic and then a kickball game. Dave says that over the next year they met every other Sunday night to play kickball. They made up their own rules to keep it fun. From there some of them started to get together for New Year’s Eve, the Super Bowl, and even took spring break trips together. In time, Dave invited them to church, and many of them went!!

Dave did a great job of being creative in thinking of how he could ‘just show up’ for the people around him.

II. Your own before and after- (John 9:1-41; Luke 19:1-10)

a. The power of a good story- If I were to say the phrase, ‘Once upon

a time,’ you would immediately think of a fairy tale story, because that’s how it often starts out. Once upon a time there was a princess who was locked in a tower by her wicked step-mother…The story goes along, and a prince comes to find the princess in the tower. He frees her, they fall in love, and they get married. And then the story ends…and they lived HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

Why is it that we like fairy tales? Because we are dreamers, and we like to dream of better days. Because we know our own lives are so far from being a fairy tale story. Because we want to believe that better days are to be had. This world does not bring to us a fairy tale story.

We all have a story to tell. And the great news is that our story fits into God’s greater story—which is the greatest story ever told. When people grasp the magnificence of this truth, the truth of the gospel, and the implications it has for the meaning of their story, hope is found!

We begin to think that I can be found like the lost son…I can be cared for by a Good Shepherd…My deepest needs, like the widows, can be met…I can receive abundant life just by exhibiting the smallest amount of faith.

MY STORY: Once upon a time, a boy named Chris was born. This was a wonderful birth, because only months before his mother had miscarried. If not for the miscarriage, Chris would never have been born. Chris was born to two parents who loved him greatly. They were very attentive to him and very supportive of what he did. His father coached his baseball teams, and his mom was the scorekeeper. They provided for his needs, and helped him with his schoolwork. They taught him how to be responsible and how to work hard. They took him to church for a while, but then the whole family stopped going.

One day Chris came across some Bible passages and read them with great interest. Then he came across a question: Do you want to give your life to Jesus? Yes, he said to himself. He knelt down on the floor right in his room and asked Jesus to be his Savior and Lord!

So far it sounds good. Good family. Good parents. Good home life. Attentive and helpful parents. An establishing of a Christian faith. A fairy tale story, right?

b. Good stories gone bad- The story continues…Satan was not happy

that Chris had accepted Christ, and so he brought some bad influences into Chris’ life. Chris followed these bad influences that led him away from following Christ, and going to church. Chris began to make bad choices that got him into trouble and kept him from doing the good and right things God would have for him. One day Chris got fired from his job, which was causing him to have to work on Thursdays and Sundays (church days). Soon after Chris got a call from a friend inviting him to church. Chris said ‘yes’ and at church the Lord convicted Chris of his wrongdoing and his sin, and he renewed his commitment to the Lord…

I have heard the stories of many people. As a minister I have many opportunities to talk to people about their story; about their faith journey. All too often the truth is that people will have a good story to start with, but then it turns bad. How often people have told me about their making bad choices and getting involved in drugs, or alcohol, or theft, or gambling. Their life, which was relatively good, takes a turn for the worst.

The good news is that because Christ is still a part of their life, although He has been pushed aside, He is still there to work a miracle. By the power of God’s Spirit the person is convicted of their sin, and they find their way back to the Lord and to church.

The problem is, that many times when people try and tell their stories to others, they get caught up in the non-essentials. When telling their stories, people often focus on themselves more than they focus on Christ. People tend to talk all too much about what they did, and forget to talk about what Christ has done for them. We should use our stories ONLY as a stepping-stone to be able to talk about what Christ has done to save us, and how what Christ has done is available to all!

When telling your story avoid some these things: #1, being long winded. Don’t talk too long about your story. Make it no longer than 3 minutes. #2, avoid fuzziness. Make sure you stick to the high points of where you went astray, how Christ found you, and how you gave yourself over to Christ. #3, religionese. What I mean by this is to use too many churchy words like ‘salvation,’ ‘born again,’ or ‘accepting Jesus.’ #4, superiority. Do not act like you are superior to them because you are a Christ-follower, and they are not.

c. A familiar pattern- So let me finish with a couple biblical stories

that show us this before-and-after pattern. The promise of the gospel’s transforming power is that when you come to Christ, your old self is evicted and a new self arrives. When you tell your story the critical point is how you made this transition because of Christ.

In the gospel of John, chapter 9, Jesus is seen traveling along. Jesus is approached by a man who is said to have been born blind. Wanting to display God’s power, Jesus decides to heal the man. So he bends over, spits on the dirt to make some mud, puts the mud on the blind man’s eyes and says: “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.” Miraculously, the man went and washed, and he came home seeing.

Imagine how amazed this man’s friends and family members were. Even his neighbors would be amazed that he could now see. The man they knew to be blind was blind no more. When they asked him how it happened, he said: “I was blind, and now I can see, and it was Jesus who did it.”

Consider also the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. The Bible tells us that Zacchaeus was a wealthy tax collector living for money. But Zacchaeus meets Jesus one day, has a meal with him, and his life is forever changed! In fact, Zacchaeus tells Jesus that he is going to pay back every dollar he stole. If you were to ask Zacchaeus to tell you what happened, he might say something like this: “I’ll tell you what happened—it was unbelievable! I fell into a pattern where my whole life was wrapped up in money. The grip of greed was so strong that I couldn’t break free of it. It distorted my every relationship. And you know what? Jesus set me free from the tyranny of greed. He taught me how to really care, especially for the poor. Jesus got me pointed in the right direction”

Conclusion: Think about your own journey. What is the single key concept reflected in your life that others could connect to? As you think about your before-and-after story, try and script a concise description of how you were before Christ, what Christ did for you to change you, and how you are now that Christ has become your Savior and Lord.

For example, a few years ago I did a sermon series on the book Halftime, by Bob Buford. In a nutshell, when telling his story, Buford will say: “I was nothing more than a bored rich guy. And then I met Christ. He has moved me from mere success to significance. In my relationship with Christ, I am finally discovering a purpose for my life.”

Don’t underestimate the power of your story. Your story is powerful because it is real, and it is true. Your story is powerful because it is about who Christ is and what Christ has done for you. If you focus on that, then you will affect people’s lives with your story.

SO, as we conclude our three-week series on “Just Walk Across the Room,” let us remember that God wants us to be open to building relationships with people, and He wants us to be resources to people, and He wants us to be able to share our story with people. In this way, God will use our lives to make a difference in the lives of others for the glory of God. Amen.

2011-10-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

"Friendships and Stories"
Mark 1:14-20
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Series on Bill Hybels' book: Just Walk Across the Room

Introduction: A few weeks ago we had our first church retreat since I have been here. Now I have been on many retreats myself, and have been blessed by them, and so I wanted us as a church to have a retreat experience to receive the kind of blessings God brings to churches when they take time to be together in Him. I was so pleased by this retreat, because it was an opportunity to reflect on who we are as a church, and where God wants to lead us. It has been said that ‘you shouldn’t try to do a lot of things, but rather a few things well.’ This retreat was an opportunity to reflect on what God wants us to do well.

Out of that retreat we came up with 4 goals, which I have mentioned a number of times since the retreat, but let me voice them again: 1) The importance of getting people involved in the life of the church (serving as a greeter, or a worship assistant, or helping with Binky’s, or being a Deacon or Elder…). 2) Developing deeper relationships with people. People want to have deeper relationships in their life, and the church is a great place for this to happen. 3) Intergenerational ministry. The church is one of the only places where kids, youth, and adults interact with each other. 4) Deepening our spiritual growth.

As we continue to talk about reaching out to people for the Lord, we need to understand that ALL people desire these 4 things in their life. We can reach out to people and help them experience this in Christ!

I. Developing Friendships- (Acts 1:8; Luke 8:4-15)

a. Being able to see it– The truth is, that we all know people who

either haven’t accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, or who aren’t walking with God in their lives. The other truth is, most people are not taking the time to talk to these people about Jesus: either because they don’t feel like they have the adequate knowledge to do it, or they don’t think that the people want to have a discussion on this subject. It’s not that people disagree with the need for people to be pointed toward God. They just struggle with how to get it done.

Over the years there have been so many ‘evangelism’ fads and programs that have emerged. We ourselves have done many of them: the Alpha program and 40 Days of Purpose, are a couple that we have done. A program really is only beneficial when you live out your faith, and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. And really, if you have those two things, you don’t need any program.

Effective evangelism, or to say it in laymen’s terms, effective reaching out for the Lord will only really be sustained and beneficial if a church and its people are in tune to the promptings of the Holy Spirit! Jesus Himself made this promise in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” When the Holy Spirit comes on us, He gives us a mission, and that mission is to be witnesses. Talking to people about Jesus isn’t about knowledge, or having a practiced delivery, or being able to answer all their questions. It is about living your life in the power of Christ, and then letting God do the saving work.

