Daniel 1:8-20
Scripture
The movie "Cinderella Man" tells the true story of boxing legend James J. Braddock, who made an incredible comeback during the Great Depression. Injured and arthritic, Braddock’s promising career was cut short, and he had to go on public assistance when he couldn’t get work at the docks in New Jersey. But when an opportunity came for him to get back in the ring—and provide for his family—he took it, and his world changed.
Now fighting with a purpose, Braddock started winning fight after fight. He inspired the nation with his perseverance in the midst of hardship. As his comeback built steam, he kept remembering the faces of his children and his wife, and how important it was for him to provide for them. Finally, Braddock won his way into a showdown with the World Heavyweight Champion, Max Baer.
Baer was a vicious fighter. In fact, he was notorious for killing two men in the ring! In the days before the fight Baer ridiculed, threatened, and mocked Braddock, and as the world looked on there was great concern for Braddock’s life.
When the big day arrived, Braddock’s wife—who had never attended any of his fights—sneaked into the bowels of the arena to find her husband in the locker room just moments before the fight. The look in her eyes sent everyone else from the room, and she marched straight up to Braddock. With a tender fierceness that could only come from a loyal wife, she locked her husband in her stare for the final words he would hear before the big event.
“So you just remember who you are,” she said. “You’re the Bulldog of Bergen, and the Pride of New Jersey. You’re everybody’s hope, and the kids’ hero. And you are the champion of my heart, James J. Braddock.”
Braddock then went into the ring to fight Max Baer. After a bloody and brutal contest, Braddock won the fight.
Remembering who we are truly makes a difference.
(last week - we are heroes)
Knowing that he belonged to God made the difference in Daniel’s life. Daniel endured difficult times and encountered tremendous opposition, but he knew that he belonged to God. And that knowledge enabled him to stand alone for God and be a hero.
So, with that in mind, let us read Daniel 1:8-20, which is the text for today’s sermon titled, “The Making of a Hero”:
"8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. 9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, 10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”
"11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
"15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
"17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.
"18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them in, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. 20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom." (Daniel 1:8-20)
If I were to take a poll of your past and present heroes, who would be on your list? Perhaps you might list a teacher, a professor, a grandparent, Neil Armstrong, John Wayne, Tony Dungy, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, Francis Schaeffer, Jim Elliot, the apostle Paul, the apostle Peter, or even Jesus himself.
I rather suspect that no-one would have the prophet Daniel on his or her list. I hope that this series of sermons will change that.
One common thread that seems to be woven throughout the lives of most real heroes, past or present, is that their heroism did not develop overnight. It wasn’t a sudden creation.
Instead their hero status was almost always achieved after being tested over and over again in the many small, mundane trials of life. Present heroism usually cannot be explained apart from past faithfulness under fire.
This was true of Daniel. Without question, Daniel should be numbered among one of the greatest heroes of Scripture. In fact, even by today’s Hollywood standards, Daniel deserves hero status.
In the next five chapters we will be going from one cliff-hanging, spine-tingling adventure to the next, as Daniel and his friends face death-dealing kings, dazzling dreams, a golden idol, a fiery furnace, a king turned into an animal, a palace plot, and a literal lions den. Steven Spielberg would love this material!
But what I want you to notice today is that Daniel does not appear in Daniel 1 as a full-blown hero on the scene of history. Instead, he is introduced to us as a young disciple facing very difficult and compromising temptations and choices—and all of these are very much out of the spotlight!
In Daniel 1, God gives us an inside look at the making of a true hero. In Daniel 1:8-20 I want you to see in Daniel three distinguishing marks of a true hero in any age.
I. Courage (1:8a)
The first mark of a hero is courage.
Last time we saw that when Daniel was faced with the temptation to compromise his moral convictions, verse 8 tells us that he resolved to do what was right before God, no matter what the price: “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine.” He was willing to stand alone. He realized that for the child of God there were certain things that could not be negotiated or compromised. So he refused the king’s delicacies.
In many ways, Daniel’s future usefulness in the kingdom of God depended on this single, seemingly mundane decision about what kind of food he was willing to eat—food that was forbidden to him by God’s law. If Daniel had not made this decision, he would never have found himself in the positions he later occupied, nor would he have been faithful enough to cope with them the way he did.
Instead, from the very beginning, in what to others seemed to be a trivial matter, he took a stand. And in doing so, he gained a bridgehead into enemy-occupied territory and found himself increasingly strong in the Lord.
The best time to take a stand is early. Daniel didn’t wait to decide what he was going to do. He made his mind up early.
The best time to make up your mind is that first moment you walk onto a new job and see those alluring opportunities. As a young person, it’s that first time someone tries to get you to go past those sexual limits God has set for your own protection and welfare. It’s the first night you unpack your suitcase at college. It’s the first day you fly out of town on your way to a week on the road away from your wife and family. In each instance, take a stand and say, “By God’s grace, I will honor God in all things.”
Another practical lesson we can learn here is that taking a stand in the little things is usually the biggest test.
Don’t say things like, “If terrorists dragged me from my home and threatened to kill me unless I denied my faith, I would stand firm. I would never deny Christ.”
As we dream about taking a strong stand in such a dramatic situation, we often let the little things slide in the meantime. We are less willing to offer our lives in all those little battles for honesty, integrity, commitment, and love that rage about us daily.
The fact is that many people lapse in the face of a test. Many a husband has walked out on his wife and children because he was no longer committed to his marriage. Many a wife has engaged in an extra-marital affair because she was wanted more sizzle and romance in her life. Many a young person has become addicted to drugs because he was curious about the euphoric feeling.
Learn to take a stand in all the little things in life today. Learn to be faithful in all the little things today. Then, if you should face a large test, you are much more likely to stand.
The week before September 11, 2001, America’s "Tuesday of Terror," 32-year-old Todd Beamer and his wife, Lisa, had spent a romantic getaway in Italy. The couple, both 1991 graduates of Wheaton College, returned home Monday rested and relieved to be reunited with their boys David, 3, and Andrew, 1.
But extended family time would have to wait. The next morning Todd, an executive with Oracle, had to be at a sales reps meeting in Northern California. He kissed Lisa goodbye, who at the time was five months pregnant with their third child, and headed to the Newark, NJ airport where he boarded United Flight 93 for San Francisco, CA.
About 90 minutes into the westbound flight, the Boeing 757 was approaching Cleveland when three hijackers onboard identified themselves to the 34 passengers and 7 crew and proceeded to take control of the cockpit and cabin. The plane, now piloted by the would-be terrorists, made a sharp turn to the south.
Todd reached for the GTE Airfone in the back of the seat and was connected to a GTE supervisor on the ground. He explained to her what was happening and indicated that he and the other passengers would not likely survive. He presumed the pilot and co-pilot were already seriously injured or dead.
The GTE employee explained to Todd what had already happened at the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Upon hearing this news, Todd must have realized that the hijackers were intent on crashing the plane into another prominent building near Washington D.C. (the direction in which they were now headed). Even though the hijacker nearest to Todd had a bomb belted around his middle, the former Wheaton College baseball player told the GTE representative that he and a few others were determined to do whatever they could to disrupt the terrorists’ plan.
He then asked the person on the other end of the phone to call his wife and report their entire conversation to her (including how much he loved her). Before hanging up, this committed Christian and devoted family man, who taught Sunday school each week, asked the GTE employee to pray the Lord’s Prayer with him. With the sound of passengers screaming in the background, she complied. When they concluded the prayer, Scott calmly said, “Help me, God. Help me, Jesus.”
The GTE employee then heard Todd say, apparently to the other three businessmen he’d alluded to earlier: “Are you ready, guys? Let’s roll!” With that the phone went dead.
Within a few minutes, Flight 93 was nose diving into a rural field 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, where it left a crater 40 feet deep as it disintegrated upon impact, killing everyone on board.
Because Todd Beamer was committed to Jesus Christ and His kingdom, because he was faithful in the little things, he was willing to do whatever was necessary to put the needs of others above his own fear of danger and imminent death. That’s
courage! Thanks to him and the three other businessmen who joined with him, the intended target in the nation’s capital was not reached and who knows how many lives were saved because of that. No one on the ground was killed.
According to Todd’s wife, Lisa, “His example of courage has given me, my boys (and my unborn baby) a reason to live.”
That’s what can happen when we, by the grace of God, learn to obey the Lord in all the little things of life.
Like Daniel, your growth in grace and your usefulness in God’s service do not begin in the world of your dreams but in the context of life’s harsh realities. It is in all those small matters in life that victories are won.
God means for all of your smaller battles to be a training ground to prepare you for the major conflicts that are coming. If we are not faithful to Christ on today’s training ground, believe me, it will not be easy to follow him on tomorrow’s field of battle.
II. Humility (1:8b)
The second mark of a hero is humility.
If you think the strength of Daniel’s stand is impressive, look even closer now at these next verses to see the manner in which he took his stand. Verse 8b reads, “. . . and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.”
Notice that Daniel did not send around leaflets encouraging a riot. He didn’t begin a protest movement. He didn’t start a hate campaign. He didn’t try to embarrass his superior because of his own strong convictions. Instead he responded to his situation with a spirit of humility and respect by requesting permission of the chief official not to eat the king’s food.
Daniel does not seem to have explained to this official that no matter what his response to Daniel’s request, he had already resolved that he would never eat the king’s food and defile himself. Instead Daniel seems to have patiently explained his situation and his desire to be faithful to his God and ask respectfully that he might receive this privilege.
There is something very Christ-like about this humble spirit of Daniel. True faithfulness to God is seen not only in your determination to take a strong stand but also in the way you do that.
Daniel learned how to take a strong stand for the Lord in a way that showed the greatness of God, not in a way that left people staring at Daniel himself, and there is a world of difference. To take a strong stand for Christ today and to still be humble is a grace that far too few of us ever attain.
III. Faith (1:9-14)
The third mark of a hero is faith.
The response of the chief official to Daniel’s request to forego the king’s food was not too positive. Even though verse 9 tells us he was sympathetic toward Daniel, he was also very concerned about the personal ramifications of such a decision.
In verse 10 we find that “the official told Daniel, ‘I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.’”
But this first rejection didn’t cause Daniel to waver. He remained steadfast in his commitment, as is then evidenced in his creative appeal later to the guard that the official had placed over him and his three friends.
Verses 11-14 say, “Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, ‘Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.’ So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.”
It is evident from his request that Daniel sincerely believed that God would honor the strong stand he had taken. Daniel dared to believe that as he stood for what was truly right, God would supernaturally intervene on his behalf! Although it might not have been God’s will to intervene, Daniel still knew that he had a very good reason to believe God would intervene. Why? Because Daniel knew that the issue at stake was God’s glory and name.
Learning what it means to live for the sake of God’s glory will produce in you a spirit of humble faith that God will act on your behalf as you put him first. It was just this confidence that has always marked the lives of the heroes of the faith, in both the Old and New Testaments. And it’s this kind of confidence in God that continues to mark men and women of faith today.
The confidence of true Biblical faith is an assurance that is based on what God has promised in his word to do. If you know that God has promised to do something, you have every reason to join with Daniel and have a genuine spirit of expectancy that he will work on your behalf.
Allow me to close with a practical application. In 1 Samuel 2:30 God makes a very special promise, “Those who honor me I will honor.” You handle your situation right and God promises to honor that. God’s response may not be exactly what you want, or exactly when you want it, but his promise stands: “Those who honor me I will honor.”
Daniel knew that about God. That is why he lived with a spirit of expectancy. And that is why I don’t think Daniel was too surprised at what happened next. In verses 15-21 we discover how God honored Daniel’s faithfulness. Daniel and his friends were healthier than the other young men and the king was so impressed with their knowledge that he hired them into his royal service.
The faithful stand that Daniel took was not in vain. God honored his faithfulness. And he will honor your faithfulness as well!
I continue to hear the stories of those who say, “I was in a compromising, high risk situation. My job and my reputation were on the line. I bit the bullet. I took it to God and I dared to take a stand and trust God. And God honored that in my life. He granted me his favor.”
The development of Daniel’s character began by learning the importance of honoring God in the little things—like what he would and would not eat to obey God’s law. Daniel soon learned that these smaller battles were actually God’s training ground to prepare him for the much more major conflicts that were coming.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
HEROES - Are you on the list?
As you watch Heroes (the show) you find all of these seemingly ordinary people who are actually extraordinary.
There’s this list with an unknown # of people who fall into this category. So the buzz is... Are you on the list. Could u b hero?
Something else you may not be aware of is that God has a list. It is the most important list that can be found in heaven or on earth. I cannot emphasize how important this list is and how extremely important it is for us to know with certainty if our name is on that list. My purpose in today’s message is to provide you with the latest information about God’s list, what it is, and how one gets their name on that list.
We will all agree that it is important for our names to be on certain lists. There are good lists and there are bad lists. Everyone wants his or her name on a good list. (like Santa) I hope that this will be the case when I tell you about the best list of all – God’s list.
How many of you have heard of the “Do not call” list?
How many of you asked that your name be placed on the “Do not call” list?
Many welcomed the chance to get our name on a list that would penalize telemarketers if they called. I read that since the list has been created the number of such calls has been drastically reduced.
A telemarketer’s list is a bad list to be on.
A “Do not call” list is a good list to be on.
When someone has a grudge against one who has offended or hurt him or her in some fashion we may hear the offended party say about the offender, “He (or she) is on my list.” In other words they are going to remember what was done and maybe even seek to retaliate. In an even more serious sense mobsters or members of the Mafia may put people of their “hit list.” A Mafia “hit list” was a death sentence.
There’s the Dean’s list in college. That was good because it meant that I made good grades.
One of the lists we don’t like is the waiting list. Only because we want instant gratification and we don’t want to have to wait to get what we want. Some know what it is to be on an organ transplant waiting list to get a kidney or perhaps for a heart transplant.
Whether actively or passively in some way, some form, fashion, and for some good or bad reason we all have our names on a list somewhere. Your name is written down on some record either in a book or perhaps a computer. Your name is recorded at the Court House, in a Social Security file in Washington, DC or the local driver’s license bureau.
It’s interesting that the Bible has much to say about another official record where we may (or may not) find our name written down. I am talking about a record in Heaven. There is a book of names in Heaven. I am talking about a list of names that God Himself writes down as He oversees each entry in His book. This is the reason for my question, “Is Your Name On God’s List.” Meaning, is your name written down in God’s book?
Let me provide some Scripture background that will validate and authenticate the question I have asked. There are more than just a few passages of Scripture that relate to my question.
The first I have chosen is not the best but it is interesting because of the events that make up the story where this verse is found. Jesus had sent out 72 of His disciples on a mission of preaching and teaching that included the ability to work miracles. When they returned from their very successful ministry tour they were overjoyed. Luke tells us:
“The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."” Luke 10:17-20
In the show Hereos - try to stop bomb from destroying city
let’s suppose there was only one safe place to flee and because this place could accommodate only a limited number of people it meant only a certain number of people could board the buses to flee to safety.
In order to determine who would go and who would stay a list is made and only those whose name was on the list is allowed to find shelter and safety. If you knew such a danger existed and you knew the only way to live – the only way to get on the bus and save your life -- was to get your name on the list, how many of you would try your best to get your name on the list?
My story is an imaginary one. However, let me take you to the Scripture and ask you to seriously consider what the Prophet Daniel says about a day of calamity that is to come upon this earth. This is not imaginary. I am not making this up.
“"At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.” Daniel 12:1
This verse predicts a day and time—perhaps a season lasting for an extended period—when the nations of this world will enter into a period of distress of such magnitude, such intensity and suffering, that has never happened before in the history of the world. This verse seems to describe a division between those who will suffer and those who will not suffer. It says some will be delivered from the suffering and others will not be delivered. The prophecy makes a clear distinction between those who will and those who will not be delivered. “Everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered” (vs. 1).
This verse says there is a book.
This verse says names are written in this book.
This verse says those whose names are written in this book will be delivered.
Is your name in the book? Is Your Name on God’s List?
This is the most important question. Thousands and thousands of people today want to know when this time of trouble will come. They want to know what will be happening when it comes. They want to know what they can do to protect themselves when it comes.
What is going to happen, how is it going to happen, or when is it going to happen, these are not the question one should be asking. The most important question that needs to be asked and answered is: Is your name on God’s list. Is your name found written the book?
The Bible has much to say about God having a Book—and names being inscribed in it--that hasn’t been mentioned yet. Consider the following:
1. Moses
As you know, Moses was God’s instrument in leading the Hebrews out of Egyptian slavery toward freedom in a land God had promised. On several occasions the people sinned against the Lord with murmuring and complaining through their unbelief. On one occasion it was more serious than it had ever been. Because of the sin of the nation, God was about to literally wipe them off the face of the earth. Moses sensed a catastrophe was in the making. The Bible says:
“The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a terrible sin, but I will go back up to the Lord on the mountain. Perhaps I will be able to obtain forgiveness for your sin.”
So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a terrible sin these people have committed. They have made gods of gold for themselves. But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, erase my name from the record you have written!”
