My note: Struggled with getting lesson I felt good about for today. Finally settled on this lesson. Thought it would probably relate more to youth on what "vocation" they should pursue. But, figured parents could use it to help advise their children. Our youth director was out of town and one of the WhoSoEvers, Raye, was going to lead the youth in SS. To my surprise, they showed up for our class. Seems youth director had locked the door to their room and nobody could find a spare key. Coincidence - I think not! Amazing when we just get out of HIS way, what will happen!
Permission to Pursue What You Love
There are two books out that that talk about an often neglected biblical principle. It is often called the principle of "vocation" or work. The first book is Work Matters by Pastor Tom Nelson (Christ Community Church, Leewood, Kansas). The second was The Cure for the Common Life by best-selling author and pastor, Max Lucado.
While both books are different -- Nelson fully fleshes out the “theology” of work while Lucado illustrates the uniqueness of every human being created in God's image -- they both arrive at an important conclusion: God has uniquely gifted, wired, called, and shaped every human being for a specific purpose on this earth, to glorify Him.
This may seem like something we always hear in church or a tired Christian cliché. But we often do not always comprehend two powerful ideas that come out of our uniqueness: work was ordained by God and is a form of worship and that God implants in us certain unique skills, passions, and gifts that make our lives unique.
We will expand on this concept today because it is very important for us to understand our purpose. Embracing God's unique design involves pushing back against a cultural lie about ourselves and a church lie about ourselves.
The Cultural Lie
On the one hand, you have the cultural expression that "you can be whatever you want to be, whatever you set your heart to do." This has been echoed in movies, books, motivational speeches and sometimes even from the pulpit. But we all know that this isn't really true. Supposed we really wanted to play on the pro golf circuit. Maybe play as well as Tiger Woods. We could play 18 holes everyday for years but would never make it. So we can't actually be whatever we want to be, can we?
The Church Lie
But the opposite of this cultural lie is a church lie. It's a pushback against the dreams that tell us to follow our hearts. It's the equal and opposite idea that because our hearts are so wicked, we can't trust them and therefore what we like to do, what we're good at doing, what we have a passion to do -- this can't possibly be what God wants us to be. This lie might go something like this: You can't be anything you want to be. In some ways, this may be more dangerous than the first lie in the sense that lots of Christian kids grow up forced into a mold set by parents or pastors or others. Every young boy must aspire to be a pastor or in "full-time" Christian service, otherwise he's not serving God. Every girl must aspire to be a pastor's wife or in some kind of acceptable full-time ministry or she is not serving the Lord. The guilt goes like this: How can you pursue a career in law or business or entertainment when across the world people are dying and going to hell?
And so you have a lot of people who feel they are supposed to ignore their gifts, their skills, their passions and they plunge into full-time ministry when they really have no aptitude for it. And as a result, not only do they suffer, but God's people suffer. You've taken a skilled person out of the environment where they might have had the most impact (law, business, medical field, carpenter, plumber, etc) and you've placed them, like a square peg in a round hole, in ministry where the people are suffering under the leadership of someone who wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.
The Biblical Third Way
So is there an alternative to the world's false "You can be what you want to be" fantasies and the church's "Don't dream, don't trust your passions and skills" consignment to certain acceptable callings? There is and it's to dive more fully into biblical principles of work. Here's a few important points we need to consider when it comes to calling:
Every kind of work is honorable to God. This is where Tom Nelson's book, Work Matters really shines. It shines because it pushes back against pastors and missionaries and so-called full-time ministry staff elevating their callings above that of lay people. The truth is that if we believe work in it’s self is good and worthy and honorable to God as a form of worship, then we should consider the skilled plumber or the top salesman or the doctor as worthy a ministry of the gospel as a pastor or missionary. The work lay people do from Monday to Friday is important, not simply so they can be a witness in the workplace or they can make more money so they can tithe, but because the work itself is important to God.
This concept is backed up by Paul in Colossians 3:23 where he writes “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” And again in Ephesians 6:7 where he tells the church at Ephesus to “Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people”.
God has uniquely wired every single person with specific skills and gifts. Max Lucado beautifully brings out the important message of Psalm 139, where David describes the intricate design behind every human soul. You are who you are because God made you this way. The things you are gifted at, passionate about, the things others see in you as strengths -- these are given to purposely by God. Why? For a purpose. To occupy a space in His plan for His glory. You wanting to be live someone else's life is actually against God. Someone forcing you into their mold is against God. The life God wants you to live is the life of Christ lived through you in a unique expression.
A True Believer Can Trust Their Hearts. Let's look at the teachings of the Scriptures concerning our hearts. Ephesians 2:10 says “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
But something happened, right? We chose sin and sin has corrupted our hearts, thus Jeremiah 17:9 which describes the human heart as “the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.” But in Ezekiel 36:26 God says, “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.”
And one of the most important scriptures that most of us have heard many times: “that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
So, if we are followers of Christ being transformed by His grace, we can listen to our hearts. What happens in salvation is this: God restores us (His masterpieces) from the corruption of sin. He implants in us a new heart, makes us a new person (born again). And as we die to ourselves, He reveals to us His original purpose for us. As you walk with the Lord, your calling will become clearer and clearer. But it's not because you are ignoring your gifts, your passions, your skills, but rather you are seeing them more clearly because the Holy Spirit is guiding us.
So, this means you can't be anything you "want to be" but you are free to be who you are supposed to be. What you die to in following Christ is not your skills and passions and gifts, but to the sin-soaked desires that were a distraction from God's original design of your life. You begin to enter, as Max Lucado calls it, your "sweet spot" where your gifts, your opportunities, and your impact all meet.
It is especially important for Christian young people as they survey their lives. High-school seniors and college freshman. They need to ask: What am I good at? What do I enjoy doing? Where do you think you can have the most impact in the world? What do others say you are good at?
They as well as all of us need to realize is that "Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father" (James 1:17). God equipped us with gifts of skill, not for us to show off our skills but to reflect His glory.
Gifted plumbers shouldn't preach. Gifted preachers shouldn't plumb.
No, you can't be what you want to be. But you are freed by Jesus to be what He designed you to be. And it's a whole easier to figure out what that is when we reject both cultural and church myths.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Monday, July 16, 2012
HE KNOWS OUR NAME
HE KNOWS OUR NAME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_BXOiqo808
10 Then they went home.
11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
16 “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). John 20:10-16a
In the society we live in today, you can sometimes feel like you are just a number, can’t you? You might like to think your mailperson knows your name, but he/she is more interested in the street address number and zip code than your name. If you doubt this, leave the person’s name off a letter and mail it. They will get it! On your drivers’ license, the number is more important than your name The IRS and government keep track of you, primarily by your social security number.
I am not criticizing these entities that identify people by number. As a computer person I know this is more efficient and timely. Here at CHBC, anyone who gives money is assigned an “envelope number”. (But if you don’t know your #, don’t worry we have a list with your name and #.) This makes record keeping a lot simpler. But there are times when we want to be called by name, aren't there? Certainly, church is a place where we like to be known by name. Even in a large congregation, people like to “think” the pastor knows them. He might not know everything about a person, but at least he should know their name, they think. Our names are important and we want to be called by the correct name. A friend’s daughter just recently got married. They had a big reception planned with a disk jockey. The DJ was supposed to announce the couple. He called the bride Kristina instead of her name Kristi. Not a good thing!
We can excuse such mistakes as human error, we might think. But even so, you would like for your daughter to be called by her correct name a her wedding! Names mean something, don't they?
At graduation from high school or college, the speaker can call your name. That is one thing. But when someone you really know, someone you really respect, someone you really need calls out your name - well, that is just different. The speaker at the graduation who is just trying to pronounce your name correctly might not even know you, but the person who calls out your name in the middle of a busy place, a friend whom you have shared much time with - you know their voice. Even if you were blind, you would recognize their voice, and their presence is a comfort. The way they call your name; that familiar sound. If is a child, that can mean the difference between panic and security. In the middle of a packed mall- many people of all different sizes pass by them - it is a strange feeling - feeling lost, and just when they are about to yell for help, they hear a familiar voice, their mother's voice. And suddenly they know that thing is going to be alright. To be called by name, not just by anyone, but someone who knows you as well as you know yourself.
Isn't this the feeling Mary probably had? The text relates that the disciples “went home”, and Mary was left at the grave of Jesus weeping. As she knelt, peering into the tomb, she noticed two angels, one at the foot and the other at the head of where Jesus had laid. They asked her, “why are you crying?”” “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
After she said this she turned and Jesus was standing there, but Mary did not recognize him.
Here Mary is, faithful to her Master, trying to be comforted by being near where Jesus ' body lay, and she was convinced that someone had broken into the tomb, and stolen his body. Resurrection was probably not even in her scope of reality yet. Resurrection was magical thinking. She had been the only one who was so distraught and that she remained at the site of the tomb. It is important to place ourselves in the shoes of the disciples and Mary for a moment.
It is my belief that the followers of Jesus did not even understand Jesus' teaching about his resurrection. They hardly understood the necessity of his death. And we read the manuscript twenty plus centuries later, and in hindsight, think it would have all fallen into place for us. Not so easy. Think about the Jewish thinking of what a messiah was going to be. It was enough that the followers had remained with Jesus, who was not exactly what the traditional Jew would have thought remotely close to a messiah. And the thought of a messiah dying? That was hardly believable. But not just dying; being convicted and executed in the most demeaning way known to that culture, crucifixion. “Surely if Jesus was the Messiah, he would not let this happen!”
We would probably have thought very similarly. We have a hard time understanding delayed gratification. We want immediate justice. Jesus doesn't offer immediate answers all the time. When we become Christian all the wrongs we have experienced are not suddenly made right. The rough places made smooth. Jesus was a different kind of messiah than anyone could have imagined. The followers of Jesus were having a difficult time processing what his death was all about, and now the tomb was empty; broken into by thieves or the Roman government or Jewish authorities.
Discouraged, beaten up, defeated spiritually – we’ve all been there haven’t we? Is it possible that Jesus has walked right past you, and you have not recognized him? We are not that different from Mary, who thought Jesus was the gardener. Has anyone ever come into your life and then departed, and perhaps they touched your life in a way you never thought possible, and it is only later that you realize that they were used by Jesus? Maybe Jesus doesn't literally walk past us, but his spirit does. Many times through the lives of other Christians.
And we are like the two followers on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). We are walking with the risen Lord, yet we fail to recognize him. We cannot look past our circumstances. We cannot get past our grief, our anger, our fear. These negative feelings blind us from seeing the risen Jesus. Mary thought it was a gardener, and the man asked her why she was weeping. “Who are you looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she asked him to tell her where he had taken Jesus' body so that she could care for it. And then the familiar voice says, “Mary.”
