Desperation to Regeneration

Let’s open our bibles to John chapter 3. It’s good to be in the Lord’s house, to pray, to worship, to be with one another. Can I just say to everyone here… You’re beautiful, You’re amazing, and you are more like Jesus when you come to the Lord’s house to be with others seeking and worshiping the Lord. It’s an amazing privilege to shepherd you, to teach you, to lead you, top pray for you and to love on you.

This week has been a hard week for me. On Tuesday I was handed some things to spiritually struggle with that I had not planned on dealing with. It was hard to write a sermon when your heart is hurting and something you thought you’ve given to God is trying to linger on. On Wednesday I came over to the church to work and during my morning devotional time, I was currently reading the book of Romans, and it just so happen to be the chapter 12 that Paul says in verse 19, Dear friends, never take revenge.

Leave that to the righteous anger of God for the Scripture say, I will take revenge; I will pay them back, says the Lord, The Lord reminded me of two things, If we harbor bitterness in our live’s, we cant expect joy to find a place to dock. Harmony can’t be lived out unless we let the Holy Spirit disarm us. If we want peace and joy, in our life, we must give what we have, within us that causes bitterness and wrath, and we must give it to the Lord, and in turn he gives us in return His peace, and His joy.

Thursday comes around and I am here again praying for the Lords direction for the message and I am struggling. My soul is crying out to God asking Him to heal the wound i had. Then My wife, who has been amazingly growing the last few months in Christ. She can just sense I am hurting and she sends me a text that says, If we dwell excessively in the past and continue to dwell about our past mistakes and our past failings, it will neutralize the ability to change and improve our lives.

How true is that statement. My wife knew I was conflicted, she knew my heart was hurting. So I fell to the altar once again on Thursday morning and All I will say is, what the enemy’s aim to destroy, hurt and divide, God has given peace, joy and a deeper longing for Him. I can testify before you today, there is healing at the foot of the cross. Later that morning as I was preparing for the district family camp meeting a man came into the church, looked me in the eyes and said, Pastor I want to be baptized.

There is no way I could have baptized that man with a heart of bitterness. I hope you’re seeing how God works with grace. God’s Holy Spirit was bringing grace into my life, he was bringing grace into my wife’s life, and he was bringing grace into that mans life. And at the crossroads where all three of our lives intersects, we always find abundant openings of grace to share with one another.

I told him, let me prepare my heart, i went and got some water and I baptized him right over there. We did my favorite thing to do.. we hugged and embraced and praise God for his amazing grace. I believe he walked out of here, recommitted to the Lord, and set a part for service. God will use that man for great and mighty things. After everything was said and done, this is what the Lord laid on my heart, We desperately need the Holy Spirit to open the gospel in our lives.

The gospel. Last week we looked at how we are to be desperate for the Presence of God in our life. That we should never move forward without God presence and without this hunger for His presence. This week what we need is the work of the Holy Spirit to open the gospel into our lives. What does it mean to have the gospel opened in our lives? Well, in theological terms that means we are regenerated.

Now, typically we speak of justifications at the same time. But for time sake, I want to just bring to the table this word regeneration. What is it and how it affects our lives. And I want to ask the question that burns in my heart everyday, Are you born again? Let’s start here. Let’s stand together as we read John chapter 3. Find with me verses 5-8 Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’ I think this is one of the most stout and bold statements in the gospels.

Again, another one is when Luke tells us that JEsus tells people either to repent or perish. There is no grey area. There is no middle ground. You are either in or not. Make a decision today and walk in it. One of the greatest hindrances in walking in the Spirit of God is being lukewarm and indecisive in our walk. But one of the most stout and heavy statements made by Jesus was, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

So that brings out this very importance question. Can anyone believe in Jesus, trust in Jesus and not be born again. And the answer to that is yes. How do we know this? we know this because we can look at what Jesus teaches us from the previous chapter. Looks back with me at the end of chapter 2. JEsus teaches us this in John chapter 2, right before he talks to Nicodemus..

Jesus tells the crowd and us, 23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. Jesus knew their hearts. The people saw, the people believed. The people wanted. The people asked. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them. Can we just take a moment to let that verse settle into our hearts this morning.

They believed and trusted but Jesus didn’t entrust himself to them. Lord, I pray you find hearts here this morning that are trustworthy of your holy precious presence. Amen So, how are we born again? How does this process begin that we call regeneration? Well, it begins by grace. We have a term called, prevenient Grace. It means God was working in our life before we even knew GOd.

You and I didn’t just wake up one day and say, ya know, Having me some God sounds like a good plan. Before salvation we don’t know God. The Holy Spirit is working in our lives to help reveal HIm to us. THat’s a part of this regeneration. When we are born again, God reveals our need. I need a lot of things. I want a lot of things too. But there is a difference between what I need and what i want.

A need is something necessary to live and function. A want is something that can improve our quality of life. So many people live this life with the title of christian but living with Jesus as a want rather than a need. I want something to improve the quality my life here on earth. I want a faith where I can morally live in sin and live according to my own desires, and in the end believe that I have eternity with Jesus waiting for me.

Church, that is one of the biggest lies that has not only infiltrated the church, but has also invaded our culture. That we can live the same way we lived before we came to Jesus. That there is no difference between Matthew before salvation and Matthew after salvation. God reveals our need. And He reveals our need and opens our eyes to the truth of the gospel. When we are born again, God doesn’t reveal to us a way to improve the quality of our life, but he reveals to us a salvation that is necessary to live and function.

Just like the air I breathe, it’s a necessity to have to live and function. When the Spirit begins this regeneration process, he’s opening our eyes to our need. What you’ve got in John 3 is Nicodemus, Nicodemus a Pharisee, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council was a respected man. He was devout in his life. He spent his entire life learning how to enter the kingdom of God.

He spent his entire life teaching others what commands to obey, what actions to take to enter the kingdom of heaven. And now, Jesus is there before him telling him that everything he has worked for, for his entire life was meaningless. Can you imagine living your entire life in pursuit of God and then having God tell you, that all of your work was meaningless. That all of our religion in the end is really meaningless.

It is just a huge coverup to the fact that we are truly isolated from God? And so, Jesus says. You must be born again. What Jesus is doing is he’s helping this learned man, this man of the word of GOd who knows the word, to open his eyes and to reveal to him the greatest need. And His greatest need was not the law, but a new birth to know GOd.

His greatest need was a relationship. To be regenerated and to be born again,this new birth was necessary to know God. No person in this room chooses to be born. It’s absolutely impossible to give birth to yourself, right. No one, in the history of time, has ever been in a place where they had the ability to look down at this big blue marble and go, I guess I don’t have anything else better to do.

I guess I’ll just enter earth now. That looks like an amazing place to live out my life. War, famine, animosity, separated from God. Sign me up for some of that… YOLO……….. nobody does do that! Why? Because there is nothing good in us and without God it’s impossible. what is needed? We need to see a biblical snapshot of our life to see we desperately need Jesus. So the Holy Spirit has already been working to accomplish this in all of our lives.

Remember, prevenient Grace. God is working in you before you even know, he’s working to reveal to you and me our sinful state, a need for a savior and a call into holiness. But before holiness, we’ve got to witness this great need. The word of God coupled with the work of the Spirit begins revealing to us that were in desperate need of a savior. We’re morally evil. I know for most of us, we’re willing to be called sinful.

But Matthew, Man.. you’re saying I am morally evil? Yes. Genesis 8:21 says, “...Every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.” We are spiritually sick. At the core of who we are is a eternal disease that reaches far deeper than any cancer or disease known to man. We’re reminded in Matthew 9:12 - 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

Thirdly we are slaves to our sin. John 8:34, everyone who sins, Jesus says, is a slave to sin. Have you sinned? Then your a slave to sin. Romans 6:16 and 20 talk about how we are slaves to the sinful nature, gratifying the desires of the sinful nature. We’re blinded by the truth. I Corinthians 2:14 says, that we cannot understand the things of God, because they are foolish to us.

We are lovers of darkness. Ephesians 5:8 says, you were once darkness. John 3:20 reminds us everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the lighter for fear that his deeds will be exposed. Morally evil, spiritually sick, slaves to sin, we are blinded to truth, lovers of darkness, and all of those pool together to say this huge statement… we are all spiritually dead. Ephesians 2:1 states, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.

SO let me ask, if this is true… help me here…. If this is true…. That since birth you and I had every inclination to walk away from God, to be morally evil, to be blinded by truth and to be lovers of darkness. How can we ever choose good? We can’t and it seems impossible now, right? We’ve got to understand that without God we would never make any good decisions.

It doesn’t matter who you are. A spiritually dead person is dead. And a life a part from is dead. And this new birth is impossible without God. Sop, pastor.. whAt do I need to do to not be like those people that Jesus wouldn’t give his presence to? Well, that’s a very important question. The answer is this, if I am morally evil, blinded by truth, a lover of darkness, and so forth, I realize and I am lead by the Holy Spirit to realize that I must be absolutely surrender and dependent upon the Spirit of GOd.

That’s the second part. He not only opens my eyes to a need, but in regeneration the Holy Spirit begins to change my heart. Listen to this beautiful Scripture in Titus 3:3-7: At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. What happened? Transformation! When we are born again, when we come alive in Christ. The Spirit changes our heart. Let me use say what this is not, this is not.

Well, I guess i need to come to church. Not because I want to worship but because I made a public confession that I need Jesus and i don’t want people to think Im not christian. or I don’t really want to pray and ask God to forgive me of my sins. Salvation is not those things. Salvation is a change of heart. It’s not where we, begrudgingly, let go of the things of the world, so we can hang onto Christ.

It’s where we see the Spirit of God open our eyes to see this stuff does not compare to the treasure we have in Christ, and we cling to Christ because we want Him. Christ becomes all we desire. That is what Ezekiel says in 36:24-27 “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” What happened?

He changes our hearts. He cleanses us. He makes us clean. That’s what the SPirit does. He cleanses us by the work of Christ on the cross through His word. Not by our work, not by us deciding one day that my mam-maw and pap-paw was Christian so I will be to. It’s not like when I was in high school and they asked if we wanted to be voters. So I looked to see what my family was, and I said, I want to be in that group.

We are washed in the word.. And this is my favorite part… he reveals to us our need, he changes our heart and then the Holy Spirit indwells within us. I love knowing that the SPirit of GOd is within me. Becuse here is why. I want Christ. I need Christ. Because my eyes have been opened that apart form him i am sinful. Apart from Him I will walk in darkness, and love my darkness and spend eternity in darkenss if I do not have the very living presence of GOd within me.

So the Spirit opens our eyes, he opens our hearts, he find a home there and then he enables our belief. He helps us believe. When I begin to not believe in what the word says, that’s a sign that I am wavering in my faith. And I go tot he Lord in prayer. Oh Lord, help my unbelief. Mark 9:23-34 Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” 24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” He helps me believe but he also helps me turn from sin.

The Spirit enables us to turn from sin; to turn from the darkness that we live in; to turn from sin and to trust in Christ. Turn and trust—that’s the picture in Acts 2. Repent and be baptized. Repent—be baptized. Repent. Turn to God, so your sins may be wiped out. Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. All throughout the book of Acts, what you see is turn and trust, turn and trust.

The Spirit in regeneration enables us to turn from sin and trust in Christ. Just Monday, alicia and I went to cracker barrel for our weekly parsonage secretary meeting. As we sat, i sat on the side that was facing these four lovely ladies who were dressed very beautiful, but they were dressed a little more provocative than I would have been comfortable with seeing while eating my morning grits. My mind was talking me places i did not want it to go…

so I asked Alicia. Would you mind switching me seats? She looked at me like I was weird, and she said, I guess so. I didn’t want to be a slave to my old sin. I know what I was like in college. I know what I have struggled with my entire life. I don’t want to be that way anymore, I want to look upon my wife and see her beautiful face and have her know she has my faithfulness in body and mind.

It’s the same way with Jesus, are we faithful to him with body and mind soul and Spirit? He helps my belief, he helps me turn from sin, and the Spirit transforms our life, not just for us, but greater for us. He transforms us for the eternal good. He transforms us for the Fathers eternal glory. Our walk in Christ ultimately is not for us. That is where we get it wrong.

Our walk with Christ is to bring glory to the son, who in turn brings glory to the father. Listen to what happens before Ezekiel’s transformation. Listen to what He says in Ezekiel 36:22-23, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things...”’ ‘“...but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.

I will show the holiness of my great name...Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.”’ it’s absolutly selfish of us to say that Jesus died for me and just leave it there. It’s absolutly selfish of us to say that eternity is for my goodness and for my good behavior and it is my reward for all of these things I’ve done on earth.

And a heart that thinks otherwise is a heart that only came to Christ to save it;’ skin and not to be kin with the great I am. God is making a great name for himself, and what he does is he turns us from sin, enables us to trust in Christ for our good and for his a glory. All of this is to lead us to this one question this morning.

Have you been born again? I want to ask you, have you witnessed these things I have mentioned in your life? I’m not asking if you sit in a seat, or you attend the activities. Has the Spirit of God opened your eyes to see the depth of your sinfulness and your need for Him? Has he changed your heart? Not if you have found a list of things that somebody has told you to do in order to earn salvation.

“Say these words.” “Pray this way.” Has your heart been changed by the Spirit of God? Has He cleansed your heart from sin? Has He put His Spirit in you and begun the process of transformation? I’m not saying that everything is transformed and perfect in our lives— we’re going to talk about that Next week I beleive at this time were going to talk about perfections and sancfitification—but has He begun this process of transformation as you turn to Him, as you turn from sin and trust in Christ?

You and I will never understand holiness if we’ve never explreindfed salvation and regeneration. So I urge you, if there is doubt, If your heart is saying, I need to be born again. NOt just with words, but with the Spirit of GOd within me. I want to invite you to come forward. I just want to say this… even the desire to want to come forward is the SPirit working within you.

Have you been born again. Will you now turn the desperation in your life, over to the Holyn Spirit let the power of regernation take over. For the glory of the Son, Father and Holy Spirit. *

Jesus as Our Hope

I want to invite you to open your bibles with me to Colossians chapter 1. Today we're going to look at seven words that is a very present reality for those in Christ. I’ve been thinking alot about Easter, and the celebrations. I spent time this week listening to some of my pastor friends speak of baptisms, and people coming to Christ, and lives being changed and all those moments are personal moments that I pray we witness here at Community Church. And we have… We have so much to celebrate as a church, with an anticipation for more to come. But I got to thinking about easter, and this mountain top moment we experience, as we celebrate the resurrection, We celebrated how Jesus conquered death. How He rose from the grave. But today I want to talk about what that means for your life right now - especially when you're walking through a valley. I often wonder, how many people left churches all across the world, right back into the reality of life. Right back into the valley.. right back into the darkness. And I know… from my own heart, these mountain tops moments don’t last very long. And I think of Paul writing this truth in chapter 1 and verses 13and 14.. listen to this. "He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Get what he is saying.. he rescued us. You were once in DARKNESS - complete spiritual darkness - and God physically RELOCATEs you. He didn't just improve your situation. He didn't just make your darkness a little brighter. He completely transferred you into an entirely new kingdom! And Think about that phrase - "in Christ." Paul uses this al across his other letters to. He talks to the Ephesians that you were once without Christ. But now, you’re in Christ. This isn't just about following Jesus or believing in Jesus. This is about being POSITIONED IN Christ. It's like God picked you up and placed you IN Christ Himself - a position of complete safety, security, and new identity.

But here's the thing - we often still live like we're in bondage. It's like someone who's been in prison for decades. When they're finally released, they still think and act like a prisoner. The cell door is wide open, but they hesitate to walk out. We do the same thing spiritually. Jesus says in John 3:19 that "Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light." We've been transferred into God's kingdom, but we keep glancing back at the darkness, wondering if maybe we're missing something. But in Christ, we've been transferred to a kingdom dominated by LIFE! Paul makes this clear in Ephesians 5:8: "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” And then, did you catch how he finishes this thought… its my favorite part: "So live as people of light! It's like the Nike version for Christians - just DO it! Or better yet, just LIVE it! Live like you're redeemed. Live like Christ lives in you. Think back to last week, with Mary at the tomb. Her hope was crushed. Everything she believed in seemed dead. But she showed up anyway. And because she was willing to be vulnerable one more time, she became the first person to see the risen Christ. This is the pattern throughout Scripture. When we surrender to Christ who dwells in us - when we live as people of light even in our darkest valleys - Christ shows up. And not only does He show up, He gives us purpose. He makes us messengers of hope to others still sitting in darkness. Which brings us to verse 27 back in Colossians. … Paul describes this as a mystery that's been hidden for ages but now revealed. And here it is - those seven life-changing words: "Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Say it with me: "Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So here's what I want you to write down and this is our overall truth for today. … Our personal relationship with Jesus prepares us for the valley. Let me say that again: Our personal relationship with Jesus prepares us for the valley. Not avoids the valley. Not eliminates the valley. PREPARES us for the valley.

I came across this quote recently from actress Spencer Kayden: "I choose to live without hope to protect myself from disappointment. It's very effective!” Ever felt that way? I have. Hope feels risky, doesn't it? When you hope for something and it doesn't happen, the disappointment can be crushing. So we protect ourselves. We lower our expectations. We prepare for the worst. We build emotional walls. And you know what? It works! No hope, no disappointment. Problem solved, right? But at what cost? I think… life without hope is a life without joy, without anticipation, without the possibility of something better. It's existence, but it's not really living. When I think of a life without hope.. I think of a life that struggles to moves forward.

So if Christ in us is our hope, what does that actually mean for your life? I mean, what does that mean to me. How does that truth live out in our everyday life… Let me share with you what I believe is the first essential truth about having Christ in you as our hope: YOUR HOPE IS ONLY AS STRONG AS ITS FOUNDATION When we build a house, the foundation determines everything. You can build a beautiful mansion with the finest materials, but if it's sitting on sand, what happens in the storm? It collapses. Jesus himself talked about this in Matthew 7:24-27: "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” The storms WILL come in your life. The question isn't if you'll face a storm - it's what foundation your hope is built on when the storm hits. Jesus says, in this life there will be trouble. That a promise. But it’s not the trouble we should focus on, its the solution. The antidote to our trouble is Christ. Our rock and solid foundation. Many of us have built our hope on sand. We have… have you build your hope on any of these? Hope founded on circumstances: "Everything's going well right now.” Hope founded on feelings: "I feel good about the future.” Hope founded on other people: "I know they'll come through for me.” But here's the problem - what happens? Well, circumstances change, feelings fluctuate, and people fail. That's why hope built on any of these foundations will eventually disappoint you. But Christ in you? That's hope built on bedrock. That's hope anchored in the One who has never failed, never wavered, never abandoned His promises. This hope endures. Don’t believe me.. read the gospels. From birth of creation, to the birth of Christ… all the way to the cross… and the promise of His return… Christ finished the work he set out to do. Jesus has never abandoned HIS PROMISES. And now, we live in a hope for his return.

Let me ask you something. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to love others when you're afraid? When you're worried about protecting yourself? When you're consumed with your own needs and concerns? Fear and love rarely occupy the same space. Think about it - when you're afraid of rejection, how open are you with others? When you're afraid of loss, how generously do you give? When you're afraid of being hurt, how vulnerable are you willing to be? This is where hope changes everything. Look at what Paul says right here in the same chapter of Colossians 1:4-5: "We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Did you catch that connection? "Because of their faith in Christ. And their love for others.. …” Their love for others didn't come from trying harder to be nicer people. It flowed naturally from the hope they had in Christ. listen, When your hope is anchored in Christ who lives in you, you stop seeing other people as threats. You stop seeing relationships as risks. You start seeing people the way Jesus sees them - as precious, worth loving, worth sacrificing for. Worth losing your very own life for. And this isn't just theory. How would you love someone who stole form you? Would it bring forth joy? Would you rejoice? I bet the answer is no… some one took something of mine.. I lost something. I remember one time in the oil and gas field we had a temp person who worked with us… and one day, all kinds of things went missing… food from lunch boxes, money, every drink and before long, my charging cord for my phone went missing. So of course, a committee of guys got to gather and began searching the trucks and found within this others guys truck, all of our stuff. Everything.. even my missing cord. And so they wanted me to go to the supervisor and report it with them. And I couldn’t… because for some reason, in my heart, I didn’t know why he did it. What if he needed it more than me. Ya know, proverbs say, People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. For me, its not that my charging cord would help him feed his hunger, but deeper, spiritually, he was starving for Christ. And sometimes, those starving min life need grace even more. And I need to remind myself of that often. Especially when people wear men down emotionally and mentally. Just as I need grace, they need it to. Look at the early Christians in Hebrews 10:34. They "joyfully accepted the plundering of their property." What?!!! Why? Because they knew they had "a better possession and an abiding one.” Think about that - their homes were being ransacked, their possessions stolen, and their response was... joy? How is that possible? Because their hope wasn't in their stuff. Their hope was in Christ. And its the same with our life… This is why marriages fall apart when hope is misplaced. When I put my hope in my spouse to fulfill me, to complete me, to never disappoint me - I'm setting them up for failure and myself for heartbreak. But when Christ in me is my hope, I'm freed to love Alicia without the crushing weight of expectation. I can love her as a gift, not as a god. The same is true for parenting. When my hope is in my children's performance or behavior, I'll either become controlling or crushed. But when Christ in me is my hope, I can parent with grace, with patience, with unconditional love. So, Here’s the 2nd truth,: You will never love others well until your hope is properly placed. As long as you're seeking from others what only Christ can provide, your love will always be contaminated by fear, by need, by self-protection. But when Christ in you becomes your unshakable hope, you're freed to love others not for what they can give you, but for who they are. You're freed to love like Jesus loves - sacrificially, generously, and unconditionally. I dunno about you, but that is how I want to be loved. And to be honest, I want to love others that way too. Because that is the heart of Christ. He lived, sacrificially, generously, and unconditionally. And it changed lives.

There's something I've noticed as I've studied Scripture that has absolutely changed how I view valleys in my life. Here it is: God consistently shows up in ways that directly counter the circumstances His people face. Its true. When Israel was in the desert facing pitch-black nights, God didn't give them flashlights - He became a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21). During scorching days, He became a cooling cloud. When the disciples were caught in a life-threatening storm, Jesus didn't just calm it - He walked on top of the very thing threatening to drown them (Matthew 14:25). When religious leaders were crushing people with endless laws, Jesus didn't offer a simpler rulebook - He offered rest: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest... For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Do you see the pattern? In darkness, He becomes light. In heat, He becomes shade. In chaos, He becomes peace. In bondage, He becomes freedom. So if you're in a valley right now, don't miss this: God isn't absent - He's about to show up in the way you need Him most, as the exact opposite of what you're facing. When you feel weak - His strength shows up. When you feel abandoned - His presence shows up. When you feel confused - His wisdom shows up. When you feel inadequate - His sufficiency shows up. And when death surrounds you - His life shows up. That's why Paul can write with such confidence in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. This is the hope we have in Christ - not that we'll escape the valleys, but that in our darkest moments, He will be our hope… listen to this third truth… GOD SHOWS UP OPPOSITE OF HIS SURROUNDINGS. He does.. but what is our part when we know God is present. How do we live a life where we tend to have valley moments? How to we live with "Christ in us, the hope of glory" in our everyday lives?

Well, first, Draw Near With Confidence. Hebrews 10:22-23 gives us the perfect first step: "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings... Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Did you catch that? Draw near. Then hold on. Kind of like Bull riding. Get on, draw near and hold on. For years, I had it backward. I thought I needed to fix myself first, clean myself up, get my act together - and then I could draw near to God. But Scripture says the opposite. We draw near first - with whatever mess, whatever doubt, whatever fear we're carrying - and then we find the strength to hold on to hope. I remember when our kids were little and they would fall down and scrape their knee, or they would get a splinter in their foot or hand. What do they do? They would run strait to Alicia and I with tears in their eyes. They didn’t stop to bandage themselves up first. They didn’t try to clean the wound themselves. They brought their hurt to someone they trust. That's what drawing near looks like. It's bringing your valley, your fear, your disappointment directly to God - not with hesitation, but with "the full assurance that faith brings.” When you start by drawing near instead of trying to fix everything yourself, everything changes. I promise you. Everything changes. I challenge you this week… look for ways to draw near… and then apply it in your life by holding onto that truth… get into the Bible… pick one verse… hold on to that truth.