Being aware of the promptings of the Holy Spirit means that we are ever aware of what is going on around us. As I said last week, you will be at work, or at a party, or on an airplane, and the Holy Spirit will say to you, ‘Go and talk with that person.’ OR You will be in the midst of a conversation, and the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to the struggles or pain that person is going through. And then God will give you wisdom to converse with them about their pain, and help them see that they don’t have to be alone in their struggle, but God can be there with them!

What we have to understand is that when we talk to people, all we need to do is to explain who Jesus is (He is God in the flesh and the savior of the world), and explain that Jesus wants us to be in a relationship with Him. Jesus wants us to follow the path God created for them. Jesus wants to give them forgiveness from their sins, freedom from future sin, and an understanding of what life is about.

You are not required to force a decision on their part. But I think God does want us to be motivated in talking to people about Christ. God does want us to care enough to share the good news with others. God does want us to be witnesses and share what we do know and what we have experienced.

b. Sowing seeds- Do you remember the parable of the seeds that

Jesus told? The story was told with the intention of explaining the ways the good news of the Kingdom will be received. Let me highlight it for you: one day a farmer goes out to scatter seed along the ground. Some of the seed fell on the road, and the birds ate it. Some of the seed fell on the gravel; it sprouted quickly but couldn’t put down deep roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. And some fell onto wild grass, but as it came up, it was smothered by the weeds that grew with it.

But the story didn’t end there. Jesus tells us that some of the seed fell on good ground and produced a harvest beyond the farmer’s wildest dreams. We have to understand that some of the seed that we sow will fall on deaf ears and hard hearts. But some of the seed will find its way to hearts and minds that are ready to hear!!

Have you ever wondered why Jesus told this story? I believe it was meant to give His followers encouragement. I believe that Jesus wanted us to understand that not everyone we talk to about Jesus will receive our words with enthusiasm. In fact, many will reject what we tell them. There will be a few, however, that will receive Jesus. But we won’t know who will receive these words and who won’t until after we share. And if even one person receives Jesus, then our efforts will be worth it!

Even Jesus Himself was rejected. We read in Mark 1 about how Jesus went out and called to people: ‘Follow Me.’ There were some who followed, and continued following. There were some who followed for a time, but then walked away. And there were some who didn’t follow at all. In fact, they were part of the group who shouted ‘crucify Him, crucify Him’ at his trial.

This was true of the disciples’ as well. They were following Jesus. They were sent by Jesus into a town to talk to people about Jesus. Many closed their doors on them. It wasn’t all rosy and perfect. Jesus wanted the disciples (and us) to understand that not everyone will receive the message they share. Jesus was telling them with this story to not give up, but to be ‘seed sowing fools.’ At times it might seem foolish to share Jesus with others, but that is only if we focus on those who think the things of this world are better than having a relationship with God. They actually are the foolish ones.

In reality, our sowing seeds should come out of developing relationships with people. We then sow the seeds of Jesus in the normal course of the relationship. We do it because it is part of the conversation; part of the relationship we have established with them.

In having said this, think for a moment about this question: “On a scale of 1-10, what is your desire to see others give their life to Jesus?” If it’s a 9 or a 10 then you are in the right place. If it is much lower than that then you might need to ask God to give you that compelling desire to talk about Jesus.

II. Discovering Stories-

a. All people have stories- One of the ministries that we do that I

really love is our work with the WomenShelter of Long Beach. I got connected a number of years ago when I was calling around to find opportunities in which our church could help serve. For a while there, one Monday night a month, we were going out to different places to help. We went to His Nesting Place, and the Rescue Mission. I was surprised though that a number of places I tried to contact never took me up on my request to help. But a person from the Women’s Shelter did call me back. In fact she drove out to the church to tell me about different opportunities. Since then we have hosted a number of events for them.

Just this last August we threw a beach party for some of the moms and children in the Women’s Shelter program. At the beach party I met a woman named Veronica. Veronica has 4 kids, and of course is a single mom because of her getting out of an abusive marriage. As I was going around and saying hi to the different families I came to Veronica and her family. I talked with her for a little bit and then the Holy Spirit put it on my heart to ask: “How are you doing?”

That question was all it took to get her to open up and share a little bit of what was going on in her life. I didn’t have a lot of time to focus just on her, so I listened as much as I could, and then asked her if she had an e-mail address and if she wanted to receive my Daily Bible Reading. She said “yes” to both. Since then I have had a number of e-mail exchanges with her, a couple of phone calls, and she even came in for counseling one time.

All it took was a well-timed question (prompted by the Holy Spirit), a caring heart, and a willing ear to get this conversation going. Veronica opened up the door for me to bring Jesus into the conversation. God helped me to see where I could help lead her to the Lord more fully.

There are so many people like Veronica, who need someone to listen to their story. There are so many people who need to know that God cares. There are so many people/ who need someone to point them to Jesus/ and tell them, or remind them that they are not alone in their struggle. If we allow ourselves to hear people’s stories, then we will find an abundance of opportunity to ‘walk across the room’ and make a difference in their life!

b. Proximity points- Let me tell you about a concept called ‘The

Potential of Close Proximity.’ This comes from the book Becoming a Contagious Christian, by Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg. The point of the potential of close proximity is that, even the most mature Christians will be totally ineffective in evangelism if they do not get near people who are living far from God.

If you want to share Jesus with people (and I hope that after last week’s sermon you do all the more), then you need to be near people who are living far away from God. It’s a pretty simple concept. The problem is that the longer someone is a Christian, the fewer non-Christian relationships they tend to have. You can’t save the already saved. You need to find those who aren’t saved.

Likewise, there are some who are saved, but who have either fallen away from God, or are struggling in their faith. Leah, the lady I talked about last week who I met on the plane, and Veronica, are two examples of people who were struggling in their faith. It is important for us to reach out and care for people in this category as well.

But I need to build relationships with non-believers if I hope to reach people for Jesus. This concept of proximity point is just as important for me as it is for you, because as a pastor I don’t always have the opportunity to build relationships with non-believers.

If you are in the work place, or in the PTA or groups like this, then you are around people who need Jesus. You have close proximity to people who inevitably are lost in their lives. As you talk with people, you will discover that they have many struggles, hurts, and frustrations about their life that they just don’t know what to do with.

So it is about developing relationships with the people right around you. As you build this relationship with them, take the time to learn about their story. Some people learn about others quite quickly. I can spend ten minutes with a person, and often times learn about their joys and hurts. But others will take some time to develop the trust it takes for people to open up and share their stories. There shouldn’t been a timetable to the relationship, because then people just feel used. It isn’t about having “success,” it is about truly believing that their life will be better off when they have Jesus in their life.

I was talking with a friend the other day, and she was telling me about her son and his wife (and they have a young boy as well). Their marriage has been struggling for a while now. They hadn’t gone to church in some time. There was a situation that arose during one of their fights that led them to realize they needed help. My friend encouraged them to go back to church. They have, and now they are growing closer to God and to each other!!

c. Take the risk- As Christ’s followers we are accountable to be

regularly moving in circles with people who are far from God. We are called to uncover their stories with compassion and grace, and then to naturally, over time, make ourselves available to them as God gives us opportunity. We are called to care about those who are lost and wayward. We need to offer the hope that God can give to people who need this hope. Just as you came to Christ once, you have the opportunity to give someone else this experience.

I know that I’ve talked with people who were very negative toward God. Often times they are negative because they have had a bad experience with the church. Maybe they have felt judged or told that they would go to hell for the way they lived their life. They have only heard words like ‘judgment’ and ‘hell.’ Maybe we should offer them new words: grace and power. Maybe we can help them understand that God is a God of grace and power, and wants to bring His grace and power into their lives!

It actually is quite exciting to live your life with the goal to share Jesus with others. You will find that when you are seeking to be available for God in this way, when you are willing to take this risk, you will depend on God so much more. You will be praying more, and asking for God’s Spirit to guide you more! You will always be wondering when God will next use you in someone’s life.

If you have ever had an experience where you led someone to Christ, then you know what I am talking about. There isn’t anything more exciting, for you, or for that person, when they say “yes” to Jesus.

Conclusion: Think with me for a moment about your friends. Are your friends all Christians? Are the people you associate with committed in their relationship with God? Do they go to church and serve the Lord? It is important to take this inventory and understand how God can start using you even in the relationships you already have.

Now let’s expand a little more…Maybe you can get to know your neighbors, the person who cuts your hair, the people in your bowling group or PTA. Who are the people you can start building new relationships with?

It is about being able to start a flame in the life of someone who is in darkness. It is about reminding people that they have been created in the image of God, and have been created to be in a relationship with that God. It is about giving people hope, and strength, and meaning to their life. LET’S MAKE A COMMITMENT TO MAKE OUR FRIENDSHIPS MEANINGFUL, AND ALLOW OUR FRIENDSHIPS TO HAVE ETERNAL IMPLICATIONS. Let us live for Jesus in this way. Amen.