And she knew immediately who she was in the presence of. Her feelings probably went from distress and fear to comfort and peace. “How could it be?” Jesus alive. But he was alive, and all he had to do was call Mary by name. And what a difference that made in her life. How many times before his death had she heard the comforting voice of Jesus say, “Mary.” How many times had this voice brought belief to her unbelief and a sense of forgiveness to her guilt? This voice through which she had learned so much in just the brief time they had together.
In the Christian way of thinking, we believe in a 'personal' God. Don't we? A God that was so interested in us that he became human. He inhabited a human body, and became very personal with his followers. Jesus cares for us. We even get the idea that Jesus knows us as a person, on a personal level. You believe that, don't you? Scripture affirms that. In the Gospel of Luke 15:3-7, Jesus uses the analogy of a sheep and a shepherd.
3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
One commentary on this passage reads: “Because each sheep was of high value, the shepherd knew that it was worthwhile to search diligently for the lost one. God's love for each individual is so great that he seeks each me out.” That is an analogy of a personal God. Christianity is unique in that sense, as a religion. Jesus goes on to say in John’s Gospel that he is the good shepherd and that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A commentary on this passage reads: “A hired hand tends the sheep for money, while the shepherd does it for love. The shepherd owns the sheep and is committed to them. Jesus is not merely doing a job; he is committed to love us and even lay down his life for us.”
3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. John 10:3
In verse 14 of Chapter 10 in John's Gospel, Jesus affirms, “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me.” This is no distant Jesus or God - this refers to a personal being who has the capacity to know us individually and love us. Jesus knows us by our name and not by some random number assigned to us.
The Shepherd knows his sheep. He knows each one by name. The Shepherd knows us. He knows our name. And he will never forget it. God says “See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands”. (Isa. 49:16).
Quite a thought, isn't it? Our name on God's hand. Our name on God's lips. Maybe you've seen your name in some special places. On an award or diploma or name plate on your desk or maybe even on a walnut door. Or maybe you've heard your name from some important people—a coach, a celebrity, a teacher. But to think that your name is on God's hand and on God's lips . . . my, could it be?
Or perhaps you've never seen your name honored. And you can't remember when you heard it spoken with kindness. If so, it may be more difficult for you to believe that God knows your name.
But he does. Written on his hand. Spoken by his mouth. Whispered by his lips. Our name. And not only the name we now have, but the name he has in store for us. A “new name” he will give us… (Revelation 2:17)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_BXOiqo808
10 Then they went home.
11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
16 “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). John 20:10-16a
In the society we live in today, you can sometimes feel like you are just a number, can’t you? You might like to think your mailperson knows your name, but he/she is more interested in the street address number and zip code than your name. If you doubt this, leave the person’s name off a letter and mail it. They will get it! On your drivers’ license, the number is more important than your name The IRS and government keep track of you, primarily by your social security number.
I am not criticizing these entities that identify people by number. As a computer person I know this is more efficient and timely. Here at CHBC, anyone who gives money is assigned an “envelope number”. (But if you don’t know your #, don’t worry we have a list with your name and #.) This makes record keeping a lot simpler. But there are times when we want to be called by name, aren't there? Certainly, church is a place where we like to be known by name. Even in a large congregation, people like to “think” the pastor knows them. He might not know everything about a person, but at least he should know their name, they think. Our names are important and we want to be called by the correct name. A friend’s daughter just recently got married. They had a big reception planned with a disk jockey. The DJ was supposed to announce the couple. He called the bride Kristina instead of her name Kristi. Not a good thing!
We can excuse such mistakes as human error, we might think. But even so, you would like for your daughter to be called by her correct name a her wedding! Names mean something, don't they?
At graduation from high school or college, the speaker can call your name. That is one thing. But when someone you really know, someone you really respect, someone you really need calls out your name - well, that is just different. The speaker at the graduation who is just trying to pronounce your name correctly might not even know you, but the person who calls out your name in the middle of a busy place, a friend whom you have shared much time with - you know their voice. Even if you were blind, you would recognize their voice, and their presence is a comfort. The way they call your name; that familiar sound. If is a child, that can mean the difference between panic and security. In the middle of a packed mall- many people of all different sizes pass by them - it is a strange feeling - feeling lost, and just when they are about to yell for help, they hear a familiar voice, their mother's voice. And suddenly they know that thing is going to be alright. To be called by name, not just by anyone, but someone who knows you as well as you know yourself.
Isn't this the feeling Mary probably had? The text relates that the disciples “went home”, and Mary was left at the grave of Jesus weeping. As she knelt, peering into the tomb, she noticed two angels, one at the foot and the other at the head of where Jesus had laid. They asked her, “why are you crying?”” “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
After she said this she turned and Jesus was standing there, but Mary did not recognize him.
Here Mary is, faithful to her Master, trying to be comforted by being near where Jesus ' body lay, and she was convinced that someone had broken into the tomb, and stolen his body. Resurrection was probably not even in her scope of reality yet. Resurrection was magical thinking. She had been the only one who was so distraught and that she remained at the site of the tomb. It is important to place ourselves in the shoes of the disciples and Mary for a moment.
It is my belief that the followers of Jesus did not even understand Jesus' teaching about his resurrection. They hardly understood the necessity of his death. And we read the manuscript twenty plus centuries later, and in hindsight, think it would have all fallen into place for us. Not so easy. Think about the Jewish thinking of what a messiah was going to be. It was enough that the followers had remained with Jesus, who was not exactly what the traditional Jew would have thought remotely close to a messiah. And the thought of a messiah dying? That was hardly believable. But not just dying; being convicted and executed in the most demeaning way known to that culture, crucifixion. “Surely if Jesus was the Messiah, he would not let this happen!”
We would probably have thought very similarly. We have a hard time understanding delayed gratification. We want immediate justice. Jesus doesn't offer immediate answers all the time. When we become Christian all the wrongs we have experienced are not suddenly made right. The rough places made smooth. Jesus was a different kind of messiah than anyone could have imagined. The followers of Jesus were having a difficult time processing what his death was all about, and now the tomb was empty; broken into by thieves or the Roman government or Jewish authorities.
Discouraged, beaten up, defeated spiritually – we’ve all been there haven’t we? Is it possible that Jesus has walked right past you, and you have not recognized him? We are not that different from Mary, who thought Jesus was the gardener. Has anyone ever come into your life and then departed, and perhaps they touched your life in a way you never thought possible, and it is only later that you realize that they were used by Jesus? Maybe Jesus doesn't literally walk past us, but his spirit does. Many times through the lives of other Christians.
And we are like the two followers on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). We are walking with the risen Lord, yet we fail to recognize him. We cannot look past our circumstances. We cannot get past our grief, our anger, our fear. These negative feelings blind us from seeing the risen Jesus. Mary thought it was a gardener, and the man asked her why she was weeping. “Who are you looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she asked him to tell her where he had taken Jesus' body so that she could care for it. And then the familiar voice says, “Mary.”
And she knew immediately who she was in the presence of. Her feelings probably went from distress and fear to comfort and peace. “How could it be?” Jesus alive. But he was alive, and all he had to do was call Mary by name. And what a difference that made in her life. How many times before his death had she heard the comforting voice of Jesus say, “Mary.” How many times had this voice brought belief to her unbelief and a sense of forgiveness to her guilt? This voice through which she had learned so much in just the brief time they had together.
In the Christian way of thinking, we believe in a 'personal' God. Don't we? A God that was so interested in us that he became human. He inhabited a human body, and became very personal with his followers. Jesus cares for us. We even get the idea that Jesus knows us as a person, on a personal level. You believe that, don't you? Scripture affirms that. In the Gospel of Luke 15:3-7, Jesus uses the analogy of a sheep and a shepherd.
3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
One commentary on this passage reads: “Because each sheep was of high value, the shepherd knew that it was worthwhile to search diligently for the lost one. God's love for each individual is so great that he seeks each me out.” That is an analogy of a personal God. Christianity is unique in that sense, as a religion. Jesus goes on to say in John’s Gospel that he is the good shepherd and that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A commentary on this passage reads: “A hired hand tends the sheep for money, while the shepherd does it for love. The shepherd owns the sheep and is committed to them. Jesus is not merely doing a job; he is committed to love us and even lay down his life for us.”
3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. John 10:3
In verse 14 of Chapter 10 in John's Gospel, Jesus affirms, “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me.” This is no distant Jesus or God - this refers to a personal being who has the capacity to know us individually and love us. Jesus knows us by our name and not by some random number assigned to us.
The Shepherd knows his sheep. He knows each one by name. The Shepherd knows us. He knows our name. And he will never forget it. God says “See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands”. (Isa. 49:16).
Quite a thought, isn't it? Our name on God's hand. Our name on God's lips. Maybe you've seen your name in some special places. On an award or diploma or name plate on your desk or maybe even on a walnut door. Or maybe you've heard your name from some important people—a coach, a celebrity, a teacher. But to think that your name is on God's hand and on God's lips . . . my, could it be?
Or perhaps you've never seen your name honored. And you can't remember when you heard it spoken with kindness. If so, it may be more difficult for you to believe that God knows your name.
But he does. Written on his hand. Spoken by his mouth. Whispered by his lips. Our name. And not only the name we now have, but the name he has in store for us. A “new name” he will give us… (Revelation 2:17)
Monday, July 9, 2012
There Is Joy
There Is Joy based from Jim Cymbala’s book Spirit Rising
In the late eighties, Bobby McFerrin wrote and performed a little song called "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Click to listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHFDa9efCQU
Only played part of song in SS, so don’t feel like you have to! One member said “Thanks a lot Hayard, now I will have this tune in my head all week”.
The song hit number one on the charts, and people enjoyed singing along with the happy little tune. Of course, the message offered a great psychological boost too. Don't worry. Just be happy. Let go of your anxi¬eties and enjoy life. It made sense. Being happy is probably something we'd all like to do more. But that leads to a simple question: how?
Happiness versus Joy
Happiness ebbs and flows based on our changing circumstances. A new baby or grandchild is born, and we're all smiles. We win a free vacation, and we're ecstatic! The boss gives a big raise just when we need the extra money, and we're elated. But the euphoria is only tem¬porary. Inevitably something changes and takes our happiness with it. The baby gets sick; our vacation gets rained on; our job is elimi¬nated by a corporate merger. The positive feeling is fleeting. At best we're left feeling empty, and at worst, even angry.
So how do we get our happiness back when the situation changes?
