Story of attempting High Dive at YMCA
Sometimes it seems that the challenges that lay in front of us
seem so overwhelming and I don’t know about you but I don’t have that natural courage DNA where you just step right out there all the time.
But I do think life has a strange way of putting us on this certain course of action where our only option is to move forward or crawl backwards.
I wander how many of us have found ourselves paralyzed
We hear and read these great stories of human courage and heroism and then we find ourselves in this moment of opportunity and we are paralyzed w/ fear and self-doubt.
Sometimes we think people who live extraordinary lives are made of a different material than us, but the truth of the matter is we’re all made of the same material - it’s what we do with that material that matters.
If our birth is like the sunrise and our death like the sunset, then in-between we’re all just chasing daylight. And one of the characteristics of a person who seizes the power of every moment, who unleashes their full potential of their life
is that they have an ‘Advance Mentality’
They Go until they get a No
and no matter how much self-doubt... fear... or how overwhelmed they are by the obstacles and circumstances,
they still move forward and jump!
This is where Jonathan was, standing on the diving board
1 Sam. 14:6-13
If you’re reading this story with just simple objectivity you’re thinking these guys are insane, what do you mean let them see you?! That’s not really a good idea.
Let’s not do that - let’s attack while their asleep, or drunk, or less motivated - let’s do everything we can to leverage our advantage, let’s use some sort of military strategy.
But not Jonathan - let’s move out of the invisible into the visible, let’s go to the point of no return.
B/c if we’re really going to seize this moment we need to get to a place where only God can see us thru.
And then he adds to the insanity by saying, “If they say stay where you are, then we’ll stay here and die like men.
But if they say, “Come up to us” then that will be sign to us that the Lord has delivered them into out hands.
And that’s what happens - go out - they see- they call them up - and Jon says there it is man, there it is, that’s what we’ve been looking for.
You’re thinking the A.B. must think he’s nuts but not at all -
Jon has this ‘Advance Mentality’ to move forward -
He says, if were called UP into the danger.
You move forward unless God tells you to stop.
You advance unless God tells you to wait.
There are certain things that you do not not need permission to do them. You’ve already been commissioned to do them. There are certain things you do not need a calling to do. You’ve already been commanded to do them.
What are some of those things? (groups)
Much of our religious language has been focused on the don’ts rather than the do’s. In the same way we act as if the primary word from God is stop when it’s actually GO.
By the way, what’s the 1st word of the Great Comm.
Too many divine opportunities are lost b/c we keep waiting for a word when the word has already been given.
For Jon wait was the kiss of death, and come was the sign of God. Wait made much more sense & took much less effort.
Come implied increased effort and danger. Which leads to an important question, ‘What kind of sign are u looking 4?’
Jon was moving forward in alignment w/ the purpose of God, and the challenge to advance was the affirmation of God’s hand and blessing. He wasn’t sitting around waiting for a sign. He moved forward in everything he knew to do.
Remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about, ‘most of the time FAITH is moving forward in what we already know”
remember school dances - getting turned down, or asking for girls phone # and being told no - remember all those times you’ve been turned down or told NO?
I think alot of us have this ‘Spiritual Muscle Memory’ of failures, and disappointments, humiliations, and rejections of the GIANT NO’s of life... and when we enter into this relationship w/ Christ and we try to put all the pieces back together of what our lives are supposed to look like and what it means to follow Christ -
we think God is up there monitoring us saying, NO, NO, NO
But He’s really saying, GO - I want you to move forward.
It’s not about permission, it’s about our mission.
Once you have a mission, you don’t need permission, b/c you have a mandate. God has it built in.
It’s an included upgrade. (ei by the Lord...)
Jon was a taunting Phill. warrior. The only sign he needed was that God’s will be done, and he was in position to do it.
What would happen if we changed our way of thinking?
If we heard the 1st word in the Great Comm., GO, as all the permission we needed to do the will of God.
How would life be different if we worked from a giant YES, rather than a giant NO?
Every Christ follower has the prime directive of representing HIM on this earth. We are all called to be witnesses. We are all commissioned to make disciples. We are given the assignment of serving. We are all commanded to love not only God, but our neighbors as ourselves. (not about, mission)
Ever been stuck in traffic? Maybe in a hurry, running late. There’s just one car in front of you and the light. You’re watching the light with this amazing intensity waiting for it to change from red to green - it seems to take forever, but it does and you let your foot off the brake and are ready to punch the gas when you notice the car in front of you is
totally unaware that she has permission to go.
Instead of looking forward, she is fixed on her own image in the rearview mirror. Remember what you were thinking?
(Don’t say that out loud) ‘Move lady, you waiting for me to turn green?’ ‘It doesn’t get any greener than this’
Do you ever wander if that’s what God is thinking about us sometimes?
B/c sometimes we waste precious time, precious moments, extraordinary opportunities b/c we keep waiting for God to invite us when He has already made it quite clear to GO.
In the whole description of this battle, there’s got to be one verse that’s so important, so critical there’s no way it could be omitted from the scriptures.
I know sometimes this Book seems really big, but if you think about it, if this is the primary document of God’s conversation w/ humanity it’s really small - so every line, every verse,
every space, every word would be so important.
So then you have v.13 - one of the most profound and insightful verses in all the bible -
“Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet”
That’s really helpful, aren’t you glad God took space up to tell us that? You know b/c w/out that I would’ve imagined Jon
climbed up using his upper lip.
“Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet”
Thank you Samuel, that was very important -
or well maybe it is?
When we want to move forward and allow God to use us in extraordinary ways we expect God to sorta be the wind beneath our wings - the only problem is, we don’t have wings. So it just becomes a wind beneath.
See what we don’t realize many times is what God is really wanting us to do is to start climbing w/ our hands and feet.
The life God calls us to doesn’t just happen magically, that God calls us to advance, and sometimes it’s a painful, difficult struggle of climbing upward.
To move to that place where God can do His greatest work
in and thru our lives.
What signs are you looking for?
I think quite often we look for the easiest sign - you know
This must be a sign b/c it’s more money, this must be a sign b/c she said YES, it’s gotta be God’s will b/c this is the path that’s working the easiest.
And yet sometimes that’s the very path God wants us to walk away from - He wants us to choose the path that makes us climb up with our hands and feet - it can be difficult, and challenging, and hard, and some suffering, and maybe
sacrifice. Have you ever gone thru a difficult trial or tragedy, or some sort of misfortune in life and come out of it on the other side just amazed and in AWE of how incredible, and loving and merciful God really is.
Jonathan’s sign came in the midst of action.
We’ve got it all mixed up. We think our signs that God is w/ us is that we’ve got safety. So we sit around and wait.
I think alot of us have a ‘retreat mentality’
Think about it - how far away are you from people who may need you tomorrow? What is the relational distance between you and your co-workers or family or friends?
What if we took on an ‘Advance mentality’ in relationship to our relationships? It’s not about trying to shove Jesus down people’s throat or preaching to them all the time.
It’s just about caring about people enough that whether they believe in God or not you would be in close proximity for the moments they need someone - and that someone would be you.
And if we are there to love and to serve and to help, then maybe, just maybe that might be the best proof of God in their life.
What would happen if all of us in here took on an ‘Advance mentality’ in every arena of our lives and understood that God was saying, GO rather than NO.
Have you ever read Is. 6 - it’s a conversation between God and Is., but it’s even bigger than that - it’s a convo between God and humanity:
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said,
"Here am I. Send me!" Is. 6:8
Alot of us keep hoping or thinking God might pick us (like Amer. Idol or something) when God has already invited us.
You may be here today and all your life you’ve heard NO
and if you’re gonna listen to everyone around you you’re gonna think you have no capacity to accomplish anything extraordinary - that’s why it’d be better to listen to GOD.
