Jonah 1:1-17
Many who read hear or read these words have prodigals in your life. You have loved ones who are away from the Lord. Some of them grew up in Sunday School. Some went to a Christian college. Some of them you raised to love Jesus. Some of them once could quote hundreds of Bible verses. Some were leaders in their youth group. Some went on mission trips. Some were preachers. Some were missionaries.
Today they are far from God.
Some of them are doing things that would shock us deeply if we knew about them. As we begin to think about those prodigal friends, prodigal parents, and prodigal sons and daughters, remember this one key point. No matter what you may think about the way your friends are living, no matter how angry you may be at the choices they have made, the root problem is never on the outside. The problem is always on the inside.
The problem is always in the heart.
That’s really good news because there is only one person in the universe who can change the heart, and he specializes in divine heart surgery. We can listen to a thousand sermons, we can all sing a thousand spiritual songs, and together we can attend a thousand church services, but apart from the Lord it will do no good. It’s not outer change we need, but deep, inner transformation by the Holy Spirit.
You Can Help a Prodigal Too Soon
Sometimes in our attempt to reach out to the prodigals we know, we can intervene too soon. Do you remember what happened to the prodigal son in Luke 15? After he had wasted all his inheritance in wild living, he ended up feeding the pigs (Luke 15:15-16). As Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message, “He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.” If you saw that, you might think, “That young man is ready for a new life.” Maybe so, maybe not.
In the story Jesus told, the father waited for his son to return and then ran to meet him when he was still far from home. What if the father in the story had gone after his son and tried to bring him back even one day early? The son would have said, “If only you had left me alone for one more day, I would have made it. I could have made it back without your help. I am a man, I don’t need your help.”
So it goes. We may think that someone has hit rock bottom when they are still scheming a way out of their problems. It was not until the son “came to his senses” that he decided to return home. That has to happen to every prodigal son and daughter, and it cannot be predicted or forced.
Repentance is first of all a work of God in the human heart. If you come a day too soon, the prodigal will always think, “With one more day, I would have figured out a way to solve my own problems.” As long as the scheming and lying and deceiving continues, the best thing we can do is to pray for God’s Spirit to bring them to their senses and to wait patiently until that day comes.
Underlying all this are two bits of very important theology:
1. God knows us better than we know ourselves.
2. God knows how to reach us at the right moment.
People sometimes ask, “Do you think God can speak to me today?” The answer is, “Don’t worry about it. God’s got your number on Speed Dial. He can ring your phone any time of the day or night. And when he calls, you won’t be able to put him on Call Waiting."
He’s got your number written on his heart. He knows exactly how to get in touch with you.
Jonah is about to learn this truth the hard way. He was on a boat headed for Tarshish, running from the Lord. When God told him, “Go to Nineveh,” he said, “I think I’ll go to Tarshish instead."
God said, “Go east.”
Jonah said, “I think I’ll go west."
And so he did. He went down to Joppa (an ancient port city just south of modern-day Tel Aviv) where he found a boat bound for Tarshish. Amazing, isn’t it, how when you want to run from God, you can always find a boat going where you want to go. Satan has his ships, and they are always ready to take on another passenger.
So Jonah paid his fare, boarded the ship, and as it left the harbor, he went down below to take a nap.
Nice little deal he had going there.It was all working out like he had planned.A comfy Mediterranean cruise. Soon he would be in Tarshish, a beautiful city in Spain. There he could live the high life, far from the presence of the Lord.
Or so he thought.
That’s where we left Jonah in the last message. It was a pretty picture of a self-satisfied man who seemed to have gotten away with disobedience. Whenever you read a story like this in the Bible, you know there has to be a “but” coming. God will not let his straying children live in sin forever.
Let’s take a look at how God begins the process of bringing Jonah back home. As we see how God deals with Jonah, we’ll discover that God deals with us in the same way when we disobey.
I. He Sends Storms to Get Our Attention.
“Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god” (vv. 4-5).
It must have been a bad storm because these men were professional sailors who had seen it all. They were hardened to the dangers of life at sea. If they were scared, it must have been a truly terrible storm. So they started the first interfaith prayer meeting in the Bible, each man crying out to his own god.
Then they start throwing their profit away by throwing the cargo overboard.
We all know that life can turn on a dime. God knows exactly how to get our attention.
He can send the storm of adverse circumstances.
He can send the storm of the sudden death of a loved one.
He can send the storm of financial collapse.
He can send the storm of trouble in your church.
He can send the storm of a desperately sick child.
He can send the storm of career implosion.
Our God is infinitely creative. He can send the storm in so many different ways. When you’re in the storm, you tend to be fearful, angry and frustrated. It’s only later that your realize the storm was a severe mercy from the Lord.
That’s always step one for the prodigal. The storms come to get our attention.
II. He Allows Others to Suffer Because of Our Sin.
Everyone on board is endangered by Jonah’s sin. Jonah was the sinner in this situation, and yet his foolish rebellion endangered everyone around him.
Please ponder these four words: We never sin alone. We may be alone when we sin, but we never sin alone. Our sin, our compromise, and our deceit always injures our spouse, our children, our friends, and our family.
Every step we take out of the will of God hurts those around us.
III. He Sends Someone to Challenge Us.
As the ship groans and creaks under the weight of the wind and the heavy waves, and as the men throw cargo overboard in a desperate attempt to save the ship, where is Jonah? You might think he’d be on deck helping the sailors. Not a chance.
He’s taking a nap down below.
How could a man sleep during a terrible storm like this? The answer is simple. The devil has his sleeping pills too. He has his narcotics. He knows how to put us to sleep while the world crashes in around us. How else can you explain a man’s reckless behavior in having one affair after another? How else can you explain a politician who breaks the law and then lies with impunity? How else you explain a mother who abandons her own children? The devil can put us to sleep while the ship sinks or the house burns or the world falls apart around us.
Look what happens next:
The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish” (v. 6).
At this point the captain (who is no doubt a pagan) has more faith than Jonah does. Seeing the danger, he wants Jonah to wake up and start praying.
The world doesn’t want our sermons. The world wants our prayers.
Ponder that thought for a moment.
The world generally doesn’t care about what we say and do on Sunday morning. It seems so boring and mostly irrelevant, which is why this Sunday and every Sunday most people will not be in any church anywhere. That’s true about every city in America. Take any major American city, including those in the so-called “Bible Belt,” and you can see it for yourself. It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about Seattle or Atlanta, Chicago or Charlotte, New York or San Antonio, Las Vegas or Louisville. On any given Sunday of the year, most people don’t go to church anywhere. They stay home, stay in bed, wake up late, take a walk, read the paper, watch TV, and in general live as if the church doesn’t exist.
That won’t change no matter how much we preach against it.
Even though most people don’t go to church, it wouldn’t be right to call them hostile. They don’t care enough to be hostile. Mostly they are uninterested in anything the church has to offer. They just don’t care!
The world doesn’t care about our religion, but the world wants us to pray. “Get up, Jonah. Call on your god. Maybe he can save us.”
We claim to know the living God.
We claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
We claim to have access to the God of the universe.
The world knows this. And even if the world doesn’t want our religion, it desperately wants our prayers.
The people of the world say to us, “Can’t you see what is happening? My marriage is falling apart. My kids are in trouble. I just lost my job. My husband has cancer. We can’t pay our bills. You say you know God. If you do, wake up and pray for us!”
Folks, why aren’t we praying? We can preach a thousand sermons and the world doesn’t care. But the world wants us to pray.
We all wonder how to reach this generation that seems so turned off to God and “religion.” If we wait for people to come to our services, we will in most cases wait forever. Here is a simple question that can open up a spiritual conversation:
“How can I pray for you?"
Just those six words make such a difference. The world is waiting for the church to pray. Why are we still sleeping?
They can do without our sermons, but they can’t live without our prayers. And if they get our prayers, they might one day listen to our sermons.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
The Church Is Full of Hypocrites!
The Church Is Full of Hypocrites!
When was the last time you overheard a conversation like this? “Shirley, how come you never shop at Publix anymore? And Shirley answers, “Well, I used to. But the last time I was there the place was just full of hypocrites. So I’ll never go back there again.”
You’ve never heard such a conversation about Publix have you? We normally don’t hear that kind of excuse in regard to grocery stores, schools, or the country club? But sometimes we hear it used about the church.
Zig Ziglar said that he invited a friend to go to church with him. The man answered, “Well, I’d like to go. But the church is so full of hypocrites.” Ziglar replied, “That’s okay. There’s always room for one more.”
In Matthew 13:24-30 Jesus is talking about the presence of good & evil in this world.
24 Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. 25 But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. 26 When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. 27 “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. “‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. 29 “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’”
In this parable Jesus says that as wheat & weeds grow side by side they look a lot alike. And if we were to try to pull up the weeds we would likely uproot the wheat as well. So we are told to let them grow until the harvest. Then it will be easy to see which is which, & to treat them accordingly.
Jesus told this parable nearly 2,000 years ago. But the lessons He was teaching are just as applicable today. So let’s consider some of them this morning.
The first one is that hypocrisy is real. Jesus says that there will be both good & evil people in this world, & they’ll be living side by side. Even the church will not be immune to this mixture.
On the one hand, it seems unfair to say that the church is full of hypocrites, because there are a lot of people who have been faithful & true & authentic in their Christian lives, & they’re wonderful Christian people.
But even those of us who have been Christians for many years have experienced times when our guard was down & Satan shot his fiery darts, & sin was the result.
Now there is a difference between a Christian struggling with sin & a hypocrite. If you’re struggling with a sin, you come to God saying, “God, this is a weakness in my life & I really need the help of the Holy Spirit to deal with it.” God welcomes that prayer & He promises to help.
But the hypocrite doesn’t really struggle to overcome his sin. He just tries to hide it. He thinks, “When I’m in church I’ll behave like a Christian. I’ll say the prayers. I’ll sing the songs. I’ll obey the rules. But when I’m out in the world I become a different person who behaves exactly the way the world behaves.”