We can't wish happiness back. We can't chase it. Trying harder to regain it only produces frustration. If circumstances alone make us happy, then our situation has to change for us to be happy again. Yet that's precisely the reason we're unhappy. We don't, and never will, have control over the things that make for "don't worry, be happy."
Happiness is circumstantial and elusive, but joy is not circum¬stantial. We can have joy even when we're not happy. Some may hear Christians talking about joy and think that joy is just a religious word for happiness. But joy differs from happiness. If the situation is right, anyone can experience happiness. Even people who don't know God or who curse God can be happy. But they don't have joy, for that bless¬ing in life has a totally different source.
According to Scripture, the Holy Spirit produces joy. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Gal. 5:22 - 23). Isn't it interesting that joy is mentioned immediately after love? Obviously God doesn't want us to live depressed, cranky, and bitter lives. He knows that happiness is fleeting, so through the Spirit, he gives us supernatural joy that transcends our circumstances. Joy is a beautiful gift that accompanies salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. It is a gift imparted by the Holy Spirit to our innermost being.
Inexpressible and Glorious Joy
If joy is a gift, we should expect to see more of it in the church, yet we're often surprised when we do. However, when we recognize that true joy doesn't come from our circumstances but rather from God, we begin to see joy as a blessing for everyday life. And that joy from the Spirit will make us distinctive to the culture around us.
HIV POSITIVE AND FULL OF JOY
A certain woman in our church is known for her sunny disposition and the joy in her heart; she's a real saint of God. One day more than fifteen years ago, she came to my office and said she needed to talk.
"I just found out that I have HIV," she said. "I contracted it from my husband. He's a drug addict."
I sat forward in my chair and lowered my head, thinking of the devastation in that sentence. "I'm here for two reasons, Pastor. The first is that I wanted to tell you personally so you wouldn't hear it from someone else. The sec¬ond is because I need counsel on whether I should tell my children, and if so, when would be the best time? I don't want them to be hurt if I don't tell them, but I don't want them to worry either."
As she told me this, she was amazingly composed. There was a sweetness about her spirit that caught me totally off guard. A part of me wanted to ask, "What planet do you come from?" But instead we talked, and then I prayed for her. When we finished, she asked sincerely, "Can I pray for you?"
That sweet lady started out by telling me she was HIV positive and then finished by praying for me! She hadn't read some book on positive thinking and then decided to give it a try. She hadn't psyched herself up to send good vibes into the universe so they would come back to her. This was a woman experiencing joy despite some very painful and undeserved circumstances.
.
JOY MAKES US DISTINCTIVE
The kind of joy this woman had was normal for the New Testament church, and it should be normal for us too. Should we be depressed that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the grave and that all of our sins are forgiven? Should we lament the knowledge that one day we're going to be with the Lord forever? Should the fact that our name is written in the Book of Life make us sad? No. Those things should give us great joy.
Peter wrote: "You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9) Does a " glorious, inexpressible joy " describe your life, this class or our church? It should. The epistle to Rome is Paul's great theological document regarding justification by faith and other weighty doctrinal matters. Yet toward the end of his letter, the apostle declares that the kingdom of God isn't essentially about denominational positions. The kingdom isn't about who is right about whether the tribulation (distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution) times come before the rapture or after the rapture. Paul said that the “kingdom of God” is a matter of "…living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Rom. 14:17). That is how important joy is; it makes us distinctive as followers of Jesus Christ.
I'm not talking about emotions. What the apostle Paul described was a life of joy that comes from the Spirit. He wrote to the Thessalonian believers, "…you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord." (1 Thess. 1:6).
If we saw a church filled with prejudice and anger, we would say, "That can't be a Christian church." Why? Because God is love, and the fruit of the Spirit is love. If there is no love, if there is a nasty atmosphere, then it can't be of God and of the Spirit.
Why shouldn't we draw the same conclusion when we see a joy¬less church? We often rationalize about why our lives aren't joy-filled, but we don't find depressed, cranky believers in the New Testament.
In the little church I grew up in, there was a middle-aged woman who was always dressed in black. She wore a black dress, a black hat, and black shoes. She always sat alone with a tight, pursed look on her face, and she never talked to anyone. I never even saw her smile. She would enter into the meetings and pray and listen to the Word and then leave. As a young child, I was afraid to even get near her. She looked like she had been baptized in lemon juice!
One day I got up the courage to ask another adult about her. "What's with that lady?" I asked.
The man gave me an understanding nod as If he knew from expe¬rience something that I didn't. "Oh, her. You can tell she walks very close to God." My little mind struggled with the thought. Walking close to God means you never smile? It means you have no friends? You never rejoice in Jesus? Why would anyone want to get close to God if that's what it did to you? Yet that is the picture some people have of God's plan for the Christian life - dark, somber, and joyless.
When we walk in the Spirit, when the Spirit controls us, he pro¬duces joy in our lives just as he produces love. Luke even said " ….Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 10:21). All joy comes from the Holy Spirit. We can't manufacture it, call it up, try harder to get it, or make it happen on our own.
We "rejoice in the Lord" (Phil. 3:1) by remembering and claiming all the benefits he has provided now, and in the hereafter. We all have an unfortunate tendency to dwell exclusively on the problems and pain confronting us, but in Christ, we have a thousand blessings no one can take from us. Jesus told his Apostles that after He was gone there will be sorrow but then "you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy." (John 16:22). Later Paul reinforced Jesus' command by saying, "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4). Therefore, we need to resist the "joy thieves" that want to rob us of his precious gift.
In order to keep our joy, we must habitually "rejoice in the Lord," even when we feel nothing or are hurting. It is possible to feel sor¬row yet rejoice. To rejoice is to celebrate and glorify Christ no matter what. This cannot happen without relying on the Spirit. Only through Him can we have joy no matter what!
Joy and rejoicing might seem inconsequential to the heady, intel¬lectual types among us. But let's remember how vitally important joy is to our spiritual growth. Paul said: "Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith" (Phil. 1:25). Paul linked our prog¬ress and growth in the faith with the joy that increases as we mature in Christ. Faith grows best in the soil of a heart that rejoices in Jesus despite what's going on around it. That's how David could write some of his most uplifting, joyous psalms while King Saul and the army of Israel were in hot pursuit to destroy him. The prophet Nehemiah said, "Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the LORD is your strength!” (Neh. 8:10). We require that joy for survival. We will never stand victoriously against Satan's daily assaults if our souls are filled with anger and resentment.
The early believers lived precarious lives, never knowing what their allegiance to Jesus might cost them. They faced ten times more difficulties than we do, yet they experienced a hundred times more joy! Let's pray as they did, that God might fill us with joy through the Spirit - not just a momentary pick- me- up from time to time, but a deep and continuous river of joy.
In the late eighties, Bobby McFerrin wrote and performed a little song called "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Click to listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHFDa9efCQU
Only played part of song in SS, so don’t feel like you have to! One member said “Thanks a lot Hayard, now I will have this tune in my head all week”.
The song hit number one on the charts, and people enjoyed singing along with the happy little tune. Of course, the message offered a great psychological boost too. Don't worry. Just be happy. Let go of your anxi¬eties and enjoy life. It made sense. Being happy is probably something we'd all like to do more. But that leads to a simple question: how?
Happiness versus Joy
Happiness ebbs and flows based on our changing circumstances. A new baby or grandchild is born, and we're all smiles. We win a free vacation, and we're ecstatic! The boss gives a big raise just when we need the extra money, and we're elated. But the euphoria is only tem¬porary. Inevitably something changes and takes our happiness with it. The baby gets sick; our vacation gets rained on; our job is elimi¬nated by a corporate merger. The positive feeling is fleeting. At best we're left feeling empty, and at worst, even angry.
So how do we get our happiness back when the situation changes?
We can't wish happiness back. We can't chase it. Trying harder to regain it only produces frustration. If circumstances alone make us happy, then our situation has to change for us to be happy again. Yet that's precisely the reason we're unhappy. We don't, and never will, have control over the things that make for "don't worry, be happy."
Happiness is circumstantial and elusive, but joy is not circum¬stantial. We can have joy even when we're not happy. Some may hear Christians talking about joy and think that joy is just a religious word for happiness. But joy differs from happiness. If the situation is right, anyone can experience happiness. Even people who don't know God or who curse God can be happy. But they don't have joy, for that bless¬ing in life has a totally different source.
According to Scripture, the Holy Spirit produces joy. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Gal. 5:22 - 23). Isn't it interesting that joy is mentioned immediately after love? Obviously God doesn't want us to live depressed, cranky, and bitter lives. He knows that happiness is fleeting, so through the Spirit, he gives us supernatural joy that transcends our circumstances. Joy is a beautiful gift that accompanies salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. It is a gift imparted by the Holy Spirit to our innermost being.
Inexpressible and Glorious Joy
If joy is a gift, we should expect to see more of it in the church, yet we're often surprised when we do. However, when we recognize that true joy doesn't come from our circumstances but rather from God, we begin to see joy as a blessing for everyday life. And that joy from the Spirit will make us distinctive to the culture around us.
HIV POSITIVE AND FULL OF JOY
A certain woman in our church is known for her sunny disposition and the joy in her heart; she's a real saint of God. One day more than fifteen years ago, she came to my office and said she needed to talk.
"I just found out that I have HIV," she said. "I contracted it from my husband. He's a drug addict."
I sat forward in my chair and lowered my head, thinking of the devastation in that sentence. "I'm here for two reasons, Pastor. The first is that I wanted to tell you personally so you wouldn't hear it from someone else. The sec¬ond is because I need counsel on whether I should tell my children, and if so, when would be the best time? I don't want them to be hurt if I don't tell them, but I don't want them to worry either."
As she told me this, she was amazingly composed. There was a sweetness about her spirit that caught me totally off guard. A part of me wanted to ask, "What planet do you come from?" But instead we talked, and then I prayed for her. When we finished, she asked sincerely, "Can I pray for you?"
That sweet lady started out by telling me she was HIV positive and then finished by praying for me! She hadn't read some book on positive thinking and then decided to give it a try. She hadn't psyched herself up to send good vibes into the universe so they would come back to her. This was a woman experiencing joy despite some very painful and undeserved circumstances.
.
JOY MAKES US DISTINCTIVE
The kind of joy this woman had was normal for the New Testament church, and it should be normal for us too. Should we be depressed that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the grave and that all of our sins are forgiven? Should we lament the knowledge that one day we're going to be with the Lord forever? Should the fact that our name is written in the Book of Life make us sad? No. Those things should give us great joy.