Secondly, Name Your Valley, Claim His Promise. Let's be honest. Most of us do this thing where we try to pretend our fears aren't real. We spiritualize them away. When we get scared, sometimes we just say, ”Good Christians don't worry about that." Or we generalize them. "I'm just stressed, or tired. So many of us are carrying around burdens that can be easily lifted by just sharing them. But what you don't name, you hide….. And what you hide grows in darkness. Think about Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. After they sinned, what did they do? They hid. And when God asked them what happened, Adam didn't name it. He blamed Eve. Eve didn't name it. She blamed the serpent. This is still our pattern today! We hide our valleys. We hide our fears. We hide our struggles. We hide our sins. And the enemy loves nothing more than for us to keep them hidden, and instead of repenting, we run and hide them.We bury them deep down.. But listen, when we hide, we're essentially saying, "I don't trust Christ in me to handle this." We're saying, "I'll deal with this on my own." But here's the truth - we can't. But Christ in us can! 1 John 1:7 tells us, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Listen churhc, Walking in the light starts with naming what's in the darkness. It starts with bringing our valleys out of hiding and into God's presence.

What in your life are you hiding. Two verses later in 1 John, look at what he says. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Its making known what we’ve been hiding. But its not just confessing sin to God, look at what James says. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. I truly believe that we are always one apology away from fixing our relationships with others who have hurt us. Think about that for a second. ONE apology. One moment of vulnerability. One act of naming what you've been hiding could be the very thing that breaks the chain of hurt that's been binding you for years. This is why our prayer wall matters. This is why naming our valleys matters. When we bring these things into the light - when we acknowledge them before God and trusted others - that's when healing begins. Some of you have been walking around with unforgiveness in your heart, and it's become a part of your identity. Some of you have been carrying guilt that God forgave long ago, but you haven't forgiven yourself. Some of you have been trapped in patterns of sin that have power only because they remain in darkness. Look, church…..on the other side of that confession, that vulnerability, that naming of your valley - there's freedom. There's healing. There's the life-changing reality of "Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

And lastly, Live From His Victory, Not For It This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where "Christ in you, the hope of glory" becomes more than just a nice Bible verse. Romans 8:37 tells us, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Notice it doesn't say "someday you will be conquerors" or "if you try hard enough, you might become conquerors." It says we ARE - present tense - MORE THAN conquerors. For years, I misunderstood this. I thought being a Christian meant fighting to achieve victory. But the gospel isn't about achieving victory - it's about receiving a victory that Jesus has already won! Think about it this way: When Jesus said "It is finished" on the cross, He meant it. The victory over sin, over death, over fear, over shame - it's already been accomplished. It's done. It's complete. So the question isn't "How do I win this battle?" The question is "How do I live from the victory Christ has already secured?” 1 Corinthians 15:57 declares, "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Did you catch that? He GIVES us the victory. Not "He will help you earn it if you're good enough." Not "He might grant it if you pray hard enough." He GIVES it - as a gift! When you're in the valley - when the diagnosis comes, when the relationship fails, when the money runs out - you're not fighting FOR victory. You're fighting FROM victory. And This changes everything about how you face your valleys. Instead of praying, "God, please give me victory over this fear," you pray, "God, help me live from the victory You've already given me. And then after naming it, confirm it through his word. Romans 15:13… make it personal.. “the God of hope will fill me with all joy and peace as I trust in him, so that I may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. that is within…

Do you see how radical this is? You're not hoping to someday reach victory. The victory of Christ is IN YOU right now! This isn't positive thinking. This isn't mind over matter. This is living in the reality of "Christ in you, the hope of glory. Let me confirm something… Your valleys are real. Your struggles are real. But the victory of Christ in you is even more real! Amen? When you draw near with confidence, when you name what you've been hiding, and when you live from His victory instead of for it - you experience the full power of "Christ in you, the hope of glory.

As Peter comes up… and we close today. I want to give you an opportunity to put these truths into practice right now. In a moment, Peter is going to play some music. As he does, I invite you to come to the front where we have our prayer wall and tables set up. On the paper provided, I want you to write down one valley you're facing right now. One fear. One struggle. Be specific. Be honest. This is between you and God. Fold your paper and place it on our prayer wall. As you do, simply pray: "Lord, I draw near to You with this valley. I name it before You. And I choose to live from Your victory, not for it.” I want you to know that this isn't just a symbolic act. Our prayer team will be praying for each of these requests throughout the week. Real people, lifting up real prayers, for your real valleys. You can choose to add your name, or first name, or no name… Some of you have been carrying these burdens alone for far too long. Today is your day to remember that you're not alone. Christ is in you. His victory is in you. His hope is in you. And your church family is standing with you in prayer. And for those who prefer to remain seated, its ok.. Just remember no obligation for others to pray for you, only opportunity. you can still participate If you choose to remind seated. Use this time to pray, to name your valley to God, to thank Him for the victory that Christ in you has already secured.I want to leave you with this. The valleys you're facing might be deep, but Christ in you is deeper. Your struggle might be long, but Christ in you is eternal. Your pain might be real, but Christ in you is more real. The world says, "No hope, no disappointment." But Jesus says, "I am your hope - and I will never disappoint.” Christ in you. The hope of glory. Seven words that change everything.

Father, for those who are drawing near to You today with their valleys and fears, thank You that You receive them with open arms. Thank You that when we name what we've been hiding, You don't turn away in disappointment - You turn toward us with compassion. Lord Jesus, help us to live from the victory You've already won rather than striving to win a victory on our own. May we leave here today with the unshakable confidence that comes from knowing that Christ in us is our hope - in every valley, in every struggle, in every circumstance. And Holy Spirit, fill each person here with power to live as people of light, even in the darkest valleys. For Your glory, and in Jesus' name, Amen.

*

Bread of Life - Week 1 - John 6

Let’s open our bibles together to John chapter 6. The holidays are coming. For some of you, that sentence just brought a smile to your face. For others, I saw you physically tense up. Because while Hallmark shows us perfect family gatherings and Pinterest promises us stunning table settings, many of us are carrying a different reality of when it comes to the holiday season. Let me tell you a story… ”I’ll never forget my most depressing holiday season. I was in college, living with my best friend and his mother. They had become like family to me, which made it all the more painful when they left for their holiday festivities without saying a word. No invitation. No explanation. Just... silence. In my own family, we didn’t grow up with family traditions. So there I sat, alone on Christmas Eve, watching my friends' AOL Instant Messenger statuses scroll by. Each message was like a tiny digital knife: 'Making cookies with mom!' 'Best family Christmas ever!' 'So blessed to be home!’ I sat in darkness, hungry – yes, for food – but even more than food, deep down I was craving relationship.and connection, and even belonging. ”Do you know what's interesting?

Two thousand years ago, a crowd of people chased Jesus around a lake because they were hungry too. Earlier in this chapter, they had just experienced something amazing – they had been part of a crowd of 5,000 that Jesus fed with just five loaves and two fish. But less than 24 hours later, they were hungry again. And Jesus was about to teach them – and us – something profound about what we're really hungry for.”

Over the next seven weeks, as we move into and through Thanksgiving and then into the Advent season, we're going to be looking at Jesus's seven 'I Am' statements. Now, these are moments when Jesus tells us exactly who He is and what He offers. And it's no accident that we're starting with 'I am the bread of life.’ Because while traditionally we speak of gratefulness and being thankful during this season, and we focus on Love, Joy, Peace, and Hope during Advent, but here's the hard truth: For thousands of people gathering this holiday season, these words will feel hollow. Or Empty. Or Maybe even painful. Think about the people you see everyday… people you know, or even people you don’t know.. People at, At work. Your neighbor. People in the grocery store. Everywhere you go, you’re going to find people feeling: Broken Lost Hungry Ashamed & Disconnected from others” And one truth is this… we live in the most connected generation ever, but also disconnected at the same time. Let that sink in… we’re the most connect, but also the most lonely. And as a Christian… you will have the opportunity this holiday season to speak life into people and share the story of God’s faithfulness, and love. To be an encourager to them.. or to even invite them to something deeper and more meaningful. Where they can be connected, and loved, and find purpose. So let's look in our Bibles together to John chapter 6, and beginning in verse 22. And as we read, I want you to put yourself in this story. Keep in mind, that these aren't just ancient words on a page. This is about real hunger – yours and mine – and the only thing that can truly satisfy it.

Read John 6:22-3 One of the greatest truths about our faith is understanding that: "God wants to be the center of our greatest desires."

"Now, here is what fascinates me about this passage. Just when these people thought they had Jesus figured out – when they thought they knew exactly what they wanted from Him – Jesus completely shifts the conversation. Look with me at verse 26: 26 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Jesus begins with what I call a divine reality check. And watch how He does this – it's brilliant. He starts with loving confrontation. Sort of like with the woman at the well… He essentially says, 'Let's be honest about what's really happening here.'. Now, put yourself in their shoes for a moment. These people had just witnessed something extraordinary – the feeding of five thousand people from a little Hebrew boy's lunchable. They were there. They saw it. They ate the bread. They experienced the miracle. But Jesus says something shocking. He says, 'You're not here because you saw the signs. Now, Wait… what? Of course they saw the signs! They were there! They witnessed the whole thing! But here's what Jesus is getting at – and this is where it gets personal for us: They saw the miracle, but missed it’s meaning. Right? They experienced the provision, but missed the Provider. They wanted the bread, but missed the Baker. You see, Jesus isn't just giving them a harsh reality check. He's inviting them to go deeper than just whats on the surface of their faith. It's as if He's saying: 'Yes, you saw me multiply the bread, But did you see me multiply grace? Yes, you saw me feed bodies, But did you see me offering to feed souls?’ This is where loving confrontation becomes transformational invitation. Jesus isn't just pointing out their shallow seeking – He's inviting them to discover something far greater than free bread. He's inviting them to discover Him. Do you wanna know what I think is remarkable here? In this one conversation, Jesus exposes something profound about human nature. And this leads us to the first crucial truth we need to understand: We're all on a journey to find something to fulfill us. Think about what's happening in this story. These people crossed a lake looking for Jesus. They put in effort. They showed initiative. Why? Because they were hungry - not just for another meal, but for something more. Life is a journey. But it's not just any journey - it's a journey filled with desires we're trying to satisfy. These people seeking Jesus? They were pursuing Him because He had met one of our most basic desires. Do you know what our three most basic needs are? Shelter, clothing, and food. And so these people are following Jesus to meet a basic need. But here's what's fascinating: God created us that way. He deliberately designed us with desires, with needs, with cravings in our lives.”

And so, to understand this journey, we need to go back to the beginning. Back to the Garden of Eden. You know, sometimes we have this misconception about this oasis of paradise that we call the garden of Eden. We think, 'Well, in the Garden of Eden, when everything was perfect, man had no needs.’ And That’s not entirely true… Now, don’t get ahead of me. Think about Adam: He needed air to breathe He needed food to sustain him And most significantly, God Himself said, 'It is not good for man to be alone’ He needed companionship. You see, God intentionally created and wired us with cravings, with needs, with an empty stomach that needed to be filled. And this leads us to two crucial truths about desire: First - desires are not bad. They're part of God's design. But second - and this is key - in the Garden, it wasn't that man didn't have needs. The picture in Eden was that man had needs that were intended to be met only by God, in the way God designed. But then something happened, right?. Something that would change everything about how we handle our desires. Look with me in Genesis chapter 3, verse 6. Watch how desire gets distorted: 'When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make ones wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.’ This passage is absolutely dripping with desire. Do you see the language? She saw - thats a desire of her eyes. It was good for food - which means meeting the basic needs A delight to the eyes - there was attractive pleasure And the tree was to be Desired to make on wise - so now theres the intellectual craving to know more. then ……. She took - this is the action that is driven by her desires. And I want to point out just for a moment.. men.. before you think about pointing to the woman and saying anything about, oh man.. the woman messed it all up… you know for a fact every man in this room has the same desires that she had. In fact, if we're being honest, some of you are thinking about what you want for lunch right now. And lets be real, how many of you made a decision this week based purely on what your eyes wanted? You see, whether we're men or women, we all face this same battle with desire… And so, right here in Genesis, we witness something unmatched in human history: for the first time, the cravings of humanity drive them to meet their needs outside of their Creator. She took, and the action of her desire that was outside of his and her creator is the center of their sin. But don't miss the trigger of sin in this story. The trigger of sin is looking to things of this world to satisfy us apart from our Creator; it is thinking that something is good, or better than God. Now, think about it. Every sin I've ever committed. Every sin you commit. We sin because we think it would be good. We think it would be delightful. We desire comfort, and we long to be filled…. The truth is…….. “No one wants to be empty.” But did you know what it means to be filled? It means to be in its grip. That's what it means to be filled. Even when we feel empty, we're not. Because you can be filled with almost anything from physical food to internal emotions. And so, we desire things: Material things Adultery & lust Greed & Envy Theres a whole list of things in the book of Galatians that we can be filled with. We desire these things because we believe they will fill us, while also fulfilling the longing within us. But it's not the truth. What we end up doing, when we fill our lives with desires that are not of God, and look to this world to satisfy us apart from our Father, we end up running from the one our souls long for and need most. I don't know about you, but I am tired of running. I'm tired of being tired. I'm tired of running away and being controlled by things that do not satisfy me. Now, think about this.. if being filled means to be within the grip of something.. How different would Ephesians 5:18 hit when we hear the word of God saying to us, “Be filled with the Spirit.” We can either fill ourselves, by our own desire, by our own power with all the things this word has to offer, or we can surrender our lives to Christ, by faith, and be filled by the Father with the very presence of Christ. And just a reminder, you can fill yourself with things of Christ.… we’ve got to surrender that need, that desire, and we come by faith and say, God I want what you want. You fill me.. Now, come back with me to John chapter 6. Because watch what happens with these people following hard after Jesus. Now Don’t forget… these people were running in the right direction. They had a desire, they needed it to be filled, and they were running after Jesus. But yet even in their running and following and seeking Jesus, they missed what Jesus was trying to teach them. Jesus gives them a phrase that will completely go over their heads. Look with me at verse 27 'Don't work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.’ Did you catch it? The key word here is 'eternal life.' In fact, twelve times in this chapter alone, Jesus says 'eternal life.' And these people? They're still thinking about that last amazing lunch they had with Jesus. It completely goes over their heads that they are following Jesus for the wrong reasons! They just don't understand it. They are following him to meet a physical need, and Jesus is saying no.. you’re real need is eternal. Now, here's something fascinating about the Greek language. There are two different words for ‘life’: First, there's 'bio' - that's where we get our word 'biology' from. It's about physical life, breathing, and existing. This life is about our natural biological bodies and it’s needs. But then there's 'Zoe' - and this is something completely different. This means the absolute fullness of life. Real, genuine life. Active life. Life that is devoted to its creator. Life that is filled by grace, and mercy.

Now, if you were to go through this entire chapter, you'd discover something remarkable. Jesus never uses 'bio.' Not once. But 'Zoe'? He uses “Zoe” twelve times! He keeps saying: I am eternal life (Zoe) I am the bread of life (Zoe) I am the active life devoted to the Father (Zoe) I am the fullness of life (Zoe) And they're asking Jesus the same question every single one of us asks when we come to faith in Christ….. What do we need to do to get it?’ Whats the recipe? What do I need to do to fill my life, my way, when I want it, and how I want it to give me Life. Can you imagine? Jesus saying, 'I'm offering you the secret to life itself,' and they're arguing about their grandparents' bread recipe! That's like my wife Alicia telling me she knows how to cook something I love, and me responding, 'Well, my mom used to make it this way.’ And we all know that's a no-no in marriage. You never tell your wife that mom made it better! Can I get really honest with you for a moment? When you came to faith in Christ Jesus by faith, and you heard this phrase, 'it's by faith alone, not by works'... what did you do? I almost want to bet many of you made it about what you did…Because I know I did. I didn’t know any better. 'How do I live by faith? Oh, I know…' 'I go to church when I felt like it’ 'I gave…when I could.’ 'I show up for worship when I had time' I served, when it benefited me. So often, We make faith about what we do rather than us becoming like Christ. That means these people in our story were focusing on what they did, more than being transformed from within, that controls all of our desires, and hungers, and passions. "How many of us has, or had turned 'faith alone' into a new to-do list?” "It's like we traded one performance system for another. I went from performing in my old life, to adopting how to perform a Christian life. And so, They weren't getting it! They were so focused on what they desired and asking what they could do to get it, that Jesus must have been thinking, 'People, are you not listening to anything I'm saying?’ The people even bring Moses into the conversation in verse 31 - 'Well, Moses fed us in the wilderness.’ And Jesus is like, 'Uh, no... Moses didn't feed you. MY Father fed you.’ And then Jesus does something beautiful. He says, just as manna came down from heaven, the Father sends the Son down from heaven to be the bread for ZOE - eternal life. 'I am that bread. I am the bread of life. I am the one God the Father has sent down like the manna, and I am now here with you. And whoever comes to me will never go hungry or thirsty again.’”

But here's the real problem in our sinfulness: we are prone to desire the world more than we desire God. It's true. Think about it. Every day, even every week, we can get completely wrapped up in things that don't ultimately matter. We get excited when our football team wins, depressed when they lose. Our emotions swing wildly over things that have no eternal significance. Right now, people are fighting over the election. But there is One who does matter. And He deserves more than just our intellectual belief - He deserves our emotional affection as well. He deserves our desires, our joy, and our complete satisfaction. The danger is, if we're not careful, we'll fill our stomachs and gorge ourselves on everything this world has to offer - things that don't matter to our eternal security in Christ. And just like these people who were seeking and following Jesus, we can get so caught up in our busyness that we miss the point of His teaching - that we're to be desiring and seeking the one the father sent above all other things in this life. ………Jesus is trying to teach us that we need to get the taste of this world out of our mouths and begin to have a thirst and a taste for the things of God, for Christ Himself. You see, in this story we read, they never get it. They're willing to follow Jesus around, get free meals, feel connected with a large group of people. But they never realize that their faith needs to go deeper in trusting, believing, and abiding in Jesus. Isn't that what we experience in this life and in the churches we attend today? Churches are filled with people following hard after Jesus but never truly going deeper in their faith. Theres no cost to the grace that many of them desire. Even Paul talks about this in Corinthians when he calls them 'Carnal Christians' - divided, arguing, smearing others' names, without realizing they're pursuing their old life instead of the holy life Jesus offers. We live in a world where we get caught up in just being like these people.... Do you want to know what they're really doing? They’re just... existing. To them, bread is just to sustain them to exist, but there is no living life within them. And many times in our world today, we find Christians just coming to churches, living lives all week long, trying to just exist. Don't you want to live? To feel alive! To have purpose and meaning in your life? Because in this life, if our greatest desire is to just exist, our life will always be indifferent to what Jesus desires for you. In our constant chase after being content, our eyes become set on resources we don't have rather than what God is already willing to give us.

"Are you empty this morning? Before we close our service, I want to ask you two searching questions. And I want you to really sit with these: First: What are you already filled with that leaves no room for Jesus? You know, there's an infinite fountain of satisfaction to be found in Christ, but so often we don't come to His table because we're already stuffed with other things. It's kinda like showing up for our thanksgiving dinners but stopping at a fast food drive-through first, before we arrive. Some of you here and online will leave or sign off of here today unchanged. And you know what? During this holiday season, you might come across that familiar verse in Luke that says: ‘And they laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn.’ And I wonder... is that still true today? No room? No room for Jesus in our lives? Maybe it's busyness. Maybe it's worry. Maybe it's the constant noise of social media. Maybe it's just settling for less because it's all you've known. Which leads me to ask: What will you choose to fill yourself with instead? Have you ever noticed that faith has choices? That's the beauty of faith. God doesn't force-feed us. He sets before us a feast and invites us to taste and see that He is good. Think about it: Moses told the people, 'Choose this day whom you will serve’ Joshua declared, 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’ Even Jesus asked His disciples within this chapter said, 'Do you also want to go away?’ Every day, every moment, we're making choices about what we'll fill ourselves with. What if every time you felt hungry - physically or spiritually - you saw it as a sacred moment of choice? And here's the beautiful thing about these choices: even when we choose poorly, God's grace keeps inviting us back to the feast. "Here's what I want you to remember as you leave today: You don't have to figure this all out perfectly. The same God who created you, who knows exactly what satisfies you, is drawing you to Himself. He's not just offering you better bread - He's offering you Himself as the Bread of Life. And when Jesus Christ becomes your satisfaction, when you believe He is all-satisfying, He will transform the way you live. Amen?

Amen. Let’s stand together for our bebidection. Benediction "And now, may the Lord who is the Bread of Life Fill your deepest hunger with His presence, Satisfy your greatest longings with His love, And transform your ordinary existence into abundant life. May you taste and see that He is good, Finding in Him the satisfaction your heart craves, Until your life overflows with His fullness, And others see in you the feast they're searching for. May you go from this place not just fed, but transformed, Not just existing, but truly living, As you make Christ the center of your satisfaction Today and all the days to come. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, the true Bread of Life, Now and forever. Amen.” *

A Memorial Message

I just want to take a moment, to let you all know how much I am proud of all of you. Just to sit here and listen to how sweet and kind the words were for the woman you are remembering today, and how much she had impacted your life. I’m proud of you. If she were here, at this very moment. I didn’t know her, and I never met her. But I can also guarantee you, just by seeing all the love and appreciation from you all today, she would probably be super proud of each and every one of you.

People always say you can’t really explain why you feel a certain way about someone. Why you click with some people more than others or why you suddenly feel connected to a stranger. Have you ever taken a moment to think about that? That, the girls and the staff who are in this season of your life, might be God putting people in your life because at some point you’re going to need whatever it is that, that person is teaching you.

You see, I believe God puts people in our lives, and brings us closer to certain people because these are the people we need in our lives right now. It reminds me of Jesus and the woman at the well. Which is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Tucked into the beginning of John’s gospel in the new testament. Jesus gets wind from his Father that he needs to go through Samaria.

And it’s kind of funny because normally, the Jewish people don’t go through Samaria, they go around Samaria. These two groups of people hated each other. The Jews hated Samaritans so much that the Jewish people would consider them dogs. But while Jesus was there at the well, he meets with a Samaritan woman coming to draw water in the heat of the day. And do you know who this woman was?

She was an outcast. She’s different. All the other women would get up early, and together they would go down to the well to draw water for the day, but this particular woman that is now in front of Jesus, she lived a promiscuous life. She lived a life different and she didn’t feel worthy to be there with the other woman. She came to the well when she knew no one would be there to accuse her, to talk about her, to laugh at her.

She came at noon, in the heat of the day, to isolate herself from the shame. But guess who was waiting for her? Jesus was. Now remember, God puts people in our lives, and brings us closer to certain people because these are the people we need in our lives right now. Jesus begins to pour life into her. He engages with her about living water, water that only He has, and only he can give.

So she’s surprised, not only to see someone there, but because that ‘someone’ would engage with her, Someone who, connects with her, breaks through her isolation. Someone that sees through her shame, and through all the walls she had put up because of past hurts to protect herself. And what’s beautiful about this moment… This woman has her eyes opened and realizes that Jesus wasn’t there to engage her shame, he was there to engage her heart.

Jesus sees her. She’s not invisible to him. He loves her. In the world of Jesus, she is NOT excluded; not isolated, She’s not a dog. And in that inclusion, she is brought back to life. All because the father, sent Jesus through Samaria and not around, SO that Jesus could be a part of her life. God sends people into our life for a reason. For a purpose. We all have well moments in our life where we meet people.

This is a well moment in our life. Now, comes the hard part. When we come to the well, and we meet those God sent to meet us there, are they in our life temporary, or permanent. You know, the woman at the well, when she realized that Jesus was the messiah, she turned around and ran back into town, back into the society that she first ran from because of her shame.

But this time, instead of being clothed in shame, she let her heart swell with life as she shared life with others. You see, at some point in this season you are in. You’re not going to be here anymore. That’s not the question I have, but the question I have is this… when you do leave here, will you leave here better than who you were than when you came?

I believe so… because you all met her! And she taught you some special things about living life, and caring for others, and loving on everyone. You see, if I go back to the truth that, God puts people in our lives, and brings us closer to certain people because these are the people we need in our lives right now. I would say, she was a part of your life to teach you some amazing truths about life.

When you leave here, you’re gonna be able to love people where they are. Just like Jesus loved the woman at the well where she was, and just like how she loved you where you were, right here. And the truth is, Jesus only stayed two days in Samaria. He had to leave. Jesus was a temporary person in their life for that moment. I can imagine the Samaritan woman and the town didn’t want Jesus to leave, but he had to.

If Jesus didn’t leave, there wouldn’t be the healing of the sick, the washing of the disciples feet, or the cross. We can become frustrated when temporary people leave because we can’t let go, sometimes we don’t want to let go. We don’t understand why God would take away something so beautiful or someone who’s healed us in some way. But those we meet in the present, help us and prepares us for whenever God sends us forever people into our life.

