(Rarely do I do two lessons based on a song but this week a friend posted this song on FB and I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind, so I believe this is God’s lesson for us this week!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?hcYDcLiiXmU
God is Still God by Heather Williams
Wish I knew what I'm supposed to say to you
What you're going through
But I don't know what you're feeling
Does anyone know what you're feeling right now
You're afraid
The future's like an enemy,
and you just wish you could see
Cause you don't know where you're going
Don't let it keep you from hoping right now
Yeah we've all been lost and we've all been hurt
Where our hope is spent and our faith don't work
But nothing lasts forever
The only thing that matters
Is God is still God and He holds it together
So hang on now
He's been there, walking in the wilderness
When it's hard to see the end
But He had the strength to do it, so He can help you through it
So hang on now
So even when you lie awake
And bend until you almost break
The darkest time is right before the dawn
We should always be aware that our major adversary here on this earth is the devil. When we are enabled by the Lord to win a victory against him, you can count on him returning to fight another day. His desire is to see us defeated, one way or the other. If he doesn't win in one area of our life, he will change the direction of his attack and come at us again. The Bible says, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour”. 1 Pet. 5:8.
We need to understand that no matter the battle we face, you and I can walk in victory with God’s help! There are some simple truths that show us that God Is Still God, even In the valleys of life.
You see, when we are on the "mountain" spiritually, we are hard for the devil to handle. When we are walking around with a shout in our soul and glory in our hearts, we are a force to be reckoned with. It is hard for Satan to defeat an excited Christian. Maybe that is why Nehemiah said "the joy of the LORD is your strength." Neh. 8:10.
This is the situation Satan ran into with Job. He put the squeeze on Job expecting Job to turn on God. However, all the devil was able to extract from the life of Job was worship and praise. “The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” (Job 1:21). If the devil squeezes you and all he gets is praise to God for His efforts, he is likely to stop squeezing after a while!
A story goes that it was advertised that the devil was going to put his tools up for sale. On the date of the sale the tools were placed for public inspection, each being marked with its sale price. There were a treacherous lot of implements. Hatred, Envy, Jealousy, Doubt, Lying, Pride, and so on. Laid apart from the rest of the pile was a harmless-looking tool, well-worn and priced very high. "What is the name of that tool?" asked one of the purchasers. "Oh," said the adversary, "that's Discouragement." Buyer: "Why have you priced it so high?" Satan: "Because it's more useful to me than the others. I can pry open and get inside a person's heart with that one, when I cannot get near him with other tools. Now once I get inside, I can make him do what I choose. It's a really worn tool, because I use it on almost everyone since few people know it belongs to me."
The devil's price for Discouragement was so high, he never sold it. It's still his major tool, and he still uses it on God's people today.
It has been said that "Discouragement is the handle that fits all the devil's tools." The idea here is that Satan knows that when we are on the mountain, we are hard to get at. Therefore, he assumes that if he can get us in the valley, we will be easier to defeat. Sadly, he has been right in many, many cases. If the devil can get you to focus on the negative aspects of any situation, he can get you discouraged. If he can get you discouraged, he can get you defeated. If he can get you defeated, he can steal the victory of the Lord right out of our heart.
As the saying goes: Life is 10% about what happens to us and 90% about we react to what happens to us! If you develop a "woe is me" attitude concerning the events of life, then you are going to be easy prey for the devil. If, however, you can learn to put into practice the lessons of Philippians 4:6-9. “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything……… His peace will guard your hearts and minds……….. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable…….. Then the God of peace will be with you”
Has the devil tried this trap in your life? Has he used the tool of discouragement on you? I know he has on me and, not to give him any credit, but discouragement works better on me than any other tactic the devil can try. If he can just get us off that mountain top, we will be easier for him to handle!
God is going to prove Himself to be God of the valley as well as God of the mountain. He assures His people of victory!
We need to remember that God is bigger than our valley. It is easier to serve the Lord when we are on the spiritual mountain top. It is easier when we are excited about the Lord and about His work. However, when we go into one of the valley experiences of life, God is still God! When we enter the valley of physical pain, God is still God! When we enter the valley of spiritual discouragement, God is still God. When we enter the valley of sorrow or mental pain, God is still God. Regardless of the valley we are forced to enter, we will find out that God is still God!
You see, God wants to demonstrate to His people that He is God in every stage of life. He wants to be able to demonstrate His power in our life. He wants to show us that He is still God. That is why the Bible is literally filled with promises that teach us that God is in control.
Verses like Rom. 8:28: And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them; 1 Cor. 15:57: “But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 2:14: But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. 2 Cor. 4:17: For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! and others let us know that our God is determined to prove to us that He is God in every circumstance that we face.
For us, victory begins to be realized when we come to understand that Satan wants us to be defeated, but that God has promised we can walk in the victory in spite of our circumstances. When everything around us suggests that we should be discouraged and defeated, God still says that we have the victory. Paul writes in Rom. 8:37, “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”In the final analysis, genuine spiritual victory is never a matter of that what we are facing in life. Genuine spiritual victory is simple faith in the promises of God. We will be victorious, not because everything is perfect in our life, we are victorious when God is in control of our life and He says that we are victorious.
When we understand that God is sill God. Therefore, regardless of the situation, we can rest in the promise of God. The battle may raging around us, but it does not have to rage within us! While we may be in the battle, God has already won the war and we are victorious because He said so!
More than anything else, the path out of the valley begins with the ability to surrender to God in every circumstance.
There is no way of knowing what all of you are facing this today. It may be that the devil has and is using the tool of discouragement in your life. It may be that you feel defeated and a million miles away from the mountain top. Let me just remind you one more time that God is God when you are on the mountain and that God is still God when you are down in the valley. The secret to enjoying the mountains and the valleys is learning that God is in control. If you can do that, then whether you are on top or on bottom, you will always be on the mountain in your heart and victory will always be yours. You get there and you'll be a hard nut for the devil to crack.
The first step in arriving at that place is learning to bring your burdens to Jesus.