Even though He’s the One that sees us in our worst moments, He’s the One that sees us in our most greedy, self-centered, Self-indulgent moments. He’s the One that sees us in our most broken, shattered, devastated moments, He’s the One that sees us in our most sinful and destructive moments. He’s also the One who sees us with all the capacity within each of us. And He knows how to nurture that, and grow it, and unleash it!
Maybe you’re tired of waiting to be picked and it’s time to volunteer.
God sees us when everyone else overlooks us, and everyone else under-estimates our God given capacity, God never does. He chooses us, on top of that, He makes this blanket call, “Who will go for us” and God is waiting for us to say,
“Ahhh, Me, if You would take me as a volunteer, I’d love to be a part of something much bigger than me.”
God wants us to take on an, ‘Advance mentality’
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Chasing Daylight - Influence - 'Breath In, Breath Out'
Read 1 Samuel 14:1-7
What a strange response, “Do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart and soul”
Is there anyone that you would say that to in your life right now, if they woke you up in the middle of the night?
What if you're day-dreaming or sitting in front of the tube and someone pitches this outlandish idea, this pursuit, this dream, this ambition, but they need you to succeed, how would you respond?
“You’re out-of-mind or do all that you have in mind”
What if they tell you absolutely God can do it, there’s no doubt He can pull it off, this is a BIG dream,
but God is bigger. Then they throw in, ‘maybe God’ll Help”
You see, all of us are influenced, and all of us are influencers. We’re created as creatures of influence.
Those that influence us the most are the ones we give our heart and soul to.
Everybody inhale - deep breath (don’t pass out)
All of us are created to influence others
Everybody exhale - we are all created to influence others
Inhale - we’re all shaped by the lives around us, other values and passions, and their character
Exhale - We all affect the lives around us by our values, passions, and character.
Life is about inhaling and exhaling - life is about influence
We are influenced by others and we influence others
Sometimes that can be a wonderful thing and sometimes that can be a destructive thing, depending on who we are and who they are - let that sink in - who is influencing you - Who are you hanging out with?
Where are you hanging out? Who and where do you spend your extra time?
Who are you influencing?
Sometimes we’re unaware of how much we’ve been
influenced by others until we realize just how much we’re
like them. Some of us have grown up with a relationship of someone we despise. And we said, “I’m never gonna be like him or her” - such as parents maybe, "never gonna be like" -
But you’re still influenced by them b/c you’re running in the polar opposite direction.
In our pursuit to not be like them we still these little tidbits of that person in our lives.
Sick people influence us - their breathing out - we’re breathing in
We exhale into people’s lives and vice-versa, and we are
influenced by those we are in close proximity to - I guess
you could say we all have our own unique aroma
My wife has a nose like a basset hound, not in shape, but by the way she can smell things. We can walk into the house, and she’ll say, ‘What’s that smell?” I dont know -
“Something’s burning” I thought that was dinner, I dont know.
CANDLES
As we live our lives, we spend our lives inhaling.
Sometimes we have no idea what we’re breathing in, we’re oblivious to what is affecting our lives.
Jonathan had a moment where he knew he could not
influence his father, but he could influence a friend.
Have you ever felt you lacked the power to bring change?
That’s how Jonathan felt. He could not change or sway his father so it says he didn’t tell him. Now,
this is not a passage of disrespect, “I don’t have to listen to authority”
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26
- but the bible is clear that living a life for God may mean going against the norm, to walk away from all the influences may be holding you back,
causing you to live a life that is less than God would have for you.
That’s where Jonathan was, so he asked his A.B. - you may think that’s not much, you may feel the same way, I don’t have much, I have a limited amount of influence.
So we need to ask ourselves, “Who in your life are you investing in?”
In that critical moment that you need help, you need others to join you in this incredible journey that God has for you.
Who would look at you and say, “Do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart and soul”
Ironically this is one of those places where if you chose to be neutral you lose your potential. (initiative)
You may not be a bad person, you may be a pretty good guy, you might be a very nice human being, you may be one of those who has no known enemies in the world.
But ironically that may the very same description of a person who has no influence.
Hitler had great influence - a person in this world right now who holds no office, has no nation to lead and yet Osama Bin Laden is shaping the course of present times.
If only influence was restricted to those wanting to do good, but it’s not. So here’s the dilemma, so many of us want to live in character neutral.
Which is exactly where those 600 unnamed indiv. in 1 Sam. 14 chose to live.
There are a number of Christ-followers, Christians, who are in character-neutral.
We don’t want to do anything bad, and yet we are not putting forth this effort to influence the world with any good either.
I’m not talking about shaping political systems or institutions, but I’m talking about having the kind of character that
illuminates and draws other people to your life and reshapes their values and life course by who you are.
Alot of us Christ-followers can find ourselves as just inhalers.
We’re always breathing in - church, worship, study the word, around other believers, just taking in.
Just take a deep breath and hold it.... breath and hold it...
breath and hold it... eventually just breathing in becomes unhealthy.
story: airplane - what to do in case of loss of cabin pressure.
(mask doesn’t drop - asks wife - she says, ‘get your own’ - He says, ‘share’ - ‘No, you’ll be alright’)
This is the way so many of us are in way of relationship to J.C. - If Jesus is everything we say He is, how is it we can spend our lives just inhaling and when there are people all around us suffocating to death
w/out life, w/out love. w/out hope, w/out God, we say, ‘get your own’.
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
Jonathan leans over to his A.B., ‘let’s go’ - the response,
‘do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart & soul’
This is where it begins - by making a conscious decision of letting God become the primary Influencer of your life.
Where you’re breathing in Jesus
This is how Paul told it to Timothy:
Here is just one good reason to spend time inhaling the scriptures - this is the primary way God influences us
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Ti. 3:16
You see it not meeting some sort of quota, God is not checking to see if you spent enough time reading, it is not that you are fulfilling some kind of mandate -
It is that God is longing to breath into your life and mine.
As we inhale Him it changes our character...
How did God put life into Adam? Gen. 2:7 says, ‘God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living being.’
Ezekiel 37 - dry bones
Job said in ch. 33, ‘the breath of the Almighty gives me life.’
As we inhale Him it changes our character...
and then we can exhale God to the lives of others.
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
So who’s life are you investing in right now?
Who would look to you and say, ‘do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart and soul?
None of us are powerless. We are all influenced by others and we all have the capacity to influence others.
When we allow God to change our lives, to shape our
character, to influence us, when we breath in deeply of God, the natural response when you inhale is to exhale.
Sometimes we feel apprehensive b/c well you don’t want to impose your beliefs or life on other people - but consider this
Is it possible that you’re gonna run into this week, that your life will intersect w/ someone who has just hit bottom?
They can’t find enough strength, energy, or enthusiasm to continue, someone who’s questioning everything.
It is not about trying to impose your beliefs or God, listen, never try to force anyone into anything.
How about we allow God to shape us in such a way that others want to inhale of our lives.
Jon. to A.B. A.B. to Jon.
Let’s begin to live our lives in such a way that others are compelled to go wherever we might be going.
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
It’s something we do every minute of everyday, maybe it’s something we need to do more consciously so we can begin to give our lives away.
What a strange response, “Do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart and soul”
Is there anyone that you would say that to in your life right now, if they woke you up in the middle of the night?
What if you're day-dreaming or sitting in front of the tube and someone pitches this outlandish idea, this pursuit, this dream, this ambition, but they need you to succeed, how would you respond?
“You’re out-of-mind or do all that you have in mind”
What if they tell you absolutely God can do it, there’s no doubt He can pull it off, this is a BIG dream,
but God is bigger. Then they throw in, ‘maybe God’ll Help”
You see, all of us are influenced, and all of us are influencers. We’re created as creatures of influence.