But the Lord replied to Moses, “No, I will erase the name of
everyone who has sinned against me.” Exodus 32:31-33
2. The Apostle Paul was familiar with this book.
“And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life.” Phil. 4:3
3. John the Revelator spoke often of this book. Consider:
“All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.” Rev. 3:5
There are several other passages of Scripture that mention names being written in God’s book. All these verses—Old and New Testament—make ever so real the truth Jesus set forth in our text found in Luke 10:20. “….rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”
1. There is a book in heaven called “The Book of Life.”
2. It is possible for our names to be written in it.
3. It is imperative—absolutely of the greatest importance—that we know our names are written there.
4. The question we face, the question, which must be given the most serious consideration, is: IS YOUR NAME WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE? ARE YOU ON GOD’S LIST?
WHAT CONDITIONS MUST I MEET TO HAVE MY NAME PLACED ON GOD’S LIST?
I have no power to write my name there. Another hand must write it. I sign checks. I sign order blanks. I sign letters. I write my name often and for many reasons, as you do. But no king, dictator, general, merchant, scholar, or scientist can write his name in heaven. Think about that! You and I may get our name written into a church book but getting it in the Lamb’s Book of Life is another matter.
But you will never be good enough to write your name there. And the Son of God says it is better to have your name written there than to have it on the largest bank check ever drawn. Someone is going to have to write it there for you.
Another question arises: WHO CAN DO IT FOR ME?
Can my pastor?
Can the evangelist?
What about my attorney?
Can my personal physician take care of it for me?
Can my congressman, or senator do it?
All these may legitimately act in your behalf in urgent matters that affect your life down here but THEIR POWER IS LIMITED TO THIS EARTH!
Only one person has the right—has the authority and power--to place your name, or my name, in the Book of Life. It is the privilege of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. If your name is ever
written in heaven, it will be written on God’s terms alone.
HOW CAN WE KNOW?
“That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
The Cross is God’s Great PEN that inscribes your name in the Book of life
1. The cross is a sign of God’s love
2. The cross is a sign of God’s mercy
3. The cross is a sign of God’s grace
4. The cross is a sign of God’s forgiveness
5. The cross is God’s great quill dipped in the precious blood of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. It is the only instrument worthy enough--powerful enough—to inscribe your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Only the hand of God can do that!
There’s absolutely nothing we can do - only to believe He DID it
HOW CAN A PERSON BE SURE?
1. This is something we cannot afford to merely guess about. We cannot afford to take a chance. If it were not possible to be sure that your name is there, Jesus would not have told us to rejoice. Remember, “…rejoice that your names are written in heaven…” (Lk. 10:20. You and I cannot rejoice about something we are not certain about.
2. Don’t tell me, “I hope so,” or “I do the best I can.” When I ask you, “Is your name written there, are you on God’s list?” I want either a “yes,” or a “no.”
3. It is as simple as A-B-C.
a. ALL have sinned
b. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
c. Confess with your mouth
If you have never done, if you’re just not sure, now is the time.
COULD YOU BE A HERO?
“And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children... You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.” Galatians 3:29
“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these” John 14:12
There’s this list with an unknown # of people who fall into this category. So the buzz is... Are you on the list. Could u b hero?
Something else you may not be aware of is that God has a list. It is the most important list that can be found in heaven or on earth. I cannot emphasize how important this list is and how extremely important it is for us to know with certainty if our name is on that list. My purpose in today’s message is to provide you with the latest information about God’s list, what it is, and how one gets their name on that list.
We will all agree that it is important for our names to be on certain lists. There are good lists and there are bad lists. Everyone wants his or her name on a good list. (like Santa) I hope that this will be the case when I tell you about the best list of all – God’s list.
How many of you have heard of the “Do not call” list?
How many of you asked that your name be placed on the “Do not call” list?
Many welcomed the chance to get our name on a list that would penalize telemarketers if they called. I read that since the list has been created the number of such calls has been drastically reduced.
A telemarketer’s list is a bad list to be on.
A “Do not call” list is a good list to be on.
When someone has a grudge against one who has offended or hurt him or her in some fashion we may hear the offended party say about the offender, “He (or she) is on my list.” In other words they are going to remember what was done and maybe even seek to retaliate. In an even more serious sense mobsters or members of the Mafia may put people of their “hit list.” A Mafia “hit list” was a death sentence.
There’s the Dean’s list in college. That was good because it meant that I made good grades.
One of the lists we don’t like is the waiting list. Only because we want instant gratification and we don’t want to have to wait to get what we want. Some know what it is to be on an organ transplant waiting list to get a kidney or perhaps for a heart transplant.
Whether actively or passively in some way, some form, fashion, and for some good or bad reason we all have our names on a list somewhere. Your name is written down on some record either in a book or perhaps a computer. Your name is recorded at the Court House, in a Social Security file in Washington, DC or the local driver’s license bureau.
It’s interesting that the Bible has much to say about another official record where we may (or may not) find our name written down. I am talking about a record in Heaven. There is a book of names in Heaven. I am talking about a list of names that God Himself writes down as He oversees each entry in His book. This is the reason for my question, “Is Your Name On God’s List.” Meaning, is your name written down in God’s book?
Let me provide some Scripture background that will validate and authenticate the question I have asked. There are more than just a few passages of Scripture that relate to my question.
The first I have chosen is not the best but it is interesting because of the events that make up the story where this verse is found. Jesus had sent out 72 of His disciples on a mission of preaching and teaching that included the ability to work miracles. When they returned from their very successful ministry tour they were overjoyed. Luke tells us:
“The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."” Luke 10:17-20
In the show Hereos - try to stop bomb from destroying city
let’s suppose there was only one safe place to flee and because this place could accommodate only a limited number of people it meant only a certain number of people could board the buses to flee to safety.
In order to determine who would go and who would stay a list is made and only those whose name was on the list is allowed to find shelter and safety. If you knew such a danger existed and you knew the only way to live – the only way to get on the bus and save your life -- was to get your name on the list, how many of you would try your best to get your name on the list?
My story is an imaginary one. However, let me take you to the Scripture and ask you to seriously consider what the Prophet Daniel says about a day of calamity that is to come upon this earth. This is not imaginary. I am not making this up.
“"At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.” Daniel 12:1
This verse predicts a day and time—perhaps a season lasting for an extended period—when the nations of this world will enter into a period of distress of such magnitude, such intensity and suffering, that has never happened before in the history of the world. This verse seems to describe a division between those who will suffer and those who will not suffer. It says some will be delivered from the suffering and others will not be delivered. The prophecy makes a clear distinction between those who will and those who will not be delivered. “Everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered” (vs. 1).
This verse says there is a book.
This verse says names are written in this book.
This verse says those whose names are written in this book will be delivered.
Is your name in the book? Is Your Name on God’s List?
This is the most important question. Thousands and thousands of people today want to know when this time of trouble will come. They want to know what will be happening when it comes. They want to know what they can do to protect themselves when it comes.
What is going to happen, how is it going to happen, or when is it going to happen, these are not the question one should be asking. The most important question that needs to be asked and answered is: Is your name on God’s list. Is your name found written the book?
The Bible has much to say about God having a Book—and names being inscribed in it--that hasn’t been mentioned yet. Consider the following:
1. Moses
As you know, Moses was God’s instrument in leading the Hebrews out of Egyptian slavery toward freedom in a land God had promised. On several occasions the people sinned against the Lord with murmuring and complaining through their unbelief. On one occasion it was more serious than it had ever been. Because of the sin of the nation, God was about to literally wipe them off the face of the earth. Moses sensed a catastrophe was in the making. The Bible says:
“The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a terrible sin, but I will go back up to the Lord on the mountain. Perhaps I will be able to obtain forgiveness for your sin.”
So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a terrible sin these people have committed. They have made gods of gold for themselves. But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, erase my name from the record you have written!”
But the Lord replied to Moses, “No, I will erase the name of
everyone who has sinned against me.” Exodus 32:31-33
2. The Apostle Paul was familiar with this book.
“And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life.” Phil. 4:3
3. John the Revelator spoke often of this book. Consider:
“All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.” Rev. 3:5
There are several other passages of Scripture that mention names being written in God’s book. All these verses—Old and New Testament—make ever so real the truth Jesus set forth in our text found in Luke 10:20. “….rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”
1. There is a book in heaven called “The Book of Life.”
2. It is possible for our names to be written in it.
3. It is imperative—absolutely of the greatest importance—that we know our names are written there.
4. The question we face, the question, which must be given the most serious consideration, is: IS YOUR NAME WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE? ARE YOU ON GOD’S LIST?
WHAT CONDITIONS MUST I MEET TO HAVE MY NAME PLACED ON GOD’S LIST?
I have no power to write my name there. Another hand must write it. I sign checks. I sign order blanks. I sign letters. I write my name often and for many reasons, as you do. But no king, dictator, general, merchant, scholar, or scientist can write his name in heaven. Think about that! You and I may get our name written into a church book but getting it in the Lamb’s Book of Life is another matter.
But you will never be good enough to write your name there. And the Son of God says it is better to have your name written there than to have it on the largest bank check ever drawn. Someone is going to have to write it there for you.
Another question arises: WHO CAN DO IT FOR ME?
Can my pastor?
Can the evangelist?
What about my attorney?
Can my personal physician take care of it for me?
Can my congressman, or senator do it?
All these may legitimately act in your behalf in urgent matters that affect your life down here but THEIR POWER IS LIMITED TO THIS EARTH!
Only one person has the right—has the authority and power--to place your name, or my name, in the Book of Life. It is the privilege of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. If your name is ever
written in heaven, it will be written on God’s terms alone.
HOW CAN WE KNOW?
“That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
The Cross is God’s Great PEN that inscribes your name in the Book of life
1. The cross is a sign of God’s love
2. The cross is a sign of God’s mercy
3. The cross is a sign of God’s grace
4. The cross is a sign of God’s forgiveness
5. The cross is God’s great quill dipped in the precious blood of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. It is the only instrument worthy enough--powerful enough—to inscribe your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Only the hand of God can do that!
There’s absolutely nothing we can do - only to believe He DID it
HOW CAN A PERSON BE SURE?
1. This is something we cannot afford to merely guess about. We cannot afford to take a chance. If it were not possible to be sure that your name is there, Jesus would not have told us to rejoice. Remember, “…rejoice that your names are written in heaven…” (Lk. 10:20. You and I cannot rejoice about something we are not certain about.
2. Don’t tell me, “I hope so,” or “I do the best I can.” When I ask you, “Is your name written there, are you on God’s list?” I want either a “yes,” or a “no.”
3. It is as simple as A-B-C.
a. ALL have sinned
b. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
c. Confess with your mouth
If you have never done, if you’re just not sure, now is the time.
COULD YOU BE A HERO?
“And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children... You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.” Galatians 3:29
“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these” John 14:12
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
HEROES - The ULTIMATE Hero
Good morning. Today we are beginning our series ‘Heroes’. When you first heard the term “hero” what came to your mind? Perhaps you thought of a sports hero like Lance Armstrong or Tiger Woods. Or maybe an action hero. Some of us possibly thought of a military hero like Jessica Lynch or a fantasy hero like Superman.
or maybe you connected with John Wayne. John Wayne was a man’s man and a tough guy. He rode into town, cleaned things up and did it in a way that made you want to buy a horse, a six shooter and see what you could do with your town.
As I look at all those heroes I see a common denominator: they are all safe. Some of them are safe simply because they are not real. Some are safe because they are just playing a role. Others are safe because I could never physically do what they do. Our hero’s are safe and that, I believe, is part of their attraction.
This morning if I were to ask you to name your favorite hero I would expect you to say, “I like John Wayne but I’m at church so I’m going to say Jesus.”
This is sort of like the old story of a 2nd grade boy attending a Sunday school class. The teacher was telling a story that involved animals. Looking at her class she asked, “What is brown, furry, has a bushy tail and collects nuts to eat?”
The class responded with an eerie silence. Finally a little boy responded, “Teacher, it sure sounds like a squirrel but I’m going to say Jesus.” And today, that is the right answer. Today we are going to
consider Jesus as our ultimate hero. Now right up front I want us to acknowledge that our task is
beyond our reach. Jesus blows away the standards when it comes to heroes. He is unique. He is supreme. He is different. Different in the same way that a candle is different than the sun. They both may give off light but that is where the comparison ends. But I encourage you with this; this task has been out of reach for others as well. David said, “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom.” Psalm 145:3 Christ supercedes our grandest thoughts and surpasses our best efforts at description. He is a hero beyond of our ability to explain. So what are we to do? I would propose that today we dance on the very edge of mystery. That we strive to describe the indescribable. Let’s remember however, that the closer we get to mystery the further we get from our ability to explain and describe that mystery. To help us do that I want us to look at Colossians 1:15-22 together. These two paragraphs are going to tell us that the hero Christ is supreme to all others because His nature is unique and because His work is unmatched. This truth is then going to demand that we answer two personal questions: 1. Have you and I made Jesus into a hero who is safe? 2. Do I really want Jesus as my hero? Read Colossians 1:15-18 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”
Our Ultimate Hero: Jesus Christ: verses 15-18 1. The ultimate hero is divine: “the image of the invisible God”: vs. 15a The word “image” does not speak to physical image but to the very person of God and Christ. It communicates the idea of an image on a coin that is an exact representation of a real person. Or the idea of looking into a mirror where you see an exact representation of yourself. When a Hebrew or Gentile looked on the person of Christ they were seeing the very nature and being of God revealed. They were seeing the divine revealed. Jesus said in John 14:9, “anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Our hero, men and women, is divine. 2. The ultimate hero is the Creator and Sustainer: v15b-17 “the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
These verses tell us that Christ is the eternal Creator who after creating all things continues to sustain or uphold them by His power. Christ made all things and He has not given up His control of them or His power to govern them. This reference to Christ as the “first-born over all creation” speaks to both the eternal nature of Christ, He is before any created thing, and His rank or supremacy to all things. He is both before and supreme over His creation. What a wonderful encouragement to us. Someone is indeed in charge of this crazy world we live in and it’s the ult.hero Jesus Christ. Moment by moment He makes the universe we live in a cosmos instead of a chaos. Things may appear to be falling apart in our life but take encouragement; nothing has slipped through the fingers of the hero Christ. In His universe, nothing…and I mean nothing, diverts His focus, avoids His direction or limits His influence. Our Hero is the Creator and the One who remains supreme and sovereign. 3. The ultimate hero is the head of the Church – verse 18a “And he is the head of the body, the church” Take note of Paul’s use of language here. He has just explained that Christ is the supreme and sovereign Creator of all things visible and invisible. Genesis is not the final testament of Christ’s creative work. The church too is His creation. And as its Creator, He is its Head. The church refers here to both the local assembly of believers as well as to the universal church of all Christ-followers. He is the head, the leader of the church. Ephesians 1:22: “And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything FOR THE CHURCH”. Do you see how powerful this is? Christ’s supremacy over all creation is a gift to the church. Christ is supreme for the benefit of the church. His supreme authority over all things and His power over all things are for the benefit of FOCUS* - A Foursquare Church. One writer said this, “The Church has authority and power to overcome all opposition because her leader and head is Lord of all.” Expositor’s Commentary, volume 11, page 31. 4. The ultimate hero is the victor over death: verse 18b
“he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” Christ is the first to rise in an immortal body. The first to look death square in the eye and defeat it. And because He rose from the dead He can offer life to those who are dead. Do you see the picture Paul is attempting to draw of Christ?
He is the divine God who created all things and continues to sustain all things. He created the church as an expression of His creative work through which He exercises His power. And a primary expression of His power and benefit to the church is creating new lives out of dead people. I think Paul is writing all this stuff and stops to add a word of WOW found in verse 18. “In everything Christ might have the supremacy.” Folks, our hero Christ is supreme. Let me ask you one of the questions I mentioned earlier. Have you and I made Jesus into a hero who is safe? Think back to some of the categories of heroes. Fantasy Heroes: Several of the heroes were fantasy heroes. They do not really exist and they make no real difference on reality. Is Christ a fantasy hero who is making no difference in the reality called your life? Sports Heroes: These are the people we admire from a distance but have no relationship with at all. We admire them, talk about their athletic exploits but they would never accept an invitation to our home because we have no relationship with them. If I were to holler at Craig Biggio one night after a baseball game and invite him to my house for dinner, I seriously doubt if he would come. Why? Because we have no relationship. Is Christ like that for you? Someone that is fun to watch on Sunday mornings but does not get invited home with you? Action Heroes: A couple of our heroes represent well the rugged individualist who needs no one and who can conquer life on his own. I believe that this is the most lethal of deceptions. This is the Christ-follower who makes walking with Christ so private that he can no longer see how he is manipulating Christ to fit his own agenda and life. Let me give you something to chew on later today. Christ did not die to be your private hero. He died to be your personal hero so that you could express him publicly. The writer Sidney J. Harris once said this in relation to a list of heroes identified by society. “the heroes created by our society are people who have made it big, but not necessarily people who have done big things.” Christ has not only the character or nature to be our hero; He has also done the big things to warrant hero stature. What is the big thing that Jesus did?
