Sunday, April 30, 2006
Chasing Daylight - Initiative - 'Just Do Something'
Get this video and more at MySpace.com
We continue together remembering that if our birth is like the sunrise, and our death like the sunset,
then in-between were all just chasing daylight.
“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4
Everyday our lives are full of opportunity even when they appear just mundane and ordinary and incidental. Some people it seems can squeeze alot more out of a moment than the rest of us - what is it that defines the difference between a person who seems to seize the power of every moment and the person who lives unaware of each
moments potential, right here, right now?
We’ve been following the story of King Saul and his son Jonathan - tell 1 Sam. 14
So the difference between these 2 ind. at least at this moment was that one of them just took initiative.
Not that Saul had done anything wrong or evil...
Have you ever faced this kind of moment - a moment filled w/ opportunity and yet you let it slip away? Have you ever known you should have gone to the right, but instead you went left? Has it ever been in your power to do good, I mean right here and now, facing us day to day, not somewhere else, but you chose instead to do nothing? You didn’t chose to do evil, you just chose not to get involved - chose to be neutral, a non-participant, chose to do nothing?
(last week in depth, read in online)
(hurr. rita - left wed.)
Many people have defined holiness through what we can separate ourselves from rather than what we can give
ourselves to. and..,
a great tragedy in life is not so much the sins we commit, but the life we fail to live - make bad choices
We cannot follow God in neutral, (cant coast with God)
God has created you to so something, to do good and doing this requires initiative.
Offer MasterCard Gas Card -
(after taking Card - This is the way life plays out - life is filled w/ extraordinary moments waiting to be taken but alot of us sit there going, “is it me, should I go, that would require me getting out of my seat, stepping in front of others, becoming visible instead of invisible, going public” then the moment someone else goes, you say, “Oh I should have done it,
I was just about to go”
Life is divided by those who sit passively and hope something good will happen to them and those who recognize
and live w/ a sense of urgency and pro-activity and
understand that God created us to ACT - to step out.)
GET OFF THE BENCH
Some many people watch life from the sidelines.
remember the jr. high dance, watching others dance, rehearsing to ourselves how we would invite someone to dance,
but not actually say anything... it happens in sports,
talent just wasting away.. might even be in the game the game but position themselves not to make the big shot or the big catch and so on...
I have a suspicion that there are far more sideliners than we could ever imagine. Not God’s plan.
“The plan was that they would be with him, and he would send them out...” Mark 3:14
People who look as if they’re in the game, but are really just watching from up close. This certainly happens w/in the church but unfortunately even more so when we leave the building - think about this, not just here, but for God’s church in general: How many believers, followers of Christ consider God’s work a personal responsibility? So many say, isn’t the minister and his staff the ones who are supposed to care for & about others? Isn’t a missionary someone who leaves here and goes overseas somewhere? So...
Where does that leave us?
How would life be different if we understood that everyone that God calls to Himself He puts in the game?
To follow Jesus is to move w/ God. When you become a part of God’s movement, you are a missionary.
Every missionary has a mission
This mission gives us both intentionality and purpose.
We have no minutes to waste - we are required to seize every divine moment. We are all called.
Sometimes however we live vicariously thru others. Instead of being life voyagers, we become life voyeurs.
So when someone near us seizes a divine moment it stirs something w/in us... b/c...
Seizing your divine moment is not simply about opportunity;
at the core it’s about essence. It’s about the kind of life you live as a result of the person you are becoming.(repeat that?)
The challenges you are willing to face will rise in proportion to the character you’re willing to develop (see how ties in ch)
With godly character comes godly passion
With the depth of godly character comes an intensity of godly passion. It is in this process of transformation that we find the fuel to engage w/ confidence the opp. placed b4 us.
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Rom. 12:2
How? getting close to God - in His Word, in prayer...
When we draw near to God, He infuses passion - He works thru human desires
“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the
desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
Sidebar here - I have heard people say before, I do not have a passion for that! It could be w/in the church or outside of it - “I don’t have a passion for children’s min.” I’d ask, “How do you know” - “I just don’t have one” - have you ever spent any time in the children’s ministry before? Have you ever helped out at a 1st grade Christmas party at a school b4? How do you know?
In order to develop a passion you have to get involved!!!
Only after you’ve participated in childrens min. or something w/ other children will you really know if you’re passionate about it. Just do something! He infuses passion.
A person who lives w/out passion is someone who is literally apathetic. When we delight in God, we become anything but apathetic. In fact we become intensely passionate.
These desires of our hearts are born out of the heart of God.
The more you love God the more deeply you care about life. and others.
As we draw close to God we will begin to identify the needs - it is God’s heart at work w/in us. At some point we need to become a part of the solution, This is Gods call to us.
However the sideliners response to taking initiative and getting involved is quite often, “Oh no... not me... I just felt it was important to point out the need.”
We can find ourselves with so much time to watch life go by that we have this great view of all the problems which inspires us to point out what’s wrong.
God is calling us to take initiative, just do something
it’s the Jonathan Factor -
(Dead Poets Society clip)
The mantra of carpe diem captures us all. We must seize the day b/c w/in each day there are God given opp. waiting to unfold, & every 24hr. period is full of divine moments.
When we begin to take initiative, when we begin to do the good that we see needs to be done we find ourselves growing in passion. When we commit to ‘just do something’
we move in the right direction.
Once we’re moving in a direction that is aligned w/ the
character of God, we find God’s personal mission for our lives begins to come into focus.
You know alot of those who are on the sidelines are hoping that someone will pick them, “pick me... pick me...”
Here’s a wonderful thing about Jesus, He’s already picked you, He has chosen you.
What I love about Jesus is that Jesus is the name of God in His pro-activity - you wanna know who Jesus is? Jesus is God in action toward you and every human being. God has taken initiative. ( Christ out of eternity into humanity)
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Chasing Daylight - Choose to Live
Were going to follow a story of 2 individuals mostly
King Saul and son Jonathan - 1 Samuel 13 & 14
I wonder how many of us are just existing or living?
Burning daylight or chasing daylight?
I wonder if it would take an earthquake to shake you out of your slumber to finally wake up you up so you too might live.
How do you find the epi-center of God’s movement?
How do you find that life groove that allows you to begin to live the life God created for you to live?
Do we need earthquakes every-other day in our lives to shake us up, to get us to move, to re-direct our lives?
If our birth is like the sunrise, and our death like the sunset,
then in-between were all just chasing daylight.
“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4
When we think of spirituality we generally think of activities like: worship, prayer, meditation, lighting incense, or rosaries, for some it’s reading scrip. or going to places like this,
but the reality is all of those activities - while they may be spiritual, they are not at the core what makes us different from other things created, like a giraffe or orangoutang
that God created you with the capacity to choose.
It is one of the most spiritual activities we can engage in, however we usually do not approach it that way.
From the very beginning of human time God has placed us in the context that we must chose well.
Gen. 2:4 - 25
We cannot live our lives with a biblical framework of understanding without seeing at the very beginning what God did was place humanity into the very context that they had to choose.
Remember these 3 words from God, “you are free”
I love that - so many view God as the Warden - to live a life for God, connected to God is to loose your freedom. God’s got all these rules, these commandments, these boundaries,
God’s got all these, ‘DON’TS’ so when you come to God you’re limited. So you’ve gotta run from God to be free, get away from God.
But God, He knows us, He knows our design b/c he created us - He created us to be free. How many times have we run from God and made choices that become the very prisons we live in.
‘You are Free’ He says
important: 2 trees - tree of life; tree of knowledge of good/evil
life represents, symbolizes my relationship to you
my gift to you, free to live, enjoy life... other tree...
K.G/E - you are born w/ the capacity to choose.
you can choose to live a life apart from, to separate from me
Why did God give us that other tree?
He put the tree in the middle of the garden(which ticks me off a bit) why not on top of mountain?
or put on an island in the middle of the ocean miles away full of man-eating sharks, only one man so dont do it
maybe then I could make it, but nooo it’s right in the middle
(why are they hangin’ out by it?)
I have a theory on the tree K.G/E I think it was aromatic,
I have come to the conclusion it was a chocolate tree.
Why did they hang around the wrong tree?
What is it about us that just loves to stay really close to the one choice that could destroy our
lives or really wreak havoc upon us?
Think about this guys, Adam was the best looking guy in the world
It’s the one and only time he could look at eve and say,
“I am God’s gift to women”
Eve was the best looking woman in the world, she was
THE Super Model.
and they couldn’t think of anything better to do than hang around this tree, talk about a lack of imagination
it’s that choice
M&M’s - pass out - I know for some of you this will be your one healthy meal today...
open, pick one out right now, just one, dont eat - how many picked yellow, brown, green, orange, blue, red - why did you pick that? “it was first one” - I hope you don’t date like that - or found spouse that way?
Wait a minute, we’re in a spiritual place here c’mon, how many of you stopped, prayed, asked God to guide you in which M&M to pick?
None of you - (b/c when it comes to food we’re a bunch of godless pagans)
No - b/c you can choose what you want, this is the way God made you.
Even when we make the wrong choices it’s evidence that we are uniquely created by God, and by the way,
Your choices are the most powerful tool you have in shaping your future -
there are those moments and times when are future is uncertain, a bit mysterious, but I can tell you the choices you make today are the material from which your future will be created - and the crazy thing about it is that something so small and routine can have HUGE life-changing implications - b/c we all intersect thru choices.
Your life, my life - have you ever meet anyone who’s said,
“I;m not hurting anyone but myself”
Man, sober up!
I think those who say that are hurting the most people.
Our lives intersect by the choices we make
When we choose to love it affects other people, when we chose to hate...when we choose to hold onto bitterness...
when you chose to forgive you set other people free
Listen, your life right now, if you hate it, not real happy about it, well it is the sum total of the choices that have affected your life.
Sometimes our pain is the result of someone else’s choice that was made that devastated us.
All of us need to understand today that whatever life we have right now, we need to begin to take responsibility & control.
The choices we make today affect the life we live tomorrow
Sometimes,
We need to look to the end of our choice b4 we make it
It all begins w/ a choice.
(story of ignoring someone who needs help)
turn away, turn left instead of right
“The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.
Even as he walks along the road, the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how stupid he is” Ecc. 10:2,3
Life is always is series of decisions,
choices that are always right in front of us and sometimes we have life-changing decisions that affect us dramatically.
But sometimes it’s those small, incidental choices that have HUGE life altering affect
oh by the way, this freedom thing,
When we make God honoring choices that reflect His character it expands your choices -
alot of people think that if you become a follower of J.C. now you have a limited amount of choices, your choices are now narrow and fewer, but that’s the exact opposite. When you enter a relationship w/ Jesus your choices will expand - however, if you make choices apart from God’s will, His character you become
limited.
example - get angry at person, bit out of control, lose control, shoot this other person, life in prison - limited choices now
what about a 16yr. old who finds out she’s pregnant.
her life, whatever decision she makes, to abort, to keep the baby, or give the baby away, whatever, it is a life altering choice. Her life has been dramatically changed due to that choice.
Life is a series of decisions, choices that we make.
When we build our life on what is true and good, honoring God it begins to expand our choices. God gives us so many good choices.
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8
It’s not that complicated, God created you w/ the capacity to think.
To decide, to choose, and in fact we are held responsible for those choices.
We need to choose a path that honors the heart of God, choose a path that makes you the best human being you can be.
It’s not just ever now and then, but it’s everyday, it’s in the normal part of our routine - our choices can be one of the most spiritual things we ever do.
It’s our power to choose, what r u choosing?
we can make choices that devastate our future and others, but we can also make choices that unleash love, beauty, joy, forgiveness, and adventure - we can choose to live.
So we’re born and then we die, and in-between we’re all just chasing daylight - so over the next few weeks we’re gonna take this journey together to begin to unwrap how is it that we can seize the power of every moment to begin to live the life we were created to live - so we can stop sleeping thru our dreams and live a life beyond our wildest imaginations and it all begins w/ this small little thing called a choice.
What’s Our measuring rod?
And He said to him, " `YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, `YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'
Matthew 22:37-39
King Saul and son Jonathan - 1 Samuel 13 & 14
I wonder how many of us are just existing or living?
Burning daylight or chasing daylight?
I wonder if it would take an earthquake to shake you out of your slumber to finally wake up you up so you too might live.
How do you find the epi-center of God’s movement?
How do you find that life groove that allows you to begin to live the life God created for you to live?
Do we need earthquakes every-other day in our lives to shake us up, to get us to move, to re-direct our lives?
If our birth is like the sunrise, and our death like the sunset,
then in-between were all just chasing daylight.
“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4
When we think of spirituality we generally think of activities like: worship, prayer, meditation, lighting incense, or rosaries, for some it’s reading scrip. or going to places like this,
but the reality is all of those activities - while they may be spiritual, they are not at the core what makes us different from other things created, like a giraffe or orangoutang
that God created you with the capacity to choose.
It is one of the most spiritual activities we can engage in, however we usually do not approach it that way.
From the very beginning of human time God has placed us in the context that we must chose well.
Gen. 2:4 - 25
We cannot live our lives with a biblical framework of understanding without seeing at the very beginning what God did was place humanity into the very context that they had to choose.
Remember these 3 words from God, “you are free”
I love that - so many view God as the Warden - to live a life for God, connected to God is to loose your freedom. God’s got all these rules, these commandments, these boundaries,
God’s got all these, ‘DON’TS’ so when you come to God you’re limited. So you’ve gotta run from God to be free, get away from God.
But God, He knows us, He knows our design b/c he created us - He created us to be free. How many times have we run from God and made choices that become the very prisons we live in.
‘You are Free’ He says
important: 2 trees - tree of life; tree of knowledge of good/evil
life represents, symbolizes my relationship to you
my gift to you, free to live, enjoy life... other tree...
K.G/E - you are born w/ the capacity to choose.
you can choose to live a life apart from, to separate from me
Why did God give us that other tree?
He put the tree in the middle of the garden(which ticks me off a bit) why not on top of mountain?
or put on an island in the middle of the ocean miles away full of man-eating sharks, only one man so dont do it
maybe then I could make it, but nooo it’s right in the middle
(why are they hangin’ out by it?)
I have a theory on the tree K.G/E I think it was aromatic,
I have come to the conclusion it was a chocolate tree.
Why did they hang around the wrong tree?
What is it about us that just loves to stay really close to the one choice that could destroy our
lives or really wreak havoc upon us?
Think about this guys, Adam was the best looking guy in the world
It’s the one and only time he could look at eve and say,
“I am God’s gift to women”
Eve was the best looking woman in the world, she was
THE Super Model.
and they couldn’t think of anything better to do than hang around this tree, talk about a lack of imagination
it’s that choice
M&M’s - pass out - I know for some of you this will be your one healthy meal today...
open, pick one out right now, just one, dont eat - how many picked yellow, brown, green, orange, blue, red - why did you pick that? “it was first one” - I hope you don’t date like that - or found spouse that way?
Wait a minute, we’re in a spiritual place here c’mon, how many of you stopped, prayed, asked God to guide you in which M&M to pick?
None of you - (b/c when it comes to food we’re a bunch of godless pagans)
No - b/c you can choose what you want, this is the way God made you.
Even when we make the wrong choices it’s evidence that we are uniquely created by God, and by the way,
Your choices are the most powerful tool you have in shaping your future -
there are those moments and times when are future is uncertain, a bit mysterious, but I can tell you the choices you make today are the material from which your future will be created - and the crazy thing about it is that something so small and routine can have HUGE life-changing implications - b/c we all intersect thru choices.
Your life, my life - have you ever meet anyone who’s said,
“I;m not hurting anyone but myself”
Man, sober up!
I think those who say that are hurting the most people.
Our lives intersect by the choices we make
When we choose to love it affects other people, when we chose to hate...when we choose to hold onto bitterness...
when you chose to forgive you set other people free
Listen, your life right now, if you hate it, not real happy about it, well it is the sum total of the choices that have affected your life.
Sometimes our pain is the result of someone else’s choice that was made that devastated us.
All of us need to understand today that whatever life we have right now, we need to begin to take responsibility & control.
The choices we make today affect the life we live tomorrow
Sometimes,
We need to look to the end of our choice b4 we make it
It all begins w/ a choice.
(story of ignoring someone who needs help)
turn away, turn left instead of right
“The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.
Even as he walks along the road, the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how stupid he is” Ecc. 10:2,3
Life is always is series of decisions,
choices that are always right in front of us and sometimes we have life-changing decisions that affect us dramatically.
But sometimes it’s those small, incidental choices that have HUGE life altering affect
oh by the way, this freedom thing,
When we make God honoring choices that reflect His character it expands your choices -
alot of people think that if you become a follower of J.C. now you have a limited amount of choices, your choices are now narrow and fewer, but that’s the exact opposite. When you enter a relationship w/ Jesus your choices will expand - however, if you make choices apart from God’s will, His character you become
limited.
example - get angry at person, bit out of control, lose control, shoot this other person, life in prison - limited choices now
what about a 16yr. old who finds out she’s pregnant.
her life, whatever decision she makes, to abort, to keep the baby, or give the baby away, whatever, it is a life altering choice. Her life has been dramatically changed due to that choice.
Life is a series of decisions, choices that we make.
When we build our life on what is true and good, honoring God it begins to expand our choices. God gives us so many good choices.
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8
It’s not that complicated, God created you w/ the capacity to think.
To decide, to choose, and in fact we are held responsible for those choices.
We need to choose a path that honors the heart of God, choose a path that makes you the best human being you can be.
It’s not just ever now and then, but it’s everyday, it’s in the normal part of our routine - our choices can be one of the most spiritual things we ever do.
It’s our power to choose, what r u choosing?
we can make choices that devastate our future and others, but we can also make choices that unleash love, beauty, joy, forgiveness, and adventure - we can choose to live.
So we’re born and then we die, and in-between we’re all just chasing daylight - so over the next few weeks we’re gonna take this journey together to begin to unwrap how is it that we can seize the power of every moment to begin to live the life we were created to live - so we can stop sleeping thru our dreams and live a life beyond our wildest imaginations and it all begins w/ this small little thing called a choice.
What’s Our measuring rod?
And He said to him, " `YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, `YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'
Matthew 22:37-39
Sunday, April 16, 2006
CSI: EASTER part 3
When all is said and done, the most crucial ? is: WHY?
Why did Christ suffer and die? Not in the sense of cause, but why in the sense of purpose? What did Christ achieve by His Passion? What great thing was happening on Calvary for the world?
What did God achieve for sinners like us in sending His Son to die?
Christ suffered and died...
...To Absorb the Wrath of God
If God were not just, there would be no demand for His Son to suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness for His son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving. So His love is willing to meet the demands of His justice.
God’s law demanded, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might’ Dt. 6:5
But we have all loved other things more - put them above God - that’s what sin is, dishonoring God by preferring other things over Him and acting on those preferences.
So the Bible says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23
We glorify what we enjoy most - wouldn’t you say? truck...
our own bodies... others bodies... our past heroics
Get this video and more at MySpace.com
We Glorify what we enjoy the most - for alot it’s not God
Since God is just, He doesn’t sweep these crimes under the rug of the univ. He feels a holy wrath against them - they
deserve to be punished and He’s made that clear:
“For the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23
But the love of God does not rest - He is not content to show wrath, no matter how holy it is. So He sends His own Son to absorb His wrath and bear the curse for all who trust Him.