Those that influence us the most are the ones we give our heart and soul to.
Everybody inhale - deep breath (don’t pass out)
All of us are created to influence others
Everybody exhale - we are all created to influence others
Inhale - we’re all shaped by the lives around us, other values and passions, and their character
Exhale - We all affect the lives around us by our values, passions, and character.
Life is about inhaling and exhaling - life is about influence
We are influenced by others and we influence others
Sometimes that can be a wonderful thing and sometimes that can be a destructive thing, depending on who we are and who they are - let that sink in - who is influencing you - Who are you hanging out with?
Where are you hanging out? Who and where do you spend your extra time?
Who are you influencing?
Sometimes we’re unaware of how much we’ve been
influenced by others until we realize just how much we’re
like them. Some of us have grown up with a relationship of someone we despise. And we said, “I’m never gonna be like him or her” - such as parents maybe, "never gonna be like" -
But you’re still influenced by them b/c you’re running in the polar opposite direction.
In our pursuit to not be like them we still these little tidbits of that person in our lives.
Sick people influence us - their breathing out - we’re breathing in
We exhale into people’s lives and vice-versa, and we are
influenced by those we are in close proximity to - I guess
you could say we all have our own unique aroma
My wife has a nose like a basset hound, not in shape, but by the way she can smell things. We can walk into the house, and she’ll say, ‘What’s that smell?” I dont know -
“Something’s burning” I thought that was dinner, I dont know.
CANDLES
As we live our lives, we spend our lives inhaling.
Sometimes we have no idea what we’re breathing in, we’re oblivious to what is affecting our lives.
Jonathan had a moment where he knew he could not
influence his father, but he could influence a friend.
Have you ever felt you lacked the power to bring change?
That’s how Jonathan felt. He could not change or sway his father so it says he didn’t tell him. Now,
this is not a passage of disrespect, “I don’t have to listen to authority”
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26
- but the bible is clear that living a life for God may mean going against the norm, to walk away from all the influences may be holding you back,
causing you to live a life that is less than God would have for you.
That’s where Jonathan was, so he asked his A.B. - you may think that’s not much, you may feel the same way, I don’t have much, I have a limited amount of influence.
So we need to ask ourselves, “Who in your life are you investing in?”
In that critical moment that you need help, you need others to join you in this incredible journey that God has for you.
Who would look at you and say, “Do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart and soul”
Ironically this is one of those places where if you chose to be neutral you lose your potential. (initiative)
You may not be a bad person, you may be a pretty good guy, you might be a very nice human being, you may be one of those who has no known enemies in the world.
But ironically that may the very same description of a person who has no influence.
Hitler had great influence - a person in this world right now who holds no office, has no nation to lead and yet Osama Bin Laden is shaping the course of present times.
If only influence was restricted to those wanting to do good, but it’s not. So here’s the dilemma, so many of us want to live in character neutral.
Which is exactly where those 600 unnamed indiv. in 1 Sam. 14 chose to live.
There are a number of Christ-followers, Christians, who are in character-neutral.
We don’t want to do anything bad, and yet we are not putting forth this effort to influence the world with any good either.
I’m not talking about shaping political systems or institutions, but I’m talking about having the kind of character that
illuminates and draws other people to your life and reshapes their values and life course by who you are.
Alot of us Christ-followers can find ourselves as just inhalers.
We’re always breathing in - church, worship, study the word, around other believers, just taking in.
Just take a deep breath and hold it.... breath and hold it...
breath and hold it... eventually just breathing in becomes unhealthy.
story: airplane - what to do in case of loss of cabin pressure.
(mask doesn’t drop - asks wife - she says, ‘get your own’ - He says, ‘share’ - ‘No, you’ll be alright’)
This is the way so many of us are in way of relationship to J.C. - If Jesus is everything we say He is, how is it we can spend our lives just inhaling and when there are people all around us suffocating to death
w/out life, w/out love. w/out hope, w/out God, we say, ‘get your own’.
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
Jonathan leans over to his A.B., ‘let’s go’ - the response,
‘do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart & soul’
This is where it begins - by making a conscious decision of letting God become the primary Influencer of your life.
Where you’re breathing in Jesus
This is how Paul told it to Timothy:
Here is just one good reason to spend time inhaling the scriptures - this is the primary way God influences us
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Ti. 3:16
You see it not meeting some sort of quota, God is not checking to see if you spent enough time reading, it is not that you are fulfilling some kind of mandate -
It is that God is longing to breath into your life and mine.
As we inhale Him it changes our character...
How did God put life into Adam? Gen. 2:7 says, ‘God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living being.’
Ezekiel 37 - dry bones
Job said in ch. 33, ‘the breath of the Almighty gives me life.’
As we inhale Him it changes our character...
and then we can exhale God to the lives of others.
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
So who’s life are you investing in right now?
Who would look to you and say, ‘do all that you have in mind, I am w/ you heart and soul?
None of us are powerless. We are all influenced by others and we all have the capacity to influence others.
When we allow God to change our lives, to shape our
character, to influence us, when we breath in deeply of God, the natural response when you inhale is to exhale.
Sometimes we feel apprehensive b/c well you don’t want to impose your beliefs or life on other people - but consider this
Is it possible that you’re gonna run into this week, that your life will intersect w/ someone who has just hit bottom?
They can’t find enough strength, energy, or enthusiasm to continue, someone who’s questioning everything.
It is not about trying to impose your beliefs or God, listen, never try to force anyone into anything.
How about we allow God to shape us in such a way that others want to inhale of our lives.
Jon. to A.B. A.B. to Jon.
Let’s begin to live our lives in such a way that others are compelled to go wherever we might be going.
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
Everybody inhale, now exhale -
It’s something we do every minute of everyday, maybe it’s something we need to do more consciously so we can begin to give our lives away.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Chasing Daylight - Uncertainity - 'Know you don't Know'
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
1 Samuel 14:2-6
I love the 2nd half of Jonathan's encouragement to his armor
“The Lord is able to save whether we are many or few”
Summarized: Me and God are a majority - If God is for you who can be against you -
It’s the stuff we love to put on t-shirts, bumper stickers, frig. magnets... encouragement's - the kind of sayings that inspire us - but Jonathan says something just b4 that incredible encouragement - he says something I think we like to pass right by - “Perhaps the Lord will save us”
That’s not that encouraging is it?
You'd think the Armor bearer's response would be:
“Wake me when you know” “I’m with you when HE’S w/ you”
( so often we seek out this security from God that we believe is necessary to live life to the fullest. Sometimes it can
actually become the greatest deterrent to seizing our divine moments)
Have you ever been around someone who knows everything
They know all the answers, they have an opinion about everything, they’re always right, have you ever been around a know it all? Do you like those people? Probably don’t enjoy them that much, unless ofcourse you are that people.
Now it’s funny how we don’t like people who think they know it all yet sometimes in relationship to J.C. we think were
supposed to act like we know it all.
Alot of people out there are searching for God - is it possible they don’t like us b/c we come across as know-it-alls.
We do this I think b/c we want to let them in on what we know FOR CERTAIN, when in reality the greatest convo’s come when we let them in on what we don’t know.
Life is filled w/ Uncertainty -
(keys - bathroom key w/ handle -
have some keys don’t know what door or lock it goes to - doors in life we’re uncertain where the key is to open it -)
We really have no idea what we’re going to face each day - we have a schedule laid out for the day, and the in-suing days and weeks, but that doesn’t tell us we’re getting in a car crash at 11:03am or 9/11 -
We have no control over when or how we’re going to die,
but we do have control over how we live.
Jonathan was certain about some things, and yet at the same time he was able to operate in the realm of uncertainity - he called to to A.B., “"Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf.” - You gotta love it - basically he was saying, ‘Let’s go pick a fight. Maybe God will help.’