In essence, learning to let go is faith. That’s what letting go means. You ever heard the phrase about relationships… if you let them go and they return it was meant to be? It takes faith to let go of people in our life trusting that God knows what’s best for us. And here’s the cool part about Jesus. The bibles tells us that if we put our faith in Him, he will never leave us.

He promises us that, by faith, His presence would be in us, so that he becomes a permanent person in our lives. I didn’t know her. But if she was anything like what I am seeing in your life right now…. Kindness. Gratefulness. Love, appreciation.… Sounds to me she was a great person to be around, and who she was is now permanently instilled in you. What I am trying to say is this..

You’re young. Live in this moment. Live with these people around you. Celebrate with one another, laugh with each other. Tell jokes about how big the spiders are in the dorms. Let these moments draw you closer together. Learn from each other’s stories. So that when the wind of change comes, by faith you’ll be able to let go. Take this moment and this season in your life to see the uniqueness in each person the way she saw it in them.

Take advantage of it now, because you never know when the wind of change will come. Maybe these girls, and this staff around you are temporary people that God has brought into your life to teach you a lesson or to heal you in some way. Maybe these young ladies and staff are also teaching you how to let go, how to detach from things that hurt us. So that we can embrace the things that will help us, heal us, and strengthen us for the life ahead.

Maybe, this moment is teaching us….. How to have faith. How to realize when someone’s a part of your story, and by faith you’re able to love those permanent people who God will bring into your life, even better than before, because of what you’ve shared with the temporary people you’ve met at this moment, right now. She isn’t gone. Her life is carried on by your memory, and by you being the best of who she was in this life.

To me, that’s being just like Jesus. Loving, caring, kind, gentle, and joyful. Be light… and go shine.

Grace and Truth

I wan to invite you to open your bibles with me to the book of Acts, and find with me chapter 15. Certain individuals came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This is pretty serious. If you’re If you are unfamiliar with this term . . . Just know this, that was a high standard.

It meant that salvation came through surgery. And it was an old standard. There was a controversy over whether or not, new gentile believers would need to be circumcised. And people were fighting over it. You think people in the church fighting over carpet, or how something is moved or anything else… try being in a church that says, you can only be saved if you have surgery. So watch what happens.

Verse, 2. This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. This was a hard issue for them. Because Paul had been teaching salvation came by faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son . . . rose from the dead. That’s it! These gentile were having genuine and authentic salvations moments. Hearts were being changed. People were being saved. So, Paul and barnabas were sent to Jerusalem to speak about this question on circumsision.

Verse 4.. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church (here is this word e ̇kklhsi÷a again ) and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. 5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” Right, so they had to change.

Right.. the laws required these gentiles to change everything. There were ceremonial laws, and original laws, and laws how to dress, and laws how to eat and laws how to behave. And to be honest, it was all of this outward appearances of holiness, but they were forgetting the fact that the heart of these people were changed. Can you imagine what it would be like to change instantly everything about your life, in one day.

It would be overwhelming right? V. 7,. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. Theres Peter again… giving good truth.

Peter knows all about this.. earlier he was sent to a gentiles home and witnessed first hand the grace within the heart of this man. V. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Is it possible to have a changed heart, but still live with bad habits? Perhaps. I think Peter thought so. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?

11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” There’s the gospel. You are saved by grace through faith. IU just think its funny, heres Peter giving the gospel, to those there. And then James chimes in. Look with me in verse 19.. 19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” Three laws are given here…. Two of which are what? For the unity of the church. One was for sexual purity.

So what do they do.. well look in verse 30.. 30 So they were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. I wan to ask everyone soemrhign… Do you believe that a church can have controversy? That we can disagree? Do you remember what was the early churches first big controversy was?

And its not just a one time controversy, it would become a controversy that would surface in every church, and in every generation, and even surfaces in our own generation, today. The controversy was this… How good does a person have to be in order to be a part of the church? Just this week, Every morning of family camp, I meet with two other pastors who are my closest friends, and we had the same conversation come up.

How perfect does a person need to be, to be a member of the church of the Nazarene. And heres the other part of that controversy. Who is the church for? Most of us know the story, but if you do not, Saul was persecuting the church. And its wasn’t just a man picking on people. But he was going farther, he was putting Christians in prison, and putting them to death.

He was sort of like a bounty hunter, and he was hunting Christians. And in the middle of all of this, Jesus appears to him and He got saved. But heres the thing, not only did he get saved, but he did something that was frowned upon… he took the gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles. So heres the issue. These gentiles, they weren’t Jewish. They didn’t know the traditions. They didn’t know hardly anything about the temple, and the laws, and the procedures of church.

They came from lives where they didn’t act int her way as their jewish brothers and sisters. They were literally people living in utter and total sin, and having and experiencing a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. And so, the controversy was, Many Jews assumed that since Jesus was Jewish and fulfilled Jewish prophecy, then to become Christian you must first become Jewish. Now heres my hunch… this can very easily be found in the church today.

If you've had a bad experience with a church, it might very well have been related to this issue. In this moment, you had jews who knew the truth. But you had gentiles that needed a lot of grace. And what we recognize is this. How do we navigate within the church the crossroads where grace and truth collide? Theres a book called, the grace and truth paradox which was written by Andy Alcorn.

And Andy helps us understand what happens when truth and grace can become one sided. He says, “Truth without grace breeds a self-righteous legalism that poisons the church and pushes the world away from Christ. Grace without truth breeds moral indifference and keeps people from seeing their need for Christ. What Andy is saying is this… when it comes to truth without grace, we can become legalistic. Do this, don’t do that, and if you fail, you’re out.

Thats what the pharisees did. They created over 600 laws to follow. You broke them, you’re out. Now, let me ask… Are you a truth person? Truth people are easy to admire. They have convictions and principles. They believe in right and wrong. They set standards. They speak out against injustice, oppression, and evil. But without grace, telling the truth can become an excuse for being abrasive and even abusive to others who are not following the standard that they live.

On the other side, Are you a person of grace? Grace people without truth are pleasant to be around, but we wonder if they really like us or if they are just trying to be liked. Grace people are really easy going people. They are very tolerant of right and wrongs. Grace people are people who may not take a stance on a issue. If you are a grace person you are most concerned about being loved.

If you are a truth person you are most concerned about being right even it means being unloved. But In the church… where does grace and truth collide? It collides with Jesus. Where Grace and truth was embodied. John tells us in John chapter 1, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” It’s not 50 / 50.

It’s not 50% grace and 50% truth. It’s 100% grace and 100% truth. 100% all the time, in Jesus. Jesus was all grace and all truth. He welcomed sinners and tax collectors and ate with them. He had compassion on the crowds when they were hungry and far from home. He let children be children. He healed, he loved, he laughed. But He was also truth. He condemn the hearts of many leaders.

He told many, this life following me isn’t going to be easy. Amen. Is anyone here living an easy christian life? Jesus prophesied judgment on Jerusalem for their unrepentant hearts. We need grace, we need to hear “come to me those of you who are weary and I will give you rest, and we need truth, where Jesus says, the truth will set you free. And he tells us, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin…But if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed” We need truth.

We need grace. We need Jesus. And so, heres what is happening in the early church. There was this great controversy over outsiders becoming a part of the insiders, the gentiles becoming a part of the Jewish Christians, and together, both groups becoming a part of the body of Christ. There arises within this crossroads of grace and truth, a real danger to the unity of the local church… Whats the danger?

Well The danger is… When it comes to the drift, The church will tend to drift towards those who are insiders and away from those who would be considered outsiders. Have you ever watched little kids play soccer? It’s fun, but as a competitive person, it can become just as frustrating because as you watch those 5-8 year olds, they have a tendency to do what? They have a tendency to clump together.

The coach puts them on the field, and they are spread out, but once one kid kicks the ball and the game starts, all the kids on the field clump together around that ball. And As a parent, you keep trying to tell them, spread out. pass the ball to one another. Work together to make a goal. They drifted from being spread out, into a clump. And lets be honest..

we know that’s not a healthy strategy. Its the same way for the local church… Listen, A church doesn’t drift into greater health or better focus. It doesn’t. You’ll never see a church or any organization for that matter. just drift into goodness, and unity, and love. It takes sacrificial leadership. It takes service and commitment and a willingness to listen. When grace and truth work together, what we tend to see is a breathing church.

A church that expands, but also contracts. Grace keeps us ;ovine and compassionate… Truth keeps us grounded in what is right and wrong. And when grace and truth is at work together in the local church it creates a community that is both loving and accountable. Because heres the issue. Not only is there a danger of drifting inward, but we also tend to drift more towards truth than grace within our circles it creates within.

Look with me in verse 9, He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. I remember in my own life before Christ. I lived in sin. I lived in darkness. I lived how I wanted, and did what I wanted to do. And Do you wanna know something… God changed my heart way before he changed my habits. And itsthe same with you, “God changes your heart way before he change your habits.” And I began by coming to Christ by faith.

I didn’t walk in His statues right away. I didn’t become entirely sanctified within a few weeks of my salvation. I got saved in December of 2002, and baptized in March of 2003, but I still lived for many years in my old habits. And to be honest, I didn’t want to give up my swearing at first. I didn’t want to give up tobacco. I didn’t want to love and forgive others that were mean to me, or hurtful towards me.

My heart needed to be changed and it took truth and grace over a period of time. We can become so inward focused in the church, that often times we can look at new Christians and go they are no where near where I am. They don’t look like my holiness, or sound like my holiness or act like my holiness… but yet we can forget we too were once lost and learning as well.

We can forget where we began. We can forget that we too once needed grace from God and grace from others walking with us in this journey of holiness and faith. In my own life, With time, as I learned truth, through discipleship and being honest about where I was, ya know, repenting and turning from those convictions in my life, and believing God loves me, and is sanctifying me each and every day, I had to learn that if the truth was going to set me free, grace was the key to the shackles that prevented me from growing.

The truth was, I was a sinner. The truth was, apart from Christ I can do nothing. The truth was, I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. But it was by grace, that I was forgiven. For it is by grace I have been saved, through faith—and this is not from myself, it is the gift of God.

Grace is what gave me the ability to move forward, to grow, and to become more like Christ. Otherwise all I would ever do is sit in my sin that I was freed from. And listen church, we can put so much emphasis on truth that we forget to even be in the conversation with others who are needing grace. Listen, none of us will ever outgrow our need to receive grace, and God’s plan for us to give grace to others.

We have such a natural drift to forget where we began ourselves and we tend to take truth and force it on others who need grace. This weekend, we spent the week at family camp and I cant begin to tell you how amazing family camp was. But, we got to go to the beach and if you’ve ever been to the beach, you know, that there’s three things. Sun, sand and waves.

I didn’t go swimming this year. I’m not a big fan of sand either. Perhaps, clams can get a sand grain lodged in its mouth and create a pearl… and its beautiful and valuable. But when I get sand lodged into places, it doesn’t create pearls. Its uncomfortable. So, I tend to sit in my chair and watch the kids play. But I was watching Grace and Abby on their boogie boards while riding the waves.

And You could see how they would be out there in the waves, facing us, and before long, they would be so far from us, we’d haft to kind of get their attention and tell them, “Hey! You need to get back up here in front of us.” And they would sand up, and walk up the shore where it was easy for them to walk, and then they would head back out into the waves, and before long, they would end up off course again and down the beach.

And I remember, the first day we were out there, Grace had gotten out of the waves, and she was walking away from where we were seated. She was so off course, she was bitterly going the wrong way. And so, I walked patiently behind her until I yelled out, Hey grace, Behind you! And then she turned, saw me and, we walked together to where everyone was. We need to remember, that as a church we can very easily take our eyes off of Jesus and drift.

We can make programs and turn inwardly, and focus more on preserving than advancing. We can become consumed with doing things our way, and not being careful where we are going, or what were doing. Sometimes, just like our kids out there in the waves, we need to adjust ourselves to be back on course. Sometimes, just like grace, she needed to hear a familiar voice helping her find her way.

Isn’t that just like Jesus? That often times we get off course, he calls us by our name and leads us back on course, and he leads us into the community. Sometimes, we’ve got to work hard to swim agains the current. And We have to work hard not to be a church where grace and truth conflict, but coexist. SO heres three challenges I have for you this week.. Let’s be concerned with not only with those who we are keeping, but also with those who we’re reaching as well.

Ok? Lets make sure were not too inward focused that we forget the outward call to go and proclaim the gospel. Secondly, when we tend to lean toward what is truth, lets not forget that we also need to lean towards grace. Remember where you began in your faith journey. Remember your testimony and what Christ has done in you over the years, and remember that people need to start somewhere.

When it comes to truth and grace, make the commitment to journey with others.. do you know what walking with others require? It requires a commitment for longevity. To being and staying in the conversation with others. And thirdly, lets remain openhanded towards all people. Ya know, James was a pretty smart guy. James in our Scripture today in verse 19 said, we shouldn’t make it difficult for those who are turning to God.

When people are with us.. when God draws people near us… By His grace perhaps they will experience both the grace and truth of our Savior. You see, generosity is more than just giving material things, its also being available. Amen? *

Obedience Fueled by Love

“If you love me, you will keep my commands.” - John 14:15 (CSB) Jesus placed love at the very center of his command to obey. I mean, the entire chapter just shows us the intensity of Jesus’s love. Just moments earlier, he says, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

Did you know that it is the Father's will for you to abide in Jesus? Have you ever read a book called “The Purpose-Driven Life?” by Rick Warren? It’s a great book about finding your purpose and living a meaningful life. I guarantee that you will begin to create a roadmap to knowing God's purpose for your life. What about the book, “What’s Next?” It’s a book about the journey to know God, finding freedom, discovering purpose, and making a difference. My favorite book about finding purpose turned out to be one I bought because I heard about the author and thought it was about being a godly husband, father, and man. It's called the "Purpose of Man." When I began reading that book, I realized quickly that it was a book on wisdom rather than a self-help book on being a better man for God. In all reality, the book did teach me to be a better man—a man in love with God.

In my opinion, A.W. Tozer's book would be the closest to finding purpose, because our purpose in life is to know Jesus more. The Father's plan for your life is to know Jesus better today than yesterday. This is what Jesus was saying when he said, "The Father and I are one." Jesus was telling young Philip the Father and I are one, his identity is my identity. Here soon, that becomes our reality with the Holy Spirit within us. Christ’s identity becomes our identity. And so, God’s plan for your life is to abide in Christ.

Another way we can see this truth is in John, chapter 6, where Jesus teaches that he is the bread of life. Think about that moment. Jesus has just fed the people fish and loaves, and now he's gone to the other side of the sea, where they follow him. Jesus recognizes the need to nourish their hearts once more, prompting him to explain that they require genuine eternal life, not the fleeting life that bread provides. But they need the bread of life, which is Jesus, And what was their answer? What can we do!? Jesus replies, "It's not what you do, but in your believing in the one the Father has sent." We focus so much on what we do. Most of the time, our actions determine our holiness. Do I dress holy? Does my language sound holy? Do my actions seem holy? Holiness is based on just this or that kind of music. But very often, we never see the pursuit of holiness as God wanting Himself to be the center of our love. And I think this is the danger that so many Christians are trying to find the rules—that they try to put God at the center, but he has no control over our lives. God becomes center along with everything else they have put center. We naturally look for rules. We seek ways to change the sins within us, on our own, but in the end, they never really change us or transform us, as much as we find rules and ways to suppress and hide the truth that we need a savior from our sin. And so, sin stays very rooted in the hearts of people until their life becomes consecrated. You see atonement isn’t being at one with myself, but being at one with Christ that is in me. And there must be a change, or a turning or even better, a surrender. I think surrender is such a beautiful word because it’s a Jesus word. Jesus surrendered. Not my will but yours be done. That’s surrender. It’s a surrender that knows the Father’s love. And Jesus knows the Father’s love. Look at verse 9 in John chapter 15, Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me.” Just think about that. How much does the Father love the Son? A lot. An infinite perfect love. Jesus says, As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.

If anything today, I can bask in the light of these words, as the Father has loved the Son, and the Son has loved the Father, through Faith, the Father has placed the Spirit of the Son within my heart that cries out, Abba Father. Holiness is becoming one in Christ, as Christ is one in the Father. All through Faith, and the Spirit of Christ that is within me.

And so I bask in that truth, knowing that Jesus loves you and me with the same intensity and the width and depth of love which the father loves him, and he loves us. Let that soak in today. Live today in God’s love for you. Don’t doubt it. Live in it! How do we do that? Verse 10 says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” Which Jesus echoes in verse 15, If you love me, then keep my commandments.

Obeying isn’t following rules, it’s everyday taking on a new identity. I’ll leave you with this… obeying invites three habits into our life,

Learning to Listen. Ha! Leaning into some of a friend’s thunder here and leaning into the district assembly. As Christians we should strive to listen for God just as much as we strive to obey him. Because heres the thing, listening requires patience but it also requires me to put aside my thoughts, to make room for God’s. I struggle with a bad sense of self. It’s not that I think of myself less, but I think I am worthless at times. Listening gives me the opportunity to pray and read the word to see what God says about me. That he loves me. He lavishes his love on me. Who are you listening to? Secondly, Learn to trust. I love the familiar verse, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understandings.” Trust is really the currency of relationships. And without trust, our faith will rust. Lastly, Commitment. Commitment often requires us to be fully devoted to God because sometimes we don’t always get what we want. The verse continues to say, “In all of your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” God will never direct you in ways that are ultimately bad for you. He will always make the path straight. Does it mean the path will be easy or smooth? No. But it does mean that it will ultimately be good, and purposeful.

You see, obedience isn’t our doing, it’s through love. Trusting, listening and commitment all come not through what we do, but through the love we have for God and for one another in this relationship we call faith.

I Am the Light of the World

12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 Every one of us is living in darkness. But yet, I still feel alone at times in my life. I still feel the weight of depression and anxiety overwhelm me. We live in a world that can sometimes feel shrouded in darkness, a world that mirrors the formless and empty state of creation that we find in the book of Genesis.

I sometimes wonder, if the creation story, represents my story and mu life. On one hand I know I can experience loneliness, isolation, and a lack of direction or purpose. And it can become very easy for me to become trapped in my own anxiety and fear. But on the other hand I need to also remind myself of the possibilities that come with being empty, and formless as darkness blankets my life.

Being without form can also represent new beginnings, perhaps a fresh start. Just as the lump of clay on the potter’s wheel does not take shape until the hands of the creator begins to form it into whatever it’s purpose would become of it, my life as well can be formless, shapeless but yet surrendered to the Holy Spirit who works and hovers to dwell within me so that I can be formed and changed into the very image of the Fathers Son, Jesus.

But there is one thing before we choose a path that we will take in the darkness, and we need to be reminded of this one truth. No matter how dark your life may seem…. God’s presence is always present within our darkness. Before light has dawned on the earth. Before the heavens and the earth were formed. Before time and every living thing, ……..God was there. Even in my own life, Before I even knew of God, before I knew of my sin, before any knowledge of my need for Christ as my savior, before the Spirit of God came into my heart to give birth and life to my soul, he was hovering over the darkness of my life., extension grace to me.

We call it prevenient grace. And in God's grace, we are reminded that, God’s presence is always present within our darkness. "Recently, I watched testimonial videos of people's experiences spending 24 to 100 hours in a pitch-black cave in Oregon. These individuals ventured into a small, secluded tiny house built within the cave, equipped with a bed, toilet, and bathtub. Their meals would be delivered once a day in a tiny box.

And During their stay, they would simply eat, sleep, and exist in the complete absence of light. After thier time in the darkness they would come out into the light of the world and for what may have been like the first time, they begin to see how the clarity that light gives, shows us how the world is formed around us. One testimony caught my attention. It was a young man that had said, “I've realized in my pursuit of God that I was trying to find him, but yet in the darkness, I realized that I was infinity surrounded by him.

It was like, without knowing it, I was swimming in His presence.” God’s presence is always present within our darkness. No matter who you are, where you are, or where you’re at in your present state of mind. When you and I experience darkness in this life, we are still surrounded by God’s presence. He blankets us in his love, grace and mercy each and ever day of our lives. Psalm 125 verse 2 reminds us that, “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people, from this time forth and forevermore.

God’s presence is always present within our darkness. But why do we struggle within our darkness to realize God’s presence is present with us? And, when I am in darkness how can I find God? Well first we need to understand that within the darkness that we experience, fear is the enemy of our faith. Fear is the enemy of our faith. What is fear? Fear is an emotion caused by the belief that something or someone poses a threat to us.

God as a threat to my way of life. When I was in college I was invited to a church by a girl. I didn’t want to be there. God was a threat to my way of life, and how he wanted me to live my life. We hear things like, God wants to bring to light your sin, and he wants to invade your hearts. When I am the Lord of my own heart, that’s the kind of language that’s threatening.

You want to expose my sin? But yet, here’s the reality I never realized… I was living my life in darkness and sin. And I loved it. Jesus put it like this when he was describing his own coming : “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” Our problem is not that we don’t have light, but that we love the darkness.

We love it. We love it because we believe it protects us. It shrouds our life in mystery and hides our wrongs. I often wonder, would even my own darkness hide my sin if there was a final judgment? And we choose it often over living in the light of Christ. What kind of fears do you struggle with? Because we have access to so many fears in our life. Are they healthy fears that draw you closer to God, or harmful fears that pull you away from Him.

There’s two fears I believe we need to examine today that are not healthy, The first one is that we can have the fear of intimacy. Intimacy is what we call the experience of really knowing and being known by God and by another person. It’s us knowing God and others on a deeper level. When I think of intimacy I always think of Alicia. We’ve been married for 18 years and I am in love with her more today than I ever was 18 years ago, and that’s because intimacy takes time.

It; takes effort. It takes understanding, and trust me, it takes a whole lot of grace and forgiveness. But our love has grown because her and I have made heart filled intentions on knowing one another deeper. I want to love my wife with all that I am. I want my mind to be filled with visions of her. I want my heart to yearn to be near her. Even when I am sick, and exhausted, and tired, there is a strength within me to keep going, to keep working, to push through the hardships to care for her and my family.

All because, I am in absolute head over heals, in love with her. Think of the command, to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love others as you would love yourself. That’s intimacy. To love God with all of your being. And to love others the same way you would want to be loved. It’s a love that is vertical and horizontal. And notice, it’s never a love that lowers God or others from where they belong.

It’s never a love where you see someone lower than you. You love vertically first, where love originates, and then love flows from that intimacy horizontally where others are. No relationship ever becomes healthy by trying to love people from above them. From lording over them. Because For love to be real, it can’t be forced or coerced. There’s an equality to the love we experience between one another, when we love others as we would love ourselves.

People around us are not greater or worse than us, but there becomes a uniformity in our intimacy. This reminds me, that there’s not one person we can’t love in this world. Even when Jesus says love your enemy, it’s a call for us to stop trying to make others lower than ourselves, and to love them as equal to ourselves. When we have a fear of intimacy, every time in this fear we will push God and others away.

And in the midst of pushing God and others away, we tend to create unhealthy boundaries for relationships. We struggle in our faith because we distance ourselves from God, and from others. In Psalm 63 David begins with these words, he says, “God, my God, you are my God. I earnestly seek you. That means David sought God with a sincere but also intense conviction to find God. When we are hurt, we distance ourselves, we put up boundaries to keep hurt and others from hurting us again.

But when we have a healthy love for God and others, when there is healthy intimacy that leaves room fro grace, We find ways to seek to be in God’s presence and we find ways to lift others up. There’s another fear. And if you can imagine, it’s the opposite of intimacy. We fear being close to others, but we also fear of being rejected by others. I wrote in my journal a couple years ago and I keep this truth near because I too at times fear rejection…

I fear not being loved by others, and I am learning that it’s an unhealthy fear. Here’s what I wrote: The hardest part of living a life of rejection is when you begin to believe that the addiction to mans acceptance and approval, is normal. Let me read that again, The hardest part of living a life of rejection is when you begin to believe that the addiction to mans acceptance and approval, is normal.

You and I can become very easily starved for acceptance and approval. We find ourselves seeking to see how many people show up to events that we put on. We look at all of our likes and comments and interactions on social media. We look to see who’s interacting with who and why are they not interacting with me. We count our friends and then the friends of others to see who’s more loved but believing the more we have the better we are.

That’s an unhealthy way of living. And if left unchecked, approval of others can become a drug that we become addicted to. And Otis a hard addiction to break just as much as nicotine and others drugs we encounter, all because it becomes a prison for our minds. At some point the acceptance you had form someone else, will wear off and then we try even harder to win the approval of others.

King Saul started out wonderful as a king to the jewish people. He had such a wonderful potential to be a great king. But He always wondered, “What are the people going to think? Are they going to like me?” And at one point, because of his fear rejection and the fear of what people thought, he rejected God’s commands, and so, the prophet Samuel confronted him. This is what King Saul said in I Samuel 15:24, he repented and confessed.