2011-10-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

"The Ultimate Walk"

John 8:1-11

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Series on Bill Hybels Book: “Just Walk Across the Room”

Introduction: It is said that we walk about 10,000 steps each day. That is a lot of steps. Even though we aren’t aware of it, we walk a great deal each day. (Hold up pedometer). This is a pedometer. If you wear it, it will count how many steps you actually take. These have become quite popular because people want to track the exercise they get through walking.

Since we walk a lot each day, a good question for us is: Are you using your steps wisely? Your steps have purpose. You walk to your car, or from your car to you home. You walk up the stairs to get something you forgot. You walk all around a store looking for things you need to buy. Your steps have purpose. They are meant to get you where you need or want to go!

Over the next three weeks we are going to talk about how our steps can have even more purpose. We are going to talk about how we can ‘walk with the Spirit,’ and by doing this change the lives of others.

I. Entering the Zone- (Romans 5:8; John 8:1-11)

a. Leaving our comfort zone- I believe that God wants us to make

our steps all the more purposeful. I believe that God wants us, at times, to walk over to someone who is in need and reach out to them, and share the love of Christ with them. I believe that God wants us to invest some of our energy into understanding that if we only make ourselves aware, we can see others who are in need, and whose lives we can impact!

To do this, however, we must leave our comfort zone, especially if the person involved is someone we don’t know. We have to walk over to someone we don’t know, introduce ourselves, and then let God lead us in the conversation.

This is where the Holy Spirit comes in. The Holy Spirit will place on our hearts the compassion for others, and will whisper into our minds: “Why don’t you go over and extend a hand of friendship to that person. Why don’t you go offer that person some encouragement.”

Example: I had a situation like this happen back in May of this year. I was flying from LA to San Antonio to go to a conference. I had already sat down in my seat by the window. There was another person in the aisle seat, when this woman stopped and asked me if the middle seat was taken. I said ‘no’ and she sat down.

Now I had brought my sermon, and a book, and so I had plenty to do over the next 3 hours, but the Holy Spirit prompted me to reach out to her. So I started to talk with her about very general things. But somehow the Holy Spirit turned the conversation into a spiritual discussion. Over the next 3 hours we talked much about some of what she was struggling with spiritually in her life. She had come out of a Catholic background, and was living her life through guilt. Also, as a mom, she was concerned about everyone else except herself, and was feeling a little over-whelmed by life. By the end of our time together, she had expressed an interest in receiving my Daily Bible Readings, and I was able to pray for her. Since, then, I have had many e-mails from her about how the conversation and the Daily Bible Readings have impacted her life, and helped her to live more the life God has for her!!

You too can be used by God in this way. You too can ‘evangelize’ someone else by walking across the room or opening yourself up to a conversation. You too can share the good news of God’s freeing love with others.

b. The Son of God left His comfort zone- In a sense, God has done

the same for us. Stay with me here, as we imagine that God’s coming to this earth (the incarnation of Christ, as we’ve talked about the last 3 weeks), is really God walking to us because of our great need. God left the comfort zone of heaven to come to this earth.

Romans 5:8 talks about this: “For God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” It was when we were in the helplessness of our sin that God chose to do something for us. It took initiative from God to make this happen. In walking up to us He offered us acceptance, and love, and forgiveness!

STORY: The story in John 8:1-11 displays this beautifully. It is a well known story, but let me highlight it for you. A woman is caught in the act of adultery. She is brought to Jesus by her accusers. The Pharisees argue that adultery is a serious offense. Jesus is put in a bind, because if He lets the woman off the hook, he’ll be denying the validity of the law. But if He allows her to be stoned, He might be accused of being unmerciful. Jesus knowing that they were going to stone her no matter what He said, responded to them with great compassion and wisdom in verse 7, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” You know the story, one by one their rocks dropped to the ground. Jesus helps her realize that there is no one left but Him to condemn her, and then He says in verse 11: “…‘Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.’”

Jesus was offering her the love and freedom of God. And that is what Jesus wants us to do: to love people, and to serve people, and point people toward a saving faith in Jesus so that their broken lives can be healed!

II. Tuning Into Heaven-

a. Zone of the unknown- There is a story of a man who was learning

how to fly a plane. The man and his teacher would get to cruising altitude, and then for a while switch to autopilot. They would then talk about flight patterns, weather conditions, and altitude assessments. These would be prompted by air traffic controllers on the ground who would feed them updates. One time he asked his teacher if he would ever make a flight without listening to the air traffic controllers. His teacher referred to this as the ‘zone of the unknown,’ and the teacher immediately said: “Id be crazy to do this. I need all the information I can get my hands on, especially if the weather is not good!”

Wouldn’t this be a good discussion starter? To ask people if they would ever drive or fly into bad weather without the proper information to guide them. And then help people to see that so many venture forward in their lives, into areas unknown, with zero input from God! They get no guidance, no wisdom, and no counsel. Because of this is it any wonder that people end up crashing and burning?

You might just find that people will want to know how to get that information from God as a pilot would get information from the air traffic control tower. What a wonderful opportunity that could open up for you in having this discussion with someone who is lost in life or struggling with important issues.

b. The God you know- What this really is about is believing in the

saving message of Jesus Christ. I don’t mean just for yourself. I mean believe it in a way that leads you to know that every person on this earth would have a much better life if God’s love, God’s grace, and God’s redemption were a part of their lives.

Do you believe this? Do you believe people’s lives would be better off if they would just give themselves over to Christ? OR, are you like the man who once told his minister: “I never share my faith with anyone because I would never want to inflict the burden of God on anyone.” Do you believe Christ makes your life better, or puts a burden on your life to have to live a different standard?

The God I know has invaded my life with love, acceptance, grace, second chances, forgiveness, wisdom, power, and on and on the list could go. I know that my life is far better off because I have Jesus in my life, than what my life would be like had I never accepted Him as my Lord and Savior.

When you talk about God, do you know Him as someone full of grace, mercy, and compassion? Is the God you know mysterious, surprising, and captivating? Is He forever unchanging and yet always brand new? Does He inspire you with His big ideas about how your life can really count? Is He always faithful?

If God is these things and more to you, then you will be compelled to ‘walk across the room’ to share this God with others! If you believe that God is worth knowing, then you will want everyone you know to know Him too. If you are in love with God, then you will want others to be in love with God.

Rewind for a moment in your faith journey. Think about those days before you were a Christian, or if you can’t remember a day like that, then remember the days before you were really living for God. Remember that time when you would wake up and there would be no words from heaven and nothing supernatural invading your world. The day when you didn’t have the grace of God covering your sin. As I speak of this, hopefully you are feeling relieved to know God now, and will begin to desire for others to know this God!

III. The Greatest Gift-

a. Questions that arise- Now this doesn’t mean that we won’t

struggle in our faith from time to time. This doesn’t mean that we won’t have questions that arise. It is not uncommon for our life to not go the way we want it to, or feel we have unanswered prayer, and then question God’s existence or goodness.

But think about this: all people give their lives over to something. It could be pleasures; possessions; trying to be successful; the acquisition of power. People give their lives over to something, and that something becomes their god.

You need to ask yourself: What am I giving my life to? What is the one great something I am living my life for? Am I just interested in myself, or in the lives of others as well?

So often people want that perfect life. They want to have the great marriage with 1 ½ kids, a good home, a successful job, and lots of friends. If their life doesn’t end up looking like this they begin to place blame, usually on God first. They begin to question God why their life isn’t the all-American dream!

The real dream of a wonderful life actually comes when we give ourselves over to God, and let God lead our life. The dream begins to be fulfilled when we stop focusing on ourselves and start caring about others. As someone once said: “True followers of Christ who really get it right give themselves to people for the sake of Jesus. More importantly, they give themselves to pointing people to faith in Christ. That is the highest and best use of a human life—to have it serve as a signpost that points people toward God.”

If we are to really believe in the redeeming and transforming power of God’s presence in a person’s life, then the single greatest gift we can give to someone is an explanation of how to be rightly connected with God.

b. Following the example of Jesus- We have to think of Jesus saying

to us: “What I did as I walked across the cosmos all those years ago, I now want you to do.” Isn’t that why Jesus left us the great commandment? “Go and make disciples of all nations…” We need to live as if we actually believe in who Jesus is and what Jesus did. We need to live as if Jesus’ life, and death, and resurrection are really life transforming. We need to take this to others.

When you choose to live by faith and not by sight, then you begin to realize that living this life is more than just about yourself. You are not the only one who exists in this world. We live in a world with many people, who have been created to co-exist with each other and to be in relationship with each other. We will find that this will happen better if we are all followers of Christ. That is really what Christ died for, to bring all people into a saving relationship with Him!