Do you have a burden too big to bear? Why not take a few moments to tell Jesus about it. Take your burden to the Lord, then leave it there by faith. We will close with this scripture: “So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:6-7. (Some of you may remember that I have carried this scripture in my wallet since 1991 and notice that is “framed” and hanging on our SS wall!) After all, God is still God, even in the valley!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Angels Among Us
Click link to listen to song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey0HrEvh44c
I was walking home from school on a cold winter day.
Took a shortcut through the woods, and I lost my way.
It was getting late, and I was scared and alone.
But then a kind old man took my hand and led me home.
Mama couldn't see him, but he was standing there.
And I knew in my heart, he was the answer to my prayers.
Oh I believe there are angels among us.
Sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours.
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.
To guide us with the light of love.
When life held troubled times, and had me down on my knees.
There's always been someone there to come along and comfort me.
A kind word from a stranger, to lend a helping hand.
A phone call from a friend, just to say I understand.
And ain't it kind of funny that at the dark end of the road.
Someone lights the way with just a single ray of hope.
Oh I believe there are angels among us.
Sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours.
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.
To guide us with the light of love.
They wear so many faces; show up in the strangest places.
To grace us with their mercy, in our time of need.
Oh I believe there are angels among us.
Sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours.
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.
To guide us with the light of love.
To guide us with the light of love. Song by Alabama
In the past few years there has been an explosion of interest in angels in our culture. These days angels are admired by millions of people, many of them not Christians, and not just during the Christmas season but all year long. Perhaps this is due to baby boomers's hunger for spiritual meaning in life - not sure - but interest in angels is seen literally everywhere. TV shows about angels have been extremely popular. Movies like Angels in the Outfield and City of Angels scored big bucks at the box office. Entire stores are devoted to selling angelic nicknacks. Dozens of books like Ask Your Angel and A Book of Angels are on best seller lists. In fact, the Los Angeles Times reports that "with angel catalogs, angel seminars, angel pins, angel newsletters and angels sightings...it looks like the winged ones have left the cosmic back lot for the forefront of popular consciousness."
Gallup polls in the 1990's report that 75 percent of teenagers believe that angels exist - a percentage even higher than that of Americans in general.
And, as Christians we should note that although our culture is fascinated with angels, the church has remained oddly silent about them. In his best-selling book on angels, Billy Graham (in 1975) wrote that he had never heard a sermon on angels, despite having read of "literally thousands" of personal accounts of people seeing these amazing beings. Inspired by the lack of more current information, Graham wrote Angels: God's Secret Agents. According to Billy Graham, angels are mentioned over 300 times in the Bible.
Exactly who are these mysterious creatures who turn up at unpredictable times?
We need to turn to the Bible to find an answer to that question. And the Bible has a great deal to say about angels. In fact these amazing beings are mentioned many times in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. An angel led the people of Israel out of Egypt. Angels announced the birth and resurrection of Jesus. Angels visited Abraham and Sarah and saved Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom. And the Bible tells us that when Our Lord returns He will be accompanied by hosts of angels. Scripture teaches that angels are created beings. God made them just as He made us.
The Biblical record shows that angels have the ability to change their appearance and shuttle in a flash from heaven to earth and back again.
If we study the scriptures we will find that:
• These amazingly powerful beings deliver, protect, and defend God's people.
• Angels also provide guidance from God.
• They also provide comfort and encouragement.
• And then angels often also serve as God's agents of judgement.
• And angels serve as God's messengers.
• But the Bible also tells us that there are fallen angels – Satan being one.
Okay, we know and believe the stories of angels in the Bible and we see the interest in them in today’s culture. BUT do we really believe they are with us and active in our lives today? Are they really here with us. Do people really have encounters today with these Heavenly beings. Hebrews 1:14 says, “Therefore, angels are only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation.” Why would this not be as true today as it was in Biblical times?
Many angelic encounters seem to deal with dramatic rescues.
There have probably never been more stories of encounters with angels than in the days following 9/11. Country Music TV has done a series relating many of these stories.
From the CMT website: "Angels Among Us" is a CMT series that commemorates the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 with a very special episode. Genelle Guzman is on the 13th floor of World Trade Tower One when it collapses on top of her. Miraculously, she survives, but is trapped under the rubble for over 24 hours. With hope of rescue fading, an angel takes her hand and assures her that help is on the way. In Tower Two, Ron DiFrancesco escapes death when the second plane hits his floor, but soon discovers all escape routes have been cut off by a raging inferno. On the edge of despair, he hears an otherworldly voice urging him to run into the fire. And at the Pentagon, American Airlines flight 77 slams into the building 100 feet from John Yates. Despite massive injuries, he is guided towards safety. by an angel.
Witness events that led up to a life-changing moment and an ultimate encounter with what can only be described as an angel. These are your friends, your neighbors -- everyday people who against all odds have survived extreme events from catastrophic car crashes, to apocalyptic weather, debilitating diseases and even the biggest terrorist attack in U.S. history.
Each awe-inspiring episode features three incredible true-life tales of people who faced their darkest hour and saw a light. The uplifting hour-long series presents compelling firsthand accounts of life-and- death situations with carefully crafted re-creations, to bring viewers a one-of-a-kind look at the world of angel encounters.
Each episode will conclude with a follow-up to find out just how these people been impacted, where they are today and how they've applied the lessons they've learned to their current lives. Each story and each result will be personal, profound and unique -- the one common thread being that each of our subjects was truly saved by an angel.
Whether it's a shining light or a physical presence, these subjects are here to provide living testament that angels are real. At the end of every hour, even the most hardened skeptics will find it hard to deny there are indeed angels among us.”
One pastor writes: I believe with all my heart that millions of angels are at God’s command and at our service. The hosts of Heaven stand at attention ready to do God’s will at any moment of any hour of any day.
His angels are on call at all times. They don’t take vacation days. They don’t take sick days. They don’t take off for holidays. They never age and they are always ready and available to carry out God’s plans!