Peter wrote: "You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9) Does a " glorious, inexpressible joy " describe your life, this class or our church? It should. The epistle to Rome is Paul's great theological document regarding justification by faith and other weighty doctrinal matters. Yet toward the end of his letter, the apostle declares that the kingdom of God isn't essentially about denominational positions. The kingdom isn't about who is right about whether the tribulation (distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution) times come before the rapture or after the rapture. Paul said that the “kingdom of God” is a matter of "…living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Rom. 14:17). That is how important joy is; it makes us distinctive as followers of Jesus Christ.
I'm not talking about emotions. What the apostle Paul described was a life of joy that comes from the Spirit. He wrote to the Thessalonian believers, "…you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord." (1 Thess. 1:6).
If we saw a church filled with prejudice and anger, we would say, "That can't be a Christian church." Why? Because God is love, and the fruit of the Spirit is love. If there is no love, if there is a nasty atmosphere, then it can't be of God and of the Spirit.
Why shouldn't we draw the same conclusion when we see a joy¬less church? We often rationalize about why our lives aren't joy-filled, but we don't find depressed, cranky believers in the New Testament.
In the little church I grew up in, there was a middle-aged woman who was always dressed in black. She wore a black dress, a black hat, and black shoes. She always sat alone with a tight, pursed look on her face, and she never talked to anyone. I never even saw her smile. She would enter into the meetings and pray and listen to the Word and then leave. As a young child, I was afraid to even get near her. She looked like she had been baptized in lemon juice!
One day I got up the courage to ask another adult about her. "What's with that lady?" I asked.
The man gave me an understanding nod as If he knew from expe¬rience something that I didn't. "Oh, her. You can tell she walks very close to God." My little mind struggled with the thought. Walking close to God means you never smile? It means you have no friends? You never rejoice in Jesus? Why would anyone want to get close to God if that's what it did to you? Yet that is the picture some people have of God's plan for the Christian life - dark, somber, and joyless.
When we walk in the Spirit, when the Spirit controls us, he pro¬duces joy in our lives just as he produces love. Luke even said " ….Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 10:21). All joy comes from the Holy Spirit. We can't manufacture it, call it up, try harder to get it, or make it happen on our own.
We "rejoice in the Lord" (Phil. 3:1) by remembering and claiming all the benefits he has provided now, and in the hereafter. We all have an unfortunate tendency to dwell exclusively on the problems and pain confronting us, but in Christ, we have a thousand blessings no one can take from us. Jesus told his Apostles that after He was gone there will be sorrow but then "you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy." (John 16:22). Later Paul reinforced Jesus' command by saying, "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4). Therefore, we need to resist the "joy thieves" that want to rob us of his precious gift.
In order to keep our joy, we must habitually "rejoice in the Lord," even when we feel nothing or are hurting. It is possible to feel sor¬row yet rejoice. To rejoice is to celebrate and glorify Christ no matter what. This cannot happen without relying on the Spirit. Only through Him can we have joy no matter what!
Joy and rejoicing might seem inconsequential to the heady, intel¬lectual types among us. But let's remember how vitally important joy is to our spiritual growth. Paul said: "Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith" (Phil. 1:25). Paul linked our prog¬ress and growth in the faith with the joy that increases as we mature in Christ. Faith grows best in the soil of a heart that rejoices in Jesus despite what's going on around it. That's how David could write some of his most uplifting, joyous psalms while King Saul and the army of Israel were in hot pursuit to destroy him. The prophet Nehemiah said, "Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the LORD is your strength!” (Neh. 8:10). We require that joy for survival. We will never stand victoriously against Satan's daily assaults if our souls are filled with anger and resentment.
The early believers lived precarious lives, never knowing what their allegiance to Jesus might cost them. They faced ten times more difficulties than we do, yet they experienced a hundred times more joy! Let's pray as they did, that God might fill us with joy through the Spirit - not just a momentary pick- me- up from time to time, but a deep and continuous river of joy.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Jesus" Friend of Sinners
Jesus: Friend of Sinners
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNhz8BMTqsk
Jesus Friend of sinners we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing
Jesus friend of sinners the truth's become so hard to see
The world is on their way to You but they're tripping over me
Always looking around but never looking up I'm so double minded
A plank eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours
Yeah...
Jesus friend of sinners the one who's writing in the sand
Make the righteous turn away and the stones fall from their hands
Help us to remember we are all the least of thieves
Let the memory of Your mercy bring your people to their knees
Nobody knows what we're for only against when we judge the wounded
What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and loved like You did
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours
You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast
For the leper and the lame; they're the reason that You came
Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast
But you died for sinners just like me a grateful leper at Your feet
'Cause You are good, You are good And Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks Yours
And I was the lost cause and I was the outcast
Yeah...
You died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet
The course was nearly over. The seminary professor had demonstrated an incredible knowledge of the subject, had been insightful and inspiring and deep. And as he summed up the entire course on the life of Christ, he said these words: “You know, looking back over the whole life and ministry of Jesus, the thing that sticks out most is that Jesus really did come for sinners. That was what His life and ministry was really all about. He came for sinners.” That is the portrait of Christ that we want to look at this morning – Jesus, friend of sinners. To do that, we want to look at a story of Jesus being invited out to dinner:
Jesus eats with Levi (Luke 5:27-32)
It is somewhat difficult to find someone as despised as a “tax collector” today – maybe lawyers or the IRS. A bit of background might help us better understand why tax collectors were so hated. First, they made their living by overcharging, with the full backing of the Roman government. It could easily become extortion. So people hated them because they were cheats who profited richly at the expense of others, usually quite poor people. Taxes at the time could be extremely high – up to (and you’re not going to be able to believe this…) 50% of their income – what kind of society is that?? Second, tax collectors were traitors – they had sold out to the Romans and were punishing their own fellow Jews for personal profit. This also equaled an abandonment of their Jewish faith, or at least a lot of the ceremonial aspects that called for very limited contact with Gentiles, and of the rules governing the Sabbath. So they were cheats, traitors, and backsliders. They were the bottom of the pile.
Enter Jesus. He is out walking in Capernaum one day and sees one of these despised tax collectors sitting in his tax booth (it could have been like a toll booth). He says just two words: “follow me.” And Levi gets up, leaves everything behind, and follows Jesus.
Let’s pause here to reflect on that. It seems reasonable to conclude that Levi was familiar with Jesus, that he had heard Him teach. And obviously Jesus knew him also, for He called him to come and be one of His disciples. We have a really brief description of a moment of decision for this tax collector – Jesus calls. In this story, Levi answers, he comes, he leaves everything behind to follow Jesus.
The same is true for us. Jesus calls to us, invites us to come and follow Him. Our response must be the same as Levi’s – Jesus expects us to also leave everything to follow Him. Jesus said “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (Luke 9:24) He also said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)
As long as we try to hold on to our past, as long as we try to stay in control, as long as we try to follow Jesus without giving up everything, we will not succeed. We will not be able to “follow Him.” It is hard, but it is the only way. Jesus demands our all.
The story continues, and tells of a great banquet. A large crowd of “undesirables” gathers at Levi’s house for a meal, and more importantly for an opportunity to meet Jesus. This was probably Levi’s method of witnessing – he met Jesus, decided to follow Him, and then invited everyone he knew to a giant banquet so that they could also meet Jesus. And they came, and had a feast. Scripture doesn’t tell us this, but do you think maybe Jesus was the life of the party – He was probably the focal point of the whole gathering. Can’t you just see Him mingling and talking with people all over the place, sharing a laugh and a joke, making a comment or insight that people would never forget, simply touching these rich outcasts on the shoulder in a way that changed them. Maybe He spoke to them as a group; we don’t know. But we do know that the religious leaders branded Jesus with the title “friend of sinners”.
We also know that the “religious” folk did not approve. They were on the outskirts, looking in disdainfully. “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” (Luke 5:30b) This was an affront, a serious error in judgment. Jesus was becoming a noticed religious leader, people were talking about Him, certainly He knew better than to taint His reputation by keeping questionable company. Certainly He knew that being found eating with tax collectors would become a scandal. The tabloids would have a field day with this one! Might even make the front page of The National Enquirer..
Frankly, Jesus didn’t care. I really believe that. The people around Him were quick to see people as a label and not as a person. And to equate that label with an absence of worth. Like today: “on welfare.” “street person.” “prostitute.” “druggie”, “homosexual.” “unemployed.” In Jesus’ day it was “tax collector.” “sinner.” The result is the same, a sense that these people aren’t really people, they have no dignity, no status, virtually no worth. Jesus didn’t care about the label, He recognized the person.
He became their “friend.” You know who this tax collector named Levi is? He is Matthew (“Gift from God”. For those of you who know me, I am just a little bit “partial” to the name Matthew!), the disciple, the author of our first Gospel (Jews often had more than one name). This is very clear from the parallel accounts in the other gospels. He is one of the 12, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, an apostle. Jesus took the outcast – the hated – the despised; and made him one of His disciples.
We should find hope here. We should recognize that apart from Jesus we would be rejected and despised by God. We are all a “sinner”! (“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Romans 3:23) One of those who have turned away from God and deserve all the punishment that comes along with that rebellion. Yet Jesus calls us “friend.” Jesus turns us from a place of abandonment to a place of acceptance, from an outcast to a friend. That is the amazing truth of the Gospel. We find hope for our world! Also – we have hope for those around us, for those we bump into. Jesus can change things. Jesus has the power to make us new. He doesn’t care about the labels, about the status in society; He doesn’t even care if we think we are completely worthless and undeserving of His love! We are!! All of us!!! Yet Jesus befriends us anyways. Just like Levi, Jesus invites us to follow Him. Will you leave everything and follow Him?
Conclusion
Jesus is friend of sinners. And that is a good thing, for each of us is a sinner. Each of us have turned away, have rebelled against Him, and need to turn away from our sin, turn towards Jesus.
And if we are to be like Jesus, we need to befriend sinners also. We need to be aware of those who don’t know Christ, so that they can come to know of Him and can be led to decide to follow Him. That can be tough for us, tough to truly befriend “sinners”. You know what made the difference for Jesus? He truly was a friend. They weren’t “projects”, they were people Jesus loved and appreciated and needed and who served Him. They were two-way relationships. They were authentic. That is what we need to build with people around us if we are to have opportunity to witness for Christ.
How does this apply to us? Do we need to accept Jesus’ offer of friendship, of forgiveness, for the first time? If so, come – accept His gift – be made whole. Or have we, like Levi, heard His invitation yet haven’t left everything behind to follow Him? If so, let it go – lay it down – leave it behind. You will never regret it.
Maybe the picture of Jesus as friend of sinners challenges us to build friendships with people around us who don’t know Jesus wants to be their friend. If so, do it. Start to build those friendships, and watch the opportunities God gives you to share the incredible news that Jesus is friend of sinners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNhz8BMTqsk
Jesus Friend of sinners we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing
Jesus friend of sinners the truth's become so hard to see
The world is on their way to You but they're tripping over me
Always looking around but never looking up I'm so double minded
A plank eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours
Yeah...