Read Colossians 1:19-22
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” The Big Thing That Jesus Did To Warrant Hero Status? He Died to Reconcile You and Me to Himself. We all admire people who are willing to lay it all on the line for what they believe or for people they care about. Remember Cassie Bernall? She was the teenager at Columbine High School who looked up at a boy with a gun pointing at her and said, “Yes, I do believe in God.” Or Todd Beamer who on 9/11 turned to those around him on a plan hijacked by terrorist and said, “lets roll” and plunged to his death. Or Pat Tillman who gave up the wealth and status of the NFL only to be killed in Iraq. We admire that type of heroism and rightly so. I wonder if our admiration is not partially due to the fact that they remind us of Christ. He looked Pilate straight in the face and said, “It is as you say. I am the King of the Jews.” Then he paid for that truth with His life. Christ prayed in the garden and wrestled with the Father over what to do. Then, if you would allow me to say it this way, Jesus said to the Father, “let’s roll” and then went to His death. Christ called his disciples His friends and then took a cross for them.
Let me say with all honesty, this work of Christ amazes me.
It forces me to wrestle with the greatness of Christ. It challenges me to search for appropriate words of wonder. But there is something even more astounding to me regarding the work of this hero Christ. Something that forces me to my knees in complete awe. And it is this.
Christ died for the young boy who pulled the trigger that day at Columbine High School. Christ died for those men who believed so strongly in their cause that they would hijack a plane and kill innocent people. And Christ died for those soldiers who shot the bullet that killed our soldier. Now let me ask you the second of our two questions. Do you want this Jesus as your hero? If you do not know Christ as your savior, then this is a time for you to wrestle with this question, “Do you want this Jesus as your Savior?” If so, then I invite you If you are already a follower of Christ, then use this time to examine your heart. Let me ask the same question with a different twist for you. Do you want this Jesus as your Lord? Is the Jesus described this morning the Jesus you have given every aspect of your life to? Or have you substituted another hero. Use this time as a time to repent or affirm your followership of the hero Jesus.
The class responded with an eerie silence. Finally a little boy responded, “Teacher, it sure sounds like a squirrel but I’m going to say Jesus.” And today, that is the right answer. Today we are going to
consider Jesus as our ultimate hero. Now right up front I want us to acknowledge that our task is
beyond our reach. Jesus blows away the standards when it comes to heroes. He is unique. He is supreme. He is different. Different in the same way that a candle is different than the sun. They both may give off light but that is where the comparison ends. But I encourage you with this; this task has been out of reach for others as well. David said, “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom.” Psalm 145:3 Christ supercedes our grandest thoughts and surpasses our best efforts at description. He is a hero beyond of our ability to explain. So what are we to do? I would propose that today we dance on the very edge of mystery. That we strive to describe the indescribable. Let’s remember however, that the closer we get to mystery the further we get from our ability to explain and describe that mystery. To help us do that I want us to look at Colossians 1:15-22 together. These two paragraphs are going to tell us that the hero Christ is supreme to all others because His nature is unique and because His work is unmatched. This truth is then going to demand that we answer two personal questions: 1. Have you and I made Jesus into a hero who is safe? 2. Do I really want Jesus as my hero? Read Colossians 1:15-18 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”
Our Ultimate Hero: Jesus Christ: verses 15-18 1. The ultimate hero is divine: “the image of the invisible God”: vs. 15a The word “image” does not speak to physical image but to the very person of God and Christ. It communicates the idea of an image on a coin that is an exact representation of a real person. Or the idea of looking into a mirror where you see an exact representation of yourself. When a Hebrew or Gentile looked on the person of Christ they were seeing the very nature and being of God revealed. They were seeing the divine revealed. Jesus said in John 14:9, “anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Our hero, men and women, is divine. 2. The ultimate hero is the Creator and Sustainer: v15b-17 “the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
These verses tell us that Christ is the eternal Creator who after creating all things continues to sustain or uphold them by His power. Christ made all things and He has not given up His control of them or His power to govern them. This reference to Christ as the “first-born over all creation” speaks to both the eternal nature of Christ, He is before any created thing, and His rank or supremacy to all things. He is both before and supreme over His creation. What a wonderful encouragement to us. Someone is indeed in charge of this crazy world we live in and it’s the ult.hero Jesus Christ. Moment by moment He makes the universe we live in a cosmos instead of a chaos. Things may appear to be falling apart in our life but take encouragement; nothing has slipped through the fingers of the hero Christ. In His universe, nothing…and I mean nothing, diverts His focus, avoids His direction or limits His influence. Our Hero is the Creator and the One who remains supreme and sovereign. 3. The ultimate hero is the head of the Church – verse 18a “And he is the head of the body, the church” Take note of Paul’s use of language here. He has just explained that Christ is the supreme and sovereign Creator of all things visible and invisible. Genesis is not the final testament of Christ’s creative work. The church too is His creation. And as its Creator, He is its Head. The church refers here to both the local assembly of believers as well as to the universal church of all Christ-followers. He is the head, the leader of the church. Ephesians 1:22: “And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything FOR THE CHURCH”. Do you see how powerful this is? Christ’s supremacy over all creation is a gift to the church. Christ is supreme for the benefit of the church. His supreme authority over all things and His power over all things are for the benefit of FOCUS* - A Foursquare Church. One writer said this, “The Church has authority and power to overcome all opposition because her leader and head is Lord of all.” Expositor’s Commentary, volume 11, page 31. 4. The ultimate hero is the victor over death: verse 18b
“he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” Christ is the first to rise in an immortal body. The first to look death square in the eye and defeat it. And because He rose from the dead He can offer life to those who are dead. Do you see the picture Paul is attempting to draw of Christ?
He is the divine God who created all things and continues to sustain all things. He created the church as an expression of His creative work through which He exercises His power. And a primary expression of His power and benefit to the church is creating new lives out of dead people. I think Paul is writing all this stuff and stops to add a word of WOW found in verse 18. “In everything Christ might have the supremacy.” Folks, our hero Christ is supreme. Let me ask you one of the questions I mentioned earlier. Have you and I made Jesus into a hero who is safe? Think back to some of the categories of heroes. Fantasy Heroes: Several of the heroes were fantasy heroes. They do not really exist and they make no real difference on reality. Is Christ a fantasy hero who is making no difference in the reality called your life? Sports Heroes: These are the people we admire from a distance but have no relationship with at all. We admire them, talk about their athletic exploits but they would never accept an invitation to our home because we have no relationship with them. If I were to holler at Craig Biggio one night after a baseball game and invite him to my house for dinner, I seriously doubt if he would come. Why? Because we have no relationship. Is Christ like that for you? Someone that is fun to watch on Sunday mornings but does not get invited home with you? Action Heroes: A couple of our heroes represent well the rugged individualist who needs no one and who can conquer life on his own. I believe that this is the most lethal of deceptions. This is the Christ-follower who makes walking with Christ so private that he can no longer see how he is manipulating Christ to fit his own agenda and life. Let me give you something to chew on later today. Christ did not die to be your private hero. He died to be your personal hero so that you could express him publicly. The writer Sidney J. Harris once said this in relation to a list of heroes identified by society. “the heroes created by our society are people who have made it big, but not necessarily people who have done big things.” Christ has not only the character or nature to be our hero; He has also done the big things to warrant hero stature. What is the big thing that Jesus did?
Read Colossians 1:19-22
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” The Big Thing That Jesus Did To Warrant Hero Status? He Died to Reconcile You and Me to Himself. We all admire people who are willing to lay it all on the line for what they believe or for people they care about. Remember Cassie Bernall? She was the teenager at Columbine High School who looked up at a boy with a gun pointing at her and said, “Yes, I do believe in God.” Or Todd Beamer who on 9/11 turned to those around him on a plan hijacked by terrorist and said, “lets roll” and plunged to his death. Or Pat Tillman who gave up the wealth and status of the NFL only to be killed in Iraq. We admire that type of heroism and rightly so. I wonder if our admiration is not partially due to the fact that they remind us of Christ. He looked Pilate straight in the face and said, “It is as you say. I am the King of the Jews.” Then he paid for that truth with His life. Christ prayed in the garden and wrestled with the Father over what to do. Then, if you would allow me to say it this way, Jesus said to the Father, “let’s roll” and then went to His death. Christ called his disciples His friends and then took a cross for them.
Let me say with all honesty, this work of Christ amazes me.
It forces me to wrestle with the greatness of Christ. It challenges me to search for appropriate words of wonder. But there is something even more astounding to me regarding the work of this hero Christ. Something that forces me to my knees in complete awe. And it is this.
Christ died for the young boy who pulled the trigger that day at Columbine High School. Christ died for those men who believed so strongly in their cause that they would hijack a plane and kill innocent people. And Christ died for those soldiers who shot the bullet that killed our soldier. Now let me ask you the second of our two questions. Do you want this Jesus as your hero? If you do not know Christ as your savior, then this is a time for you to wrestle with this question, “Do you want this Jesus as your Savior?” If so, then I invite you If you are already a follower of Christ, then use this time to examine your heart. Let me ask the same question with a different twist for you. Do you want this Jesus as your Lord? Is the Jesus described this morning the Jesus you have given every aspect of your life to? Or have you substituted another hero. Use this time as a time to repent or affirm your followership of the hero Jesus.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Gray Matter - "The Illusion of Immorality"
Immorality distorts our decision-making
We hear about the crazy ordeals in the news - Dad/Soccer coach in Flor. who everybody loved, was arrested for embezzling $10,000 from the league and concessions. Parents were shocked.
A mom in another part of the country who had been elected treasurer of their non-profit S.L., and get this, over the last few years she has embezzled over $100,000 from the league. -
Again the parents were shocked.
For all of us we seem to go thru these seasons of life where we’re just not dialed in, below the surface we’re struggling & we battle hurts, hang-ups, and habits - and sometimes things just get down right out of control.
and nobody wants to end up there.
Do you think soccer dad and mom woke up one morning and said, “well today I’m gonna rip off my kids S.L.”
No it probably started w/ a big bill to pay & they were short on cash & thought nobody will notice - we‘ll repay it”
Maybe a few months later there became a sense of entitlement,
like you know I put alot of hours into this S.L., they owe me.
Then 1 thing leads to another & suddenly you end up in a place you thought you’d never be. Betraying people you thought you’d never betray - doing things you thought you’d never do.
So in each of our lives there is this temptation of immorality, whatever it may be & we all struggle w/ it - it’s unavoidable -
and we may end up living our lives w/ the appearance that everything is just fine.
So today were going to talk about, how do we unplug from this illusion of immorality.
How do we unplug from the negative influences.
If you have your bible turn to Is. 6
We’re going to unplug and see the world for what it really is - see the truth about God and ourselves - unplugging from this illusion is for people who are fed up w/ low living - they don’t wanna live a half life - they wanna live full out the life God
intended for us to live - they wanna unplug from the illusion & they want to be free & we see here in Is. a picture of a guy who has unplugged from the illusion of immorality - to live free and it changed everything for him.
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
And he said, Go, and tell this people.” Isaiah 6:1-9
If we want to see God like Is. did we need to clear our perspective - when Is. cleared his perspective everything changed.
He saw God’s Holiness, he saw his helplessness, and he saw the hopelessness of the world -
He unplugged, and began a process - a process that breathed new life, and it freed him up and sent him on his mission.
There’s this process of personal renewal that set him free - look at this in vs. 5 he says, WOE (circle) then the angel flys up to Is. (7)and says, LO (cir), & (v9) God says, GO (cir)
Is say, WOE, the angel says LO, and God says, GO - mix
These are the 3 elements in our journey toward freedom, to unplug from the illusion - 1st step is cleansing, 2nd step is consecration - angel touches him and says you belong to God
3rd step is that of our mission, God says, GO I have a mission for you.
WOE - cleansing
Hou. we have a problem, I have a problem, I am a man of unclean lips - God created you on purpose, for a purpose and God wants to pour into you - every arena of life crammed full of this thing Jesus called abundant life and love.
When we look at the great men and women of the bible we say, I want that too! That God-filled life.
When we find someone who displays this God-filled life something we find out about that person is they have gone thru this personal cleansing - someone living that God-filled life has dealt w/ the issue of personal sin in their life.
“let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience” Hebrews 10:22
God uses all types of personalities, all sorts of people groups, ethnic groups, male and female, big vessels, small vessels, plain vessels, even broken vessels, which is good b/c I’m a cracked pot - but there’s one 1 type of vessel God wont use and that’s a dirty vessel - 2 Timothy 2:21
“Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work”
- which mug would you use? Dirty or clean?
God wont do any less
Here’s the problem in my life I’ve discovered - I have this amazing tendency to get myself dirty - anyone know what I’m talking about? I have this nat. ability to say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing & I get myself dirty - I get myself stained - chip/ques
It’s a profound truth about ourselves and it’s key to unplugging from the illusion and it’s this: We’re ALL Stained.
In other words, everytime I gossip about somebody it’s a stain, everytime I shade the truth a little bit to protect myself or make myself look a little better it’s a stain, everytime hurtful words come out of my mouth to my wife or children it’s a stain -
everytime there’s a sexually inappropriate thought, another stain
Stain after stain after stain - what do I do to clean myself up, how do i get myself clean? Do I pull out the Tide pen and start scrubbin? You know most people think that’s how it works,
pull yourself up by the bootstraps, muster up some will-power & say, “I’m gonna be good - I’m gonna at least try to get the good things I do to outweigh the bad things I do. - Hopefully it will pan out in the end”
But I’ll tell you, I don’t think I could keep up w/ my sins.
I can’t out-do my stains. I keep saying the wrong things or doing the wrong things - I can’t keep up - I can’t do enough good works.
Here’s the good news, we don’t have to, it’s not about trying to outdo the stains or scrubbin away the stains - 1 John 1:8-9
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
We can be cleansed of our stains, no matter what we’ve done, no matter how big the stain or the type of stain or even how many stains - you can be clean!
How? Thru the cross of Christ (explain)
B4 God pours Himself into us, there’s this moment of personal confession of saying, God, I can’t do it, will you please forgive me, will you clean me up, will You wash me clean from inside out... and He washes you completely.
For us to unplug from this illusion of immorality, this is where it starts - it can happen today - instantly!
We just need to confess to be able to clean up those dirty vessels to remain pure & holy b4 God and then do what He wants us to do. Psalm 32:5
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD "— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
LO - consecration
Roman 12:1 - “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Consecration is offering yourself as a living sacrifice, saying, “God here I am, take all of me, I surrender to you.”
For any of us to be used mightily of God - there comes this act of I’m gonna be full out surrendered to Jesus.
What kind of sacrifice does God want?
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17
For us to be used by God we have to come to this realization that the greatest hinderance to God’s work in my life is not other things, or circumstances, or other people, but ourselves.
That’s the greatest obstacle.
To unplug from this illusion we need to understand - brokenness
The issue of brokenness appears over and over in scrip.
Brokenness is a symbol of surrender - Jesus/ 5000
took the bread, blessed the bread, broke the bread, then He gave it away.
That’s exactly what Jesus will do w/ anything we put in His hands - if you put your life in His hands, He’ll take you, clean you up, and bless you - but there’s this process of breaking as well b4 He can give you away.
Now what do we need to be broken of? Our pride, it’s all about my dreams, my plans, my way - God’s gotta break us of these so we can be set free.
Wild Stallion - to break it - you don’t hurt it, but harness it - harness it’s power - why? - to work together.
Jesus said, Father, not my will, but yours. - that’s what we need to say - Life is not about us guys - life is about God
We’re born w/ this addiction to self & we gotta be broken of it
or otherwise we’ll spend our entire lives staring at our navels
“Cause it’s all about me, my stuff, what I have going on, -
this is not a good way to live life - so God breaks us of that & we become the kind of person He can pour into.
GO! - mission
This is about accepting your mission from God.
Sociologists tell us that it only takes 2% of a population to influence a culture - if that 2% is radically committed to whatever they believe in & whoever they follow.
If you need some evidence of that, look at Germany and the 3rd Reich, look at China & communism.
Let me ask you today - will you be God’s 2% in this world?
Will you be radically committed to the mission He’s given you.
b/c you do have a mission from Jesus Christ
“As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”
John 17:18
You have a mission in this world, and you may have been delayed like Is. was delayed, but if you’re ready to confess, and you’re ready to surrender & and say, I’m all yours God - you can be on your mission, right here, right now - today.
God is not saying, “I’ll use you & you & you, and not you -
if you’re useable - God will use you - it’s not about ability, it’s about availability
And He pours into you and me & that’s how He works.
He touches you, and then He touches others thru you.
Isn’t that cool!
We hear about the crazy ordeals in the news - Dad/Soccer coach in Flor. who everybody loved, was arrested for embezzling $10,000 from the league and concessions. Parents were shocked.
A mom in another part of the country who had been elected treasurer of their non-profit S.L., and get this, over the last few years she has embezzled over $100,000 from the league. -
Again the parents were shocked.