Jonathan understood that not everything was guaranteed.
That you don’t have to wait til all the money is in the bank.
There are some things that you can know and some things that you will not know. So he says,
“Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few."
He had such a clear perspective on reality.
What he knew for certain was that God was powerful enough to get the job done, as difficult the odds appeared to be,
he would still move in line w/ God’s mission for them.
Long b4 God had spoken to Israel thru Samuel,
“And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, "If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will
deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." 1 Sam. 7:3
Jonathan knew for certain that God was going to deliver,
his focus was not, ‘what is God’s will for my life? but...
‘how can i give my life to fulfill God’s will?’
He had no certainty of his own well being, only that he was moving in line with will and heart of God.
How about you? (prayer - do what God is blessing)
Are there times in life when we chose not to move forward,
not to seize a moment b/c we are uncertain how it will play out for ourselves?
Sure God is a BIG God, I have no doubt He can and will handle anything for you, but not for me...
Are there times in life when you chose to go back to sleep under the pomegranate tree, willing to set out once
everything is certain? (Chasing Daylight - Initiative)
(contingency plan)
Often we look to the Bible for comfort, assurance, and kind of a ‘how to’ guide, but not courage - we’re willing to engage in the battle if we believe that God has promised ultimate
victory. We have somehow convinced ourselves that God has signed a contract w/ us, promising that we will never fail. Implied that we will never suffer, or go thru disappointment, or even be inconvenienced in the journey.
With our church, I have no doubt that God is calling us to impact this city - it is absolutely clear that Jesus came so He could save the lost. And absolutely God is calling our church to join Him in declaring the gospel to the nations. I know that God is pleased w/ our action - now let’s see what He is going to do in and thru us.
How about in your life?
Jonathan understood that to move w/ God is to accept a life of uncertainties.
The Jonathan factor is expressed when we have absolute confidence in God in the midst of uncertainty
and are willing to move w/ God even w/out a guarantee of personal success.
Uncertainty invigorates Life
One of the wonderful things about about living in the realm of uncertainty is that you find the journey w/ God is full of
surprises. And that’s a Good Thing!
You may think that’s not what you want, “I don’t like surpr..”
But think about this - wouldn’t it be horrible if you knew everything that was going to happen in your life? Movie... no surprise. It’s utterly boring isn’t it - how many times can you laugh at a rerun? Some of you, many.
If you knew everything about your life it would become
tedious, mundane, boring you’d want to kill yourself.
Part of what keeps us alive is the sense of surprise...
anticipation... a sense of AWE.. a sense of mystery, a part of what keeps us alive is the uncertainty that we live in.
We are to live by Faith
The book of Hebrews tells us that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
It doesn’t mean we are presumptuous about God, it means we believe God for everything He promised.
So it’s important to note what God does promise and what He doesn’t. He promises we can be certain about who He is & we can be certain about our relationship in Him, but how the journey plays out is full of uncertainties - the end of the story is not though -
The last chapter of human history has already been written.
Jesus Wins!
And all who follow Him find that they are more than conquerers in Christ Jesus. He defeats death, suffering, evil, sorrow, loneliness, and despair, not to mention the leader of all evil, Satan.
And Jesus told us, “If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.”
He was not saying that you need more faith. He was saying that it takes very little faith to accomplish great things.
In most cases faith is about obeying what God has already spoken.
It is about building our lives and moving forward w/
confidence fueled by a commitment to God’s truth.
At the same time shift our prayers from what can you do for me
to and ask God to give us the courage to do what we already know.
4 This is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: "Seek me and live;5 do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba.
For Gilgal will surely go into exil, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing."
6 Seek the LORD and live, Amos 5:4-6
Here’s the thing about Jonathan - he had no idea whether God would act on his behalf in that particular engagement;
he just knew who God was.
He knew if he would seek God he would live even if he died trying -
Isn’t it ironic that we run to God to keep us safe when He calls us to a dangerous faith.
There is only ONE who is certain; everything else exists in the realm of uncertainty.
Listen, to place our trust in anything other than God is
nothing less than superstition.
(Rac, Shac, & Benny)
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."
Daniel 3:16-18
The door we fear going thru the most may be the very one where we will meet God most profoundly.
We are to Live by Faith
Life is full of uncertainty, which comes mystery... adventure... & wonder.
The J.F. moves us confidently forward into the future when you know that you don’t know.
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
1 Samuel 14:2-6
I love the 2nd half of Jonathan's encouragement to his armor
“The Lord is able to save whether we are many or few”
Summarized: Me and God are a majority - If God is for you who can be against you -
It’s the stuff we love to put on t-shirts, bumper stickers, frig. magnets... encouragement's - the kind of sayings that inspire us - but Jonathan says something just b4 that incredible encouragement - he says something I think we like to pass right by - “Perhaps the Lord will save us”
That’s not that encouraging is it?
You'd think the Armor bearer's response would be:
“Wake me when you know” “I’m with you when HE’S w/ you”
( so often we seek out this security from God that we believe is necessary to live life to the fullest. Sometimes it can
actually become the greatest deterrent to seizing our divine moments)
Have you ever been around someone who knows everything
They know all the answers, they have an opinion about everything, they’re always right, have you ever been around a know it all? Do you like those people? Probably don’t enjoy them that much, unless ofcourse you are that people.
Now it’s funny how we don’t like people who think they know it all yet sometimes in relationship to J.C. we think were
supposed to act like we know it all.
Alot of people out there are searching for God - is it possible they don’t like us b/c we come across as know-it-alls.
We do this I think b/c we want to let them in on what we know FOR CERTAIN, when in reality the greatest convo’s come when we let them in on what we don’t know.
Life is filled w/ Uncertainty -
(keys - bathroom key w/ handle -
have some keys don’t know what door or lock it goes to - doors in life we’re uncertain where the key is to open it -)
We really have no idea what we’re going to face each day - we have a schedule laid out for the day, and the in-suing days and weeks, but that doesn’t tell us we’re getting in a car crash at 11:03am or 9/11 -
We have no control over when or how we’re going to die,
but we do have control over how we live.
Jonathan was certain about some things, and yet at the same time he was able to operate in the realm of uncertainity - he called to to A.B., “"Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf.” - You gotta love it - basically he was saying, ‘Let’s go pick a fight. Maybe God will help.’
Jonathan understood that not everything was guaranteed.
That you don’t have to wait til all the money is in the bank.
There are some things that you can know and some things that you will not know. So he says,
“Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few."
He had such a clear perspective on reality.
What he knew for certain was that God was powerful enough to get the job done, as difficult the odds appeared to be,
he would still move in line w/ God’s mission for them.
Long b4 God had spoken to Israel thru Samuel,
“And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, "If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will
deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." 1 Sam. 7:3
Jonathan knew for certain that God was going to deliver,
his focus was not, ‘what is God’s will for my life? but...
‘how can i give my life to fulfill God’s will?’
He had no certainty of his own well being, only that he was moving in line with will and heart of God.
How about you? (prayer - do what God is blessing)
Are there times in life when we chose not to move forward,
not to seize a moment b/c we are uncertain how it will play out for ourselves?
Sure God is a BIG God, I have no doubt He can and will handle anything for you, but not for me...
Are there times in life when you chose to go back to sleep under the pomegranate tree, willing to set out once
everything is certain? (Chasing Daylight - Initiative)
(contingency plan)
Often we look to the Bible for comfort, assurance, and kind of a ‘how to’ guide, but not courage - we’re willing to engage in the battle if we believe that God has promised ultimate
victory. We have somehow convinced ourselves that God has signed a contract w/ us, promising that we will never fail. Implied that we will never suffer, or go thru disappointment, or even be inconvenienced in the journey.