Jesus friend of sinners the one who's writing in the sand
Make the righteous turn away and the stones fall from their hands
Help us to remember we are all the least of thieves
Let the memory of Your mercy bring your people to their knees
Nobody knows what we're for only against when we judge the wounded
What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and loved like You did
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours
You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast
For the leper and the lame; they're the reason that You came
Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast
But you died for sinners just like me a grateful leper at Your feet
'Cause You are good, You are good And Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks Yours
And I was the lost cause and I was the outcast
Yeah...
You died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet
The course was nearly over. The seminary professor had demonstrated an incredible knowledge of the subject, had been insightful and inspiring and deep. And as he summed up the entire course on the life of Christ, he said these words: “You know, looking back over the whole life and ministry of Jesus, the thing that sticks out most is that Jesus really did come for sinners. That was what His life and ministry was really all about. He came for sinners.” That is the portrait of Christ that we want to look at this morning – Jesus, friend of sinners. To do that, we want to look at a story of Jesus being invited out to dinner:
Jesus eats with Levi (Luke 5:27-32)
It is somewhat difficult to find someone as despised as a “tax collector” today – maybe lawyers or the IRS. A bit of background might help us better understand why tax collectors were so hated. First, they made their living by overcharging, with the full backing of the Roman government. It could easily become extortion. So people hated them because they were cheats who profited richly at the expense of others, usually quite poor people. Taxes at the time could be extremely high – up to (and you’re not going to be able to believe this…) 50% of their income – what kind of society is that?? Second, tax collectors were traitors – they had sold out to the Romans and were punishing their own fellow Jews for personal profit. This also equaled an abandonment of their Jewish faith, or at least a lot of the ceremonial aspects that called for very limited contact with Gentiles, and of the rules governing the Sabbath. So they were cheats, traitors, and backsliders. They were the bottom of the pile.
Enter Jesus. He is out walking in Capernaum one day and sees one of these despised tax collectors sitting in his tax booth (it could have been like a toll booth). He says just two words: “follow me.” And Levi gets up, leaves everything behind, and follows Jesus.
Let’s pause here to reflect on that. It seems reasonable to conclude that Levi was familiar with Jesus, that he had heard Him teach. And obviously Jesus knew him also, for He called him to come and be one of His disciples. We have a really brief description of a moment of decision for this tax collector – Jesus calls. In this story, Levi answers, he comes, he leaves everything behind to follow Jesus.
The same is true for us. Jesus calls to us, invites us to come and follow Him. Our response must be the same as Levi’s – Jesus expects us to also leave everything to follow Him. Jesus said “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (Luke 9:24) He also said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)
As long as we try to hold on to our past, as long as we try to stay in control, as long as we try to follow Jesus without giving up everything, we will not succeed. We will not be able to “follow Him.” It is hard, but it is the only way. Jesus demands our all.
The story continues, and tells of a great banquet. A large crowd of “undesirables” gathers at Levi’s house for a meal, and more importantly for an opportunity to meet Jesus. This was probably Levi’s method of witnessing – he met Jesus, decided to follow Him, and then invited everyone he knew to a giant banquet so that they could also meet Jesus. And they came, and had a feast. Scripture doesn’t tell us this, but do you think maybe Jesus was the life of the party – He was probably the focal point of the whole gathering. Can’t you just see Him mingling and talking with people all over the place, sharing a laugh and a joke, making a comment or insight that people would never forget, simply touching these rich outcasts on the shoulder in a way that changed them. Maybe He spoke to them as a group; we don’t know. But we do know that the religious leaders branded Jesus with the title “friend of sinners”.
We also know that the “religious” folk did not approve. They were on the outskirts, looking in disdainfully. “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” (Luke 5:30b) This was an affront, a serious error in judgment. Jesus was becoming a noticed religious leader, people were talking about Him, certainly He knew better than to taint His reputation by keeping questionable company. Certainly He knew that being found eating with tax collectors would become a scandal. The tabloids would have a field day with this one! Might even make the front page of The National Enquirer..
Frankly, Jesus didn’t care. I really believe that. The people around Him were quick to see people as a label and not as a person. And to equate that label with an absence of worth. Like today: “on welfare.” “street person.” “prostitute.” “druggie”, “homosexual.” “unemployed.” In Jesus’ day it was “tax collector.” “sinner.” The result is the same, a sense that these people aren’t really people, they have no dignity, no status, virtually no worth. Jesus didn’t care about the label, He recognized the person.
He became their “friend.” You know who this tax collector named Levi is? He is Matthew (“Gift from God”. For those of you who know me, I am just a little bit “partial” to the name Matthew!), the disciple, the author of our first Gospel (Jews often had more than one name). This is very clear from the parallel accounts in the other gospels. He is one of the 12, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, an apostle. Jesus took the outcast – the hated – the despised; and made him one of His disciples.
We should find hope here. We should recognize that apart from Jesus we would be rejected and despised by God. We are all a “sinner”! (“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Romans 3:23) One of those who have turned away from God and deserve all the punishment that comes along with that rebellion. Yet Jesus calls us “friend.” Jesus turns us from a place of abandonment to a place of acceptance, from an outcast to a friend. That is the amazing truth of the Gospel. We find hope for our world! Also – we have hope for those around us, for those we bump into. Jesus can change things. Jesus has the power to make us new. He doesn’t care about the labels, about the status in society; He doesn’t even care if we think we are completely worthless and undeserving of His love! We are!! All of us!!! Yet Jesus befriends us anyways. Just like Levi, Jesus invites us to follow Him. Will you leave everything and follow Him?
Conclusion
Jesus is friend of sinners. And that is a good thing, for each of us is a sinner. Each of us have turned away, have rebelled against Him, and need to turn away from our sin, turn towards Jesus.
And if we are to be like Jesus, we need to befriend sinners also. We need to be aware of those who don’t know Christ, so that they can come to know of Him and can be led to decide to follow Him. That can be tough for us, tough to truly befriend “sinners”. You know what made the difference for Jesus? He truly was a friend. They weren’t “projects”, they were people Jesus loved and appreciated and needed and who served Him. They were two-way relationships. They were authentic. That is what we need to build with people around us if we are to have opportunity to witness for Christ.
How does this apply to us? Do we need to accept Jesus’ offer of friendship, of forgiveness, for the first time? If so, come – accept His gift – be made whole. Or have we, like Levi, heard His invitation yet haven’t left everything behind to follow Him? If so, let it go – lay it down – leave it behind. You will never regret it.
Maybe the picture of Jesus as friend of sinners challenges us to build friendships with people around us who don’t know Jesus wants to be their friend. If so, do it. Start to build those friendships, and watch the opportunities God gives you to share the incredible news that Jesus is friend of sinners.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Can you Judge A Facebook By It’s Cover?
Can you Judge A Facebook By It’s Cover?
How many of you do NOT use the internet? How many of you do NOT use Facebook?
Facebook has been so popular that there are more people who use Facebook than live in the USA. In fact, if the users of Facebook made up their own country they’d be the 3rd largest nation on earth – with a population of over 400 million.
65 million of those people access their Facebook account regularly thru their cell phones or mobile devices. And experts say that the average user has about 130 Facebook friends and they spend more than 55 minutes a day on their site talking with friends, posting pictures and reading about other people they’ve met online.
Essentially Facebook is a place where people tell other people WHO THEY ARE! Well, actually it’s a place where people tell others who they THINK they are… Well, actually, it’s a place where people tell others how they wish others thought they were.
There is something about Facebook that’s really intriguing: It seems that when people get on Facebook they always reveal WHO they are. It’s like they believe they’re somehow anonymous because no one is looking them in the eye. And thus, they don’t think anybody is really paying attention.
Now, some people are very nice folks in private… and so they’re nice on Facebook. But others - if they’re mean spirited, lewd, crude and generally despicable in private that’s how they behave on Facebook. And some of these people will post pictures on their Facebook they wouldn’t ordinarily want anybody to see, but they’ll put them online because they think they’re being funny.
There’s just something about Facebook that reveals people – as they really are.
Story from a pastor:
I remember one woman - from the first church I served – she “friended” me (in other words she asked to be able to read my posts and put her posts on my page). Now that was nice… it was a compliment to me. And of course I said “Yes.”
But then, after a few weeks I noticed a disturbing pattern in her postings. What she wrote on HER Facebook (and thus shared with me) often had foul words, and she would talk about things a Christian shouldn’t be talking about.
So, I sent her a private message explaining that this wasn’t appropriate. She was remorseful and said it wouldn’t happen again. But it did. So I sent her another message… and she “unfriended” me. And that was ok.
You see, what she began to realize was - the things she thought were private - were being read by a preacher. And she came to the conclusion that if she wanted to do what she wanted to do she had to make sure I didn’t know what she was doing. So she unfriended me. She cut me off from her Facebook page. Because (in her mind) if I didn’t KNOW what she was doing… she could keep on doing it. Now, she can hide that from me… but she can’t hide those things from God.
And neither can we! In Jeremiah God tells us “I am watching them closely, and I see every sin. They cannot hope to hide from me. .” Jeremiah 16:17
Hebrews 4:13 “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.”
That woman may have thought she’d gotten away from with something by “unfriending” the pastor, but she can’t hide anything from God. He sees it all. And here in Hebrews the writer is essentially telling us that God has a Facebook page for each of us. On that Facebook page God sees exactly who you and I are. Every word we speak is recorded. Every action we do is shown. Because God sees us as we really are. And Jesus says in Matthew 12:36, “… I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak.” Uh, oh! Comment from me in class: "If one of you happen to be behind me on judgment day, get ready for a long wait while I try to explain all my 'idle' words"
Now just to put your mind at ease - none of us come off looking all that good on the Facebook page God has for us. As Romans 3:23 says – “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”
But in Luke 6 :43, Jesus is telling His disciples that, while that may be true, they shouldn’t get real comfortable with that idea. While all of us do mess up in our lives on occasion, God is looking to see what kind of fruit we’re bearing in our lives.
He says: “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.” Luke 6:43 Then Jesus points out what kind of fruit God looks at:
• God looks at what we SAY:
“A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” Luke 6:45
•AND God looks at what we DO:
"So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?” Luke 6:46
What Jesus is saying is this: what we say and what we do are reflections of what is inside of us. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.