For all of us we seem to go thru these seasons of life where we’re just not dialed in, below the surface we’re struggling & we battle hurts, hang-ups, and habits - and sometimes things just get down right out of control.
and nobody wants to end up there.
Do you think soccer dad and mom woke up one morning and said, “well today I’m gonna rip off my kids S.L.”
No it probably started w/ a big bill to pay & they were short on cash & thought nobody will notice - we‘ll repay it”
Maybe a few months later there became a sense of entitlement,
like you know I put alot of hours into this S.L., they owe me.
Then 1 thing leads to another & suddenly you end up in a place you thought you’d never be. Betraying people you thought you’d never betray - doing things you thought you’d never do.
So in each of our lives there is this temptation of immorality, whatever it may be & we all struggle w/ it - it’s unavoidable -
and we may end up living our lives w/ the appearance that everything is just fine.
So today were going to talk about, how do we unplug from this illusion of immorality.
How do we unplug from the negative influences.
If you have your bible turn to Is. 6
We’re going to unplug and see the world for what it really is - see the truth about God and ourselves - unplugging from this illusion is for people who are fed up w/ low living - they don’t wanna live a half life - they wanna live full out the life God
intended for us to live - they wanna unplug from the illusion & they want to be free & we see here in Is. a picture of a guy who has unplugged from the illusion of immorality - to live free and it changed everything for him.
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
And he said, Go, and tell this people.” Isaiah 6:1-9
If we want to see God like Is. did we need to clear our perspective - when Is. cleared his perspective everything changed.
He saw God’s Holiness, he saw his helplessness, and he saw the hopelessness of the world -
He unplugged, and began a process - a process that breathed new life, and it freed him up and sent him on his mission.
There’s this process of personal renewal that set him free - look at this in vs. 5 he says, WOE (circle) then the angel flys up to Is. (7)and says, LO (cir), & (v9) God says, GO (cir)
Is say, WOE, the angel says LO, and God says, GO - mix
These are the 3 elements in our journey toward freedom, to unplug from the illusion - 1st step is cleansing, 2nd step is consecration - angel touches him and says you belong to God
3rd step is that of our mission, God says, GO I have a mission for you.
WOE - cleansing
Hou. we have a problem, I have a problem, I am a man of unclean lips - God created you on purpose, for a purpose and God wants to pour into you - every arena of life crammed full of this thing Jesus called abundant life and love.
When we look at the great men and women of the bible we say, I want that too! That God-filled life.
When we find someone who displays this God-filled life something we find out about that person is they have gone thru this personal cleansing - someone living that God-filled life has dealt w/ the issue of personal sin in their life.
“let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience” Hebrews 10:22
God uses all types of personalities, all sorts of people groups, ethnic groups, male and female, big vessels, small vessels, plain vessels, even broken vessels, which is good b/c I’m a cracked pot - but there’s one 1 type of vessel God wont use and that’s a dirty vessel - 2 Timothy 2:21
“Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work”
- which mug would you use? Dirty or clean?
God wont do any less
Here’s the problem in my life I’ve discovered - I have this amazing tendency to get myself dirty - anyone know what I’m talking about? I have this nat. ability to say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing & I get myself dirty - I get myself stained - chip/ques
It’s a profound truth about ourselves and it’s key to unplugging from the illusion and it’s this: We’re ALL Stained.
In other words, everytime I gossip about somebody it’s a stain, everytime I shade the truth a little bit to protect myself or make myself look a little better it’s a stain, everytime hurtful words come out of my mouth to my wife or children it’s a stain -
everytime there’s a sexually inappropriate thought, another stain
Stain after stain after stain - what do I do to clean myself up, how do i get myself clean? Do I pull out the Tide pen and start scrubbin? You know most people think that’s how it works,
pull yourself up by the bootstraps, muster up some will-power & say, “I’m gonna be good - I’m gonna at least try to get the good things I do to outweigh the bad things I do. - Hopefully it will pan out in the end”
But I’ll tell you, I don’t think I could keep up w/ my sins.
I can’t out-do my stains. I keep saying the wrong things or doing the wrong things - I can’t keep up - I can’t do enough good works.
Here’s the good news, we don’t have to, it’s not about trying to outdo the stains or scrubbin away the stains - 1 John 1:8-9
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
We can be cleansed of our stains, no matter what we’ve done, no matter how big the stain or the type of stain or even how many stains - you can be clean!
How? Thru the cross of Christ (explain)
B4 God pours Himself into us, there’s this moment of personal confession of saying, God, I can’t do it, will you please forgive me, will you clean me up, will You wash me clean from inside out... and He washes you completely.
For us to unplug from this illusion of immorality, this is where it starts - it can happen today - instantly!
We just need to confess to be able to clean up those dirty vessels to remain pure & holy b4 God and then do what He wants us to do. Psalm 32:5
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD "— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
LO - consecration
Roman 12:1 - “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Consecration is offering yourself as a living sacrifice, saying, “God here I am, take all of me, I surrender to you.”
For any of us to be used mightily of God - there comes this act of I’m gonna be full out surrendered to Jesus.
What kind of sacrifice does God want?
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17
For us to be used by God we have to come to this realization that the greatest hinderance to God’s work in my life is not other things, or circumstances, or other people, but ourselves.
That’s the greatest obstacle.
To unplug from this illusion we need to understand - brokenness
The issue of brokenness appears over and over in scrip.
Brokenness is a symbol of surrender - Jesus/ 5000
took the bread, blessed the bread, broke the bread, then He gave it away.
That’s exactly what Jesus will do w/ anything we put in His hands - if you put your life in His hands, He’ll take you, clean you up, and bless you - but there’s this process of breaking as well b4 He can give you away.
Now what do we need to be broken of? Our pride, it’s all about my dreams, my plans, my way - God’s gotta break us of these so we can be set free.
Wild Stallion - to break it - you don’t hurt it, but harness it - harness it’s power - why? - to work together.
Jesus said, Father, not my will, but yours. - that’s what we need to say - Life is not about us guys - life is about God
We’re born w/ this addiction to self & we gotta be broken of it
or otherwise we’ll spend our entire lives staring at our navels
“Cause it’s all about me, my stuff, what I have going on, -
this is not a good way to live life - so God breaks us of that & we become the kind of person He can pour into.
GO! - mission
This is about accepting your mission from God.
Sociologists tell us that it only takes 2% of a population to influence a culture - if that 2% is radically committed to whatever they believe in & whoever they follow.
If you need some evidence of that, look at Germany and the 3rd Reich, look at China & communism.
Let me ask you today - will you be God’s 2% in this world?
Will you be radically committed to the mission He’s given you.
b/c you do have a mission from Jesus Christ
“As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”
John 17:18
You have a mission in this world, and you may have been delayed like Is. was delayed, but if you’re ready to confess, and you’re ready to surrender & and say, I’m all yours God - you can be on your mission, right here, right now - today.
God is not saying, “I’ll use you & you & you, and not you -
if you’re useable - God will use you - it’s not about ability, it’s about availability
And He pours into you and me & that’s how He works.
He touches you, and then He touches others thru you.
Isn’t that cool!
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Gray Matter - "I See it, I Want it, I Gotta Have it"
How many of you have made one of those Dumb, WWIT dec. in life? how many w/ money?
For us to disentangle the whole money issue we need to get to the root - we’ve gotta look at the root issue of what causes us to make poor choices, stupid dec. - we could look at things like budgeting, or the details of how to go about investing - but if we don’t look at the root of what causes us to get in this
predicament time and time again then we’ll just go right back there
Sometimes roots are hard to extract, particularly in this area of our finances
Brief Insight: There is little difference in the financial
behavior of those INSIDE the church as opposed to those OUTSIDE of the church
Here’s why we can say that - b/c most church-going people struggle in this area just as much of those who do not make God a priority in life
The root is GREED
If I were to take an informal poll of those in the church I would venture to think they’d say Greed is wrong - however most people would also say, I’d like some more money
- let’s just see (hands)
How many of you wouldn’t mind having a little more money?
“I’m not greedy, I just want more money”
This is why this is good to talk about in this series, b/c we’ve all been there - we’ve made some bad choices/dec w/ our cold hard earned cash
I think most of our money problems and poor dec. come down to - What holds us captive? it is our selfish wants and desires and that boils down to greed, materialism
which brings us to the challenge of Jesus
The Challenge: I am RESPONSIBLE before God for the
way I live in regards to the money I have
You see God, the Creator of the Universe has this competing rival - and it is anything we put above Him - which always boils down our wants and desires and the root is Greed
From the Lips of Jesus
• How money has a power over us
Matthew 6:19-24
But here is Jesus talking about how we need to make wise dec. concerning our money and then He sticks in v.22,23
and then right back to making wise money chioces/dec.
We probably ought to ask, “What in the world is that ‘eye thing’ doing right in the smack middle of making wise money dec. ?
“Jesus said, ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your
eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how
great is that darkness!’” Matthew 6:22-23
one level it’s very simple - if eyes work and light is on you can see all around - where chairs are and so forth...
If you eye isn’t working, even w/ a whole lot of light all around the room, then in a real sense you’re still in the dark.
right now you’re thinking, “Thank you Bible Scholar”
So to get some better perspective let’s look over to Luke where He also mentions the eye lamp thing then He goes on - look at
“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard
against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist
in the abundance of his possessions.’” Luke 12:15
What’s He talking about? Greed materialism - same stuff over in Matthew 6
Definition of Greed:
Inordinate DESIRE and/or DEPENDENCE on money and/or material things!
What’s that mean, ‘inordinate’ anyway
let’s unpack that, but write this down first
Jesus’ MAIN Point: Greed/Materialism has the peculiar
ability to BLIND me, to distort the way I SEE things in this world
Greed has the ability to blind you/me and the ability to distort everything, every choice, every dec. that we make
1st: Greed/Materialism has the power to blind me
to GREED & MATERIALISM!
If we were sitting there during the sermon on the mount - Matt. 6 and heard Jesus talking about making wise money dec. then the eye, lamp, light thing, then back to money we’d probably be thinking, “I don’t get it, what are you talking about, why did you put that in there?”
What I think is interesting is that Jesus is trying to get us to think
about this. But were saying, just tell us what to do
But Jesus wants us to really look at this
You see the thing here for us is this is the one issue in our world we see diff. than every other issue - that’s why Jesus says, It’s a problem of the eye -
Jesus never had to say to anybody, watch out you might be committing adultery - they know they are - they don’t say, gee whiz you’re not my wife - that doesn’t happen right?
but Jesus had to shout, watch out!
why b/c greed hides, it blinds us like nothing else
people may confess all kinds of things, lust, internet, bad behaviors, anger... but you never hear confessions of greed - why?
we don’t think that’s an issue - “Me - Greed?”
“I don’t make that much money” - we think of rich people right?
Here’s the thing, we all know somebody, friends, family, that are much more extravagant and excessive in their use of money than we are - isn’t that true - and thats all it takes - just to know somebody thats way out there in their use of money - so we say,
Me greedy, no way and Jesus says, watch out!
b/c most our dumb money dec. had to do w/ our selfish wants and desires, greed or materialism
2nd: Greed and materialism keeps me from
ASKING HARD QUESTIONS about my lifestyle
we don’t like to think about that - there’s always somebody we know who makes 3, 5, 10 times the amount of money we do - so we just don’t think we’re greedy
and we don’t think we need to ask the hard ?’s
like
Do I really NEED to SPEND this much money on this?
do I really NEED to spend that much money on those jeans?
do I really NEED to?
we don’t ask those tough ?’s and sometimes, alot of times that’s where the cc debt comes in
Are there ways I could save money in order to give more away?
Are there ways that I could be more generous?
As much as we don’t like to talk about it or hear about the money issues like this - Jesus talked about it all the time.
It’s in the Bible more than anything else - I wonder why?
B/c God knew how much we were going to fight against and struggle in this area
• Why money exercises power over us
“Jesus said, ‘For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.’” Matthew 6:21
The Point: The place where your heart really RESTS is revealed by money!
So what happens is we make unwise dec. b/c of where our heart really is. We think about ourselves.
in dealing with self, we use our heart, w/ others our head
we need to reverse that.
but what happens when we don’t reverse that is we make dec. based on our personal emotions and wants - here’s some
Money is a way…
...of gaining SIGNIFICANCE
we base our significance on our income, where we live, where we eat, dress - in reality people aren’t watching you that closely, they don’t really care, we care, that’s why we make those dec.
our sig. comes only in God
...of providing SECURITY
19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6
once again - security only found in Christ Jesus
• How we can break its power over us?
“Jesus said, ‘But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things all these things
will be given to you as well.’” Matthew 6:33
The Point: REVERSE the order of my normal
choices and decision I make regarding money
re-prioritize
here’s how:
First: GIVE TO GOD
Second: PAY MYSELF
Third: PAY MY TAXES
Fourth: GET OUT OF CONSUMER DEBT
Fifth: LIVE OFF THE REST!
For us to disentangle the whole money issue we need to get to the root - we’ve gotta look at the root issue of what causes us to make poor choices, stupid dec. - we could look at things like budgeting, or the details of how to go about investing - but if we don’t look at the root of what causes us to get in this
predicament time and time again then we’ll just go right back there
Sometimes roots are hard to extract, particularly in this area of our finances
Brief Insight: There is little difference in the financial
behavior of those INSIDE the church as opposed to those OUTSIDE of the church
Here’s why we can say that - b/c most church-going people struggle in this area just as much of those who do not make God a priority in life
The root is GREED
If I were to take an informal poll of those in the church I would venture to think they’d say Greed is wrong - however most people would also say, I’d like some more money
- let’s just see (hands)
How many of you wouldn’t mind having a little more money?
“I’m not greedy, I just want more money”
This is why this is good to talk about in this series, b/c we’ve all been there - we’ve made some bad choices/dec w/ our cold hard earned cash
I think most of our money problems and poor dec. come down to - What holds us captive? it is our selfish wants and desires and that boils down to greed, materialism
which brings us to the challenge of Jesus
The Challenge: I am RESPONSIBLE before God for the
way I live in regards to the money I have
You see God, the Creator of the Universe has this competing rival - and it is anything we put above Him - which always boils down our wants and desires and the root is Greed
From the Lips of Jesus
• How money has a power over us
Matthew 6:19-24
But here is Jesus talking about how we need to make wise dec. concerning our money and then He sticks in v.22,23
and then right back to making wise money chioces/dec.
We probably ought to ask, “What in the world is that ‘eye thing’ doing right in the smack middle of making wise money dec. ?
“Jesus said, ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your
eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how
great is that darkness!’” Matthew 6:22-23
one level it’s very simple - if eyes work and light is on you can see all around - where chairs are and so forth...
If you eye isn’t working, even w/ a whole lot of light all around the room, then in a real sense you’re still in the dark.
right now you’re thinking, “Thank you Bible Scholar”
So to get some better perspective let’s look over to Luke where He also mentions the eye lamp thing then He goes on - look at
“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard
against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist
in the abundance of his possessions.’” Luke 12:15
What’s He talking about? Greed materialism - same stuff over in Matthew 6
Definition of Greed:
Inordinate DESIRE and/or DEPENDENCE on money and/or material things!
What’s that mean, ‘inordinate’ anyway
let’s unpack that, but write this down first
Jesus’ MAIN Point: Greed/Materialism has the peculiar
ability to BLIND me, to distort the way I SEE things in this world
Greed has the ability to blind you/me and the ability to distort everything, every choice, every dec. that we make
1st: Greed/Materialism has the power to blind me
to GREED & MATERIALISM!
If we were sitting there during the sermon on the mount - Matt. 6 and heard Jesus talking about making wise money dec. then the eye, lamp, light thing, then back to money we’d probably be thinking, “I don’t get it, what are you talking about, why did you put that in there?”
What I think is interesting is that Jesus is trying to get us to think
about this. But were saying, just tell us what to do
But Jesus wants us to really look at this
You see the thing here for us is this is the one issue in our world we see diff. than every other issue - that’s why Jesus says, It’s a problem of the eye -
Jesus never had to say to anybody, watch out you might be committing adultery - they know they are - they don’t say, gee whiz you’re not my wife - that doesn’t happen right?
but Jesus had to shout, watch out!
why b/c greed hides, it blinds us like nothing else
people may confess all kinds of things, lust, internet, bad behaviors, anger... but you never hear confessions of greed - why?
we don’t think that’s an issue - “Me - Greed?”
“I don’t make that much money” - we think of rich people right?
Here’s the thing, we all know somebody, friends, family, that are much more extravagant and excessive in their use of money than we are - isn’t that true - and thats all it takes - just to know somebody thats way out there in their use of money - so we say,
Me greedy, no way and Jesus says, watch out!
b/c most our dumb money dec. had to do w/ our selfish wants and desires, greed or materialism
2nd: Greed and materialism keeps me from
ASKING HARD QUESTIONS about my lifestyle
we don’t like to think about that - there’s always somebody we know who makes 3, 5, 10 times the amount of money we do - so we just don’t think we’re greedy
and we don’t think we need to ask the hard ?’s
like
Do I really NEED to SPEND this much money on this?
do I really NEED to spend that much money on those jeans?
do I really NEED to?
we don’t ask those tough ?’s and sometimes, alot of times that’s where the cc debt comes in
Are there ways I could save money in order to give more away?