He said, “Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord’s command, But listen to why he rejected God’s command… “I was afraid of the people, so I gave in to them.” why did God chose David to be the next king? Because he was a Shepard boy after the heart of God. Saul ran after the heart of the people, but David ran after the heart of God.

Humans are the only beings on this planet that seek out and long for the approval of others. And we fear being rejected by others. Fear is the enemy of our faith. It’s a snare. Fear’s aim is to keep us where we are… think of it like this.. fear paralyses us. It keeps us in a the rote of daily life. Proverbs teaches us that, Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.

(Pro. 29:25) There are so many others fears I could talk about, but I hope you get where I am going, fear is what keeps us in the darkness of our life and prevents us from moving forward in the light of our faith. Jesus tells us, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. What Jesus is teaching, is that darkness can only overcome us, and overwhelm us when we choose to love our darkness more than we love God.

Even in fearful moments, we can choose to love wrongly, and to wrongly love. And the worlds kind of fear prevents People from loving God in a right way, and walking with him. Think of the life of Moses. Moses was an amazing man walking with God. If you recall last week, the jewish people loved Moses. Here’s another example of an unhealthy habit we have in our life, when we aim to lift others up above God.

They questioned Jesus as the bread of life, because Moses had fed the Israelites manna from heaven, and then Jesus had to correct them by saying, No, It wasn’t Moses that fed you, but my Father in heaven was who fed you. And that moment of Manna falling down was a depiction of the son of man coming down, to fed the people the real manna from heaven to give and sustain life.

However, the life of Moses is one that we should study and admire because he desired to be, Always, In God presence. There’s a Scripture that blows my mind, and it reminds me that when we are in darkness, God is always there. When we are at our lowest, God is always there. When we fail, God always is there. When we’re struggling to understand, God’s presence is always present within our darkness.

There is no darkness to which, God is never present, and this Scripture is found in Exodus 20. Exodus 20:20-21 says, 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” 21 The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. Here we read about fear.

But do you know what Moses meant in this moment? Too, not be afraid, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning? Think how this links to the New Testament. What we realize that none of us is able to obey the law, that we need Jesus to cover over our sin and our disobedience, and that’s what Jesus did at the cross. He paid the price of sin for us.

He went as a substitute for us to the cross, died in our place, and then rose from the dead in victory over sin and death, so that we can be saved from our sins, not by our obedience but by our faith, by our trust in Jesus. Now get this, when we trust in Jesus, by faith, to forgive us from our sins, we no longer need to fear the judgment of God.

This verse Calls our Relationship with God to Be Marked With Love. And when we are marked by love, we no longer want to sin in our lives. The best way I can explain it is like this…. My Mother is the closest thing to a father that I have ever had. The most simplest parallel I can come to, with what Moses was teaching and by our faith in Jesus is this…

My love for my mother is so deep that I never want to see her hurt. I never wanted to see her disappointed. And there are times in our relationship that I did not want to tell her of things, not because of what she might do, like whip me, or make me sleep on her bedroom floor for months because I snuck out, but because I loved her so much I didn’t want to see her hurt.

I don’t want to dishonor her in anyway. She’s means a lot to me. And so then I think about my relationship with God. It’s marked by that kind of love. Moses said, the fear of God that will keep you from sinning, is his way of saying, I want to fear not that I will be casted away into a fiery hell for eternity, but the fact that in hell, for temerity, your very presence wouldn’t be there, that is what I fear.

To be away from your presence, to be casted away from your presence. But yet, in God the fathers sufficient and always giving grace, he offers us His son, that although we sin, we miss the mark, we fail, we come up short, in Jesus Christ, we can have the light of life, that guides us to see, and witness God the fathers, ultimate and amazing glory. Paul tells the Corinthians, 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

Jesus is the personified, incarnated “radiance of the glory of God” (Hebrews 1:3) He is the “true light” of this world, and he will be the true light of the world to come. And here’s some good news, Jesus said if you turn to me in your darkness you will not walk in darkness, but in light. Ezekiel tells us, that God will will put his Spirit in us. (36:27) Paul tells us in Galatians that the Father desires to put the Spirit of His son, in us to cry out, Abba Father.

My question is this… Have you tuned to Jesus yet? What darkness are you carrying right now? Turn to Jesus. I’m going to lead you to make a decision this morning.… are you going to be a Moses or the people of Israel? You see, Moses and Israel stood in the very presence of God. But did you ever notice what verse 21 says, The people remained at a distance, but Moses approached the thick darkness of where God was.

Listen, Church, ”The darkness is not so deep that the light of love cannot penetrate it.” Jesus took upon himself, on the cross, he took our sin, and went to the deepest that death could take him, before the love of the Father who was already there int he depths of the darkness of death and h resurrected Jesu to glory and honor and now he offers you and me, eternal life through Jesus.

Moses stepped into darkness because, by faith he knew God’s presence was there. The people stood behind because they feared their sin more than they feared God’s loving presence. What sin, or darkness are you fearing more than Gods love this morning? Every one of us is living in darkness. But yet, God’s presence is always present within our darkness, because love is present in Jesus, and he reminds us of this…

, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” *

Formed by His Life

Let’s open our bibles up to Galatians. So, you’ll find corinthians one and two, and then the book of Galatians. And we will be in chapter 5 together today. When you find the book of Galatians could someone read for us, Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 through 18. (Read Verse) So this is week three, taking about what it means to be transformed and made into the image of Jesus. It’s examining the first part of our vision, carrying Jesus.

In the KJV of the Bible, in the book of proverbs chapter 29 and in verse 18, it reads this… (18 Where there is no vision, the people perish..) Now, let me take just a moment to explain that.. What governs your life. Why do you make the decisions you make? How many habits are there in our life that are bad, but not just bad habits, but how many habits are there in your life that are just neutral?

That we don’t even think about it. How many times we just believe something because it’s all we’ve ever been taught? We never question why we do this or that. It’s just is. Its how I’ve always done it. A church needs vision just as much as a Christian needs to have faith. We need a passion for something with direction. Otherwise passion without direction is no more than being a ship adrift out at sea.

This week, we’re talking about being a church formed by the “Life of Jesus.” Last week we explored being formed by his love, this week we find out what it means to be formed by his life. That means next week we look into being formed by his leadership. But Let’s start here… “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” In 2009, Simon Sinek gave a Ted Talk and immediately spring-boarded himself into notoriety.

Incase our wondering what a Ted Talk is, it’s a platform where speakers from different areas in life that range from education to industry leaders and from sociology to religion. And the purpose of a Ted Talk, in my opinion, is to teach the listener something about that specific field of study within a 20 minute window. And before you think to yourself.. well I wish our pastor did ted talks on Sunday mornings instead of Matthew’s long winded talks…

just keep in mind that on average, it takes 250 hours to prepare for one 20 minute ted talk. I ain’t got that kind of time to prepare each week. But Simon say’d, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it." Let me explain… Pretend you have a cupcake business. You’re why isn’t just to make cakes. You’re why is to create family moments. So your why is the result of what you do.

Think of it like Alicia and I’s wedding. I remember the cake, I remember what it looked like but to be honest, I don’t remember what it taste like. What I do remember is the moment Alicia and I shared together taking our vows to love one another for life, and I remember being at the table with a white cake and her smashing cake in my face. You see, I don’t remember the taste of the cake but I do remember the moment we shared.

and So, to succeed, you don’t share how you made the cake. Instead, you show a family making memories around your cake. Does that make sense.. You don’t share the recipe, you share the result it had created. And that works in the secular world. To share results but here’s where I’m struggling. You’re why is empty if it doesn’t have a passionate what. DO you get what Im saying.. we can (DO) the why all day long, but if it’s not thrusted forward because of our (WHAT) then our why becomes passionless.

I’m going to let you all in to a place where my heart is hurting.. so be kind to me…. Be patient and I ask for you to be forgiving… as I openly repent and ask for forgiveness. Over the last 5 years as your pastor. I’ve recently noticed that I have spent the last 5 years preaching on what we should be doing and very little time teaching on why and how we do it.

I’ve preached on why we should follow Jesus, and why we should love one another and why we should be going hard after the loss in our community. And I’ve preached on how love can grow the church. But I’ve spent very little time on how we should do those things. So what I am saying is this… over the last 5 years I’ve been trying to teach the result and not enough time on sharing the recipe on how we get there together.

And that’s on me. And what I’m talking about is “meaningful discipleship.” Being formed into the image of Christ… being formed into the Imago Dei. That’s our why. Our why is to be holy as Christ is holy. To love as Christ has love. To witness fruit being produced in our loves, but what’s the recipe to get there? And that’s my fault, and I’m asking for your forgiveness. Because let’s be honest…

the quote, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” It’s a great truth for marketing, but not so great for maturing. So the book of Galatians is really helpful in teaching us the recipe to develop and mature our why as a church and as christians. Listen, People are attracted to our why… but for them to be attracted to our why, we’ve gotta be passionate about our what.

We’ve got to be just as passionate about the journey we take together to get to where and who God is forming us into as a church. A key verse for this is found in verse 19, look with me there. 19 My children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you. Paul says my children… it’s an intimate way of saying.. those of you I love.

I love you and I want to make sure I’ve given to you the best chance of succeeding in life. Isn’t that how we love our children as parents. We want you as our children, to experience and have the things we never did. But here’s the issue… so many times our kids experience the result of that, but never experience the hardships that we take to get is as a family there.

For instance, Our kids, have been to Jersey, Colorado, Puerto Rico, Florida, Virginia beach, Baltimore. And not to mention all the extra stuff, like Disney, and Knenobles and Hershey Park and everything else we’ve done as a family. I’ve never done any of these things as a kid growing up. My best friend as an 8 year old was a basset hound, a stick and 500 acres to explore with adventures.

That’s it. But our kids don’t see the long hours of work, they don’t understand the sacrifices of letting go of Alicia and I’s wants so that they can have what they want. The truth is, many times, they witness the result of our fun trips, but they hardly ever understand the recipe it took to get there. When Pauls says, My dear children, It’s a way for someone to come to a group of people with a fatherly approach to love and guide them as a church.

And he goes, I’m suffering labor pains. And every woman listening is like… are you sure about that Paul… Us guys we go, man colds are the same as giving birth.. right? Ladies you just dont understand the the depth of a man cold.. it’s awful… and the ladies are like… you sure about that guys… hahah But listen, ladies… could you imagine and resonating with someone saying… I love you so much that I want to see Jesus formed in you so badly that it hurts like birthing pains.

That’s how much I want to see Christ being formed in you. To me, since im never going to experience child birth and only hearing about it, It reminds me that Paul had a great passion to see Christ in others. mY prayer is that we as a churhc would have that same passion. To see us, as a churhc grow in Christ from one glory to the next, but also have a great passion to see Christ in others as well.

He wants to see Christ formed in us, but here’s the issue. We’re either formed by Christ, or were formed by the world. There are no grey areas… Ao, Paul goes on to share with us two realities that form us.. First, Let’s look together. Find chapter 5, and lets look at verse 19 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar.

I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.. That’s the work of the flesh.. Now look with me in verses 22.. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Paul is saying to the Galatians if you practice the flesh, the result is, these works of the flesh.

This is very interesting… because I want us to understand something… First, what does he mean by the flesh? The flesh is our primal desires. A lot of people make a mistake and say it’s the body. That’s wrong.The flesh is not the body but the primal desires that consume us and move us towards self gratification. This is why we’ve been talking about habits. What are things in our life that we are either naturally drawn to, or habits that we do naturally and without even knowing?

Second, look at how the flesh grows and is maintained in our life… its found in verse 21. He says, as I warned you before, those those who PRACTICE such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. The key word is PRACTICE. If we practice such things, there is no kingdom inheritance. And I’m just floored by this… because I wonder how many fleshly things in my life I practice and I don’t even know it.

How many of us practice these fleshly habits that lead to death an we just don’t know we do it. And did you notice this… When Paul speaks of the Spirit he doesn’t say anything about practice as much as he reminds us that the Spirit forms us. What do I mean by that? Look with me again, in verse 16… Walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desires of the flesh.

Now look in verse 18, if you are led by the Spirit you’re not under the law. And one more, find verse 25, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. If the result is either the works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit.. and the works of the flesh is practiced, but the fruit of the Spirt is what forms us, that leads me to the conclusion that it’s not what I do that sanctifies and makes me holy, Spiritual Fruit isn’t produced on my own as something I gain myself.

No… God produces it. So the question being asked is this… which result are you wanting in your life? I believe it’s even better than just practicing some sort of habits to become holy, but practicing the presence of God. If you dont mind, I’m gonna go to John chapter 4, and look at verse 4… it says, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” Nowlet look at John 15, which is the great priestly prayers of Jesus before the cross…

what echos do we find here? Let’s read verses 4-5. 4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

This language of the Spirit, forming us, and molding us isn’t by just practice, but intentional practice of abiding in His presence. This is holiness preaching folks… I figured by now I’d hear some amens. In Johns gospel, the The word “abide” comes from the Greek menó, which according to Strong’s Concordance means to stay, abide, or remain. Others liken the word to “dwell” or “rest.” Where did we hear that language?

A couple weeks ago right? In Matthews gospel when Jesus says, come to me and you will find rest. Take my yoke upon you and do what? Learn from him. What do we learn, if you remember it’s not to find greater status, which is what the flesh drives us towards. To be self satisfied. No! He calls us to come to him to become humble in heart and lowly. Abiding, or remaining, in Christ means believing, trusting, or welcoming Christ.

It is fully attaching ourselves to Him, it’s being grafted in and drawing our everything for life, from Him. That’s what walking in the Spirit is, that’s what is being led by the Spirit. We walk in Christ. We are led by Christ. The yoke keeps us in step with that who is leading us. And get this, Paul says in Galatians, “to live by the Spirit. We live, because we’re abiding in Him.

But How do we walk by the Spirit?? To walk in the Spirit, we must counter our fleshly habits with the practices of Jesus that leads us daily into the presence of Jesus. So how do we grow in Christ? And how do we do it together? Well I have three thoughts on this, First, Trying relies on willpower but trusting rests in God’s power. When we live in the habit of trying, the power of motivation is driven by insecurity and fear.

I’m sure we have all heard and may even have said this before. I’ll try to be more Christ like. I’ll try to pray more. I’ll try to give more. I’ll try to read more. I’ve even heard people say, I’ll try to be entirely sanctified. And what happens when we try hard and we fail? We get mad at God. That’s because we’ve made our trying the means to gaining holiness.

Usually, People who are trying get angry with God when circumstances go wrong because they think they deserve a comfortable life from God. Those who trust struggle when circumstances go wrong, but they know God is still in control and things will ultimately be okay. Every day we get to choose whether we will approach God through trying or through trusting. One leads to identity and self-worth on how they perform and unavoidably leads to death, and the other has their identity and self-worth centered on Jesus which leads to life.

Which practice are you going to pursue? Secondly, Christlike character is comprehensive, not compartmentalized. To understand what I just said, we’ve got to understand what it means when Paul gave us the list of the fruit of the Spirit. Have you ever noticed that this word fruit is singular? It’s not plural. It’s not fruits of the Spirit. It’s fruit. Why is that? It’s wrong for us to go, “Well, today I had plenty of moments where God gave me opportunities of peace, and I did well, but I need to work more on self control.

And This isn’t one of those moments where we go, well I guess I’m only as strong as my weakest fruit. What we got understand is that these fruit like self control, peace, gentleness patience and so forth are all being given to us at the same time, in the same way, from the same Spirit that is the same spirit in all of us. What we learn is that God gives his wholeness of love, and when he gives the wholeness of His love, joy, peace and the rest of the fruit all come with that package.

God never gives love, and not enough patience for today. When we find rest in the love of GOd, we find all the fruit in his fruit salad. It’s comprehensive which means it’s complete and whole. God doesn’t compartmentalize his love and we go and pick and choose what we want. when we’re in his love, we love, because he first loved us and he gives his whole self to us..

maybe we should trust in giving our whole self to him because he gives the wholeness of himself to us? And lastly, Dwelling in God’s love keeps the practice of presence from drudgery. Jesus say in John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Obedience without love is nothing but a chore, or a duty. Have you ever noticed that God is concerned about our joy?

He wants us to be happy. He desires for us to be full of joy. My joy is not little in his eyes, but rather essential for a life that pleases and glorifies God. It’s essential that we find our joy and satisfaction in God’s son, Jesus. That’s who gives us life. And to me, being loved by Jesus is better than the any fleshly pleasures of entertainment, or of the body.

And so, this life I pursue, is a life in Him. The creator and sustainer of my salvation, my joy and my life. My life, is being formed by His life. You and I will never find a better life, without the life of Jesus forming and shaping us into the likeness of HIs life. It begins like this… Begin today to be passionate about he process while seeking the result.

Because if others around you see you passionate about your process to find your what, they’ll be curious to know more about your why. And those are opportunities to share your faith with others. That’s the importance of why we take communion. Communion is more than just remembering, it’s believing by faith that everything is better in Jesus. And it was his body that was given for us, in remmberence that he died and was broken for our sins.

He who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” And the cup, was poured out for us, and by faith, represent the blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. He willingly shed his own blood not for his own sins (he had none), but for ours. Each of us here today is only able to partake in this covenant and communion because of what Jesus did and continues to do for each of us.

As Paul says, in our Scripture today, for us who were called to be free, don’t use it for the flesh, but s a opportunity to serve one another through love. This communion reminds us that this love isn’t to be wasted but a love that is to be cherished. It restores relationships and leads all into mercy and forgiveness. Let’s us remember that today, that we are Christs, and he is ours.

Bread: The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful. Blood: The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful. Prayer *

I AM the Resurrection and the Life

This past week, I found myself staring at my reflection in a hospital window. It was mid-afternoon in the ER waiting area, and all around me, monitors beeped steadily – that rhythmic sound we've all heard. Beep... Beep... Each one marking a heartbeat, each one a reminder that life is precious. While waiting outside one of the rooms, I overheard nurses talking about a gentleman who had passed away in the ambulance on his way in. That conversation hit me hard. The simple fact that we're all here this morning, breathing, living – it's a gift we often take for granted. Have you ever noticed how hospitals make us face things we spend most of our lives trying to avoid thinking about? The older I get, the more I find myself thinking about life and death. That rhythmic beeping of the monitors – it's a lot like our breathing, isn't it? Always there, keeping time, marking life. Speaking of breathing – would you do something with me right now? Just one simple thing. Take one deep breath. Go ahead – just one. Hold it for a moment... and slowly let it out. Twenty thousand times a day. That's how often we do that without thinking. Twenty thousand gifts we rarely stop to thank God for. You know what's funny? Every Thanksgiving, we go around the table listing what we're grateful for. But how many of us ever say, "I'm thankful for air"? Sometimes it takes almost losing something to realize its value. When I was a kid, probably around 7 or 8, I learned this lesson in a terrifying way. We were playing hide and seek with my cousins when I spotted an old 1950s refrigerator with one of those big silver handles. Thinking I was clever and small enough to fit, I squeezed inside and pulled it shut. That's when I learned two terrifying truths. First, these old fridges latched from the outside - I was locked in that dark, scary space. But second, and far more important, I learned just how precious each breath really is. Within seconds, I was gasping, desperately trying to find air where there wasn't any. I didn't know at that young age that these old fridges were airtight when unplugged. If it wasn't for my cousin finding me quickly, I wouldn't be standing here today. You see, both that childhood memory and my recent hospital visit taught me something profound about gratitude. What if real thanksgiving isn't just about counting blessings, but about recognizing life itself as the gift? What if gratitude is less about what we have and more about Who gives us each breath?

I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to John chapter 11. We're going to meet a family who had to face these questions in the rawest way possible. They're about to learn, as I did in that hospital room, that sometimes our deepest encounters with Jesus happen in the places we least want to be… Let’s read together from John chapter 11, starting with verse 17. Take a moment to find this passage in your Bibles... Let’s read together, John chapter 11, and find with me verse 17. 17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles[a] from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” Now, find with me verse 32… A little context.. Jesus has just met Martha, and now Mary, with the crowd following Mary is going to go where Jesus is. Here is the conversation that Mary has with Jesus. 32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

I want to ask a question.. Are you trusting Jesus Christ as your life? The story of Martha, Mary and Lazarus is a fascinating one. I want skip Martha’s interaction with Jesus for just right now… and lets take a moment to look at Mary and Jesus. Mary comes running up to Jesus and she’s weeping. Listen to Mary’s words, in John 11:32: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” do you notice how Jesus dealt with her in her grief? Like we know what happens.. and if you dot know the story, spoiler alert, Jesus in a few verses ahead will eventually go to the tomb of Lazarus and he would call out his name, and Lazarus would com alive again and walk out of the tomb. Jeuss literally brings him back to life. But here in this moment, we find something fascinating in Jesus’s interaction with Mary… although Jesus knows what he’s about to do… it never gets in the way of being present with people. If we look in Verse 33 says, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.” Then, our Bible tells us… Jesus wept. And Im fascinated by it because here’s the question I’m wanting to ask.. Why does Jesus weep when He knows He’s about to remove the whole reason for weeping? He knows. The most real truth about Jesus Reminds Us that Jesus has the Power to Take Our Tears Away, but he also has the love to weep with us in our grief. If you ever wanted to see what perfected love looks like…. This is it. If you ever wanted to know what kind of love is real perfect love, you’ll never find it anywhere else but in and through Jesus. Grief is a really interesting emotion. I’ve learned as a pastor that each persons grief is as unique as their fingerprint. And I’ve witnessed as a pastor, that people grieve differently. Some weep loudly, and some grieve silently. And when you experience grief, there’s two things you’ll learn that are common in anyone that grieves. The first truth lies in our deep human need to have our grief witnessed. God created us for community, and this rings especially true in our seasons of mourning. Just as the body of Christ functions as many parts working together, our grief needs to be witnessed by our brothers and sisters in faith. Scripture reminds us to "mourn with those who mourn" (Romans 12:15), showing us that even in our deepest sorrow, we were never meant to walk alone. When fellow believers witness our grief, they become the hands and feet of Christ, offering the same compassion Jesus showed to Mary and Martha in their time of loss. And second, we all grieve because love was evident and love was real in their life. Our capacity to grieve flows directly from our capacity to love – a gift given to us by our Creator who is love itself (1 John 4:8). When we grieve deeply, we reflect the very heart of God, who loves His children with an everlasting love. Our tears mirror the sorrow God feels when His children suffer, and our aching hearts echo Jesus's compassion for a broken world. You can not have grief without love. They are intertwined together. And if your plan is to go through life avoiding grief and pain, you can most certainly do so, but the cost to a Grief-less life is to always run from love. I don’t know about you, but a life without love is like a river without water. There is not one person, that I know of in this world, that doesn’t want to love and also feel loved by others. I hope that is what you and anyone who visits this church finds here in this church. The issue is… for most of us when we have experience rejection in our life, we become afraid to love and to let others love us in return. But look to where Mary and Martha runs… they run to Jesus and Jesus does what… he weeps with them. Think of how amazing it is, that in this verse we find Jesus, who is God in the flesh, Who knows everything is about to change for them, but still he takes the time to weep with them. Did you notice what Mary and Martha did? They shared their need to grieve and for it to be witnessed, and if their grief is but an echo of a love now gone, its so beautiful.., they go to the source of love. Jesus has the Power to Take Our Tears Away. We know this.. we have hope of this from the resurrection to come. John would write that in the book of revelation.. think about what he writes, He (Speaking of the Lamb, Speaking of Jeuss) will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” What we see in this moment is that God makes it crystal clear to us, when we weep, he undeniably weeps with us. When we hurt, he hurts with is. He witnesses our pain, and he comes. And so, this morning, I don’t know the depth of your grief, or the hurt you’ve expieirnced. Whether it be the loss of a loved one, or maybe you felt alone and abandoned, betrayed and discouraged. With whatever it is you’re dealing with, Jesus is witnessing your pain, and he loves you perfectly where you are, and he weeps with you.