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" Gal. 3:13
“For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times” Ro. 3:25
It refers to the removal of God’s wrath by by providing a
substitute. - This sub. J.C. does not cancel out the wrath of God; He absorbs it and diverts from us to Himself. WOW!
...To Show the Wealth of God’s Love and Grace for Sinners
The measure of God’s love is shown to us by 2 ways:
One is the degree of his sacrifice saving us from the penalty of our sin - the other is the degree of unworthiness that we had when he saved us.
We can hear the measure of his sacrifice in John 3:16, ‘gave His only Son...” (how diff. to give up your only child)
adding to this the horrific death Christ suffered on the cross it becomes clear the sacrifice was indescribably great.
The measure increases even more when we consider our unworthiness.
“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8
Why do this at such a great cost? Show His love and Grace
...To Show His Own Love For Us
The early witnesses who suffered most for being christians were captured by this fact:
Gal. 2:20 “He loved me, and gave himself up for me”
This is certainly how we should grasp the sufferings and death of Christ - it is about His love for me personally b/c
It is my sin that cuts me off from God, not sin in general. It is my hard-heartedness that separates me from God.
Then I see Christ suffering and dying for Whom?
Ephesians 5:25 “Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”
John 15:13“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.”
and Mt. 20:28
“even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
I have to ask myself, Am I among the ‘many’? Oh yeah, He loves me!
So I too can say, ‘He loved me, and gave himself up for me”
...For The Forgiveness of Our Sins
Forgiveness assumes grace. If I am injured by you, grace lets it go. I don’t sue you, I forgive you. Grace gives what someone doesn’t deserve. That’s why forgiveness has the word ‘give’ in it - Forgiveness is not ‘getting even’ It is giving away the right to get even.
So it is w/ God’s justice. All sin is serious b/c it is against God (talked about) That’s why Christ suffered and died,
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”
Ephesians 1:7
Forgiveness costs us nothing - that’s why it’s called grace
God gave us what we needed, not what we deserve.
“for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:28
...To Give Eternal Life to All Who Believe in Him
In our happiest times we do not want to die. The wish for death rises only when our suffering seems unbearable.
Even then what we really want is not death, but relief.
We would long for the good times to return and the pain to fade away. We want life and happiness.
That’s the longing of the human heart, to live and to be happy. You know God made us that way, Ecc. 3:11
“he has put eternity into man's heart”
We are created in God’s image, and God loves life and lives forever. We were made to live forever. And we will!
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” Jn. 3:36
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"
1 Cor. 2:9
It is true every moment of life, now and always. The best is yet to come. For those who believe. (review)(do you believe)
...To Reconcile Us to God/Bring Us to God
The reconciliation that needs to happen between sinful man and Holy God goes both ways.
Our att. toward God must be changed from defiance to faith.
God’s att. toward us must be changed from wrath to mercy.
But the 2 are not the same - I need God’s help to change, but He does not need mine. My change will have to come from outside of me; God’s change originates in his own
nature. Which means overall it’s not a change for God at all.
2 Cor. 5:19
“in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
1 Peter 3:18
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God”
J.C. was the bridge between Father God and man.(Jn.3:16)
...To Free Us From the Slavery of Sin
How does the blood of Christ liberate us from the slavery of sin? The answer is not that he is a powerful example to us and inspires us to free ourselves from selfishness - although Jesus is an example to us, and a good one too and He clearly meant for us to imitate him, John 13:34 -
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one
another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
But the call to imitation is not the power of liberation.
There is something much deeper.
God gives us the power to change through the person of the Holy Spirit. That’s the beauty of the fruit of the Spirit...
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Gal. 5
In Christ we are now justified by His death and resurrection
and we live our lives for Him with the Holy Spirits help is called, sanctification. (life long process)
It is in God’s grace, thru Christ, that we are free from both the guilt and slavery to sin.
“All praise to him (J.C) who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us” Rev. 1:5
...To Enable Us to Live For Christ & Not Ourselves
(ever get caught up in a little selfishness) “He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” 2 Cor. 5:15
Christ died that we might live for Him. Which doesn’t mean that we might help Him as if He needed any help.
Mark 10:45 says, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,
We just talked about the fact that Christ wants us to follow His example - He wants us to serve others - when we
sacrifice and serve others the love of God shines thru us.
(to put aside selfish desires)
We want to be a people who are known by love How?
sacrifice and serve - Christ S.D. enabled us to do just that.
...To Enable Us to Live by Faith in Him
(Paul) “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
Christ is living in us and enabling us to live the way He teaches us to live. It’s His work. But from our side, it’s experienced by trusting Him moment by moment to be w/ us and help us. The proof that He will be with us and help us is the fact that he suffered and died to make it happen.
...To Create a Band of Crucified Followers
Christ died to create comrades on the Calvary road. Calvary is the name of the hill where He was crucified.
He knew that the path of His life would take Him there eventually.
And that nothing would hinder His mission to die.
He knew where and when it had to happen.
Christ wants everyone, all of us to meet him there - on that path and His words to us are this in Luke 9:23,
“If anyone would come after me, let him take up his cross daily and follow me.”
When Christ went to the cross, his aim was to call a great band of believers to continue the mission - we have been commissioned to go out, Matthew 28:19-20,
“go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.” and in Luke 10:2,3
“He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out
workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out...”
We are to continue the work in the power of Christ.
...To Free Us From The Bondage of Fear and Death
“Because God's children are human beings--made of flesh and blood--Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.”
Hebrews 2:14-15
Jesus called Satan a murderer. John 8:44
“He was a murderer from the beginning and has always hated the truth... for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
So this is what Christ came to do - take that weapon out of Satan’s hand. To do this, Christ took our sins upon Himself and suffered for them. When that happened they could no longer be used by the devil to destroy us.
Taunt us. Yes. Mock us. Yes. But try as he will, he cannot destroy us - the wrath of God is removed - His mercy is our shield and Satan cannot succeed.
To accomplish this deliverance, Christ had to take on a human nature, b/c w/out it He could not experience death. Only the death of the Son of God could destroy the one who had the power of death.
That’s why the Bible says in Heb. 2, we ‘share in flesh and blood’ b/c Christ took on a human nature. When Christ died for our sins, He took from the devil his one lethal weapon:
unforgiven sin.
The devil may be able to kill our body, but he can no longer kill our soul - it is safe w/ Christ.
...To Show That the Worst Evil is Meant by God For Good
"That is what has happened here in this city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles,
and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed. In fact, everything they did
occurred according to your eternal will and plan.” Acts 4:27-28
All of Christ’s suffering, the emotional and physical abuse even unto death was always the will and plan of God.
There is a greater good!
Jesus Christ stepped out of eternity and into humanity so that we might be saved! J C was born to die so that we might live!
we could go on and on...
...cancel the law, take away our condemnation, make us holy, blameless, and perfect, heal us of all our sickness,
one reason in a nutshell -
Christ suffered and died...
so our...
...past is forgiven; there's purpose for living; we have a home in heaven!
Why did Christ suffer and die? Not in the sense of cause, but why in the sense of purpose? What did Christ achieve by His Passion? What great thing was happening on Calvary for the world?
What did God achieve for sinners like us in sending His Son to die?
Christ suffered and died...
...To Absorb the Wrath of God
If God were not just, there would be no demand for His Son to suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness for His son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving. So His love is willing to meet the demands of His justice.
God’s law demanded, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might’ Dt. 6:5
But we have all loved other things more - put them above God - that’s what sin is, dishonoring God by preferring other things over Him and acting on those preferences.
So the Bible says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23
We glorify what we enjoy most - wouldn’t you say? truck...
our own bodies... others bodies... our past heroics
Get this video and more at MySpace.com
We Glorify what we enjoy the most - for alot it’s not God
Since God is just, He doesn’t sweep these crimes under the rug of the univ. He feels a holy wrath against them - they
deserve to be punished and He’s made that clear:
“For the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23
But the love of God does not rest - He is not content to show wrath, no matter how holy it is. So He sends His own Son to absorb His wrath and bear the curse for all who trust Him.
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" Gal. 3:13
“For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times” Ro. 3:25
It refers to the removal of God’s wrath by by providing a
substitute. - This sub. J.C. does not cancel out the wrath of God; He absorbs it and diverts from us to Himself. WOW!
...To Show the Wealth of God’s Love and Grace for Sinners
The measure of God’s love is shown to us by 2 ways:
One is the degree of his sacrifice saving us from the penalty of our sin - the other is the degree of unworthiness that we had when he saved us.
We can hear the measure of his sacrifice in John 3:16, ‘gave His only Son...” (how diff. to give up your only child)
adding to this the horrific death Christ suffered on the cross it becomes clear the sacrifice was indescribably great.
The measure increases even more when we consider our unworthiness.
“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8
Why do this at such a great cost? Show His love and Grace
...To Show His Own Love For Us
The early witnesses who suffered most for being christians were captured by this fact:
Gal. 2:20 “He loved me, and gave himself up for me”
This is certainly how we should grasp the sufferings and death of Christ - it is about His love for me personally b/c
It is my sin that cuts me off from God, not sin in general. It is my hard-heartedness that separates me from God.
Then I see Christ suffering and dying for Whom?
Ephesians 5:25 “Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”
John 15:13“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.”
and Mt. 20:28
“even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
I have to ask myself, Am I among the ‘many’? Oh yeah, He loves me!
So I too can say, ‘He loved me, and gave himself up for me”
...For The Forgiveness of Our Sins
Forgiveness assumes grace. If I am injured by you, grace lets it go. I don’t sue you, I forgive you. Grace gives what someone doesn’t deserve. That’s why forgiveness has the word ‘give’ in it - Forgiveness is not ‘getting even’ It is giving away the right to get even.
So it is w/ God’s justice. All sin is serious b/c it is against God (talked about) That’s why Christ suffered and died,
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”
Ephesians 1:7
Forgiveness costs us nothing - that’s why it’s called grace
God gave us what we needed, not what we deserve.
“for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:28
...To Give Eternal Life to All Who Believe in Him
In our happiest times we do not want to die. The wish for death rises only when our suffering seems unbearable.
Even then what we really want is not death, but relief.
We would long for the good times to return and the pain to fade away. We want life and happiness.
That’s the longing of the human heart, to live and to be happy. You know God made us that way, Ecc. 3:11
“he has put eternity into man's heart”
We are created in God’s image, and God loves life and lives forever. We were made to live forever. And we will!
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” Jn. 3:36
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"
1 Cor. 2:9
It is true every moment of life, now and always. The best is yet to come. For those who believe. (review)(do you believe)
...To Reconcile Us to God/Bring Us to God
The reconciliation that needs to happen between sinful man and Holy God goes both ways.
Our att. toward God must be changed from defiance to faith.
God’s att. toward us must be changed from wrath to mercy.
But the 2 are not the same - I need God’s help to change, but He does not need mine. My change will have to come from outside of me; God’s change originates in his own
nature. Which means overall it’s not a change for God at all.
2 Cor. 5:19
“in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
1 Peter 3:18
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God”
J.C. was the bridge between Father God and man.(Jn.3:16)
...To Free Us From the Slavery of Sin
How does the blood of Christ liberate us from the slavery of sin? The answer is not that he is a powerful example to us and inspires us to free ourselves from selfishness - although Jesus is an example to us, and a good one too and He clearly meant for us to imitate him, John 13:34 -
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one
another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
But the call to imitation is not the power of liberation.
There is something much deeper.
God gives us the power to change through the person of the Holy Spirit. That’s the beauty of the fruit of the Spirit...
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Gal. 5
In Christ we are now justified by His death and resurrection
and we live our lives for Him with the Holy Spirits help is called, sanctification. (life long process)
It is in God’s grace, thru Christ, that we are free from both the guilt and slavery to sin.
“All praise to him (J.C) who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us” Rev. 1:5
...To Enable Us to Live For Christ & Not Ourselves
(ever get caught up in a little selfishness) “He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” 2 Cor. 5:15
Christ died that we might live for Him. Which doesn’t mean that we might help Him as if He needed any help.
Mark 10:45 says, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,
We just talked about the fact that Christ wants us to follow His example - He wants us to serve others - when we
sacrifice and serve others the love of God shines thru us.
(to put aside selfish desires)
We want to be a people who are known by love How?
sacrifice and serve - Christ S.D. enabled us to do just that.
...To Enable Us to Live by Faith in Him
(Paul) “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
Christ is living in us and enabling us to live the way He teaches us to live. It’s His work. But from our side, it’s experienced by trusting Him moment by moment to be w/ us and help us. The proof that He will be with us and help us is the fact that he suffered and died to make it happen.
...To Create a Band of Crucified Followers
Christ died to create comrades on the Calvary road. Calvary is the name of the hill where He was crucified.
He knew that the path of His life would take Him there eventually.
And that nothing would hinder His mission to die.
He knew where and when it had to happen.
Christ wants everyone, all of us to meet him there - on that path and His words to us are this in Luke 9:23,
“If anyone would come after me, let him take up his cross daily and follow me.”
When Christ went to the cross, his aim was to call a great band of believers to continue the mission - we have been commissioned to go out, Matthew 28:19-20,
“go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.” and in Luke 10:2,3
“He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out
workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out...”
We are to continue the work in the power of Christ.
...To Free Us From The Bondage of Fear and Death
“Because God's children are human beings--made of flesh and blood--Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.”
Hebrews 2:14-15
Jesus called Satan a murderer. John 8:44
“He was a murderer from the beginning and has always hated the truth... for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
So this is what Christ came to do - take that weapon out of Satan’s hand. To do this, Christ took our sins upon Himself and suffered for them. When that happened they could no longer be used by the devil to destroy us.
Taunt us. Yes. Mock us. Yes. But try as he will, he cannot destroy us - the wrath of God is removed - His mercy is our shield and Satan cannot succeed.
To accomplish this deliverance, Christ had to take on a human nature, b/c w/out it He could not experience death. Only the death of the Son of God could destroy the one who had the power of death.
That’s why the Bible says in Heb. 2, we ‘share in flesh and blood’ b/c Christ took on a human nature. When Christ died for our sins, He took from the devil his one lethal weapon:
unforgiven sin.
The devil may be able to kill our body, but he can no longer kill our soul - it is safe w/ Christ.
...To Show That the Worst Evil is Meant by God For Good
"That is what has happened here in this city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles,
and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed. In fact, everything they did
occurred according to your eternal will and plan.” Acts 4:27-28
All of Christ’s suffering, the emotional and physical abuse even unto death was always the will and plan of God.
There is a greater good!
Jesus Christ stepped out of eternity and into humanity so that we might be saved! J C was born to die so that we might live!
we could go on and on...
...cancel the law, take away our condemnation, make us holy, blameless, and perfect, heal us of all our sickness,
one reason in a nutshell -
Christ suffered and died...
so our...
...past is forgiven; there's purpose for living; we have a home in heaven!
Sunday, April 09, 2006
CSI: EASTER part 2
You may have heard this phrase “the gospel.” What does that mean? It’s just the old English word for “good news.”
Gospel just means good news. “By the gospel you are saved.” In other words, by the good news you are saved.
(last week we looked at the Trial ans Death of Jesus Christ)
Why did God allow that? Why did Jesus go through all that suffering, the grueling, gruesome, horrendous, brutal suffering? Why did God allow it?
The most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16. You’ve seen this verse probably at a lot of football games. Some guy usually with colored hair holds up a John 3:16 sign in the end zone.
What in the world is John 3:16? It’s the verse in the Bible that says this
\“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
That’s the most famous verse in the Bible. It’s often called the gospel in a nutshell or Christianity summarized.
If you were only going to memorize one verse in the entire Bible this would be the one I would recommend – John 3:16 –
because it is the gospel – the Good News – summarized.
In fact, you can even see the word “gospel” spelled out. Notice the letters “God’s … only …Son …perished… eternal… life “– which spells “gospel.”
What we’re going to do today is we’re going to tear this verse apart. Because it explains why God created you, put you on this earth, why Jesus Christ died for you, and how you can have a ticket to heaven. It’s all there.
I want you to notice first of all there are 25 words in this verse – John 3:16. The middle word,
the thirteenth word is the word “Son” talking about Jesus Christ. The first half of the verse is all about God. “For God so love the word that He gave His only begotten.” Then there’s “Son” in the middle. And the last twelve words are all about man. “That whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That in itself is a picture. Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth to be the bridge between God and man so we could know what God is like.
Today we’re going to look at how this verse shows us God’s plan for your salvation and how you can have a ticket to heaven. If you’ve ever wondered, and everyone does eventually, “What is going to happen to me after I die?” you picked a really good week to come to church. Because
this is the week that we’re going to talk about that particular theme.
One of the greatest weaknesses of our culture is short term thinking. There’s far more to life than just here and now. We act like this life is all there is. We spend our time and our money and our effort and energy acting like, “You only go around once in life. You better go it with gusto!” But we don’t realize that you’re going to spend far more time on the other side of death in eternity than you do on this side here on this earth. You get maybe 60, 80, 100 years here.
You’re going to spend trillions of years on that side. So it does make sense wisely to spend part of the time on this side getting ready for that side. That’s what we’re going to talk about – the four essentials for preparing for eternal life.
Let’s tear apart the most famous verse in the Bible. Today is Christianity 101. The first essential for you in getting to heaven is this…
1. You need to acknowledge God’s passion.
What do I mean by that? You need to realize how much God loves you. It all starts with you understanding how amazingly extravagantly God loves you. God’s passion for you.
A lot of people think God is mad at them. God is not mad at you. He’s mad about you.
The whole issue of the cross explains that.
The Bible says in this famous verse “God so loved the world…” He so loved the world. What does that mean? First we know the Bible says, “God is love.” It doesn’t say He has love. It says He is love. It is His nature. It is His essence. “God is love.” The Bible says that He created everything to be objects of His love, including you. The whole reason you are alive, the reason your heart is beating right now, there’s only one reason for it. God made you to love you.
That’s why you’re alive. There’s no other reason why you’re alive. God made you to love you.
He brought you into existence, obviously using the DNA of your parents, to love you. And God so loved the world. His love is extravagant. It is lavish. It is beyond comprehension. In fact, you will never, ever be able to understand fully how much God loves you because you don’t have the brain capacity. It’d be like an ant trying to understand the Internet. You just don’t have the brain capacity to understand how much God really loves you. But the Bible says He created
the entire universe just so He could create humans in order to love them.
Look at these verses from the Bible. 1 John 4 says “God showed how much He loved us by sending His only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love. He sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” God didn’t just say He loved you.
He showed He loved you. He proved He loved you in the most expensive way – by sacrificing His own Son for you. We’re going to talk about that in a minute, what that means. When Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross with His arms outstretched He was saying to yo u, “I love you this
much! I love you this much! So much it hurts.” Even if you were the only person who had ever lived on earth and you had sinned, you’d blown it, you’d made mistakes, you needed a savior,
Jesus Christ still would have come to earth and died for you. That’s how much He loves you.
1 John 3 “What an incredible quality of love the Father has shown us that we should be permitted to be called and counted as the children of God.”
God wanted a family to love.
That’s why He created human beings. He wanted a family to love. He wants you in it. The most amazing thing to me is that the creator of the entire universe would care about me and would want me in His family.