These angels of God are here to help us and they are prepared for any emergency, and Satan has no firepower that can match the heavy artillery of God!”
There are many stories of people having a personal encounter with an angel. But there are many times I believe that angels intervene in the lives of Christians and we are not even aware of this intervention.
What about you? Ever had an encounter with an angel? Ever met "strangers who were angels in disguise."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey0HrEvh44c
I was walking home from school on a cold winter day.
Took a shortcut through the woods, and I lost my way.
It was getting late, and I was scared and alone.
But then a kind old man took my hand and led me home.
Mama couldn't see him, but he was standing there.
And I knew in my heart, he was the answer to my prayers.
Oh I believe there are angels among us.
Sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours.
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.
To guide us with the light of love.
When life held troubled times, and had me down on my knees.
There's always been someone there to come along and comfort me.
A kind word from a stranger, to lend a helping hand.
A phone call from a friend, just to say I understand.
And ain't it kind of funny that at the dark end of the road.
Someone lights the way with just a single ray of hope.
Oh I believe there are angels among us.
Sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours.
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.
To guide us with the light of love.
They wear so many faces; show up in the strangest places.
To grace us with their mercy, in our time of need.
Oh I believe there are angels among us.
Sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours.
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.
To guide us with the light of love.
To guide us with the light of love. Song by Alabama
In the past few years there has been an explosion of interest in angels in our culture. These days angels are admired by millions of people, many of them not Christians, and not just during the Christmas season but all year long. Perhaps this is due to baby boomers's hunger for spiritual meaning in life - not sure - but interest in angels is seen literally everywhere. TV shows about angels have been extremely popular. Movies like Angels in the Outfield and City of Angels scored big bucks at the box office. Entire stores are devoted to selling angelic nicknacks. Dozens of books like Ask Your Angel and A Book of Angels are on best seller lists. In fact, the Los Angeles Times reports that "with angel catalogs, angel seminars, angel pins, angel newsletters and angels sightings...it looks like the winged ones have left the cosmic back lot for the forefront of popular consciousness."
Gallup polls in the 1990's report that 75 percent of teenagers believe that angels exist - a percentage even higher than that of Americans in general.
And, as Christians we should note that although our culture is fascinated with angels, the church has remained oddly silent about them. In his best-selling book on angels, Billy Graham (in 1975) wrote that he had never heard a sermon on angels, despite having read of "literally thousands" of personal accounts of people seeing these amazing beings. Inspired by the lack of more current information, Graham wrote Angels: God's Secret Agents. According to Billy Graham, angels are mentioned over 300 times in the Bible.
Exactly who are these mysterious creatures who turn up at unpredictable times?
We need to turn to the Bible to find an answer to that question. And the Bible has a great deal to say about angels. In fact these amazing beings are mentioned many times in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. An angel led the people of Israel out of Egypt. Angels announced the birth and resurrection of Jesus. Angels visited Abraham and Sarah and saved Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom. And the Bible tells us that when Our Lord returns He will be accompanied by hosts of angels. Scripture teaches that angels are created beings. God made them just as He made us.
The Biblical record shows that angels have the ability to change their appearance and shuttle in a flash from heaven to earth and back again.
If we study the scriptures we will find that:
• These amazingly powerful beings deliver, protect, and defend God's people.
• Angels also provide guidance from God.
• They also provide comfort and encouragement.
• And then angels often also serve as God's agents of judgement.
• And angels serve as God's messengers.
• But the Bible also tells us that there are fallen angels – Satan being one.
Okay, we know and believe the stories of angels in the Bible and we see the interest in them in today’s culture. BUT do we really believe they are with us and active in our lives today? Are they really here with us. Do people really have encounters today with these Heavenly beings. Hebrews 1:14 says, “Therefore, angels are only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation.” Why would this not be as true today as it was in Biblical times?
Many angelic encounters seem to deal with dramatic rescues.
There have probably never been more stories of encounters with angels than in the days following 9/11. Country Music TV has done a series relating many of these stories.
From the CMT website: "Angels Among Us" is a CMT series that commemorates the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 with a very special episode. Genelle Guzman is on the 13th floor of World Trade Tower One when it collapses on top of her. Miraculously, she survives, but is trapped under the rubble for over 24 hours. With hope of rescue fading, an angel takes her hand and assures her that help is on the way. In Tower Two, Ron DiFrancesco escapes death when the second plane hits his floor, but soon discovers all escape routes have been cut off by a raging inferno. On the edge of despair, he hears an otherworldly voice urging him to run into the fire. And at the Pentagon, American Airlines flight 77 slams into the building 100 feet from John Yates. Despite massive injuries, he is guided towards safety. by an angel.
Witness events that led up to a life-changing moment and an ultimate encounter with what can only be described as an angel. These are your friends, your neighbors -- everyday people who against all odds have survived extreme events from catastrophic car crashes, to apocalyptic weather, debilitating diseases and even the biggest terrorist attack in U.S. history.
Each awe-inspiring episode features three incredible true-life tales of people who faced their darkest hour and saw a light. The uplifting hour-long series presents compelling firsthand accounts of life-and- death situations with carefully crafted re-creations, to bring viewers a one-of-a-kind look at the world of angel encounters.
Each episode will conclude with a follow-up to find out just how these people been impacted, where they are today and how they've applied the lessons they've learned to their current lives. Each story and each result will be personal, profound and unique -- the one common thread being that each of our subjects was truly saved by an angel.
Whether it's a shining light or a physical presence, these subjects are here to provide living testament that angels are real. At the end of every hour, even the most hardened skeptics will find it hard to deny there are indeed angels among us.”
One pastor writes: I believe with all my heart that millions of angels are at God’s command and at our service. The hosts of Heaven stand at attention ready to do God’s will at any moment of any hour of any day.
His angels are on call at all times. They don’t take vacation days. They don’t take sick days. They don’t take off for holidays. They never age and they are always ready and available to carry out God’s plans!
These angels of God are here to help us and they are prepared for any emergency, and Satan has no firepower that can match the heavy artillery of God!”