How you and I TALK… and how you and I WALK are reflections of what we’ve stored in our hearts. In computer language they have a scientific description of that process. It’s called “Garbage in, garbage out.” If you put bad things in a computer… you’ll get bad things out. And conversely, if you put good things in… you’ll get good things out. And many times the problems with the computer is the “operator”.
So, as Christians, what’s INSIDE of us? Well, it’s supposed to be the Spirit of God. And how do I know if I’m filled with the Spirit of God
Well, if we’re filled with the Spirit of God… we’ll show the FRUIT of His being inside us.
Galatians 5:22-26 says “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”
What Jesus is saying in Luke 6 is that God EXPECTS the fruit of Galatians 5 to be IN us. God expects us to show love to each other, create an atmosphere of joy around us, promote peace in the congregation, show kindness to others… etc.
THIS should be our objective as Christians. Because we know God is watching… He’s reading our Facebook page.
Facebook users need to realize their comments are seen by many people. And their names are attached to their comments - they are not anonymous. Their words can/will be revealed to many people.
But, we must remember that this is not just true of Facebook users. This whole lesson actually is relevant to anything we say or do – it can be at work around the coffee pot, in the parking lot of the church, in line at Wal-Mart, or… the list could go on and on!
So God is telling all of us the following:
So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Ephesians 5:15-17
How many of you do NOT use the internet? How many of you do NOT use Facebook?
Facebook has been so popular that there are more people who use Facebook than live in the USA. In fact, if the users of Facebook made up their own country they’d be the 3rd largest nation on earth – with a population of over 400 million.
65 million of those people access their Facebook account regularly thru their cell phones or mobile devices. And experts say that the average user has about 130 Facebook friends and they spend more than 55 minutes a day on their site talking with friends, posting pictures and reading about other people they’ve met online.
Essentially Facebook is a place where people tell other people WHO THEY ARE! Well, actually it’s a place where people tell others who they THINK they are… Well, actually, it’s a place where people tell others how they wish others thought they were.
There is something about Facebook that’s really intriguing: It seems that when people get on Facebook they always reveal WHO they are. It’s like they believe they’re somehow anonymous because no one is looking them in the eye. And thus, they don’t think anybody is really paying attention.
Now, some people are very nice folks in private… and so they’re nice on Facebook. But others - if they’re mean spirited, lewd, crude and generally despicable in private that’s how they behave on Facebook. And some of these people will post pictures on their Facebook they wouldn’t ordinarily want anybody to see, but they’ll put them online because they think they’re being funny.
There’s just something about Facebook that reveals people – as they really are.
Story from a pastor:
I remember one woman - from the first church I served – she “friended” me (in other words she asked to be able to read my posts and put her posts on my page). Now that was nice… it was a compliment to me. And of course I said “Yes.”
But then, after a few weeks I noticed a disturbing pattern in her postings. What she wrote on HER Facebook (and thus shared with me) often had foul words, and she would talk about things a Christian shouldn’t be talking about.
So, I sent her a private message explaining that this wasn’t appropriate. She was remorseful and said it wouldn’t happen again. But it did. So I sent her another message… and she “unfriended” me. And that was ok.
You see, what she began to realize was - the things she thought were private - were being read by a preacher. And she came to the conclusion that if she wanted to do what she wanted to do she had to make sure I didn’t know what she was doing. So she unfriended me. She cut me off from her Facebook page. Because (in her mind) if I didn’t KNOW what she was doing… she could keep on doing it. Now, she can hide that from me… but she can’t hide those things from God.
And neither can we! In Jeremiah God tells us “I am watching them closely, and I see every sin. They cannot hope to hide from me. .” Jeremiah 16:17
Hebrews 4:13 “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.”
That woman may have thought she’d gotten away from with something by “unfriending” the pastor, but she can’t hide anything from God. He sees it all. And here in Hebrews the writer is essentially telling us that God has a Facebook page for each of us. On that Facebook page God sees exactly who you and I are. Every word we speak is recorded. Every action we do is shown. Because God sees us as we really are. And Jesus says in Matthew 12:36, “… I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak.” Uh, oh! Comment from me in class: "If one of you happen to be behind me on judgment day, get ready for a long wait while I try to explain all my 'idle' words"
Now just to put your mind at ease - none of us come off looking all that good on the Facebook page God has for us. As Romans 3:23 says – “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”
But in Luke 6 :43, Jesus is telling His disciples that, while that may be true, they shouldn’t get real comfortable with that idea. While all of us do mess up in our lives on occasion, God is looking to see what kind of fruit we’re bearing in our lives.
He says: “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.” Luke 6:43 Then Jesus points out what kind of fruit God looks at:
• God looks at what we SAY:
“A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” Luke 6:45
•AND God looks at what we DO:
"So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?” Luke 6:46
What Jesus is saying is this: what we say and what we do are reflections of what is inside of us. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.
How you and I TALK… and how you and I WALK are reflections of what we’ve stored in our hearts. In computer language they have a scientific description of that process. It’s called “Garbage in, garbage out.” If you put bad things in a computer… you’ll get bad things out. And conversely, if you put good things in… you’ll get good things out. And many times the problems with the computer is the “operator”.
So, as Christians, what’s INSIDE of us? Well, it’s supposed to be the Spirit of God. And how do I know if I’m filled with the Spirit of God
Well, if we’re filled with the Spirit of God… we’ll show the FRUIT of His being inside us.
Galatians 5:22-26 says “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”
What Jesus is saying in Luke 6 is that God EXPECTS the fruit of Galatians 5 to be IN us. God expects us to show love to each other, create an atmosphere of joy around us, promote peace in the congregation, show kindness to others… etc.
THIS should be our objective as Christians. Because we know God is watching… He’s reading our Facebook page.
Facebook users need to realize their comments are seen by many people. And their names are attached to their comments - they are not anonymous. Their words can/will be revealed to many people.
But, we must remember that this is not just true of Facebook users. This whole lesson actually is relevant to anything we say or do – it can be at work around the coffee pot, in the parking lot of the church, in line at Wal-Mart, or… the list could go on and on!
So God is telling all of us the following:
So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Ephesians 5:15-17
Monday, June 18, 2012
The Battle
The Battle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4QOuGI3irI
There's a battle between good and evil
And it's raging inside of me
There's a struggle, it's God and the devil
It's love against the enemy
Whoa, no
I'm not giving up now
Whoa
Life's a fight of wrong and right, that's tearing me apart
Oh, but what the cross has done
Yeah the world will try to battle for my heart
But the war is already won
There's a snake that's hiding in the garden
There's a beautiful apple tree
There is trouble on the horizon
But I'm claiming victory
Whoa
I'm not giving in now
Whoa
Life's a fight of wrong and right that's tearing me apart
Oh, but what the cross has done
Yeah, the world will try to battle for my heart
But the war is already won
Whoa
I'm not giving up now
Whoa
I'm not giving in
Life's a fight of wrong and right that's tearing me apart
Oh, but what the cross has done
Yeah, the world will try to battle for my heart
But the war is already won. Battle by Chris August
Today’s lesson is that all of us, are fighting even if we don’t realize it... and the only way that you can be victorious in this war is to be on the right side and that right side is Jesus Christ...
We are talking about a war between “Good” and “Evil”, a war between the “Powers of Darkness” and the powers of Heaven......a battle between “Light” and “Darkness”. This war is about the eternal destiny of every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, from Adam to the last child that will be born before time ceases to exist as we know it.
Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places”.
Signs of this great battle for the souls of men are everywhere. All you have to do is look around and you can see many who have the scars of the battle. Many are wounded emotionally........... some are not able to cope with everyday life and its pressures. Some carry around scars of guilt and shame some carry a wounded spirit or a broken heart that sends them over the edge and makes them feel like life just ain’t worth living.
The weapons in this war ain’t bullets, knives, but words, prayer, sin and faith. Satan’s arsenal is filled with temptation, loaded fiery darts of passion and he lays traps, or minefields, where we walk every day. He’s an enemy that’s out to kill, steal and destroy everything that he can, including your very soul.
God’s weapons of this warfare are love, faith, Prayer, a sound mind and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Blood of the Lamb and the Cross of Christ. God’s weapons are more powerful than the devil’s, BUT none of them can be used without faith and trust in God to make them work.
The problem is that most people won’t use God’s weapons because they don’t want to surrender their will to God’s will.
When an addict is fighting for their life, doing everything in their power to overcome whatever has them “addicted”, it’s a fight with eternal consequences. Too many try to fight this battle alone, with “will power” and think it can be strong enough to break that bondage.
“Will power” just won’t work most of the time. If you don’t think that’s so, then how long an addict can go without a fix from the needle or the pill, just relying on will power? How long can the alcoholic stand the jitters of needing that next drink...there may be a few cases where people claim to overcome these addictions through will power, most fail, and then that adds to their hopelessness and frustration.
The reason that people can’t overcome these things on their own is that these are not just physical battles with a physical addition. They are spiritual battles that can only be fought, and won, in the realms of the supernatural.
Look at the Apostle Paul..... Paul was an addict before he was an apostle. He didn’t take drugs, he wasn’t hooked on tobacco and he wasn’t a man given to drink. Paul was a Pharisee, a man who dedicated his whole life to obeying the commandments of the Law. But he was an addict. He was addicted to ambition and to recognition.
Paul was first called Saul. As Saul, he was a defender of the faith of the Jews and he loved the idea of persecuting Christians He was constantly going before the High Priest to obtain letters of authority to kill, maim and imprison every Christian he could find. Saul was fighting the battle against God. He was trying to win a battle that he couldn’t win. He could do nothing to overcome his desire for recognition and power. In fact, he saw nothing wrong with the way he was living and the things he was doing.
It’s a sad thing to see most of the world living for the devil, and fighting in his army, and not even realizing what they are doing.... No one would admit that they are fighting against God. Every man is right in his own eyes because he is blinded to the truth. The truth is that unless you are living for God and serving Him, and working for Him, then you are fighting for the devil.
Saul was soon gonna’ come face to face with the war that was raging around him. He was fighting on the side of Satan, thinking he was doing God a favor, but he was gonna’ meet the Lord on the Road to Damascus. It was there, in the middle of the day, that he was knocked off of his horse into the dust by the True Light from Heaven. Jesus knew that Saul was a sincere man, sincerely wrong even though he thought he was right; and Jesus also knew that Saul’s sincerity needed some direction.