But God’s love for you all through the Bible and through Jesus’ example explains that His love is four-dimensional for you. Eph. 3 “May you be able to feel and understand how long, how wide, how deep and how high [that’s the four dimensions ] God’s love really is and experience this love foryourself.”
God says, “I don’t want you to just know I love you. I want you to feel that I love you.” Most people have never felt loved by God. They’ve never experienced God’s love. They say, ”Oh, yes. I believe God loves me.” But they’ve never felt it. God says, My love is long and wide and deep and high. What does that mean?
How long is God’s love? Long enough to last forever. That’s what makes it different from human love. Have you noticed human love wears out? That’s why we have so many divorces.
God’s love will never stop loving you. It is long enough to last forever.
It is wide enough to be everywhere. There is no place that you could go in life that God’s love is not with you. You will not always feel it. In fact, sometimes you’re going to feel alone.
But you will never be alone. Because God’s love is everywhere. It’s wide enough to be everywhere. There’s no place that you can be where God isn’t. It’s wide enough to be everywhere.
It’s deep enough to handle everything. No problem, no pressure, no stress, no difficulty.
You say, “I’m in the pits right now!” God’s love is there. There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.
Then it is high enough to overlook your mistakes. God loves to forgive. He loves to help you start over.
I believe that God brought you here this morning to FOCUS* church so He could say this to you, “I love you. I love you.” God wants to say to you this morning “I love you.” That’s the
starting point to understand and recognize and acknowledge God’s passion for you.
This is the second key. The second key to understanding how you get to heaven. First you
acknowledge God’s passion. Second…
2. You appreciate God’s present.
God has a gift for you. It’s a present. The gift is His very own Son. That’s the second part of this most famous verse. “God so loved the world…” That’s His passion. “…that He gave His only begotten Son…” That’s His present. God says, I want you to appreciate it.
Notice it doesn’t say, God so loved the world that He sent an angel. It doesn’t say, God so loved the world that He sent a prophet, that He sent a godly teacher, that He sent a moral, ethical leader. No. It says He sent His only begotten Son.
What does that mean? It means God said, “I’m coming myself. I’m going to come to earth in human form.” Jesus was God in human form. God’s Son. He’s the physical representation of God here on earth.
Let’s just review this again. I know I said it last week but I want to say it again. Jesus never claimed to be a good teacher. Jesus never claimed to be a moral leader. Jesus never claimed to be a prophet. In fact, He never claimed to be anything but the Son of God. He said I am God!
That’s what makes some people really nervous about Jesus. Remember I said last week if you ever meet anybody who claims to be God you’ve only got three options. Really only three options in response to somebody who claims to be God.
Number one is the guy’s an idiot. He’s a nut case. He’s like the guy on the funny farm who claims he’s Napoleon. He’s diminished capacity. He’s mentally unstable. He’s whacked out.
That’s one option, you can think.
Second option is I don’t think he’s out of touch with reality. I just think he’s a fraud. He is a swindler. He’s a phony. He’s a crook. He’s trying to be something that he claims to be that
he’s not most likely to get my money. And there are a lot of religious con men in the world, would you agree with that? The only third alternative is, He tells the truth. If He’s telling the truth, if He really is God then what does that mean. That means I have to obey Him. I have to worship Him. I have to bow down to Him.
That’s why they crucified Jesus. They couldn’t get Him on any charges because He hadn’t done anything wrong. So finally they asked Him, “Do you claim to be the Son of God?” and He said,
“Yes. I am the Son of God.” They said, “That’s it! It’s heresy. It’s blasphemy. You’re going to the cross.”
That’s why they killed Jesus.
I know I’ve had some friends who’ve said to me, I don’t think Jesus was the Son of God. I just think He was a great moral teacher. He couldn’t be! In fact that’s the one option He could not be. Because no great moral teacher would say, “I’m God. Worship Me” unless He was. No great moral teacher would say, “I’m the only way you get to the Father except through Me.”
That’s it. So that one is not available. He’s either who He claimed to be or He’s nuts or He’s the biggest fraud in history and He’s got two billion people worshipping a fake, a phony.
Right now, everybody here already believes something about Jesus. You either believe He’s the Lord who He claims to be – God in the flesh. Or He’s a liar, the biggest one in history. He conned out a lot of guys. Or He’s a lunatic. He’s either delusional or He’s deceptive or He’s deity. Those are your choices. That’s what makes a lot of people nervous. Because they don’t want to admit what He is.
Jesus says, “I am coming to earth for your sin.” Romans 3 say
“Out of sheer generosity God put us in right standing with Himself, a pure gift. [It’s a gift. It’s a present.] He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where He always wanted us to be. And He did it by means of Jesus Christ. He sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin.”
The Bible says
“When we were unable to help ourselves at the moment of our need Christ died for us although we were living against God.”
Why did Jesus Christ have to die? Let’s review it again. In the first place, the Bible says nobody’s perfect. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all blown it. I don’t measure up to my own standard much less God’s. The Bible says all have sinned. That means me, you, the pope, the president, Billy Graham, everybody. I’ve really never met anybody who claims to be perfect, unless they are out of touch with reality. Because nobody bats 1000. We’ve all done things we regret.
The Bible says, “All have sinned…” It says if you do the crime you pray the time. In other words, if you get a ticket you’ve got to pay it. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.” Spiritual death. So that means somebody’s got to pay for all the things you’ve done wrong in life. Either you or somebody else. Somebody’s got to pay for all the things you’ve done wrong.
Either you go to hell or somebody pays it for you. That’s where God steps in and says, “I’ll do it. I created you. I made you. I love you. I will pay for all the things you’ve done wrong.”
What does that mean? It means everything you’ve ever done wrong and I’ve done wrong and everything I haven’t done yet but I’m going to do that’s wrong, that I don’t even know about, and what you’re going to do a that you don’t know about, has already been paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross. That’s good news.
It’s already been paid for The Bible explains it this way. “God took the sinless Christ and poured into Him our sins. Then in exchange He poured God’s goodness into us.” What a deal! The word for this is called, by the way, grace. When God gives you what you need, not what you deserve. So here’s the deal.
God says I’m going to take all of Joe Parks’ wrong things he has done in his life and I’m going to put them on My Son Jesus Christ, and He’s going to pay for them on the cross. Then I’m going to take all the good things Jesus has done and put them on Joe so he can get into heaven. What a deal! What a deal!
Friends, that is love in the first degree. That is love in the first degree! And when they drove those nails through the hands of Jesus they went straight into the heart of God.
Friends, there is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way you’re ever going to get into heaven which is a perfect place and you’re not except on the ticket that Jesus bought for you. Otherwise Jesus’ sacrifice was an absolute, total, unmitigated waste if there was any other way for you to get into heaven.
The amazing thing is this. God planned the whole thing even before He created you. Because He knew what was going to happen in advance. The Bible says this in Ephesians “Saving is all His idea and all His work. [In other words, He does all the work] All we do is trust Him [circle “all we do is trust Him”] enough to let Him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish.” That’s the present. God’s gift to you.
Notice – this is very, very important. It’s not what you do that gets you into heaven. It’s what Jesus Christ already did. That’s the only way. It’s not what you do. It’s what Jesus Christ already did.
It’s already been done. It’s already been done, I’ve done it all for you. I’ve paid the price. That why Jesus, with His arms outstretched on the cross said, “It is accomplished. It is finished. I have already paid for all the sins of everybody. All you need to do is trust Me, to appropriate that gift.”
If somebody brings you a gift, if you don’t unwrap it, that’s dumb. If you don’t accept it, that’s dumb. God has a gift for you. How do you accept it? By believing.
This is why we should life with constant attitude of gratitude. And a constant attitude of thanksgiving to Jesus Christ and gratefulness and appreciation because He deserves it. He
earned it. He paid for my freedom with His life. He paid for my ticket to heaven with His blood and He is worthy of all of our praise. When Jesus Christ paid for your sins on the cross it split history into AD and BC. Why? It is the most significant thing that ever happened. Every time you write a date you’re using Jesus Christ as the focal point. You say 2006. From what? From Jesus Christ’s death for you. That was His present. These are the essentials for getting ready for the other side of death. First, you acknowledge God’s passion. He loves me more than I’ll ever be able to know. God so loved the world.
That’s His passion. Then you appreciate His present. That He gave His only Son. He came to earth and gave His life for you. What do you do next?
3. You accept His proposal.
You accept God’s great proposal. God has an incredible offer for you, one like you will never ever receive anywhere else. It’s this. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son…” then here’s the proposal, “…that whosoever believes in Him should not perish.” God says, You believe what I did for you, you will not perish.
Notice who this proposal, this offer is for. Titus 2, says
“The free gift of eternal salvation [notice it’s a free gift. That’s the present] is offered to everyone. ”
Jesus is an equal opportunity Savior.
It’s offered to everybody. In fact, He gets more specific in the next verse Col. 3:11
“One’s nationality or race or education or social position is unimportant. Such things mean nothing. Whether a person has Christ is what matters and He is equally available to all.”
Notice it doesn’t matter how much money you make – a lot or a little – rich or poor. It doesn’t matter what your economic status is. It doesn’t matter your ethnic or racial background. It doesn’t matter your social prestige, whether you’re famous or not. It doesn’t matter what your religious background is. Jesus died for you. I don’t care if you’re Catholic or Jewish or Buddhist or Baptist or Moslem or Hindu or no religious background, Jesus still died for you. And He wants you to have a relationship with Father God.
Notice how you accept God’s proposal. First it’s who it’s for – it’s everybody. How do you accept it? The Bible says this in Romans 3
“God says He will accept us and acquit us [in other words declare us not guilty, wipe out all the things we’ve done wrong. Our record is cleared] if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins. We can all be saved in this same way by coming to Christ no matter who we are or what we’ve been like.”
I’m grateful for the last part of that verse.
No matter who we are or what we’ve been like. It says you trust just in Jesus Christ. Somebody says, “I’ve messed up my life too much.” No, you haven’t. Or you say, “I’ve lived my life too long without God.” No, you haven’t. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, who you’ve done it with, where you’ve done it. What matters is what direction are your feet headed right now? Are they headed towards Jesus Christ?
There’s only one condition to accepting God’s proposal of eternal life for you. Only one.
What is it? You trust. You trust Him. It says “Whosoever believes in Him will not perish.” Believing is not knowing. It’s trusting. It’s not just knowing about Jesus. It’s not just saying, “I believe He’s God.” Big deal! You say, “I believe in Jesus.” So does the devil but you’re not going to find him in heaven. The devil knows Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The latest poll in Newsweek says 82% of America would say, “I believe Jesus is the Son of God.” So what? It means more than a head knowledge. It’s a heart knowledge. The word in Greek “believe” literally is the word, pisteuo which means, “to trust in, to cling to, to rely on, to commit to.” I could have a chair here and say, “I believe in that chair. I believe it will hold me up.” But until I sit down on it I don’t really believe in it. Let me explain it this way, I believe in Karl Marx. I believe he existed. I believe he’s the founder of communism. But I’m not a communist. I believe in Hitler, but I’m not a Nazi. I believe in Osama bin Laden but I’m not a member of Al Qaeda. But I believe in Jesus and I’m a Christian. Why? Because I trust Him. I’ve committed myself to Him.
Let me give you another example. It’s the difference between having a close friendship and just being acquainted. Difference between meeting and engaging with someone famous, maybe you’ve met a well-known musician or actor or politician, shook their hand, maybe chatted for a while - So u can say, I know So n So. But I don’t really know them. I’m not in their inner circle. I’m not a close personal friend.
I don’t have a deep relationship with them. I just know about them. Here’s the problem.
A lot of people know about Jesus, but they don’t know Him. Many people got it in their head but they don’t have it in their heart. They now about Him. They believe He’s the Son of God. But they don’t trust Him with their lives. Jesus died for you so you could have a relationship with Him. God made you for purpose and the number one part of that purpose is to get to know and love and trust God. Right now He offers you the proposal of a lifetime.
“Right now God is ready to welcome you into His family. Today He is ready to save you.” Have you ever personally accepted what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross and told Him so. If you haven’t you ought to. In fact, you ought to do it now. In fact, why don’t we just pause right here
and pray together. Just bow your head and talk to Jesus Christ. You say, “I don’ t know what to say!” I’ll say some words and you follow me in your mind. You don’t have to say it aloud. God knows your heart. He knows what you’re thinking. Just say this.
Dear Jesus, I don’t understand it all, but I want to thank You for loving me. I want to thank You for coming to earth for me. And I want to thank You for giving Your life for me so I
could go to heaven. I want to accept Your free gift of forgiveness and salvation. I want You to be the savior of my life and the Lord, the manager of my life. I want to learn to trust You
and to love You and to fulfill Your purpose for my life. I say to You to day, Come on in to my heart. Amen.
What do I do after I’ve accepted God’s proposal? Here’s the last thing you do.
4. You anticipate God’s promise.
“God so loved the world…” That’s His passion and I admit and recognize it. “…that He gave His only begotten Son…” That’s His present that He wants to give you. “…that whosoever believes in Him …” That’s the condition, that’s the proposal. “…should not perish but have ever lasting life.” That’s the promise. “Should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Did you know that you were made to last forever? One day you’re going to die. That’s going to be the end of your body. Your heart’s going to stop. But that’s not going to be the end of you.
On no! God wants you to be in heaven with Him. Not in hell.
What is hell? Hell was made for the devil and his demons. Really it was. A lot of people have a big myth about hell. They think hell is where you go if you’re really, really, really, really bad.
Like an ax murderer. But heaven is a place where you go if you’re pretty good. Most of us want to be good enough to go to heaven but bad enough to be fun.
The fact is, if you could be good enough to get to heaven on your own then Jesus Christ coming to earth and dying for you was a total waste. The truth is heaven is a perfect place and you’re not. And God doesn’t grade on a curve. Have you ever been to DisneyWorld or 6 Flags or some Carnival and they have those rides that say, “You’ve got to be so tall to ride this ride.” And little kids are jumping up: “I’m tall enough! I’m tall enough!” I can imagine getting to heaven and God having a 1000-foot sign and saying, “You’ve got to be this perfect to get in here.” I’m not and you’re not. That’s why we needed Jesus. Jesus paid for your ticket into heaven.
Notice God’s promise. 1 Peter 1
“We are now members of God’s own family. And God has reserved for His children the priceless gift of eternal life. It is kept in heaven for you and [this is the good part] God will make sure that you get there safely to receive it. [In other words God makes sure you’ll get there] because you are trusting Him.”
All of God’s children are guaranteed heaven. The problem is not everybody’s in God’s family.
You need to understand the distinction. Everybody is created by God but not everybody is a child of God. Only those who choose and say, “God, I want to be in Your family.” Only those who choose to believe and trust what Jesus Christ did.
The next verse shows the three benefits of being in God’s family. And these are big ones.
“What a God we have! Because Jesus was raised from the dead we’ve been given [here are the three things] a brand new life [that takes care of my past] everything to live for [that takes care of my present] and a future in heaven [that takes care of my future].” So God says here’s what I offer you: past forgiven, purpose for living, home in heaven. Not a bad deal. Past forgiven, purpose for living, home in heaven. That’s what God says I offer to you.
Bible says this in Psalm 34 “Open your eyes and see how good God is.”
In the movie The Passion of the Christ one of the most graphic scenes to me is when Pilate, the
governor of Judea, walks out in front of an entire mob and he asks the single most important question in history.
He asks, “What will you do with Jesus?”
I’m asking you that question right now. What will you do with Jesus? It is the most important question you will ever be asked in your life. It no t only determines the rest of your life but where you’ll spend eternity: What will you do with Jesus?
Let me explain something to you. You don’t have to have all of it figured out, all your questions answered, all your doubts resolved before you begin a relationship with Jesus Christ.
One day a guy came to Jesus who had a sick daughter. He said, “Lord, I want You to heal my daughter.” Jesus looked at him and said, “Do you believe I can heal her?” The guy said, “I want to believe. Yeah, I believe. Help me with my doubts.” Jesus said, “That’s good enough!” And Bam! He healed her.
You can come to Jesus Christ this morning and say, Jesus I want to believe. Help me with my doubts!
Prayer:
Thank You for Your amazing love and grace for them. Lord, there are people here who know about You but they’ve never really known You. They’ve never begun a relationship with You. I pray that You’ll give them the words right now to start that relationship with You. Thank You for loving us even before we know You.
Now you pray. Say, “Dear Jesus. I don’t understand it all but I want a relationship with You. I want to thank You for loving me. I want to thank You for coming to earth for me. I want to thank You for giving Your life for me so I could go to heaven. I want to accept Your free gift of forgiveness and salvation. I want You to be the Savior of my life and the Lord of my life and the manager. You call the shots from here on out. I want to learn to trust You and to love You and to fulfill Your purpose for my life. Amen.
SO HOW SHOULD I RESPOND TO HIS DEATH FOR ME?
1. I OUGHT TO LOVE CHRIST - with all my heart 1 JN 4:19
Even if God never did anything else for me…
He deserves my total devotion
2. I OUGHT TO HATE SIN - ROM. 6:6
It was my sin & yours that nailed Jesus to the cross
How can I laugh at sin on TV or in movies?
The cross shows how serious sin really is. no laughing matter
3. I OUGHT TO TELL OTHERS - 2 COR. 5:14
If someone died for you – wouldn’t you want to know about it?
This is the motive behind everything we do at FOCUS*:to reach one more for Christ.
ILL: Typical resident sits at home on weekends totally unaware of what God has done for him or her.
If that person lives & dies without knowing Christ
Then, for that person, Jesus’ death was a waste!
Tell someone this week, those close to you... family, friends, co-workers - who needs to know
that is in your realm of influence - tell them this week.
Gospel just means good news. “By the gospel you are saved.” In other words, by the good news you are saved.
(last week we looked at the Trial ans Death of Jesus Christ)
Why did God allow that? Why did Jesus go through all that suffering, the grueling, gruesome, horrendous, brutal suffering? Why did God allow it?
The most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16. You’ve seen this verse probably at a lot of football games. Some guy usually with colored hair holds up a John 3:16 sign in the end zone.
What in the world is John 3:16? It’s the verse in the Bible that says this
\“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
That’s the most famous verse in the Bible. It’s often called the gospel in a nutshell or Christianity summarized.
If you were only going to memorize one verse in the entire Bible this would be the one I would recommend – John 3:16 –
because it is the gospel – the Good News – summarized.
In fact, you can even see the word “gospel” spelled out. Notice the letters “God’s … only …Son …perished… eternal… life “– which spells “gospel.”
What we’re going to do today is we’re going to tear this verse apart. Because it explains why God created you, put you on this earth, why Jesus Christ died for you, and how you can have a ticket to heaven. It’s all there.
I want you to notice first of all there are 25 words in this verse – John 3:16. The middle word,
the thirteenth word is the word “Son” talking about Jesus Christ. The first half of the verse is all about God. “For God so love the word that He gave His only begotten.” Then there’s “Son” in the middle. And the last twelve words are all about man. “That whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That in itself is a picture. Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth to be the bridge between God and man so we could know what God is like.
Today we’re going to look at how this verse shows us God’s plan for your salvation and how you can have a ticket to heaven. If you’ve ever wondered, and everyone does eventually, “What is going to happen to me after I die?” you picked a really good week to come to church. Because
this is the week that we’re going to talk about that particular theme.