There are many stories of people having a personal encounter with an angel. But there are many times I believe that angels intervene in the lives of Christians and we are not even aware of this intervention.
What about you? Ever had an encounter with an angel? Ever met "strangers who were angels in disguise."
Sunday, August 14, 2011
IBIU
To my BFFs:
If you have a tweenager or teenager in your home-or you are dialed in to current text-speak regardless of your age-you have already translated my opening greeting: "Best Friend Forever". The "forever" meaning of "BFF" is important to us as Christians - all who know the Lord Jesus Christ will indeed be best friends forever with Him and with one another.
When we begin to just understood the use of emoticons in email-things and Facebook like :), :(, and :\ - when along came a whole new world of text abbreviations. But we can appreciate this new way of communicating because there are so many more messages to be conveyed between friends and acquaintances. And as you will discover in this lesson, so many ways to follow the Biblical instructions to use those messages to "encourage one another".
It's amazing what emotional impact just a few simple letters can have. Just a small gesture, act, or word on our part can lift a heavy load from the shoulders of a discouraged person-whether friend, new acquaintance, or stranger. Hopefully this lesson will stir your creativity and help you become a powerful encourager.
Whether we use text abbreviations or not, we all must master the skill of en¬couragement. Someone's day may depend on our delivering just the right message.
UG2BK. T+. T@YL. To some, those jumbles of letters, numbers, and symbols are about as decipherable as Egyptian hieroglyphics. But to others who know the code, those short cryptic phrases display the following thoughts: You've got to be kidding. Think positive. Talk at you later.
Welcome to the brave new world of text messages! Just as it is difficult to remember how we coped before the coming of the Internet, it is hard to recall how we were able to keep in touch with each other before the development of the cell phone and-consequently-text messaging and now, FB posts.
Why has text messaging become such a constant and vital source of interaction today? The answer is pretty simple; for it doesn't matter if you are a business owner, schoolteacher, stay-at¬-home-mom, or even retired - we are all pressed for time! That is why it has become THE way to connect with other people. (Most of you remember how long your teacher resisted texting.) A busy world demands creative ways to communicate, and texting allows us to share and convey our thoughts to others with a minimal amount of effort.
Abbreviations are king in text mes¬saging because there is a limit of characters that can be sent in a single text. Because of this, thousands upon thousands of abbreviations have sprung up as people have sought to say as much as they can in as few letters as possible. Thus, a text message could range from having symbols like <3 (which stands for "heart" because it looks like a heart lying on its side) to phonetic jumbles like 4eva (meaning "forever") to long acronyms like AFAIK (as far as I know) or GMTA (great minds think alike).
Now if you have ever used text messaging, there is a good chance that you have written or received a text that contained some of the most common texting abbreviations, such as JIK (just kidding), CUL (see you later), or TNX (thanks). But here is a suggestion for a new one to add to your repertoire: IBIU. Do you know what that stands for? I BELIEVE IN YOU.
It's amazing what emotional impact just a few simple letters can have. Think what "IBIU" says to the person who receives that message in a text, email, Facebook post or hand¬written note: "I believe in you!" Just a small gesture, act, or word on our part can lift a heavy load from the shoulders of a discouraged person-whether friend, new acquaintance, or stranger. Hopefully this lesson will stir your creativity and help you become a powerful encourager.
Text messaging is an ideal way to encourage people. And a simple abbre¬viated phrase like "I believe in you" can make a world of difference in someone's day. Those four common words have the ability to deliver a message that can promote strength, resolve, joy, comfort, love, and even spiritual healing. And how long would it take anyone of us to send such a life-affirming thought of hope to those we love? About 5 seconds.
This lesson is challenging you to be an encourager. It takes courage and effort to be an encourager these days because when we look at the world around us, there is a lot that we can be discouraged about. But we are called as Christ-followers to build each other up and to bear one another's burdens. And although that may seem like a difficult task for you to undertake, we are going to encourage you by taking this small step: Send a text message! Or send an email, FB Message, or
a handwritten note is acceptable. (See this version of MS Word changed my : and ) into a real smiley face). And you know a cell phone can still be used as a phone. But this lesson is mainly focusing on texting.
Texting is an easy, non-threatening way to approach someone with a word of hope. You can text something simple like P4U (which means "praying for you") or HC4U ("He cares for you"). And when you hear about the joy and encouragement that such a simple act sparked in someone's life, you'll only feel more encouraged to call someone or invite them for coffee and get in¬volved in the serious calling of lifting up our friends and family in their daily journeys.
It doesn't take much to be a positive force in the lives around you. All you have to do is take that first step-for when you do, the joy that you feel in being used of God will propel you forward into the next opportu¬nity. Hopefully as we go over this lesson we can find out how to be an encourager today!
We are called as Christ-followers to build each other up. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
Melodye Jenkins likes to encourage her son John before his basketball games, but one day she wasn't able to get him on the phone. The Vanderbilt freshman was preparing for the big game against Kentucky. You might think John Jenkins wouldn't need pep talks. He was one of the nation's best high school shooters. But boys still need their moms; so when John didn't answer his phone Melodye sent a non-too subtle text message: "Game-high 25 to 30 points. It has now been spoken." It worked. Playing on national television later that day, Jenkins came alive, scoring 32 points against Kentucky and leading his team to an 81-77 victory.
It doesn't always take a lot to encourage some¬one. A text message, a pat on the back, a whisper of confidence, a "that-a-boy," a note in the mail, a public word of praise, a shot in the arm, a high five. That's the secret power of the letters WTG-Way to Go! We can't say that too often, The people around, young and old, thrive on words of encouragement from someone who believes in them. Encouragement is a key component in strengthening others.….and yourself.
Someone has said, "All encouragement is from the Lord; all discouragement is from the devil." There's truth in that, for our God is a God of kind, yet earnest reproof, and His Word is a book of encouragement.