I already said this, but let me say it again, the greatest gift you can give someone is an introduction to the God who sent His Son to redeem them. When you allow your purpose to be ‘other people,’ you will find that when Christ asks you to walk across the street, or up a flight a stairs, or across the room, you will be ready to do it. Too many people are not willing and ready to leave their circle of comfort and follow Christ’s lead.

Christ wants to say today to all of His followers all over the planet: “Reflect my love, and repeat my action.”

IV. Take the Walk- (1 Corinthians 3:6)

a. Being prompted- Story: Bill Hybels tells of a time when his son

was in soccer, and he was prompted to go and help his son’s soccer coach, Brian, pick up cones after the game. As they were talking Brian shared that he knew that Hybels was the pastor of a large church called Willow Creek, and told Hybels he was not interested in talking about religion. Hybels left the subject alone. Each week, after the game, he would help pick up cones and just chat with Brian. At the end of the year Hybels son was no longer on the team, and so he didn’t get to see Brian anymore. One day Hybels got a call from Brian. It seems that his job and family situation had become difficult and he wanted to talk with Hybels. They met several times after that, but nothing changed about Brian wanting the Lord in his life. Months later Brian showed up to a baptism meeting greatly surprising Hybels. It seems Brian had slipped in to one of the services, heard the message about Jesus, and accepted Christ as His Savior and Lord, and now he wanted to be baptized!

Brian is now at Willow Creek, serving the Lord there, and he and his wife are teaching other couples how to experience the joy of a Christ-centered marriage.

b. Walk with me- Some of you are sitting there overwhelmed by this

message. You just want to live your life in a simple way each day. You don’t want to have to have the pressure of talking to others for Jesus. That is a frightening concept for you. So let me encourage you in a few ways.

First, don’t go away today thinking that you have to search out opportu-nities. Believe me, God will provide the opportunities in natural ways. God will prompt your heart and your mind to go and talk with someone. Just let the conversation progress naturally. At some point, if they talk about God, or religion, then use that as an opening. Second, you don’t have to save anyone. God is the one in the business of saving. All you have to do is build relationships with people and talk with people! Third, you might be like me, where your gift is more in helping people grow stronger in their faith than leading people to faith. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” I tend to be the one who waters more than plants. That seems to be how God uses me, and maybe how He might use you as well. Fourth, the most important aspect of this all is to have a willing heart; a willing heart that comes from the desire to want to see everyone know Jesus and have their lives changed by Jesus. Fifth, often times this whole transformation for a person comes gradually. As you develop a relationship with people, they will just walk with you and see how Jesus affects your life. By watching you they will see the change and want what you have.

Conclusion: Bill Hybels talks about a day where he and his son were walking to his office. At this time his son was all grown up. They turned the corner and ran right into a muscular man. They took a step back from each other, and then Hybels and his son realized it was Brian. Hybels’ son Todd hadn’t seen Brian in fifteen years, but as Christ-followers they immediately shared God’s love with each other with a big bear hug. As Brian was walking down the stairs he yelled up: “Bill, I just want to thank you for all those times you walked across the soccer field and opened yourself up.” And with that he left.

There are many times we walk over to talk with people not knowing how it will impact their lives. I had no idea that my talking with Leah on the plane would allow me to impact her life. The key is to be faithful to God when He leads us. So, take a walk this week, and see what God might do. Amen.

2011-10-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

"God's Greatest Miracle"
(based on the devotions of Selwyn Hughes: 'Every Day Light')
Hebrews 10:1-10); Sunday October 9, 2011

Introduction: Today’s sermon title is ‘God’s Greatest Miracle.’ If I were to ask you what you thought was God’s greatest miracle, what would you say? You might say things like creation, God’s making people, or one of Jesus’ miracles (say bringing Lazarus back from the dead). I believe at one of my Easter sermons I said it was the resurrection. While all of these are amazing in their own right, I believe that God’s greatest miracle was His taking on flesh and dwelling among us; the Incarnation of Christ.

Today we finish our three-week series on the Incarnation of Christ. I want to talk about this miracle, because without it, we wouldn’t have had any of Jesus’ miracles, nor the resurrection of Christ. As we conclude this series, I want to propose that without this miracle of God taking on flesh, we would not be able to have any hope in our lives.

I. The Shadow, not the Image- (Hebrews 10:1-10)

a. The law is a shadow- Last week we spent some time talking about

how philosophy and moralism cannot lead us to God. Philosophy tries to teach us alternate truths, while moralism just leads us to feel guilt because we cannot live up to the law. The law is really just a shadow of the true image. Let me explain.

In our passage we just read, Hebrews 10:1-10, it starts off in verse 1 saying: “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves.” The law is not the true image of who God is, but just a shadow, helping to point us to God. If we try and make the law the focal point, then in essence the law becomes God and we will be lost in futility.

Up to that point, for centuries they had been making animal sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people. But in this chapter, the author of the book of Hebrews writes in a way that tells the people that animal sacrifices are to be no more. Speaking the words of Christ Himself in verse 5: “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.’” In other words, Christ was saying that the body He took on was for the purpose of sacrifice, once and for all, so that animal sacrifices could be finished.

Jesus then goes on to say in verse 7: “… ‘I have come to do your will, my God.’” When the Son of God placed Himself into a human body, the greatest miracle of all ages took place. This was the substance of all that was real and true. This was the substance of all that would give humanity hope and promise.

The whole point of creation was so that people could be in a relationship with God. Because of the sin of Adam and Eve, sin was now a deterrent for this relationship to happen. Animal sacrifices weren’t sufficient to bring us into a full relationship with God. The law couldn’t bring us into a full relationship with God. They were just shadows of what needed to happen.

b. The Incarnation supersedes the law- The real substance was the

Incarnation. This was ‘the good thing’ that was to come. The Incarnation of Christ superseded all previous manifestations of God, and now becomes the greatest miracle of God, because it is the fullest revelation of God we have received. Up to this point we have the law (the 10 Commandments), we have the prophets speaking God word, we have the Scriptures (the word of God), but in Christ we have the exact representation of God present among us!

No one would have ever thought that the God of the universe would take on a body and become a man in order to redeem mankind. In doing this God showed His great love for us. We truly need to try and wrap our minds around this concept of what God really did in taking on human flesh. It would maybe be like us taking on the body of an ant to save some ants. It would be quite humbling going from a human being and becoming an ant!

A love like that does not exist in the categories of philosophy, moralism, or even in other religions (as we have talked about the past two weeks). The incarnation supersedes the law, because the law just reminds us of how we cannot live up to the standards of God. The law tells us that we are nowhere near the holiness of God. The law puts a barrier between us and God that we cannot break down ourselves.

That is why the law is a shadow. But the Incarnation is the image, in that we have before us the image of God; we have before us the image of God’s love; we have before us the image of salvation; we have before us the image of redemption. As we are told in Hebrews 10:10, “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

II. Firstborn from the Dead- (Colossians 1:1-20)

a. Obtaining salvation- I’m not fully sure why, but for so many

people they have trouble with the idea of a free gift from God. People think that they have to attain their salvation, meaning that they have to earn it. This is true of all other religions as well. It doesn’t come through faith in a savior, but through good works. Non-Christian religions teach that salvation is the work of mankind. The Christian faith teaches that salvation is the gift of God.

Therefore, in Christianity it is obtained, not attained. It goes along with the question: “Does mankind strive to reach up to God or does God come down to redeem mankind through the incarnate Jesus?” There are a good amount of Christians who believe that they are saved through faith in Christ, but then after they are saved, feel like they have to deserve this salvation by their deeds. So their deeds are to try and attain all the more their salvation, instead of being a response to the fact that they have been saved in Christ.

But by the very nature of things, we can’t be saved by faith and by works. Likewise, we can’t be saved by faith and keep our salvation through our works. This is because we are then transferring the means of salvation onto us, who are incapable of saving ourselves. Salvation is initiated by God, and brought to fruition by God. The whole of the New Testament revolves around the Person and work of Jesus Christ. In some form or another, Jesus is on most every page. Without Christ there would be no New Testament!!

In Colossians chapter 1, the apostle Paul writes to the Colossians commending them on their faith, not their works. He does remark about how they are bearing fruit with their works, but in the sense that it is coming out of their faith. He then tells them that he is praying for them so that their faith would be lived out in a way that is worthy of the Lord. This living out of their faith is not for the purpose of salvation, but for the purpose of living for the Lord.

b. Christ is the meeting point- We have to make Jesus the meeting

point, the focal point of all things. Colossians chapter one is a great chapter to help us understand this. Paul talks about how Jesus is the image of the invisible God. In Christ, God is made visible. Then he continues in verse 16 saying: “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”

There is so much in this passage, but let me pull out a few things that really fit with the Incarnation. First, all things are held together through Christ. Christ is the meeting point of the human and the divine. That is the beauty of the Incarnation, in that God came to us, dwelt among us, but was also one of us! It is only Christ, God become flesh, who can hold the position of uniting God and humanity.