One of the greatest weaknesses of our culture is short term thinking. There’s far more to life than just here and now. We act like this life is all there is. We spend our time and our money and our effort and energy acting like, “You only go around once in life. You better go it with gusto!” But we don’t realize that you’re going to spend far more time on the other side of death in eternity than you do on this side here on this earth. You get maybe 60, 80, 100 years here.
You’re going to spend trillions of years on that side. So it does make sense wisely to spend part of the time on this side getting ready for that side. That’s what we’re going to talk about – the four essentials for preparing for eternal life.
Let’s tear apart the most famous verse in the Bible. Today is Christianity 101. The first essential for you in getting to heaven is this…
1. You need to acknowledge God’s passion.
What do I mean by that? You need to realize how much God loves you. It all starts with you understanding how amazingly extravagantly God loves you. God’s passion for you.
A lot of people think God is mad at them. God is not mad at you. He’s mad about you.
The whole issue of the cross explains that.
The Bible says in this famous verse “God so loved the world…” He so loved the world. What does that mean? First we know the Bible says, “God is love.” It doesn’t say He has love. It says He is love. It is His nature. It is His essence. “God is love.” The Bible says that He created everything to be objects of His love, including you. The whole reason you are alive, the reason your heart is beating right now, there’s only one reason for it. God made you to love you.
That’s why you’re alive. There’s no other reason why you’re alive. God made you to love you.
He brought you into existence, obviously using the DNA of your parents, to love you. And God so loved the world. His love is extravagant. It is lavish. It is beyond comprehension. In fact, you will never, ever be able to understand fully how much God loves you because you don’t have the brain capacity. It’d be like an ant trying to understand the Internet. You just don’t have the brain capacity to understand how much God really loves you. But the Bible says He created
the entire universe just so He could create humans in order to love them.
Look at these verses from the Bible. 1 John 4 says “God showed how much He loved us by sending His only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love. He sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” God didn’t just say He loved you.
He showed He loved you. He proved He loved you in the most expensive way – by sacrificing His own Son for you. We’re going to talk about that in a minute, what that means. When Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross with His arms outstretched He was saying to yo u, “I love you this
much! I love you this much! So much it hurts.” Even if you were the only person who had ever lived on earth and you had sinned, you’d blown it, you’d made mistakes, you needed a savior,
Jesus Christ still would have come to earth and died for you. That’s how much He loves you.
1 John 3 “What an incredible quality of love the Father has shown us that we should be permitted to be called and counted as the children of God.”
God wanted a family to love.
That’s why He created human beings. He wanted a family to love. He wants you in it. The most amazing thing to me is that the creator of the entire universe would care about me and would want me in His family.
But God’s love for you all through the Bible and through Jesus’ example explains that His love is four-dimensional for you. Eph. 3 “May you be able to feel and understand how long, how wide, how deep and how high [that’s the four dimensions ] God’s love really is and experience this love foryourself.”
God says, “I don’t want you to just know I love you. I want you to feel that I love you.” Most people have never felt loved by God. They’ve never experienced God’s love. They say, ”Oh, yes. I believe God loves me.” But they’ve never felt it. God says, My love is long and wide and deep and high. What does that mean?
How long is God’s love? Long enough to last forever. That’s what makes it different from human love. Have you noticed human love wears out? That’s why we have so many divorces.
God’s love will never stop loving you. It is long enough to last forever.
It is wide enough to be everywhere. There is no place that you could go in life that God’s love is not with you. You will not always feel it. In fact, sometimes you’re going to feel alone.
But you will never be alone. Because God’s love is everywhere. It’s wide enough to be everywhere. There’s no place that you can be where God isn’t. It’s wide enough to be everywhere.
It’s deep enough to handle everything. No problem, no pressure, no stress, no difficulty.
You say, “I’m in the pits right now!” God’s love is there. There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.
Then it is high enough to overlook your mistakes. God loves to forgive. He loves to help you start over.
I believe that God brought you here this morning to FOCUS* church so He could say this to you, “I love you. I love you.” God wants to say to you this morning “I love you.” That’s the
starting point to understand and recognize and acknowledge God’s passion for you.
This is the second key. The second key to understanding how you get to heaven. First you
acknowledge God’s passion. Second…
2. You appreciate God’s present.
God has a gift for you. It’s a present. The gift is His very own Son. That’s the second part of this most famous verse. “God so loved the world…” That’s His passion. “…that He gave His only begotten Son…” That’s His present. God says, I want you to appreciate it.
Notice it doesn’t say, God so loved the world that He sent an angel. It doesn’t say, God so loved the world that He sent a prophet, that He sent a godly teacher, that He sent a moral, ethical leader. No. It says He sent His only begotten Son.
What does that mean? It means God said, “I’m coming myself. I’m going to come to earth in human form.” Jesus was God in human form. God’s Son. He’s the physical representation of God here on earth.
Let’s just review this again. I know I said it last week but I want to say it again. Jesus never claimed to be a good teacher. Jesus never claimed to be a moral leader. Jesus never claimed to be a prophet. In fact, He never claimed to be anything but the Son of God. He said I am God!
That’s what makes some people really nervous about Jesus. Remember I said last week if you ever meet anybody who claims to be God you’ve only got three options. Really only three options in response to somebody who claims to be God.
Number one is the guy’s an idiot. He’s a nut case. He’s like the guy on the funny farm who claims he’s Napoleon. He’s diminished capacity. He’s mentally unstable. He’s whacked out.
That’s one option, you can think.
Second option is I don’t think he’s out of touch with reality. I just think he’s a fraud. He is a swindler. He’s a phony. He’s a crook. He’s trying to be something that he claims to be that
he’s not most likely to get my money. And there are a lot of religious con men in the world, would you agree with that? The only third alternative is, He tells the truth. If He’s telling the truth, if He really is God then what does that mean. That means I have to obey Him. I have to worship Him. I have to bow down to Him.
That’s why they crucified Jesus. They couldn’t get Him on any charges because He hadn’t done anything wrong. So finally they asked Him, “Do you claim to be the Son of God?” and He said,
“Yes. I am the Son of God.” They said, “That’s it! It’s heresy. It’s blasphemy. You’re going to the cross.”
That’s why they killed Jesus.
I know I’ve had some friends who’ve said to me, I don’t think Jesus was the Son of God. I just think He was a great moral teacher. He couldn’t be! In fact that’s the one option He could not be. Because no great moral teacher would say, “I’m God. Worship Me” unless He was. No great moral teacher would say, “I’m the only way you get to the Father except through Me.”
That’s it. So that one is not available. He’s either who He claimed to be or He’s nuts or He’s the biggest fraud in history and He’s got two billion people worshipping a fake, a phony.
Right now, everybody here already believes something about Jesus. You either believe He’s the Lord who He claims to be – God in the flesh. Or He’s a liar, the biggest one in history. He conned out a lot of guys. Or He’s a lunatic. He’s either delusional or He’s deceptive or He’s deity. Those are your choices. That’s what makes a lot of people nervous. Because they don’t want to admit what He is.
Jesus says, “I am coming to earth for your sin.” Romans 3 say
“Out of sheer generosity God put us in right standing with Himself, a pure gift. [It’s a gift. It’s a present.] He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where He always wanted us to be. And He did it by means of Jesus Christ. He sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin.”
The Bible says
“When we were unable to help ourselves at the moment of our need Christ died for us although we were living against God.”
Why did Jesus Christ have to die? Let’s review it again. In the first place, the Bible says nobody’s perfect. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all blown it. I don’t measure up to my own standard much less God’s. The Bible says all have sinned. That means me, you, the pope, the president, Billy Graham, everybody. I’ve really never met anybody who claims to be perfect, unless they are out of touch with reality. Because nobody bats 1000. We’ve all done things we regret.
The Bible says, “All have sinned…” It says if you do the crime you pray the time. In other words, if you get a ticket you’ve got to pay it. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.” Spiritual death. So that means somebody’s got to pay for all the things you’ve done wrong in life. Either you or somebody else. Somebody’s got to pay for all the things you’ve done wrong.
Either you go to hell or somebody pays it for you. That’s where God steps in and says, “I’ll do it. I created you. I made you. I love you. I will pay for all the things you’ve done wrong.”
What does that mean? It means everything you’ve ever done wrong and I’ve done wrong and everything I haven’t done yet but I’m going to do that’s wrong, that I don’t even know about, and what you’re going to do a that you don’t know about, has already been paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross. That’s good news.
It’s already been paid for The Bible explains it this way. “God took the sinless Christ and poured into Him our sins. Then in exchange He poured God’s goodness into us.” What a deal! The word for this is called, by the way, grace. When God gives you what you need, not what you deserve. So here’s the deal.
God says I’m going to take all of Joe Parks’ wrong things he has done in his life and I’m going to put them on My Son Jesus Christ, and He’s going to pay for them on the cross. Then I’m going to take all the good things Jesus has done and put them on Joe so he can get into heaven. What a deal! What a deal!
Friends, that is love in the first degree. That is love in the first degree! And when they drove those nails through the hands of Jesus they went straight into the heart of God.
Friends, there is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way you’re ever going to get into heaven which is a perfect place and you’re not except on the ticket that Jesus bought for you. Otherwise Jesus’ sacrifice was an absolute, total, unmitigated waste if there was any other way for you to get into heaven.
The amazing thing is this. God planned the whole thing even before He created you. Because He knew what was going to happen in advance. The Bible says this in Ephesians “Saving is all His idea and all His work. [In other words, He does all the work] All we do is trust Him [circle “all we do is trust Him”] enough to let Him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish.” That’s the present. God’s gift to you.
Notice – this is very, very important. It’s not what you do that gets you into heaven. It’s what Jesus Christ already did. That’s the only way. It’s not what you do. It’s what Jesus Christ already did.
It’s already been done. It’s already been done, I’ve done it all for you. I’ve paid the price. That why Jesus, with His arms outstretched on the cross said, “It is accomplished. It is finished. I have already paid for all the sins of everybody. All you need to do is trust Me, to appropriate that gift.”
If somebody brings you a gift, if you don’t unwrap it, that’s dumb. If you don’t accept it, that’s dumb. God has a gift for you. How do you accept it? By believing.
This is why we should life with constant attitude of gratitude. And a constant attitude of thanksgiving to Jesus Christ and gratefulness and appreciation because He deserves it. He
earned it. He paid for my freedom with His life. He paid for my ticket to heaven with His blood and He is worthy of all of our praise. When Jesus Christ paid for your sins on the cross it split history into AD and BC. Why? It is the most significant thing that ever happened. Every time you write a date you’re using Jesus Christ as the focal point. You say 2006. From what? From Jesus Christ’s death for you. That was His present. These are the essentials for getting ready for the other side of death. First, you acknowledge God’s passion. He loves me more than I’ll ever be able to know. God so loved the world.
That’s His passion. Then you appreciate His present. That He gave His only Son. He came to earth and gave His life for you. What do you do next?
3. You accept His proposal.
You accept God’s great proposal. God has an incredible offer for you, one like you will never ever receive anywhere else. It’s this. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son…” then here’s the proposal, “…that whosoever believes in Him should not perish.” God says, You believe what I did for you, you will not perish.
Notice who this proposal, this offer is for. Titus 2, says
“The free gift of eternal salvation [notice it’s a free gift. That’s the present] is offered to everyone. ”
Jesus is an equal opportunity Savior.
It’s offered to everybody. In fact, He gets more specific in the next verse Col. 3:11
“One’s nationality or race or education or social position is unimportant. Such things mean nothing. Whether a person has Christ is what matters and He is equally available to all.”
Notice it doesn’t matter how much money you make – a lot or a little – rich or poor. It doesn’t matter what your economic status is. It doesn’t matter your ethnic or racial background. It doesn’t matter your social prestige, whether you’re famous or not. It doesn’t matter what your religious background is. Jesus died for you. I don’t care if you’re Catholic or Jewish or Buddhist or Baptist or Moslem or Hindu or no religious background, Jesus still died for you. And He wants you to have a relationship with Father God.
Notice how you accept God’s proposal. First it’s who it’s for – it’s everybody. How do you accept it? The Bible says this in Romans 3
“God says He will accept us and acquit us [in other words declare us not guilty, wipe out all the things we’ve done wrong. Our record is cleared] if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins. We can all be saved in this same way by coming to Christ no matter who we are or what we’ve been like.”
I’m grateful for the last part of that verse.
No matter who we are or what we’ve been like. It says you trust just in Jesus Christ. Somebody says, “I’ve messed up my life too much.” No, you haven’t. Or you say, “I’ve lived my life too long without God.” No, you haven’t. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, who you’ve done it with, where you’ve done it. What matters is what direction are your feet headed right now? Are they headed towards Jesus Christ?
There’s only one condition to accepting God’s proposal of eternal life for you. Only one.
What is it? You trust. You trust Him. It says “Whosoever believes in Him will not perish.” Believing is not knowing. It’s trusting. It’s not just knowing about Jesus. It’s not just saying, “I believe He’s God.” Big deal! You say, “I believe in Jesus.” So does the devil but you’re not going to find him in heaven. The devil knows Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The latest poll in Newsweek says 82% of America would say, “I believe Jesus is the Son of God.” So what? It means more than a head knowledge. It’s a heart knowledge. The word in Greek “believe” literally is the word, pisteuo which means, “to trust in, to cling to, to rely on, to commit to.” I could have a chair here and say, “I believe in that chair. I believe it will hold me up.” But until I sit down on it I don’t really believe in it. Let me explain it this way, I believe in Karl Marx. I believe he existed. I believe he’s the founder of communism. But I’m not a communist. I believe in Hitler, but I’m not a Nazi. I believe in Osama bin Laden but I’m not a member of Al Qaeda. But I believe in Jesus and I’m a Christian. Why? Because I trust Him. I’ve committed myself to Him.
Let me give you another example. It’s the difference between having a close friendship and just being acquainted. Difference between meeting and engaging with someone famous, maybe you’ve met a well-known musician or actor or politician, shook their hand, maybe chatted for a while - So u can say, I know So n So. But I don’t really know them. I’m not in their inner circle. I’m not a close personal friend.
I don’t have a deep relationship with them. I just know about them. Here’s the problem.
A lot of people know about Jesus, but they don’t know Him. Many people got it in their head but they don’t have it in their heart. They now about Him. They believe He’s the Son of God. But they don’t trust Him with their lives. Jesus died for you so you could have a relationship with Him. God made you for purpose and the number one part of that purpose is to get to know and love and trust God. Right now He offers you the proposal of a lifetime.
“Right now God is ready to welcome you into His family. Today He is ready to save you.” Have you ever personally accepted what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross and told Him so. If you haven’t you ought to. In fact, you ought to do it now. In fact, why don’t we just pause right here
and pray together. Just bow your head and talk to Jesus Christ. You say, “I don’ t know what to say!” I’ll say some words and you follow me in your mind. You don’t have to say it aloud. God knows your heart. He knows what you’re thinking. Just say this.
Dear Jesus, I don’t understand it all, but I want to thank You for loving me. I want to thank You for coming to earth for me. And I want to thank You for giving Your life for me so I
could go to heaven. I want to accept Your free gift of forgiveness and salvation. I want You to be the savior of my life and the Lord, the manager of my life. I want to learn to trust You
and to love You and to fulfill Your purpose for my life. I say to You to day, Come on in to my heart. Amen.
What do I do after I’ve accepted God’s proposal? Here’s the last thing you do.
4. You anticipate God’s promise.
“God so loved the world…” That’s His passion and I admit and recognize it. “…that He gave His only begotten Son…” That’s His present that He wants to give you. “…that whosoever believes in Him …” That’s the condition, that’s the proposal. “…should not perish but have ever lasting life.” That’s the promise. “Should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Did you know that you were made to last forever? One day you’re going to die. That’s going to be the end of your body. Your heart’s going to stop. But that’s not going to be the end of you.
On no! God wants you to be in heaven with Him. Not in hell.
What is hell? Hell was made for the devil and his demons. Really it was. A lot of people have a big myth about hell. They think hell is where you go if you’re really, really, really, really bad.
Like an ax murderer. But heaven is a place where you go if you’re pretty good. Most of us want to be good enough to go to heaven but bad enough to be fun.
The fact is, if you could be good enough to get to heaven on your own then Jesus Christ coming to earth and dying for you was a total waste. The truth is heaven is a perfect place and you’re not. And God doesn’t grade on a curve. Have you ever been to DisneyWorld or 6 Flags or some Carnival and they have those rides that say, “You’ve got to be so tall to ride this ride.” And little kids are jumping up: “I’m tall enough! I’m tall enough!” I can imagine getting to heaven and God having a 1000-foot sign and saying, “You’ve got to be this perfect to get in here.” I’m not and you’re not. That’s why we needed Jesus. Jesus paid for your ticket into heaven.
Notice God’s promise. 1 Peter 1
“We are now members of God’s own family. And God has reserved for His children the priceless gift of eternal life. It is kept in heaven for you and [this is the good part] God will make sure that you get there safely to receive it. [In other words God makes sure you’ll get there] because you are trusting Him.”
All of God’s children are guaranteed heaven. The problem is not everybody’s in God’s family.
You need to understand the distinction. Everybody is created by God but not everybody is a child of God. Only those who choose and say, “God, I want to be in Your family.” Only those who choose to believe and trust what Jesus Christ did.
The next verse shows the three benefits of being in God’s family. And these are big ones.
“What a God we have! Because Jesus was raised from the dead we’ve been given [here are the three things] a brand new life [that takes care of my past] everything to live for [that takes care of my present] and a future in heaven [that takes care of my future].” So God says here’s what I offer you: past forgiven, purpose for living, home in heaven. Not a bad deal. Past forgiven, purpose for living, home in heaven. That’s what God says I offer to you.
Bible says this in Psalm 34 “Open your eyes and see how good God is.”
In the movie The Passion of the Christ one of the most graphic scenes to me is when Pilate, the
governor of Judea, walks out in front of an entire mob and he asks the single most important question in history.
He asks, “What will you do with Jesus?”
I’m asking you that question right now. What will you do with Jesus? It is the most important question you will ever be asked in your life. It no t only determines the rest of your life but where you’ll spend eternity: What will you do with Jesus?
Let me explain something to you. You don’t have to have all of it figured out, all your questions answered, all your doubts resolved before you begin a relationship with Jesus Christ.
One day a guy came to Jesus who had a sick daughter. He said, “Lord, I want You to heal my daughter.” Jesus looked at him and said, “Do you believe I can heal her?” The guy said, “I want to believe. Yeah, I believe. Help me with my doubts.” Jesus said, “That’s good enough!” And Bam! He healed her.
You can come to Jesus Christ this morning and say, Jesus I want to believe. Help me with my doubts!
Prayer:
Thank You for Your amazing love and grace for them. Lord, there are people here who know about You but they’ve never really known You. They’ve never begun a relationship with You. I pray that You’ll give them the words right now to start that relationship with You. Thank You for loving us even before we know You.
Now you pray. Say, “Dear Jesus. I don’t understand it all but I want a relationship with You. I want to thank You for loving me. I want to thank You for coming to earth for me. I want to thank You for giving Your life for me so I could go to heaven. I want to accept Your free gift of forgiveness and salvation. I want You to be the Savior of my life and the Lord of my life and the manager. You call the shots from here on out. I want to learn to trust You and to love You and to fulfill Your purpose for my life. Amen.