Jesus weeps, but then he brings truth. You see, it’s not just being there witnessing our pain, but it’s also bringing truth about our pain. It’s Inviting God Into Our Pain and hearing what he says about our pain.. That’s always the first step to healing. And when I say heal, I am not saying we forget our grief, or we forget those we have once loved, what I am saying is this… Healing can never begin unless were real and honest about why we grieve. One of the resources and books I’ve been looking into has been David Kessler’s book called, “Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief.” And in this book, Kessler writes, “Healing doesn’t mean the loss didn’t happen. It means that it no longer controls us.” When we grieve, we need truth. Martha comes up to Jesus and says “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” If Jesus would have been there… this story would have been different, but not, Lazarus has died. But yet, in this moment, hear the truth that Jesus says to her… “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Do you realize what Jesus just said? Jesus just said He has the power to make it all untrue. He has the power to turn all of it around. Now, I thought about this truth this week and the only way I can explain it is like this.. You know that feeling when you’re asleep and you have a nightmare? You have a whole bunch of feelings and emotions. I remember one as a kid where wolves were chasing me. I can to this day recall how scared I was. I remember the sounds, and my fears, and I vividly remember how I felt. But then, I also know how I felt when I woke up. How safe I felt once my mind realized that it was a dream. I remember feeling different once truth was realized. Now, what about those moments where you weren’t asleep. Those moments where something really bad did happen to you. It’s not a dream and you just sit there in your grief, and you pinch yourself to make sure you’re not sleeping. How many times in our grief and we just say things like, I wish this was a dream. This, can’t be true, and you just wish what had happened would be undone. This is the truth of what Jesus is saying to Martha. He goes, I have the power to undo what grieves you. I have the power to undo it all… where it would be just like waking from a dream. And listen Church, if that is true…. If Jesus has the power to undo what has been broken. then that means death is not the end of our story—and that changes everything for us. Jesus was sharing truth into their conversation… and then… listen to that Jesus says next… Do you believe this? Martha responds, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Her word for Christ here is actually her saying, I believe you are the Messiah. You are the promised one. The one we’ve been waiting for… You’re our long awaited Hope! Why? Why do we need hope? Why is Jesus our hope? DO you understand the implications of what it means that the long awaited Messiah has come? Man and woman were made by God, but they sinned against Him. They did what all of us have done—they turned from God and His ways to ourselves and our own ways. As a result of sin, they were separated from God—and all of us are as a result. The penalty for sin is death, both physical death in this world and everlasting judgment in eternity beyond this world. But we call the Bible and the gospel good news because here it with an open heart this morning… The gospel is that God loves us and has not left us alone in a world of sin, separation, suffering and death. God promised to send His Son, Jesus, to do what none of us could ever do. He lived the life we have not and could not live, a life of no sin. Then He died the death we deserved to die. We deserve our death. Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for the sins of anyone who puts their trust in Him. Then, three days later Jesus did what no one else has ever done or could ever do. He conquered death itself, the enemy we cannot conquer. Jesus rose from the grave. He is the resurrection and the life. And he looks to Martha and says to her…I am the resurrection and the life… Do you believe it? The greatest invitation we could eve receive is the invitation to enteral life in Jesus and he simply hands it to you in words of love and says, do you believe it? Martha, says yes, but she doesn’t understand. Just like so many people who hear this gospel today and refuse it because they don’t understand. So many times our truth prevents us from hearing His truth. Our minds are limited.. they are.. the smartest person int his world can’t run form death, but they can run into death and find life. They can.. and you can too… but you’ve got to hear the invitation this morning.. do you believe this. Are you trusting Jesus with your life?

I thought long and hard on how I would end our service today, because I know it hits home for all of us. But, for those of you who are in Christ… Can I give you some encouragement for our ending? I feel like I should encourage you before we end. Can I do that? First, Grief Isn't a Detour from Faith – It's Part of the Journey The first thing we need to understand is this: grief isn't foreign to God's children. In fact, our capacity to grieve deeply proves something beautiful – it proves we're alive, we're human, and we're loved by God. Think about it – Jesus himself, standing at Lazarus's tomb, didn't rush to resurrection. He wept. The Bible doesn't teach us we'll never taste grief. Instead, Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians that we "do not grieve as others do who have no hope." We still grieve – we just grieve differently. Our tears fall on the soil of hope.

Secondly, Suffering Can Be Sacred Ground This second truth might sound strange at first. It's like watching a child take medicine – they hate the taste, but we know it's working healing in them. David understood this when he wrote, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.” When I look back at the hardest seasons of my life – nights spent crying out to God, moments when loss felt overwhelming – I realize something: those weren't just seasons of pain. They were seasons of growth. The moments that threatened to break me became the moments that built my faith. Here's what I've learned: Don't just endure your suffering – let it teach you. Let it shape you. Let it drive you deeper into God's heart. Sometimes the bitter cup holds the sweetest grace.

Thirdly, Our Pain Draws His Presence There's a promise in Scripture that has become increasingly precious to me. David writes, "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." Notice he doesn't say the Lord fixes everything immediately. He says the Lord comes near. What if your darkest valleys aren't pushing you away from God, but actually drawing you closer to His heart? What if there's a special kind of nearness we experience only in our pain? I've found that often, most of my deeper encounters with God's presence haven't been on the mountaintops, but in the valleys.

fourthly, Healing Has God's Timing Yes, by His stripes we are healed. But notice something: when Jesus healed people in the Gospels, He rarely did it the same way twice. The blind man had to wash in the pool. The leper had to show himself to the priest. Some were healed instantly; others gradually. Here's the truth: God always heals, but He doesn't always heal according to our timeline. Some wounds He heals instantly, some gradually, and some He won't fully heal until we see Him face to face. But not a single tear falls outside His notice or His care.

And speaking of God’s timing… this is the fifth and final truth. Wait………. Wait in Hope. David writes, "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning." But let's be honest – how many of us have gone to bed in grief, woken up, and the pain was still there? Where's the joy that was promised with the morning. Here’s what I've come to understand: God's "morning" isn't measured by our 24-hour clock. Remember Psalm 40? David writes, "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock.” How long was David in that pit? The Bible doesn't tell us. But here's what we do know – he waited. And while he waited, God was working. The same God who raised Lazarus, the same God who left an empty tomb on Easter morning, is working in your waiting. Your grief has a purpose. Your tears have meaning. And your waiting isn't wasted – because the God who is the resurrection and the life is still in the business of bringing beauty from ashes and joy from mourning. Not just someday in heaven, but here, now, in the midst of our waiting.

This morning, we began by taking a breath together. By noticing what's always there but often forgotten. And as we close, I want us to notice something else that's always there – the presence of the One who calls Himself the resurrection and the life. Around our Thanksgiving tables in the coming weeks, some of us will feel the weight of empty chairs. Some of us will carry grief alongside our gratitude. And that's okay. Because we serve a Savior who sits with us in both. The same Jesus who asked Martha, "Do you believe this?" asks us the same question today. But notice – He doesn't just ask for intellectual agreement. He invites us into a relationship with the One who weeps with us before He works miracles, who enters our grief before He transforms it. So let me ask you one final question: How are you waiting? Are you waiting alone, or are you waiting with the One who is the resurrection and the life? Maybe you're here this morning and you've never truly answered Jesus's question, "Do you believe this?" Maybe it's time to stop running from death and run into life – the life that only Jesus can give. Or maybe you're a believer, but you're in that pit right now. You're in the waiting. Remember – David waited too. But he didn't just wait; he waited with the Lord. And that made all the difference. Let's pray. *Father, thank You that You are the God who doesn't just promise resurrection someday – You are the resurrection and the life today. For those wrestling with grief this holiday season, be especially near. Help us not just endure our waiting, but to find You in it. To trust that even now, You are working. Even now, You are faithful. Even now, You are good. Thank You that no tear falls without Your notice, no pain exists outside Your care, and no waiting extends beyond Your purpose. We trust You, not because we understand everything, but because we know You. In the name of Jesus, who is our resurrection and our life, amen.*

Here is your benediction. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Go in His peace.*

Jesus as Lamb - Week 1

I want to invite you to open your bibles with me, to John chapter 15. Rememberer church, this is such a promising and privilege thing we get to do together. For me, its like the first church, as they would gather together in joy and anticipation to hear someone read the letters that the apostles would send… and here we are, 2000 years later, able to gather together, around the same word, leaning in and listening with anticipating hearts the word of God. Such a blessing, such a privilege we have.. And lets be honest, sometimes the only time we open the Bible all week is at this moment. So, lets make this moment special. I want us together, to look at verse 13 in chapter 15, but let's start reading in verse 9 to get the full context of what Jesus is saying here. John 15:9-13 says, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.”

Last week we wrapped up our series on "Defining the Relationship," and we talked about this universal human experience of loneliness—that feeling of separation that somehow finds its way to each of us. And If you remember, pretty much every hand in this room went up when I asked who's experienced loneliness at some point in their life. Every single hand. And we discovered together that when we feel separated from God and from others, what we're really dealing with is a heart issue. But here's what I'm learning, and what I want us to explore together as we begin this new series on "Sacrifice": those painful feelings of separation, that broken heart that sings the wrong song—it's all pointing to something deeper. It's pointing to a sin problem that's been with humanity since the garden. Look at Genesis 3:8: "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.” Did you recognize what happened there? Sin entered their lives, and immediately, what was their response? They hid. They separated themselves from God. It's a pattern as old as humanity itself: Choice leads to sin. Sin leads to shame. Shame leads to hiding. And if we're honest with ourselves, we still do this today, don't we? We rebel against God in a million different ways. Some of us through self-indulgence. We just live however we want, according to our own rules. We delight in doing whatever feels good in the moment. This is the irreligious path. Or in other words, the unbelieving path. This phrase is what keeps me up at night sometimes… have you ever thought about your life before Christ? Like, how selfish I lived with an unbelieving heart. My life has never been the same since Christ, opened my eyes to his love. And then, there's another way—and this is equally sinful, maybe even more dangerous—we rebel through self-righteousness. These are the religious people. These are the people I struggled caring for as a young unbeliever. These are the people that try to do whatever God wants, but all for the wrong reasons. They strive to be good by keeping all the rules. Many people fall into this category, living their entire lives assuming that if they just live morally enough, then God will bless them and save them. For decades we've misunderstood holiness. We've reduced it to external conformity rather than internal affection. True holiness isn't about what we avoid but Who we adore. It's not a matter of staying away from certain behaviors but being so captivated by the glory of God that sin loses its appeal. The problem with rule-based holiness is not that it asks too much of us, but that it asks far too little. It offers us the pale satisfaction of moral superiority instead of the infinite delight of knowing God.

And hear me out on this… I want us to be authentic. I truly do… but real authenticity doesn't wear masks that hide our true nature and issues. True authenticity starts with being honest about our brokenness before God. True authenticity isn't just saying whatever you feel or doing whatever you want. It's having the courage to come before God with your whole heart - the good, the bad, the ugly - and saying, "Lord, I need You to change me from the inside out.” There's a generation rising up that's done with religious games. They've grown up in a world where everything is filtered, edited, and carefully curated - and they can smell inauthenticity from a mile away. When they look at our churches, they're asking the real question: 'Has Jesus actually changed who these people are? Or is this just their Sunday mask?' They don't care about our light shows or our cool buildings. They want to see people whose lives have been wrecked by an encounter with the living God. And honestly? They're right! They're just echoing what God has been saying since the beginning: 'Give me your heart, not just your behavior.' The world doesn't need more religious people - it needs people who've been with the Lamb. And you know what? I think they're right to want that…….. I think they're echoing what God has been saying all along - that He's after our hearts, not just our behavior.

What does that look like in real life? It's a fair question, isn’t it? Because it's one thing to talk about heart transformation in church on Sunday, but what does it actually look like on Monday morning? What does it look like in your home, in your workplace, in your relationships? I think it looks like humility. It's being quick to say "I'm sorry" and "I was wrong" - not because you're weak, but because you're secure enough in God's love to admit when you mess up. It looks like authenticity in your struggles. Not parading your sin, but also not pretending you have it all together. It's being able to say to a trusted friend, "I'm really battling with this right now, and I need prayer.”\I see this happening in our home churches… I'm so proud of these leaders and people, struggling together, praying together, yearning together… It looks like compassion that reaches beyond your comfort zone. Seeing people the way Jesus sees them - not as projects or problems, but as precious souls worth sacrificing for. This kind of heart transformation doesn't happen overnight. It's not a microwave process; it's more like a slow cooker. Day by day, moment by moment, as we stay connected to Jesus - the Lamb who gave everything for us - His life begins to flow through us, and we find ourselves singing a new song.

Let's go back to the beginning to understand this better. Remember Adam and Eve in the garden? After they sinned, what was their first instinct? Genesis 3:7 tells us, "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." They tried to fix their own problem. They tried to hide their shame with their own solution. Listen church, Fig leaves can never cover what the blood can cleanse. But God knew better. They wouldn't truly cover the deep problem of sin. So what did God do? Genesis 3:21 says, "The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” This was the first sacrifice mentioned in the Bible, and because of sin, something had to die, gave its blood to provide atonement. They hid, in shame, and tried to fix the problem before God showed up. The first sacrifice. The first picture of what it would take to deal with our sin, didn’t happen until God showed up. Have you ever thought about that? That right from the very beginning, God was showing us that our self-made solutions wouldn't work? That our attempts to cover our own sin and shame would always fall short? That something innocent would have to die in our place? And notice who did the sacrificing - "The LORD God" made the garments. God Himself provided the sacrifice. Adam and Eve didn't think of it. They didn't go hunting. They didn't create the solution. God did. From the very start, salvation has always been God's initiative, not our own. And This pattern continues throughout Scripture. When Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, who provided the ram caught in the thicket? God did. When the Israelites needed protection from death in Egypt, who designed the Passover system? God did. And when humanity needed permanent redemption from sin, who sent His only Son? God did. The story has always been about God's provision, not our performance. About His sacrifice, not our self-effort. But over time, what happened? These sacrifices became routine. Religious routine. Just going through the motions. In Isaiah 1:11, God says, "The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me? I have had enough of burnt offerings... I do not delight in the blood of bulls and lambs." In Amos 5:23, He says, "Away with the noise of your songs!” Can you imagine how heartbreaking this must have been for God? To see the very system He put in place to draw people to Him become a barrier instead? To watch as people focused on the ritual rather than the relationship? It's like a husband who buys flowers for his wife every Friday. At first, it's a beautiful expression of love. But over time, it becomes routine. He picks them up at the grocery store without thinking, tosses them on the counter when he gets home, and checks "flowers" off his mental list. The gesture remains, but the heart behind it has gone. That's what happened with Israel's sacrificial system. The outward actions continued, but the hearts grew distant. The songs were sung, but they became noise to God because they weren't coming from hearts that truly loved Him. I wonder how often we fall into the same pattern. Going to church. Reading our Bibles. Praying before meals. All good things! But if they become just religious boxes to check, we're missing the whole point. We're offering God our fig leaves instead of accepting His sacrifice. This is why Jesus had to come. This is why God sent His Son. Because despite all the sacrifices, all the religious rituals, all the attempts to bridge the gap between humanity and God - we were still separated. Still lost. Still singing the wrong song within our hearts. John 1:29 tells us that when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, he declared, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" Not just another sacrifice in an endless system. Not just a temporary covering. But the One who would take away sin once and for all. And You see, every other lamb had a flaw. Every other sacrifice was incomplete. But Jesus was perfect. Hebrews 4:15 tells is that He was "tempted in every way, just as we are—yet He did not sin." The spotless Lamb. The perfect sacrifice. Who knew no sin, and understood our struggles. No other lamb in this world could do that… And unlike all those animals who had no choice in being sacrificed, Jesus willingly laid down His life. John 10:18, Jesus says, "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." Think back to our original Scripture on sacrifice, Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.”

Like, how powerful that is! "Don't miss how radical this is! The Lamb - Jesus - wasn't forced into being our sacrifice. He CHOSE it. He looked at you - yes, YOU - and said, 'I'm going to die for this person.' Sometimes I just have to stop and let that sink in. The God who could speak galaxies into existence decided you were worth dying for. Not because you're so amazing or because you've earned it, but because His love for you is that fierce. And that kind of sacrificial love doesn't just forgive you - it transforms you from the inside out. It's not just a historical event - it's the living Spirit of God taking up residence in your life!" This isn't some distant historical event. This is personal. This is the creator of the universe saying your name, knowing your struggles, seeing your shame, and still choosing to step into your place. And the miracle doesn't end at the cross. It doesn't even end at the empty tomb. The miracle continues every day as Christ lives in us through His Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19 reminds us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in you! That's why we can sing a new song. That's why our lives can reflect a different melody than the world around us. That's why, even in our darkest moments, there's a hope that doesn't make sense to those who don't know Him. The Lamb has come. The sacrifice has been made. And now, His life in us changes everything. The old song of shame and religious performance is replaced by a new song of freedom and joy - a song that will continue into eternity. How do I know… well, Look with me to the Revelation 5. This is where we get a glimpse into heaven, into eternity, and we see what worship looks like when we're finally face to face with the Lamb. Revelation 5:9-10 says, "And they sang a new song, saying: 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.’” Like, right now, there are people from everywhere... worshipping the lamb. They are singing, and adoring, and burning with affection... no more tears, no more worries, no more wondering, no more faith.... Because For them... their faith is now complete in the one who its worthy. … Can you picture that scene with me for a moment? Just imagine it. People from every background, every language, every culture - all gathered around the throne. No more divisions. No more barriers. Just pure worship flowing from hearts that have been completely transformed, and belting out with full throated confidence, you … are worthy… the lamb. That was slain.. you are worthy… And what are they focused on? Not themselves. Not their accomplishments. Not their religious performance. Not whats going on tomorrow…. They’re focused entirely on the Lamb who was slain. Their hearts are overflowing with gratitude and love because they can see clearly now what Jesus did for them. And here's what I find so beautiful - that same song is available to us right now. It is… its being offered right now… the only issue, perhaps… does your heart may recognize it. Its true.. in your pain.. In your struggles. In your self doubt.. in your hardships and breakups and mental anguish… the song is still available here to us…… I can show you this truth…I really can… all throughout the Bible it tells us, in our salvation, in our iniquity…. God gives us a new song in our salvation. Remember last week, in Psalm 40.. “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry, He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand” We talked about meeting God in the solitude and waiting for him… remember. God is there in the midst of your pain and struggle…But what happened to David when God met him in the pit? He rescued him… right… he set his feet on solid ground… on a foundation that can not be moved… and gave him a place to stand… But watch what happens in verse 3… “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.” This is no small thing! This new song isn't just different lyrics to the same old melody of the world. It's an entirely new composition, written by God Himself and placed within us. This song doesn't merely change what we sing; it changes what we love. It reorients the deepest affections of our heart. And the greatest beauty of this song is its Object - not self, not sin, not even our salvation primarily, but God Himself in all His infinite worth and beauty. And notice the effect this song had - "Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him." When God gives us a new song, it's not just for us. It's for others to hear. It's a testimony. It's evidence that God is still in the business of rescue and redemption. This new song isn't just personal—it's contagious." When people look at your life and mine, do they see something different? Do they hear a different song playing than what the world offers? When we've truly encountered the Lamb - when we've received His sacrifice for us, when we've surrendered to Him and he lives in us - our lives should sing a melody that makes others curious. Not because we're perfect. Not because we have it all figured out. But because even in our struggles, even in our questions, we have a hope and a joy that doesn't make sense without God. David looked forward to God's salvation, while we look back to it in the Lamb who was slain, and we both look up to the throne where the lamb sits, who's worthy to be praised. That my friends... is the song that echoes through eternity. That's the melody that transcends our circumstances. That's the chorus that unites believers across all time. When the Lamb becomes our sacrifice, His song becomes our story. Our lives begin to sing a tune of grace instead of guilt, of freedom instead of fear, of purpose instead of performance.

As Peter comes up….

I want to tell you a dream and desire God has placed in my heart for this church… I dream that we would become a community of people singing together, and to one another, and to others, the Lamb is worthy… "It's possible... I truly believe it's possible! And you want to know what it looks like when it happens? Look at Ephesians 5:15. And see what Paul says about a community that is transformed by the Spirit." 15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, Here it is.. what does it mean that a church is Spirit filled? 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see what Paul is saying here? When the Spirit fills a community, they start singing to each other! Not just to God, though that's essential, but to one another. They encourage each other with songs from the Spirit. This new song.. bursts from the hearts of the people, and "Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.” Because of it… This isn't just about what happens on Sunday morning when we gather. This is about what happens on Tuesday afternoon when you're struggling. And Wednesday nights when we gather for house church. It's about what happens on Thursday evening when your neighbor needs hope. An d Friday nights when we set up the church… It's about a community coming together which reminds each other through their words, their actions, their very lives - and the new song on their heart… that the Lamb is worthy.

So what does this mean for you today? What choice is before you? I believe God is asking each of us a simple question: "What song are you singing?” Are you still singing the old song of self-effort? Still trying to clean yourself up? Still hiding behind fig leaves of religious performance? Or are you singing the old song of the world? The "you do you" anthem that sounds good but leads to emptiness? So I plead with you today - don't settle for the shallow melodies this world offers. Don't be content with the self-centered tunes of religious performance. There is a song of infinite beauty and eternal joy available to you right now. A song that will satisfy your soul like nothing else can. A song that makes much of Christ and little of self. A song that will endure when all other music has faded into silence. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! "This isn't about singing prettier songs on Sunday. This is about surrendering everything to the One who gave everything for you. It's about saying, 'Jesus, I'm done trying to be my own savior. I'm done with religious games. Take my heart. Change my song.' Maybe you've never truly encountered the Lamb. Maybe you've known Him but slipped back into going through motions. Listen - wherever you are today, the invitation stands: Look to the Lamb. Receive His sacrifice. Let Him write a new song through your life that will echo into eternity." And remember, "When the Lamb becomes our sacrifice, His song becomes our story.” *

Jesus as the Suffering Servant

I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to John chapter 11. For those of you who are new to Community Church—and I'm so glad you're here—we've begun this year-long sermon series called "Just Jesus," where we simply want to see Him, hear Him, love Him, and live Him in 2025. That's what it's all about, right? Just focusing on Jesus. This month, we've been looking at Jesus as the Sacrifice, and today we're seeing Him as the suffering servant. And I've been thinking about this all week—my aim today is to show you how Jesus actually descends to us in love and what that means for us as a church community. But before I dive in, I want to tell you a story from my own life. When I was in high school, around my freshman year, I woke up one morning to voices coming from our dining room. The voice I heard—it was my older brother Matt who had just passed away a few weeks back from cancer. He was a firefighter and EMT, a first responder, and he had stopped by our house really early that morning. He came specifically because he wanted to tell me first-hand that my two best friends had been in a horrible car accident on their way home from work. One of my friends wasn't wearing a seat belt, and as they went over the bank towards the river, my one fiend that was in the passenger seat was ejected through the windshield. I'll share the rest of that story with you at the end of the sermon. But I want to just say this… Let's read John chapter 11 together, and I want you to find with me verse 35. It's the shortest verse in the Bible, but man, it might be one of the most powerful: are you ready… John 11. Verse 35 says… ”Jesus wept.” Two words. That's it. But these two words show us something incredible about who God is and how He responds to our suffering.

Think about this with me for a minute. Jesus was there at the beginning. He spoke and stars exploded into existence. He formed every mountain, every ocean. Genesis 1:31 tells us He looked at everything He had made and called it "very good." It was perfect. Just the way He designed it. And now, He's standing here, looking at death. Looking at what sin and brokenness have done to His creation. It's like watching something you made with your own hands being torn apart. I remember when I was in 7th grade, I was going through a tough time as a kid. We didn’t have money, my mom was always working 2 to three jobs, and she had bought me a balloon for valentines day. And I was so excited to get home and hug my mom and thank you for thinking of me and show her my balloon… but as I was waiting for the bus to pick me up, some kid ran past me with a pencil and just popped my balloon. I was devastated. And I cried and cried and cried.. because that balloon meant the world to me. The world was created through Christ. And the world meant the world to him and here he is, standing before what sin does, it brings death and separation… and he’s seeing it not from a far heavenly place, but up front and personal. Death was never supposed to be part of the story. And seeing this—this gap between what He created and what it's become— snd I just imagine him sitting there and his heart breaking over what the world has become. It just breaks his heart. And You know what gets me? Jesus knew He was about to raise Lazarus. He knew what was going to happen next. But He didn't rush to the miracle. He paused. He felt. And He wept. I think sometimes we rush past people's pain because we're uncomfortable with it. We want to fix it or offer quick solutions. "Hey, it'll be OK." "God has a plan." But look at Jesus—He doesn't do that. He steps right into the middle of their grief. And we know this is true of his nature and character, because look at what Psalm 34:18 says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted." Not sending thoughts and prayers from a distance. He's close. He's right there in it with Mary and Martha as they're crying over their brother. He closes the gap of separation. And I want you to hear this today—when you're hurting, Jesus doesn't look away. He doesn't stand at a distance. He comes right to where you are. He sits with you. He weeps with you. He’s there with you. In your suffering, suffering with you. I remember at my last assignment I've sat with countless people who had lost loved ones through cancer... and as a young pastor, I remember being there in those moments just praying, "God help me... God I don't know what to do... Father, I don't have any of the answers. And I didn't have the solutions either. In these moments, all I could do was sit there with them. And sometimes, that's the most Christ-like thing we can do—is just be present with people in their pain. And walk with others in their circumstances. And thats just not a pastoral thing to do, but a Christian truth. As a Christians and a living sanctuary of God’s presence, you’re called to just being the presence of Jesus into others situations. This is what Jesus does. He descends into our pain with love. And He calls us to do the same for each other. Not to fix each other's problems, but to be present. To weep with those who weep. But when Jesus gets the news about Lazarus being sick, He does two things that seem really strange at first. First, He makes a proclamation. in John 11:4. Jesus says, "Lazarus's sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.”