With our church, I have no doubt that God is calling us to impact this city - it is absolutely clear that Jesus came so He could save the lost. And absolutely God is calling our church to join Him in declaring the gospel to the nations. I know that God is pleased w/ our action - now let’s see what He is going to do in and thru us.
How about in your life?
Jonathan understood that to move w/ God is to accept a life of uncertainties.
The Jonathan factor is expressed when we have absolute confidence in God in the midst of uncertainty
and are willing to move w/ God even w/out a guarantee of personal success.
Uncertainty invigorates Life
One of the wonderful things about about living in the realm of uncertainty is that you find the journey w/ God is full of
surprises. And that’s a Good Thing!
You may think that’s not what you want, “I don’t like surpr..”
But think about this - wouldn’t it be horrible if you knew everything that was going to happen in your life? Movie... no surprise. It’s utterly boring isn’t it - how many times can you laugh at a rerun? Some of you, many.
If you knew everything about your life it would become
tedious, mundane, boring you’d want to kill yourself.
Part of what keeps us alive is the sense of surprise...
anticipation... a sense of AWE.. a sense of mystery, a part of what keeps us alive is the uncertainty that we live in.
We are to live by Faith
The book of Hebrews tells us that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
It doesn’t mean we are presumptuous about God, it means we believe God for everything He promised.
So it’s important to note what God does promise and what He doesn’t. He promises we can be certain about who He is & we can be certain about our relationship in Him, but how the journey plays out is full of uncertainties - the end of the story is not though -
The last chapter of human history has already been written.
Jesus Wins!
And all who follow Him find that they are more than conquerers in Christ Jesus. He defeats death, suffering, evil, sorrow, loneliness, and despair, not to mention the leader of all evil, Satan.
And Jesus told us, “If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.”
He was not saying that you need more faith. He was saying that it takes very little faith to accomplish great things.
In most cases faith is about obeying what God has already spoken.
It is about building our lives and moving forward w/
confidence fueled by a commitment to God’s truth.
At the same time shift our prayers from what can you do for me
to and ask God to give us the courage to do what we already know.
4 This is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: "Seek me and live;5 do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba.
For Gilgal will surely go into exil, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing."
6 Seek the LORD and live, Amos 5:4-6
Here’s the thing about Jonathan - he had no idea whether God would act on his behalf in that particular engagement;
he just knew who God was.
He knew if he would seek God he would live even if he died trying -
Isn’t it ironic that we run to God to keep us safe when He calls us to a dangerous faith.
There is only ONE who is certain; everything else exists in the realm of uncertainty.
Listen, to place our trust in anything other than God is
nothing less than superstition.
(Rac, Shac, & Benny)
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."
Daniel 3:16-18
The door we fear going thru the most may be the very one where we will meet God most profoundly.
We are to Live by Faith
Life is full of uncertainty, which comes mystery... adventure... & wonder.
The J.F. moves us confidently forward into the future when you know that you don’t know.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Unlocking the Da Vinci Code - "Who is Jesus"
This week and last week we are tackling two very important issues brought up in the new movie ‘The Da Vinci Code’.
They are:
1. Can we trust the Bible?
2. Who is Jesus?
Last week we addressed whether or not we could trust the Bible and we investigated some history and archeology to demonstrate the accuracy of the Bible. Based off of what we learned last week, I think it is clear that the Bible is truly God’s un-compromised Word to humankind. Having this understanding, today we are going to address who Jesus was/is according to what we find in the Bible. We are going to have somewhat of a history lesson. I am going to give you information you’ve probably never heard about two stories you may have heard many times. Let’s dive right in.
The Bible refers to a city by the name of Caesarea Philippi. see map
Caesarea Philippi stood only twenty-five miles from the religious communities of Galilee, but the city’s religious practices were vastly different from those of the nearby Jewish towns. The city stood in a lush area near the foot of Mount Hermon. and was the religious center of worship of the Greek god,
Pan. Pan was a fertility God. Originally, the city was actually named Panias in Pan’s honor. In the city there was tall cliff where local people built shrines and temples to Pan.
These shrines, as you see, are still present in the hillside to this day. If you were to travel in this region you could tour the area and actually visit this particular location.
Prior to the time of Christ, the Romans conquered this Greek territory, Pan. The city was quite damaged during it’s capture by the Romans and consequently needed rebuilding. Herod Philip, son to Herod the Great, actually oversaw the rebuilding of the city and at that time named it after himself, which is where we got Caesarea Philippi. Even though the city was then ruled by the Romans, it continued to focus on worship of the Greek gods.
Caesarea Philippi’s location was especially unique because it stood at the base of a cliff where spring water flowed.
Now that is important because at one time, the water ran directly from the mouth of a cave set in the bottom of the cliff. The spring has since stopped flowing, but again, if you tour the cliffside, you can actually explore the cave where the river once flowed from.
The pagans of Jesus’ day commonly believed that their fertility gods lived in the underworld during the winter and returned to earth each spring. They saw water as a symbol of the underworld and thought that their gods traveled to and from that world through caves.
To the pagan mind, then, the cave and spring water at Caesarea Philippi created a gate to the underworld. They believed that their city was literally at the gates of the underworld—the gates of hell. In order to entice the return of their god, Pan, each year, the people of Caesarea Philippi engaged in horrible deeds, including prostitution and sexual interaction between humans and goats.
Interestingly, Jesus chose to take His disciples to this pagan setting. It was toward the end of His time, not long before His arrest when He took his disciples on a trip to Caesarea Philippi. You have to imagine that his disciples were probably pretty shocked that Jesus was taking them to such a place. Any good Jew didn’t travel to this region if at all possible. And here they were, with their Rabbi, following him to a despicable place. Jesus, however, chose this location to challenge His disciples to answer the very question we are asking today.
Matthew 16:13-14
13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
The disciples were up on societies ‘buzz’ about Jesus. They were able to answer his question about what people were saying about him. The ‘Da Vinci Code’ has a lot to say about Jesus.
pg 232 - Nothing in Christianity is original
pg 233 - referring to the council of Nicea, the character Teabing states: Until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet....a great powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.
pg 233 - It’s all about power, Teabing continued. Christ as Messiah was critical to the functioning of the Church and state. Many scholars claim that the early church literally stole Jesus from his early followers, hijacking his human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power.
pg 234 - The twist is this, Teabing sais, talking faster now. “....Constantine upgraded Jesus’ status almost four centuries after his death.
pg 235 - ‘What I mean’, Teabing countered, ‘is that almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.’
So with this book and movie having so much to say about Christ, the question remains the same as it was when Christ himself uttered it. It is a two part question:
1. Who do people say that I am?
You must be familiar with what current culture says about Christ if you want to be a voice of truth to that culture.
2. (and most important) Who do you say that I am?
Matthew 16:15-16
15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,[a] the Son of the living God."
Based on Peter’s confession, Jesus’ responded with a statement that has great significance. He said ‘on this rock I will build my church’. That has always been understood as on the rock or foundation of Peter’s confession. On his faith and proclamation of Christ as Messiah, on that foundation, Christ would build his church. But look at where they were as Christ spoke these words. They were at a place known for it’s shrines, cut into the rock wall at the side of the cliff.
There is great significance in the fact that they were at Caesarea Phillipi when Jesus made this statement. Ray Vander Laan, a Christian Jewish Historian, contends that Jesus was also saying, ‘on this rock, the place that reveres all sorts of evil, even at this place, where humanity is at it’s worst, I won’t turn my back, instead I will build my church and the gates of hell (where the pagan mind believed they were standing) will not prevail against it.’ See Christ didn’t come just for those hanging out in the synagogues and following the appropriate codes of conduct, Christ came for the sinners.