The word “hypocrite” originally came from a word used in Greek drama that meant “one who is play-acting, wearing a mask.” The symbol of Greek drama, as you may know, is a two-faced mask. That’s why a hypocrite is often called “two-faced,” someone who is trying to deceive, pretending to be better than he or she really is.
There is a story about a young couple in his church who boasted to all their friends & neighbors that they were flying to New York City. They were only going to be able to spend one day there, but the highlight of their trip would be to go & see the Broadway play, “My Fair Lady.” They were so proud of this, & everyone was really impressed because no one else in that small town had ever been to a play on Broadway.
When they got to New York, they found that the play was sold out for the night.
They thought, “What do we do now? Everybody knows that we came to see ‘My Fair Lady.’ We don’t dare tell them that we didn’t.” So they found a couple of ticket stubs on the sidewalk & picked them up. They bought a program that described the various acts of the play. They went home talking about the play and acting as if they had really seen the play.
They had the ticket stubs. They had the program. They had been to the theatre. They knew the music. But the trouble is, they didn’t see the performance.”
A lot of Christians are like that. We come to church. We have the bulletin. We know the songs. We know what to say & what to do. The problem is that many of us have never really made Jesus the Lord of our lives.
It’s exhausting to live a two-faced life, pretending to be what you aren’t, acting one way around Christians & just the opposite around others. To have to pretend constantly that you are someone you aren’t just drains you of your energy.
That’s why coming to church can sometimes be an exhausting experience. If you’re play-acting, pretending to be someone that you’re not, you’ll leave here wrung out, because you have spent more than an hour of your life pretending to be something that you aren’t.
Jesus condemned hypocrisy. Listen to His words in Matthew 23:17-28. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Now there’s another lesson we must learn – & it has to do with judging.
In His parable, when the servants came & asked, “Do you want us to go out & pull them up?” The answer was “No, because while you’re pulling up the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them. So let both grow together until harvest, & at that time I’ll tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds & tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat to bring into my barn.”
In other words, Jesus is saying, “Your job is not to judge the hypocrites. I’ve never commissioned you to do that. So don’t go into the church & start uprooting the hypocrites.”
And that means, first of all, that we’re not to judge a person’s salvation. That’s not our job. God never put us on the judgment throne to say this person is lost & this one is saved. Our responsibility is to do our best to present the truth that’s in God’s Word, & to leave the rest in God’s hands.
There are things, however, that we should judge.
1. First of all, the Bible very clearly teaches that we are to recognize & judge false teachings.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.”
Do you see the parallels between these words & the parable we’ve been reading? Jesus says that false teachers may look like sheep, & sound like sheep, & act like sheep.
So how will we recognize them? Jesus says, “You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act”. If they’re sowing seeds of discord & bitterness; if they’re causing people to become disobedient, then they’re false teachers. So we are to judge false teaching.
2. Secondly, we’re to judge sinful actions. If someone in the church is doing a sinful thing & it’s common knowledge, then something needs to be done.
Paul uses an example in 1 Corinthians 5 of a man who was sleeping with his father’s wife (probably his step-mother), & the church knew about it. So Paul condemned the church because it didn’t take any action. Now what kind of action should it have taken? Paul said, “You should have gone to him to seek a reconciliation that would cause him to repent of his sin & change his ways.” And if the man refused to repent, then they should expel him from among them, in the hope that he would come to his senses & repent.
But if someone who isn’t a Christian comes to the church seeking Christ, they can come regardless of their sin. That’s what the church is for. No matter what a person’s past has been, if come to church genuinely seeking a relationship with the Lord, they should be welcome.
But once you become a Christian. Once you have been forgiven, that changes the standards. Then if you slip back into sin, reconciliation & repentance need to take place.
Paul said, “I prayed that they should repent & turn to God & prove their repentance by their deeds.”
Now finally, “Why should we be genuine & true?” Why should we want to be an authentic person & not a hypocrite? Because we will be respected. The Bible says, Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom.”
“I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day,
I’d rather one would walk with me than merely tell the way;
The eye’s a better pupil & more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing, but example’s always clear. …
I may not understand the high advice you give,
But there’s no misunderstanding how you act & how you live. (Edgar Guest)
When was the last time you overheard a conversation like this? “Shirley, how come you never shop at Publix anymore? And Shirley answers, “Well, I used to. But the last time I was there the place was just full of hypocrites. So I’ll never go back there again.”
You’ve never heard such a conversation about Publix have you? We normally don’t hear that kind of excuse in regard to grocery stores, schools, or the country club? But sometimes we hear it used about the church.
Zig Ziglar said that he invited a friend to go to church with him. The man answered, “Well, I’d like to go. But the church is so full of hypocrites.” Ziglar replied, “That’s okay. There’s always room for one more.”
In Matthew 13:24-30 Jesus is talking about the presence of good & evil in this world.
24 Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. 25 But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. 26 When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. 27 “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. “‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. 29 “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’”
In this parable Jesus says that as wheat & weeds grow side by side they look a lot alike. And if we were to try to pull up the weeds we would likely uproot the wheat as well. So we are told to let them grow until the harvest. Then it will be easy to see which is which, & to treat them accordingly.
Jesus told this parable nearly 2,000 years ago. But the lessons He was teaching are just as applicable today. So let’s consider some of them this morning.
The first one is that hypocrisy is real. Jesus says that there will be both good & evil people in this world, & they’ll be living side by side. Even the church will not be immune to this mixture.
On the one hand, it seems unfair to say that the church is full of hypocrites, because there are a lot of people who have been faithful & true & authentic in their Christian lives, & they’re wonderful Christian people.
But even those of us who have been Christians for many years have experienced times when our guard was down & Satan shot his fiery darts, & sin was the result.
Now there is a difference between a Christian struggling with sin & a hypocrite. If you’re struggling with a sin, you come to God saying, “God, this is a weakness in my life & I really need the help of the Holy Spirit to deal with it.” God welcomes that prayer & He promises to help.
But the hypocrite doesn’t really struggle to overcome his sin. He just tries to hide it. He thinks, “When I’m in church I’ll behave like a Christian. I’ll say the prayers. I’ll sing the songs. I’ll obey the rules. But when I’m out in the world I become a different person who behaves exactly the way the world behaves.”
The word “hypocrite” originally came from a word used in Greek drama that meant “one who is play-acting, wearing a mask.” The symbol of Greek drama, as you may know, is a two-faced mask. That’s why a hypocrite is often called “two-faced,” someone who is trying to deceive, pretending to be better than he or she really is.
There is a story about a young couple in his church who boasted to all their friends & neighbors that they were flying to New York City. They were only going to be able to spend one day there, but the highlight of their trip would be to go & see the Broadway play, “My Fair Lady.” They were so proud of this, & everyone was really impressed because no one else in that small town had ever been to a play on Broadway.
When they got to New York, they found that the play was sold out for the night.
They thought, “What do we do now? Everybody knows that we came to see ‘My Fair Lady.’ We don’t dare tell them that we didn’t.” So they found a couple of ticket stubs on the sidewalk & picked them up. They bought a program that described the various acts of the play. They went home talking about the play and acting as if they had really seen the play.
They had the ticket stubs. They had the program. They had been to the theatre. They knew the music. But the trouble is, they didn’t see the performance.”
A lot of Christians are like that. We come to church. We have the bulletin. We know the songs. We know what to say & what to do. The problem is that many of us have never really made Jesus the Lord of our lives.
It’s exhausting to live a two-faced life, pretending to be what you aren’t, acting one way around Christians & just the opposite around others. To have to pretend constantly that you are someone you aren’t just drains you of your energy.
That’s why coming to church can sometimes be an exhausting experience. If you’re play-acting, pretending to be someone that you’re not, you’ll leave here wrung out, because you have spent more than an hour of your life pretending to be something that you aren’t.
Jesus condemned hypocrisy. Listen to His words in Matthew 23:17-28. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Now there’s another lesson we must learn – & it has to do with judging.
In His parable, when the servants came & asked, “Do you want us to go out & pull them up?” The answer was “No, because while you’re pulling up the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them. So let both grow together until harvest, & at that time I’ll tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds & tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat to bring into my barn.”
In other words, Jesus is saying, “Your job is not to judge the hypocrites. I’ve never commissioned you to do that. So don’t go into the church & start uprooting the hypocrites.”
And that means, first of all, that we’re not to judge a person’s salvation. That’s not our job. God never put us on the judgment throne to say this person is lost & this one is saved. Our responsibility is to do our best to present the truth that’s in God’s Word, & to leave the rest in God’s hands.
There are things, however, that we should judge.
1. First of all, the Bible very clearly teaches that we are to recognize & judge false teachings.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.”
Do you see the parallels between these words & the parable we’ve been reading? Jesus says that false teachers may look like sheep, & sound like sheep, & act like sheep.
So how will we recognize them? Jesus says, “You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act”. If they’re sowing seeds of discord & bitterness; if they’re causing people to become disobedient, then they’re false teachers. So we are to judge false teaching.
2. Secondly, we’re to judge sinful actions. If someone in the church is doing a sinful thing & it’s common knowledge, then something needs to be done.
Paul uses an example in 1 Corinthians 5 of a man who was sleeping with his father’s wife (probably his step-mother), & the church knew about it. So Paul condemned the church because it didn’t take any action. Now what kind of action should it have taken? Paul said, “You should have gone to him to seek a reconciliation that would cause him to repent of his sin & change his ways.” And if the man refused to repent, then they should expel him from among them, in the hope that he would come to his senses & repent.
But if someone who isn’t a Christian comes to the church seeking Christ, they can come regardless of their sin. That’s what the church is for. No matter what a person’s past has been, if come to church genuinely seeking a relationship with the Lord, they should be welcome.