And then—this is the part that always gets me—He delays. Really? Yes. He delays. The text even tells us specifically that He loved Lazarus and his sisters, and yet He delayed. That doesn't make sense to us, does it? When someone we love is hurting, our instinct is to rush to them, to try to fix things as quickly as possible. When I think about this delay, I'm struck by how counterintuitive it is to our human understanding of love. We equate love with immediate action, don't we? If we love someone, we rush to their side. We try to fix things as quickly as possible. But Jesus shows us a different dimension of love here. A love that sometimes waits for the right time. A love that sees beyond our immediate relief to our ultimate good. Think about it: If Jesus had gone immediately and healed Lazarus before he died, it would have been another amazing healing. But by waiting until Lazarus had been dead for four days—when everyone knew there was no hope left—Jesus was about to demonstrate something far more powerful. And here's what really gets me: Even though Jesus knew the disciples were afraid, even though they reminded Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?" Jesus went anyway. For me, the truth that Love compelled Him to walk straight into danger. This is the heart of the suffering servant. He doesn't choose the safe path. He chooses the path that serves others, even when it costs Him personally. How often do we play it safe instead of following love's call? How often do we avoid discomfort, avoid risk, avoid the messy situations where people are hurting? The path of Jesus is the descending way of love - not rising above pain, but entering right into the middle of it. And that's what He calls us to as well.

This is where compassion and empathy come in. Think about it - when Jesus wept with Mary and Martha over Lazarus, He wasn't just putting on a show. He genuinely entered their grief. The God who created the universe allowed Himself to feel the weight of human sorrow. Look at what Hebrews reminds us.. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” That verse has always amazed me. Jesus isn't some distant God who doesn't get what we're going through. He's been there. He knows what it's like to be human, to face temptation, to feel pain, to experience loss. And yet, he still descends into our hurt. Maybe like Mary and Martha at the time we desire for him to be there.. but he still shows up. There's one truth I've held near my heart as a Christian and as a pastor: Listen, The world will never fully understand what we do and why we do it. There's no way the world can completely empathize with our calling to walk obedient lives to Jesus Christ and to be led by the Holy Spirit. But here's what should set us apart - within the fellowship of the church, we should be able to empathize with one another. The world might not understand our faith, but we as a family of faith should be able to walk alongside each other through both joy and pain. And that's hard... because we all have different levels of pain. We all have had different experiences of hurt. And that makes it challenging to bring people from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures into one place and say, "love Jesus.”

So how do we do that.. how does that begin right here at Community church and then how do we descend into the lives of others with a love like Jesus, Well first it begins with being people of compassion. Compassion is more than just a feeling. It’s more than just seeing someone struggle and thinking, Oh, that’s tough. I feel bad for them. No, real compassion moves us. It pushes us to do something. Listen, Once we have learned to see with compassion, we cannot help but hear the invitation Jesus gives us to reach out. Think about Jesus. Over and over in Scripture, we see this phrase: "Jesus was moved with compassion." And every time we see that, what happens next? He acts. He heals. He feeds. He touches. He restores.

Theres a moment in Matthew chapter 4 where Jesus is having a terrible day. Why? Because His cousin John the Baptist has just been beheaded, so He goes away to a private place to mourn. And then, guess what.. the crowd follows Jesus, and they don’t go away, they stay. And then guess what.. they stay longer, and longer. Its like this people that are over at your house and your like.,.. when are you going to leave? They stay so long… that they are in badly need of a dinner. And so, Jesus sees them through the lens not of hate, or anger, or get out out of here.. he sees them through he lens of compassion. Look at it… When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now, this is so good... do you know what this word compassion is called in Greek? It's called "splagchnizomai," which means to be moved from within one's bowels. To be moved from deep within… kind of like, a gut feeling. And so, I tell Alicia all the time... when I fart in front of her, that's my compassion coming out from deep within my gut. Hahaha. But seriously - for the ancients, the guts were where the most intense and intimate emotions were located, the center from which both love and hate grew. Today we talk about the heart as the center of our feelings; they talked about their guts. This Greek word is related real closely with the Hebrew word for compassion, "rachamim." But instead of the "guts," the Hebrew word refers to the "womb" of Yahweh. So, get this… Compassion is such a deep and powerful emotion in Jesus that it can only be described as a movement within the womb of God—which is the place of utmost growth, creativity, and love. When something hits in a deep place like the womb of God, you know that something is about to happen. Because Wombs bring forth new life. When Jesus was moved with compassion, it wasn't just a feeling. It was something that stirred in the very core of His being, something that compelled Him to action. Compassion invites us not to isolate or insulate ourselves but to reach out. It asks us to go where it hurts and to enter into the brokenness, fear, and confusion of other people.

Compassion is love in action. It’s seeing someone in pain and saying, I can't just stand here—I have to step in. It’s more than pity. It’s more than sympathy. It’s a deep, gut-level response that leads to movement. But here’s the thing—compassion, on its own, isn’t always enough.it cant just b e compassion… Because sometimes, we can feel compassion for someone, but still not fully understand what they’re going through. That’s where empathy comes in. Empathy takes compassion a step further. It’s not just feeling for someone—it’s feeling with them. It’s stepping into their shoes, seeing the world through their eyes, and walking with them through their pain. Most often when there are disagreement within the church, its never because I stepped into their shoes, but I stand in mine. But Jesus doesn’t do that.. what does he do.. He steps into their life. Now, hold that thought because we need to ask something… are compassion and empathy the same thing? Well,. No…. Compassion is when you see someone hurting, and your heart goes out to them. It’s that deep feeling of concern that moves you to help. But empathy? Empathy goes deeper. Compassion says, I see your pain, and I want to help. Empathy says, I feel your pain, and I’m with you in it. See the difference? Compassion is like standing on the edge of someone’s struggle, reaching out a hand to pull them up. Empathy is climbing down into the struggle with them and saying, You’re not alone. Here’s an example: Let’s say someone in our church is grieving the loss of a loved one. Compassion will make you bring them a meal, send them a card, or say, I’m so sorry for your loss. And that’s good—that’s important. THAT’S A START… But empathy? Empathy sits with them in their grief. It doesn’t rush to fix things or offer clichés. It listens. It cries with them. It walks through the pain alongside them. And that’s exactly what Jesus does for Mary and Martha… he weeps. He stops and feels their pain with them. He enters into their sorrow. He suffers with them. What empathy does is connect us to one another so that we know we're not alone when we struggle. Empathy couples us together and helps us walk this faithful life in unity. I love how Brené Brown puts it: "Empathy has no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It's simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of 'You're not alone.’" Isn't that exactly what Jesus teaches us? He tells us, "My presence is with you. You're not alone.” Remember, in the Matthew account, Jesus says, he looks upon the crows and has compassion on them.. they were like sheep without a shepherd. In the ordinal language it means, they were - confused and helpless. Its like being kicked down, and when y9ou try to get up, you’re kicked down gain.. thats what Jesus saw in that crows…they were people who were confused and being helpless. And What greater message than this: "I, Jesus, the Nazarene, from the town of the least of these, through the line of David, the least of Jesse's brothers - I see you, and My presence is with you. You're not alone.” Church!!!!!!!! That’s our calling too. Compassion is like taking the spiritual fruit of kindness - being friendly, generous, and considerate - coupling it with empathy - the ability to understand and share the feelings of another - and that leads us to living out compassion, which literally means "to suffer with" another. "I know what you're going through. You're not alone. You see, compassion changes the way we live for God and for one another. There is no right or wrong way when it comes to compassion. Just be present to bring presence. We, Just show up. I want you to hear this… at community church… I want our vibe and culture to be like this.. what we want at community church is… ….the privilege of relationships within our community. Isn’t that one of our primary purposes as a Christ follower.. is to carry the very presence of Christ in our lives, shouldn't we be carrying Him to others so that He can manifest Himself within us and through us? Meeting the needs of our community and our neighbors is the key that unlocks many more opportunities to love, to be a friend, and to be there. And listen, The only wrong way to show compassion is not showing compassion at all.

As Peter comes up…… That morning, when my brother told me about the accident, my heart sank. I couldn’t process it. I remember feeling frozen—like the world had just stopped moving. But what I’ll never forget is what my brother did next. He didn’t just tell me the news and leave. He didn’t try to fix it with words or tell me everything was going to be okay. He sat with me. He stayed. He let me feel it. He let me grieve. And then he drove me an hour away to the hospital to see my friend who had gone through the windshield…. Thank God… both of them lived… and the story is so deep, that all I can say that it was only by His grace that both of them were alive. And, church—that’s what Jesus does for us as a suffering servant. In John 11, when Jesus arrives at the home of Mary and Martha, He knows the outcome. He knows He’s about to raise Lazarus from the dead. But before He does that, He stops. He enters into their pain. He weeps with them. And then he goes with them to the tomb… Because that’s what love does. Love doesn’t rush past suffering. Love doesn’t try to fix everything with quick words. Love descends. It steps into the hurt. It sits in the sorrow. And if Jesus, the Son of God, is willing to descend into our suffering—then shouldn’t we be willing to do the same for each other? Compassion and empathy—they aren’t just nice ideas. They are the very heartbeat of Jesus. They are how we love like Him. And that’s our calling as a church. To be with people in their pain. To descend into their struggles the way Jesus descends into ours. To bring His presence simply by showing up. So as we move into this time of worship and communion, I want you to ask yourself—who in your life needs you to be with them right now? Who needs you to not just feel compassion for them, but to have empathy with them. Maybe its the person across the row from you? Maybe it someone else in this congregation… "Beyond sympathy, beyond pity - Christ calls us to compassionate presence.” And it begins right here…

I want to try something the Lord laid on my heart last week.. … It’s going to take compassion and empathy. It’s going to take us stepping outside of ourselves and comfort zones for just a moment. Here’s what I want us to do. This side of the room, I want you to line up over here. And this side, I want you to line up over here. Go ahead and move now—I’ll explain more in a moment. (Wait for movement.)

As you can see, we’ve placed communion elements on both sides. I want each of you to pick up a cup and a piece of bread. And then, I want you to walk right here—to the middle, between the altars. But here’s the key—when you get here, you’re not taking communion for yourself. You’re giving it. When you meet someone in the middle, I want you to look them in the eyes—really see them. And as you exchange the bread and the cup, I want you to say these words to each other: “The bread, broken for you. The blood, shed for you.” This moment isn’t just about you and Jesus. It’s about us—the body of Christ, walking together, standing together, carrying one another. So let’s move. Let’s respond. Let’s share in the love of Christ together. You may begin. *

Bread of Life

Let’s open our bibles together to John chapter 6. I’ve got a large portion of Scripture to read this morning. And I need to introduce our series. Over the last few months I’ve been thinking and praying about what to do for thanksgiving and Advent. And traditionally, we speak of gratefulness and being thankful, and for Advent we focus on Love, Joy, peace and hope. But the truth is. Many times that’s a lie in our lives.

There will be thousands of people gathering for the holidays this year that will not be experiencing Thankfulness. There will be people that you will be around that aren’t going to be experiencing Love, Joy, peace and Hope. You’re going to find people feeling broken, lost, hungry, Ashamed, and just feeling disconnect from other. That was true for me many times during the holidays. I’ll never forget my most depressing holiday.

I was in college living with my best friend and his mother. And they left and surprising to me they didn’t invite me to their families festivities like they always have done before. And of course, my mother and step father didn’t do anything for the holidays. We didn’t have any family traditions either. So I sat, alone on Christmas Eve, watching all of my fiends AOL Instant Messenger away messages talk of spending time with family, Gorging themselves with Christmas cookies, and having a very merry Christmas.

While I sat in darkness, alone, hungry for food but also for connection with friends and family. And for us, this holiday season my prayer is that we would be people of love, Joy, peace and Hope. Because we would be carrying Jesus together for others, and into those family moments. So, over the next 7 weeks let’s seek to be people filled with His presence as we look at Jesus’s 7, “I Am” statements, and we’re going to begin at looking at the first one found in John 6, Where Jesus says, I am the bread of life.

Let's read the Bible together. Read John 6: 22-40 Pray God wants to be the center of your greatest desire. In the very beginning of this chapter, Jesus takes five loaves and two fish and feeds over 5,000 people. Naturally, He is drawing crowds with this free food. People are following Him because of the free food. So, He gets away from the crowds. He sends His disciples and puts them in a boat and says, “Go out in the middle of the sea,” and He goes off on a mountainside by Himself to pray, and it comes evening time.

His disciples are in the middle of the boat. He’s on the shore, and He wants to get to His disciples, and so He decides He’s going to take a stroll, and He walks on the waves. He gets to the disciples. And They’re a bit freaked out by that, but He gets into the boat with them, and they go to the other side. When they get to the other side, the crowds catch up to them, and this conversation ensues.

It’s kind of a long conversation. You all think my sermons are long, Jesus had some long conversation with people and in a sense, this is also a bit of a difficult conversation. It’s was difficult because he was talking a lot about some weird things. For instance if you keep reading, at one point Jesus begins talking about eating flesh and drinking blood and you’re probably thinking, “What does this mean?” What does it mean I am the bread of life.

Well, lets find out, Look with me in verse 26, 26 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 27 Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.” 28 “What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked.

29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.” The first thing that we learned is that we’re all on a journey to find something to fulfill us. Life is a journey. But also, life is filled with many desires that we experience on this journey. These people that were seeking Jesus were seeking him because he met one of our most basic desires.

Do you know what our three basis needs are, ( Shelter, clothing and food.) And so these people are just following Jesus to meet a basic need, which is a basic desire that is within each one of us. If you didn’t know, God created us that way. He created us with desires, and needs, and cravings in our lives. Think of it since the beginning of creation. Adam was alone.

Sometimes we almost think to ourselves, “In the Garden of Eden when everything was perfect, man had no needs.” Thats not true. Man definitely had needs. Man had a need for air and for food. We find out later in Genesis 2, he had a need for companionship. It was not good for man to be alone, and so God created and wired man with cravings, with needs, and with an empty stomach to fulfill.

Here’s two key truthful thoughts: One… desires are not bad But two, In the Garden, it wasn’t that man didn’t have needs. The picture in the Garden of Eden was that man had needs that were intended to be met only by God, in a way that was designed by God. But what happens is when sin becomes our greatest desire rather than God? If you want to, turn with me to Genesis chapter 3, and find verse 6 with me.

Let’s read this, “[So] when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make ones wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” This passage is just dripping with desire. Do you seen the language? She saw.

The desires of her eyes. She’s seeing that it was good for food, which meets one of our basic, created needs, and it was delightful to the eyes. It was a desired and so she took, ate and gave to her husband. And so, for the first time in humanity, in creation. we witness the cravings of man driving him to meet his needs outside of His Creator. And so, here is what I want to say…

don’t miss the trigger of sin in this story. The trigger of sin is looking to things of this world to satisfy us apart from our Creator; it is thinking that something is good, or better than God. Now, think about it, every sin I’ve ever committed. Every sin you commit. We sin because we think it would be good. We think that it would be delightful, and we desire comfort, and to be filled.

No one wants to be empty. Did you know to be filled means to be in it’s grip. That’s what it means to be filled. Even when we feel empty, we’re not. Because you can be filled with loneliness. That means you are in the grip of being lonely. You can be filled with hate, that means hate has a grip on you. You can be filled with feeling empty. It means you are being controlled, it’s incflueincing your mood, your decisions and your actions.

And so, we desire things, whether it be material things, or adultery, or lust or greed. We desire these things because we believe that these things will in turn fill us, and fulfill the desire that we have longing within us. But it’s not the truth. What we end up doing, when we fill our lives with desires that are not of God, and we look to this world to satisfy us apart from our creator, We end up running from the one our souls long for and need most.

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of running. I’m tired of being tired. Im tired of running away. Find being controlled by things that do not satisfy me. Now, come back with me to John chapter 6. Because watch what happens with these people following hard after Jesus. We read, that. These people were running in the right direction. They had a desire, they needed it to be filled, and they were running after Jesus.

But yet even in their running and following and seeking Jesus, they missed what Jesus was trying to teach them. So many of us do that in our faith walk every week. We follow Jesus, we do the things of Jesus. We come to church, we pray, we read our bibles, sometimes. Sometimes we show up, sometimes we dont. In verse 26 and 27 Jesus does the same thing to these people seeking him that he did a few chapters earlier with the woman at the well.

He’s confronts thier real internal desires and he’s brutally honest with them. He tells the, You didn’t seek me because you saw a miracle and I fed the 5,000, but because you ate and was filled. And then he gives them the first phrase that will completely go over their head. Look with me in verse 27” Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.” Did you catch it?

The key word here is eternal life. Over 12 times in this chapter Jesus says, eternal life and these people still think it’s about sustaining thier bio, thier life when Jesus is saying I’m speaking to you in Spiritual terms. It’s like being a parent and telling your teenager to shower 100 times. Just shower. Just go shower. You need to shower. It completely goes over their heads that they stink, and need a shower.

They just don’t understand it at times. In the greek there are two words for life. The first one is bio which is where we get the word biology from. The study of life. Its the study of living and breathing things on this earth. And the second word is Zoe. Which means the absolute fulness of life. Real and genuine life, Active life, and devoted to God. If you would go in your Bible and in chapter 6 alone, you would find that Jesus never says, bio, but he says Zoe over 12 times.

Jesus keeps reminding them, I am eternal life. I am the bread of life. I am the active life that is always devoted to the Father. I am the fullness of life. And You’re seeking things that does not fill your life. And the people keep pressing in with how do we get it? And look in verse 28, they ask Jesus, what can I do to get it. Can you imagine Jesus telling you I am the bread that gives real life, not just life to sustain you in this life, or your basic necessities, but eternal life, and then arguing with him about bread your ancestors had?

That’s like Alicia saying she knows how to cook something that I love to eat and me telling her about how mom used to make it. And we all know that’s a no no in marriage. You dont tell your wife mom made it better. They weren’t getting it! They were so focused on what they desired and asking what they can do to get it, that Jesus had to of been there like, people.

Are you not listening to anything I’m saying. Look, they even throw in Moses into the conversation in verse 31.. well Moses fed us in the wilderness. Jeuss is like, uhhh, no… Moses didn’t feed you. The father fed you. And then Jesus does what? He says, just as manna came down from heaven, the father sends the son down from heaven to be the bread for eternal life. Jesus tells them, I am that bread.

I am the bread of life. I am the one God the father has sent down like the manna, and is now here with you. And whoever comes to me will never go hungry or thirty again. The problem in our sinfulness, we are prone to desire the world more than we desire God. It’s true. Everyday, and even every week we can get excited over our favorite football team wining, or depressed when our team loses and our emotions can swing easily on things that do not matter in this lie.

But there is one, who does matter. and He deserves, not just our intellectual belief, but our emotional affection as well. Our desire, and our joy, and our satisfaction is found in Him. The danger is, if we’re not careful, we will fill our stomachs and gorge ourselves on stuff, and entertainment, and things in this world that don’t matter. And just like these people who were seeking and following Jesus.

We can get so caught up in our busyness and doing that we miss the point of Jesus’s teaching here, that we’re to be desiring and seeking him above all other things in this life. Jesus is trying to teach us that we need to get the taste of this world out of our mouths and begin to have a thirst and a taste for the things of God, and for Christ himself.

You see, in this story we read. They never get it. They’re willing to follow Jesus around, and get free meals and perhaps even feel connected with a large group of people. But they never realize that thier faith needs to go deeper in trusting and believing in Jesus. Isn’t that what we experience in this life and in the churches we attend today? Churches are filled with people following hard after Jesus but never truly going deeper in their faith.

Even Paul talks about this in Corinthians when he calls them, Carnal christians. They are divided, and arguing and smearing others names about each other, without realizing that they are pursing thier old life, and not after the holy life Jesus offers them. We live in a world where we get caught up in just being like these people…. Do you wanna know what they are really doing? Their just existing……….

To them, bread is just to sustain them to exist, but there is no living life within them. And many times in our world today, we find christians just coming in to churches living lives all week long trying to just exist. Don’t you want to live? To feel alive! To have purpose and meaning? Because in this life, if our greatest desire is to just exist. Our life will always be indifferent to what Jesus desires fo ryou.

IN our constant chase after being content, our eyes come set on recourses that we do not have rather than what God already is willing to give us. Are you empty this morning? Because what I want to ask is two things before we take the elements and close this service. First, What are you already filled with that leaves no room for Jesus? There’s an infinite fountain of satisfaction to be found in Christ, but often we do not come to His table or fountain because we’re already being fed by other things in this life.

Today, many of you are going to leave here and you may not be changed. You may not have room for Jesus in your life. Ya know, sometime during this Christmas season you may come across the Scripture in Luke where it says, “And laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them In the Inn.” You may not even be willing to give up what you want for what you need for real life.

Not to jut exist, but to truly live. John chapter 6 is there to urge every person to Make Christ the Center of Our Satisfaction. But to do that you must be willing to let go of all the other things that you pursue… and that might be hard for you because it’s all you’ve ever known in life. When our kids were younger we would go to Mcdonsalds and they won; ld get the same thing to eat every time.

I remember trying to get Gabriel all the time to try the hamburger, but all he ever wanted was the nuggets. And I never understood that because when I was 8, I remember when I was visiting my biological father and our Nanna took all of us great grandkids out to McDonald’s, and for the first time I ordered a big mac, and I eventually got home and got into trouble because I didn’t get a happy meal.

But I ate that entire thing and I was like wow! I was thinking about Gabe when he had his first burger he was like, why didn’t I get this before. And every time we would go, he would now get this burger and he would just dive into that thing as if it was the best thing he’s ever eaten. And then there’s me… sitting there and I take a bite out of my burger and I begin to think..

what is this? This is processed meat. This is not real meat.” And I look to my son and he thinks it’s great, he’s chowing down. And I sit there and think to myself, Why does he think this is great? Here’s why: Because at this point he has never tasted a nice, juicy filet. He’s never tasted untying different. And, he’s never tasted what a real piece of meat should taste like.

All he’s ever known as a burger has been this imitation stuff. Which leads me to my second question, When we are empty with what we imitate and put within us that is not of God, what then do we fill ourselves with? This is the reality in so many of our lives. Let me be honest here. There’s been times in my life as a pastor where I do not want to read the word of God.

And there was a time when I would just read the word just t write sermons. I’ve got this task, or I’ve got this responsibility and so I read the word of God, and I pray and I flesh out what it says, just to, on Sundays give you the people a lesson. I’m so glad God gave me grace during those moments because I know my desires could have gone down so many roads, but here was what I wasn’t doing..

I was not reading my Bible to meet with God. I was focused on doing rather than being. I was focused on the busyness of my faith, and forgetting that God just wants me to see him as the treasure and sustainer of my faith. When we taste of something better, we don’t go back to the imitation. You don’t settle for anything but the real thing, and this is how we overcome and conquer the pleasures of sin in this life.

We Believe that Christ is better. I think I said this before, or maybe this is the first time your hearing it. But Jesus is trying to teach us that we need to get the taste of this world out of our mouths and begin to have a thirst and a taste for the things of God, and for Christ himself. I want the taste Christ. Not imitation Christ. When Jesus Christ is your satisfaction, and when you believe He is all-satisfying, He will transform the way you live.

Don’t settle for processed faith. Who else knows how better to satisfy you than the Creator? Do you know how to satisfy yourself? Do I know better? No. The One who created and crafted me alone knows how to satisfy me, and He draws me. He allures me. This is astounding grace. Though I have run after all kinds of stuff and things in this world and given my love and affection to them, the Father on high in His grace and sovereign initiative has sought me and you.

And he simply offers to us something better and greater… he offers to us, His son who is the bread of life. I’m going to stop our service here… because after this we’re heading to jeans to pray for here and to anoint her. And it’s there where I would like for us to gather, for anointing, prayer and communion. So let me pray… *

Leadership

Let’s open our bibles together to John’s gospel and find chapter 8 with me. John Chapter 8, and we will be in verses 30-32. When you find John, Chapter 8, let’s have someone read it to us. Just let the group know what version you’re reading from, and let’s get a couple different versions read for these two verse. (Read John 8:30-32) Over the past few weeks there’s this main idea that I’ve been trying to nail down during our time together.