SO HOW SHOULD I RESPOND TO HIS DEATH FOR ME?
1. I OUGHT TO LOVE CHRIST - with all my heart 1 JN 4:19
Even if God never did anything else for me…
He deserves my total devotion
2. I OUGHT TO HATE SIN - ROM. 6:6
It was my sin & yours that nailed Jesus to the cross
How can I laugh at sin on TV or in movies?
The cross shows how serious sin really is. no laughing matter
3. I OUGHT TO TELL OTHERS - 2 COR. 5:14
If someone died for you – wouldn’t you want to know about it?
This is the motive behind everything we do at FOCUS*:to reach one more for Christ.
ILL: Typical resident sits at home on weekends totally unaware of what God has done for him or her.
If that person lives & dies without knowing Christ
Then, for that person, Jesus’ death was a waste!
Tell someone this week, those close to you... family, friends, co-workers - who needs to know
that is in your realm of influence - tell them this week.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
CSI: EASTER part 1
Get this video and more at MySpace.com
1. THE TRIAL OF JESUS SHOWS US GOD’S PURPOSE
(turn to Matthew 26) Remember the Controversy before the movie
"The Passion of the Christ": 'This is Anti-Semitic'
Who killed Jesus?
A. Truth: He gave up his life voluntarily & intentionally.
It was the purpose he came to earth for! To die for us!
JOHN 10:18 - “No one can take my life from me. I lay down my life voluntarily. For I have the right to lay it down when I want to and also the power to take it again. For my Father has given me this command."
Before -trial, Jesus already knew the outcome:
JOHN 12:27 - "Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, 'Father, save me from what lies ahead'? But that is the very reason why I came!"
What was his purpose?
JOHN. 12:47 - “I have come to save the world and not to judge it.”
o Famous trials: O.J.,M. Stewart, Kobe, Scott Peterson, M.Jackson,
But nothing compares to the circus around Jesus’ trial! SHAM!
B. Actually, Jesus was rushed thru six trials in about 12 hours:
3 Religious...3 Roman - secretly arrested at night because so He was so popular.
First 1. Annas key religious leader
Then 2. Caiaphas high priest
3. Religious Supreme Court “Sanhedrin”
4. Pilate - gov. of Judea
5. Herod - gov.of Galilee
6. Pilate again - all in about 12 hours !
- After 6 trials what did they come up with? Nothing!
- They couldn’t pin any charges on him!
… accuse him of any crimes!
hadn’t done anything wrong!
SO ... they tried to trump up some false accusations!
... brought in phony witnesses to perjure themselves
But these paid accusers kept contradicting each other!
so couldn’t convict him!
C. Finally, they made ONE accusation that was true!
He claims to be the Son of God! MATTHEW 26:59-68
Think about this: Jesus never claimed to be...
just a good teacher.. a prophet.. a moral leader.. a man of God
claimed .. GOD! That changes everything!
“I’m a good man. I teach the truth. I’m a good teacher” (wife)
But if I said “I’m God” - would that change how you felt about me?
It would force you to make a decision!
(TV) Skeptic: “Impossible for religious leaders to want to kill Jesus! He taught
peace & love.” Their minds: It was blasphemy! No choice but..
ADVICE: If you ever meet anyone who claims to be God you’ve
only got 3 choices:
1. Believe he is an idiot.
Doesn’t know what he’s saying.
Diminished capacity. Mentally unstable.
Like the guy in the funny farm who thinks..Napoleon
2. Believe he’s a con-man.
Rip-off artist. Swindler
He pretends so can take advantage of you. (plenty around)
3. Believe he’s telling the truth.
In that case- you have to worship & obey him!.
You already believe something about Jesus. The question is what?
Is he a Liar? Lunatic? or Lord?
a Deceiver? Deluded? or Deity?
What is it that you believe?
D. Jesus claimed he is God, the Savior of the world:
That’s why He allowed himself to be put on trial.
Obviously, as God - he could have prevented his own trial.
But his purpose was to save the world!
PHILIPPIANS. 2:6-10 -
6 Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. 7 He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. 8 And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross. 9 Because of this, God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
- “everyone” will bow down = everywhere, heaven & even in hell
What is this world coming too?”
- one day everyone will acknowledge J for who he is!
- all the arrogant & foolish denial will end
· Every nationality, age, culture, religion…
· Every politician .. rock star.. professor...athlete..
THE ISSUE: Isn’t- Will you acknowledge Jesus as Lord? But when?
Now in love? or Later in regret?
DO IT TODAY!
- “Above all” – Jesus thought of you above all else- so he sacrificed
Now he wants you to put him above all else in your life!
SONG: ABOVE ALL
2. THE DEATH OF JESUS SHOWS US GOD’S PASSION
It demonstrates how much God loves you!
…reveals the length God was willing to go -to save you!
A. After the trials- Jesus was sentenced to be killed by crucifixion.
Probably the most brutal form of capitol punishment ever conceived
But first Jesus was subjected to intense physical & emotional abuse:
1. After being exhausted from 6 all-night trials
- Blindfolded & Beaten. “Who hit you Jesus?”
2. Then Mocked/Ridiculed - Crown of thorns / beard plucked
3. Then “Scourged” - no mere whipping.
- 9 leather straps in the rope
- tie sharp bones (to cut) and lead (to bruise)
- 40 stripes (39) Men often died from blood loss
4. Then forced to carry heavy cross up the hill. fell- Simon
5. Then Crucified - pull arm out of joint
Crucifixion= death by suffocation
They’d break the legs speed the death
6. Speared his side to insure he was dead.
Water mingled with blood in chest cavity (heart exploded)
Why did God allow this? ROM 5:6+8
“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners...
God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
“I love you this much!” So much it hurts!
B. Jesus wanted us to never forget his passionate sacrifice for us.
Gave us a reminder: Lord’s Supper (SERVERS begin)
SONG: AMAZING LOVE
COMMUNION
C. Why did Jesus have to die?
o All have sinned
o Justice demands payment! “wages” We all deserve..
o Somebody had to pay for your sins! You or someone else!
o Good News - Everything you’ve ever done wrong- PAID FOR!
o IT is finished! What? The payment... Tetelestai!
EPHESIANS 1:7: “Christ sacrificed his life's blood to set us free, which
means that our sins are now forgiven. Christ did this because of God’s amazing grace.”
o If there’d been any other way…
There’s no other way for you to get into heaven!
If you’ve never accepted God’s free gift of salvation, you need to do so now
PRAY SALVATION PRAYER
As we eat this bread, pray “Thank you Jesus for dying for all my sins.”
EAT BREAD
D. FACT- God planned your salvation before you needed it!
HEB. 2:10 “Everything belongs to God, and all things were created
by his power. So God did the right thing when he made Jesus
perfect through suffering, as Jesus led many of God's children
to be saved and to share in his glory.”
3 important truths
1. God was in control the whole time (could have stopped it)
2. He did it for our benefit!
3. He wanted to save us & share his glory in heaven!
As we drink, pray “Thank you Lord for saving me & sharing your glory.”
DRINK JUICE
Sunday, March 19, 2006
USING MY WEAKNESSES - part 2
We want to finish the message on Using Your Weaknesses.
The fact is everybody has weaknesses – emotional, physical, intellectual, relational, financial. We all have weaknesses. What we usually do with our weaknesses is we deny them or we hide them or we pretend they don’t exist or we ignore them or we excuse them or we blame other people for them. God comes along and says, “I’ve got something totally different. I want to use your weaknesses.” We say, “No, God! You don’t want to use them. You want to take away my weaknesses !” God says, “My ways are not your ways. My ways are higher than your ways I’m smarter than you. I have a plan. I want to use your weaknesses.” You say, “But God, don’t You want to use my strengths? You gave me all these abilities and talents. Why don’t You use my strengths?” He says, “I will use your strengths, yes. But I also want to use your weaknesses.”
Remember what we defined weakness as. We’re not talking about something you can change. We’re not talking about a sin, a character defect, a fault – overeating, chocolate, being late. No, that’s stuff you can do something about. When we talked about God wanting to use your weaknesses, we’re talking about any limitation in your life that you either inherited or you cannot change. There’s some things in your life you go, “Why God? Why did I have this relationship? I didn’t choose my parents. I didn’t choose my body. I didn’t choose my natural makeup. I didn’t choose the fact that I may have a predisposition toward depression, or worry, or losing my temper. I didn’t choose a lot of things in my life, yet they do limit my life, they often cause pain in my life. I can’t change some of those things.” If you naturally have a bad back, you’re going to have a bad back all your life. God says, “I have a plan even for your weaknesses. Not just your strengths but even your weaknesses.”
1 Corinthians 1:27 “God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to put wise men to shame and what the world considers weak in order to put powerful men to shame.”
Underline “purposely chose” and circle “weak”. God purposely chose the weaknesses in your life, not the sins, not the character faults, but those limitations in your life that you cannot change and you just inherited them. You’ve got them
and God says He wants to use them.
There are three steps God has to take us through in order to use our weakness.
1. First, I must admit my weakness. That’s pretty easy for most people. I don’t know anybody who maintains that they’re perfect. We all have shortcomings and faults and areas we’re weak in. So the first thing, we just say, “You’re right. I don’t have it all together. I’d like to pretend that I do. I’d like to think that I do. But I don’t.” So I stop pretending. I stop hoping that my weaknesses will just go away if I ignore them. I stop making excuses. I stop blaming other people for my weaknesses. I stop defending them. I stop denying them. I just admit: I have some weaknesses in my life – physical, spiritual … all these areas. That’s a pretty easy step. The second step is a little more difficult.
2. I must be grateful for my weaknesses. Why would anybody be grateful for their weaknesses? We talked about four reasons. Paul says “I’ve cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ in my life. When I have weaknesses it …
1) guarantees God’s power, because I’m depending on Him.
2) prevents arrogance, because I know I can’t do it all on my own.
3) it causes me to value others. Nobody gets all the pieces of the puzzle in their box. You don’t have all the gifts. God wants us to value each other, so nobody gets it all. You’re lacking some things and I’m lacking some things so we need each other. I need you, you need me – we need each other. We’re supposed to have helpers and friends who compensate for our weaknesses.
4) It gives me a ministry. Your greatest ministry, the way you can make the biggest impact on earth is that God will take your greatest weakness and turn it into a ministry. And God will take your deepest hurt and turn it into your life message. The Bible says He takes us through problems and comforts us so we can turn around and help people with the same comfort we’ve been given. Who could better help somebody going through a divorce than somebody who went through the pain of a divorce? Who can better help somebody struggling with an addiction than somebody who was an addict and Jesus helped them through it? Who could better help a couple with the pain of not having children when they wanted them than a couple who wanted children but were unable to have them for one reason or another? The very thing you’re most ashamed of, that you’re most embarrassed about., the very thing you wished nobody knows about, that skeleton in your closet, the very thing that still hurts you and pains you, if you’ll let God work on it in your life and touch you and heal you, God will use to help other people. That’s called a ministry.
But none of this can take place unless you’re willing to take step three. That’s what we’re going to talk about. I have to recognize my weaknesses, be grateful for them and think how God can use them. But if you want God to use the weakness in your life.
3. YOU MUST BE WILLING TO SHARE.
I must openly share my weaknesses. I let down my guard. I take off the mask. I put aside my defenses and just admit it. It’s like that “great” theologian, Flip Wilson, used to say, “What you see is what you get”. You be open and honest with people. This is called being vulnerable.
Would you agree that if you’re open and honest about your weaknesses with everybody around you, then that is a risky thing to do? It is. Highly risky. You don’t know how they’re going to respond to it. “I’m afraid to let you know what I’m really like because if you don’t like it, I’m up a creek because I’m all I’ve got. So what I’ll do is wear a mask and pretend to be what I think you want me to be. Then I think you’ll like me. Because if I really let you know what I’m really like, with all my faults and hurts and weaknesses and you reject that, I’m dead in the water. Tough luck!” So we live with masks most of our lives. It’s scary, risky, to be honest – gut level honest about your weaknesses with people.
God says do it. Four reasons. James Cook had to learn this lesson the hard way. He was the captain who discovered Hawaii and the Fiji islands and a number of other South Pacific islands. On one of the islands he discovered, they treated him like a god, put him on a pedestal because they’d never seen anybody like him. When he left on board the ship and pulled out to sea, they ran into a storm. Captain Cook was afraid the boat would capsize. Out of fear, they turned around and came back to shore. When they did, the natives murdered Captain Cook and his crew. He’d fallen off their pedestal and they couldn’t handle it. He wasn’t a god. No god would be afraid of a storm. They realized he was a mere mortal. He had disappointed them so they killed him.
I doubt any of you are going to get killed for being open and honest about your fears, but it is a risky proposition. So why should I learn to live a lifestyle where I’m honest and open, up front, about the emotional, physical, intellectual, spiritual weaknesses in my life? Four reasons:
1. It is emotionally healthy
Maintaining an image of perfection requires an enormous amount of energy. When you try to live a life that shows everybody “I’ve got it all together” when you know you don’t and everybody else does too but you keep up the pretense, that’s why you’re under such stress. When you walk around with a mask on all the time, it creates enormous pressure in your life – tension, anxiety – What if I let the mask drop? One of the reasons you’re so stressed out and you’re near burn out is that you’re trying to be something you’re not. You’re trying to pretend you’ve got it all together when you know you don’t. Everybody else knows it too but you’re trying to keep up the façade that you’ve attained perfection and you’ve got it under control and everything’s hunky-dory. On the other hand, if you drop the mask and let down your guard and be real, honest, there is nothing as liberating emotionally than just being real, being honest, and not trying to put on show. In fact, that’s the only healthy way to live.
James 5:16 “Confess your faults to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Circle “each other”.
You probably do a pretty good job of confessing your faults to God. But it says to confess them to each other. It says you confess them to each other so you can be healed. Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing. That’s the starting point. Some of those things that still hurt in your life, if you don’t get rid of, they’re never going to be gotten rid of until you share them with another person.
The very fact of sharing it with somebody else means the door is opening. The boogieman is not the boogieman anymore. They’re on the road to recovery. That’s the first step.
There are some things in your life that just won’t budge. Habits that you just can’t get rid of no matter how many messages you listen to, how many books you read, seminars you go to – there are some things in your life that you don’t like that just won’t change no matter how much you pray, “God, please take this out of my life!” It’s not going to, It’s not going to budge until first you be honest about it with some other human being. God wired us up that way. He wants us to help each other. We’re all stuck on this planet together. (starburst video)
Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing.
It is emotionally healthy to let it go. As long as you’re not sharing with anybody saying you can handle it on your own, God says, “No, you can’t.”
If you’re looking for a place to do it, a good place is called FOCUS*. This place is a hang out for sinners. We’re all a bunch of guys and girls who have blown it in various areas. In fact, when we put up our sign, it ought to be “No perfect people need apply.” This is only for people who lie, cheat, steal, and have other kinds of faults. This is for human beings. This is not a place where people are perfect. This is a place for people who want to change. This is a place for people who want to grow. If you don’t want to grow, or you want to wear a mask and pretend like you’ve got it all together, you’re in the wrong church! This is the place where people are real and vulnerable. Why? It’s emotionally healthy.
2. It’s spiritually empowering.
The Bible says in the book of James, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Circle “grace” and “humble” Those two words go together.
What is grace? Grace is the fact that God gives you what you need not what you deserve. Aren’t you glad God doesn’t give you what you deserve? If we got what we deserve, none of us would be here right now. He gives us what we need. That’s called grace. Grace is the power to change. You need grace every single week. You’re going to need it this week. You’re going to need grace to handle the problems you’re going to face in the next seven days. You’re going to need grace to handle the people you face in the next seven days – the conflicts. You’re going to need grace to handle the pressures you’re going to face in the next seven days.
How do you get grace? God gives grace to the humble. How do I get grace? By humbling myself. How do I do that? By being honest about my weaknesses. That’s what humility is. Humility is not denying your strengths. Humility is being honest about your weaknesses. You are a whole bundle of strengths and weaknesses. You have some tremendous strengths in your life. There’s no doubt of that. You also have some tremendous weaknesses in your life. I’m sure of that to because it’s the same in my life. I’ve got some great strengths in my life and I have enormous weaknesses.
Many people have a false idea of what humility is. You think humility is putting yourself down all the time, “I’m no good! I’m a bum! Worthless. Nobody loves me, everybody hates me. I’m going to go eat maggots! I’m a piece of junk.” Jesus Christ did not die for junk. The cross shows you value. Jesus said, “Let me show you how much I value you.” This much and he stretched his arms out on the cross. He says we’re worth dying for. Jesus did not die for junk. And the very fact that Christ died for you shows how much you matter to God, how much He values you. Humility is simply being honest about your weaknesses. And the more honest we are, the more grace we get. The more grace we get, the more power we have to change.
3. It is relationally attractive.
People like you more when you do it. A whole lot more. The fastest way to endear yourself to other people is to quit trying to pretend like you’ve got it all together. And just admit your weaknesses. We love people who are honest, open, vulnerable, down to earth, real and admit it when they’ve blown it. We love those kinds of people. We love being around them.
On the other hand we despise people who are deceitful, hyper-critical and pretend like they’ve got it all together when they don’t and are arrogant and they’re jerks. We don’t’ like that. If you want people to be open to you, all you have to do is be open to them. Be honest.
Whenever you go out and share your strengths, that always creates competition. It’s bragging. But whenever I share weakness that creates community. Vulnerability is the key to fellowship. Would you like to be closer to your husband/wife? Would you like to have a more intimate relationship with your kids or best friends? Would like like to have a more solid relationships? The key is to be vulnerable.
What is it in your relationships that you’re pretending not to know? There’s a big problem in your home, your friendship, with that person you’re dating or engaged to. It’s like a big pink elephant sitting in your living room and you’re saying, “I don’t see any pink elephant.” What are you pretending not to know, that you know is wrong in that relationship? You’re not doing anything about it, you’re not talking about it, you’re not being honest.
We are emotionally distant until we break down the barriers and admit our weaknesses.
Have you ever done that? Have you ever shared your greatest fear with your spouse? I’m not talking about “I’m really afraid of spiders.”
Husbands, have you ever shared your deepest fears? “I’m afraid that I will not be able to provide for you, that I might loose my job and can’t find another one.”
If you want to be close to somebody there’s only one way to genuine intimacy. Remember?
Truth... Trust... Transperancy
There is no intimacy without vulnerability. That’s why some people can never have a relationship. They’ll never let anybody get close to them. So they’re lonely. God says, “I want you to learn to be an open, vulnerable person because it’s emotionally healthy, spiritually empowering, and it is relationally attractive.”
4. It’s a mark of leadership
If you want to be a leader, you’ll have to become vulnerable. Every one of us is called to be leader. Every one of you are leaders in different areas, different domains. Sometimes you’re a leader in your community, your neighborhood, you block, your family. You have to take a leadership role sometimes with children, sometimes with aged parents, sometimes at work or at school. There are some times you have to take the lead.
Leadership can be summed up in one word -- influence. Leadership is influence. It’s not position. It’s not title. It’s influence. If I were to take you to the grade school and at recess on the playground, within five minutes you could pick out which kids were the leaders. It’s real simple. They’re the ones who are influencing everybody else.