But once you become a Christian. Once you have been forgiven, that changes the standards. Then if you slip back into sin, reconciliation & repentance need to take place.
Paul said, “I prayed that they should repent & turn to God & prove their repentance by their deeds.”
Now finally, “Why should we be genuine & true?” Why should we want to be an authentic person & not a hypocrite? Because we will be respected. The Bible says, Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom.”
“I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day,
I’d rather one would walk with me than merely tell the way;
The eye’s a better pupil & more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing, but example’s always clear. …
I may not understand the high advice you give,
But there’s no misunderstanding how you act & how you live. (Edgar Guest)
Monday, July 18, 2011
Religion or Relationship?
Religion or Relationship?
You can know a lot about a person without actually knowing or even meeting them. We may know a lot about a person maybe by reading about them or seeing stuff in the paper. For example, a lot of people know a lot about Coach Saban, but they don’t really know him. Same with Coach Chizik. You can also know a lot about the truth without ever really accepting it and making it your own. Likewise we can know a lot about Christianity without ever having a personal relationship with Christ.
“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ Matthew 7:21-23
Christianity is based in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is not a religion but a relationship with the creator God of eternity.
1. Knowing all the right stuff is not enough. Matthew 7:21
Many shall come to Jesus on the Day of Judgment and say “‘Lord! Lord!’ – acknowledging that Jesus is God. However, that will not be enough. Being a Christian is not just about knowing the truth. You can understand and know what the Bible says and yet not be saved.
There are non-believers that know the Bible better than most of us. They can debate us better than most and they can quote what the Bible says. They know it better than many Christians. That didn’t mean they accepted it. Even the devil knows that Jesus is Lord.
James, the brother of Jesus writes: What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. James 2:14-19
James is saying here that true faith has legs on it. True faith is not just believing something but stepping out and putting your hope and trust in it. It is not enough to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord – you must make Him YOUR Lord. It is one thing to know that salvation is a gift and another thing to accept that gift.
There are many people who are very wise and have studied and know the scriptures in great detail and yet they are going to hell. It does not matter what you know but what you do with what you know.
It is not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong;
not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich;
not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned;
and not what we profess but what we practice that makes us Christians.
A bus driver became annoyed with his job because he had to wait several minutes after every run near an open field which 'litterbugs' had made into an unofficial dump. He thought that somebody should do something about that unsightly mess. One day he himself decided to get out and pick up some of the tin cans and other debris which were lying all around. This improved things so much that he soon was eager to complete his route and spend all his free moments in cleaning up the area. When spring came, he was so enthusiastic about this project that he decided to sow some flower seeds. By the end of the summer people were riding to the end of the line just to see what the driver had accomplished by doing what he and others had only talked about before." The article reminds us of the tremendous gap that often exists in many churches between preaching and practice! Many who know what they believe cause us to wonder if they really believe what they know! An intellectual awareness of the truth is not enough. Belief must show fruit through actions.
How about us? How is our walk with Jesus going these days? In Revelations 2, we read the letter to the church in Ephesus congratulating them for their “hard work”. They had tested those who claimed to be apostles but were not. They believed the right things. Yet Jesus said, “You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!” The warning was that God would remove the lampstand unless they repented – He would remove His Spirit.
2. Doing all the right things is not enough! Matthew 7:22
Jesus went on to say that MANY will come to Him on the Day of Judgment and point to their religious works as the basis for their acceptance to heaven. Being a Christian is not a matter of just doing the right things. The religions of the world are based on the works idea. The problem is that it does not make any sense.
Other religions base their chances of getting to their version of heaven on their works. Muslims believe that there are 2 angels that sit on your shoulders. One writes down all the good things you do and one writes down all the bad. When you stand before God the lists will be compared. If they have more good things than bad things you get in.
Suppose that God were to simplify matters and reduced the Bible to one command - you must jump 100 feet, straight up. We would say, "that's not fair God" or "that's impossible". But to save ourselves we need to try. Some of us, like me, may only jump 6 inches. Some might be able to jump six feet. But everyone would still be at least 94 feet short. Because we can't make the distance we begin to compare ourselves with others thinking that if we can just jump higher than someone else we are better off. But this doesn’t work. None of us reach the mark. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus says, “..you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” AND the only way we can be perfect is through the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. We can’t do it ourselves.
Salvation should lead to good works - but it does not work the other way around. Good works does not lead to salvation. Our response to God for His saving grace in our lives prompts us to live for Him. Our faith is not something we do to earn our way into heaven. It is our response to what God has already done for us in saving us. There is a HUGE difference between the two.
How about us? What are we basing our relationship with God on? When you think about your faith are you quick to point out your deeds, or your relationship.
3. Does Jesus KNOW us and do we KNOW Him? It’s all about the relationship. Matthew 23
Jesus will say to many “I never knew you”. Being a Christian is about having a relationship with Jesus. It is getting to know Him and making yourself known to Him. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. You can know the truth and even live the truth but if you do not accept the gift then you do not own it.
We need to ask ourselves, do we KNOW God. Maybe you have been coming to church since before you were born. You have heard the stories and sung in the choir. Do you know Him? Not just intellectually but do you KNOW Him intimately – is your relationship marked by times spent together in conversation? Do you walk together and talk together? Do you hear His voice? Do you know Him?
The expression "face the music" is said to have originated from a story from Japan. There was a man in the imperial orchestra that couldn't play a note. Being a person of great influence and wealth, he had demanded that he be given a place in the group because he wanted to "perform" before the emperor. The conductor agreed to let him sit in the second row of the orchestra, even though he couldn't read music. He was given a flute, and when a concert would begin, he'd raise his instrument, pucker his lips, and move his fingers. He would go through all the motions of playing, but he never made a sound. This deception continued for years. Then a new conductor took over. He told the orchestra that he wanted to audition each player personally. One by one they performed for him and then came the flutist's turn. He was frantic with worry, so he pretended to be sick. However, the doctor who was ordered to examine him declared that he was perfectly well. The conductor insisted that the man appear and demonstrate his skill. Shamefacedly he had to confess that he was a fake. He was unable to "face the music." In the realm of Christian service, many professing believers go through the motions, but they are only pretenders. Someday they will be called upon to stand before the Judge of heaven and earth, and their deception will be revealed. God will then separate the "phonies" from the real Christians. No one will be able to hide in the crowd. Each will be made to "face the music."
“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.” Matthew 25:31-33
You can know a lot about a person without actually knowing or even meeting them. We may know a lot about a person maybe by reading about them or seeing stuff in the paper. For example, a lot of people know a lot about Coach Saban, but they don’t really know him. Same with Coach Chizik. You can also know a lot about the truth without ever really accepting it and making it your own. Likewise we can know a lot about Christianity without ever having a personal relationship with Christ.
“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ Matthew 7:21-23
Christianity is based in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is not a religion but a relationship with the creator God of eternity.
1. Knowing all the right stuff is not enough. Matthew 7:21
Many shall come to Jesus on the Day of Judgment and say “‘Lord! Lord!’ – acknowledging that Jesus is God. However, that will not be enough. Being a Christian is not just about knowing the truth. You can understand and know what the Bible says and yet not be saved.
There are non-believers that know the Bible better than most of us. They can debate us better than most and they can quote what the Bible says. They know it better than many Christians. That didn’t mean they accepted it. Even the devil knows that Jesus is Lord.
James, the brother of Jesus writes: What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. James 2:14-19
James is saying here that true faith has legs on it. True faith is not just believing something but stepping out and putting your hope and trust in it. It is not enough to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord – you must make Him YOUR Lord. It is one thing to know that salvation is a gift and another thing to accept that gift.
There are many people who are very wise and have studied and know the scriptures in great detail and yet they are going to hell. It does not matter what you know but what you do with what you know.
It is not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong;
not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich;
not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned;
and not what we profess but what we practice that makes us Christians.
A bus driver became annoyed with his job because he had to wait several minutes after every run near an open field which 'litterbugs' had made into an unofficial dump. He thought that somebody should do something about that unsightly mess. One day he himself decided to get out and pick up some of the tin cans and other debris which were lying all around. This improved things so much that he soon was eager to complete his route and spend all his free moments in cleaning up the area. When spring came, he was so enthusiastic about this project that he decided to sow some flower seeds. By the end of the summer people were riding to the end of the line just to see what the driver had accomplished by doing what he and others had only talked about before." The article reminds us of the tremendous gap that often exists in many churches between preaching and practice! Many who know what they believe cause us to wonder if they really believe what they know! An intellectual awareness of the truth is not enough. Belief must show fruit through actions.
How about us? How is our walk with Jesus going these days? In Revelations 2, we read the letter to the church in Ephesus congratulating them for their “hard work”. They had tested those who claimed to be apostles but were not. They believed the right things. Yet Jesus said, “You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!” The warning was that God would remove the lampstand unless they repented – He would remove His Spirit.
2. Doing all the right things is not enough! Matthew 7:22
Jesus went on to say that MANY will come to Him on the Day of Judgment and point to their religious works as the basis for their acceptance to heaven. Being a Christian is not a matter of just doing the right things. The religions of the world are based on the works idea. The problem is that it does not make any sense.
Other religions base their chances of getting to their version of heaven on their works. Muslims believe that there are 2 angels that sit on your shoulders. One writes down all the good things you do and one writes down all the bad. When you stand before God the lists will be compared. If they have more good things than bad things you get in.
Suppose that God were to simplify matters and reduced the Bible to one command - you must jump 100 feet, straight up. We would say, "that's not fair God" or "that's impossible". But to save ourselves we need to try. Some of us, like me, may only jump 6 inches. Some might be able to jump six feet. But everyone would still be at least 94 feet short. Because we can't make the distance we begin to compare ourselves with others thinking that if we can just jump higher than someone else we are better off. But this doesn’t work. None of us reach the mark. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus says, “..you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” AND the only way we can be perfect is through the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. We can’t do it ourselves.