Mark 2:16-18 (The Message)
15-16 ...Jesus and his disciples were at home having supper with a collection of disreputable guests. Unlikely as it seems, more than a few of them had become followers. The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: "What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the riffraff?"
17Jesus, overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I'm here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit."
Jesus came for those represented at the rock and proclaimed, ‘on this rock I will build my church.’
So, in response to the question, ‘who is Jesus?’ I must answer he is the lover of my soul, the One who loves my just as I am. But there is more to that answer. The correct response demands that we have one more quick history lesson.
Just before Jesus’ crucifixion, he rode into Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. This trip into Jerusalem is referred to as his triumphal entry. People laid their own clothes and palm branches on the ground and shouted,
Matthew 21:9 "Hosanna[a] to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"[b] "Hosanna[c] in the highest!
Hosanna simply meaning highest adoration. Also, Jesus rode in on a donkey, a symbol at that time, of royalty. So already, symbolically, the stage is being set to receive Jesus as the Messiah/Savior to the Jews during the Feast of the Passover. What you may not know about the timing of his triumphal entry is that he actually rode into town on the traditional day that the priests were choosing the lamb (picture of lamb) to be sacrificed for the atonement of their sins during passover. Lastly, this very lamb was to be sacrificed at the appointed hour, which for more than a millennium, had been at exactly three in the afternoon. Scripture tells us that Jesus hung on his cross for 6 hours before he finally died. His time of death is noted in three of the four Gospels as being three in the afternoon. So at the same moment that the priests were sacrificing the lamb for the forgiveness of sins of the people, Christ was being sacrificed for the forgiveness of the sins of the world. Coincidence? Not a chance. God did not want there to be a doubt who Jesus was. So now, in response to the question, who is Jesus? I must answer he is the lover of my soul, the One who loves me just as I am, the forgiver of my sins. He is my redeemer, my hope, my joy, my eternal God who grants me the opportunity of eternal life with Him. He is my everything.
John 1:3-5 (The Message)
Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out.
He is life to me. Absolute life. Who is he to you? Is this Jesus the Jesus that you know? The Jesus who is your all, your very source of life itself? It’s who he wants to be for you. It’s who he died to be for you. Your everything. Your answers, your peace, your purpose, your greatest love. That’s who Jesus is to me.
Matthew 16:15-16
15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
They are:
1. Can we trust the Bible?
2. Who is Jesus?
Last week we addressed whether or not we could trust the Bible and we investigated some history and archeology to demonstrate the accuracy of the Bible. Based off of what we learned last week, I think it is clear that the Bible is truly God’s un-compromised Word to humankind. Having this understanding, today we are going to address who Jesus was/is according to what we find in the Bible. We are going to have somewhat of a history lesson. I am going to give you information you’ve probably never heard about two stories you may have heard many times. Let’s dive right in.
The Bible refers to a city by the name of Caesarea Philippi. see map
Caesarea Philippi stood only twenty-five miles from the religious communities of Galilee, but the city’s religious practices were vastly different from those of the nearby Jewish towns. The city stood in a lush area near the foot of Mount Hermon. and was the religious center of worship of the Greek god,
Pan. Pan was a fertility God. Originally, the city was actually named Panias in Pan’s honor. In the city there was tall cliff where local people built shrines and temples to Pan.
These shrines, as you see, are still present in the hillside to this day. If you were to travel in this region you could tour the area and actually visit this particular location.
Prior to the time of Christ, the Romans conquered this Greek territory, Pan. The city was quite damaged during it’s capture by the Romans and consequently needed rebuilding. Herod Philip, son to Herod the Great, actually oversaw the rebuilding of the city and at that time named it after himself, which is where we got Caesarea Philippi. Even though the city was then ruled by the Romans, it continued to focus on worship of the Greek gods.
Caesarea Philippi’s location was especially unique because it stood at the base of a cliff where spring water flowed.
Now that is important because at one time, the water ran directly from the mouth of a cave set in the bottom of the cliff. The spring has since stopped flowing, but again, if you tour the cliffside, you can actually explore the cave where the river once flowed from.
The pagans of Jesus’ day commonly believed that their fertility gods lived in the underworld during the winter and returned to earth each spring. They saw water as a symbol of the underworld and thought that their gods traveled to and from that world through caves.
To the pagan mind, then, the cave and spring water at Caesarea Philippi created a gate to the underworld. They believed that their city was literally at the gates of the underworld—the gates of hell. In order to entice the return of their god, Pan, each year, the people of Caesarea Philippi engaged in horrible deeds, including prostitution and sexual interaction between humans and goats.
Interestingly, Jesus chose to take His disciples to this pagan setting. It was toward the end of His time, not long before His arrest when He took his disciples on a trip to Caesarea Philippi. You have to imagine that his disciples were probably pretty shocked that Jesus was taking them to such a place. Any good Jew didn’t travel to this region if at all possible. And here they were, with their Rabbi, following him to a despicable place. Jesus, however, chose this location to challenge His disciples to answer the very question we are asking today.
Matthew 16:13-14
13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
The disciples were up on societies ‘buzz’ about Jesus. They were able to answer his question about what people were saying about him. The ‘Da Vinci Code’ has a lot to say about Jesus.
pg 232 - Nothing in Christianity is original
pg 233 - referring to the council of Nicea, the character Teabing states: Until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet....a great powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.
pg 233 - It’s all about power, Teabing continued. Christ as Messiah was critical to the functioning of the Church and state. Many scholars claim that the early church literally stole Jesus from his early followers, hijacking his human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power.
pg 234 - The twist is this, Teabing sais, talking faster now. “....Constantine upgraded Jesus’ status almost four centuries after his death.
pg 235 - ‘What I mean’, Teabing countered, ‘is that almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.’
So with this book and movie having so much to say about Christ, the question remains the same as it was when Christ himself uttered it. It is a two part question:
1. Who do people say that I am?
You must be familiar with what current culture says about Christ if you want to be a voice of truth to that culture.
2. (and most important) Who do you say that I am?
Matthew 16:15-16
15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,[a] the Son of the living God."
Based on Peter’s confession, Jesus’ responded with a statement that has great significance. He said ‘on this rock I will build my church’. That has always been understood as on the rock or foundation of Peter’s confession. On his faith and proclamation of Christ as Messiah, on that foundation, Christ would build his church. But look at where they were as Christ spoke these words. They were at a place known for it’s shrines, cut into the rock wall at the side of the cliff.
There is great significance in the fact that they were at Caesarea Phillipi when Jesus made this statement. Ray Vander Laan, a Christian Jewish Historian, contends that Jesus was also saying, ‘on this rock, the place that reveres all sorts of evil, even at this place, where humanity is at it’s worst, I won’t turn my back, instead I will build my church and the gates of hell (where the pagan mind believed they were standing) will not prevail against it.’ See Christ didn’t come just for those hanging out in the synagogues and following the appropriate codes of conduct, Christ came for the sinners.
Mark 2:16-18 (The Message)
15-16 ...Jesus and his disciples were at home having supper with a collection of disreputable guests. Unlikely as it seems, more than a few of them had become followers. The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: "What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the riffraff?"
17Jesus, overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I'm here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit."
Jesus came for those represented at the rock and proclaimed, ‘on this rock I will build my church.’
So, in response to the question, ‘who is Jesus?’ I must answer he is the lover of my soul, the One who loves my just as I am. But there is more to that answer. The correct response demands that we have one more quick history lesson.
Just before Jesus’ crucifixion, he rode into Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. This trip into Jerusalem is referred to as his triumphal entry. People laid their own clothes and palm branches on the ground and shouted,
Matthew 21:9 "Hosanna[a] to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"[b] "Hosanna[c] in the highest!