If you want to be an influential leader, if you want to say, “I don’t just want to waste my life. I want to make an impact. I want to leave the world a better place because I was here,” you’re going to have to be a leader. The way you become a leader is through credibility. Credibility is the one essential requirement for leadership. If you don’t have credibility, people won’t trust you. And if people don’t trust you, you certainly can’t influence them.
How do you get credibility? By being vulnerable, open. When you go to a bank and borrow some money do they immediately hand over the money to you? No. They do what’s called a credit check. They look and see are you credit worthy? Are you credible? Do you pay off your debts on time, with interest, without any late payments or penalties? Are you trustworthy? And if you are credit worthy, then they’ll loan you money.
Every moment of your life, people around you are doing credit checks on you. Your kids, before they do what you say, they’re going to say to themselves, “Does their life back up what they say? Are they worthy of trusting? Are they worthy of following?” Your friends, your neighbors, the people you work with, if you’re a salesman, your customers, “Are you credible?”
How do you be credible? Not by being perfect but by being honest. If you have to be perfect to be a leader, how many leaders are we going to have in the world? None. You don’t have to be perfect to be a leader but you do have to be honest about your weaknesses. When you’re honest about your weaknesses they say, “This person’s not trying to give me a snow job. Not trying to blow me away. He’s not wearing a mask. He’s the real article, the genuine item. I can trust what that person says so I will follow them. I will do what they say.” It’s integrity, humility – credibility – being vulnerable.
When you do that you can influence others.
We have to decide in life whether we’re going to impress people or influence people. You can’t do both. You can impress people from a distance, but you can only influence people up close. From a distance, you look pretty classy. You could be a celebrity from a distance but when you get up close to people they see your warts and liver spots and cellulite and other failings, faults, failures in your life. But you don’t have to be perfect to be a leader, you do have to be real. God says I want you to be that because He wants leaders in this world to impact the world for good, not for evil.
Why are we talking about this? Why have we spent two weeks on this?
Since Cathleen and I began ministry about 12yrs. ago, we’ve been trying to build a model of LAF (Love, Acceptance, Forgiveness) and vulnerability - it has culminated here @ FOCUS. We’ve always wanted this family to be a place where you don’t have to have it all together and people can be honest, open about their struggles. The tragic thing is in alot of churches, that’s the last place you want to share your weaknesses, to be honest. “If I let them know what’s going on in my marriage, with my kids, in my life or the addictions and secret sins in my life right now, they’re just going to judge me. They’re going to put me down. If I tell the church it will be gossip.” But if there is any place that ought to be able to help you when you hurt, it ought to be God’s family. For 12yrs., we’ve tried to model this, be open and honest about our own faults and weaknesses. And the other staff and other people.
Let me give you five things to share. What do I share? These are all out of the examples of the Apostle Paul. Paul was honest in all five areas.
1. My failures.
2. My feelings. Some of you men have never done that with your wife.
3. My faults.
4. My frustrations.
5. My fears.
You could take a survey of the Bible to see you that God
always uses weak people. His gift is turning weakness into strength.
Moses – Moses’ greatest weakness was his anger. He got angry one day and killed an Egyptian so he got kicked out of Egypt. He got angry one day and struck a rock that God told him to speak to and that kept him out of the Promised Land. He got angry and threw the Ten Commandments down and broke them. He had to go back and get them again. Anger was Moses’ greatest weakness. And yet, in the Bible, there were only two people called meek. “Meek” means “anger under control” – Jesus and Moses. God took his greatest weakness and turned it into his greatest strength. He was a patient man. He put up with a million babies for forty years in the wilderness.
David is called “a man after God’s own heart.” You’d think Mr. Purity. David stole a man’s wife, committed adultery with her and then had the man killed. I don’t call that purity. Yet David’s greatest area of failure, God turned it around and built strength in his life. He became a man so pure that calls call him a man after His own heart.
Abraham, in the Bible, is called the Father of faith. He’s a spiritual giant. He has enormous faith. Yet when you study Abraham’s life, his greatest weakness was his lack of faith. He was a doubter, always worrying. One time the enemy came and he said to his wife, “Tell them you’re my sister so they won’t kill me to take you.” I’m sure his wife was thinking, “There’s a man of faith!! He’d save his neck by giving his wife away.” God took the man’s greatest weakness and turned it into a strength.
Peter. Jesus came to Peter and said, “You are a rock. You’re going to be called Rock from now on. You’re stable.” Peter was anything but stable. He was Mr. Impulsive. Mr. Foot-in-Mouth. Mr. Do-Something-Impulsively-And-Later-Regret-It. “I’ll never deny You!” then three minutes later he’s denying Him three times! When they came to arrest Jesus, Peter pulls out his sword and knocks off a guy’s ear – that’s before Tyson! Jesus said, “Don’t do that!” and sticks it back on. Peter was Mr. Impulsive. Yet his greatest weakness is turned into a strength.
All of God’s giants have been weak men and weak women.
My favorite of these is Jacob. Jacob was a deceiver. Jacob was a manipulator. Jacob was a schemer. All his life, he spent scheming to get his way. He made one mess after another and then he’d run from it. He ran his entire life because of all the messes. He’d create a mess and run. Create a mess and run. Out of one relationship into another. One night he had a dream. He had a vision that he was wrestling with God. He said, "I’m not going to let go until you bless me, God.” And God said, “Ok, I’ll bless your life.” Then it says He grabs his thigh and pulls his hip out of socket. He touched him. Your thigh muscle is the strongest muscle in your body. God touched him at his greatest point of strength. The Bible says from that point on, Jacob’s life was blessed, but he walked with a limp the rest of his life. Touched at his greatest point of strength and turned into a weakness. Why? Two reason:
1) God wanted him to have a constant reminder: You’ve got to depend on Me from now on. (thorn)
2) Jacob could no longer run away from his problems. That old habit of creating a problem and running from it, he couldn’t do any more because he had a limp.
Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. And the entire nation was named after that guy. It was changed from “Jacob” which means “schemer, deceiver, manipulator” to Israel which means “Prince of God” and the nation of Israel was named after that man.
God wants to take the greatest weakness in your life and turn it into a strength. But if He does, if God blesses your life in a great way, you will walk with a limp the rest of your life. There will be a thorn, a reminder that God’s in charge.
The greatest example of God turning weakness into strength is what Jesus did on the cross and that’s what we remember at communion. “Although He died on the cross in weakness, Jesus now lives in the mighty power of God. We, too, are weak, but we live in Him and have God’s mighty power.”
The fact is everybody has weaknesses – emotional, physical, intellectual, relational, financial. We all have weaknesses. What we usually do with our weaknesses is we deny them or we hide them or we pretend they don’t exist or we ignore them or we excuse them or we blame other people for them. God comes along and says, “I’ve got something totally different. I want to use your weaknesses.” We say, “No, God! You don’t want to use them. You want to take away my weaknesses !” God says, “My ways are not your ways. My ways are higher than your ways I’m smarter than you. I have a plan. I want to use your weaknesses.” You say, “But God, don’t You want to use my strengths? You gave me all these abilities and talents. Why don’t You use my strengths?” He says, “I will use your strengths, yes. But I also want to use your weaknesses.”
Remember what we defined weakness as. We’re not talking about something you can change. We’re not talking about a sin, a character defect, a fault – overeating, chocolate, being late. No, that’s stuff you can do something about. When we talked about God wanting to use your weaknesses, we’re talking about any limitation in your life that you either inherited or you cannot change. There’s some things in your life you go, “Why God? Why did I have this relationship? I didn’t choose my parents. I didn’t choose my body. I didn’t choose my natural makeup. I didn’t choose the fact that I may have a predisposition toward depression, or worry, or losing my temper. I didn’t choose a lot of things in my life, yet they do limit my life, they often cause pain in my life. I can’t change some of those things.” If you naturally have a bad back, you’re going to have a bad back all your life. God says, “I have a plan even for your weaknesses. Not just your strengths but even your weaknesses.”
1 Corinthians 1:27 “God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to put wise men to shame and what the world considers weak in order to put powerful men to shame.”
Underline “purposely chose” and circle “weak”. God purposely chose the weaknesses in your life, not the sins, not the character faults, but those limitations in your life that you cannot change and you just inherited them. You’ve got them
and God says He wants to use them.
There are three steps God has to take us through in order to use our weakness.
1. First, I must admit my weakness. That’s pretty easy for most people. I don’t know anybody who maintains that they’re perfect. We all have shortcomings and faults and areas we’re weak in. So the first thing, we just say, “You’re right. I don’t have it all together. I’d like to pretend that I do. I’d like to think that I do. But I don’t.” So I stop pretending. I stop hoping that my weaknesses will just go away if I ignore them. I stop making excuses. I stop blaming other people for my weaknesses. I stop defending them. I stop denying them. I just admit: I have some weaknesses in my life – physical, spiritual … all these areas. That’s a pretty easy step. The second step is a little more difficult.
2. I must be grateful for my weaknesses. Why would anybody be grateful for their weaknesses? We talked about four reasons. Paul says “I’ve cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ in my life. When I have weaknesses it …
1) guarantees God’s power, because I’m depending on Him.
2) prevents arrogance, because I know I can’t do it all on my own.
3) it causes me to value others. Nobody gets all the pieces of the puzzle in their box. You don’t have all the gifts. God wants us to value each other, so nobody gets it all. You’re lacking some things and I’m lacking some things so we need each other. I need you, you need me – we need each other. We’re supposed to have helpers and friends who compensate for our weaknesses.
4) It gives me a ministry. Your greatest ministry, the way you can make the biggest impact on earth is that God will take your greatest weakness and turn it into a ministry. And God will take your deepest hurt and turn it into your life message. The Bible says He takes us through problems and comforts us so we can turn around and help people with the same comfort we’ve been given. Who could better help somebody going through a divorce than somebody who went through the pain of a divorce? Who can better help somebody struggling with an addiction than somebody who was an addict and Jesus helped them through it? Who could better help a couple with the pain of not having children when they wanted them than a couple who wanted children but were unable to have them for one reason or another? The very thing you’re most ashamed of, that you’re most embarrassed about., the very thing you wished nobody knows about, that skeleton in your closet, the very thing that still hurts you and pains you, if you’ll let God work on it in your life and touch you and heal you, God will use to help other people. That’s called a ministry.
But none of this can take place unless you’re willing to take step three. That’s what we’re going to talk about. I have to recognize my weaknesses, be grateful for them and think how God can use them. But if you want God to use the weakness in your life.
3. YOU MUST BE WILLING TO SHARE.
I must openly share my weaknesses. I let down my guard. I take off the mask. I put aside my defenses and just admit it. It’s like that “great” theologian, Flip Wilson, used to say, “What you see is what you get”. You be open and honest with people. This is called being vulnerable.
Would you agree that if you’re open and honest about your weaknesses with everybody around you, then that is a risky thing to do? It is. Highly risky. You don’t know how they’re going to respond to it. “I’m afraid to let you know what I’m really like because if you don’t like it, I’m up a creek because I’m all I’ve got. So what I’ll do is wear a mask and pretend to be what I think you want me to be. Then I think you’ll like me. Because if I really let you know what I’m really like, with all my faults and hurts and weaknesses and you reject that, I’m dead in the water. Tough luck!” So we live with masks most of our lives. It’s scary, risky, to be honest – gut level honest about your weaknesses with people.
God says do it. Four reasons. James Cook had to learn this lesson the hard way. He was the captain who discovered Hawaii and the Fiji islands and a number of other South Pacific islands. On one of the islands he discovered, they treated him like a god, put him on a pedestal because they’d never seen anybody like him. When he left on board the ship and pulled out to sea, they ran into a storm. Captain Cook was afraid the boat would capsize. Out of fear, they turned around and came back to shore. When they did, the natives murdered Captain Cook and his crew. He’d fallen off their pedestal and they couldn’t handle it. He wasn’t a god. No god would be afraid of a storm. They realized he was a mere mortal. He had disappointed them so they killed him.
I doubt any of you are going to get killed for being open and honest about your fears, but it is a risky proposition. So why should I learn to live a lifestyle where I’m honest and open, up front, about the emotional, physical, intellectual, spiritual weaknesses in my life? Four reasons:
1. It is emotionally healthy
Maintaining an image of perfection requires an enormous amount of energy. When you try to live a life that shows everybody “I’ve got it all together” when you know you don’t and everybody else does too but you keep up the pretense, that’s why you’re under such stress. When you walk around with a mask on all the time, it creates enormous pressure in your life – tension, anxiety – What if I let the mask drop? One of the reasons you’re so stressed out and you’re near burn out is that you’re trying to be something you’re not. You’re trying to pretend you’ve got it all together when you know you don’t. Everybody else knows it too but you’re trying to keep up the façade that you’ve attained perfection and you’ve got it under control and everything’s hunky-dory. On the other hand, if you drop the mask and let down your guard and be real, honest, there is nothing as liberating emotionally than just being real, being honest, and not trying to put on show. In fact, that’s the only healthy way to live.
James 5:16 “Confess your faults to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Circle “each other”.
You probably do a pretty good job of confessing your faults to God. But it says to confess them to each other. It says you confess them to each other so you can be healed. Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing. That’s the starting point. Some of those things that still hurt in your life, if you don’t get rid of, they’re never going to be gotten rid of until you share them with another person.
The very fact of sharing it with somebody else means the door is opening. The boogieman is not the boogieman anymore. They’re on the road to recovery. That’s the first step.
There are some things in your life that just won’t budge. Habits that you just can’t get rid of no matter how many messages you listen to, how many books you read, seminars you go to – there are some things in your life that you don’t like that just won’t change no matter how much you pray, “God, please take this out of my life!” It’s not going to, It’s not going to budge until first you be honest about it with some other human being. God wired us up that way. He wants us to help each other. We’re all stuck on this planet together. (starburst video)
Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing.
It is emotionally healthy to let it go. As long as you’re not sharing with anybody saying you can handle it on your own, God says, “No, you can’t.”
If you’re looking for a place to do it, a good place is called FOCUS*. This place is a hang out for sinners. We’re all a bunch of guys and girls who have blown it in various areas. In fact, when we put up our sign, it ought to be “No perfect people need apply.” This is only for people who lie, cheat, steal, and have other kinds of faults. This is for human beings. This is not a place where people are perfect. This is a place for people who want to change. This is a place for people who want to grow. If you don’t want to grow, or you want to wear a mask and pretend like you’ve got it all together, you’re in the wrong church! This is the place where people are real and vulnerable. Why? It’s emotionally healthy.
2. It’s spiritually empowering.
The Bible says in the book of James, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Circle “grace” and “humble” Those two words go together.
What is grace? Grace is the fact that God gives you what you need not what you deserve. Aren’t you glad God doesn’t give you what you deserve? If we got what we deserve, none of us would be here right now. He gives us what we need. That’s called grace. Grace is the power to change. You need grace every single week. You’re going to need it this week. You’re going to need grace to handle the problems you’re going to face in the next seven days. You’re going to need grace to handle the people you face in the next seven days – the conflicts. You’re going to need grace to handle the pressures you’re going to face in the next seven days.
How do you get grace? God gives grace to the humble. How do I get grace? By humbling myself. How do I do that? By being honest about my weaknesses. That’s what humility is. Humility is not denying your strengths. Humility is being honest about your weaknesses. You are a whole bundle of strengths and weaknesses. You have some tremendous strengths in your life. There’s no doubt of that. You also have some tremendous weaknesses in your life. I’m sure of that to because it’s the same in my life. I’ve got some great strengths in my life and I have enormous weaknesses.
Many people have a false idea of what humility is. You think humility is putting yourself down all the time, “I’m no good! I’m a bum! Worthless. Nobody loves me, everybody hates me. I’m going to go eat maggots! I’m a piece of junk.” Jesus Christ did not die for junk. The cross shows you value. Jesus said, “Let me show you how much I value you.” This much and he stretched his arms out on the cross. He says we’re worth dying for. Jesus did not die for junk. And the very fact that Christ died for you shows how much you matter to God, how much He values you. Humility is simply being honest about your weaknesses. And the more honest we are, the more grace we get. The more grace we get, the more power we have to change.
3. It is relationally attractive.
People like you more when you do it. A whole lot more. The fastest way to endear yourself to other people is to quit trying to pretend like you’ve got it all together. And just admit your weaknesses. We love people who are honest, open, vulnerable, down to earth, real and admit it when they’ve blown it. We love those kinds of people. We love being around them.
On the other hand we despise people who are deceitful, hyper-critical and pretend like they’ve got it all together when they don’t and are arrogant and they’re jerks. We don’t’ like that. If you want people to be open to you, all you have to do is be open to them. Be honest.
Whenever you go out and share your strengths, that always creates competition. It’s bragging. But whenever I share weakness that creates community. Vulnerability is the key to fellowship. Would you like to be closer to your husband/wife? Would you like to have a more intimate relationship with your kids or best friends? Would like like to have a more solid relationships? The key is to be vulnerable.
What is it in your relationships that you’re pretending not to know? There’s a big problem in your home, your friendship, with that person you’re dating or engaged to. It’s like a big pink elephant sitting in your living room and you’re saying, “I don’t see any pink elephant.” What are you pretending not to know, that you know is wrong in that relationship? You’re not doing anything about it, you’re not talking about it, you’re not being honest.
We are emotionally distant until we break down the barriers and admit our weaknesses.
Have you ever done that? Have you ever shared your greatest fear with your spouse? I’m not talking about “I’m really afraid of spiders.”
Husbands, have you ever shared your deepest fears? “I’m afraid that I will not be able to provide for you, that I might loose my job and can’t find another one.”
If you want to be close to somebody there’s only one way to genuine intimacy. Remember?
Truth... Trust... Transperancy
There is no intimacy without vulnerability. That’s why some people can never have a relationship. They’ll never let anybody get close to them. So they’re lonely. God says, “I want you to learn to be an open, vulnerable person because it’s emotionally healthy, spiritually empowering, and it is relationally attractive.”
4. It’s a mark of leadership
If you want to be a leader, you’ll have to become vulnerable. Every one of us is called to be leader. Every one of you are leaders in different areas, different domains. Sometimes you’re a leader in your community, your neighborhood, you block, your family. You have to take a leadership role sometimes with children, sometimes with aged parents, sometimes at work or at school. There are some times you have to take the lead.
Leadership can be summed up in one word -- influence. Leadership is influence. It’s not position. It’s not title. It’s influence. If I were to take you to the grade school and at recess on the playground, within five minutes you could pick out which kids were the leaders. It’s real simple. They’re the ones who are influencing everybody else.
If you want to be an influential leader, if you want to say, “I don’t just want to waste my life. I want to make an impact. I want to leave the world a better place because I was here,” you’re going to have to be a leader. The way you become a leader is through credibility. Credibility is the one essential requirement for leadership. If you don’t have credibility, people won’t trust you. And if people don’t trust you, you certainly can’t influence them.
How do you get credibility? By being vulnerable, open. When you go to a bank and borrow some money do they immediately hand over the money to you? No. They do what’s called a credit check. They look and see are you credit worthy? Are you credible? Do you pay off your debts on time, with interest, without any late payments or penalties? Are you trustworthy? And if you are credit worthy, then they’ll loan you money.
Every moment of your life, people around you are doing credit checks on you. Your kids, before they do what you say, they’re going to say to themselves, “Does their life back up what they say? Are they worthy of trusting? Are they worthy of following?” Your friends, your neighbors, the people you work with, if you’re a salesman, your customers, “Are you credible?”