Salvation should lead to good works - but it does not work the other way around. Good works does not lead to salvation. Our response to God for His saving grace in our lives prompts us to live for Him. Our faith is not something we do to earn our way into heaven. It is our response to what God has already done for us in saving us. There is a HUGE difference between the two.
How about us? What are we basing our relationship with God on? When you think about your faith are you quick to point out your deeds, or your relationship.
3. Does Jesus KNOW us and do we KNOW Him? It’s all about the relationship. Matthew 23
Jesus will say to many “I never knew you”. Being a Christian is about having a relationship with Jesus. It is getting to know Him and making yourself known to Him. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. You can know the truth and even live the truth but if you do not accept the gift then you do not own it.
We need to ask ourselves, do we KNOW God. Maybe you have been coming to church since before you were born. You have heard the stories and sung in the choir. Do you know Him? Not just intellectually but do you KNOW Him intimately – is your relationship marked by times spent together in conversation? Do you walk together and talk together? Do you hear His voice? Do you know Him?
The expression "face the music" is said to have originated from a story from Japan. There was a man in the imperial orchestra that couldn't play a note. Being a person of great influence and wealth, he had demanded that he be given a place in the group because he wanted to "perform" before the emperor. The conductor agreed to let him sit in the second row of the orchestra, even though he couldn't read music. He was given a flute, and when a concert would begin, he'd raise his instrument, pucker his lips, and move his fingers. He would go through all the motions of playing, but he never made a sound. This deception continued for years. Then a new conductor took over. He told the orchestra that he wanted to audition each player personally. One by one they performed for him and then came the flutist's turn. He was frantic with worry, so he pretended to be sick. However, the doctor who was ordered to examine him declared that he was perfectly well. The conductor insisted that the man appear and demonstrate his skill. Shamefacedly he had to confess that he was a fake. He was unable to "face the music." In the realm of Christian service, many professing believers go through the motions, but they are only pretenders. Someday they will be called upon to stand before the Judge of heaven and earth, and their deception will be revealed. God will then separate the "phonies" from the real Christians. No one will be able to hide in the crowd. Each will be made to "face the music."
“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.” Matthew 25:31-33
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Full Speed Ahead One Step at a Time: How You Can Walk in the Spirit Every Day
Full Speed Ahead One Step at a Time: How You Can Walk in the Spirit Every Day –Galatians 5:16-18
This is one of the most important passages on the Christian life in the New Testament. It answers a question all of us have asked at one time or another: Why is it taking me so long to get better? We’ve all wondered about that, haven’t we?
� "I thought by now I wouldn’t struggle so much with anger. Why is it taking me so long to get better?”
� "I still get tempted by pornography. Why is it taking me so long to get better?”
� "I go to church every Sunday but I still have so many doubts. Why is it taking me so long to get better?”
� "I thought I’d be a better person by now but I’ve got so many bad habits. Why is it taking me so long to get better?”
� "I’m a bitter person even though I cover it up most of the time. Why is it taking me so long to get better?”
Many of us wish we had an answer to that question. We might assume that upon being saved, we would rapidly sprout wings and fly to Heaven. But it doesn’t happen that way. God has ordained that even though we are being made like Jesus, it only happens a little bit at a time. And sometimes that “little bit” seems very little indeed.
When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, God did not allow them to conquer it all at once. Because there were many entrenched enemies in the hills of Canaan, the Jews had to fight for every inch of it. Then they had to fight to keep what they conquered. It took them many years to possess the entire land. This is also a picture of the Christian life. There is victory to be had but it will not come easily or quickly. We are in a warfare with spiritual foes who will not easily yield their ground. Whether we wish to admit it or not, we will struggle with sin and temptation as long as we live. There is no reprieve from this struggle. And that’s one major reason why it takes so long for any of us to get better.
The Apostle Paul writes:
The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong , I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. Romans 7:14-16 NLT
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. Galatians 5:16-17 NLT
The NIV says: So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 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. Galatians 5:16-17 NIV
Struggle is a Normal Part of the Christian Life.
Many Christians prefer not to hear this truth because they want a Christianity that proclaims “all victory all the time.” They want a guarantee that all their problems will be solved if they will follow the right formula. But that is not realistic nor is it Biblical. We are to fight the good fight of faith, putting on the whole armor of God, standing in the evil day, and enduring hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Verse 17 is abundantly clear in this regard. Two principles are at war within us. One is called “flesh.” The other is called “the Spirit.” They are constantly at war with each other. The flesh is Paul’s term for the sinful nature inside all of us by virtue of our physical descent from Adam. This nature is hostile to God, selfish, and utterly evil. When we come to Christ, we become new creations by virtue of the Holy Spirit who comes to live within us. Even though the dominating power of the flesh is broken, the pull of evil remains with us. As one writer put it, evil desires arise from the flesh like smoke from a chimney. To say it another way, flesh is what we are by natural birth; the Spirit comes to us by our spiritual birth.
We can get several conclusions from this:
• Flesh and the Spirit are fundamentally opposite. They do not and cannot cooperate.
• The conflict between our flesh and the Spirit is continual and inevitable.
• That conflict produces conflicting desires in the believer.
Thus with the same mouth we curse and we bless. We love and we hate. We serve and then we steal. We proclaim Christ and then we lie to our friends. We read the Bible and then we watch dirty movies. We sing in the choir and then we have an affair. And so it goes. The manifestations differ, but all of us feel the struggle in one way or the other.
Some people think, “If I come to Christ, all my problems will be solved. I’ll never struggle again.” Think again, folks! If you come to Christ, your problems are just starting. As a lost person, you sin because that’s your nature. As a Christian, you have a new nature that pulls you toward God while the flesh remains with you until you die. In one sense, Christians have conflicts the unsaved never know about. Our rewards are great but so are our struggles.
We ought to praise God for the war within. The deadly feud between flesh and Spirit is one sign that we are the children of God. Do you desire to be holy? Do you want to please the Lord? Is there a hunger in your heart to know Jesus and to love him? Do you desire to live a higher and better life even though you cannot seem to attain it? If you answer yes, that is strong evidence you are born again - saved. Despite your personal failings, do you truly want to do what God wants you to do? Then you may rest in the knowledge that you are a child of God. Your struggle with sin is proof of your divine heritage. If sin is a burden, at least it is a burden and not a joy. If you can swear and hate and steal and mock and lust and think all sorts of foul thoughts and speak harsh words, if you can do that and feel nothing, then you need to take a good look at your “salvation”.
Our ongoing struggles and temptations are not in themselves sinful. We are not condemned because we struggle. It’s not the struggle that matters; it’s how we respond. The sin is in giving in, not in the fight itself.
• No one escapes the conflict.
• No one can avoid the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit.
• No one gets a Christian life free from outward pressure and inward turmoil.
And there is no second blessing or spiritual experience that can magically propel you to a state where you no longer struggle with sin. That won’t happen until we finally get to heaven. Between now and then, we walk the hard road to glory, fighting every day to stay on the right path.
In the end is it impossible to remain neutral. The Holy Spirit can only help us when we depend on him. We still have a choice to make: Flesh or Spirit! Right or wrong! Good or evil! My way or God’s way!
That Struggle Produces Many Benefits.
It’s crucial to remember that God allows the struggle as part of our ongoing spiritual growth. Strange as it may seem, we need to struggle because that’s the only way we can grow in grace. Here are a few benefits to consider:
• It reveals to us our inherent weakness.
• It kills our pride and arrogance.
• It humbles us again and again.
• It forces us to cry out to God for help.
• It reveals the uselessness of human effort apart from God’s strength.
• It teaches us to rely on the Lord alone.
• It causes us to love the Savior who delivers us from sin.
• It leads us to a life of continual repentance.
• It makes us more watchful against the advancement of sin in our lives.
• It prods us to use all the means of divine grace.
• It encourages us to develop habits of holiness.
• It forces us to lean on our brothers and sisters to help us out.
• It leads us to look for daily solutions instead of instant miracles.
In Galatians 5:16 Paul tells us to “let the Holy Spirit guide your lives” That opens up a vast area of crucial truth.
• The Holy Spirit is a Person.
• He resides in us from the moment of conversion.
• He creates in us a new desire.
• He gives us the power to obey.
• He leads us to live like Jesus would live.
Paul’s point is that what the law could not do, the Holy Spirit does. Our hope is not in rules, but in the Person of the Holy Spirit indwelling every believer. By his power we can obey God in the midst of our ongoing struggle with sin.
In verse 16 the NIV translation says -- walk by the Spirit
The Greek word for “walk” is very ordinary. It means to walk from one place to another. It’s in the present tense, which means “keep on walking.” To walk means “to take a series of small steps in the same direction over a long period of time.” Walking implies steady progress in one direction by means of deliberate choices over a long period of time. To walk in the Spirit means something like “let your conduct be directed by the Holy Spirit” or “make progress in your life by relying on the Holy Spirit.” It has the idea of allowing the Holy Spirit to guide every part of your life on a daily basis.
Walking is slow compared with driving a car or flying in a plane. It’s not flashy at all. And sometimes walking can be tedious, slow, dull, drab, and downright boring. And yet if you’ve got to get from Point A to Point B, walking will get you there eventually. All you have to do is just start walking and don’t stop until you get there.
Letting the Holy Spirit guide our lives is not some mystical experience reserved for a few special Christians. It’s God’s design for normal Christian living. It’s nothing more than choosing (by God’s grace) to take tiny steps toward the light day after day after day. Those tiny steps do not remove the struggle but they allow us to walk in the light even while we feel the pull to go in another direction. The pull of the darkness is always with us in one form or another. By the Spirit’s power, we can choose to walk in the light every day.
What should we do during our struggles?
• Stay humble.
• Watch and pray.
• Keep your eyes on Jesus.
• Take little steps in the right direction every day.
• When we fall, get up and move forward for God.