Second, He is the head of the church. Without Christ the church would have no future. Because of who Christ is, and what Christ has done, the church now has a purpose: to bring people into the Kingdom of God by being saved through Christ. While one purpose of the church is to have a place to worship God, another important purpose is to reach out to the lost so that they can be saved. Only in Christ can they be saved.

Lastly, this section helps us understand that Jesus came to this earth to die for the sins of the world. After He died He was raised from the dead. Paul refers to this as Christ being the ‘firstborn from the dead.’ Because of Christ’s resurrection we too can know that we will be resurrected, or born from the dead. In all this, Christ is the meeting point of heaven and earth!

III. The Genius of Christianity- (Isaiah 7:13-17)

a. Wonderful events- There are some wonderful stories in the Bible.

If I were to name a few I might mention how God caused the sun to stand still. OR, how God gave Moses the 10 Commandments. OR, how God helped Joshua and his people overcome Jericho by marching around the city once a day for six days, then on the seventh day they marched around the city 7 times while blowing their trumpets. At this the great wall of Jericho crumbled to the ground and the Israelites overcame the people of Jericho.

But an even more wonderful event, that really happened, is the Incarnation of Christ. There were eyewitnesses to this event. There are historical records supporting this event. The works of Jesus Himself shows that He was God in the flesh. There are even eyewitnesses to Jesus’ resurrection and His appearance after His resurrection. God, becoming flesh, was a real event!

The genius of Christianity is that it is not just a religion that influences people with values and principles, but a religion with happenings and events and historical occurrences. The Incarnation belongs to the very core of the gospel, that asserts that God, in the Person of His Son, came to earth at a certain hour in history, lived among us, died for us, and rose from the dead. Those who say that they admire Jesus as a great teacher and human being are missing the whole point of the story.

This then leads us to have to speak the truth: those who cannot believe that God took a body and became man cannot claim to be a Christian. Jesus Himself made statements about this truth. If they do not believe Christ’s statements concerning Himself, and the reason why He came into this world, then they cannot be disciples of Christ. As Christ Himself said, “If you are not for me, then you are against me.”

b. Ridicule transferred- Illustration: “Wet Pants,” One day at a third

grade classroom there was a nine-year-old boy sitting at his desk, when all of a sudden he realized he had wet his pants. His heart stops beating as he wonders what he will do next, knowing that he will be totally embarrassed by this event. He puts his head down and prays this prayer, 'Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat.' He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered. As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and ‘accidentally’ dumps the bowl of water in his lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, 'Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!' Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else – to Susie. She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. ‘You've done enough, you klutz!' they say. Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, 'You did that on purpose, didn't you?' Susie whispers back, 'I wet my pants once too.'

To be a Christian means accepting the great fact of the Incarnation—that Christ, the second person of the Trinity, was born at Bethlehem, as the Scriptures tell us. The Christian faith carries certain facts at its heart, and this is the greatest of them. Jesus Christ came to this earth to take the ridicule of our sin for us. What should have been our penalty has been transferred to someone else—to Jesus.

IV. Christianity Unrivaled-

a. The weight of the matter is on Christ- Before we finish up we have

one more aspect to look at, and that is at the Person of our Lord Himself. The truth is, Christianity IS Christ. Meaning, Jesus Christ is not just the founder of Christianity like Mohammad, or Zoroaster. Jesus Christ is the very foundation of Christianity. On Him rests the weight of bringing all men and women to God. As we read before, He is the head of the church, and all things on heaven and earth were created by Him and have been redeemed by Him.

It is important to reflect on this point, as I have said over and over again that the uniqueness of Christianity is Christ. We have to admit that over the centuries things have been done in the name of Christianity of which our Lord would not approve. The historical figure of Jesus and His teaching is the criterion by which everything must be measured. Jesus is not like anyone else who has ever lived or will ever live. No one else in history can be compared to Jesus Christ, and no other religion can be compared to Christianity.

“Missed Shots,” A couple of years ago at a high school basketball game a team from Madison, Wisconsin and a team from Dekalb, Illinois (who were bitter rivals) squared off against one another in a hotly contested game. The week before the game the mother of a key player for Madison died. As a result, the player was not expected to play and was not listed on the roster for the game. However, the player, Johntel Franklin, decided he needed to be at the game as a way to help him through his grief. The coach for Madison faced a tough decision. If he let Johntel play, the team would be charged with two technical fouls and Dekalb would receive free shots. In essence giving Dekalb a chance to have 2 free points. Despite the rivalry, Madison’s coach and the players decided to let this young man play and give Dekalb two technical foul shots. This is when the amazing happened. The Dekalb players went to the free-throw line and intentionally missed all the shots. The coach and team had decided this was the best way to respond to this situation.

A game like this is rare. It is rare because there was great compassion shown to the other team for their situation. So Christ shows us amazing compassion by coming to this earth to be our Savior and Lord.

b. Christ stands alone- Do you know what the 7 wonders of the world

are? The seven wonders of the world have been compiled from antiquity to the present day, to catalogue the world's most spectacular natural wonders and manmade structures. There have been many lists drawn up, and now there is a list just for the 7 natural wonders of the world. This lists consist of: the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, the Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Mount Everest, the Aurora, the Paricutin volcano, and Victoria Falls. They have been chosen for their beauty, wonder, and magnificence.

Jesus Christ however stands alone. You do not select Jesus Christ from a list of rivals, He is not the first of a class, He occupies a category all by Himself. There is a passage in John where we see people starting to drift away from Jesus. His teachings were too hard to understand. His standards were too high to attain. Even the disciples started to reconsider their position. At this point Jesus turns to His 12 disciples, in John 6:67 and asks: “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Simon responds for the twelve in verses 68-69, “… ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

That is the point here, that Jesus is not just someone who came to point us to God. Jesus isn’t just a great teacher, Jesus is the ONE who not only has the words of eternal life, but provides for us the way to eternal life.

Conclusion: For three weeks now we have talked about the Incarnation of Christ. Maybe it seems like we have spent too much time of this. What is there to say other than God took on flesh? Well, the fact of the matter is, this is the greatest thing that God has done for us. It is one thing to create us and all of creation, but in coming to this earth God the Son gave up the confines of heaven. Then, He had to be subjected to ridicule and torture before being crucified. All so that we could have the penalty of our sin paid for us! Do not take this theological truth lightly. The Incarnation is what sets Christianity apart from all other religions. The Incarnation is what show us that God truly loves us. The Incarnation is what gives us hope and purpose. I hope You believe in it fully, and speak of it often. Because it is the Incarnation that gives power to our faith. Amen.

2011-09-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

"God Came Himself"

(based on the devotions of Selwyn Hughes: “Every Day Light”)

1 John 4:7-16

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Introduction: Last week we started a 3-week series on the Incarnation of Christ. We talked about how unique Christianity is because it is the only religion that teaches that God took on flesh and dwelt among us. While God spoke to His people through prophets in the Old Testament, He decided that it was important for Him to come to this earth and speak the message in person.

Even more, God came to this earth, in Jesus Christ, to humble Himself by allowing Himself to be crucified for our sins! This whole idea of God taking flesh, and dying for our sins is what makes Christianity different from any other religion. While to the Greeks of the New Testament time it was nothing short of blasphemy to expect God to involve Himself in the affairs of the world, the gospel is about this amazing truth that the Son of God became the Son of Man so that humanity could become children of God.

This morning we continue in the whole teaching of the incarnation by talking a little more about God coming Himself.

I. Attempting to Find God- (Acts 17:16-34; Luke 11:39, 46; Luke 18:11, Galatians 3:19, 21)

Dr. E. Stanley Jones once said: “There have been two great attempts to find God throughout the ages; one is philosophy, the other, moralism.”

a. Philosophy- So let’s look at philosophy first. Philosophy is the

study of the general and fundamental problems of our world, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, and so on. The attempts of philosophy are represented by the three great philosophical nations—Greece, India, and China. These three nations have taken men and women about as far as it is possible to go by philosophical reasoning. Philosophy has tried to find God, but has been unable to locate God successfully! The Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu summed it up when he said that the final word about God is silence.

Philosophy has sought after God but has not found God because they are searching in the wrong places. In essence they have made philosophy a religion. Remember last week how I said that religion is ‘man’s seeking after God’? God has actually sought after us in Jesus Christ, but if people don’t open their eyes they will miss it.

In the New Testament, the book of Acts, chapter 17, we see an example of this. Let me read for you Acts 17:16-33, “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷ So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸ A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹ Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰ You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” ²¹ (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) ²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. ²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us…³¹ For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” ³² When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” ³³ At that, Paul left the Council. ³⁴ Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed…”

Those who could get past their religion of philosophy and see Jesus Christ and His resurrection believed and followed! Their own philosophy only confused them, but Paul’s words of truth help them to see the truth.

b. Moralism- Second we have moralism. Moralism is the attempt to

find God through the law. We see this noble effort made by the Jews themselves after they received the ‘law of God’, the 10 commandments, from Moses. They devised such a system to try and find God through living according to the law. What this did was ultimately lead to people like the Pharisees, the religious leaders, who seemed good on the outside, but on the inside they were corrupt. Jesus even called the Pharisees on this when He said to them in Luke 11:39, “…‘Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.’” Then later in the chapter Jesus says in Luke 11:46, “…‘And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.’”