The apostle Paul told the Romans: "Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled. May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. (Romans 15:4-5)
He told the Thessalonians: "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encourage¬ment and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word" (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)
The writer to the Hebrews suggested that his readers had grown weary and were in danger of giving up because they " And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the LORD’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. (Hebrews 12:5).
Educator Jane Bluestein, in her book, The Win- Win Classroom, tells about a teacher who was grading an assignment turned in by her second-graders. Most of the papers were admirable and received positive comments and stickers at the top.
But one student had turned in a paper that was little more than an angry black scribble. Instead of a story, there was a sentence fragment with no capital letters, no punctuation, and no correctly-spelled words. The paper gave evidence of having been crumpled up in frustration. There were also holes in the paper caused by the vigorous use of an eraser.
The teacher was tempted to mark-up the paper with a red pen, but she hesitated. Making a mental note to work with this student on his capitals and spelling (and erasing), she decided to make a positive comment and give him a sticker as she had done to the other children. But what could she say that was positive?
She finally saw something on the paper that the student hadn't messed up. She returned the paper to him bearing the words: "Magnificent Margins!"
The boy was delighted with his stick¬er and proud of his magnificent margins. He grew more concerned about his work, and as his teacher patiently worked with him he showed steady progress.
It takes a little thought and some¬times a slight change in our perspective, but we can learn to touch the lives of others through encouragement. We can learn to say "Way to Go!" Or at least we can say "Magnificent Margins!"
God directs us to be encouragers.
In the Book of Acts, the apostles considered it essential to encourage the family. Luke writes that Paul and Barnabas went around "strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith” (Acts 14:22, NIV). Two other New Testament workers, Judas and Silas, "who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers" (Acts 15:32, NIV). We're told that the apostle Paul traveled around "speaking many words of encouragement to the people" (Acts 20:2)
Don't forget the person sitting near you at church. There's a broken heart in every pew. As you enter for worship, pray for those around you. Commit a random act of kindness. Share a word of Scripture by word, note, or text message. Let them know: LYLS & LYLB. Love you like a sister or Love you like a brother!
Who have you encouraged today?
If you have a tweenager or teenager in your home-or you are dialed in to current text-speak regardless of your age-you have already translated my opening greeting: "Best Friend Forever". The "forever" meaning of "BFF" is important to us as Christians - all who know the Lord Jesus Christ will indeed be best friends forever with Him and with one another.
When we begin to just understood the use of emoticons in email-things and Facebook like :), :(, and :\ - when along came a whole new world of text abbreviations. But we can appreciate this new way of communicating because there are so many more messages to be conveyed between friends and acquaintances. And as you will discover in this lesson, so many ways to follow the Biblical instructions to use those messages to "encourage one another".
It's amazing what emotional impact just a few simple letters can have. Just a small gesture, act, or word on our part can lift a heavy load from the shoulders of a discouraged person-whether friend, new acquaintance, or stranger. Hopefully this lesson will stir your creativity and help you become a powerful encourager.
Whether we use text abbreviations or not, we all must master the skill of en¬couragement. Someone's day may depend on our delivering just the right message.
UG2BK. T+. T@YL. To some, those jumbles of letters, numbers, and symbols are about as decipherable as Egyptian hieroglyphics. But to others who know the code, those short cryptic phrases display the following thoughts: You've got to be kidding. Think positive. Talk at you later.
Welcome to the brave new world of text messages! Just as it is difficult to remember how we coped before the coming of the Internet, it is hard to recall how we were able to keep in touch with each other before the development of the cell phone and-consequently-text messaging and now, FB posts.
Why has text messaging become such a constant and vital source of interaction today? The answer is pretty simple; for it doesn't matter if you are a business owner, schoolteacher, stay-at¬-home-mom, or even retired - we are all pressed for time! That is why it has become THE way to connect with other people. (Most of you remember how long your teacher resisted texting.) A busy world demands creative ways to communicate, and texting allows us to share and convey our thoughts to others with a minimal amount of effort.
Abbreviations are king in text mes¬saging because there is a limit of characters that can be sent in a single text. Because of this, thousands upon thousands of abbreviations have sprung up as people have sought to say as much as they can in as few letters as possible. Thus, a text message could range from having symbols like <3 (which stands for "heart" because it looks like a heart lying on its side) to phonetic jumbles like 4eva (meaning "forever") to long acronyms like AFAIK (as far as I know) or GMTA (great minds think alike).
Now if you have ever used text messaging, there is a good chance that you have written or received a text that contained some of the most common texting abbreviations, such as JIK (just kidding), CUL (see you later), or TNX (thanks). But here is a suggestion for a new one to add to your repertoire: IBIU. Do you know what that stands for? I BELIEVE IN YOU.
It's amazing what emotional impact just a few simple letters can have. Think what "IBIU" says to the person who receives that message in a text, email, Facebook post or hand¬written note: "I believe in you!" Just a small gesture, act, or word on our part can lift a heavy load from the shoulders of a discouraged person-whether friend, new acquaintance, or stranger. Hopefully this lesson will stir your creativity and help you become a powerful encourager.
Text messaging is an ideal way to encourage people. And a simple abbre¬viated phrase like "I believe in you" can make a world of difference in someone's day. Those four common words have the ability to deliver a message that can promote strength, resolve, joy, comfort, love, and even spiritual healing. And how long would it take anyone of us to send such a life-affirming thought of hope to those we love? About 5 seconds.
This lesson is challenging you to be an encourager. It takes courage and effort to be an encourager these days because when we look at the world around us, there is a lot that we can be discouraged about. But we are called as Christ-followers to build each other up and to bear one another's burdens. And although that may seem like a difficult task for you to undertake, we are going to encourage you by taking this small step: Send a text message! Or send an email, FB Message, or
a handwritten note is acceptable. (See this version of MS Word changed my : and ) into a real smiley face). And you know a cell phone can still be used as a phone. But this lesson is mainly focusing on texting.
Texting is an easy, non-threatening way to approach someone with a word of hope. You can text something simple like P4U (which means "praying for you") or HC4U ("He cares for you"). And when you hear about the joy and encouragement that such a simple act sparked in someone's life, you'll only feel more encouraged to call someone or invite them for coffee and get in¬volved in the serious calling of lifting up our friends and family in their daily journeys.