Remember that our struggle is not sinful. God allows it so that we will look to him for daily solutions instead of instant miracles. The struggle itself is evidence that we belong to God. Through the struggle with sin our soul is made strong and we are being made fit for heaven. Stand and fight. The Lord is on our side.
This is one of the most important passages on the Christian life in the New Testament. It answers a question all of us have asked at one time or another: Why is it taking me so long to get better? We’ve all wondered about that, haven’t we?
� "I thought by now I wouldn’t struggle so much with anger. Why is it taking me so long to get better?”
� "I still get tempted by pornography. Why is it taking me so long to get better?”
� "I go to church every Sunday but I still have so many doubts. Why is it taking me so long to get better?”
� "I thought I’d be a better person by now but I’ve got so many bad habits. Why is it taking me so long to get better?”
� "I’m a bitter person even though I cover it up most of the time. Why is it taking me so long to get better?”
Many of us wish we had an answer to that question. We might assume that upon being saved, we would rapidly sprout wings and fly to Heaven. But it doesn’t happen that way. God has ordained that even though we are being made like Jesus, it only happens a little bit at a time. And sometimes that “little bit” seems very little indeed.
When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, God did not allow them to conquer it all at once. Because there were many entrenched enemies in the hills of Canaan, the Jews had to fight for every inch of it. Then they had to fight to keep what they conquered. It took them many years to possess the entire land. This is also a picture of the Christian life. There is victory to be had but it will not come easily or quickly. We are in a warfare with spiritual foes who will not easily yield their ground. Whether we wish to admit it or not, we will struggle with sin and temptation as long as we live. There is no reprieve from this struggle. And that’s one major reason why it takes so long for any of us to get better.
The Apostle Paul writes:
The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong , I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. Romans 7:14-16 NLT
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. Galatians 5:16-17 NLT
The NIV says: So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 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. Galatians 5:16-17 NIV
Struggle is a Normal Part of the Christian Life.
Many Christians prefer not to hear this truth because they want a Christianity that proclaims “all victory all the time.” They want a guarantee that all their problems will be solved if they will follow the right formula. But that is not realistic nor is it Biblical. We are to fight the good fight of faith, putting on the whole armor of God, standing in the evil day, and enduring hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Verse 17 is abundantly clear in this regard. Two principles are at war within us. One is called “flesh.” The other is called “the Spirit.” They are constantly at war with each other. The flesh is Paul’s term for the sinful nature inside all of us by virtue of our physical descent from Adam. This nature is hostile to God, selfish, and utterly evil. When we come to Christ, we become new creations by virtue of the Holy Spirit who comes to live within us. Even though the dominating power of the flesh is broken, the pull of evil remains with us. As one writer put it, evil desires arise from the flesh like smoke from a chimney. To say it another way, flesh is what we are by natural birth; the Spirit comes to us by our spiritual birth.
We can get several conclusions from this:
• Flesh and the Spirit are fundamentally opposite. They do not and cannot cooperate.
• The conflict between our flesh and the Spirit is continual and inevitable.
• That conflict produces conflicting desires in the believer.
Thus with the same mouth we curse and we bless. We love and we hate. We serve and then we steal. We proclaim Christ and then we lie to our friends. We read the Bible and then we watch dirty movies. We sing in the choir and then we have an affair. And so it goes. The manifestations differ, but all of us feel the struggle in one way or the other.
Some people think, “If I come to Christ, all my problems will be solved. I’ll never struggle again.” Think again, folks! If you come to Christ, your problems are just starting. As a lost person, you sin because that’s your nature. As a Christian, you have a new nature that pulls you toward God while the flesh remains with you until you die. In one sense, Christians have conflicts the unsaved never know about. Our rewards are great but so are our struggles.
We ought to praise God for the war within. The deadly feud between flesh and Spirit is one sign that we are the children of God. Do you desire to be holy? Do you want to please the Lord? Is there a hunger in your heart to know Jesus and to love him? Do you desire to live a higher and better life even though you cannot seem to attain it? If you answer yes, that is strong evidence you are born again - saved. Despite your personal failings, do you truly want to do what God wants you to do? Then you may rest in the knowledge that you are a child of God. Your struggle with sin is proof of your divine heritage. If sin is a burden, at least it is a burden and not a joy. If you can swear and hate and steal and mock and lust and think all sorts of foul thoughts and speak harsh words, if you can do that and feel nothing, then you need to take a good look at your “salvation”.
Our ongoing struggles and temptations are not in themselves sinful. We are not condemned because we struggle. It’s not the struggle that matters; it’s how we respond. The sin is in giving in, not in the fight itself.
• No one escapes the conflict.
• No one can avoid the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit.
• No one gets a Christian life free from outward pressure and inward turmoil.
And there is no second blessing or spiritual experience that can magically propel you to a state where you no longer struggle with sin. That won’t happen until we finally get to heaven. Between now and then, we walk the hard road to glory, fighting every day to stay on the right path.
In the end is it impossible to remain neutral. The Holy Spirit can only help us when we depend on him. We still have a choice to make: Flesh or Spirit! Right or wrong! Good or evil! My way or God’s way!
That Struggle Produces Many Benefits.
It’s crucial to remember that God allows the struggle as part of our ongoing spiritual growth. Strange as it may seem, we need to struggle because that’s the only way we can grow in grace. Here are a few benefits to consider:
• It reveals to us our inherent weakness.
• It kills our pride and arrogance.
• It humbles us again and again.
• It forces us to cry out to God for help.
• It reveals the uselessness of human effort apart from God’s strength.
• It teaches us to rely on the Lord alone.
• It causes us to love the Savior who delivers us from sin.
• It leads us to a life of continual repentance.
• It makes us more watchful against the advancement of sin in our lives.
• It prods us to use all the means of divine grace.
• It encourages us to develop habits of holiness.
• It forces us to lean on our brothers and sisters to help us out.
• It leads us to look for daily solutions instead of instant miracles.
In Galatians 5:16 Paul tells us to “let the Holy Spirit guide your lives” That opens up a vast area of crucial truth.
• The Holy Spirit is a Person.
• He resides in us from the moment of conversion.
• He creates in us a new desire.
• He gives us the power to obey.
• He leads us to live like Jesus would live.
Paul’s point is that what the law could not do, the Holy Spirit does. Our hope is not in rules, but in the Person of the Holy Spirit indwelling every believer. By his power we can obey God in the midst of our ongoing struggle with sin.
In verse 16 the NIV translation says -- walk by the Spirit
The Greek word for “walk” is very ordinary. It means to walk from one place to another. It’s in the present tense, which means “keep on walking.” To walk means “to take a series of small steps in the same direction over a long period of time.” Walking implies steady progress in one direction by means of deliberate choices over a long period of time. To walk in the Spirit means something like “let your conduct be directed by the Holy Spirit” or “make progress in your life by relying on the Holy Spirit.” It has the idea of allowing the Holy Spirit to guide every part of your life on a daily basis.
Walking is slow compared with driving a car or flying in a plane. It’s not flashy at all. And sometimes walking can be tedious, slow, dull, drab, and downright boring. And yet if you’ve got to get from Point A to Point B, walking will get you there eventually. All you have to do is just start walking and don’t stop until you get there.
Letting the Holy Spirit guide our lives is not some mystical experience reserved for a few special Christians. It’s God’s design for normal Christian living. It’s nothing more than choosing (by God’s grace) to take tiny steps toward the light day after day after day. Those tiny steps do not remove the struggle but they allow us to walk in the light even while we feel the pull to go in another direction. The pull of the darkness is always with us in one form or another. By the Spirit’s power, we can choose to walk in the light every day.
What should we do during our struggles?
• Stay humble.
• Watch and pray.
• Keep your eyes on Jesus.
• Take little steps in the right direction every day.
• When we fall, get up and move forward for God.
Remember that our struggle is not sinful. God allows it so that we will look to him for daily solutions instead of instant miracles. The struggle itself is evidence that we belong to God. Through the struggle with sin our soul is made strong and we are being made fit for heaven. Stand and fight. The Lord is on our side.
TEMPTATIONS AMERICANS FACE
TEMPTATIONS AMERICANS FACE
Feelings of patriotism tend to flow rather freely at this time of the year. When we sing the "Star Spangled Banner," or hear a choir sing about America & the freedoms that we enjoy, we often want to stand up & salute or just do something to show that we’re proud of our nation.
Sometimes we hear patriotic speeches which contain that ringing phrase, "I’m proud to be an American!" And we echo those sentiments, too. But think about it for a moment. Maybe what we ought to be saying is, "I’m grateful that I’m an American!"
A father was talking with his rather rebellious son one day & said, "Every person who lives in the United States is a privileged person." The boy answered, "I disagree." And the father replied, "That’s the privilege."
We have the privilege to disagree. We have the privilege to speak our mind. We have freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, and the right of petition. We have the freedom to hope & dream & pursue our dreams. We are free in so many ways!
We have these rights because of what our forefathers have done. You & I didn’t earn the privileges that we enjoy as citizens of this land. But let’s be thankful for those who did earn them & passed them on to me, & that is what we should celebrate on the 4th of July.
During the 1800’s, a French political philosopher, visited our nation seeking to uncover the secret of our greatness. He traveled from town to town, asking questions, examining every facet of our society, & then wrote his conclusions in a book.
Here is something he wrote:
"I sought for America’s greatness. I found it not in her fields & forests. I found it not in her mines & factories. I found it not in her Congress & great tribunals. It was only when I entered her churches & heard her pulpits thundering against sin & preaching righteousness that I discovered her greatness. America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
Folks, if we put our trust in education, we’ll get what education can give us. If we put our trust in money, we’ll get what money can give us. If we put our trust in government, we’ll get what government can give us. But if we put our trust in God, we’ll have everything we need, for all eternity.