Are there ways that I could be more generous?
As much as we don’t like to talk about it or hear about the money issues like this - Jesus talked about it all the time.
It’s in the Bible more than anything else - I wonder why?
B/c God knew how much we were going to fight against and struggle in this area
• Why money exercises power over us
“Jesus said, ‘For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.’” Matthew 6:21
The Point: The place where your heart really RESTS is revealed by money!
So what happens is we make unwise dec. b/c of where our heart really is. We think about ourselves.
in dealing with self, we use our heart, w/ others our head
we need to reverse that.
but what happens when we don’t reverse that is we make dec. based on our personal emotions and wants - here’s some
Money is a way…
...of gaining SIGNIFICANCE
we base our significance on our income, where we live, where we eat, dress - in reality people aren’t watching you that closely, they don’t really care, we care, that’s why we make those dec.
our sig. comes only in God
...of providing SECURITY
19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6
once again - security only found in Christ Jesus
• How we can break its power over us?
“Jesus said, ‘But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things all these things
will be given to you as well.’” Matthew 6:33
The Point: REVERSE the order of my normal
choices and decision I make regarding money
re-prioritize
here’s how:
First: GIVE TO GOD
Second: PAY MYSELF
Third: PAY MY TAXES
Fourth: GET OUT OF CONSUMER DEBT
Fifth: LIVE OFF THE REST!
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Gray Matter - "I've Got Style"
Remember
• We are the SUM TOTAL of the decisions that we make
I firmly believe God wants us to make great, wise dec. in life
in all the choices that lay b4 us, God wants us to choose wisely
• Our decisions determine our DESTINY
that is sooo true - we’ve said this from the beg. - all of us have made some dumb, WWIT dec. in life and have suffered the conseq for them
Here’s what we’re gonna do today, we’re gonna look at who we are as people, how God has wired us up - b/c this has a major impact on how we make these dec. and choices in front of us everyday - who are you as a dec. maker?
as we begin to discover our design, the unique way God created each of us, I think we’ll see how heavily that influences the kind of choices and dec. we make
And we’ll see that our personalities impact our dec.
So let’s hone in on you - think only of yourselves - don’t nudge your spouse and say, aahh man, that is so you!
I want you to think and look at yourself today
Discover our Design in Decision Making
You’ve got style - what we need to understand is they no right or wrongs per-say - all of them have strengths and weaknesses which we need to know about OK - get paired w/ the opposite quite often, spouse, teammate, bro, sister - we need to know that others are diff. but today focus on yourself
Decision Making Styles:
• THE OVER-THINKER, OVER ANALYSIZER
do you make dec. like that - you find yourself playing over the sit/scenrio or dec. over and over over almost paralyzing yourself from making a dec. “I’m not sure, I don’t know what to do... so I’ll think about it some more
(I’ve gotta make the right career choice, this looks good, great benefits, it’s a good fit for me, but i don’t know, what if something better comes along? TAKE the job already!)
this person just thinks a bit too much and they turn stuff over, over, over like a rotisserie grill
who in the bible might be like this?
Biblical Character: MOSES - Exodus 3-4
over analyzer reluctant leader - constantly questioning himself - God tells him to go to pharaoh, moses says, oh God you got the wrong guy, I stststuder, I cant speak, how about my brother Aaron he’s the man, he’s like the game show talk host what about him? what if they don’t accept me? what if I mess up? what if I don’t do exactly what you want done?
w/ the over ana, over thinker - God doesn’t want you to live like that - He wants you to step out, but this person gets stuck often times
• THE UNDER-THINKER, IMPULSIVE Thinker
“I’d rather make a bad dec. than no dec. at all”
and they can make some wrong dec.”But I don’t care, I’m gonna make a dec. b/c I’m that kinda guy or gal”
Who’s impulsive in the bible?
Biblical Character: PETER - luke 22; matthew 14, 26
“Oh Jesus, I’ll never deny you, always be a follower - Jesus says, you’re gonna forget about me pretty quick, in fact this very night” in the garden they came to arrest Christ, what did Peter do - so funny he tried to fight the best trained fighting troops -
here’s this impulsive fisherman taking on the Navy Seals of the day and age - Peter was an impulsive guy
Remember: Under-thinkers/Impulsive thinkers make RASH decisions
next week - how many of you have made a an unwise, rash dec. w/ money? never let an impulsive, under-thinker control the checkbook - you just don’t
(checkout lanes knick knacks - impulsive - wal-mart displays)
marketing gurus know that
THE NON-CONFRONTATIONALIST, the NONBOAT ROCKING types
don’t wanna rock the boat, don’t wanna step on anybody’s toes
I’m just gonna shrink back into my shell, I’ll just keep quiet, even though... I wont say anything, even though I should
b/c I don’t wanna rock the boat - I don’t like conflict or I want everybody to like me
someone in scrip is guy by the name of Eli (OT Eli)
Biblical Character: ELI - 1 Samuel 2
He was a temple priest, he was totally clueless or chose to be clueless about his kids behavior - he has 2 sons, Hophni and Phinehas - idea for your next child - these kids were on the steroids of evil - out of control - they were having sex w/ the girls who worked in the temple - abusing the sacrificial system - Eli knew about alot of this stuff, yet did nothing about it - didn’t want to hurt them, step on their toes... probably didn’t want to look bad himself, so he ignored it - head in the sand
b/c he didn’t confront them his life was a tragedy - never lived up to what could have and should have been
• THE PLEASURE-SEEKER, FUN FILLED FANATIC
I’m sure we don’t have any pleasure seeking types here right
“When I make a dec. I just want it to be... fun”
“If it’s fun, I’m in - I’ll choose it, if it’s not, I’m not going there”
they may say i just wanna have fun, and hey God wants me to have fun
Remember: It’s not so much that God wants us
to be happy…He wants us to be OBEDIENT
and in that obedience comes joy - that’s why we 1st ask bible?
when facing dec. and choices we may not always feel like going in that direction (talked about basis of dumb, WWIT - if it feels right) you may not really want to go there, but if that’s God’s direction and we honor Him in those dec. the feelings will follow.
Biblical Character: SAMSON - Judges 14
He was like the biblical body builder - mr. atlas/m. univof his day
God kept telling him don’t mess around w/ the Philistines - they are what would be called, ungodly, so don’t associate w/ them it will only get you in trouble
So Samson chose the opposite - I’ll do what I want to do, b/c those Phil. can’t hang w/me anyway - he says, I’m gonna do what’s pleasurable - have you ever done that?
then somewhere down the road you’re wishing you wouldn’t have - so Samson tells his parents, his parents (maybe trying to find a loophole - how close can i get w/out getting burned)
“I’ve seen a Phil. woman, now go get her for me”
keep reading it says, She looks good to me - in other words, she’s a HOTTIE
b/c he went down that road of dec. making his life was a tragedy
what happened with him is he wasted yr. after yr. of great things he could have done for God but he chose to pleasure seek
instead, until he cycled back around to God - but so much wasted time - this is what we’re trying to avoid - we want to make a commitment to making great, wise dec.
• THE DOGMATIC decision maker, I’m RIGHT everyone else is WRONG Type
how many of you are married to that type?
they say i just know I’m right, i have made up my mind and it ain’t gonna change - this dogmatic I’m right dec. maker sees every dec. as an obstacle to overcome - so they’ll just knock down wall, after wall, after wall - you know what ends up happening - they can hurt people, anybody that gets in their way
They dont mind any collateral damage, people they may have stepped on on their way to a dec.
Biblical Character: PAUL - Acts 7-8
B4 he gave his life to Christ he was killing christians and he felt it was his way or the highway and he abused people. Then one day he met Jesus and he was tenderized on the inside by the work of the Spirit - God totally changed his life
Which tells me God can change anyone
• THE PROCRASTINATOR, SOMEDAY Decider
You know I’m not sure if I’m a procrastinator, I’ll get back to you on that one
Procras wait til the last minute right - put things off b/c of fear,
sometimes b/c of laziness - tomorrow I’ll get to that or next week
Acts 24
Biblical Character: FELIX
invited Paul to talk about Jesus, felix says vs. 25 go away for now - procrastinator, the bible says felix was convicted but sent Paul off anyway - when it’s more convenient I’ll call for you again - you know what saddens me, is that there are a huge # of people who are putting off, procras. about the greatest dec. of all time of their entire life just putting it off
maybe when I get my act together, you know sure I’ll do it, just not right now
You may be looking over this stuff today thinking well I kinda fit into this personality or that one and I see some of my weaknesses here - so how can I change those, what can I do?
We need to look at ourselves, our personalities, our natural
tendencies and the 1st step is to ask
Question: What does the BIBLE have to say?
it’s the God filter
The 2nd step for us in all the gray areas is ask what is the wise
If I’m impulsive, under-thinker then I can look at myself & ask,
In light of my PAST EXPERIENCES,
what is the WISE thing for me to do?
In light of my PRESENT CONDITIONS and circumstances,
what is the WISE thing for me to do?
In light of my FUTURE HOPES & DREAMS,
what is the WISE thing for me to do?
not what you feeel like doing, our natural tendencies may take us down the wrong road, so it’s good to know what those natural
tendencies are for us to make wise dec.
Key Concepts:
• Over-thinkers need to TRUST
• Under-thinkers need to WAIT
• Non-confrontationalists need to STAND
• Pleasure seekers need to OBEY
• Dogmatic decision makers need to FORGIVE
• Procrastinators need to DECIDE
• We are the SUM TOTAL of the decisions that we make
I firmly believe God wants us to make great, wise dec. in life
in all the choices that lay b4 us, God wants us to choose wisely
• Our decisions determine our DESTINY
that is sooo true - we’ve said this from the beg. - all of us have made some dumb, WWIT dec. in life and have suffered the conseq for them
Here’s what we’re gonna do today, we’re gonna look at who we are as people, how God has wired us up - b/c this has a major impact on how we make these dec. and choices in front of us everyday - who are you as a dec. maker?
as we begin to discover our design, the unique way God created each of us, I think we’ll see how heavily that influences the kind of choices and dec. we make
And we’ll see that our personalities impact our dec.
So let’s hone in on you - think only of yourselves - don’t nudge your spouse and say, aahh man, that is so you!
I want you to think and look at yourself today
Discover our Design in Decision Making
You’ve got style - what we need to understand is they no right or wrongs per-say - all of them have strengths and weaknesses which we need to know about OK - get paired w/ the opposite quite often, spouse, teammate, bro, sister - we need to know that others are diff. but today focus on yourself
Decision Making Styles:
• THE OVER-THINKER, OVER ANALYSIZER
do you make dec. like that - you find yourself playing over the sit/scenrio or dec. over and over over almost paralyzing yourself from making a dec. “I’m not sure, I don’t know what to do... so I’ll think about it some more
(I’ve gotta make the right career choice, this looks good, great benefits, it’s a good fit for me, but i don’t know, what if something better comes along? TAKE the job already!)
this person just thinks a bit too much and they turn stuff over, over, over like a rotisserie grill
who in the bible might be like this?
Biblical Character: MOSES - Exodus 3-4
over analyzer reluctant leader - constantly questioning himself - God tells him to go to pharaoh, moses says, oh God you got the wrong guy, I stststuder, I cant speak, how about my brother Aaron he’s the man, he’s like the game show talk host what about him? what if they don’t accept me? what if I mess up? what if I don’t do exactly what you want done?
w/ the over ana, over thinker - God doesn’t want you to live like that - He wants you to step out, but this person gets stuck often times
• THE UNDER-THINKER, IMPULSIVE Thinker
“I’d rather make a bad dec. than no dec. at all”
and they can make some wrong dec.”But I don’t care, I’m gonna make a dec. b/c I’m that kinda guy or gal”
Who’s impulsive in the bible?
Biblical Character: PETER - luke 22; matthew 14, 26
“Oh Jesus, I’ll never deny you, always be a follower - Jesus says, you’re gonna forget about me pretty quick, in fact this very night” in the garden they came to arrest Christ, what did Peter do - so funny he tried to fight the best trained fighting troops -
here’s this impulsive fisherman taking on the Navy Seals of the day and age - Peter was an impulsive guy
Remember: Under-thinkers/Impulsive thinkers make RASH decisions
next week - how many of you have made a an unwise, rash dec. w/ money? never let an impulsive, under-thinker control the checkbook - you just don’t
(checkout lanes knick knacks - impulsive - wal-mart displays)
marketing gurus know that
THE NON-CONFRONTATIONALIST, the NONBOAT ROCKING types
don’t wanna rock the boat, don’t wanna step on anybody’s toes
I’m just gonna shrink back into my shell, I’ll just keep quiet, even though... I wont say anything, even though I should
b/c I don’t wanna rock the boat - I don’t like conflict or I want everybody to like me
someone in scrip is guy by the name of Eli (OT Eli)
Biblical Character: ELI - 1 Samuel 2
He was a temple priest, he was totally clueless or chose to be clueless about his kids behavior - he has 2 sons, Hophni and Phinehas - idea for your next child - these kids were on the steroids of evil - out of control - they were having sex w/ the girls who worked in the temple - abusing the sacrificial system - Eli knew about alot of this stuff, yet did nothing about it - didn’t want to hurt them, step on their toes... probably didn’t want to look bad himself, so he ignored it - head in the sand
b/c he didn’t confront them his life was a tragedy - never lived up to what could have and should have been
• THE PLEASURE-SEEKER, FUN FILLED FANATIC
I’m sure we don’t have any pleasure seeking types here right
“When I make a dec. I just want it to be... fun”
“If it’s fun, I’m in - I’ll choose it, if it’s not, I’m not going there”
they may say i just wanna have fun, and hey God wants me to have fun
Remember: It’s not so much that God wants us
to be happy…He wants us to be OBEDIENT
and in that obedience comes joy - that’s why we 1st ask bible?
when facing dec. and choices we may not always feel like going in that direction (talked about basis of dumb, WWIT - if it feels right) you may not really want to go there, but if that’s God’s direction and we honor Him in those dec. the feelings will follow.
Biblical Character: SAMSON - Judges 14
He was like the biblical body builder - mr. atlas/m. univof his day
God kept telling him don’t mess around w/ the Philistines - they are what would be called, ungodly, so don’t associate w/ them it will only get you in trouble
So Samson chose the opposite - I’ll do what I want to do, b/c those Phil. can’t hang w/me anyway - he says, I’m gonna do what’s pleasurable - have you ever done that?
then somewhere down the road you’re wishing you wouldn’t have - so Samson tells his parents, his parents (maybe trying to find a loophole - how close can i get w/out getting burned)
“I’ve seen a Phil. woman, now go get her for me”
keep reading it says, She looks good to me - in other words, she’s a HOTTIE
b/c he went down that road of dec. making his life was a tragedy
what happened with him is he wasted yr. after yr. of great things he could have done for God but he chose to pleasure seek
instead, until he cycled back around to God - but so much wasted time - this is what we’re trying to avoid - we want to make a commitment to making great, wise dec.
• THE DOGMATIC decision maker, I’m RIGHT everyone else is WRONG Type
how many of you are married to that type?
they say i just know I’m right, i have made up my mind and it ain’t gonna change - this dogmatic I’m right dec. maker sees every dec. as an obstacle to overcome - so they’ll just knock down wall, after wall, after wall - you know what ends up happening - they can hurt people, anybody that gets in their way
They dont mind any collateral damage, people they may have stepped on on their way to a dec.
Biblical Character: PAUL - Acts 7-8
B4 he gave his life to Christ he was killing christians and he felt it was his way or the highway and he abused people. Then one day he met Jesus and he was tenderized on the inside by the work of the Spirit - God totally changed his life
Which tells me God can change anyone
• THE PROCRASTINATOR, SOMEDAY Decider
You know I’m not sure if I’m a procrastinator, I’ll get back to you on that one
Procras wait til the last minute right - put things off b/c of fear,
sometimes b/c of laziness - tomorrow I’ll get to that or next week
Acts 24
Biblical Character: FELIX
invited Paul to talk about Jesus, felix says vs. 25 go away for now - procrastinator, the bible says felix was convicted but sent Paul off anyway - when it’s more convenient I’ll call for you again - you know what saddens me, is that there are a huge # of people who are putting off, procras. about the greatest dec. of all time of their entire life just putting it off
maybe when I get my act together, you know sure I’ll do it, just not right now
You may be looking over this stuff today thinking well I kinda fit into this personality or that one and I see some of my weaknesses here - so how can I change those, what can I do?
We need to look at ourselves, our personalities, our natural
tendencies and the 1st step is to ask
Question: What does the BIBLE have to say?
it’s the God filter
The 2nd step for us in all the gray areas is ask what is the wise
If I’m impulsive, under-thinker then I can look at myself & ask,
In light of my PAST EXPERIENCES,
what is the WISE thing for me to do?