Hosanna simply meaning highest adoration. Also, Jesus rode in on a donkey, a symbol at that time, of royalty. So already, symbolically, the stage is being set to receive Jesus as the Messiah/Savior to the Jews during the Feast of the Passover. What you may not know about the timing of his triumphal entry is that he actually rode into town on the traditional day that the priests were choosing the lamb (picture of lamb) to be sacrificed for the atonement of their sins during passover. Lastly, this very lamb was to be sacrificed at the appointed hour, which for more than a millennium, had been at exactly three in the afternoon. Scripture tells us that Jesus hung on his cross for 6 hours before he finally died. His time of death is noted in three of the four Gospels as being three in the afternoon. So at the same moment that the priests were sacrificing the lamb for the forgiveness of sins of the people, Christ was being sacrificed for the forgiveness of the sins of the world. Coincidence? Not a chance. God did not want there to be a doubt who Jesus was. So now, in response to the question, who is Jesus? I must answer he is the lover of my soul, the One who loves me just as I am, the forgiver of my sins. He is my redeemer, my hope, my joy, my eternal God who grants me the opportunity of eternal life with Him. He is my everything.
John 1:3-5 (The Message)
Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out.
He is life to me. Absolute life. Who is he to you? Is this Jesus the Jesus that you know? The Jesus who is your all, your very source of life itself? It’s who he wants to be for you. It’s who he died to be for you. Your everything. Your answers, your peace, your purpose, your greatest love. That’s who Jesus is to me.
Matthew 16:15-16
15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Unlocking the Da Vinci Code - "Can We Trust the Bible"
Get this video and more at MySpace.com
In case you haven’t noticed, the Bible is under attack.
• The ACLU is applying continual pressure to have the Ten Commandments removed from courtrooms across the nation.
Teenagers in some public high schools are being told they can’t bring their Bibles to school because of the “separation of church and state.”
• One Florida school is being sued because it dared to teach the Bible as history, not as religious myth.
To: U.S SUPREME COURT
This petition is being written is sorrow due to the crumbling of the foundation of the United States. Because one individual is offended by a symbol that represents the foundation of this country the rest must suffer. One woman in Houston Texas has spent taxpayer’s money on destroying a monument that represents what this county was founded on. GOD. For those who are unaware a Bible was removed from a monument displayed in front of the Harris County Civil Courts Building, 301 Fannin, in Houston Texas. This open Bible was part of a 48-year-old monument erected by the Star of Hope to honor one of its benefactors William S. Mosher. A U.S. District Judge ruled on Aug 10 2004 that displaying the Bible on county property represented an unconstitutional promotion of Christianity by the county and ordered it removed within 10 business days. The woman who sued stated that the display offended non-Christians. The 5th Circuit issued a temporary stay, however on Monday, January 10.2005, the 5th Circuit lifted the stay and the Bible was removed.
It goes without saying that the Bible is ever and always under attack. No other book has been so burned and banned and outlawed. From Roman emperors to communist leaders to college professors, people seem to take it upon themselves to attack God’s book. The most recent example of the validity of the Bible being attacked is found in the best seller and new movie ‘The DaVinci Code’. Now I must say that as a fictional novel I really enjoyed reading this book. It is quite a page turner and from the very beginning it sucks you in. You are on edge to see what could possibly happen next. It’s fascinating, entertaining reading! But here’s the problem. It is a blatant attack on the Word of God. Now I do want to say that there is no way for me to make any kind of assumptions about Dan Brown, the author of the Da Vinci code, and his intentions as he wrote this book. I don’t know his heart. I don’t know that his underlying thoughts while he was writing the book was to cast doubt on the Bible. But I know this, whether Dan Brown intended for this book to be a stumbling block to the faith of countless people or not, Christ’s ultimate enemy, Satan, certainly did. His intentions are clearly stated in
1 Peter 5:8 ‘Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.’
The enemy knows exactly what he’s doing! He is planting seeds of doubt, because if we doubt the validity of the Bible then we doubt it’s message and by default eventually doubt Christ. I’ll tell you where the confusion comes in as you read the book. It’s right in the beginning, just after the acknowledgments, before the book itself even begins. It says this
Read from book
I read the DaVinci code 2 1/2 years ago. I actually hadn’t heard of the book. I had someone bring it to me and say, I read this and it’s a little confusing. Read it and tell me what you think. I’ll tell you what I thought as I read it, I thought I can’t put this thing down, I wonder what will happen next. My next thought was, ‘man this book is going to mess some folks up.’ Fast forward 2 1/2 years and look at the fallout the book has created. Amazing! I found no less than 88 different books that have been written to debunk the contents of this one book. Many wonder what the big deal is all about but as you read the book or watch the movie, as I did this weekend, you realize that The DaVinci Code challenges the most fundamental basic teaching of the entire New Testament. So the issue becomes deciding what you can or cannot believe about the validity of the Bible.
Despite all of the attacks over the centuries, the Bible has been supernaturally preserved. Just one illustration of this will suffice. You may have heard of Voltaire, the noted Frenchman who died in 1778. He was quoted as saying that one hundred years from his lifetime Christianity would be swept from existence and pass into history. But what has happened? Voltaire has passed into history while the circulation of the Bible continues to increase in almost all parts of the world. In fact, fifty years after his death, Voltaire’s house was purchased by the Geneva Bible Society. The house of this man who predicted an end to the Christian faith became a printing press where thousands of Bibles were produced and distributed. Now that is irony!
The Bible has been uniquely preserved because Almighty God wrote it and is taking care of it.
Isaiah 40:8 says “The grass withers and the flower fades away, but the word of our God shall stand forever.”
Anyone who sets out to destroy the Bible is not going against man; he’s going against God, and that is why such attacks will always fail.
Sir William Ramsey, a gentleman regarded as one of the greatest archeologists in history, set out to disprove the Bible by doing research in Asia Minor to show that the book of Acts was not written by Luke, but by someone in the second century as he had been taught. He studied the topography, antiquities, and society of that culture and what did he find? "Luke's history is unsurpassed in respect of its trustworthiness." and "...this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians." What is truly amazing is that once the Bible was used as a guide to find other insights into the life of this community, much more was learned through minute details that never would have been found without it!
Another example is found in the book of Daniel. Daniel speaks of a king named Belshazzar of Babylon. Because of this reference, the book was dismissed as fictional due to the fact that there was no mention of a king with that name in existence other than Daniel's account. It was later discovered that the reigning king at that time, Nabonidus, had appointed Belshazzar as his co-regent while at war away from Babylon. Daniel was accurate, and the historicity of the Bible was proven once again.
One more, the name of Pontius Pilate (the man who eventually sentenced Jesus to death) was unheard of outside of the Biblical record, to historians this obviously cast a major shadow of doubt on the validity of the account of the crucifixion. However, in 1961 two Italian archeologists discovered a record of his service as the Prefect of Judea in the region of Caesarea...the Roman capital of Palestine, exactly when and where he should have been to line up with scripture!
Archeology plays an amazing role in proving the Bible accurate.
In validating any archeological writing there are two key questions that must be answered:
1) How close to the original writing are the earliest copies?
2) How many copies are there?
By those who have actually set out to investigate it, the bible has proven overwhelmingly accurate.
The Bible stands uncontested as the number one book of all time with the greatest number of ancient manuscripts. For comparison purposes, before I give you the stats on the Bible, let me tell you about the number 2 book of all time it’s number of ancient manuscripts. It is “The Iliad” by Homer.
There are 643 copies that we have in our possession. The time frame between the original manuscript and the earliest copy is 500 years.
That’s actually very good because we also have Plato’s “Republic”, which is considered to be very valid in it’s content with just 7 copies. There are 900 years between original and manuscript.
Listen to this, the New Testament has over 24,000 copies or partial copies that we have found. The earliest copy we have is 50 years from original manuscript.