It doesn't take much to be a positive force in the lives around you. All you have to do is take that first step-for when you do, the joy that you feel in being used of God will propel you forward into the next opportu¬nity. Hopefully as we go over this lesson we can find out how to be an encourager today!
We are called as Christ-followers to build each other up. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
Melodye Jenkins likes to encourage her son John before his basketball games, but one day she wasn't able to get him on the phone. The Vanderbilt freshman was preparing for the big game against Kentucky. You might think John Jenkins wouldn't need pep talks. He was one of the nation's best high school shooters. But boys still need their moms; so when John didn't answer his phone Melodye sent a non-too subtle text message: "Game-high 25 to 30 points. It has now been spoken." It worked. Playing on national television later that day, Jenkins came alive, scoring 32 points against Kentucky and leading his team to an 81-77 victory.
It doesn't always take a lot to encourage some¬one. A text message, a pat on the back, a whisper of confidence, a "that-a-boy," a note in the mail, a public word of praise, a shot in the arm, a high five. That's the secret power of the letters WTG-Way to Go! We can't say that too often, The people around, young and old, thrive on words of encouragement from someone who believes in them. Encouragement is a key component in strengthening others.….and yourself.
Someone has said, "All encouragement is from the Lord; all discouragement is from the devil." There's truth in that, for our God is a God of kind, yet earnest reproof, and His Word is a book of encouragement.
The apostle Paul told the Romans: "Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled. May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. (Romans 15:4-5)
He told the Thessalonians: "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encourage¬ment and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word" (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)
The writer to the Hebrews suggested that his readers had grown weary and were in danger of giving up because they " And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the LORD’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. (Hebrews 12:5).
Educator Jane Bluestein, in her book, The Win- Win Classroom, tells about a teacher who was grading an assignment turned in by her second-graders. Most of the papers were admirable and received positive comments and stickers at the top.
But one student had turned in a paper that was little more than an angry black scribble. Instead of a story, there was a sentence fragment with no capital letters, no punctuation, and no correctly-spelled words. The paper gave evidence of having been crumpled up in frustration. There were also holes in the paper caused by the vigorous use of an eraser.
The teacher was tempted to mark-up the paper with a red pen, but she hesitated. Making a mental note to work with this student on his capitals and spelling (and erasing), she decided to make a positive comment and give him a sticker as she had done to the other children. But what could she say that was positive?
She finally saw something on the paper that the student hadn't messed up. She returned the paper to him bearing the words: "Magnificent Margins!"
The boy was delighted with his stick¬er and proud of his magnificent margins. He grew more concerned about his work, and as his teacher patiently worked with him he showed steady progress.
It takes a little thought and some¬times a slight change in our perspective, but we can learn to touch the lives of others through encouragement. We can learn to say "Way to Go!" Or at least we can say "Magnificent Margins!"
God directs us to be encouragers.
In the Book of Acts, the apostles considered it essential to encourage the family. Luke writes that Paul and Barnabas went around "strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith” (Acts 14:22, NIV). Two other New Testament workers, Judas and Silas, "who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers" (Acts 15:32, NIV). We're told that the apostle Paul traveled around "speaking many words of encouragement to the people" (Acts 20:2)
Don't forget the person sitting near you at church. There's a broken heart in every pew. As you enter for worship, pray for those around you. Commit a random act of kindness. Share a word of Scripture by word, note, or text message. Let them know: LYLS & LYLB. Love you like a sister or Love you like a brother!
Who have you encouraged today?
Thursday, August 11, 2011
How a Terrorist Became an Evangelist:
How a Terrorist Became an Evangelist:
Galatians 1:11-24
Christianity is supremely a religion of conversion. Everything we say and everything we believe is built upon one fundamental and revolutionary premise: You don’t have to stay the way you are. Your life can be radically changed by God. Conversion is a miracle that happens when the life of God intersects with human personality. Once God enters the picture, your life will never be the same again. Until then, you may be religious and you may be a very good person and you may obey all the rules of the church, but you have not been converted.
Religion is one thing; conversion is something else entirely. It is the conviction that long-held prejudices can be overcome, lifetime habits can be broken, and deeply ingrained patterns of sin can be erased over time. Conversion is the certainty that what you were does not determine what you are, and what you are does not determine what you will be. You can be changed, you can be different, your life can move in an entirely new direction.
If you take that truth away from Christianity, it ceases to be a supernatural religion. If the possibility of real change is gone, then we have nothing to offer but a set of rules. Can the leopard change his spots? In himself and by himself, the leopard can never change his spots, “but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26b
The Greatest Conversion Story in the Bible
Of all the conversion stories in the Bible, none is greater or more profound than the conversion of the man called Saul of Tarsus. Raised a Jew, trained as a rabbi, he became a violent persecutor of the early Christian church. He hated Christ and his followers so much that he did his best to eradicate the new religion as if it were some sort of dreaded virus. He was a terrorist who did his evil deeds in the name of the God of the Bible.
One day he met Jesus and his life was permanently transformed. So bad was his reputation that at first almost no one believed that the change was real. Word quickly spread that Saul the persecutor had come to Christ. Over time he proved to be genuine in his faith. What happened to him made such an impact that the New Testament contains three separate accounts of his dramatic conversion. The first is in Acts 9, the second in Acts 26, and the third is in Galatians 1:11-24.
Paul’s story begins with a statement about the source of his gospel preaching. Evidently the Judaizers (those Jewish-Christian “converts” who claimed to represent the apostles in Jerusalem) were attacking both his apostleship and his message. In essence, they claimed that his message wasn’t true and he himself could not be trusted. That raises an interesting question. How do you prove that you are trustworthy? Answer: Tell your story and let your story speak for itself.
So, Paul now proceeds to his own story.
I. Paul’ s Life Before Conversion
“You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it. I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the traditions of my ancestors. ” (Galatians 1:13-14).