In light of my PRESENT CONDITIONS and circumstances,
what is the WISE thing for me to do?
In light of my FUTURE HOPES & DREAMS,
what is the WISE thing for me to do?
not what you feeel like doing, our natural tendencies may take us down the wrong road, so it’s good to know what those natural
tendencies are for us to make wise dec.
Key Concepts:
• Over-thinkers need to TRUST
• Under-thinkers need to WAIT
• Non-confrontationalists need to STAND
• Pleasure seekers need to OBEY
• Dogmatic decision makers need to FORGIVE
• Procrastinators need to DECIDE
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Gray Matter - "Hard Nuts to Crack"
How many of you have ever made a dumb dec.?
Important Point: One thing we ALL have in COMMON is that
we’ve all done some pretty DUMB stuff
(tongue on cold pipe - relationships - money - cars you never should have bought) - we all have stories, we all have these chapters in our lives we wish we could re-write.
So last week we looked at the greatest dec. maker of all time, Jesus and we discovered the 1st place for us to start is bible.
When making decisions, the first question to ask:
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE HAVE TO SAY?
now there’s a 2nd ? to ask - this ? you’ve probably heard b4
I believe we could ask this ? to every layer of our lives - in every opportunity, this ? would help us in our marriages,
in every rela., in the way we parent our kids, in the way we handle our money,
... our morality - this ? has the potential to send us down the path of tremendous success - and the ? is not what is the right thing to do, the moral... the permissible thing... the culturally acceptable thing to do - it is the ? my parents and yours too maybe would ask me all the time
When making decisions, the second question to ask:
WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO?
here’s 3 more layers to the ? - to make us dig a little deeper
In light of my PAST EXPERIENCES,
what is the wise thing for me to do?
In light of my PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES,
what is the wise thing for me to do?
In light of MY FUTURE HOPES and DREAMS,
what is the wise thing for me to do?
So if we put that into context, let’s say relationally, financially, morally, who I date, where I date, where I go
In light of my PAST EXPERIENCES,
PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES, MY FUTURE HOPES and DREAMS, what is the wise thing for me to do?
You see God says, like here is the level He’d like me to live - it’s not a level of simply what’s legal - we need to understand that - it’s not what is culturally permissible, it’s not just, what is allowable out there - God’s ? is the same ? my parents would ask me as a child - WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO?
I do like adding the other 3 layers ^
b/c it makes us have to think - that is where what we talked about last week, when people say, Oh let your conscience be your guide” - we said sure if it’s saturated in the truth - this is how that comes into play - WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO?
People have always asked the ? what does the Bible say about this or that - b/c in searching you may not find a direct answer to that. So right away you can see the hard-drive of their mind working, thinking, “well if God is not against it, He must be for it” right?
So the temptation for us then is to ? where’s the line?
between right and wrong, moral and immoral
so the tendency becomes, how close can I get to the fire w/out being burned, w/out facing the consequences - the ? ought not to be what can i get away with, not what is right or wrong, but what so many of our parents drilled into our heads - WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO? for me to do - not everybody else out there - jump off a cliff?
It’s different than trying to find if there is a verse in scripture that is against it, or where is the line, how far can i go?
b/c what we’ll find if we really search thru scrip. we will find a direction to head in that leads us to ask then WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO?
for example - drinking/sex
So what happens is it causes us to think right, that’s why we’re doing this series, b/c I want you to have think b/c so much of life falls into that gray area
People have different responses... I’m fine, it’s all good, Im not an alcoholic, I’m not gonna get in trouble, you sound like my over-reactive parent, another is... “ I understand what you’re talking about, and I'm old enough to know what to do, the difference between right and wrong and I don’t care, I’m gonna do what I want to do. I know the conseq. and I don’t care, I’m gonna do what I want to do. another is... “ahhh, you are so narrow minded and people like you are dangerous to this country
b/c you wanna impose you ideology and agenda upon us, you’re pathetic”
In this book, the Bible it gives us the descriptions of these 3 individuals - so that’s what we’re gonna look at today.
the Naive, the Fool, and the Mocker
Kinds of People:
First: The NAÏVE
If you’re naive you don’t admit it - never met anyone who said, “you know problem is, I’m just naive” nobody ever does that, b/c by the time you figure it out you’re not anymore right?
This is kinda tough to talk about b/c if you’re younger, jr. high, high school it sounds like an insult for somebody to say you’re naive. It’s not an insult - why?
Principle of Life: EVERYONE COMES into this world naïve
The naïve person lacks experience so they think they can
FIGURE OUT life on their own!
You can only have so much experience by the time your 14 or 15 or 18 right? It’s not a putdown, it sounds like a personal slam, but it’s not
But since the naive lack experience, they think they can figure life out on their own - have you ever been there?
B/c they’ve never seen any evidence to the contrary other than mom and dad saying, “you better listen, when I was your age”
Open to Proverbs 7 - what you’ll see is there is this wise person
standing at a window looking out & they see a naive person walking down the street, & they know the direction the naive person is heading - they’re walking to the part of town where the prostitutes come out at nite
“At the window of my house I looked out through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment.” Proverbs 7:6-7
“He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house.” Proverbs 7:8
“All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter…” Proverbs 7:22
Remember: At certain stages of our lives, we lack
EXPERIENCE therefore we lack JUDGMENT
This is why young college students get so many credit card apps - why? - b/c they are naive, an 18 or 20yr. has never woke up 1 morning buried in 15, 18, 20,000 dollars of cc debt.
they’ve never exper. that - they don’t know what it means to feel that kind of bondage and pressure and the cc companies know that - so they reward them w/ the opportunity to ruin their lives financially - why? b/c they know they’ll take advantage of b/c they’re naive.
young ones smoking - their peers are fine with it for the most part - but you never see an adult, my age saying, “WOW! that kid is sooo coool - he’s smoking!” - ahhh so naive
if you’re 14, 15, 16, you’ve never coughed up a lung, you’ve never heard your doctor say, the lung cancer is taking over
Our naiveté causes us not to LISTEN
But the solution is to ask what’s wise? and to trust in God and Word
Second: The FOOL
The fool says, I know the DIFFERENCE between right and
wrong, but frankly I just don’t CARE
Some1 may say to the fool, “do you realize if you keep up that way it could really damage you marriage... or if you keep carrying on that way in your finances that things are gonna get bad”
Yeah I thought about but I really don’t care, besides I’ll deal w/that later - look at what the bible says
“A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct, but a man of understanding delights in wisdom.” Proverbs 10:23
“As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” Proverbs 26:11
Ever see a dog return to it’s vomit (Here I have a video for you - just kidding)
They do the same thing over and over and over again - and they know there’s conseq.
There’s no new info. to a fool, it’s always,” i know, i know, i know
then why aren’t you concerned? b/c I just don’t give a rip, I don’t care & they may not verbally say that, but their actions prove it.
and you know what the bible says is the only way a fool changes? is they hit bottom
If you try to correct a fool, they will IGNORE you
Remember: The only way a fool changes is to face the
FULL consequences of their decisions
warnings don’t work, threats don’t work - it’s only when the wheels come off - it’s only when they hit hard enough they say, “OK I’ve had it” - WHY? b/c the fool has to learn.... the hard way
can I just tell you that here at FOCUS* it’s our heart to love, accept, and forgive - regardless - that’s our heart.
“…a companion of fools suffers harm.” Proverbs 13:20
We talked about this last week, our dec. affect those around us -
here’s scrip. showing us that - here the fool says, “Oh it only affects me, it doesn’t matter” - but it does matter. The bible tells us those close to you feel the brunt of your dec. and choices.
Many of you already know that b/c you’ve exper. it (my home)
Third: The MOCKER
The Mocker knows the difference between right and wrong and chooses to do what they want to do, but unlike the fool,
they have chosen to be CRITICAL of those choosing and doing right things!
If you try to correct a mocker, they will HATE you!
They’ll criticize you, make of fun of your stance, ridicule you
They just sorta sit in judgement of everyone else
(often we want to just blast right back don’t we?)
So when we even loving try to talk to them, they don’t want any part of it
We’ve all seen this haven’t we? All 3 of these - maybe, just maybe we have displayed some of one of these in our lives.
BIBLE
So... WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO?
“Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: ‘How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.
But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke... the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy
them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.’” Proverbs 1:20-33
(hands) How many of you would like to live in safety, be at ease, and w/out fear of harm?
Two Questions:
Question #1: Where are you SITTING today?
It may not be in every area of life
This series is all about a 4th place - that is the seat of wisdom
Question #2: In light of my past experiences, in light of my
present conditions and circumstances and in light of my future
hopes and dreams…Which SEAT do you want to SIT in?
I know what all of you are thinking?
Remembering God can work thru our “If only’s”
So we ask... What does the Bible have to say? and in the gray...
In light of my PAST EXPERIENCES,
PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES, MY FUTURE HOPES
and DREAMS, what is the wise thing for me to do?
Important Point: One thing we ALL have in COMMON is that
we’ve all done some pretty DUMB stuff
(tongue on cold pipe - relationships - money - cars you never should have bought) - we all have stories, we all have these chapters in our lives we wish we could re-write.
So last week we looked at the greatest dec. maker of all time, Jesus and we discovered the 1st place for us to start is bible.
When making decisions, the first question to ask:
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE HAVE TO SAY?
now there’s a 2nd ? to ask - this ? you’ve probably heard b4
I believe we could ask this ? to every layer of our lives - in every opportunity, this ? would help us in our marriages,
in every rela., in the way we parent our kids, in the way we handle our money,
... our morality - this ? has the potential to send us down the path of tremendous success - and the ? is not what is the right thing to do, the moral... the permissible thing... the culturally acceptable thing to do - it is the ? my parents and yours too maybe would ask me all the time
When making decisions, the second question to ask:
WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO?
here’s 3 more layers to the ? - to make us dig a little deeper
In light of my PAST EXPERIENCES,
what is the wise thing for me to do?
In light of my PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES,
what is the wise thing for me to do?
In light of MY FUTURE HOPES and DREAMS,
what is the wise thing for me to do?
So if we put that into context, let’s say relationally, financially, morally, who I date, where I date, where I go
In light of my PAST EXPERIENCES,
PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES, MY FUTURE HOPES and DREAMS, what is the wise thing for me to do?
You see God says, like here is the level He’d like me to live - it’s not a level of simply what’s legal - we need to understand that - it’s not what is culturally permissible, it’s not just, what is allowable out there - God’s ? is the same ? my parents would ask me as a child - WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO?
I do like adding the other 3 layers ^
b/c it makes us have to think - that is where what we talked about last week, when people say, Oh let your conscience be your guide” - we said sure if it’s saturated in the truth - this is how that comes into play - WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO?
People have always asked the ? what does the Bible say about this or that - b/c in searching you may not find a direct answer to that. So right away you can see the hard-drive of their mind working, thinking, “well if God is not against it, He must be for it” right?
So the temptation for us then is to ? where’s the line?
between right and wrong, moral and immoral
so the tendency becomes, how close can I get to the fire w/out being burned, w/out facing the consequences - the ? ought not to be what can i get away with, not what is right or wrong, but what so many of our parents drilled into our heads - WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO? for me to do - not everybody else out there - jump off a cliff?
It’s different than trying to find if there is a verse in scripture that is against it, or where is the line, how far can i go?
b/c what we’ll find if we really search thru scrip. we will find a direction to head in that leads us to ask then WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO?
for example - drinking/sex
So what happens is it causes us to think right, that’s why we’re doing this series, b/c I want you to have think b/c so much of life falls into that gray area
People have different responses... I’m fine, it’s all good, Im not an alcoholic, I’m not gonna get in trouble, you sound like my over-reactive parent, another is... “ I understand what you’re talking about, and I'm old enough to know what to do, the difference between right and wrong and I don’t care, I’m gonna do what I want to do. I know the conseq. and I don’t care, I’m gonna do what I want to do. another is... “ahhh, you are so narrow minded and people like you are dangerous to this country
b/c you wanna impose you ideology and agenda upon us, you’re pathetic”
In this book, the Bible it gives us the descriptions of these 3 individuals - so that’s what we’re gonna look at today.
the Naive, the Fool, and the Mocker
Kinds of People:
First: The NAÏVE
If you’re naive you don’t admit it - never met anyone who said, “you know problem is, I’m just naive” nobody ever does that, b/c by the time you figure it out you’re not anymore right?
This is kinda tough to talk about b/c if you’re younger, jr. high, high school it sounds like an insult for somebody to say you’re naive. It’s not an insult - why?
Principle of Life: EVERYONE COMES into this world naïve
The naïve person lacks experience so they think they can
FIGURE OUT life on their own!
You can only have so much experience by the time your 14 or 15 or 18 right? It’s not a putdown, it sounds like a personal slam, but it’s not
But since the naive lack experience, they think they can figure life out on their own - have you ever been there?
B/c they’ve never seen any evidence to the contrary other than mom and dad saying, “you better listen, when I was your age”
Open to Proverbs 7 - what you’ll see is there is this wise person
standing at a window looking out & they see a naive person walking down the street, & they know the direction the naive person is heading - they’re walking to the part of town where the prostitutes come out at nite
“At the window of my house I looked out through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment.” Proverbs 7:6-7
“He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house.” Proverbs 7:8
“All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter…” Proverbs 7:22
Remember: At certain stages of our lives, we lack
EXPERIENCE therefore we lack JUDGMENT
This is why young college students get so many credit card apps - why? - b/c they are naive, an 18 or 20yr. has never woke up 1 morning buried in 15, 18, 20,000 dollars of cc debt.
they’ve never exper. that - they don’t know what it means to feel that kind of bondage and pressure and the cc companies know that - so they reward them w/ the opportunity to ruin their lives financially - why? b/c they know they’ll take advantage of b/c they’re naive.
young ones smoking - their peers are fine with it for the most part - but you never see an adult, my age saying, “WOW! that kid is sooo coool - he’s smoking!” - ahhh so naive
if you’re 14, 15, 16, you’ve never coughed up a lung, you’ve never heard your doctor say, the lung cancer is taking over
Our naiveté causes us not to LISTEN
But the solution is to ask what’s wise? and to trust in God and Word
Second: The FOOL
The fool says, I know the DIFFERENCE between right and
wrong, but frankly I just don’t CARE
Some1 may say to the fool, “do you realize if you keep up that way it could really damage you marriage... or if you keep carrying on that way in your finances that things are gonna get bad”
Yeah I thought about but I really don’t care, besides I’ll deal w/that later - look at what the bible says
“A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct, but a man of understanding delights in wisdom.” Proverbs 10:23
“As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” Proverbs 26:11
Ever see a dog return to it’s vomit (Here I have a video for you - just kidding)
They do the same thing over and over and over again - and they know there’s conseq.
There’s no new info. to a fool, it’s always,” i know, i know, i know
then why aren’t you concerned? b/c I just don’t give a rip, I don’t care & they may not verbally say that, but their actions prove it.
and you know what the bible says is the only way a fool changes? is they hit bottom
If you try to correct a fool, they will IGNORE you
Remember: The only way a fool changes is to face the
FULL consequences of their decisions
warnings don’t work, threats don’t work - it’s only when the wheels come off - it’s only when they hit hard enough they say, “OK I’ve had it” - WHY? b/c the fool has to learn.... the hard way
can I just tell you that here at FOCUS* it’s our heart to love, accept, and forgive - regardless - that’s our heart.
“…a companion of fools suffers harm.” Proverbs 13:20
We talked about this last week, our dec. affect those around us -
here’s scrip. showing us that - here the fool says, “Oh it only affects me, it doesn’t matter” - but it does matter. The bible tells us those close to you feel the brunt of your dec. and choices.
Many of you already know that b/c you’ve exper. it (my home)
Third: The MOCKER
The Mocker knows the difference between right and wrong and chooses to do what they want to do, but unlike the fool,
they have chosen to be CRITICAL of those choosing and doing right things!
If you try to correct a mocker, they will HATE you!
They’ll criticize you, make of fun of your stance, ridicule you
They just sorta sit in judgement of everyone else
(often we want to just blast right back don’t we?)
So when we even loving try to talk to them, they don’t want any part of it
We’ve all seen this haven’t we? All 3 of these - maybe, just maybe we have displayed some of one of these in our lives.
BIBLE
So... WHAT IS THE WISE THING TO DO?
“Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: ‘How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.
But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke... the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy
them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.’” Proverbs 1:20-33
(hands) How many of you would like to live in safety, be at ease, and w/out fear of harm?
Two Questions:
Question #1: Where are you SITTING today?
It may not be in every area of life
This series is all about a 4th place - that is the seat of wisdom
Question #2: In light of my past experiences, in light of my
present conditions and circumstances and in light of my future
hopes and dreams…Which SEAT do you want to SIT in?
I know what all of you are thinking?
Remembering God can work thru our “If only’s”
So we ask... What does the Bible have to say? and in the gray...