How do you be credible? Not by being perfect but by being honest. If you have to be perfect to be a leader, how many leaders are we going to have in the world? None. You don’t have to be perfect to be a leader but you do have to be honest about your weaknesses. When you’re honest about your weaknesses they say, “This person’s not trying to give me a snow job. Not trying to blow me away. He’s not wearing a mask. He’s the real article, the genuine item. I can trust what that person says so I will follow them. I will do what they say.” It’s integrity, humility – credibility – being vulnerable.
When you do that you can influence others.
We have to decide in life whether we’re going to impress people or influence people. You can’t do both. You can impress people from a distance, but you can only influence people up close. From a distance, you look pretty classy. You could be a celebrity from a distance but when you get up close to people they see your warts and liver spots and cellulite and other failings, faults, failures in your life. But you don’t have to be perfect to be a leader, you do have to be real. God says I want you to be that because He wants leaders in this world to impact the world for good, not for evil.
Why are we talking about this? Why have we spent two weeks on this?
Since Cathleen and I began ministry about 12yrs. ago, we’ve been trying to build a model of LAF (Love, Acceptance, Forgiveness) and vulnerability - it has culminated here @ FOCUS. We’ve always wanted this family to be a place where you don’t have to have it all together and people can be honest, open about their struggles. The tragic thing is in alot of churches, that’s the last place you want to share your weaknesses, to be honest. “If I let them know what’s going on in my marriage, with my kids, in my life or the addictions and secret sins in my life right now, they’re just going to judge me. They’re going to put me down. If I tell the church it will be gossip.” But if there is any place that ought to be able to help you when you hurt, it ought to be God’s family. For 12yrs., we’ve tried to model this, be open and honest about our own faults and weaknesses. And the other staff and other people.
Let me give you five things to share. What do I share? These are all out of the examples of the Apostle Paul. Paul was honest in all five areas.
1. My failures.
2. My feelings. Some of you men have never done that with your wife.
3. My faults.
4. My frustrations.
5. My fears.
You could take a survey of the Bible to see you that God
always uses weak people. His gift is turning weakness into strength.
Moses – Moses’ greatest weakness was his anger. He got angry one day and killed an Egyptian so he got kicked out of Egypt. He got angry one day and struck a rock that God told him to speak to and that kept him out of the Promised Land. He got angry and threw the Ten Commandments down and broke them. He had to go back and get them again. Anger was Moses’ greatest weakness. And yet, in the Bible, there were only two people called meek. “Meek” means “anger under control” – Jesus and Moses. God took his greatest weakness and turned it into his greatest strength. He was a patient man. He put up with a million babies for forty years in the wilderness.
David is called “a man after God’s own heart.” You’d think Mr. Purity. David stole a man’s wife, committed adultery with her and then had the man killed. I don’t call that purity. Yet David’s greatest area of failure, God turned it around and built strength in his life. He became a man so pure that calls call him a man after His own heart.
Abraham, in the Bible, is called the Father of faith. He’s a spiritual giant. He has enormous faith. Yet when you study Abraham’s life, his greatest weakness was his lack of faith. He was a doubter, always worrying. One time the enemy came and he said to his wife, “Tell them you’re my sister so they won’t kill me to take you.” I’m sure his wife was thinking, “There’s a man of faith!! He’d save his neck by giving his wife away.” God took the man’s greatest weakness and turned it into a strength.
Peter. Jesus came to Peter and said, “You are a rock. You’re going to be called Rock from now on. You’re stable.” Peter was anything but stable. He was Mr. Impulsive. Mr. Foot-in-Mouth. Mr. Do-Something-Impulsively-And-Later-Regret-It. “I’ll never deny You!” then three minutes later he’s denying Him three times! When they came to arrest Jesus, Peter pulls out his sword and knocks off a guy’s ear – that’s before Tyson! Jesus said, “Don’t do that!” and sticks it back on. Peter was Mr. Impulsive. Yet his greatest weakness is turned into a strength.
All of God’s giants have been weak men and weak women.
My favorite of these is Jacob. Jacob was a deceiver. Jacob was a manipulator. Jacob was a schemer. All his life, he spent scheming to get his way. He made one mess after another and then he’d run from it. He ran his entire life because of all the messes. He’d create a mess and run. Create a mess and run. Out of one relationship into another. One night he had a dream. He had a vision that he was wrestling with God. He said, "I’m not going to let go until you bless me, God.” And God said, “Ok, I’ll bless your life.” Then it says He grabs his thigh and pulls his hip out of socket. He touched him. Your thigh muscle is the strongest muscle in your body. God touched him at his greatest point of strength. The Bible says from that point on, Jacob’s life was blessed, but he walked with a limp the rest of his life. Touched at his greatest point of strength and turned into a weakness. Why? Two reason:
1) God wanted him to have a constant reminder: You’ve got to depend on Me from now on. (thorn)
2) Jacob could no longer run away from his problems. That old habit of creating a problem and running from it, he couldn’t do any more because he had a limp.
Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. And the entire nation was named after that guy. It was changed from “Jacob” which means “schemer, deceiver, manipulator” to Israel which means “Prince of God” and the nation of Israel was named after that man.
God wants to take the greatest weakness in your life and turn it into a strength. But if He does, if God blesses your life in a great way, you will walk with a limp the rest of your life. There will be a thorn, a reminder that God’s in charge.
The greatest example of God turning weakness into strength is what Jesus did on the cross and that’s what we remember at communion. “Although He died on the cross in weakness, Jesus now lives in the mighty power of God. We, too, are weak, but we live in Him and have God’s mighty power.”
Sunday, March 12, 2006
USING MY WEAKNESSES - part 1
We’re going to look at Using Your Weaknesses. Every one of us has weaknesses. You have physical weaknesses, emotional weaknesses, relational weaknesses, financial weaknesses, intellectual weaknesses. There are things your body can’t do. (How many of you can roll our tongue? Under?) Some of us have fashion weaknesses. We have all different kinds.
The real issues is, What are you going to do with your
weaknesses?
What we normally do is deny them, we defend them, we excuse them, we resent them and most of all we hide them – we don’t want anybody to see our weaknesses. Then God comes along and in the Bible, He says, “You know what I want to do with your weaknesses? I want to use them.” “That doesn’t make sense,” we say, “Use my strengths not my weaknesses.” We think God wants to use our strengths: “I can do this. How come I’m always setting on the shelf here. Use my strengths.”
God does use your strengths obviously. But in the book of Isaiah 55, God says, “My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.” I’m smarter than you. He says, “The way you think I should work is often the exact opposite of the way I really work in life” God says, “I don’t want to work around your weaknesses. I don’t want to work in spite of your weaknesses. I want to work through them – through your weaknesses.”
1 Corinthians 1:27 “God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to put wise men to shame and what the world considers weak, in order to put powerful men to shame.” Underline “God purposely chose” and circle “weak”. It’s not by accident. The weaknesses you have in your life, God purposely chose them and God works through weak people. Why? It demonstrates His power.
When I was a kid, I used to think that Samson was this giant, muscle bound hunk – kind of a Jewish Rambo. Bulging biceps. The truth is that Samson was a very ordinary looking guy. The Bible says that when the enemies looked at him they couldn’t figure out why the guy’s so strong. From all appearance, he just looked normal. He was not some beefcake. The Bible tells us that his strength laid not in his muscles but in the Spirit of the Lord. He probably looked more like Conan O’Brien than he did Schwarzenegger. They couldn’t figure out his secret. It wasn’t muscles.
God is not impressed with might. We are, we’re really impressed with strength and might. But the Bible says in Zachariah 4:6 “`It is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord.” God says, “I like to choose and use weak ordinary people because that’s when My glory, My grace, My strength, My power shine through the most effectively.”
That’s good news, really good news, because most of us are not extraordinary people. We don’t have bodies like the models. We don’t have extraordinary intellect. We’re just normal, ordinary, average people. God says that’s ok, because I don’t choose to work through natural strength. I choose to work through natural weakness and then My power shines through.”
So this week and in the second half of this message, we’re going to look at how do you not avoid your weaknesses, excuse or resent them, but how does God want to use them in our lives
When I talk about weakness, I’m not talking about sins, character flaws you can change (like overeating, impatience, greed, laziness.) I’m not talking about things you can change.
Weakness is any limitation in my life that I inherited or I cannot change.
There are all kinds of limitations like that.
There are circumstantial limitations that you were born with, that you don’t have any control over that you can’t change – disadvantages, problems, external pressures that you can’t control.
There are financial limitations when you don’t have enough money. Have you ever had unexpected expenses that weren’t your fault? Sure.
There are relational limitations. Some in this world really have a heart for God but their spouse is spiritually apathetic. They don’t care about the Lord. Maybe they’re not even a believer and that’s a limitation in your life. Or you have a difficult child or difficult children or a rebellious child. Or you have a handicapped parent. Something in your life that you either inherited or you cannot control that causes pain in your life.
There are emotional limitations. Some of us have a tendency, a predisposition, to get depressed. It’s in your nature. That’s no sin, just your nature. Some of us have a tendency, a predisposition, to worry about everything. Some of us have a tendency, or predisposition, to lose our temper and get angry. Or to be fearful. It is the natural inclination. When we make bad choices, we give in to that.
We have talent limitations. There are some things you just cannot do and you never will be able to do. Jesus said there are one talent people, and five talent people and ten talent people.
And of course, we have physical limitations. You have a certain amount of energy and no matter how much you work out you’re never going to have more energy than that, given your physique, your make-up. Maybe you deal with a
handicap or bad back, or some other kind of physical limitation in your life.
All of these things, God says, He purposely chose. Why? 2 Corinthians 4:7 “We have this treasure from God, but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure. This shows the great power is from God not from us.” God says, “I put my treasure of wisdom and joy and salvation in you, in your body, but your body is just a clay pot,” and a lot of our bodies are just cracked pots. The thing about clay pots is they break easily. If you drop a clay pot, it breaks. It’s not indestructible. Every clay pot has inherited design faults and flaws in it. It is weak, it is not indestructible. Paul was saying, “Yes, I’m a Christian and God’s in my life but I’m not indestructible. I’m a human being. My body is a clay pot so I have weaknesses in it.” It says that God chooses to do this because it shows the great power in our lives is from God and not from ourselves. God puts His greatest gifts in ordinary containers – like you, like me. Some think, “God could never use me in a great way. I’m just an ordinary person.” You’re the kind of person God uses. He puts His greatest gifts in ordinary containers. He takes ordinary, weak people and uses them in extraordinary ways.
We’re going to look at how can I use my weaknesses?
The Bible says there are three steps. (2 this week)
1. ADMIT MY WEAKNESSES
(vid) That’s obviously the starting point. That means I stop pretending I’ve got it all together. Because I don’t. Nobody has it all together. It means that I stop hoping that my weaknesses will go away if I just ignore them. Out of sight, out of mind. If I pretend they’re not there, maybe they’ll go away. They won’t. It means I stop making excuses for my weaknesses. It means I stop blaming other people for my weaknesses. It means I stop denying that I’ve got them and stop defending them. I just admit I have weaknesses. Nobody has it altogether!
You may be an entrepreneur – small business owners or large corporation owners. This is really the secret of building any effective organization. You first sit down and figure out, What am I good at? What are my strengths? And you start building on your strengths. But you also look at - What are my weaknesses? What am I not good at? What am I really bad at? Then you start hiring people who compensate for your weaknesses. That’s how you build a great team.
That’s what we’re doing here @ FOCUS* I have tried to gather people on our staff who are smarter than me in different areas. Together we compensate for our weaknesses. We don’t all try to be the same kind of person.
Warning: Because God wants you to admit your weaknesses, sometimes He has to bring something into our lives to get us to admit them. That is called a crisis. A crisis is a weakness identifier. When you go through a crisis it says, “Here’s the fault in my life, the failure in my life, the lack, the weakness, the weak spot.” My advice is: Don’t wait. It’s far less painful to identify your weaknesses and admit them up front than having to go through crisis after crisis for God to get you to admit, “I’m not God. You are and I’m not.”
Once you have admitted your weakness you go to step two.
2. I MUST BE GRATEFUL FOR MY WEAKNESSES
You say, “You’ve got to be kidding! I want to come to church and I want you to tell me how to take a magic pill to get rid of all my weaknesses. I don’t want you to tell me to be grateful for them. I want to know how to be freed from them all.” God says, “I want you to learn to be grateful for your weaknesses.” 2 Cor. 12:9 “I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses.” I love that phrase, “cheerfully made up my mind.” He says, “… because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ.”
Paul’s saying, instead of wasting your time posturing yourself constantly like you’ve got it all together, I am confident, I am composed, and most important I want everybody to think I am in control. He says, since everybody knows that’s not true anyway, instead of posturing yourself and wearing a mask, why don’t you just stop, admit your weaknesses and start focusing on God’s power and realize a deeper
experience of the power of Christ.
I’ve been a Christian for many years. I’ve been around alot of believers and I would say most Christians have never experienced a deeper experience of the power of Christ. Why? Because they haven’t admitted their weaknesses and they haven’t grasped a grateful attitude for them.
I love this verse in the Living Bible, “I’m glad to be a living demonstration of Christ’s power instead of showing off my own power and abilities.” Paul says instead of resenting my weaknesses I’m glad and I’m grateful for them. Why in the world would anybody do that? There are many benefits. You don’t realize it but the weaknesses, the limitations that you inherited and can’t control are actually blessing in disguise.
Four benefits:
1. It guarantees God’s help.
When I have weaknesses in my life, that guarantees God’s help. This next week, when you attempt to face any challenge or solve any problem on your own power, God says, “I’ll step back and watch. Be My guest. Go ahead and do it. If you think you can handle this on your own, great. If you think you can solve that problem at work, if you think you can make that marriage hang together, if you think you can turn that kid around on your own power, be My guest.” And He stands back and watches. “If you think you can pull yourself out of that financial low, go right ahead.” But the moment you come to God and say, “God, I’m weak. I don’t have what it takes for all the pressures that are on in my life, I don’t have what it takes. God, I need You.” God says, “I knew that. I just wanted you to realize it.” Then He plugs you into His power and you realize a deeper experience of God’s power and find power you would never have on your own to make it, to not only survive but to thrive in life.
2 Corinthians 12:10, God says “I am with you. That’s all you need.” We could stop right here and go home because that’s all you need to hear this week. God says, “No matter what you go through this next week, I’m going to be with you and I’m all you need.” You may have a major happenings going on this week - Some of you have a problem you have to solve this week. You have a conflict maybe at home, at work, at school. You need to resolve it this week. You’ve got a difficulty that seems insurmountable. All you need to know is two things. God says, “I’m with you. And that’s all you need.” We don’t usually realize that God is all we need until God is all we’ve got. What happens is, God intentionally allows everything else to fall apart. All those props and gimmicks and all those things that give you safety and all those relationships you think you need to prop you up, all of a sudden go by the wayside. And God is all you have. When God is all you have, you turn to him and realize He’s all you needed in the first place. One plus God equals a majority. If God’s on my side, who can be against me.
God says, “I want to teach you this week that I’m with you and that’s all you need.” Paul says “So when I am weak, then I am strong. In fact, the less I have, the more I depend on Him.” This is a lesson that I have to learn over and over and over. And so do you. We have short-term memory when it comes to this. We’re in a tight financial situation and God comes through with flying colors and bales us out and helps us through it and then the next day we’re acting like an atheist again. We forget how many times He’s worked in our lives. He’s been there. He’s helped us. He’s made it through the situation. We forget. We have to learn this lesson over and over. We naturally resent our limitations.
When there’s something in my life that I’ve inherited and I can’t control it but it causes pain in my life (emotionally, physically, spiritually – any other way) my reaction is “Why me, God? I’m a good guy. I’m trying to live for You. Why did You allow this?”
God says “My power shows up best in weak people.” If that’s true, why should God take away your weaknesses? You know the thing you’ve been praying about – “God, please take this away!” and He hasn’t done it, it’s probably a weakness. God’s saying, “My power shows up best in your weakness. Why in the world would I take it away?” If you didn’t have any weaknesses in your life, if you could solve every problem and meet any need instantly, how much would you depend on God? Zip! Not at all. You’d think you were God. If you could meet every need and solve every problem, you’d think you were God. “I’m invincible! I’m the master of my faith” God says, “No, you’re not. You’re a human being. I made you and I love you and I created you and in your weakness, that’s where My power shows up strongest.”
2. It prevents arrogance.
2 Cor. 12:7 “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassing great revelations, it was given to me a thorn in my flesh.” What is a thorn? He said, “I have a thorn in my flesh to keep me from getting arrogant.” God blessed his life so much. He’d learned so many things. He’d had so many great revelations from God. (He got to write most of the New Testament.) God gave him a thorn.
What is a thorn? It is a weakness. It is a limitation I’ve inherited or cannot change that causes me pain and limits my ministry. He says this was given to him as a reminder. If Paul could have changed it, he would have. In fact, the Bible says he prayed three times, “God, take this away.” And God said, “I’m not going to do it because My grace is sufficient for you.” That thing you’ve been praying, “God take this away in my life,” and He hasn’t, it may be a thorn.
It may be your thorn.
Thorns are given by God so they’re not sins. God doesn’t give sin. If thorns were sin and you prayed, “God, take it away,”
He would. Because God always removes sin. So we’re not talking about some sin in your life.
Some thorns are temporary in our lives. Some thorns are removed gradually. Some you have for a lifetime, as with Paul.
What does a thorn do in my life? It’s that persistent perplexity that causes me pain, that gets my attention, keeps me dependent upon God, keeps me humble before Him. It acts as a governor on my life. It guides and directs me and it
motivates me.
It’s my thorn. (migraines; cant talk, cant breath) I’ve asked God to take it away but He hasn’t. But the greatest pain in my life has also been the greatest blessing in my life because it’s kept me dependent upon God. It’s kept me close to Him.
If God is ever going to use you in a great way, expect a thorn. He will do it to get your attention.
It may not be a physical thing like mine. It may be a relational, emotional, some other kind of thorn. But it will come because it prevents arrogance and it guarantees God’s help.
3. It causes me to value others.
One of the dangers of strength is that it breeds an independent spirit. If I don’t have any weaknesses in my life, I tend to think, “I don’t need anybody!” I don’t need to be in a small group. I don’t need any close relationships. I don’t need you. I’ve got it all together.” But God made us to value each other. He wants us to value each other. So nobody gets all the gifts. Nobody gets all the pieces of the puzzle. You need other people to complete the puzzle in your life.
One of the biggest lies in our society is that significance is the same thing as prominence but it’s not. Significance is not prominence. In our society, we tend to think if you’re well known then what you have to say is very important. But you can be a celebrity and be living a totally trivial life. Just because you’re well known or prominent does not mean you’re important in the whole scheme of life. A celebrity is not necessarily a hero. Too often we confuse that in our society. We think if you’re well known then you’re a hero. No you’re not.
You may have some very prominent features physically (eyes, great smile, cute nose) But they’re not very significant. You could lose your nose and live the rest of your life it may prominent; but it’s not significant. On the other hand, there’s some things like a spleen, a liver, both kidneys. They’re not seen, not prominent at all, but they’re far more significant. We can’t live without those things.