These verses tell a chilling story. Before Paul came to Christ, he was perfectly happy in his career as a rising Jewish leader and an avid Christian-hater. He felt no remorse over his persecution of the followers of Christ, and in fact regarded it as his service to God. He had no desire to come to Christ and felt no need in his heart. His religion satisfied him in every way and he saw no need for anything else. He was like those people who responded to the “I Found It” campaign sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ by promoting their own version: “I Never Lost It.” Was Paul interested in becoming a Christian? How many ways can you say no? He wasn’t looking for Christ … but Christ was looking for him. Only God could save a man like Paul. And it turns out, that’s exactly what God did.
Saul/Paul was a religious fanatic. A zealot. A man wholly given over to his hatred of Christians. He would stop at nothing to prevent this new movement from spreading. Paul tells his story this way because he wants us to understand that he wasn’t what we like to call a “seeker.” He wasn’t seeking anything—except more Christians to throw in prison. He had no sense of his need of salvation and no inner voice calling him to come to Christ. It would be hard to imagine a more hopeless case. Why bother praying for a man like that? He’ll never be saved.
Or so it would seem.
He was totally convinced he was right.
He was totally convinced Christians were wrong.
He hated Christianity and he loved Judaism.
He was lost and didn’t know it.
He enjoyed his life and wasn’t looking for something better.
We can sum it up by saying he was on a collision course with eternal judgment. What he desperately needed—but would not admit—was a strong dose of divine intervention.
Paul paints the picture black so the brilliant bright light of the gospel can be clearly seen. Not everyone has a story like Paul’s—but many do.
There are all sorts of sinners who make up the body of Christ. They have in common that they have been washed in the blood, forgiven by Jesus, justified by grace, reconciled to God, redeemed, restored, converted, and their lives have been radically changed. This is as it should be. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you, but I was as bad as you could be. When I hit bottom, I looked up and found the Lord waiting for me.”
II. Paul’s Conversion
“But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.” (Galatians 1:15-16a NIV).
Focus for a moment on the first word. “But.” This is the great interruption. All that happened in Paul’s life came because of that one little word.
Paul was a sinner. But God.
Paul hated Jesus. But God.
Paul tried to kill Christians. But God.
Paul wanted to destroy the church. But God.
Paul enjoyed being lost. But God.
Paul wasn’t looking for a new life. But God.
Paul intended to kill more Christians. But God.
God came into Paul’s life without permission. He didn’t wait to be asked. While Saul was on the road to Damascus, the Lord Jesus just barged right in. He didn’t ask permission because if he had asked, Saul would have said no. He came in where he wasn’t wanted or expected and took over the situation.
Let us learn from this that salvation begins with God—not with us! Salvation is of the Lord.
God reached down, slapped him down on the Damascus road, and brought him into the Kingdom. His whole life had been planned by God for just this moment. Nothing had happened by accident. All was ordained as part of God’s divine plan.
But does this not destroy the concept of freewill? Not at all. God gives us choices to make and then he holds us accountable for those choices
Sometimes folks say, “I found the Lord.” True, but just remember that if the Lord didn’t find you first, you would never have found him. And in the end, God gets all the glory for our salvation. That is certainly how Paul felt as he looked back on his own amazing conversion.
Paul’s Life After Conversion
When this happened, I did not rush out to consult with any human being. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of Damascus. Then three years later I went to Jerusalem to get to know Peter,… Galatians 1:16b-18a).
Paul’s emphasis in these verses is on what he didn’t do. He didn’t immediately go to Jerusalem to be trained by the apostles. And he didn’t start an evangelistic ministry right away. What did he do? He dropped out of sight for three years by going to Arabia. We would have put him on Christian radio and TV. We would have had him write a book and hit the Christian talk-show circuit. But that wasn’t God’s plan.
Once he was a terrorist; now he came back an evangelist.
Christ has made all the difference. The passage ends on a wonderful note as Paul says that the churches in Judea (which he once terrorized in his pre-conversion days) recognized the amazing change in his life. And they glorified God because of him. His life pointed people toward God. That leads to a simple and profound question. Is anyone glorifying God because of you? Is our life pointing people toward God?
The worst sinners often make the best saints. Note the word “often.” Not every sinner comes to Christ. Regrettably, some do not come and because they do not come, they are not saved. And there are many great saints of God who were raised in godly homes and never openly rebelled against the Lord. But it is still true that God seems to delight in taking the worst sinners and deeply and profoundly converting them. Such men and women bear the scars of their past life and bring their baggage with them into God’s family. But when God’s work is done, those same saints of God are a powerful testimony to a skeptical world.
Not many mighty are called, not many noble, not many powerful, not many great as the world counts greatness. God doesn’t go for the big names to populate heaven. He takes ordinary folks and then does extraordinary things through them.
No one is beyond the reach of God’s grace.
Galatians 1:11-24
Christianity is supremely a religion of conversion. Everything we say and everything we believe is built upon one fundamental and revolutionary premise: You don’t have to stay the way you are. Your life can be radically changed by God. Conversion is a miracle that happens when the life of God intersects with human personality. Once God enters the picture, your life will never be the same again. Until then, you may be religious and you may be a very good person and you may obey all the rules of the church, but you have not been converted.
Religion is one thing; conversion is something else entirely. It is the conviction that long-held prejudices can be overcome, lifetime habits can be broken, and deeply ingrained patterns of sin can be erased over time. Conversion is the certainty that what you were does not determine what you are, and what you are does not determine what you will be. You can be changed, you can be different, your life can move in an entirely new direction.
If you take that truth away from Christianity, it ceases to be a supernatural religion. If the possibility of real change is gone, then we have nothing to offer but a set of rules. Can the leopard change his spots? In himself and by himself, the leopard can never change his spots, “but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26b
The Greatest Conversion Story in the Bible
Of all the conversion stories in the Bible, none is greater or more profound than the conversion of the man called Saul of Tarsus. Raised a Jew, trained as a rabbi, he became a violent persecutor of the early Christian church. He hated Christ and his followers so much that he did his best to eradicate the new religion as if it were some sort of dreaded virus. He was a terrorist who did his evil deeds in the name of the God of the Bible.