A few years ago a picture of the historic flag designed by Betsy Ross appeared on the front page of a Chicago newspaper, & underneath it was this caption, "It’s time to check our stitches again."
Maybe it is time for us to check the stitches & to make sure that we are still the home of the brave, & the land of the free.
Let’s look at three temptations that Americans are facing today.
I. TEMPTATION TO ENJOY FRUITS OF CITIZENSHIP WITHOUT TENDING TREE OF LIBERTY
The first is this, there is a very strong temptation to enjoy the fruits of citizenship without tending the tree of liberty.
There was a sermon a number of years ago entitled "Parking on Someone Else’s Nickel." Now obviously the sermon is pretty old because you don’t park anyplace for a nickel anymore. But the point is true. Here is part of sermon:
I have a friend whose home town had only one street with parking meters on it. He says that when he was a teen-ager he remembers driving up & down Main street looking for a place to park.
There were always plenty of parking places because not too many people lived in his town. But not just any parking place would do. He always looked for one that still had time left on its parking meter.
And when he didn’t find it going down one side, he would make a U-turn & go back the other. He might burn up a gallon of gas looking for a parking meter with some time left on it. But when he wheeled into one that still had 30 minutes left it made his day. He was parking on someone else’s nickel!
Could this be a problem in our country today? Most of us haven’t earned the freedoms we enjoy. We didn’t go to foreign lands & fight for them. We have not shed our blood & sweat & tears for them. We are parking on someone else’s nickel.
A writer expressed it this way. "We eat from orchards we did not plant. We drink from wells we did not dig. We reap from fields we did not sow. We are warmed by fires we did not kindle. We are sheltered by roofs we did not build. We are blessed by moneys we did not give." We are thankful to be a citizen of these great United States. But as a citizen, we have a responsibility to tend the tree of liberty.
Is the world a better place because we are a citizen of this country? Is our community a better place because we are a part of it? Is our church a better church because we are a member of it? What are we doing?
Or are we enjoying the fruits, but not tending the tree of liberty?
II. TEMPTATION TO ENJOY BENEFITS OF CAPITALISM WHILE IGNORING CONSCIENCE
There is a second temptation & that is to enjoy the benefits of capitalism while ignoring the cries of conscience. It’s okay that we live in a capitalistic country. Capitalism is not dirty word. Capitalism means free market. We are free to buy, sell, make a profit - to earn our own living.
But capitalism without conscience becomes a cruel & ruthless form of life where competition & success & greed & materialism corrupt & we lose our concern for others.
You see, when our forefathers came to this country & founded our system of government, they were convinced that there was a Higher Power who was involved in the destinies of men & nations. They believed that men were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights - & that among these were life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This was evident in the way they wrote, the way they lived, & the way our nation developed. There was a moral fiber, a moral strength in our nation.
But today it seems that by & large our society is so caught up in greed & materialism that we’re only interested in ourselves. It is survival of the fittest, & all we’re concerned about is making more & more. The result is increased crime, increased drug addiction, increased immorality.
A man sent a letter to Ann Landers. He wrote, "This is for the woman who was distressed about her son. I would like to ask her some questions about the boy. Is he disrespectful? Has he been arrested for drunk driving? Has he been kicked out of college for cheating? Has he made his girl friend pregnant? Does he get failing grades? Does he steal money from your purse?"
"If you can answer `No’ to all these questions, stop complaining. You have a great kid." It was signed, "Ralph N., Oakland, CA."
Here is how she answered him.
She replied, "Your letter showed just how much times have changed. You said that if a kid today isn’t on drugs, doesn’t get failing grades, hasn’t been arrested for drunk driving, or kicked out of college for cheating, hasn’t made his girl friend pregnant, or stolen from your purse, that he’s great. But you make no mention of achievement. There’s not a word about integrity, a sense of responsibility, decency, morality or service to others."
Then she went on to add, "What a sad commentary on our times. Good Lord, where is our nation headed, & who is going to lead us there?"
The soul of America is God, & we’re in danger of losing our soul!
III. TEMPTATION TO WANT CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT COMMITMENT
Our 3rd temptation is to want Christianity without commitment. We are not talking about an emotional experience. We’re talking about a commitment & surrender to God that results in a changed heart & life.
For too long there have been churches who have felt that it’s all right for nice little people to get together in their Sunday best, & listen to pleasant choir specials & little sermons that make them feel good about themselves & their homes & families & relationship to God.
"Just tell me how nice I am, how pretty I am, how righteous I am. Give me Christianity, but don’t talk to me about conversion. I don’t want to change. I want to remain exactly the way I am."
Somehow along the way, in our celebration of independence & freedom, we have forgotten the greatest freedom of all. Jesus Christ went to the cross & gave His life to gain our freedom from sin. And that is a message that you & I & our country needs to hear again & again today.
So let’s salute the flag. Let’s allow our patriotic juices to flow freely, & get goose pimples up & down our spine. But remember this, we didn’t earn our freedoms. We may not even deserve them.
Folks, hopefully we are humbly thankful to be a part of this great land of ours, & that we do not take our citizenship lightly, but be determined to hold high the freedoms we enjoy so that the generations that follow us will experience & treasure them also.
And the prayer today is that we will be a real Christian who is hungry & thirsty for the truth of God, & that we will never compromise it, but share it with a world that desperately needs to hear the only truth that can guarantee our freedom for all eternity.
Feelings of patriotism tend to flow rather freely at this time of the year. When we sing the "Star Spangled Banner," or hear a choir sing about America & the freedoms that we enjoy, we often want to stand up & salute or just do something to show that we’re proud of our nation.
Sometimes we hear patriotic speeches which contain that ringing phrase, "I’m proud to be an American!" And we echo those sentiments, too. But think about it for a moment. Maybe what we ought to be saying is, "I’m grateful that I’m an American!"
A father was talking with his rather rebellious son one day & said, "Every person who lives in the United States is a privileged person." The boy answered, "I disagree." And the father replied, "That’s the privilege."
We have the privilege to disagree. We have the privilege to speak our mind. We have freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, and the right of petition. We have the freedom to hope & dream & pursue our dreams. We are free in so many ways!
We have these rights because of what our forefathers have done. You & I didn’t earn the privileges that we enjoy as citizens of this land. But let’s be thankful for those who did earn them & passed them on to me, & that is what we should celebrate on the 4th of July.
During the 1800’s, a French political philosopher, visited our nation seeking to uncover the secret of our greatness. He traveled from town to town, asking questions, examining every facet of our society, & then wrote his conclusions in a book.
Here is something he wrote:
"I sought for America’s greatness. I found it not in her fields & forests. I found it not in her mines & factories. I found it not in her Congress & great tribunals. It was only when I entered her churches & heard her pulpits thundering against sin & preaching righteousness that I discovered her greatness. America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
Folks, if we put our trust in education, we’ll get what education can give us. If we put our trust in money, we’ll get what money can give us. If we put our trust in government, we’ll get what government can give us. But if we put our trust in God, we’ll have everything we need, for all eternity.
A few years ago a picture of the historic flag designed by Betsy Ross appeared on the front page of a Chicago newspaper, & underneath it was this caption, "It’s time to check our stitches again."
Maybe it is time for us to check the stitches & to make sure that we are still the home of the brave, & the land of the free.
Let’s look at three temptations that Americans are facing today.
I. TEMPTATION TO ENJOY FRUITS OF CITIZENSHIP WITHOUT TENDING TREE OF LIBERTY
The first is this, there is a very strong temptation to enjoy the fruits of citizenship without tending the tree of liberty.
There was a sermon a number of years ago entitled "Parking on Someone Else’s Nickel." Now obviously the sermon is pretty old because you don’t park anyplace for a nickel anymore. But the point is true. Here is part of sermon:
I have a friend whose home town had only one street with parking meters on it. He says that when he was a teen-ager he remembers driving up & down Main street looking for a place to park.
There were always plenty of parking places because not too many people lived in his town. But not just any parking place would do. He always looked for one that still had time left on its parking meter.
And when he didn’t find it going down one side, he would make a U-turn & go back the other. He might burn up a gallon of gas looking for a parking meter with some time left on it. But when he wheeled into one that still had 30 minutes left it made his day. He was parking on someone else’s nickel!
Could this be a problem in our country today? Most of us haven’t earned the freedoms we enjoy. We didn’t go to foreign lands & fight for them. We have not shed our blood & sweat & tears for them. We are parking on someone else’s nickel.
A writer expressed it this way. "We eat from orchards we did not plant. We drink from wells we did not dig. We reap from fields we did not sow. We are warmed by fires we did not kindle. We are sheltered by roofs we did not build. We are blessed by moneys we did not give." We are thankful to be a citizen of these great United States. But as a citizen, we have a responsibility to tend the tree of liberty.
Is the world a better place because we are a citizen of this country? Is our community a better place because we are a part of it? Is our church a better church because we are a member of it? What are we doing?
Or are we enjoying the fruits, but not tending the tree of liberty?
II. TEMPTATION TO ENJOY BENEFITS OF CAPITALISM WHILE IGNORING CONSCIENCE
There is a second temptation & that is to enjoy the benefits of capitalism while ignoring the cries of conscience. It’s okay that we live in a capitalistic country. Capitalism is not dirty word. Capitalism means free market. We are free to buy, sell, make a profit - to earn our own living.
But capitalism without conscience becomes a cruel & ruthless form of life where competition & success & greed & materialism corrupt & we lose our concern for others.
You see, when our forefathers came to this country & founded our system of government, they were convinced that there was a Higher Power who was involved in the destinies of men & nations. They believed that men were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights - & that among these were life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This was evident in the way they wrote, the way they lived, & the way our nation developed. There was a moral fiber, a moral strength in our nation.
But today it seems that by & large our society is so caught up in greed & materialism that we’re only interested in ourselves. It is survival of the fittest, & all we’re concerned about is making more & more. The result is increased crime, increased drug addiction, increased immorality.