Saul didn’t know who he was fighting for. He thought that he was doing the right thing the whole time. But he soon found out that he had been in the devil’s army, fighting against the very God that he thought he was serving. It took the power of God to break through his blindness and to shatter Saul’s addiction, and it still takes the power of God to truly break any addiction today. You can’t do it on your own, but with God’s help, according to Jesus, in Mark 9:23, "…. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
When Saul gave his heart to Jesus on that road to Damascus, God changed him completely, making him a new creation in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17, "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"
Saul’s addiction to power and ambition to the chief among the Pharisees came to an end, broke down forever by the power of God. From that day on, God gave him a brand new name, Paul...... and a new purpose, to preach the gospel; and a new life. All that he had been in the past was forgotten by God and forgiven. The blood of Jesus had washed away every sin and Paul was filled with the Holy Ghost and power.
He kept fighting the same war between the worlds of good and evil, but now he was on the right side for a change.
In Acts 16:16-16:31, we can see that Paul and Silas are battling the forces of darkness as they walked the streets of the city. They were going about doing good, praying and ministering, but Satan never stops trying to win the war, so even in the simple things of living for the Lord, they are still in midst of the war.
Let that be a lesson to us all. Don’t ever think that the war isn’t raging just because life seems to be good right now.
Your next battle with the devil is just ahead so be ready for it.
Sometimes we can become involved with people, on a job, or in a relationship that seems so right in the beginning. We can’t see anything wrong. But before long, something just doesn’t feel right anymore. That’s called the power of discernment, where the Holy Spirit living in you, begins to warn you that everything is not like it looks....
Satan plays for keeps. His methods are subtle most of the time, but he can be as confrontational as he wants to be when the battle gets harder. He is perfectly happy to allow anybody to do his dirty work for him.
Sometimes living for the Lord ain’t fun. Sometimes God allows things to happen to us that we just don’t understand. It’s okay to ask questions, but then we need to accept the answer and leave it in God’s hands. Nothing can happen to you that God don’t know about.
God will make a way for you to escape the traps that the devil will lay for us. We may face some strong temptations to fall into our old life but we don’t quit, we keep fighting. All of us face temptation, but that don’t mean that we’ve to give in to it.
And even if we fail, and all of us fail from time to time, God don’t give up on us. He says in Hebrews 4:16, "So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."
1 John 2:1-2, "My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world."
We’re in a spiritual battle, A War of the Worlds of Good and Evil. Whose side are we on? If we aren’t on the Lord’s side, then there’s only one leader that we can be fighting for, the devil. There is no neutral ground. There is no fence. It’s either all for Jesus, or all for the devil.
The choice is ours. The victory has been won for us but we have to accept it. We can be part of the only army that is destined to win. But we need to surrender to Jesus everything.
For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4QOuGI3irI
There's a battle between good and evil
And it's raging inside of me
There's a struggle, it's God and the devil
It's love against the enemy
Whoa, no
I'm not giving up now
Whoa
Life's a fight of wrong and right, that's tearing me apart
Oh, but what the cross has done
Yeah the world will try to battle for my heart
But the war is already won
There's a snake that's hiding in the garden
There's a beautiful apple tree
There is trouble on the horizon
But I'm claiming victory
Whoa
I'm not giving in now
Whoa
Life's a fight of wrong and right that's tearing me apart
Oh, but what the cross has done
Yeah, the world will try to battle for my heart
But the war is already won
Whoa
I'm not giving up now
Whoa
I'm not giving in
Life's a fight of wrong and right that's tearing me apart
Oh, but what the cross has done
Yeah, the world will try to battle for my heart
But the war is already won. Battle by Chris August
Today’s lesson is that all of us, are fighting even if we don’t realize it... and the only way that you can be victorious in this war is to be on the right side and that right side is Jesus Christ...
We are talking about a war between “Good” and “Evil”, a war between the “Powers of Darkness” and the powers of Heaven......a battle between “Light” and “Darkness”. This war is about the eternal destiny of every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, from Adam to the last child that will be born before time ceases to exist as we know it.
Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places”.
Signs of this great battle for the souls of men are everywhere. All you have to do is look around and you can see many who have the scars of the battle. Many are wounded emotionally........... some are not able to cope with everyday life and its pressures. Some carry around scars of guilt and shame some carry a wounded spirit or a broken heart that sends them over the edge and makes them feel like life just ain’t worth living.
The weapons in this war ain’t bullets, knives, but words, prayer, sin and faith. Satan’s arsenal is filled with temptation, loaded fiery darts of passion and he lays traps, or minefields, where we walk every day. He’s an enemy that’s out to kill, steal and destroy everything that he can, including your very soul.
God’s weapons of this warfare are love, faith, Prayer, a sound mind and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Blood of the Lamb and the Cross of Christ. God’s weapons are more powerful than the devil’s, BUT none of them can be used without faith and trust in God to make them work.
The problem is that most people won’t use God’s weapons because they don’t want to surrender their will to God’s will.
When an addict is fighting for their life, doing everything in their power to overcome whatever has them “addicted”, it’s a fight with eternal consequences. Too many try to fight this battle alone, with “will power” and think it can be strong enough to break that bondage.
“Will power” just won’t work most of the time. If you don’t think that’s so, then how long an addict can go without a fix from the needle or the pill, just relying on will power? How long can the alcoholic stand the jitters of needing that next drink...there may be a few cases where people claim to overcome these addictions through will power, most fail, and then that adds to their hopelessness and frustration.
The reason that people can’t overcome these things on their own is that these are not just physical battles with a physical addition. They are spiritual battles that can only be fought, and won, in the realms of the supernatural.
Look at the Apostle Paul..... Paul was an addict before he was an apostle. He didn’t take drugs, he wasn’t hooked on tobacco and he wasn’t a man given to drink. Paul was a Pharisee, a man who dedicated his whole life to obeying the commandments of the Law. But he was an addict. He was addicted to ambition and to recognition.
Paul was first called Saul. As Saul, he was a defender of the faith of the Jews and he loved the idea of persecuting Christians He was constantly going before the High Priest to obtain letters of authority to kill, maim and imprison every Christian he could find. Saul was fighting the battle against God. He was trying to win a battle that he couldn’t win. He could do nothing to overcome his desire for recognition and power. In fact, he saw nothing wrong with the way he was living and the things he was doing.
It’s a sad thing to see most of the world living for the devil, and fighting in his army, and not even realizing what they are doing.... No one would admit that they are fighting against God. Every man is right in his own eyes because he is blinded to the truth. The truth is that unless you are living for God and serving Him, and working for Him, then you are fighting for the devil.
Saul was soon gonna’ come face to face with the war that was raging around him. He was fighting on the side of Satan, thinking he was doing God a favor, but he was gonna’ meet the Lord on the Road to Damascus. It was there, in the middle of the day, that he was knocked off of his horse into the dust by the True Light from Heaven. Jesus knew that Saul was a sincere man, sincerely wrong even though he thought he was right; and Jesus also knew that Saul’s sincerity needed some direction.
Saul didn’t know who he was fighting for. He thought that he was doing the right thing the whole time. But he soon found out that he had been in the devil’s army, fighting against the very God that he thought he was serving. It took the power of God to break through his blindness and to shatter Saul’s addiction, and it still takes the power of God to truly break any addiction today. You can’t do it on your own, but with God’s help, according to Jesus, in Mark 9:23, "…. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
When Saul gave his heart to Jesus on that road to Damascus, God changed him completely, making him a new creation in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17, "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"
Saul’s addiction to power and ambition to the chief among the Pharisees came to an end, broke down forever by the power of God. From that day on, God gave him a brand new name, Paul...... and a new purpose, to preach the gospel; and a new life. All that he had been in the past was forgotten by God and forgiven. The blood of Jesus had washed away every sin and Paul was filled with the Holy Ghost and power.
He kept fighting the same war between the worlds of good and evil, but now he was on the right side for a change.
In Acts 16:16-16:31, we can see that Paul and Silas are battling the forces of darkness as they walked the streets of the city. They were going about doing good, praying and ministering, but Satan never stops trying to win the war, so even in the simple things of living for the Lord, they are still in midst of the war.
Let that be a lesson to us all. Don’t ever think that the war isn’t raging just because life seems to be good right now.
Your next battle with the devil is just ahead so be ready for it.
Sometimes we can become involved with people, on a job, or in a relationship that seems so right in the beginning. We can’t see anything wrong. But before long, something just doesn’t feel right anymore. That’s called the power of discernment, where the Holy Spirit living in you, begins to warn you that everything is not like it looks....
Satan plays for keeps. His methods are subtle most of the time, but he can be as confrontational as he wants to be when the battle gets harder. He is perfectly happy to allow anybody to do his dirty work for him.
Sometimes living for the Lord ain’t fun. Sometimes God allows things to happen to us that we just don’t understand. It’s okay to ask questions, but then we need to accept the answer and leave it in God’s hands. Nothing can happen to you that God don’t know about.
God will make a way for you to escape the traps that the devil will lay for us. We may face some strong temptations to fall into our old life but we don’t quit, we keep fighting. All of us face temptation, but that don’t mean that we’ve to give in to it.
And even if we fail, and all of us fail from time to time, God don’t give up on us. He says in Hebrews 4:16, "So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."
1 John 2:1-2, "My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world."
We’re in a spiritual battle, A War of the Worlds of Good and Evil. Whose side are we on? If we aren’t on the Lord’s side, then there’s only one leader that we can be fighting for, the devil. There is no neutral ground. There is no fence. It’s either all for Jesus, or all for the devil.
The choice is ours. The victory has been won for us but we have to accept it. We can be part of the only army that is destined to win. But we need to surrender to Jesus everything.
For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
10 Things Christians Might Consider in this Political Season
10 Things Christians Might Consider in this Political Season
This somewhat of an unusual lesson but think it is worth doing considering all that is going on in this election year. In political news and ads, we are hearing some truths, some half truths (actually a half truth is a lie), and just outright lies. And a lot of “confusing” information.
To begin with I want to read the first part of Romans 13. It is very interesting and I have been asked to explain this in Bible study and my answer is “It says what it says”.
It presents what ideally should be our Biblical relationship with elected officials-that we would be law-abiding citizens. In election year, we want to consider who we will respect enough so that we will be allowed to put these Biblical instructions into place.
Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. 2 So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. 3 For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you. 4 The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong. 5 So you must submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience.
6 Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority. Romans 13: 1-7
Now our first thoughts might be that things were different when Paul wrote this letter to the Roman church than today. And we would be right. Conditions were a lot worse. The Jewish nation and most of the known world were under the TOTAL control of the Roman Empire. The Romans had some years earlier crucified Jesus at the request of Jewish religious leaders and Paul himself was eventually executed by the Romans.