In light of my PAST EXPERIENCES,
PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES, MY FUTURE HOPES
and DREAMS, what is the wise thing for me to do?
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Gray Matter - "What was I Thinking?"
What was I Thinking?
People do stupid things. We watch a video like that and laugh and say to ourselves or out loud, “How incredibly stupid these people are.”
I was thinking, wouldn’t this be intriguing to do if we started maybe in the back and went around to each table, person by person and we all shared the dumbest thing we’ve ever done.
I’d imagine there’d be a few stories there. Some money we wish we wouldn’t have spent, relationships we wish we wouldn’t have gotten into, deals we wish we would have never done, investments maybe? we wish we would never taken a part of, partnerships you never entered into - oh, how about dates you wish you never gone out on, how about invitations you wish you never would have received?
I think all of us can look back, in some cases for some of us it was a night, for some it was a weekend, for some it was several months - others, entire yrs. we wish we could go back and re-write chapters of our lives - choices and decisions we’d like to have a “do-over” on, right?
So here’s the premise of this series we’re kicking off
Here’s The Key Idea of This Series:
Life is ALL about DECISIONS/CHOICES
Stop and think about all the relationships, money, deals, the choices - It’s now obvious to us how stupid we were. We look at that now and say to ourselves, “How could I have been so dumb” It’s obvious to us now that some of those decisions fall into “What was I thinking” dumb dec. and now...
we run into people going down that dumb road, be it a child, friend, whoever and you’re saying, “you don’t want to go there brother”
When we are presented in life a series of choices and we chose to look at them wisely, make wise dec. we get the most out of life - those who don’t take that approach, the chances are in this world we live in, we stand to suffer some pretty sever consequences
As we start this series today and what we’re going to look at over the next few weeks we’re going to talk about how to become great dec. makers
B/c you and I both know life is all about choices and dec.
So right off the bat let’s lay down some foundation
Key Foundational Points:
• We are all the SUM TOTAL of the choices we make!
• Our decisions determine our DESTINY.
I think we can all look back at a series of choices and dumb dec.
we’ve made and say, What was I Thinking?
I know i can - (buying thunderbird in Cal.)
My idea behind this series is that I’d like all of us to make a
commitment to making great dec.
We have this privilege given to us by God to make dec. it’s God given, to reason, ponder, wager, rationalize
animals can’t do that like humans can and the reason we’re diff. b/c we as people were made in the image of God and God is a great dec. maker and He wants us all to be great dec. makers.
and... dec. making is not an event, we need to all realize that,
dec. making is a process that is followed by an event - so when we view it as an event that’s what gets us into trouble so many times and we spend days, weeks, months dog paddling in the pools of regret - so how do we make wise dec?
There is a diff. between the big dec. in life and the little ones but they also inter-connect
We all face these big, huge dec. right?
I think 2 of the biggest dec. we’ll ever make in life are: who’s your master? Who’s your mate? those are big dec
but there are also the little dec. we make daily, everyday
You see the little dec. we make daily, where you work, who you hang out with, where you spend your time, what you spend your time doing... who you spend... what u watch... listen to...those little dec when they collect lead to big issues
When I was younger I was a sports freak - i loved and played everything and in HS I was a pretty good basketball player - good enough to get invites to schools but not good enough to get any scholarships to these schools therfore it ended there.
Sometimes I’d see these BB camps for adults to go and learn the game from these superstars like Magic, MJ and so forth and you learn the intricacies of the game and work-out hard and only eat grapefruit or something... but I’d think, “Oh I’d love that - to learn from the best”
There’s something about us that wants to learn from the best
If you have a child who could sing or play and instrument wouldn’t it be cool if you could pick up the phone and have like Sting or Harry Connick Jr. or someone like that teach your child? Or if you love golf, if you get sit and learn from Tiger Woods? Hang out for a couple of days and just twik your game?
That would be really cool
So here’s what we’re going to do today, we’re going to learn from the greatest dec. maker of all time - we’re gonna learn from someone who never made a bad call, someone who never over-reacted, some1 who never said anything they regretted, some1 who never got carried away by their feelings - you know who I’m talkin about - ? - Jesus, our perfect role model.
I don’t know if you know this but as Jesus grew up He was a Carpenter, but the last 36 mo. of His life He was a traveling preacher - the bible tells us that a guy named John baptized Him into what we would call ministry, and after He was baptized the bible tells us He went off into the wilderness. He didn’t ride in an H2 or 4x4, He walked - now I’ve never been there to that area but I read about it and it’s a desert w/ this huge towering mounds it’s a tough area to live for 40 days and nites that would be tough in & of itself, but the bible tells us that jesus fasted the entire time- he went w/out food
How many of you have ever fasted for 1 day? 3 days? 1 week?
ever go 40 days?
He was emotionally, physically, spiritually drained and the Devil comes along and gives Jesus a series of choices and dec - the Devil comes up w/ these dec to throw Jesus off track, off His purpose... listen to settle... He wanted to Jesus to make a dumb, what was I thinking dec.
So let’s try to picture this scenario... Jesus hadn’t eaten in 40 days, 40 nites and the Devil says, look at those rocks, don’t you think those rocks look like big beautiful loaves of bread - there’s nothing like bread, carbs... when you’re hungry - so he says Jesus why don’t you snap your fingers and turn those rocks into a loaf of Wonder bread - look at what Jesus said,
“But Jesus told him (Satan), ‘No! The Scriptures say, ‘People
need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every
word of God.’” Matthew 4:4 - ok then look what Satan says next
Hey throw yourself down from this high place, you’re not gonna die, people will see this miracle and they’ll follow you, it’d be better than David Blain - so what would Jesus do w/ that kind of dec?
“Jesus responded, ‘The Scriptures also say, ‘Do not test the
Lord your God.’” Matthew 4:7
So the Devil turned up the heat a bit, tried to sweeten the pot, which by the way is what happens to us alot when we’re put in situations of compromising dec. making
The Devil says, Jesus bow down and worship me and I’ll give you everything (which is kinda silly when you think about it, what can you give Jesus, the creator of all things? but remember the drained state Jesus is in and.... once again... He is our perfect model knowing we will face these kind of tough decisions in life)
So what did Jesus say,
“’Get out of here, Satan,’ Jesus told him. ‘For the Scriptures
say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God; serve only him.’”
Matthew 4:10
Now there was a common phrase used in each circumstance, did you catch that? what was it
‘For the Scriptures say,
so what is the 1st question we should ask facing any dec?
The First Question to Ask with Any and All Decisions and/or Choices in Life
What DOES THE BIBLE have to say?
Jesus went 3 for 3 - it’s the 1st ever recorded threepeat
‘For the Scriptures say,(3)
What was goin on? How did Jesus make the dec. He asked Himself a very simple ? what does the bible say?
If it’s in this book, then I got a green light and i’ll go for it, if it’s not then it’s a red light I’m not gonna go there.
In all the dec. we make, the big and the little where’s the 1st place to start? what does the bible have to say about this.
You know I have talked to a # people over the yrs. and heard their tough stories - so many of them start w/ “If only...”
If only... I had said No to that relationship ...hadn’t said that to my spouse or son or daughter ... I hadn’t put my money in that ... hadn’t been so greedy, so stubborn ... so selfish - If only (3)
Now here’s an amazing thing about God - He can work thru your “If only’s” and He can use your past as leverage to help you in the future - to make wise great dec. that’ll give you a wonderful future - Jer. 29:11
So the 1st place to start is asking and answering what does the bible have to say? This is what jesus modeled.
God wrote a book. It’s a love letter to all of us and... He put His counsel down on these pages for a # of reasons - let me share just a couple w/ you -
God’s heart in giving us His Word:
• So we can have the BEST LIFE POSSIBLE
So we can discover God has an awesome plan for our lives.
We would be amazed at how great our dec. can be, both big & little - by just spending time in this book.
• Because God wants to help us HELP OURSELVES & OTHERS
He wants us to make great dec. not only for our own benefit but to also help and influence others... influence others
b/c for us to think ‘my dec really don’t affect other people, they really don’t, you just have to do what’s right by you’ - you are sadly mistaken with that thought process - b/c our dec. do affect others - we are connected. Especially those close to you, family, children, sister, brother, nephew, niece, friends, co-workers are looking at your life and dec.
• Because God wants us to make the MOST OF OUR TIME
Think about this, time is a gift from God that we can’t go back and get some more of & the older I get the more I wonder where did all the time go? As I watch my girls grow up - all the more reason to make wise dec. Let me ask... hands
How many of you have wasted a certain amount of time in your life, whole periods, weeks, months, possibly yrs. of your life b/c of dumb dec. & choices?
So if I will look to God’s Word to make dec. I’ll see He has my best interest at heart, for the best life possible, to not only kelp me, but others - to make good use of my time for what’s really important.
But you know not everybody takes that approach, not only in dec. making but life in gen. - they don’t have a certain set of standards, just kinda fall into relativism - “if it works for me it works, it may not work for you, but hey, that’s OK - no need for any absolutes b/c my standards may be diff. than yours”
(Prof. at Univ. hands test w/ series of ?’s and answers - just circle the answer you feel is right, there’s no right or wrongs just what you want - you’d be thinking what’s he smokin? - what kind of test is this? a standardless, baseless test it’s useless)
So when we don’t use God’s Word or Him as our absolute then everything becomes relative, everything sorta slides on scale and if I make dec. that way I get messed up pretty quickly
and the reason why so many make dumb, what was I thinking dec. is b/c we look to ourselves instead of God - like
what are some of the things we have said when we go w/ ourselves, things we’ve said a time or 2
The Basis of “What was I thinking?” Dumb Decisions
• “Go with YOUR HEART”
Yeah you’ll bat a thousand doing that wont ya - right 100%?
• “Let your CONSCIENCE be your GUIDE”
but what peeks your consc. may not peek mine so it’s the sliding scale - your consc is important in dec. making when it’s saturated in the Truth - it’s gotta be tied into that
• “If it FEELS RIGHT”
Hey, I didn’t feel like getting out of bed this morning
or some1 may say I don’t feel like loving you anymore - our feelings are fickle (Cathleen story) we cannot trust our feelings
they’re to up and down - sometimes I don’t feel like going to work... school.... reading this book... or praying
• “What you do in the PRIVACY of your OWN HOME is your own business.”
Sure I can agree w/ that to a certain extent but we need to know this - private dec. always go public - so often what’s made in private has personal ramifications - b/c people carry out their lives and live in public - so whatever dec. made in private, remember, affect and influence those around us, sometimes
directly, sometimes indirectly. - base them on the truth.
So the 1st question everybody needs to ask themselves before making a dec. is.... What does the Bible say?
How much better would life be? We wouldn’t be wallowing in self-pity or the pools of regret if we just asked... what
1 problem with this is not everything is so black and white is it?
So what do you do w/ the other 15-20% - what I’ve found and have done myself is ask the ? - how close can I get to this and still not sin? b/c if I haven’t crossed over the line then it’s what?
OK? Is it? How far can i go w/out breaking the law? How close to immorality can i get w/out being immoral? How much can i stretch, how much can i bend w/out actually breaking any?
Is it legal... moral... permissible - and when we go down that line, oh.. that line is often oh so fuzzy - how close can i get w/out disaster - we need a standard, if it’s not illegal, then it must be...
OK - how far is too far? So in these gray areas are there other ?’s we need to ask? I think there are, but you’ll have to come back next week.
People do stupid things. We watch a video like that and laugh and say to ourselves or out loud, “How incredibly stupid these people are.”
I was thinking, wouldn’t this be intriguing to do if we started maybe in the back and went around to each table, person by person and we all shared the dumbest thing we’ve ever done.
I’d imagine there’d be a few stories there. Some money we wish we wouldn’t have spent, relationships we wish we wouldn’t have gotten into, deals we wish we would have never done, investments maybe? we wish we would never taken a part of, partnerships you never entered into - oh, how about dates you wish you never gone out on, how about invitations you wish you never would have received?
I think all of us can look back, in some cases for some of us it was a night, for some it was a weekend, for some it was several months - others, entire yrs. we wish we could go back and re-write chapters of our lives - choices and decisions we’d like to have a “do-over” on, right?
So here’s the premise of this series we’re kicking off
Here’s The Key Idea of This Series:
Life is ALL about DECISIONS/CHOICES
Stop and think about all the relationships, money, deals, the choices - It’s now obvious to us how stupid we were. We look at that now and say to ourselves, “How could I have been so dumb” It’s obvious to us now that some of those decisions fall into “What was I thinking” dumb dec. and now...
we run into people going down that dumb road, be it a child, friend, whoever and you’re saying, “you don’t want to go there brother”
When we are presented in life a series of choices and we chose to look at them wisely, make wise dec. we get the most out of life - those who don’t take that approach, the chances are in this world we live in, we stand to suffer some pretty sever consequences
As we start this series today and what we’re going to look at over the next few weeks we’re going to talk about how to become great dec. makers
B/c you and I both know life is all about choices and dec.
So right off the bat let’s lay down some foundation
Key Foundational Points:
• We are all the SUM TOTAL of the choices we make!
• Our decisions determine our DESTINY.
I think we can all look back at a series of choices and dumb dec.
we’ve made and say, What was I Thinking?
I know i can - (buying thunderbird in Cal.)
My idea behind this series is that I’d like all of us to make a
commitment to making great dec.
We have this privilege given to us by God to make dec. it’s God given, to reason, ponder, wager, rationalize
animals can’t do that like humans can and the reason we’re diff. b/c we as people were made in the image of God and God is a great dec. maker and He wants us all to be great dec. makers.
and... dec. making is not an event, we need to all realize that,
dec. making is a process that is followed by an event - so when we view it as an event that’s what gets us into trouble so many times and we spend days, weeks, months dog paddling in the pools of regret - so how do we make wise dec?
There is a diff. between the big dec. in life and the little ones but they also inter-connect
We all face these big, huge dec. right?
I think 2 of the biggest dec. we’ll ever make in life are: who’s your master? Who’s your mate? those are big dec
but there are also the little dec. we make daily, everyday
You see the little dec. we make daily, where you work, who you hang out with, where you spend your time, what you spend your time doing... who you spend... what u watch... listen to...those little dec when they collect lead to big issues
When I was younger I was a sports freak - i loved and played everything and in HS I was a pretty good basketball player - good enough to get invites to schools but not good enough to get any scholarships to these schools therfore it ended there.
Sometimes I’d see these BB camps for adults to go and learn the game from these superstars like Magic, MJ and so forth and you learn the intricacies of the game and work-out hard and only eat grapefruit or something... but I’d think, “Oh I’d love that - to learn from the best”
There’s something about us that wants to learn from the best
If you have a child who could sing or play and instrument wouldn’t it be cool if you could pick up the phone and have like Sting or Harry Connick Jr. or someone like that teach your child? Or if you love golf, if you get sit and learn from Tiger Woods? Hang out for a couple of days and just twik your game?
That would be really cool
So here’s what we’re going to do today, we’re going to learn from the greatest dec. maker of all time - we’re gonna learn from someone who never made a bad call, someone who never over-reacted, some1 who never said anything they regretted, some1 who never got carried away by their feelings - you know who I’m talkin about - ? - Jesus, our perfect role model.
I don’t know if you know this but as Jesus grew up He was a Carpenter, but the last 36 mo. of His life He was a traveling preacher - the bible tells us that a guy named John baptized Him into what we would call ministry, and after He was baptized the bible tells us He went off into the wilderness. He didn’t ride in an H2 or 4x4, He walked - now I’ve never been there to that area but I read about it and it’s a desert w/ this huge towering mounds it’s a tough area to live for 40 days and nites that would be tough in & of itself, but the bible tells us that jesus fasted the entire time- he went w/out food
How many of you have ever fasted for 1 day? 3 days? 1 week?
ever go 40 days?
He was emotionally, physically, spiritually drained and the Devil comes along and gives Jesus a series of choices and dec - the Devil comes up w/ these dec to throw Jesus off track, off His purpose... listen to settle... He wanted to Jesus to make a dumb, what was I thinking dec.
So let’s try to picture this scenario... Jesus hadn’t eaten in 40 days, 40 nites and the Devil says, look at those rocks, don’t you think those rocks look like big beautiful loaves of bread - there’s nothing like bread, carbs... when you’re hungry - so he says Jesus why don’t you snap your fingers and turn those rocks into a loaf of Wonder bread - look at what Jesus said,
“But Jesus told him (Satan), ‘No! The Scriptures say, ‘People
need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every
word of God.’” Matthew 4:4 - ok then look what Satan says next
Hey throw yourself down from this high place, you’re not gonna die, people will see this miracle and they’ll follow you, it’d be better than David Blain - so what would Jesus do w/ that kind of dec?