You see here that rather than lead the people to God, moralism leads people to guilt. Even more, it leads people to think they have to do it on their own instead of seeking God for strength, guidance, and righteousness. The apostle Paul helps us to understand the purpose of the law in Galatians 3:19, “Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions…” Because of the wrong we do, because of our sin, God needed to give us the law to help us understand the right we are to seek to do. But the law cannot save us. The law cannot lead us to God. As Paul continues in Galatians 3:21, “…For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.” Being right with God comes through faith in Christ, not by the law!

We see that trying to live up to the law actually causes pride. Jesus pronounced doom on the Pharisees’s attempt to find God through moralism when the Pharisee said in Luke 18:11, “God, thank you that I am not like other men (who sin)…” Those who sought God through moralism could not reach the kingdom by even their greatest self-effort. We see that both philosophy and moralism fall far short!

II. The Chief Distinctives of Christianity- (1 John 4:7-16)

a. Seminaries- The Incarnation is one of the chief distinctives of the

Christ faith. Yet, there are some in the church who cast doubt on this and other aspects of Christianity. We see today that Christianity is not only being attacked from the outside, but from the inside as well.

One source is theological seminaries. Many seminaries have become more and more liberal. They cast doubt on the virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus, and even the resurrection. In fact, there has been a whole movement, called ‘The Jesus Seminar’ that questioned the miracles Jesus did. This movement was launched in 1985, and was organized to discover and report as they call ‘a scholarly consensus’ on the historical authenticity of the sayings and events of Jesus. The result was that they concluded Jesus didn’t actually say much of what is attributed to him, and that he didn’t rise from the dead.

Here we see the casting of doubt.

A theological student was heard saying of his education: “If I were to accept what I am being taught, then I would leave college with the idea that the Christian faith has slightly higher moral teaching than other religions, is a little more consistent in its view of God and man, and is a little better in general, but not unique.” Is it any wonder that so many graduate from seminaries confused about what to believe and teach? If they are stripped of the gospel, the good news, then what is there?

This is why I have chosen to preach 3 weeks on the Incarnation, so that we can get past all the doubts that are cast by our world. Seminaries, churches, denominations are teaching untruths, and are therefore causing great problems in the Kingdom of God. We need to get back to the truth of God’s word!! We need to make sure that we know what the Bible says, not what others say it says. We need to understand that this liberal movement is seeking to make us more universalistic, instead of followers of Jesus.

b. What other religions don’t have- Selwyn Hughes, the founder of

The Crusade for World Revival was once asked by an interviewer: “What do you have that other religions don’t have?” To which he responded: “I have Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh.” Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh. It isn’t until we really understand this concept, that we can hope to make it a reality in our lives, churches, and world. It is the idea that God decided that He needed to send more than representatives who spoke on His behalf. The Incarnation is God choosing to come Himself!!

Illustration- “The Living Bible,” There is a true story of a college student named Bill. Bill has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and no shoes. He became a Christian while attending college. Across the street from the campus where Bill goes to college is a very conservative church. One day Bill decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started and so Bill starts down the aisle looking for a seat. The church is completely packed and he can't find a seat. By now, people are really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything. Bill keeps walking and gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit, and when he realizes there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet. The tension in the air is thick. About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Bill. The deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit.. A godly man, very dignified. Everyone thinks he is going to ask the boy to find a seat or leave. All eyes are focused on him. The minister has stopped preaching. What happens next is beyond words… This elderly Deacon drops his cane on the floor… and sits down next to Bill!! At this, everyone chokes up with emotion. The minister gains control and finishes his sermon. But what the people saw in church that day was never forgotten!

Why is that story so powerful? The pastor could have told Bill it was fine to sit there, and that would have maybe calmed the church some. But there would have been many still bothered by this young man sitting on the floor in the front of the church. This still would have made some people uncomfortable, since it wasn’t a normal thing to do. But by having the elderly Deacon sit on the floor with him, it made it acceptable to all. Even more, I would imagine it made quite an impact on Bill. By this action Bill knew that this man cared for him and loved him in Jesus. By this action the Deacon was showing God’s love.

In 1 John 4:9 we are told, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” Jesus Christ came to live among us. He CAME HIMSELF into the world so that we might have a better understanding of how to live this life on earth, and how to have life eternal in heaven. HE CAME HIMSELF so that we would know for sure what is the truth. We don’t have to be bothered about all the things that cause us doubt, because we have THE WORD become flesh; we have God Himself making everything clear.

Conclusion: I have heard many stories of college kids taking a philosophy class, and the lessons that are taught to them in the class causing them to doubt their faith, or even leave their faith. Why? Because in many ways philosophy is thought to be a religion or set of beliefs that help you live your life. Yet, because it is in contrast to Christianity in many ways, it creates so much doubt in Christians.

I have also seen many people destroyed by the moralism of the church causing them to be filled with guilt. When the church teaches that you have to ‘live by the law’ or God won’t love you, then people become crippled because their faith is caught up in their works.

While it is important to live the life God calls us to live, we can only do this through faith. Our faith leads us to want to behave as God calls us to behave; to love as God calls us to love; to share as God calls us to share. And when we fail, and we will fail, God is there, through Christ, to forgive us, pick us up, and put us back on the path.

If someone asks you, ‘What do you have that others don’t,’ I hope your answer is: ‘I have Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh!’ Amen.

2011-09-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

"Made Himself Nothing"

(based on the devotions of Selwyn Hughes: “Every Day Light”)

Philippians 2:5-11

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Introduction: The other day I was shopping for a DVD player and I was looking at all of the different models. Of course they are different prices, from different companies. So I sought out someone from the store who knew something about the DVD players. My desire was to gain important information so that I could make an informed decision on which DVD player to buy. In essence, I was wanting some expert advice from someone who knew DVD players.

Throughout the Old Testament God established ‘prophets’ for the purpose of being able to inform His people about what was true, and right and good. God wanted His people to be able to make informed decisions about their life, and so He would speak to the prophets who would then speak to the people.

However, God ultimately knew that His prophets would not be sufficient, either for information or for saving His people from their sin. So God decided to take on flesh and dwell among us in Jesus Christ. God taking on human form in Jesus is known by the theological term “the incarnation of Christ.”

This doctrine, this truth of God is at the core of the Christian faith. So we are going to take the next three weeks to talk about it/ so that we not only understand it, but so that we can share this truth with others; this truth that sets Christianity apart from every other religion!!

I. God Comes to us- (Hebrews 1:1-14; Ephesians 2:8)

a. Unique- In every religion there is a great leader and teacher. In

Islam there is the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Zorastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster. Buddhism was founded by and based on the teachings of Siddhattha Gotama. In fact, I just read about Siddhattha Gotama. His parents tried to shield him from the suffering and death of the world. When he went off to school, his nannies would go ahead of him and even pick all the dead flowers. One day Gotama went out on his own and came across a dead body! He was so shaken by this that later in his life he started Buddhism for the purpose of trying to help people end their suffering.

However, no other faith claims that its great teacher was God incarnate. But this is exactly what Christianity claims. Not only does Christianity teach that God meets us where we are in need, but even more, He comes to us where we are and HE does the work. God is unique in that He understands our struggles deeply, since He experienced and witnessed these same struggles. When we feel guilt, we can know that Christ atoned for our sin, is able to forgive our sin, and remove our guilt. God comes to us!

Hebrews 1:1-3 tells us: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”

b. Christ’s call is to all humanity- In these days God speaks to us

through His Son, Jesus Christ. He speaks to all people, of all races. He does not see barrier, class, or creed. His message to us is ‘Whosoever will, may come.’ There are many who believe that Christianity is narrow because it teaches that people can only get into heaven through Christ. That IS Jesus Christ’s teaching. That IS what makes Him unique. It IS through Christ, God in the flesh, that we can come to God and get into heaven.

Christ’s call is to all because Christ doesn’t want to see any perish. Jesus Christ is unique in His Person, His Mission, and His finished Work. As pastor of this church I am called to be the Shepherd of God’s people here at Community Presbyterian Church. When people stray in their faith, or they aren’t coming to church, I am concerned and reach out to them. My intent, in love, is to help them stay right with God and experience the power of worship and fellowship.

Jesus Christ cares about all humanity. When we stray away from God, God reaches out to us through His Spirit. Because of what Christ has done, as we feel this prompting of God’s Spirit on our hearts, we can again come to God through Christ. The apostle Paul tells us of this in Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” God’s grace comes to us to save us. Save us for salvation. Save us from our sin. Save us from our wrong choices. Save us from our struggles. This is the gift of God!!