A man sent a letter to Ann Landers. He wrote, "This is for the woman who was distressed about her son. I would like to ask her some questions about the boy. Is he disrespectful? Has he been arrested for drunk driving? Has he been kicked out of college for cheating? Has he made his girl friend pregnant? Does he get failing grades? Does he steal money from your purse?"
"If you can answer `No’ to all these questions, stop complaining. You have a great kid." It was signed, "Ralph N., Oakland, CA."
Here is how she answered him.
She replied, "Your letter showed just how much times have changed. You said that if a kid today isn’t on drugs, doesn’t get failing grades, hasn’t been arrested for drunk driving, or kicked out of college for cheating, hasn’t made his girl friend pregnant, or stolen from your purse, that he’s great. But you make no mention of achievement. There’s not a word about integrity, a sense of responsibility, decency, morality or service to others."
Then she went on to add, "What a sad commentary on our times. Good Lord, where is our nation headed, & who is going to lead us there?"
The soul of America is God, & we’re in danger of losing our soul!
III. TEMPTATION TO WANT CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT COMMITMENT
Our 3rd temptation is to want Christianity without commitment. We are not talking about an emotional experience. We’re talking about a commitment & surrender to God that results in a changed heart & life.
For too long there have been churches who have felt that it’s all right for nice little people to get together in their Sunday best, & listen to pleasant choir specials & little sermons that make them feel good about themselves & their homes & families & relationship to God.
"Just tell me how nice I am, how pretty I am, how righteous I am. Give me Christianity, but don’t talk to me about conversion. I don’t want to change. I want to remain exactly the way I am."
Somehow along the way, in our celebration of independence & freedom, we have forgotten the greatest freedom of all. Jesus Christ went to the cross & gave His life to gain our freedom from sin. And that is a message that you & I & our country needs to hear again & again today.
So let’s salute the flag. Let’s allow our patriotic juices to flow freely, & get goose pimples up & down our spine. But remember this, we didn’t earn our freedoms. We may not even deserve them.
Folks, hopefully we are humbly thankful to be a part of this great land of ours, & that we do not take our citizenship lightly, but be determined to hold high the freedoms we enjoy so that the generations that follow us will experience & treasure them also.
And the prayer today is that we will be a real Christian who is hungry & thirsty for the truth of God, & that we will never compromise it, but share it with a world that desperately needs to hear the only truth that can guarantee our freedom for all eternity.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
A Vanishing God
Jesus often comes to us in unexpected ways and unexpected means.
Think about how He came to Earth. For centuries, Israel had waited for a political and a military Messiah (Savior). They expected Him to lead a rebellion and free Israel from Roman oppression. But how did the Messiah make His entrance? He came in a way that made it easy for His own people to reject Him. He came as a frail baby, born in a feeding room for animals. There He was. The promised Messiah who was expected to overthrow the Roman Empire and set Israel free from oppression. A needy Nazarene born in a manger.
When Jesus grew up, He ate and drank in their presence and taught in their streets (Luke 13:26). Yet they didn’t recognize Him. (Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.” And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief. Matthew 13:57-58) He was unassumingly modest. A mere craftsman; the son of a craftsman. (He’s just the carpenter’s son. Matthew 13:55) He grew up in the despised city of Nazareth, (“Nazareth!” ……. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” John 1:46) fraternizing with the despised and oppressed. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum? (Matthew 9:11). This had to be a big deal since it is mentioned in 3 of the 4 Gospels. But more startling, He befriended sinners ‘……. a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ (Luke 7:34). How can this be ?, the “church” people wanted to know. As such, the people of God didn’t recognize Him. Why? Because He came in a way that made it easy for them to reject Him. And what about the disciples?
Read the story again. Jesus continued to break out of their expectations. He couldn’t be pinned down, figured out or boxed in. The Twelve were constantly confounded by Him. His teachings were offensive. His actions scandalous. His reactions baffling.
But the greatest offense of all was the cross. It offended everyone—both Jew and Gentile. The only crown the promised Messiah-King would accept was a crown of thorns. Look at Him again. A suffering Messiah, a defeated King. It’s easy to reject Him.
One of the Lord’s most faithful disciples teaches us this principle well. Mary Magdalene was the first person to see Jesus after His death and resurrection. Do you remember what she did as soon as she recognized Him? She grabbed Him, and she wouldn’t stop clinging to Him. Jesus responded, “Don’t cling to me.” (John 20:17). Why did Jesus tell Mary to stop clinging to Him? Because Jesus had somewhere to go. He was on the move. Jesus was poised to go to Galilee to see the other disciples and then to ascend to His Father.
Note the principle: He was moving forward, but she was clinging to Him. Jesus was in effect saying to her: “Mary, stop holding on to me. There’s a new way to know me that’s different from what you’ve experienced thus far. Let me go. I must move on.” Do you remember the disciples who walked on the road to Emmaus? “We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel.” (Luke 24:21). “Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!” Luke 24:31
Their hopes were shattered by Jesus’ horrible death. Suddenly, the resurrected Christ began walking beside them, yet their eyes were blinded from recognizing Him. However, when He engaged in the very simple gesture of breaking bread (something He had done frequently before them), their eyes were opened. He then quickly disappeared from their sight.
These stories hold a critical insight. You cannot cling to the Christ you know today. He will vanish from your midst. Jesus Christ is an elusive Savior. Seeking Him is a continuous “project” that never ends. He doesn’t dance to our music. He doesn’t sing to our tune.
Perhaps He will in the beginning when He first comes to us, but that season will eventually end. Just when you think you’ve laid hold of Him, when you have got Him figured out, He will slip out of your grasp. He will appear to you as a stranger. But on second glance, we’ll discover He’s no stranger at all. The event on the Emmaus road will be repeated. We will recognize Him!
We all wish to cling to the Lord who we know now. We all wish to hold on to the Christ who has been revealed to us today.
But you can “write this down”: He will come to us in a way we do not expect—through people we’re likely to ignore and inclined to write off. Perhaps they don’t talk our religious language. Perhaps they aren’t theologically sophisticated. Perhaps they don’t use our vocabulary. Perhaps they don’t share our insider knowledge (or at least we think we have insider knowledge.) nor agree with our great understanding of the Scriptures. May they are just not PLU’s. (See note at end of lesson as to what a PLU is).
I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.
‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
“…….., ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ (John 25:35-40)
So we cling fast to the Lord we recognize—receiving only those who talk our language, use our jargon and employ our catchphrases—and all along we end up turning the Lord Jesus Christ away.
What, then, does Jesus do after we fail to receive Him when He comes to us in an unexpected way? He moves on. And the revelation we have of Him ceases to grow. Jesus Christ is richer, larger and more glorious than any of us could ever imagine. And He comes to us in ways that make it tempting to reject Him.
When Peter, James and John saw the transfigured Lord on the holy mountain, Peter wanted to build a tabernacle for Jesus, Moses and Elijah and remain on the mountain to enjoy the encounter. But God would not allow it (Matthew 17:1-13). Good old Peter, missed the point again
There is something in our fallen nature that, like Peter, wishes to build a monument around a spiritual encounter with God and remain there. But the Lord will not have it. He will always break free from our frail attempts to pin Him down, box Him up and hold Him in place. And He does so by coming to us in new and unexpected ways.
Are ready to recognize Him?
PLU – People Like US
Think about how He came to Earth. For centuries, Israel had waited for a political and a military Messiah (Savior). They expected Him to lead a rebellion and free Israel from Roman oppression. But how did the Messiah make His entrance? He came in a way that made it easy for His own people to reject Him. He came as a frail baby, born in a feeding room for animals. There He was. The promised Messiah who was expected to overthrow the Roman Empire and set Israel free from oppression. A needy Nazarene born in a manger.
When Jesus grew up, He ate and drank in their presence and taught in their streets (Luke 13:26). Yet they didn’t recognize Him. (Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.” And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief. Matthew 13:57-58) He was unassumingly modest. A mere craftsman; the son of a craftsman. (He’s just the carpenter’s son. Matthew 13:55) He grew up in the despised city of Nazareth, (“Nazareth!” ……. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” John 1:46) fraternizing with the despised and oppressed. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum? (Matthew 9:11). This had to be a big deal since it is mentioned in 3 of the 4 Gospels. But more startling, He befriended sinners ‘……. a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ (Luke 7:34). How can this be ?, the “church” people wanted to know. As such, the people of God didn’t recognize Him. Why? Because He came in a way that made it easy for them to reject Him. And what about the disciples?
Read the story again. Jesus continued to break out of their expectations. He couldn’t be pinned down, figured out or boxed in. The Twelve were constantly confounded by Him. His teachings were offensive. His actions scandalous. His reactions baffling.
But the greatest offense of all was the cross. It offended everyone—both Jew and Gentile. The only crown the promised Messiah-King would accept was a crown of thorns. Look at Him again. A suffering Messiah, a defeated King. It’s easy to reject Him.
One of the Lord’s most faithful disciples teaches us this principle well. Mary Magdalene was the first person to see Jesus after His death and resurrection. Do you remember what she did as soon as she recognized Him? She grabbed Him, and she wouldn’t stop clinging to Him. Jesus responded, “Don’t cling to me.” (John 20:17). Why did Jesus tell Mary to stop clinging to Him? Because Jesus had somewhere to go. He was on the move. Jesus was poised to go to Galilee to see the other disciples and then to ascend to His Father.
Note the principle: He was moving forward, but she was clinging to Him. Jesus was in effect saying to her: “Mary, stop holding on to me. There’s a new way to know me that’s different from what you’ve experienced thus far. Let me go. I must move on.” Do you remember the disciples who walked on the road to Emmaus? “We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel.” (Luke 24:21). “Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!” Luke 24:31
Their hopes were shattered by Jesus’ horrible death. Suddenly, the resurrected Christ began walking beside them, yet their eyes were blinded from recognizing Him. However, when He engaged in the very simple gesture of breaking bread (something He had done frequently before them), their eyes were opened. He then quickly disappeared from their sight.