The Bible says, “Some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are really the most necessary.” That’s true in the body of Christ. God allows each of us to have weaknesses, so that all the parts will recognize their need for each other. “The hand can’t say to the foot, `I don’t need you.’ And the eye can’t say to the ear, `I don’t need you.’” We need each other. God allows us to have weaknesses so we see the value of other people.
You make a strong rope, not by making one solid cord. That breaks pretty easy. You make a strong rope by putting a lot of strands together – a lot of strands of weak cords. When you take a lot of weak cords and put them all together, you’ve got a pretty strong rope.
You’re pretty weak and I’m pretty weak, but together we can do stuff that nobody thinks is possible otherwise. That’s the value of unity. That’s the value of church family. A person without a church family is a weakling. You don’t have any other support. All you have is your part of the puzzle. You don’t have all the other pieces. I’m not talking about just coming to church, listening to the sermon and going on out. I’m talking about getting involved, developing relationships, getting in a community group, so that when a crisis hits your life there’s somebody there to support you. And you’re there to help others when they go through crisis. Because it’s inevitable.
4. It gives me a ministry.
God puts you on earth, not just to live for yourself, but to help other people. Your greatest ministry will flow out of your weaknesses. The greatest life message, the message that God wants to say to the world through you (what He put you here on earth for), your greatest life message, may come out of your deepest hurt. The very thing that causes you the most grief and pain, God can use in the ministry and can use it as a message for other people to encourage them. The thing you’re most embarrassed about, the thing you’re most ashamed of, the thing you don’t want anybody else to know about, you want to hide it, put in a closet, forget it, push it out of your mind – God wants to use that to encourage other people. Pain makes us more sensitive to the hurts of others.
If you want to have a Christ-like ministry, that means sometimes other people are going to be helped, encouraged and even healed by the wounds in your life. Jesus Christ, received a bunch of wounds in His body and we all benefited from it. You will go through some pains in your life that, if you will admit them, be grateful for them, learn to share them with others (the lessons you’ve learned), others will be benefited by it. It becomes a ministry.
2 Corinthians 1:4 “God comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort those in trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received.” Most people have pain. God comforts us in our problems.
And we can turn around and comfort others with the same comfort we’ve been given. Who could better help somebody who’s going through a divorce, than somebody who’s had a husband or wife walk out on them and leave them for somebody else? They know that sting of rejection. Who could better help somebody who’s just been devastated by unemployment than somebody who’s went through that? Who after 20-30 years of faithful service was canned? Who could better help somebody come out of a gay lifestyle than somebody who was stuck in a gay lifestyle and found freedom? Who could better help somebody with a Down Syndrome child than somebody who had a Down Syndrome child? Who could better minister to a family who’s had a teenage son or daughter go off the deep end, get into drugs, have a teen pregnancy than somebody who went through that very experience themselves?
God never wastes a hurt. God will use the thing in your life that you are most ashamed of, most embarrassed by, most heartbroken over to encourage other people if you’ll learn to admit it, see what God wants to do in it, be healed yourself through it and begin to share it with others.
The real issues is, What are you going to do with your
weaknesses?
What we normally do is deny them, we defend them, we excuse them, we resent them and most of all we hide them – we don’t want anybody to see our weaknesses. Then God comes along and in the Bible, He says, “You know what I want to do with your weaknesses? I want to use them.” “That doesn’t make sense,” we say, “Use my strengths not my weaknesses.” We think God wants to use our strengths: “I can do this. How come I’m always setting on the shelf here. Use my strengths.”
God does use your strengths obviously. But in the book of Isaiah 55, God says, “My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.” I’m smarter than you. He says, “The way you think I should work is often the exact opposite of the way I really work in life” God says, “I don’t want to work around your weaknesses. I don’t want to work in spite of your weaknesses. I want to work through them – through your weaknesses.”
1 Corinthians 1:27 “God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to put wise men to shame and what the world considers weak, in order to put powerful men to shame.” Underline “God purposely chose” and circle “weak”. It’s not by accident. The weaknesses you have in your life, God purposely chose them and God works through weak people. Why? It demonstrates His power.
When I was a kid, I used to think that Samson was this giant, muscle bound hunk – kind of a Jewish Rambo. Bulging biceps. The truth is that Samson was a very ordinary looking guy. The Bible says that when the enemies looked at him they couldn’t figure out why the guy’s so strong. From all appearance, he just looked normal. He was not some beefcake. The Bible tells us that his strength laid not in his muscles but in the Spirit of the Lord. He probably looked more like Conan O’Brien than he did Schwarzenegger. They couldn’t figure out his secret. It wasn’t muscles.
God is not impressed with might. We are, we’re really impressed with strength and might. But the Bible says in Zachariah 4:6 “`It is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord.” God says, “I like to choose and use weak ordinary people because that’s when My glory, My grace, My strength, My power shine through the most effectively.”
That’s good news, really good news, because most of us are not extraordinary people. We don’t have bodies like the models. We don’t have extraordinary intellect. We’re just normal, ordinary, average people. God says that’s ok, because I don’t choose to work through natural strength. I choose to work through natural weakness and then My power shines through.”
So this week and in the second half of this message, we’re going to look at how do you not avoid your weaknesses, excuse or resent them, but how does God want to use them in our lives
When I talk about weakness, I’m not talking about sins, character flaws you can change (like overeating, impatience, greed, laziness.) I’m not talking about things you can change.
Weakness is any limitation in my life that I inherited or I cannot change.
There are all kinds of limitations like that.
There are circumstantial limitations that you were born with, that you don’t have any control over that you can’t change – disadvantages, problems, external pressures that you can’t control.
There are financial limitations when you don’t have enough money. Have you ever had unexpected expenses that weren’t your fault? Sure.
There are relational limitations. Some in this world really have a heart for God but their spouse is spiritually apathetic. They don’t care about the Lord. Maybe they’re not even a believer and that’s a limitation in your life. Or you have a difficult child or difficult children or a rebellious child. Or you have a handicapped parent. Something in your life that you either inherited or you cannot control that causes pain in your life.
There are emotional limitations. Some of us have a tendency, a predisposition, to get depressed. It’s in your nature. That’s no sin, just your nature. Some of us have a tendency, a predisposition, to worry about everything. Some of us have a tendency, or predisposition, to lose our temper and get angry. Or to be fearful. It is the natural inclination. When we make bad choices, we give in to that.
We have talent limitations. There are some things you just cannot do and you never will be able to do. Jesus said there are one talent people, and five talent people and ten talent people.
And of course, we have physical limitations. You have a certain amount of energy and no matter how much you work out you’re never going to have more energy than that, given your physique, your make-up. Maybe you deal with a
handicap or bad back, or some other kind of physical limitation in your life.
All of these things, God says, He purposely chose. Why? 2 Corinthians 4:7 “We have this treasure from God, but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure. This shows the great power is from God not from us.” God says, “I put my treasure of wisdom and joy and salvation in you, in your body, but your body is just a clay pot,” and a lot of our bodies are just cracked pots. The thing about clay pots is they break easily. If you drop a clay pot, it breaks. It’s not indestructible. Every clay pot has inherited design faults and flaws in it. It is weak, it is not indestructible. Paul was saying, “Yes, I’m a Christian and God’s in my life but I’m not indestructible. I’m a human being. My body is a clay pot so I have weaknesses in it.” It says that God chooses to do this because it shows the great power in our lives is from God and not from ourselves. God puts His greatest gifts in ordinary containers – like you, like me. Some think, “God could never use me in a great way. I’m just an ordinary person.” You’re the kind of person God uses. He puts His greatest gifts in ordinary containers. He takes ordinary, weak people and uses them in extraordinary ways.
We’re going to look at how can I use my weaknesses?
The Bible says there are three steps. (2 this week)
1. ADMIT MY WEAKNESSES
(vid) That’s obviously the starting point. That means I stop pretending I’ve got it all together. Because I don’t. Nobody has it all together. It means that I stop hoping that my weaknesses will go away if I just ignore them. Out of sight, out of mind. If I pretend they’re not there, maybe they’ll go away. They won’t. It means I stop making excuses for my weaknesses. It means I stop blaming other people for my weaknesses. It means I stop denying that I’ve got them and stop defending them. I just admit I have weaknesses. Nobody has it altogether!
You may be an entrepreneur – small business owners or large corporation owners. This is really the secret of building any effective organization. You first sit down and figure out, What am I good at? What are my strengths? And you start building on your strengths. But you also look at - What are my weaknesses? What am I not good at? What am I really bad at? Then you start hiring people who compensate for your weaknesses. That’s how you build a great team.
That’s what we’re doing here @ FOCUS* I have tried to gather people on our staff who are smarter than me in different areas. Together we compensate for our weaknesses. We don’t all try to be the same kind of person.
Warning: Because God wants you to admit your weaknesses, sometimes He has to bring something into our lives to get us to admit them. That is called a crisis. A crisis is a weakness identifier. When you go through a crisis it says, “Here’s the fault in my life, the failure in my life, the lack, the weakness, the weak spot.” My advice is: Don’t wait. It’s far less painful to identify your weaknesses and admit them up front than having to go through crisis after crisis for God to get you to admit, “I’m not God. You are and I’m not.”
Once you have admitted your weakness you go to step two.
2. I MUST BE GRATEFUL FOR MY WEAKNESSES
You say, “You’ve got to be kidding! I want to come to church and I want you to tell me how to take a magic pill to get rid of all my weaknesses. I don’t want you to tell me to be grateful for them. I want to know how to be freed from them all.” God says, “I want you to learn to be grateful for your weaknesses.” 2 Cor. 12:9 “I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses.” I love that phrase, “cheerfully made up my mind.” He says, “… because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ.”
Paul’s saying, instead of wasting your time posturing yourself constantly like you’ve got it all together, I am confident, I am composed, and most important I want everybody to think I am in control. He says, since everybody knows that’s not true anyway, instead of posturing yourself and wearing a mask, why don’t you just stop, admit your weaknesses and start focusing on God’s power and realize a deeper
experience of the power of Christ.
I’ve been a Christian for many years. I’ve been around alot of believers and I would say most Christians have never experienced a deeper experience of the power of Christ. Why? Because they haven’t admitted their weaknesses and they haven’t grasped a grateful attitude for them.
I love this verse in the Living Bible, “I’m glad to be a living demonstration of Christ’s power instead of showing off my own power and abilities.” Paul says instead of resenting my weaknesses I’m glad and I’m grateful for them. Why in the world would anybody do that? There are many benefits. You don’t realize it but the weaknesses, the limitations that you inherited and can’t control are actually blessing in disguise.
Four benefits:
1. It guarantees God’s help.
When I have weaknesses in my life, that guarantees God’s help. This next week, when you attempt to face any challenge or solve any problem on your own power, God says, “I’ll step back and watch. Be My guest. Go ahead and do it. If you think you can handle this on your own, great. If you think you can solve that problem at work, if you think you can make that marriage hang together, if you think you can turn that kid around on your own power, be My guest.” And He stands back and watches. “If you think you can pull yourself out of that financial low, go right ahead.” But the moment you come to God and say, “God, I’m weak. I don’t have what it takes for all the pressures that are on in my life, I don’t have what it takes. God, I need You.” God says, “I knew that. I just wanted you to realize it.” Then He plugs you into His power and you realize a deeper experience of God’s power and find power you would never have on your own to make it, to not only survive but to thrive in life.
2 Corinthians 12:10, God says “I am with you. That’s all you need.” We could stop right here and go home because that’s all you need to hear this week. God says, “No matter what you go through this next week, I’m going to be with you and I’m all you need.” You may have a major happenings going on this week - Some of you have a problem you have to solve this week. You have a conflict maybe at home, at work, at school. You need to resolve it this week. You’ve got a difficulty that seems insurmountable. All you need to know is two things. God says, “I’m with you. And that’s all you need.” We don’t usually realize that God is all we need until God is all we’ve got. What happens is, God intentionally allows everything else to fall apart. All those props and gimmicks and all those things that give you safety and all those relationships you think you need to prop you up, all of a sudden go by the wayside. And God is all you have. When God is all you have, you turn to him and realize He’s all you needed in the first place. One plus God equals a majority. If God’s on my side, who can be against me.
God says, “I want to teach you this week that I’m with you and that’s all you need.” Paul says “So when I am weak, then I am strong. In fact, the less I have, the more I depend on Him.” This is a lesson that I have to learn over and over and over. And so do you. We have short-term memory when it comes to this. We’re in a tight financial situation and God comes through with flying colors and bales us out and helps us through it and then the next day we’re acting like an atheist again. We forget how many times He’s worked in our lives. He’s been there. He’s helped us. He’s made it through the situation. We forget. We have to learn this lesson over and over. We naturally resent our limitations.
When there’s something in my life that I’ve inherited and I can’t control it but it causes pain in my life (emotionally, physically, spiritually – any other way) my reaction is “Why me, God? I’m a good guy. I’m trying to live for You. Why did You allow this?”
God says “My power shows up best in weak people.” If that’s true, why should God take away your weaknesses? You know the thing you’ve been praying about – “God, please take this away!” and He hasn’t done it, it’s probably a weakness. God’s saying, “My power shows up best in your weakness. Why in the world would I take it away?” If you didn’t have any weaknesses in your life, if you could solve every problem and meet any need instantly, how much would you depend on God? Zip! Not at all. You’d think you were God. If you could meet every need and solve every problem, you’d think you were God. “I’m invincible! I’m the master of my faith” God says, “No, you’re not. You’re a human being. I made you and I love you and I created you and in your weakness, that’s where My power shows up strongest.”
2. It prevents arrogance.
2 Cor. 12:7 “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassing great revelations, it was given to me a thorn in my flesh.” What is a thorn? He said, “I have a thorn in my flesh to keep me from getting arrogant.” God blessed his life so much. He’d learned so many things. He’d had so many great revelations from God. (He got to write most of the New Testament.) God gave him a thorn.
What is a thorn? It is a weakness. It is a limitation I’ve inherited or cannot change that causes me pain and limits my ministry. He says this was given to him as a reminder. If Paul could have changed it, he would have. In fact, the Bible says he prayed three times, “God, take this away.” And God said, “I’m not going to do it because My grace is sufficient for you.” That thing you’ve been praying, “God take this away in my life,” and He hasn’t, it may be a thorn.
It may be your thorn.
Thorns are given by God so they’re not sins. God doesn’t give sin. If thorns were sin and you prayed, “God, take it away,”
He would. Because God always removes sin. So we’re not talking about some sin in your life.
Some thorns are temporary in our lives. Some thorns are removed gradually. Some you have for a lifetime, as with Paul.
What does a thorn do in my life? It’s that persistent perplexity that causes me pain, that gets my attention, keeps me dependent upon God, keeps me humble before Him. It acts as a governor on my life. It guides and directs me and it
motivates me.
It’s my thorn. (migraines; cant talk, cant breath) I’ve asked God to take it away but He hasn’t. But the greatest pain in my life has also been the greatest blessing in my life because it’s kept me dependent upon God. It’s kept me close to Him.
If God is ever going to use you in a great way, expect a thorn. He will do it to get your attention.
It may not be a physical thing like mine. It may be a relational, emotional, some other kind of thorn. But it will come because it prevents arrogance and it guarantees God’s help.
3. It causes me to value others.
One of the dangers of strength is that it breeds an independent spirit. If I don’t have any weaknesses in my life, I tend to think, “I don’t need anybody!” I don’t need to be in a small group. I don’t need any close relationships. I don’t need you. I’ve got it all together.” But God made us to value each other. He wants us to value each other. So nobody gets all the gifts. Nobody gets all the pieces of the puzzle. You need other people to complete the puzzle in your life.
One of the biggest lies in our society is that significance is the same thing as prominence but it’s not. Significance is not prominence. In our society, we tend to think if you’re well known then what you have to say is very important. But you can be a celebrity and be living a totally trivial life. Just because you’re well known or prominent does not mean you’re important in the whole scheme of life. A celebrity is not necessarily a hero. Too often we confuse that in our society. We think if you’re well known then you’re a hero. No you’re not.
You may have some very prominent features physically (eyes, great smile, cute nose) But they’re not very significant. You could lose your nose and live the rest of your life it may prominent; but it’s not significant. On the other hand, there’s some things like a spleen, a liver, both kidneys. They’re not seen, not prominent at all, but they’re far more significant. We can’t live without those things.
The Bible says, “Some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are really the most necessary.” That’s true in the body of Christ. God allows each of us to have weaknesses, so that all the parts will recognize their need for each other. “The hand can’t say to the foot, `I don’t need you.’ And the eye can’t say to the ear, `I don’t need you.’” We need each other. God allows us to have weaknesses so we see the value of other people.
You make a strong rope, not by making one solid cord. That breaks pretty easy. You make a strong rope by putting a lot of strands together – a lot of strands of weak cords. When you take a lot of weak cords and put them all together, you’ve got a pretty strong rope.
You’re pretty weak and I’m pretty weak, but together we can do stuff that nobody thinks is possible otherwise. That’s the value of unity. That’s the value of church family. A person without a church family is a weakling. You don’t have any other support. All you have is your part of the puzzle. You don’t have all the other pieces. I’m not talking about just coming to church, listening to the sermon and going on out. I’m talking about getting involved, developing relationships, getting in a community group, so that when a crisis hits your life there’s somebody there to support you. And you’re there to help others when they go through crisis. Because it’s inevitable.
4. It gives me a ministry.
God puts you on earth, not just to live for yourself, but to help other people. Your greatest ministry will flow out of your weaknesses. The greatest life message, the message that God wants to say to the world through you (what He put you here on earth for), your greatest life message, may come out of your deepest hurt. The very thing that causes you the most grief and pain, God can use in the ministry and can use it as a message for other people to encourage them. The thing you’re most embarrassed about, the thing you’re most ashamed of, the thing you don’t want anybody else to know about, you want to hide it, put in a closet, forget it, push it out of your mind – God wants to use that to encourage other people. Pain makes us more sensitive to the hurts of others.
If you want to have a Christ-like ministry, that means sometimes other people are going to be helped, encouraged and even healed by the wounds in your life. Jesus Christ, received a bunch of wounds in His body and we all benefited from it. You will go through some pains in your life that, if you will admit them, be grateful for them, learn to share them with others (the lessons you’ve learned), others will be benefited by it. It becomes a ministry.
2 Corinthians 1:4 “God comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort those in trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received.” Most people have pain. God comforts us in our problems.
And we can turn around and comfort others with the same comfort we’ve been given. Who could better help somebody who’s going through a divorce, than somebody who’s had a husband or wife walk out on them and leave them for somebody else? They know that sting of rejection. Who could better help somebody who’s just been devastated by unemployment than somebody who’s went through that? Who after 20-30 years of faithful service was canned? Who could better help somebody come out of a gay lifestyle than somebody who was stuck in a gay lifestyle and found freedom? Who could better help somebody with a Down Syndrome child than somebody who had a Down Syndrome child? Who could better minister to a family who’s had a teenage son or daughter go off the deep end, get into drugs, have a teen pregnancy than somebody who went through that very experience themselves?
God never wastes a hurt. God will use the thing in your life that you are most ashamed of, most embarrassed by, most heartbroken over to encourage other people if you’ll learn to admit it, see what God wants to do in it, be healed yourself through it and begin to share it with others.
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