II. Appeared in a Body- (1 Timothy 3:1-16)

a. Comparing our faith- Max Muller, a writer on religious issues,

once made an interesting statement when he said: “You do not know the worth of your Christian faith until you have compared it to others.” When we think about the fact that God has appeared in this world in the Person of His eternal Son, we begin to understand that our faith is not based on the word of a prophet, but the Word of the Son Himself! No other world faith even attempts to represent its great teacher as God incarnate. As God, Christ comes to us from the highest place. As God, Christ doesn’t come halfway, but all the way. Christ comes to this earth.

Story: There is a true story of a missionary in India who would regularly talk about Jesus Christ with Hindu’s, Buddhist’s and Muslim’s. As he would talk about Christ, and then hear them talk about their religions, he had a light of understanding come on in his head. Through his conversations with them he realized just how great God is, and how wonderful it was that he had discovered this faith in Christ. He said it like this: “All the old …modes of expression and accepted outlooks on life are challenged (when you talk to people of other faiths). (In these conversations) one begins to see where the relevant lies.” He talked about this teaching of the Incarnation to be the most significant. He talked about the ‘round table’ discussions he would have with those from other faiths as they each talked about the distinctiveness of their faith. The he said this: “Whenever I would talk about the truth of the Incarnation, the meeting would lapse into silence. Sometimes the silence would last for many minutes, only to be broken with the remark, ‘We have nothing in our faith that compares to that. Nothing!’”

b. In a body- In 1 Timothy 3:16 we are told by Paul, speaking to Timothy: “Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” Paul helps us to understand the mystery, the wonder, and the relevance of the Incarnation. God the Son appeared in the flesh; in a body. This is not just my word, or Paul’s word. There is evidence of this. It was vindicated by the Spirit. It has been preached among the nations. It has been believed by the world. And now Christ, who was in bodily form, has been taken up in glory to heaven.

This last point is very important as well, because if Christ was still on this earth, we would not have Him as our mediator in heaven. If Christ had not been raised from the dead, then we would worship a dead Lord, and a dead Lord is not very powerful. If Christ was not taken up in glory, then He would still have His human limitations. Christ did come in bodily form, but now He is heaven, reigning in all power and glory!

III. The Word Became Flesh- (John 1:1-18)

a. The Son is God- Sometimes this whole teaching can get confusing.

People believe that Jesus died for their sins, and that through faith in Jesus gives us forgiveness of sins, and the ability to come into the presence of God, and the blessing of salvation. But people struggle to understand that Jesus was fully God and fully human. Let me try and help you with this a little.

One of the most important verses in the Bible comes from John 1:14, which starts out, ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…’ But to really understand this verse, you have to understand the whole section of John 1:1-18. So we start with verse one: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Another reference to God the Son is ‘the Word.’ We see here the scripture telling us that ‘the Word was God.’ If you go through the Bible, you will see very clearly the Bible teaching us that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here is one of the verses that show us that the Son is God.

Verses 2-3 continues: “He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” God the Son (or in this passage known as ‘the Word’) was there in the beginning of all time. Being that He was there in the beginning, He, as God, was active in creation. Then from here we jump down to verse 14, which says: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

b. Division of religions- The Word, which is God the Son, took on

flesh and made His dwelling among us. God came to this earth in the flesh. God’s glory was revealed to us in the flesh. God’s grace was shared with us in the flesh. God’s truth was spoken to us in the flesh. Do you get the point? God came to us in flesh and dwelt among us.

This verse has been described as ‘The Great Divide,’ because no other religion can claim that the word they received from God became flesh. In all other religions the essential element is a word that became word—a philosophy, a moralistic system. Only in Christianity does God appear in human form.

When you are trying to share the Bible truths with people of other religions, there are many truths that are similar. Muslims, in the Qur’an, have something similar to the Sermon on the Mount. Hindus have in their sacred book something similar to ‘turn the other cheek.’ Buddhist teaching talks about being caring and sensitive to the needs of others. But no other religion has anything like the Incarnation! This is where Christianity is unique. And it is unique because it is THE TRUTH.

IV. Made Himself Nothing- (John 1:14; Philippians 2:5-11)

a. Radically different- The point here is that the Christian faith is not

just a little better than other faiths, but it is radically different! People often say that Christianity shouldn’t be thought of as a religion. Why? Because religion is mankind’s search for God. Christianity, however, is God’s search for man. There are many religions, but there is only one gospel. Religion is the word that became word; the gospel of Christ is the Word become flesh.

Commentator William Barclay, talking about the John 1:14 verse said: “This phrase explains why John wrote his gospel. John could not get over the fact that God had become man in the Person of His Son, and John sustained this thought throughout the whole of his writings.” Augustine, the great saint of the fourth and fifth centuries, talked about how in his pre-Christian days he had never read anything comparable to the phrase ‘And the Word became flesh.’

Illustration- “Excuse Me, Are You Jesus?” A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago . They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding... ALL BUT ONE !!! He paused, took a deep breath, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did. The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, 'Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?' She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, 'I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly.' As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, 'Mister.......' He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, 'Are you Jesus?'

b. God reveals Himself- Why would she think He is Jesus? Because

He was WITH her. He humbled himself and helped her with her predicament. That is what Jesus would do. Jesus took on flesh to be WITH us. He humbled Himself in doing this. Now it is not easy for us to understand what this means. The miracle of it alone is tremendous. God, holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, creator, and sustainer chooses to shed His holy clothing and take on flesh! Jesus leaves the confines of heaven for our sinful, ruthless world.

Paul says it to us like this in Philippians 2:6-8, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

One thing the ancient Greeks could never contemplate was that God could reveal Himself in bodily form. To the Greeks the body was a prison in which the soul was shackled; a tomb in which the spirit was confined. Plutarch, the wise old Greek, believed it was nothing short of blasphemy to expect God to involve Himself in the affairs of the world. Yet in the face of this, the highest thought of the New Testament world, the gospel, unfolded this amazing truth that the Son of God became the Son of Man so that humanity could become children of God. Could anything in heaven or earth be more wonderful than that? I don’t think so!!

Conclusion: Our challenge today, and the next two weeks, is to not only understand that the Son of God took on flesh and came to this earth, but to understand the implications for us. Even more, to know that Christianity is what is true. This whole truth of the Incarnation is what sets the Christian faith far above and beyond any other faith or religion. So let us take what we have learned today, and seek to share it with someone we know. Not with the attitude of superiority, but with the attitude of wanting to bless others with Christ. Jesus Christ dwelt among us so that we could truly know God. Let us seek to know God, and live for God, this day, and every day. Amen.

2011-09-12T15:33:00.000-07:00

"I Will Bless You"

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Genesis 12:1-4a; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Introduction: Last week Rev. Tod Bolsinger gave us a great sermon about how we are called to be a blessing. Each church, each person through the power of God, can be a blessing in what we do! But to be this blessing, we have to understand that we have been called by God, and then follow through on this call.

Now the call is usually a tough decision for us, because it requires us more often than not to do something we aren’t doing now. This morning I want to look a little deeper at the Genesis 12 passage that Tod talked about with us. In this passage we see that Abram is given a call from God. This call is a tough decision, because Abram is being asked by God to leave his country, and his family, and go on a journey. Abram doesn’t know where this journey will ultimately take him, but he is given the promise from God that if he follows this call, he will bless many people. He is going to have to really trust God.

I. The Call- (Genesis 12:1)

Let us read the call again in Genesis 12:1- “Now the Lord said to

Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.’” We see that there are 3 parts to this call: the call to go; the call to go from the country where Abram lived, and the call to go where God would show Abram. In essence, it was a blind call. Abram would not know where he was going UNTIL, and when, God showed him.

a. Go- There is a trust test that you have probably seen, where you have to

stand with your back to a person, and then you are to fall backwards, trusting that they will catch you. The other day I was doing this with my daughter, and she had trouble letting herself go, believing that I would catch her. My own daughter doubted whether or not I would catch her! For many people, it is difficult to just trust and fall backwards. You have to really believe in the person who is catching you.

So if we have trouble trusting in people we know, how much more would it take for Abram to trust God (even though he knows God, yet God is not visible to him), to trust in what he was being called to do? In essence, when God says, “go,” it was something God expected Abram to do right away. The call isn’t in six months, but now. The call demands action on Abram’s part. God wasn’t saying to Abram: “I have an idea I want to run by you. Think about this for a while and let me know if you want to do it.” NO, God was not giving Abram the option to think on it. God wanted Abram to make an immediate decision of obedience, and follow. What would have happened if Abram wouldn’t have followed? Well, many things that he did, that blessed many people, would not have happened!