So think of this, if you really let it set in, it is truly mind boggling: when you hold the Bible in your hands, you hold a personal message from the loving and living God.
Close:
So if you’re still wondering what the Bible is good for, read what David wrote in Psalm 19:7-9:
"The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether."
Would you like your soul restored? Do you need wisdom? How would you like to have a deep, abiding joy in your heart? All of these things are found in God’s Word. It is sufficient; it is accurate; it has everything you need to be truly happy.
Billy Graham:
If the Bible is true, then nothing else matters
And if the Bible is false, then nothing else matters
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Mother's Day - 'Life as a Princess' by Cathleen Parks
Nicole Johnson video, "Princess in Pajamas"
Your a princess. You are. Depending on how you view being a princess that can two completely different things. Princesses, as we are familiar with them, seem to live a very charmed life. Their hair and clothes are always perfect. Their children are clean and well behaved. They have more money than they can spend. They live with their prince in their castle and life is good.
A charmed life.
The way we perceive a princesses life is not altogether realistic, but unfortunately, it is what they are taught they must present to their public. Many of us have been taught that too. Ever heard the saying ‘don’t air your dirty laundry in public’? How often do we hide the parts of our lives that don’t seem quite presentable? God forbid that others should know that I’ve ever made a mistake, sinned, or lived in fear. What our own nature tells us is to keep these parts of our lives quiet. Let them be our own little secret. But look, here’s the cool thing. God, in typical God form, tells us to do the very opposite of what the we or our culture would tell us to do.
James 5:16 (The Message)
16 Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.
Now that blows the doors off of conventional wisdom doesn’t it? The Bible tells us to actually TELL each other when we’ve messed up or when we’re struggling. It goes further to say - if you tell each other - you’ll have wholeness and healing. Incredible!
Why? Because secrets are dark places and God purposes to bring light into dark places. When you talk about the struggles in your life you are taking these struggles out of the dark and bringing them into light - exposing them. It takes courage and guts be transparent with yourself and with others.
So often we would rather not address our problems. Maybe it’s easier for us.
*Head in the sand
*Shame, embarrassment
Maybe we want everyone to see us a princess in our own right - as someone who has it all together. Really - don’t we all want to have it all together? Don’t we all want to be our own little princess of our own little kingdom?
But reality says that we don’t have everything exactly right all the time. Or most of the time. If fact the Bible compares us to clay pots. The thing with clay pots is that they are actually pretty fragile. They crack very easily. They are famously IMPERFECT. I can relate to that. If the Bible is going to compare me to a clay pot I would imagine I’m pretty cracked up. In fact, I may even have a chunk or two missing. I’ve been damaged by sin, hurt, rejection. I’ve been disillusioned, lied to. I’ve had high hopes come crashing down. Crack after crack after crack in my pot. But consider this. Picture a heavily cracked pot. Now in your minds eye begin to fill it with something. Water, wine, grain, whatever. If you put just about anything in a cracked pot, what will happen? You’ll loose it. It will run out of the cracks and eventually just run out. What is the only thing you can fill a pot with that won’t run out? That’s right - light. The only thing that you can put into a cracked pot that would never run out, is light. In fact, the more cracks that are in the pot, the more apparent the light is and useful for illumination. So if I’m a cracked pot, but I allow God’s light to shine on, and through, my imperfections by exposing them, not only will I find healing and wholeness but God will be able to use my struggles to impact the lives of those around me.
Look at Matthew 5:14-16 (The Message)
14 "Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. 15 If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. 16 Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand--shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
Today God wants to offer you freedom. Freedom from the things that you hold secret. If the church can’t be a safe place for us, where will be? We have to commit today to be transparent with one another. Take advantage of the small groups, develop transparent relationships with one another, talk with myself or Joe. But whatever you do, don’t keep your troubles, be it sin or struggle, to yourself. Transparency with one another strengthens and encourages each other. I want to be a princess. But I want to be the princess that God intends for me to be. You see I am a princess because He is my King. My daddy God is a King. Because he granted me daughtership, I am His princess. And only this King can take all of my imperfections and through his awesome glory make even the imperfections in my life beautiful.
LIGHT VISUAL.
God I thank you for my life. All of my life. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I realize it is through every part of my life that you shine in great glory!
Your a princess. You are. Depending on how you view being a princess that can two completely different things. Princesses, as we are familiar with them, seem to live a very charmed life. Their hair and clothes are always perfect. Their children are clean and well behaved. They have more money than they can spend. They live with their prince in their castle and life is good.
A charmed life.
The way we perceive a princesses life is not altogether realistic, but unfortunately, it is what they are taught they must present to their public. Many of us have been taught that too. Ever heard the saying ‘don’t air your dirty laundry in public’? How often do we hide the parts of our lives that don’t seem quite presentable? God forbid that others should know that I’ve ever made a mistake, sinned, or lived in fear. What our own nature tells us is to keep these parts of our lives quiet. Let them be our own little secret. But look, here’s the cool thing. God, in typical God form, tells us to do the very opposite of what the we or our culture would tell us to do.
James 5:16 (The Message)
16 Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.
Now that blows the doors off of conventional wisdom doesn’t it? The Bible tells us to actually TELL each other when we’ve messed up or when we’re struggling. It goes further to say - if you tell each other - you’ll have wholeness and healing. Incredible!
Why? Because secrets are dark places and God purposes to bring light into dark places. When you talk about the struggles in your life you are taking these struggles out of the dark and bringing them into light - exposing them. It takes courage and guts be transparent with yourself and with others.
So often we would rather not address our problems. Maybe it’s easier for us.
*Head in the sand
*Shame, embarrassment
Maybe we want everyone to see us a princess in our own right - as someone who has it all together. Really - don’t we all want to have it all together? Don’t we all want to be our own little princess of our own little kingdom?
But reality says that we don’t have everything exactly right all the time. Or most of the time. If fact the Bible compares us to clay pots. The thing with clay pots is that they are actually pretty fragile. They crack very easily. They are famously IMPERFECT. I can relate to that. If the Bible is going to compare me to a clay pot I would imagine I’m pretty cracked up. In fact, I may even have a chunk or two missing. I’ve been damaged by sin, hurt, rejection. I’ve been disillusioned, lied to. I’ve had high hopes come crashing down. Crack after crack after crack in my pot. But consider this. Picture a heavily cracked pot. Now in your minds eye begin to fill it with something. Water, wine, grain, whatever. If you put just about anything in a cracked pot, what will happen? You’ll loose it. It will run out of the cracks and eventually just run out. What is the only thing you can fill a pot with that won’t run out? That’s right - light. The only thing that you can put into a cracked pot that would never run out, is light. In fact, the more cracks that are in the pot, the more apparent the light is and useful for illumination. So if I’m a cracked pot, but I allow God’s light to shine on, and through, my imperfections by exposing them, not only will I find healing and wholeness but God will be able to use my struggles to impact the lives of those around me.
Look at Matthew 5:14-16 (The Message)
14 "Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. 15 If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. 16 Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand--shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
Today God wants to offer you freedom. Freedom from the things that you hold secret. If the church can’t be a safe place for us, where will be? We have to commit today to be transparent with one another. Take advantage of the small groups, develop transparent relationships with one another, talk with myself or Joe. But whatever you do, don’t keep your troubles, be it sin or struggle, to yourself. Transparency with one another strengthens and encourages each other. I want to be a princess. But I want to be the princess that God intends for me to be. You see I am a princess because He is my King. My daddy God is a King. Because he granted me daughtership, I am His princess. And only this King can take all of my imperfections and through his awesome glory make even the imperfections in my life beautiful.
LIGHT VISUAL.
God I thank you for my life. All of my life. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I realize it is through every part of my life that you shine in great glory!
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Chasing Daylight - Initiative - 'Just Do Something'
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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.
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