One day he met Jesus and his life was permanently transformed. So bad was his reputation that at first almost no one believed that the change was real. Word quickly spread that Saul the persecutor had come to Christ. Over time he proved to be genuine in his faith. What happened to him made such an impact that the New Testament contains three separate accounts of his dramatic conversion. The first is in Acts 9, the second in Acts 26, and the third is in Galatians 1:11-24.
Paul’s story begins with a statement about the source of his gospel preaching. Evidently the Judaizers (those Jewish-Christian “converts” who claimed to represent the apostles in Jerusalem) were attacking both his apostleship and his message. In essence, they claimed that his message wasn’t true and he himself could not be trusted. That raises an interesting question. How do you prove that you are trustworthy? Answer: Tell your story and let your story speak for itself.
So, Paul now proceeds to his own story.
I. Paul’ s Life Before Conversion
“You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it. I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the traditions of my ancestors. ” (Galatians 1:13-14).
These verses tell a chilling story. Before Paul came to Christ, he was perfectly happy in his career as a rising Jewish leader and an avid Christian-hater. He felt no remorse over his persecution of the followers of Christ, and in fact regarded it as his service to God. He had no desire to come to Christ and felt no need in his heart. His religion satisfied him in every way and he saw no need for anything else. He was like those people who responded to the “I Found It” campaign sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ by promoting their own version: “I Never Lost It.” Was Paul interested in becoming a Christian? How many ways can you say no? He wasn’t looking for Christ … but Christ was looking for him. Only God could save a man like Paul. And it turns out, that’s exactly what God did.
Saul/Paul was a religious fanatic. A zealot. A man wholly given over to his hatred of Christians. He would stop at nothing to prevent this new movement from spreading. Paul tells his story this way because he wants us to understand that he wasn’t what we like to call a “seeker.” He wasn’t seeking anything—except more Christians to throw in prison. He had no sense of his need of salvation and no inner voice calling him to come to Christ. It would be hard to imagine a more hopeless case. Why bother praying for a man like that? He’ll never be saved.
Or so it would seem.
He was totally convinced he was right.
He was totally convinced Christians were wrong.
He hated Christianity and he loved Judaism.
He was lost and didn’t know it.
He enjoyed his life and wasn’t looking for something better.
We can sum it up by saying he was on a collision course with eternal judgment. What he desperately needed—but would not admit—was a strong dose of divine intervention.
Paul paints the picture black so the brilliant bright light of the gospel can be clearly seen. Not everyone has a story like Paul’s—but many do.
There are all sorts of sinners who make up the body of Christ. They have in common that they have been washed in the blood, forgiven by Jesus, justified by grace, reconciled to God, redeemed, restored, converted, and their lives have been radically changed. This is as it should be. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you, but I was as bad as you could be. When I hit bottom, I looked up and found the Lord waiting for me.”
II. Paul’s Conversion
“But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.” (Galatians 1:15-16a NIV).
Focus for a moment on the first word. “But.” This is the great interruption. All that happened in Paul’s life came because of that one little word.
Paul was a sinner. But God.
Paul hated Jesus. But God.
Paul tried to kill Christians. But God.
Paul wanted to destroy the church. But God.
Paul enjoyed being lost. But God.
Paul wasn’t looking for a new life. But God.
Paul intended to kill more Christians. But God.
God came into Paul’s life without permission. He didn’t wait to be asked. While Saul was on the road to Damascus, the Lord Jesus just barged right in. He didn’t ask permission because if he had asked, Saul would have said no. He came in where he wasn’t wanted or expected and took over the situation.
Let us learn from this that salvation begins with God—not with us! Salvation is of the Lord.
God reached down, slapped him down on the Damascus road, and brought him into the Kingdom. His whole life had been planned by God for just this moment. Nothing had happened by accident. All was ordained as part of God’s divine plan.
But does this not destroy the concept of freewill? Not at all. God gives us choices to make and then he holds us accountable for those choices
Sometimes folks say, “I found the Lord.” True, but just remember that if the Lord didn’t find you first, you would never have found him. And in the end, God gets all the glory for our salvation. That is certainly how Paul felt as he looked back on his own amazing conversion.
Paul’s Life After Conversion
When this happened, I did not rush out to consult with any human being. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of Damascus. Then three years later I went to Jerusalem to get to know Peter,… Galatians 1:16b-18a).
Paul’s emphasis in these verses is on what he didn’t do. He didn’t immediately go to Jerusalem to be trained by the apostles. And he didn’t start an evangelistic ministry right away. What did he do? He dropped out of sight for three years by going to Arabia. We would have put him on Christian radio and TV. We would have had him write a book and hit the Christian talk-show circuit. But that wasn’t God’s plan.
Once he was a terrorist; now he came back an evangelist.
Christ has made all the difference. The passage ends on a wonderful note as Paul says that the churches in Judea (which he once terrorized in his pre-conversion days) recognized the amazing change in his life. And they glorified God because of him. His life pointed people toward God. That leads to a simple and profound question. Is anyone glorifying God because of you? Is our life pointing people toward God?
The worst sinners often make the best saints. Note the word “often.” Not every sinner comes to Christ. Regrettably, some do not come and because they do not come, they are not saved. And there are many great saints of God who were raised in godly homes and never openly rebelled against the Lord. But it is still true that God seems to delight in taking the worst sinners and deeply and profoundly converting them. Such men and women bear the scars of their past life and bring their baggage with them into God’s family. But when God’s work is done, those same saints of God are a powerful testimony to a skeptical world.
Not many mighty are called, not many noble, not many powerful, not many great as the world counts greatness. God doesn’t go for the big names to populate heaven. He takes ordinary folks and then does extraordinary things through them.
No one is beyond the reach of God’s grace.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
How God Pursues Prodigals
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.
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.
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
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