As God calls Abram, so God calls you and me. We have to be listening to this call. But when we hear it, because it is from God, it is not something that should be kicked around, but something we need to move forward in right away. If we do not follow the calling, then many people will not get the blessings God wants to pass on through you and me!

b. From your country- So Abram was being called to “go.” But where was

he to go? He had an idea of the direction (later in Genesis 12 we are told that he was heading to the land of Canaan), but there is not a distinct destination. Abram is just told to leave his country. I’m sure that God had a destination in mind, but at the time God believed it was better for Abram not to know.

So Abram was to leave his country. Why? Because God was going to establish a people for himself, with Abram as the father of the nation. I believe that God saw in Abram someone who was not happy with the world the way it was. Abram was a person who had great faith. Abram was one who would give his life in service to God. Now we know from reading the book of Genesis that Abram left a lot to be desired in his actions; he made a lot of mistakes. But it was this faith that God saw in Abram that led God to choose Abram. And so God chose Abram to be the one to establish the place where God’s people would reside.

Can we step out in faith like Abram? Can we leave something comfortable and secure to do God’s will? God doesn’t always ask us to do this, but there are definite times in our lives, when we are called to step out of our comfort zone for the sake of fulfilling what God desires to do in and through us.

c. I will show you- The call is finished with the words “that I will show you.”

With these words God is telling Abram that he isn’t leaving him out to dry. God does have a plan; God does have a destination. When the time is right, God will reveal to Abram what he needs to know as he need to know it.

EX. If you are like me, you have learned a few tricks in your day. It is fun to do the trick for your friends, and if you do it well, they are amazed. But when they find out how the trick is done, they lose interest in the trick. The other day I was watching a television show about the secrets of magicians revealed. It focused on a street magician. First, they would show the magician doing the trick in front of a crowd. The crowd would be amazed. Then, away from the crowd, they would show how the magic trick was pulled off.

It was interesting, for me, how once I knew how the trick was done, it lost its excitement. There is a sense of not knowing, that helps bring excitement and wonder to our lives and our journey. For God to reveal all the details to us, too soon, can affect our enjoyment of life. It could also cause us to feel fear or anxiety, which also could derail us from our journey. Like Abram, we need to be willing to move forward, without knowing exactly where we are going, accepting that God knows the ultimate destination, and knowing that God has a plan!

II. The Blessing- (Genesis 12:1-4a)

Along with the call, God gives a promise to Abram that he will be blessed.

The Hebrew word is “barak,” and means "to do or give something of value to another." God 'blesses' us by providing for our needs and we in turn 'bless' God by giving Him of ourselves as His servants. In this case, however, God isn't blessing Abram with something he needs, but with something the people need.

a. A great nation- First, the blessing will be that God will make for,

and through Abram, a great nation. Because of Abram’s role, Abram will be blessed to be the father of this great nation. While Abram will be leaving his family, and his people, God will create a new people for Abram of which Abram will be the head. If you think of it in terms of gardening, Abram is being cut off of a wild olive branch, to become the root of a good olive tree.

But there was a burden for Abram, in that this nation was to come from him, and at age 75 he and his wife didn’t have any kids. How was God going to make a great nation from him? This was the second step of Abram trusting in God’s plan. The first was to leave his country. The second was to trust that God would provide for him an heir.

So let’s ask ourselves an important question here: WHAT MAKES A NATION GREAT? God said that He would make for Abram a great nation. But what makes a nation great? Many people? Great wealth? Lots of land? The fact that they are powerful? Throughout history, often times the great nations are seen as those who are the most powerful and have great wealth. Their goal has always been to dominate those around them and to seize more land…. But this is not what God is talking about here. For God, what makes a nation great is the presence of faith and trust in God, and a caring heart for those around them. For God, a great nation is one that cares for its people, and governs in fairness and good judgment.

As God looked at the world of Abram, He did not see any nations that were great. And since God promised to Noah that He would not destroy the world again by flood, God decided to set up a new nation that would be great/ as people who sought after and followed God as their Lord and King.

If we were to make it applicable to us, we would need to ask the question: WHAT MAKES A CHURCH GREAT? And a similar answer would come: a great church is one where there is great faith and trust in God, and a caring heart for those around them. I believe if and when we follow God’s call, God will bless us in this way. God will bless our community through us as well.

b. Make your name known- The second way that God was to bless

Abram was to make his name known. Now there are a lot of ways to make your name known: by being the President, by being a movie star, by being a famous serial killer, or by following God’s call like Mother Theresa. People are known for doing terrible or illegal acts. Others are known for their prominence or place in society. And still others are known for their DEEDS.

God was going to make Abram’s name known, but for the purpose of being a blessing; blessing people in the name of God. Abram would be known for his faith and his deeds. This is an important qualification. God isn’t making Abram’s name known so that he can be popular, or gain wealth, or to control others. God is making his name known for the important purpose of blessing the lives of other people.

Sometimes when you are well known, you can have more opportunity to make an impact. EX. In 2002, ex-President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." Just in the last few years, he has traveled around the globe monitoring elections, promoting human rights, and providing health care and food to the world's poor. Because of his being an ex-president, he has a name that is known, and that allows him to bless others.

As Abram lives his life, God will bless others through him, so that they will want to be like Abram and bless others in a similar way.

Illus. Have a pitcher of water. Pour water from one pitcher to the other. As I do this talk about how the water in the first pitcher is the blessings God has poured into us (often times through the lives of others). We are then to let these blessings pour out from us so that others will be blessed!

III. How is blessing received?- (James 2:14-18; Matt. 7:21; Rom. 4:1-5, 13-17)

a. Works vs. faith- There is an age old battle that argues between the

virtue of faith, and that of works. Many will say that faith is most important, because it is by faith that we are saved. But others will say that works is more important, because that is where our faith is seen; faith in action. In fact, this argument comes up in the New Testament, in the book of James, chapter 2:14-18, “What use is it, my brethren, if a man says that he has faith, but has no works. Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith if it has no works, is dead being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works, show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works.’”

We see here the argument that if you have faith, but this faith is not seen in action, then your faith is dead. It is your works that shows the faith you have. While this is true to an extent, we cannot forget that true faith will always manifest itself in action. That is why Jesus says in Matthew 7:21- “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Thinking that you have faith is not what gets you into heaven. If someone really has faith, then their faith will manifest itself into action; their faith will lead them to live out the will of God. Just because someone says they have faith doesn’t mean that they really do! Faith is more than saying the words. It would be like my saying to Tyler or Tiffany that I love them, but never go to anything they do. My words would be empty and meaningless.

b. Abram is righteous by faith- In Romans 4 we are told by the

apostle Paul that Abram, who becomes known as Abraham, has great faith. This faith is seen in his works; he left his family and country, and he was obedient to God; obedient to the call God gave to him. But it isn’t his works that make him great; it isn’t his works that make him righteous. IT IS HIS FAITH. As Romans 4:2-3 says, “If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. ³ What does Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

As Paul says, it isn’t about anything that Abraham has done, because that would give him reason to boast in himself, and give him an excuse to not trust God. On the contrary, he cannot boast about his faith, but through his faith he will be inclined to boast about God.

To show this all the more, we turn to Romans 4:13, “It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.” The promise came to Abraham in faith, not by his works. His works were a by-product of his faith. And because of his faith, he trusted that God would give him an heir; which God did.

And then this promise is extended, as we see in Romans 4:16, “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.” We, by faith, are Abraham’s offspring, and as his offspring, we receive the promise of blessing as well!

This promise is the promise of God. As God has promised Abraham a blessing, so we too have this promise of blessing coming to us. And because this promise is received through faith, all who have faith in God will receive this blessing. And as God blesses us, we are called to pass it on and bless others. Our blessing will not be the same as Abraham. But our blessing will be a result of hearing God’s call to us, and by faith living it out. In this faith, we will be blessed to be a blessing.

Conclusion: One of the great challenges of life is to know what God is calling you to do. What makes it even harder is that the call will change as we go through our lives. There was a time when I told people I would never become a pastor of a church. I thought I would do youth ministry all of my life. And yet, look where I am right now!

When we search our hearts and minds, we know that time and time again there are things we feel led to do. We feel God giving us the uneasy feeling that things aren’t right, and we are the one who needs to help lead a change. We need to act as Abraham did, and step forward in faith and trust. We need to take that first step, and let God speak to us as we follow the call He gives to us.

Abraham was asked to give up a lot to follow God. That is part of the challenge of this world. We accumulate so much. We desire to own and possess. It is hard to give up what we desire. And when we hold on to these things, we will not be able to follow God fully and serve God as He calls.

I believe we are at a critical stage in the life of this church. Many people have talked to me about their concern over the lower attendance in church, and the deficit we have in our giving each month. I believe God is calling us to invite people to church. I believe God is calling us to challenge the members of this church who don’t come regularly, to come more often. I believe God is calling us to tell people about Jesus. If people give their lives to Christ, they will want to come to church, and give to the church, and make a difference for the Kingdom of God! Let us hear God’s call to bless others, and in doing so know that God will bless us. Amen.