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? What does it mean to be formed into the image of Jesus as we carry the presence of Jesus? We’ve talked about habits. I mentioned that everyday there are hidden habits in our life that go unnoticed. We learned that, “By default, our life is shaped by our love for the world. And that our habits drive our everyday life, and everyday we have hidden habits that are not Christ like.

If you recall, I mentioned a few weeks before we began this new series, that typically we never notice the selfishness in our lives. It takes others in our life, through love, to notice and say to us, hey, what you’re doing is not Christlike. We examined how God calls us to be together in community and how our love for Jesus and love for one another gives us the grace we need to love one another in our faults.

Jesus does tell us that others will know that we are His disciples by the love we have for one another. Last week, we examined how in Galatians, we practice works of the flesh. And the difference between practicing the works of the flesh and abiding in Christ. Is that, Abiding is believing, and trusting, and delighting in, and resting, and receiving. Jesus is very clear, “If we are not united to the vine, nothing of any lasting value will ever come from us.

This week, I want to look at another angle of being formed into the likeness of Jesus in his leadership. And it’s through this word call narratives. “Narratives are the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of life.” Do you know what narratives are? Narratives in our life, are the driving story that gives us purpose direction and energy, especially in the face of opposition, pain and suffering. It’s human to say, “okay, suffering has come into my life.

What is the story behind this, why is this happening to me?” So, Narratives are our way to understand how this story of our life is understood. Our brains are hardwired for narrative. I read an article this week that showed how, at the most primal stages of human history, since we didn’t have fangs, or claws, or blinding speed, our advantage has always been our problem-solving ability and in particular, our ability to solve problems as a group.

Jut let me throw this in here as a rabbit trail… being together, and united together isn’t just some new age idea. People are designed to be together. I believe gathering together is Gods plan. And this article went on to talk about how, by us coming together, learning to communicate, and learning to tell stories, and learning to create these stories that we pass down from one generation to another, this ability to make a story stick in our minds, and the more it sticks the more durable it becomes.

So, essentially what it means is, our narrative, and the story we play out in our mind helps us make sense of life. And this is why someone who has a poor identity of themselves can be so easily be discouraged, while someone who’s more sure and confident can be encouraged to do things others wish they could. I think of my mom. For years, she told herself she couldn’t drive.

And over a course a 3- 5 years she went from driving longer distances, to driving shorter distances, to not driving at all. And all the time she would say, I can’t drive, I can’t drive… until my dad passed away. When he passed away, my mother was forced to drive. And now she drives because she changed her mind, she changed the story in her mind that went form I can’t, to, I can do this.

I often wonder how many of us live that way everyday in our faith? Trapped by the wrong truths in our minds, that we can’t do something? I wonder, How many times in our life, has our narrative been… I can’t. Or I don’t have this or that, so I can’t. Or I’ve never done it before, why change and do it differently now? Or how about this one, that’s not my gift.

How many of us miss out on God truly working in our lives, and God doing amazing things through us, because we have trained our narrative to say, I can’t do it that way. I’ve learned a lot of the time, we say I can’t, but actually what’s keeping us from experiencing God in other ways is simply because we say internally, I wont. Think about our Scripture today.. Jesus says to those who was believing in him, 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Here’s the thing about this Scripture….. these believers, believed. But they weren’t disciples. Do you know what the word, “truly” means? It means “really”. In other words, there are real and unreal disciples. It’s absolutely possible to be classified as a disciples of Jesus but yet not be a real disciple. How does that happen? How is that possible.

It’s having the outward appearance rather than in internal change. Remember last week, I said, the danger we find in many churches is the fact that the people who attend church are no different than the paint on the wall. That’s harsh thing to say, but true. We come too church, we love the worship, we love the building and how it looks, we love the message, we can even leave encouraged but not changed into the image of Christ.

We can live lives following Jesus, and then at the end of our life find that, that’s all we’ve done. Was follow him without surrendering to him. Right.. There are authentic and inauthentic disciples. There is discipleship that is merely outward, and discipleship that goes down to the root. The Bible tells us there is coming a great delusion in the world. Did you know that in the end times, there will be a great delusion in the world?

We're told in the word, that in the end of days, and in that age, there will be a system called the lie and a great delusion will sweep over the people of that generation. They will believe a lie and they will reject the truth. Many people believe we are living in that generation right now. Paul says, that as a part of sin in Romans 1, that the people of that day had changed the truth of God into a lie.

Paul also said in Romans, the first chapter, in the eighteenth verse, "who hold the truth in unrighteousness” In other words, you can know the truth and not live it. And the most scary part of that, is this… the bibles says, the wrath of God is against such people. Have you ever read this and asked, “Why did Jesus bring up this distinction?” He brought it up because of what we read in verse 30…

“As he was saying these things, many believed in him.” Think about it. As Jesus was teaching and healing, and debating with the pharisees, There had been a large response to what he was teaching. There was even a time where people go, He’s teaching like no other.. and with such power. Remember in Mark, Jesus comes into a synagogue, and casted out an unclean spirit, out of another person, and the people were astonished and said, he teaches with such authority.

The bibles says, At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. Any time, you see a large response to anything, you know that there are some who’s being carried by the crowd. If your friends are going, it’s easy for you to go, even if you wouldn’t go on your own. You are along for the ride. Peer pressure isn’t just for drugs or booze… it can also happen in the christian world as a follower of Jesus.

What these verses, is showing is that not all belief is real. There narratives were skewed. You can say one thing and not totally believe it in your heart… you can think one thing, but it not be totally true in your life… And I can only guess.. here’s a danger… lean in… If that is true, the longer we let the wrong narrative, or the bad story stew, that we are followers and disciples of Jesus, but yet it brings about no change in our heart and our minds…

the harder it will to repent and walk in the Spirit. Hardness of heart comes by the way believing your story more than the gospel story. And I believe it's Because we’ve been deceived. People can go years!!!! Believing, attending, serving, giving to faith, and at the end find out they’ve been no different than the paint on the wall. I remember this week I watched a video of a preacher telling this story.

He painted the mental picture… he goes, , “Imagine you’re standing in a great crowd and by chance, somehow, Paul is standing beside you. And He’s there, and he goes, I’ve been beaten for my faith. I’ve been shipwrecked and had nothing but Christ to sustain me. I’ve been ridiculed, and made fun of. I’ve been imprisoned and hated. And then at the end of it all, I had the blessing of being martyred for my faith to bring much praise and glory to my Lord, Jesus Christ.

At the end of my life, I can say I have suffered for the glory of God. I’ve waited for this day for centuries… And then Paul looks to you and says, “tell me about your christian life…… What would you say? How would you answer that. One of the greatest blunders in todays Christianity is that we believe we’re only called to do something if I have the gifts. Look at me…

I can’t speak very well, I’m not some handsome George Clooney, that while I get older I get handsomer. I’m not rich. I don’t have a great mind like so many of my other pastor friends. I ask everyday, God why me? And his answer for the last 5 years has been… because you’re willing. Even when you’re ridiculed and criticized… your willing. Even when all the odds are against you, you’re willing.

Even when others desert you and you’re alone, you’re willing to trust and obey because you love me. The truth is, we live at the mercy of our narratives. Warren weirsbe says this. The worst bondage is the kind that the prisoner himself does not recognize. He thinks he is free, yet he is really a slave. The Pharisees and other religious leaders thought that they were free, but they were actually enslaved in terrible spiritual bondage to sin and Satan.

They would not face the truth, and yet it was the truth alone that could set them free. When it comes to our narratives, the danger is we never question what we believe. Maybe it’s because we get addicted to our comforts. Perhaps we get into a routine of tradition and we believe that it’s only to be this way, or that way. I remember a dear friend of mine once said to be in the front seat of his old pickup…

he goes, Matthew, If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. There’s more of Christ I want o have all that he’s willing to give to me.… and if you haven’t notices, God gives everything…… Maybe I need to let go of somethings so I can fully embrace all that he is. I tell you the truth, we can not be disciples of Jesus if we don’t examine the narratives in our lives with the truth of God’s word.

I spoke with a dear friend this week and here’s what they said to me… Matthew, Im afraid to study the word at times because I’m afraid I might learn something that goes against what I already believe. I said to them.. isn’t that what were called to do as a disciples? Read the Bible, read God’s truth, and perhaps see that we’re believing one thing, but actually the word says something different?

I can’t tell you how many times, I’ve read something in God's word and I actually closed my Bible because I was convicted. I’m learning in those times of when I’m convicted, to repent. Instead of closing the Bible, and closing myself off to the Spirit, I’m learning to open up my self and say, God examine me. And its rough at times. I’m scared. Do you know what I’m scared of…

Seeing the reflection of my life and it being not of Christ as I thought it was. I’m afraid that I don’t reflect the glory Christ. So here’s a question we have to ask ourself. What’s a false narrative we believe because of the enemy and what is the corresponding truth? How would you fight that false narrative? In my life I’ve learned that there is three narratives that we believe by default.

The first one is this… My hope is in what I can do. We actually, as people with sin masquerade this as freedom. We think true freedom is just doing what you want to do. Doesn’t matter if you claim that it’s truth or not. What we say is man, true freedom and true hope is doing what I want when I want to. The issue to this.. if you remember last week by default we indulge and practice in the works of the flesh.

And many times these practices go unchecked in our life. This is why I believe Jesus makes so much emphasis on this word abiding. We see it here in John, but we also see it when it comes to the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. We make our faith about what we do, and not about why we do it, for who we do it for. Im sure you’ve heard me say, our faith should be more about being than doing.

I say being is greater because think about this.. doing relies on what I can accomplish. My own power, my own strength and provisions. Of course I can live an easy, faithful life if I’m never challenged in my faith. But being is interior. It’s abiding, it’s intimacy, and rest, and real life. Being relates to our character, how we make a life. Doing is more tangible. Being is more intangible – the kind of people we become on the inside, things that can’t be measured by awards and accolades.

Our hope needs to be in Jesus. His word. Where truth is found. The second default narrative that we believe is this: My hope is in what I can have. The world says, I can have whatever if I work hard for it. I can have anything if I sacrifice enough for it. Jesus say, what do you profit if you gain the whole world but lose your soul? I’m not condemning working through hardships and working to make your life better.

What I’m saying is this… it’s easy, and often times natural for us to let go of Spiritual things for material things in our life. It was hard for Alicia and I to give up a 6 figure job for ministry. After praying together, God was callings into ministry, and in 2016 it was time to take this call serious. I can’t tell you how many times in my life, I had to let go of things that pulls me away from Jesus.

If I’m not aware, its easy to get caught up scrolling on my phone. It’s easy to pursue things I want rather than to save. But it’s not just material things.. it can also be other things we pursue. Like I said earlier, our comfort. Or prestige, or influence. The world constantly pulls us into this status game where we’re fighting people for status. But in the spiritual realm its not status we seek, but humility.

To be humble as servants, like Christ is humble. Our competition as chrsiitnas is to lower ourselves to serve others. Thirdly, My hope is in what others think of me. By far this is my hardest struggle in life. I’m a people pleaser and I deal with the pain of trying to please others. For those of us that struggle with what others think of us… we put our hope in performing for others because we think we need their approval and that narrative can lead to all sorts of destruction and hear me, we cannot be fully formed by Jesus if we believe any of these default narratives.

So right this down if you want.. The teachings of Jesus call us to redream our vision of reality. Being a disciple of Jesus calls for us to examine all of our natives and truths….. Look back in verse 31.. Jesus says, if you are really my disciples… you’ll do what…??? you will know the truth and it will set you free. Freedom comes not through the hope of what I can do, or have, or what others think of me…

its by abiding in Christ and knowing his word, and truth. And, so I ask this question again… who or what is forming you. Is your daily life forming you? Is the fact you can have the freedom to do what you want forming you? Think back to what Paul said to the Galatians… 3 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh ; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

What if a part of our formation as followers of Christ, was meant to be disciples of Christ together, as a church? learning together, and walking together? That’s the beauty of grace. In Christ, we no longer live at the mercy of the world’s narratives. We live in the grace of God’s truth. I want to live in God’s grace and I want to do it with those God has brought into my life and that’s all of you.

So, as we do every Sunday, as we get ready and prepare our hearts for communion… Let’s together ask ourselves this one underlining question… is there any hidden narratives in your life that prevents you from growing in Christ, and growing in grace? Think of it for a moment. Are you trapped by something that you’ve believed you’re whole life but is it truth? Does it exalt Christ, does it being you closer to Christ?

Pick out that one thing…. Now, ask yourself… What’s the lie beneath the thought, feeling, and/or sensation that reveals my false narrative? (If God has revealed something to you, are you brave enough to share it with the group so that we can pray for you together) - Mine is being a people pleaser, and basing my idinety on what others think of me. And then, ask, What’s the truth? The truth is, “The kind of people-pleasing that pleases God is not a self-serving need for love or approval.” I get that in Christ.

*

Christmas 2022

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We light the candle of Peace. Let us remember our need for a Savior to save us from our sins, and give us peace with God.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

We light the candle of Joy.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

We light the candle of Hope.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

We light the candle of Love.

Jesus Christ is the true reason for hope, peace, joy, and love in this season and all to come. As we light the Christ candle, celebrating the end of Advent and the arrival of Christ and Christmas, let us remember how our savior came once as a lowly baby, that the world through him might be saved, and how he will return one day in glory.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

As we celebrate… lets us be reminded tonight that Jesus, Emmanuel, The Son of GOd, He lives!

Sermon beginning Have you ever looked into a mirror and just stared at yourself, looking at your eyes, nose, and hair? When I do this, I often get caught up in how amazing life is, and I often look in the mirror and wonder, "Do I really have the image of God?" As a child, I recall my curiosity occasionally capturing my attention. I still remember asking my mother some deep theological questions—simple questions that I am sure every kid would have asked. Questions like, "Mom, why is the sky blue or why is the grass green?" "Because that's what God wanted," Mom frequently replied. It still amazes me how God fit into our conversations at the same time our family knew nothing of God. I didn't grow up in a church, or with church people. I did, however, have very basic knowledge from the vibrant storybooks many might remember from the 1970s and 1980s and the songs I would hear my mom sing often. I remember the story of Noah most of all, but as I grew older, I became interested in the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. I believe that story became interesting because I grew up in the Appalachian mountains and Dolly Parton came out with a song called, "The Coat of Many Colors," and I remember my mom singing that song along with another song called "Fancy" by Reba Macintyre. I remember my mother would get emotional and loud when it would come to the part where Reba would sing, “You know I might have been born just plain white trash, But Fancy was my name” You couldn't tell it when I was younger, but as an adult, I was learning that she needed love and to feel safe and appreciated, just as I needed to be loved, safe, and appreciated. We were living in a world of darkness and we have no clue. I think it's the habits we create in our lives that trap us into believing that darkness is good. We can do something for so long and believe it to be true, honest and right. And when someone comes along and challenges our way of doing something. We can reject their attempt to show us something completely different. Honesty, I never knew I was living in darkness. I don’t think we really know until someone shows us. For me, it was a young lady who invited me into a place where they would leave the light on for you. No, I'm not talking about a motel room, as the commercial would say. I'm talking about a small Baptist church in a small town called Nutterfort that was a light house for the community. Unbeknownst to me, Jesus sent a young lady into a dark world to meet with me at the crossroads of grace at a local video store. She didn’t tell me I was sinful. She didn’t smack me on the head with her Bible. She didn’t even give me the gospel. All she did was invite me to church, and as many of you know, I met Jesus there. I learned over the course of a year that life comes only from God and that Jesus is the light of the world. Our Scripture said, Life was with him. Life originates with God. Nobody made him the way He is. He was not created by force or power. He has been what he is forever and ever and ever and ever. He just is. That's what it means to be God—a constant, always-flowing, and outpouring source of life. He is life, and "life was in him." This morning I awoke and looked out my kitchen window at the apple tree in my backyard. It stood naked through the darkness, waiting, watching, and enduring the hard, cold winter night. One could say the tree is dead. The once vibrant tree, filled with life and fruit, has lost all of its splendor and radiance while sitting naked in its shame. My focus began to be on the leaves and how they once clothed the tree in beauty but now lie on the ground as dried-up rags. My eyes looked up into the tree and gazed through every branch that stood bare and frosted by the harsh wind and snow. But then, I lifted my gaze up and through the clouds towards the hills to see the sun's light bursting through the clouds. Grace. That’s what I felt…. The solstice season of winter reminds me of the importance of proximity. The closer we are to the sun, the more life we see and experience. Have you ever wondered why Pharoah's heart was hardened by God? I've learned that his heart was hardened, but not because God hardened it in anger, overtaking Pharaoh's free will. But because Pharoah's heart wasn't connected to life. His life was focused on his god's, and he looked at himself as a god, so his life was focused on himself. He didn't have the same connection to the God of life as Moses did. The fall season gives an example of Pharaoh's life and what happens when our proximity to life decreases. What happens in fall is that the leaves have fallen and are no longer connected to their source. The same sun, with its constant, always-flowing, and outpouring source of life that gave life to the leaves still attached to the tree, will also dry up the leaves that have let go. The same sun, power, and chance at life exist—but one accepts and the other rejects. 1 John 5:11–12 reminds us: "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. " There we see it again, "In him was life." So if you have Jesus, you have life. If you reject Jesus, you reject life. Again, Jesus gives examples to this life all through out Johns gospel… John 5:40: "You refuse to come to me that you may have life." John 10:10: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." John 10:28: "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish." It's written all over the Bible: "In him was life, and this life brings light." That’s the way the new birth works. The Spirit imparts life because light was received. Proximity to the light brings warmth. Warmth brings new life, and before long, the world will be teeming with new buds of life as spring arrives. Our Scripture says… ”In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” This light I speak of is represented this morning in these candles. The candle of peace reminds us that peace has come. The angels have testified to the lowly Shepards, “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men” Luke 2:14 The next candle represents hope. It symbolizes the anticipation felt in awaiting the coming Messiah, and our faithful waiting in His return. The next candle we see is Joy! Joy is found not in consuming more. Joy is found in a transformed life. This new life is one of generosity, compassion, and care for those around us. It’s the calling of the church, this church, this church… we’re called to be joyful and to spread Joy! Joy can only be given if life is received. And it’s with the fourth candle that we are reminded that all of this is possible, hope, joy, and peace… the fourth candle is love. Love is at the core of all we do. It’s the core of the fruit of the spirit. With the love of God in our hearts, may we work to see the love of God at work in the world. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. There it is again in Scripture….Life. but lovelily coupled with this word…. eternal. If we are going to see anything, even to look into the mirror and see the reflection of ourselves, it takes light. I can look in the mirror and say that I am alive because I breathe, live, and I am aware. I see my imperfections. I see my crooked nose from when it was broken as a child. I see my graying hair, I see my sagging eyes from anxiety and sleepless nights… but, yet in all of these imperfections, I still think I’m alive. I look alive! But, if I asked myself, "Am I dead?" would I even believe it or would I have thought to myself, “Man I’ve lost my mind. Of course! I'm not dead I see my reflection looking back at me in all of its; imperfections. But then, I realize. This Scripture of life and light isn’t about physical things but it tells of Spiritual life and death. If you substitute spiritual blindness and darkness for deadness, then you start to see what John means. People aren’t dead because they can walk or talk or think or feel or even see with physical eyes see themselves in mirrors. People are dead because "seeing they do not see" Jesus tells of this blindness in Matthew 13:13.. “This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” They don’t see! What do they not see? They don’t see… Their deadness. They don’t see! They are walking in darkness.. They don’t see… Jesus as valuable. His sacrifice as precious. Relationship and fellowship as a treasure. or the possibility of peace, joy, hope, and love that enters the darkness to bring light to the world. They are blind to these things because they choose to walk in darkness. Jesus tells us why those who are blind and numb to the light reject it… And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. They are dead, spiritually speaking. If they are going to see these things and receive them, they must have life. Life will make seeing possible. But without light revealing truth, then life isn’t shown. So John says in verse 4, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” What we see is that life brings light. When death is replaced with life and darkness replaced with light, new life is possible. So what is God’s answer to darkness, and deadness and blindness of the world? It’s a new birth. Without it the world will never understand. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God”? John 3:3 You can’t see it. No one can. And if you can’t see it, then you can’t receive it. And because that is the case, you are not permitted to enter. Everything hangs on the truth and reality of being born again through life and light. Because without light and life, we are dead, blind, and living in darkness. God’s remedy? John tells us: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. His remedy was new birth, and birth that began with his only son. God sends his son, Jesus into the world as the light of life to lay down his life for us and then causes people to be born again so they can see him and receive him. John writes: children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, It’s received. Just as all of creation received Christ into this world. Life stays with us…. That’s the beauty of Emmanual… God with us… He’s with us at his birth into this world, and he’s with us, in our birth into new eternal life with him. As I close, I would like to ask you to focus one question… Does the light of Christ reside in me? Or am I still walking in darkness? Jesus said: 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12 What he means is this.. Jesus’s being “the light of the world” means the world has no other light than him. If there is going to be a light for the world, it will be Jesus. It is Jesus or darkness. There is no third alternative. No other light. John piper writes: It means, therefore, that all the world, and everyone in it needs Jesus as their light. It means that the world was made for this light. This is not a foreign light. This is the light of the owner of the world. When this light comes, it not only makes sin plain as foreign and ugly, but it also makes everything good in the world shine with its full and true beauty. This world was made to be illumined by this light. This light of Christ is native to the world. And finally, Jesus being “the light of the world” means that that one day this world will be filled with this light as the waters cover the sea, and all darkness, and all the works of darkness, and all the sons of darkness will be cast out. That’s why Jesus called hell “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). In that day, all will be light. Jesus, the radiance of the Father, will fill the world, and everything will be beautiful with the light of Christ. That’s what makes my mothers and I story so uniquely ordinary. She and I were searching for love, we were searching to feel safe, we were searching to be accepted and appreciated. That’s what the light of Christ does to one who reject darkness, repents of their sin and finds Christ to be the most precious thing in life… because Christ is our light! And that light must come from the church. That light is so bright that when new people come in, they witness life, and love, hope and joy and peace. I believe with all of my heart, that when we together, surrender to the light of the world, to Jesus, and he brightly shines within us… this place will explode with faithful things. If you’ve not, taken that step of faith out of the darkness and into the light. Why not today? Why not while we celebrate the birth of Christ, why not let this day be a day where you can also celebrate the birth of Christ in you? Because only through him can our deadness be replaced with life and our blindness be replaced with light. He calls int he darkness… Come to him. Believe on him. Receive him. And grow with him… And trust me, he is faithful to be your life, and then you’ll find through true relationship.. he will also be your everlasting joy. *

Holy Spirit

Elements is about taking the foundational doctrines of the church, making them personal and understanding how they enhance our relationship with God. What we believe and how we pursue our calling to be Christ followers, will in fact guide our lives as we pray, and attend church, and serve and grow in holiness. Today we finish out, what we would call the Trinity. Which is: God the Father, God the Son And God the Holy Spirit.

It’s really an interesting mystery on the pursuit to understand how to explain the Trinity. God is Eternal, he was and is and will forever be. God is infinite and perpetual. God is unique and alone creator of all things. He alone is not dependent upon the world or anything within. Nothing within the created world serves as a complete model or analogy for him. Nothing in this world adds or takes away from Him.

So, when it comes to trying in our most amazing accomplishments in science, and medicine and any academic pursuit we try to accomplish in life. When it comes to the Trinity, our best answer is this… There is… just nothing… like our God. But that doesn’t stop us from trying to understand the mystery of the Trinity. We use analogies like the Triangle to represent the Trinity. A triangle is one triangle with three sides.

But that is not an adequate analogy. Each side is a part of the triangle. But God does not have parts. The Father is not a part of God, but God himself. Likewise, the Son is not a part of God, but God (John 1:1). Also, we try to use the elements of water. That the trinity is like how water is Wet, solid and gas. But this analogy is also inadequate.

God merely doesn’t appears in three forms. He is God, he is one, but all three. The truth is: God is mysterious and guess what…. that’s ok. Scripture tells us that “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 What we learn is that this mystery of God not being fully known helps us realize that “we are not God ourselves.” We don’t have him all figured out.

We have to trust him…. That’s a huge foundation to what? To our Faith! So let’s talk a little about what we can gather about the Holy Spirit this morning through Scripture. There’s four transformation roles we learn in the Bible about the role of the Holy Spirit. The first is that he is our helper. A helper is one that comforts us, and reminds us, and gifts us. He helps us understand that we are not alone in this walk.