These stories hold a critical insight. You cannot cling to the Christ you know today. He will vanish from your midst. Jesus Christ is an elusive Savior. Seeking Him is a continuous “project” that never ends. He doesn’t dance to our music. He doesn’t sing to our tune.
Perhaps He will in the beginning when He first comes to us, but that season will eventually end. Just when you think you’ve laid hold of Him, when you have got Him figured out, He will slip out of your grasp. He will appear to you as a stranger. But on second glance, we’ll discover He’s no stranger at all. The event on the Emmaus road will be repeated. We will recognize Him!
We all wish to cling to the Lord who we know now. We all wish to hold on to the Christ who has been revealed to us today.
But you can “write this down”: He will come to us in a way we do not expect—through people we’re likely to ignore and inclined to write off. Perhaps they don’t talk our religious language. Perhaps they aren’t theologically sophisticated. Perhaps they don’t use our vocabulary. Perhaps they don’t share our insider knowledge (or at least we think we have insider knowledge.) nor agree with our great understanding of the Scriptures. May they are just not PLU’s. (See note at end of lesson as to what a PLU is).
I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.
‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
“…….., ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ (John 25:35-40)
So we cling fast to the Lord we recognize—receiving only those who talk our language, use our jargon and employ our catchphrases—and all along we end up turning the Lord Jesus Christ away.
What, then, does Jesus do after we fail to receive Him when He comes to us in an unexpected way? He moves on. And the revelation we have of Him ceases to grow. Jesus Christ is richer, larger and more glorious than any of us could ever imagine. And He comes to us in ways that make it tempting to reject Him.
When Peter, James and John saw the transfigured Lord on the holy mountain, Peter wanted to build a tabernacle for Jesus, Moses and Elijah and remain on the mountain to enjoy the encounter. But God would not allow it (Matthew 17:1-13). Good old Peter, missed the point again
There is something in our fallen nature that, like Peter, wishes to build a monument around a spiritual encounter with God and remain there. But the Lord will not have it. He will always break free from our frail attempts to pin Him down, box Him up and hold Him in place. And He does so by coming to us in new and unexpected ways.
Are ready to recognize Him?
PLU – People Like US
Monday, June 13, 2011
Heal the Wound but Leave the Scar
Heal the Wound but Leave the Scar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sXt3RU_1do
I used to wish that I could rewrite history
I used to dream that each mistake could be erased
Then I could just pretend
I never knew the me back then
I used to pray that You would take this shame away
Hide all the evidence of who I've been
But it's the memory of
The place You brought me from
That keeps me on my knees
And even though I'm free
Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart
Take the pieces of this heart
And heal the wound but leave the scar
I have not lived a life that boasts of anything
I don't take pride in what I bring
But I'll build an altar with
The rubble that You've found me in
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
And every stone will sing
Of what You can redeem
Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart
Take the pieces of this heart
And heal the wound but leave the scar
Don't let me forget
Everything You've done for me
Don't let me forget
The beauty in the suffering
Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart
Take the pieces of this heart
And heal the wound but leave the scar
Heal the Wound but Leave the Scar is the title of a song on the latest album by Point of Grace. It is a great song and as I was listening to it this last Sunday on Gardendale’s service on TV and again Saturday night as I was praying about the lesson God wanted me present this week, it made me think of some times I had really rather forget. Most of us have these. The song is talking about the wounds as a result of mistakes made in life, bad decisions, hurts we have been through, that kind of thing. It maybe refers more to sin in our lives and things in the past that we are embarrassed about.
Not as often as in the past but sometimes the memories of some very bad times in my life come back. I am sure this happens to most folks. The memories can be so vivid and that they can take you right back there again. You may feel and see it all again. In my case, after working through it, I usually wrestle with the Lord a little, wondering what is the purpose of this remembering. Why do we need to feel it all and hurt so much again? Now, it never goes away, there is always pain, but it may not be as intense as it can be sometimes. Something reminds us and the pain comes again. What is the Lord's purpose in those painful memories and why are they still necessary.
Have you ever thought these memories come up so we can remember not to lose our compassion for others, especially when there are many people are struggling with various situations. Maybe we need to spend more time praying for others who we know are hurting. Maybe we need to reach out and give a hand to one of these people. Maybe we need to really care! Maybe we need to understand that what may seem trivial or simple to us may really be big for one of our brothers or sisters! It obvious that sometimes it takes a lot for the Lord to get our attention of our selves and put our focus on others.
Jesus kept his physical scars. The Bible related the appearance of Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection in Luke 24. Verse 40 says When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And if we listen to the other gospels, he showed them his side, maybe his back, obviously they would have seen the scars on his head from the piercing thorns. Did you ever wonder why he kept the scars? If he was the son of God, why not completely heal those hands and feet. Why bear the scars?
Why did Jesus keep the scars, show the scars, why does he through eternity keep those scars?
Was it simply to show them that he was the same person that had been crucified? Was it simply to historically verify that the same person who had been brutally treated, died, was buried, came to life again? Or was there a deeper meaning in his scars that he so willingly showed his disciples?
The most obvious reason he showed his disciples the scars, and continues to wear the scars even in eternity is because scars tell a story. Probably if each of us to survey our own body, we would be able to tell the story of virtually every scar that shows. The reason for that - scars tell a story.
We all have wounds in our hearts, either from sin in our lives or painful things that happen along the journey. Whatever the wound is from is not important, what is important is that we have that scar to remind us of what God taught us through the pain. My prayer is that each wound the Lord heals in my life I only hope He leaves a large scar so I won't forget. Our scars should lead us to praise God for His mercy and remind us of the beauty there is in suffering (as the song says). They should lead us to compassion and hearts and hands that go out to others. We shouldn't hide those scars either. The Lord wants us to encourage others with them.
Don't be afraid to let your scars show. Jesus isn’t! As he spoke, he showed them his hands and his feet. ” Luke 24:40
Lord, thank you for leaving the scars in my life, and please continue to do so. Use them Lord to bring me to my knees in awe of your mercy and how you use broken hearts, and to inspire me to compassion toward others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sXt3RU_1do
I used to wish that I could rewrite history
I used to dream that each mistake could be erased
Then I could just pretend
I never knew the me back then
I used to pray that You would take this shame away
Hide all the evidence of who I've been
But it's the memory of
The place You brought me from
That keeps me on my knees
And even though I'm free
Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart
Take the pieces of this heart
And heal the wound but leave the scar
I have not lived a life that boasts of anything
I don't take pride in what I bring
But I'll build an altar with
The rubble that You've found me in
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
And every stone will sing
Of what You can redeem
Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart
Take the pieces of this heart
And heal the wound but leave the scar
Don't let me forget
Everything You've done for me
Don't let me forget
The beauty in the suffering
Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart
Take the pieces of this heart
And heal the wound but leave the scar
Heal the Wound but Leave the Scar is the title of a song on the latest album by Point of Grace. It is a great song and as I was listening to it this last Sunday on Gardendale’s service on TV and again Saturday night as I was praying about the lesson God wanted me present this week, it made me think of some times I had really rather forget. Most of us have these. The song is talking about the wounds as a result of mistakes made in life, bad decisions, hurts we have been through, that kind of thing. It maybe refers more to sin in our lives and things in the past that we are embarrassed about.
Not as often as in the past but sometimes the memories of some very bad times in my life come back. I am sure this happens to most folks. The memories can be so vivid and that they can take you right back there again. You may feel and see it all again. In my case, after working through it, I usually wrestle with the Lord a little, wondering what is the purpose of this remembering. Why do we need to feel it all and hurt so much again? Now, it never goes away, there is always pain, but it may not be as intense as it can be sometimes. Something reminds us and the pain comes again. What is the Lord's purpose in those painful memories and why are they still necessary.
Have you ever thought these memories come up so we can remember not to lose our compassion for others, especially when there are many people are struggling with various situations. Maybe we need to spend more time praying for others who we know are hurting. Maybe we need to reach out and give a hand to one of these people. Maybe we need to really care! Maybe we need to understand that what may seem trivial or simple to us may really be big for one of our brothers or sisters! It obvious that sometimes it takes a lot for the Lord to get our attention of our selves and put our focus on others.
Jesus kept his physical scars. The Bible related the appearance of Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection in Luke 24. Verse 40 says When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And if we listen to the other gospels, he showed them his side, maybe his back, obviously they would have seen the scars on his head from the piercing thorns. Did you ever wonder why he kept the scars? If he was the son of God, why not completely heal those hands and feet. Why bear the scars?
Why did Jesus keep the scars, show the scars, why does he through eternity keep those scars?
Was it simply to show them that he was the same person that had been crucified? Was it simply to historically verify that the same person who had been brutally treated, died, was buried, came to life again? Or was there a deeper meaning in his scars that he so willingly showed his disciples?
The most obvious reason he showed his disciples the scars, and continues to wear the scars even in eternity is because scars tell a story. Probably if each of us to survey our own body, we would be able to tell the story of virtually every scar that shows. The reason for that - scars tell a story.
We all have wounds in our hearts, either from sin in our lives or painful things that happen along the journey. Whatever the wound is from is not important, what is important is that we have that scar to remind us of what God taught us through the pain. My prayer is that each wound the Lord heals in my life I only hope He leaves a large scar so I won't forget. Our scars should lead us to praise God for His mercy and remind us of the beauty there is in suffering (as the song says). They should lead us to compassion and hearts and hands that go out to others. We shouldn't hide those scars either. The Lord wants us to encourage others with them.
Don't be afraid to let your scars show. Jesus isn’t! As he spoke, he showed them his hands and his feet. ” Luke 24:40
Lord, thank you for leaving the scars in my life, and please continue to do so. Use them Lord to bring me to my knees in awe of your mercy and how you use broken hearts, and to inspire me to compassion toward others.
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