“Jesus responded, ‘The Scriptures also say, ‘Do not test the
Lord your God.’” Matthew 4:7
So the Devil turned up the heat a bit, tried to sweeten the pot, which by the way is what happens to us alot when we’re put in situations of compromising dec. making
The Devil says, Jesus bow down and worship me and I’ll give you everything (which is kinda silly when you think about it, what can you give Jesus, the creator of all things? but remember the drained state Jesus is in and.... once again... He is our perfect model knowing we will face these kind of tough decisions in life)
So what did Jesus say,
“’Get out of here, Satan,’ Jesus told him. ‘For the Scriptures
say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God; serve only him.’”
Matthew 4:10
Now there was a common phrase used in each circumstance, did you catch that? what was it
‘For the Scriptures say,
so what is the 1st question we should ask facing any dec?
The First Question to Ask with Any and All Decisions and/or Choices in Life
What DOES THE BIBLE have to say?
Jesus went 3 for 3 - it’s the 1st ever recorded threepeat
‘For the Scriptures say,(3)
What was goin on? How did Jesus make the dec. He asked Himself a very simple ? what does the bible say?
If it’s in this book, then I got a green light and i’ll go for it, if it’s not then it’s a red light I’m not gonna go there.
In all the dec. we make, the big and the little where’s the 1st place to start? what does the bible have to say about this.
You know I have talked to a # people over the yrs. and heard their tough stories - so many of them start w/ “If only...”
If only... I had said No to that relationship ...hadn’t said that to my spouse or son or daughter ... I hadn’t put my money in that ... hadn’t been so greedy, so stubborn ... so selfish - If only (3)
Now here’s an amazing thing about God - He can work thru your “If only’s” and He can use your past as leverage to help you in the future - to make wise great dec. that’ll give you a wonderful future - Jer. 29:11
So the 1st place to start is asking and answering what does the bible have to say? This is what jesus modeled.
God wrote a book. It’s a love letter to all of us and... He put His counsel down on these pages for a # of reasons - let me share just a couple w/ you -
God’s heart in giving us His Word:
• So we can have the BEST LIFE POSSIBLE
So we can discover God has an awesome plan for our lives.
We would be amazed at how great our dec. can be, both big & little - by just spending time in this book.
• Because God wants to help us HELP OURSELVES & OTHERS
He wants us to make great dec. not only for our own benefit but to also help and influence others... influence others
b/c for us to think ‘my dec really don’t affect other people, they really don’t, you just have to do what’s right by you’ - you are sadly mistaken with that thought process - b/c our dec. do affect others - we are connected. Especially those close to you, family, children, sister, brother, nephew, niece, friends, co-workers are looking at your life and dec.
• Because God wants us to make the MOST OF OUR TIME
Think about this, time is a gift from God that we can’t go back and get some more of & the older I get the more I wonder where did all the time go? As I watch my girls grow up - all the more reason to make wise dec. Let me ask... hands
How many of you have wasted a certain amount of time in your life, whole periods, weeks, months, possibly yrs. of your life b/c of dumb dec. & choices?
So if I will look to God’s Word to make dec. I’ll see He has my best interest at heart, for the best life possible, to not only kelp me, but others - to make good use of my time for what’s really important.
But you know not everybody takes that approach, not only in dec. making but life in gen. - they don’t have a certain set of standards, just kinda fall into relativism - “if it works for me it works, it may not work for you, but hey, that’s OK - no need for any absolutes b/c my standards may be diff. than yours”
(Prof. at Univ. hands test w/ series of ?’s and answers - just circle the answer you feel is right, there’s no right or wrongs just what you want - you’d be thinking what’s he smokin? - what kind of test is this? a standardless, baseless test it’s useless)
So when we don’t use God’s Word or Him as our absolute then everything becomes relative, everything sorta slides on scale and if I make dec. that way I get messed up pretty quickly
and the reason why so many make dumb, what was I thinking dec. is b/c we look to ourselves instead of God - like
what are some of the things we have said when we go w/ ourselves, things we’ve said a time or 2
The Basis of “What was I thinking?” Dumb Decisions
• “Go with YOUR HEART”
Yeah you’ll bat a thousand doing that wont ya - right 100%?
• “Let your CONSCIENCE be your GUIDE”
but what peeks your consc. may not peek mine so it’s the sliding scale - your consc is important in dec. making when it’s saturated in the Truth - it’s gotta be tied into that
• “If it FEELS RIGHT”
Hey, I didn’t feel like getting out of bed this morning
or some1 may say I don’t feel like loving you anymore - our feelings are fickle (Cathleen story) we cannot trust our feelings
they’re to up and down - sometimes I don’t feel like going to work... school.... reading this book... or praying
• “What you do in the PRIVACY of your OWN HOME is your own business.”
Sure I can agree w/ that to a certain extent but we need to know this - private dec. always go public - so often what’s made in private has personal ramifications - b/c people carry out their lives and live in public - so whatever dec. made in private, remember, affect and influence those around us, sometimes
directly, sometimes indirectly. - base them on the truth.
So the 1st question everybody needs to ask themselves before making a dec. is.... What does the Bible say?
How much better would life be? We wouldn’t be wallowing in self-pity or the pools of regret if we just asked... what
1 problem with this is not everything is so black and white is it?
So what do you do w/ the other 15-20% - what I’ve found and have done myself is ask the ? - how close can I get to this and still not sin? b/c if I haven’t crossed over the line then it’s what?
OK? Is it? How far can i go w/out breaking the law? How close to immorality can i get w/out being immoral? How much can i stretch, how much can i bend w/out actually breaking any?
Is it legal... moral... permissible - and when we go down that line, oh.. that line is often oh so fuzzy - how close can i get w/out disaster - we need a standard, if it’s not illegal, then it must be...
OK - how far is too far? So in these gray areas are there other ?’s we need to ask? I think there are, but you’ll have to come back next week.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Living Above Marital Conflict
Glorifying God in Marital Conflict
In order to resolve conflict biblically, commit first to dealing with conflict in a way that brings glory to God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God... let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:9,16
Glorifying God in Marital Conflict
A. The glory of God in marriage
“...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31
1. What is God’s glory? The _display__ or_manifestation_ of the perfection and excellency of _God’s character and
attributes_.
ask: What are some character traits and attributes of God?
(kind, merciful, forgiving, accepting, loving)
2. How does God intend for marriage to display His Glory_?
God intends the husband and wife relationship to glorify Him through the lifelong, day-by-day display of sacrificial servant-like
love of Christ for the Church.
Dennis Rainey
3. How can I please and honor God in the midst of _conflict_ in my marriage?
a) The first step is to _understand why God created marriage__.
Marriage exists to magnify the truth and worth and beauty and greatness of God. - John Piper
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Gen. 1:27
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Gen. 2:24
(this is huge to understand the ideal of oneness - in marriage we are no longer on our own - we are one.
How do the relationships that we are involved in grow?
In Sacrifice.
We turn away from our own selfish wants and desires and we sacrifice what we may want to do, or where to go, or where not to go – WHY?
It is purely done out of love. - in sac. we grow together as 1)
The second step is to _understand how humanity’s fall into sin radically altered God’s intent for marriage.
Instead of oneness, couples experience:
Shame, guilt, and fear
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." Gen. 3:7-10
Blame
The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Gen. 3:12-13
(Adam didn’t stand a chance - nude woman offering food)
A battle for control
To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." Gen. 3:16
(when we lose sight of the fact that we are 1 - we begin to exper. these effects: shame, guilt, fear, the blame game game, and this batlle for control)
4. The _fall of man__ has defaced the image of God
(_His glory_) in marriage. (we must remember we are 1)
The glory of God and marital conflict
1. Every spouse sins__in his marriage and falls far short of the _glory_ God intends for marriage to display
(Romans 3:23). “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
2. Through Jesus Christ_ and His victory on the cross__, God has given the resources_and _ability_ to live at peace with Him and each other.
(here today and you do not have a real rel. w/ J/C nows the time -maybe you haven’t fully accessed all God has to offer in Christ - maybe you’ve been trying to work this conflict on your own b/c you are a strong indiv. of strong character, but things are just not going the way you want - it’s not all rosy w/picket fences - God has the answer today)
God is saying, “I want in on your mess, let Me in on the mess”
a) Marital conflict provides _opportunity_ to glorify God by displaying_ His character and _ attributes__.
(God is telling us that stumbling blocks are actually stepping st)
b) Couples reflect__God’s glory__by being kind and tender-hearted _toward_one another, _forgiving_each other as God in Christ has forgiven them (Ephesians 4:32.)
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
We are mirrors
3. When marital conflict arises, a _peacemaker_in marriage will view the _conflict_ not as an accident, but as an _assignment__ to glorify God.
Summary:
Glorifying God in Marital Conflict
God created marriage to magnify His truth, worth, beauty, and greatness, and to reflect the glory of His character (including the attributes of love and forgiveness).
You can choose to respond to marital conflict in a way that will either honor or dishonor God. (Life is full of choices)
Glorifying God in marital conflict involves joyfully embracing the conflict as an assignment from God (James 1:2).
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,” (are we going to face conflict in marriage? - how will you respond?)
Action Point Suggestions:
Reflect on the impact of the fall of man on marriage relationships. Discuss with your spouse how these same factors have been a part of your marriage.
When conflict occurs, I will consciously ask myself, “How can I please and honor God in the midst of this conflict in my marriage?”
Memorize Ephesians 4:32, so that in the midst of conflict, you can remember to respond in a Christ-like manner.
Exposing the Idols in Our Hearts and Marriages
Application Project #1
INDIVIDUAL SECTION (25 minutes)
Setting:Stay together as a couple, but complete this section quickly without any interaction.
Objective:To identify any idols that may be the source of conflict in your marriage.
Read James 4:1-2, Exodus 20:4-5, and Psalm 115:4-8.
James 4:1-2 teaches that the source of conflict is my pleasures and desires. And we have learned that even good desires can become bad demands and that it is a short step from bad demands to idols. We also learned that these desires originate in our hearts and produce all sorts of marital conflicts.
Although we may not realize it, every time we choose anger, isolation, bitterness, unforgiveness, or any other response to marital conflict other than love and forgiveness from our hearts, we are choosing to worship an idol that never fulfills and always traps us in marital conflict (see Psalm 115:4-8). As the Bible says, all who worship idols shall become like them: deaf, mute, and dumb, without any power to fulfill or to deliver from the traps that conflict brings.
Think about the Scriptures you just read in light of one of your typical marital conflicts. Are there any desires that become demands that tend to rule your heart in the midst of your marital conflict?
After praying, ask yourself, “How can I glorify God by changing the way I respond to my spouse when conflict arises? What controlling desires (idols) must I deal with? Write down any insights you have.
Confess to God and claim His promise of forgiveness in Jesus Christ for any controlling desires (idols) He shows you (I John 1:9). Commit to change with the help of God’s Spirit and His Word. Humbly share with your spouse and agree to hold one another accountable.
Your marriage “exists to magnify the truth and worth and beauty and greatness of God”. Write down some steps you need to take in order for your marriage to serve this “magnifying” purpose (read Ephesians 5:22-33).
INTERACTION SECTION (35 minutes)
Setting: Stay together as a couple and complete this section with interaction.
Objective: To discuss the feelings, attitudes, and thoughts that each of you has on this subject.
Share with your spouse what you learned about any controlling desires that have caused conflict in your marriage.
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such (a word) as is good for edification according to the need (of the moment) so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:29-32
After reading these verses, spend time discussing ways to improve your communication in order to glorify God in your marriage by handling conflict as He prescribes.
Pray and then write down at least one action point you agree to take as a couple.
In order to resolve conflict biblically, commit first to dealing with conflict in a way that brings glory to God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God... let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:9,16
Glorifying God in Marital Conflict
A. The glory of God in marriage
“...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31
1. What is God’s glory? The _display__ or_manifestation_ of the perfection and excellency of _God’s character and
attributes_.
ask: What are some character traits and attributes of God?
(kind, merciful, forgiving, accepting, loving)
2. How does God intend for marriage to display His Glory_?
God intends the husband and wife relationship to glorify Him through the lifelong, day-by-day display of sacrificial servant-like
love of Christ for the Church.
Dennis Rainey
3. How can I please and honor God in the midst of _conflict_ in my marriage?
a) The first step is to _understand why God created marriage__.
Marriage exists to magnify the truth and worth and beauty and greatness of God. - John Piper
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Gen. 1:27
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Gen. 2:24
(this is huge to understand the ideal of oneness - in marriage we are no longer on our own - we are one.
How do the relationships that we are involved in grow?
In Sacrifice.
We turn away from our own selfish wants and desires and we sacrifice what we may want to do, or where to go, or where not to go – WHY?
It is purely done out of love. - in sac. we grow together as 1)
The second step is to _understand how humanity’s fall into sin radically altered God’s intent for marriage.
Instead of oneness, couples experience:
Shame, guilt, and fear
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." Gen. 3:7-10
Blame
The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Gen. 3:12-13
(Adam didn’t stand a chance - nude woman offering food)
A battle for control
To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." Gen. 3:16
(when we lose sight of the fact that we are 1 - we begin to exper. these effects: shame, guilt, fear, the blame game game, and this batlle for control)
4. The _fall of man__ has defaced the image of God
(_His glory_) in marriage. (we must remember we are 1)
The glory of God and marital conflict
1. Every spouse sins__in his marriage and falls far short of the _glory_ God intends for marriage to display
(Romans 3:23). “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
2. Through Jesus Christ_ and His victory on the cross__, God has given the resources_and _ability_ to live at peace with Him and each other.
(here today and you do not have a real rel. w/ J/C nows the time -maybe you haven’t fully accessed all God has to offer in Christ - maybe you’ve been trying to work this conflict on your own b/c you are a strong indiv. of strong character, but things are just not going the way you want - it’s not all rosy w/picket fences - God has the answer today)
God is saying, “I want in on your mess, let Me in on the mess”
a) Marital conflict provides _opportunity_ to glorify God by displaying_ His character and _ attributes__.
(God is telling us that stumbling blocks are actually stepping st)
b) Couples reflect__God’s glory__by being kind and tender-hearted _toward_one another, _forgiving_each other as God in Christ has forgiven them (Ephesians 4:32.)
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
We are mirrors
3. When marital conflict arises, a _peacemaker_in marriage will view the _conflict_ not as an accident, but as an _assignment__ to glorify God.
Summary:
Glorifying God in Marital Conflict
God created marriage to magnify His truth, worth, beauty, and greatness, and to reflect the glory of His character (including the attributes of love and forgiveness).
You can choose to respond to marital conflict in a way that will either honor or dishonor God. (Life is full of choices)
Glorifying God in marital conflict involves joyfully embracing the conflict as an assignment from God (James 1:2).
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,” (are we going to face conflict in marriage? - how will you respond?)
Action Point Suggestions:
Reflect on the impact of the fall of man on marriage relationships. Discuss with your spouse how these same factors have been a part of your marriage.
When conflict occurs, I will consciously ask myself, “How can I please and honor God in the midst of this conflict in my marriage?”
Memorize Ephesians 4:32, so that in the midst of conflict, you can remember to respond in a Christ-like manner.
Exposing the Idols in Our Hearts and Marriages
Application Project #1
INDIVIDUAL SECTION (25 minutes)
Setting:Stay together as a couple, but complete this section quickly without any interaction.
Objective:To identify any idols that may be the source of conflict in your marriage.
Read James 4:1-2, Exodus 20:4-5, and Psalm 115:4-8.
James 4:1-2 teaches that the source of conflict is my pleasures and desires. And we have learned that even good desires can become bad demands and that it is a short step from bad demands to idols. We also learned that these desires originate in our hearts and produce all sorts of marital conflicts.
Although we may not realize it, every time we choose anger, isolation, bitterness, unforgiveness, or any other response to marital conflict other than love and forgiveness from our hearts, we are choosing to worship an idol that never fulfills and always traps us in marital conflict (see Psalm 115:4-8). As the Bible says, all who worship idols shall become like them: deaf, mute, and dumb, without any power to fulfill or to deliver from the traps that conflict brings.
Think about the Scriptures you just read in light of one of your typical marital conflicts. Are there any desires that become demands that tend to rule your heart in the midst of your marital conflict?
After praying, ask yourself, “How can I glorify God by changing the way I respond to my spouse when conflict arises? What controlling desires (idols) must I deal with? Write down any insights you have.
Confess to God and claim His promise of forgiveness in Jesus Christ for any controlling desires (idols) He shows you (I John 1:9). Commit to change with the help of God’s Spirit and His Word. Humbly share with your spouse and agree to hold one another accountable.
Your marriage “exists to magnify the truth and worth and beauty and greatness of God”. Write down some steps you need to take in order for your marriage to serve this “magnifying” purpose (read Ephesians 5:22-33).
INTERACTION SECTION (35 minutes)
Setting: Stay together as a couple and complete this section with interaction.
Objective: To discuss the feelings, attitudes, and thoughts that each of you has on this subject.
Share with your spouse what you learned about any controlling desires that have caused conflict in your marriage.
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such (a word) as is good for edification according to the need (of the moment) so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:29-32
After reading these verses, spend time discussing ways to improve your communication in order to glorify God in your marriage by handling conflict as He prescribes.
Pray and then write down at least one action point you agree to take as a couple.
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