Okay, now to the somewhat unusual lesson:
So now the primaries are officially over and we have a contest between President Obama and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the Presidency of the United States. Inevitably, American Christians will fall on one side or the other in what will likely be a long, divisive, tough campaign to the end. So, how should we as followers of Christ act during election season? This isn't the last word and it isn't an exhaustive list, but here are a few things we might consider:
1) Remember to be grateful for the election. As Americans, we live in a representative republic, so we have the rare opportunity to shape our government. Partisanship and politics can be wearying and noisy and half-crazy at times, but at least we have the freedom to express ourselves and to vote. This isn't happening in most countries around the world. So just at the point when you're tired of looking at political signs and a bit weary of the sloganeering, remember those dissidents who sit in jail cells around the world, merely for having an opposing thought. We have a stewardship to vote, granted by God, and we should use it responsibly.
2) Don't put your trust in chariots. Be grateful for the opportunity to elect the president you feel will best lead our country. But don't fall into the trap that everything in history and in your life depends on one rainy Tuesday in November. Don't be practical an “atheist”, white-knuckling election night, sweating every ebb and flow of the season, and acting as if you need to build a fortified bunker if "the wrong guy wins." Advocate and work for your guy, but “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) God holds history in the palm of his hand and is not at all worried sick about which party controls the levers of power in America.
3) Ignore most of the political appeals you hear from both sides. To win in modern American politics, you have to paint the other guy as something a combination of an axe murder, a village idiot, and a helpless puppet. You have to dig for any scent of scandal, blow it up in an ominous, black-and white ad, and convince people that if this guy wins you might as well move to Canada. Both sides will do this. But the truth is somewhere in between. It is a good idea to periodically tune out the election news during election season, toss those pesky mailers, and hang up your phone when you hear the gravel-voiced narrator begin his robo-calls of doom.
4) Advocate issues, avoid the petty stuff. It's amazing how easily campaigns delve into petty stuff like how many vacations the President takes, the color of the First Lady's dress, and the habits of the candidates while in high school. Vote for a guy because he holds positions closest to yours. Advocate issues of importance and weight. Resist being drug into the gutter and arguing for or against issues that have little or no consequence.
5) Avoid the "ends-justifies-the-means" of politics. When President Bush was in office the left smeared him unfairly, comparing him to Hitler and tarring him as a war criminal. This was unfair. So now that President Obama is in office, many on the Right feel what was good for one side is good for the other. "All is fair in love and war," we say. This is true ... unless you happen to be a follower of Christ and we're commanded, repeatedly, to measure our words, to be kind, to love, to speak truth. Remember that even in politics, you are to act and talk like a Christian.
6) Don't let your political differences ruin friendships. It is easy to allow political differences to drive a wedge in important friendships. But we must prize our love for our brothers and sisters in the Lord and our friendships with those outside the faith, above the strong opinions we hold. That doesn't mean we back down, it means we find a way to get along with people with whom we disagree. Friendships within and without the church are vital for gospel ministry. Don't let the temporary effects of politics get in the way of the eternal.
7) Don't fall for conspiracy theories. Don't forward emails that are less than true or haven't been verified by reputable sources. Its easy to want to believe the worst about our political enemies, but God calls us to believe the truth. “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.” (Philippians 4:8). Don't post on Facebook or Twitter or send email questionable stories or theories. As Christians we should be about truth.
8) Don't allow politics to convince you to hate those whom Jesus has called you to love. Politics likes to divide things up nicely into good guys and bad guys, to see the "other side" as the enemy. If you read enough political blogs and listen to talk radio and watch enough cable news, you will soon develop a mentality that sees only those who agree with you as good people and the rest as enemies. Furthermore, it clouds the real battle. We're told in Scripture that people are not the enemy, Satan is. And our fight is never against mere mortals, but part of a larger, worldwide spiritual conflict. “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:2). Plus, if you convince yourself to hate certain segments, how then can you lovingly reach them with the good news of the gospel?
9) Avoid the "out there" mentality. The weakness of political engagement is that it lends itself away from self-reflection. The partisan mind constantly thinks all the worst problems in the world are "out there." The gospel, however, forces us into sober self-reflection. It reminds us that the real problem is inside, in our own depraved hearts. The Apostle Paul, who lived under the oppression of a wicked and tyrannical government, said “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.” (1 Timothy 1:15) He didn't point to Nero. He said, "No, I'm the biggest problem." It's easy to blame Hollywood, Wall Street, and the media for all of our woes, but if we were honest and allowed the gospel to penetrate our hearts, we'd realize that we are our own worst enemies.
10) Look for a better city. Politics is driven by a God-given longing for utopia, a desire for perfection, by the dawning reality that life on this earth is not how it should be. Politicians come along and promise to fix things, to build that utopian dream we all desire. The problem is that politicians are flawed. They are not saviors. And this world is cursed by sin. So like Abraham, we must look for another city, “a city designed and built by God.” (Hebrews 11:10). One day Christ will return as reigning King and will set up the ultimate, perfect Kingdom. “..we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. (Philippians 3:20)
This somewhat of an unusual lesson but think it is worth doing considering all that is going on in this election year. In political news and ads, we are hearing some truths, some half truths (actually a half truth is a lie), and just outright lies. And a lot of “confusing” information.
To begin with I want to read the first part of Romans 13. It is very interesting and I have been asked to explain this in Bible study and my answer is “It says what it says”.
It presents what ideally should be our Biblical relationship with elected officials-that we would be law-abiding citizens. In election year, we want to consider who we will respect enough so that we will be allowed to put these Biblical instructions into place.
Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. 2 So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. 3 For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you. 4 The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong. 5 So you must submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience.
6 Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority. Romans 13: 1-7
Now our first thoughts might be that things were different when Paul wrote this letter to the Roman church than today. And we would be right. Conditions were a lot worse. The Jewish nation and most of the known world were under the TOTAL control of the Roman Empire. The Romans had some years earlier crucified Jesus at the request of Jewish religious leaders and Paul himself was eventually executed by the Romans.
Okay, now to the somewhat unusual lesson:
So now the primaries are officially over and we have a contest between President Obama and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the Presidency of the United States. Inevitably, American Christians will fall on one side or the other in what will likely be a long, divisive, tough campaign to the end. So, how should we as followers of Christ act during election season? This isn't the last word and it isn't an exhaustive list, but here are a few things we might consider:
1) Remember to be grateful for the election. As Americans, we live in a representative republic, so we have the rare opportunity to shape our government. Partisanship and politics can be wearying and noisy and half-crazy at times, but at least we have the freedom to express ourselves and to vote. This isn't happening in most countries around the world. So just at the point when you're tired of looking at political signs and a bit weary of the sloganeering, remember those dissidents who sit in jail cells around the world, merely for having an opposing thought. We have a stewardship to vote, granted by God, and we should use it responsibly.
2) Don't put your trust in chariots. Be grateful for the opportunity to elect the president you feel will best lead our country. But don't fall into the trap that everything in history and in your life depends on one rainy Tuesday in November. Don't be practical an “atheist”, white-knuckling election night, sweating every ebb and flow of the season, and acting as if you need to build a fortified bunker if "the wrong guy wins." Advocate and work for your guy, but “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) God holds history in the palm of his hand and is not at all worried sick about which party controls the levers of power in America.
3) Ignore most of the political appeals you hear from both sides. To win in modern American politics, you have to paint the other guy as something a combination of an axe murder, a village idiot, and a helpless puppet. You have to dig for any scent of scandal, blow it up in an ominous, black-and white ad, and convince people that if this guy wins you might as well move to Canada. Both sides will do this. But the truth is somewhere in between. It is a good idea to periodically tune out the election news during election season, toss those pesky mailers, and hang up your phone when you hear the gravel-voiced narrator begin his robo-calls of doom.
4) Advocate issues, avoid the petty stuff. It's amazing how easily campaigns delve into petty stuff like how many vacations the President takes, the color of the First Lady's dress, and the habits of the candidates while in high school. Vote for a guy because he holds positions closest to yours. Advocate issues of importance and weight. Resist being drug into the gutter and arguing for or against issues that have little or no consequence.
5) Avoid the "ends-justifies-the-means" of politics. When President Bush was in office the left smeared him unfairly, comparing him to Hitler and tarring him as a war criminal. This was unfair. So now that President Obama is in office, many on the Right feel what was good for one side is good for the other. "All is fair in love and war," we say. This is true ... unless you happen to be a follower of Christ and we're commanded, repeatedly, to measure our words, to be kind, to love, to speak truth. Remember that even in politics, you are to act and talk like a Christian.
6) Don't let your political differences ruin friendships. It is easy to allow political differences to drive a wedge in important friendships. But we must prize our love for our brothers and sisters in the Lord and our friendships with those outside the faith, above the strong opinions we hold. That doesn't mean we back down, it means we find a way to get along with people with whom we disagree. Friendships within and without the church are vital for gospel ministry. Don't let the temporary effects of politics get in the way of the eternal.
7) Don't fall for conspiracy theories. Don't forward emails that are less than true or haven't been verified by reputable sources. Its easy to want to believe the worst about our political enemies, but God calls us to believe the truth. “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.” (Philippians 4:8). Don't post on Facebook or Twitter or send email questionable stories or theories. As Christians we should be about truth.
8) Don't allow politics to convince you to hate those whom Jesus has called you to love. Politics likes to divide things up nicely into good guys and bad guys, to see the "other side" as the enemy. If you read enough political blogs and listen to talk radio and watch enough cable news, you will soon develop a mentality that sees only those who agree with you as good people and the rest as enemies. Furthermore, it clouds the real battle. We're told in Scripture that people are not the enemy, Satan is. And our fight is never against mere mortals, but part of a larger, worldwide spiritual conflict. “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:2). Plus, if you convince yourself to hate certain segments, how then can you lovingly reach them with the good news of the gospel?
9) Avoid the "out there" mentality. The weakness of political engagement is that it lends itself away from self-reflection. The partisan mind constantly thinks all the worst problems in the world are "out there." The gospel, however, forces us into sober self-reflection. It reminds us that the real problem is inside, in our own depraved hearts. The Apostle Paul, who lived under the oppression of a wicked and tyrannical government, said “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.” (1 Timothy 1:15) He didn't point to Nero. He said, "No, I'm the biggest problem." It's easy to blame Hollywood, Wall Street, and the media for all of our woes, but if we were honest and allowed the gospel to penetrate our hearts, we'd realize that we are our own worst enemies.
10) Look for a better city. Politics is driven by a God-given longing for utopia, a desire for perfection, by the dawning reality that life on this earth is not how it should be. Politicians come along and promise to fix things, to build that utopian dream we all desire. The problem is that politicians are flawed. They are not saviors. And this world is cursed by sin. So like Abraham, we must look for another city, “a city designed and built by God.” (Hebrews 11:10). One day Christ will return as reigning King and will set up the ultimate, perfect Kingdom. “..we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. (Philippians 3:20)
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