He reminds us that we are who God says we are. I mentioned last week in a world where we are in an identity crisis, Jesus must become our identity. I was photographing this week at the pier in Montoursville and I began to look and listen to the scene and sounds of nature as I read Pslam 65 If we would just stop running around for a moment, we could see and hear creation and how creation is designed to dance and to give praise and honor to GOd.

It is everywhere. Just this morning the sun rose and made everything red for but moment. Reminding me that mercies are new every day. In Pslam 65, the writer tells us that God has clothed the meadows with flocks and the hills gird themselves with joy, and valleys deck themselves with grain. God gave to us, his son Jesus Christ, and he atones for our sins, so that the Holy Spirit can come into our lives and he clothes himself with us.

Think about that… Jesus clothes himself with us. Gideon in Judges 6:34 says, But the Spirit of the Lord Clothed Gidion. Love himself clothes us and we join together with creation in this love filled dance ,singing with full-throated praises! Hallelujah… Jesus says in Luke 19:40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” How embarrassing it would be if we left this building today, and the rocks gave greater praise than we have this morning.

If you walk out of this service with no adoration and praise in your heart.. the rocks still cry out. The Spirit is our guide. He teaches us, reveals wisdom to us and leads us into all truth. Some might need to hear this.. you don’t have it all figured out. Men… you need to hear this.. you don’t know…. Say it with me.. I don’t know. There… you ladies say…

hallelujah. You missed an amen moment. The holy Spirit is our guide. Paul tells us in Romans 8:14, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. The Spirit guides us…. He is our cleanser… He convicts us, sanctifies us, and burns up the chaff.. What he does is that he gets rid of the harmful stuff in us. But he doesn’t just make us do it..

it’s got to be released, it’s got to be surrendered. You’ve got to understand something… trouble is out there. And it’s in here (Church)… and it’s in here.. our hearts. Jesus doesn’t tell us follow Him and it will become easy, he say there will be trouble… and we need trouble. Do you have a dream? When God give us a dream. The dream will always be tested. The pressure in your life right now, has a purpose.

It’s not crushing you, It’s pushing what is on the inside of you out of you. Trouble is refining you. Paul says in Romans 5:3-5 3 But that's not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. 4 And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope 5 that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love.

Trouble shows us who we are… are you really committed to him? Are you willing to stand with the power of the Holy Spirit when everything else is falling away? The Trouble in your life will either reflect a deep trust and faith, or it will reflect to us an imitation faith. I say this because that leads me into the fourth truth about the Holy Spirit. While he cleanses us and refine us, and sanctifies us, he also empowers us.

When we say there is no way I can do that. That’s true. God doesn’t give us the Holy Spirit to trip us, but to empower us. Pastor bob has been teaching us in acts, and he reminded us in acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” If you are here today and you know that you have been called by God to come and to know his Son Jesus…..

then he also calls you to be empowered. One of the greatest hindrances of the churches in todays age is all we ever do is talk about grace. It’s great, but that not all there is. Grace leads to more and greater things. God wants greater things for you and me… I read this in an article this week.. the writer said: “Every good resolve requires the power of God, because the outcomes he wants are bigger than we can produce.” Has it ever occurred to you that God wants more for you than you do?

He wants to empower us. And perhaps we struggle with faith and seeing where the church is going and being true worshippers of God is because we have no real desire to change and be transformed. One of the main tactics the enemy does is that he gets us believing that we have arrived. One of the greatest bombs that causes Spiritual numbness is the belief that when we get to a certain age, we deserve to be retired.

I’ve praised, and served and did my time… its my turn to be served. Jesus served till his dying breath. Did you ever notice that? The last thing Jesus said, was it is finished. With his dying breath he died on the cross and served for us a sacrifice to the Father to atone for our sins. And then he says, when I go, meaning when he was raised from the dead.

God accepted that sacrifice, I will go and send the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is essential to our walk as Christians. The Spirit Helps, guides, cleanses and empowers us. So what does that mean for us… Well if we can understand those things… then we need to understand that the Holy Spirit comes and he knits himself into our lives and he dwells within us when are born again. God the father has created us in a way that we can understand the role of the Spirit by understanding first that we have been designed for worship.

Paul tells the corinthians: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” I corinthians 6:19-20 What does it mean to be the temple? Well as we’ve learned this year. Israel built the temple and it was a place where God resided.

God’s presence was living in what they would call the holy of holies. It was a place where God dwelt, and a place of devoted worship. Now, let’s define Spirit. In greek Pneuma is Spirit. John 3:5 says: Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.” The second word I want to mention is Pnuematikos.

Pnuematikos means that those are capable of possessing special spiritual revelation or wisdom. Paul refers to Pnuematikos in I corthians 2:13-15 to illustrate how we are built capable of receiving the Spirit. We have the capacity, capability… the necessity to receive God’s spirit. So we take Pneuma The Spirit and Pnuematikos Us as the temple and the result is this.. We are built and designed to receive the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Think about it… you and I have been created to receive the Spirit as the temple of GOd. We become the very dwelling place of God….. worship is not longer let me go and give worship, but now I become worship. Think of the Scripture Psalm 139: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” What we recognize is that we are not our own.

We are created and we have been bought at a very intimate price. We being to someone else. The first thing Paul says, in romans is that I am a slave to Christ. He also reminds us in the very first chapter that he is a debtor. We are reminded that we have been created, and we are not our own, we have been bought and we belong to someone else, and so we become slaves and debtors to Christ.

I not sure if this analogy helps. But think of this…. We can go out, and purchase a piece of land. Put a house on it with everything we could ever want. Everything that would make it amazing. But if we do not live in it, it just stays that way, it stays just a house. But when we live in it, and grow our relationship with our spouse in it, and we grow our families in it.

Its then that house becomes a home. A house us just a house until life in it makes it a home. We as the temple is just a building until the Spirit makes residence in us and we become worshippers. I dont know if that makes sense, but what I am trying to say is this… You and I are not meant to be empty houses. We have been designed and created with purpose.

We are knitted together in all of our uniquenesses and abilities, and looks to give glory to God. Remember, we are to have Christ clothes himself in us and we join creation in this dance of love. When we have the Spirit, we have the DNA of the creator inside of us. And because we are born as son and daughters, and we share this spiritual bloodline, We are called to live in harmony with God as our Father, and Jesus as our brother, and the Holy Spirit as our guide.

We have been designed to follow his will. Even right here in this fallen world. I hope you realize that…. You were designed for more and greater things. Designed to love and to live for His glory. To push back the enemy and to storm the gates of hell with nothing but a squirt gun and faith. To bring others into this deep relationship and knowledge. All by having the Spirit within you and being empowered by him.

Ephesians 2:10 says: for we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” You have been helped, guided, cleansed and empowered by God himself. From the inside out! I want to finish todays message with this question… Are you sensitive to the work of the Spirit in you life? There is four thoughts I want to share…. The first one is this…

recognize how God made you. Job 37:5-6 says: “God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’" He created you and me to be temples. He designed us, so that hey may dwell within us. Secondly, embrace all the functions of the Holy Spirit in your life. The first thing the Spirit does is bring power into your life.

And I’ve said it before, but many christians are living a powerless life because they live a prayerless life. We starve the Spirit in us when we do not learn to pray past our wants and needs and desires. When we learn to pray with full trust on Christ, and we yearn for his plan and not ours. Then we will see mountains move. Yes, faith moves mountains, but listen… prayer moves us, and by faith and in our weakness God then moves the mountains that we thought were unmovable.

Thirdly, practice the presence of the Spirit in you. If you really want a good book, buy the practice the presence of God by brother Lawrence. If you really want to be serious… about growing in your faith. Then come to Sunday school. Come to prayer meeting. Serve in the church. We need Christ filled servants. And lastly, build intentional relationships with people that follow the Spirit. Ya know.. covid brought forth a lot of amazing things.

We have church online now. We can watch unlimited services online… but the fact is… we’ve been designed to be in community. One on one. Face to face. We intentionally offer trunk and treat not just to serve the community, but to give the church the opportunity to connect with the church body and the outside community. We offer the green berry farm for you to come. It’s free! The truth is, relationships can not flourish if we are not present.

And not just present, but be active. Being an introvert doesn’t mean you don’t like being around people. Get that out of your head because that is a bad definition of what an introvert is. An introvert means you do not energize by being around people. Come, mingle, be active, and then go home and recharge. The Spirit within you will always bring you to a place where you will to grow with others.

Some of you have been…. Unaware of the Spirit work…. Or you’re resisting his work…. Today I simply ask, why not pray that the Holy Spirit reins in you today? Why not make that your prayer today… Lord, make me the temple you designed me to be, and help me be a foundational piece of the growth here at Twin Hills. For the glory of your son, Jesus, and for the work you called us into…

may we be, a family. Amen. *

Peace in Christ - Shalom

Last week we looked at Pauls benediction prayer in I Thessalonians 5 and we talked a little about sanctification. To be sanctified means we are 100% loyal and given of ourselves over to God. Now, we know this doesn't stop with a one and done kind of truth. Sanctification, just like salvation is initial but also continuous. What does that means? Well, simply put, it means once it begins, it should never stop.

Everyday we should be pursuing salvation, repentance, forgiveness, and as we lean into Christ and we trust in Christ more and more each day. We begin to grow Spiritually through prayer and our relationship to Him. We believe that we are justified, regenerated, and adopted and all three are simultaneous. It’s initial and ongoing. Regeneration, is what we call the new birth, it’s that gracious work of God whereby the moral nature of the repentant believer is spiritually quickened and given a distinctively spiritual life, capable of faith, love, and obedience.

But regeneration, the capability of faith, love and obedience isn’t sanctification. Sanctification is the work of God which transforms believers into the likeness of Christ. We go from being capable of this lifestyle, to being and walking in those things. We become holy, because he is holy within us. So each and every day we must pursue to be sanctified. Outside of who we are, without the Holy Spirit in our lives we would never pursue God.

And it’s this constant pull in our daily life that keeps trying to tell us to turn from Him, and back to our sin. But being sanctified means that the pull of sin non longer has the power in our lives to turn os from our savior anymore. My prayer is that we learn this as a church. We learn this together and we learn this with in the unity of Christ.

But here’s the problem. If we do not give our sin over to the sanctifying power off the Holy Spirt in our lives, we will survive in the sea of sin and there will be no peace in our lives. This morning I want to show us why peace is important in our prayer life that leads us to be holy. Israel is an amazing place to go. If you ever get the chance, take it.

Watching the Chosen on Wednesday nights does give us a bit of realism to our faith. But if you want a deeper, more tangible feel, go to Israel. It will change your life. When I was in Israel I learned two words. One was, Cafe’ Afook. Which means upside down coffee. It’s like a latte. Cream, expresso and then foam on top. Very delicious. The other word I learned was Shalom.

Our word for peace finds it Origen in the word shalom. But just like many Hebrew words, it doesn't just mean one thing. It’s a word that carry’s multiple meanings. Shalom not only means peace, but it also carries this idea of completeness. Which means: the state or condition of having all the necessary or appropriate parts. Like, Shalom, you have everything you need to have, to have peace. We can have it, it’s complete.

We’re won’t be lacking in anything to finish what we need. We need completed peace in our lives. Especially is we’re pursing sanctification described by Paul when he said, let the God of peace sanctify you. In Genesis chapter 1 and 2 we see a united world, living as one. Everything is complete and unbroken. Humanity is complete and has an unbroken relationship with God, creation and with each other. But then, that’s not the world we live in today.

Today, we live in a post Genesis chapter 3 world where we long for our relationship with the earth, with each other, and with our creator to be restored. We long for renewal and restoration. We long for shalom, peace. But we never find lasting peace because around every corner, we find in this world that we live in, is that this earth fights back at us with thorns, wild animals, earthquakes and floods.

We fight each other in wars and oppression and divorce. We are enemies of God with our sin and our rebellion . I think we all know it. We see it in our lives and in our jobs and in our home life that clearly something isn’t right…. There is not completeness in our lives. We’re missing something. We’re missing unity. That is what Shalom means… it means unity… it means one-ness.

But what we learn is this… when we talk about peace, (In God’s context) it isnt the absence of war or conflict. The peace we find in Christ isn’t dependent upon our outward circumstances. This week I’ve been saturating in Johns gospel preparing my heart for lent and Easter. And listen to what Jesus tells his disciples in John 14:27. I am leaving you with a gift - Peace of mind and heart.

And the peace I give is a gift the world Gannon give. SO don’t be troubled or afraid. I love how Jesus reminds us that the peace that he gives, it can not be imitated or faked. The world can’t give you Christ like peace. That is why I’ve been passionate about our series saturated. We’re learning to pray together. But in reality, if you are being present we are learning to rely on Jesus more.

Not our circumstances. When we face hardships in our life, I always hear in our Christian circles, we just need to pray through.. We just need to pray through the issue. And I'm like no… We need to stop trying to pray through the issue. We need to stop trying to pray through the circumstance. and begin praying through the suspicion of our own hearts that we don’t trust God. Isn’t that the culprit to our growth in sanctification?

We can’t walk away from sin because we trust in our sin more than we trust in the work of Christ in our lives. What we need to pray through is the untrusting of our heart. We cant worship Jesus as the prince of peace but have no peace. The Holy Spirit does his greatest work in our lives, when we are willing through prayer to soak in the atmosphere of His presence.

A trusting heart is a heart at peace with all things because it knows, and loves, and trusts the prince of peace. Not our circumstances. I love in this Scripture how Jesus says, my peace, my Shalom will be Shalom of heart and mind. I admit, my heart and mind suffers often. It suffers because I yearn to be like Christ. It suffers because I often contemplate my responsibilities of being your pastor.

No one in this church will care for your soul as much as I do. Don’t ever forget that. But also remember relationship must be both ways. I went to be one night with My own burdens on my heart, and your burdens were on my heart as well. One night I went to bed with much pain and anxiety in my heart and my mind. One of my strengths is harmony and when there is no harmony in my heart and mind I become unwell.

I fell asleep and was awakened one early morning by the Lord to get up and to saturate in His word. I began to pray and His presences fell upon me and his presence pressed upon my soul and quickly i went to my pen and wrote this beautiful reminder. Don’t be overwhelmed by your circumstance. “Choose” to be overwhelmed by my love. Let’s be honest, this is way easier said than done.

We’re easily overwhelmed by a lot of things in our life. And truthfully, we’re overwhelmed because we put so much emphasis on our works and not our relationship. Right? Serving in a church setting is a lot easier than forgiving others. Being in leadership is better than lowering ourselves sacrificially to love the unlovable. The church shouldn’t be focused on what we can do, as much as it should be focused on how we can be one with one another in Christ.

That’s what the world wants to see. They want to see a church that’s authentic in their worship. So, let’s ask this final question…how do we find Shalom, how do we find resolve and peace? Let’s read Colossians 1:19-20 together. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20: and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

Do you recognize the past tense of that phrase? He made peace. His peace, was made. Not he was thinking on making peace. Or Peace was in the plan or the pipeline. No! He made it. He made shalom by reconciling everything to himself.. amen right? It was something already done and guess what… it’s available to you and to me. Through Christ… That’s the key… to the peace we need in our life.

The peace the world cannot give is not in the world, but in Christ. There’s a bog theological word for that… it’s called… atonement. This is such an important theological word, that Atonement is 1 of only 16 articles of faith that serve as the foundation of the Church of the Nazarene. The article of faith says this… ⚐#17 We believe that Jesus Christ, by His sufferings, by the shedding of His own blood, and by His death on the Cross, ⚐#18 made a full atonement for all human sin, and that this Atonement is the only ground of salvation, ⚐#19 and that it is sufficient for every individual of Adam’s race.

Now, let’s go back to Colossians. We just read verses 19-20. Now in the light of what we just learned about atonement. Let’s read verses 21-22. 21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

Today, I can claim Colossians 1:21-22 as my own today. But… that isn’t true for everyone who is listening in today. Calling yourself Christian isn't enough. Going to church isn't enough Just believing that God is real isn't enough. First it begins by realizing that very single person ever born on this earth because of the sin condition of the human heart needs a savior. That includes you and it includes me.

Not one person today was born righteous. There’s not one person born and living today who deserves salvation. We need a savior. We got to realize it. Holy Spirit, open upon the eyes of their hearts this morning and then do iot every morning! Second, we must accept that God’s plan to reconcile us to himself is through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I don’t receive salvation and heaven because i am better than you.

I receive salvation because i receive the atonement of Jesus Christ through the shedding of his blood. Listen, church. To receive that salvation and the promise of heaven we must repent of our sins and ask Christ into our life as Lord. We gotta make it personal. Jesus tells us in Luke, repent or perish. Im telling you today just Because you got a bumper sticker that says Jesus take the wheel doesn’t make you saved.

We’ve got to make it personal. Jesus Christ is my peace for he is the one who paid the price for my sins. We need atonement.. and it can become a little intimidating. Yet, it can be explained easily. Take the word atone, and split it into two words. Atone.. at one. We are to be at one with Christ. When I am at one with Christ I have peace. I personally have peace.

I can’t explain to you the depths of what completeness means. But I know I have peace because I am at one with chrsit.. I am at one with Christ because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. This creates peace in my soul that is beyond my circumstances and situation. I want encourage you today to let God examine your heart. Do you know that you know that your are at-one with Christ.

I didn’t ask if you are religious. I didn’t ask if you believe in God. I didn’t ask how good you are, how much you serve, what you’ve given financially. I asked you.. do you have assurance that you are at one with Christ. Because if that’s not you this morning then you need to stop acting like you have it all together and start humbling yourself and overcoming any barrier today to allow Christ into your life.

Because Paul gives us a clear command for us believers and followers of Jesus about this ideal of shalom. It’s found in verse 23: 23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

What Paul is saying is this… those who are at-one with Christ don’t sit around in a church playing church and acting as if their life is ok when it’s not. Paul is saying that those who are in Christ are called to believe in this truth called the gospel and to stand firm in it. And he clearly says, don’t drift away from the assurance you receive. It means were called to take action.

We have a responsibility in our church and our community as followers of Jesus to take whatever action is necessary to maintain our position of surrender to his will so his Spirit can live and operate in us to fulfill the purpose for which we have been created. That purpose is to be in right relationship with God through the atonement of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross and his victory over death and sin through his resurrection.

Do you hear me church… is it getting into your heart this morning? We are called to be witnesses of his Shalom. We have the responsibility to proclaim this truth to others who have not heard it or experienced it. Our goal should be not to add to the volumes of cash into our treasury for us to sit idle in our seats believing were impacting our community for Jesus. No!

Our goal should be to continually be adding volumes to the lambs book of life while depopulating hell in the process. Shalom comes when we are in the center of God’s will, being made complete in his spirit. Is that you this morning? If the Holy Spirit is talking to you this morning don’t push him off. Don’t live through another day without experiencing the peace , the shalom of JEsus.

Come and stand firm in his grace, forgiveness and his shalom… Page 309: Come Holy Spirit though art welcome. *

Value of Silent Prayer

Let’s open up our bibles together and find with me Johns Gospel chapter 11. Johns gospel Chapter 11. Find with me Verses 1 through 7. Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death.

No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” Let me ask you… Have you ever in your life been in a hurry and it seems like everything just seems to be slowing you down?

When I was little we were on our way to Pee Wee little league game, my mother swung by the house to pick me up and we were already running late. But right beside the baseball field was a little store in a place called Jackson Mills. As she turned on the road for our baseball field, instead of dropping me off, my mother swung into the parking lot of the store just a Quarter mile from the ball field and she stopped to run in to grab something.

I remember sitting in that car so impatient, irritated and upset because I was going to be late. Some of you kids don’t know what it was like in the 80’s and 90’s to hafta wait for things that are faster today. We had to wait for our internet to dial up. There was no instant connection or being connected all the time. We had to wait by the phone for a phone call.

And for the most part not knowing who was calling. Speaking of phone calls, some of us had the pleasure of waiting for a rotary phone to finish its rotation. We didn’t have fancy instant number buttons to dial with. We had to wait… waiting was a part of our life back in those days. In our text this morning that’s the first thing we notice when we read these first 7 verses.

Mary and Martha sent Jesus a message, to tell Jesus that there is an immediate need. Someone is very sick. Someone he loves. Sometimes in our own life Don’t we make the mistake of waiting till the last minute to send up desperate prayers. But another mistake we make is when we are in the midst of our waiting. We begin to think about if our prayer was wrong. Is my unanswered prayer because I asked wrong?

One of the devils tactics is for us to be in the midst of our waiting and the enemy begins to whisper into our ears that we prayed the wrong prayer. Now, there is a wrong way to pray. With wrong motives to pray about. There are things in our life that will block our prayers. I won’t go into full detail because that’s a sermon in itself. But, please let me share real quick a few things that will block our prayer.

Unforgiveness blocks prayer, Unconfessed sin blocks prayer, selfish intentions blocks prayer, ignoring Scripture blocks prayer, Did you you can block prayer as a married man. In 1 Peter 3:7, it says your prayers are answered according to how you treat your wife. If you dishonor her and fail to treat her with great worth as an heir, meaning as a co-partner in this life, your prayers will be hindered. Do you Want your prayers to be answered?

Then be a Godly husband and love your wife as Christ loves the Church (Ephesians 5:25). These are obvious reasons… But, Let’s ask the question. Was Mary and Martha wrong for asking Jesus to come? No, they desired a good thing. When all seems to be going wrong in life, there is nothing more comforting than praying for and having the presence of Jesus be near to us. His presence comforts us.

It guides us. It gives us peace and joy. There is nothing better than being near Jesus and knowing that he is near. But what about those moments when we pray and there’s nothing but silence? What about those moments of patiently waiting but we hear or see no answer to prayer. Well, for the most part what we learn is this: The Silence is most often the right answer. One amazing truth we must learn is that God might be silent but doesn’t mean he is absent.

The book of Malachi is the ending of the Old Testament and during the period from that book to Jesus was 400 years of God’s silence. No one heres from God, but guess what? Listen to what happens historically, there are three things that are important leading up to the birth of Christ. Number one: Alexander the Great conquered the known world and the world began to speak Greek. Then the Romans imposed peace through it’s military strength.

And finally: The romans also built a transportation system that allowed people to get to places faster. So what we find, in 400 years, when God pulls the curtain down with Malachi, through this 400 years of silence, we find that there’s a common language, a relative peace in the land and a transportation system to get around faster. In the 400 years of silence, God was setting the stage for the arrival of Christ, while perfectly positioning the birth, burial and resurrection so that when the followers in the upper room were praying, and they received the Holy Spirit, the stage was set to spread the message of grace, forgiveness and the message of Jesus in a common language, with relative peace and an improved transportation system.

What we learn is that God was silent, but not absent. So how does that apply to us? What we learn is this: when we are in God’s silence and we feel his absence, we must learn to trust and rely on His presence. We trust that he is still there, working in the background, working behind the scenes. He tell us that he would never leave us? Why then do we keep acting as though he has?

Where’s our hope? Where’s our faith? The word tells us in Deuteronomy, I will never leave or forsake you. Jack Graham the son of the late billy graham once said, “Very often, people have a hard time taking God at His word, If God says it, that settles it, and there’s absolutely no reason to doubt it.” Why do we struggle with trusting in God. We struggle because we feel let down when he doesn’t answer our prayers.

we struggle because we fear we wont be taken care of. If the only time we trust God is when he gives us what we ask for, or if we only take answers that are visible to our sense, then we are living in a very elementary view of grace. If Jesus must give us an exact answer to our prayers then he cannot trust us with the intimacy of his silence yet.

Can he trust us with the intimacy of his silence? I think this is why the local church is important and why I believe that if we are going to grow as a Christian we need to be present to be disicpleled.in prayer. Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:19 “if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My father in heaven.”?

Did you know that Scripture was spoken to people who are not spiritual. It’s for those who haven’t learned the intimacy of walking with trust and reliance in the silence. Read Luke 11 and 18… those chapters are for those who are spiritual, its for those who remain in confidence in prayer. If all we ever want it’s to be able to point to something and say, This is the way God has answered me.

This is the way God answered my prayer. Then what we learn is that God can’t trust us yet with the intimacy of his silence. Wasn’t that the test in the garden? Can God rely on us to do the right thing when he seems absent? We find Adam and Eve living in the garden and then comes along the serpent and within the silence of God, he was silent, not absent, Adam and Eve was tricked into believe that God wasn’t being honest with them.

I imagine God in that moment just watching Adam and Eve in the garden being tempted and just saying with all of his heart.. love me… choose me… don’t choose disobedience…. Don’t choose to not trust in me, I have given you everything you have ever needed… don’t do it… rely on me… and I can just imagine God’s heart breaking, the moment eve and Adam bit into that apple, God’s heart was just breaking.

And God has spent everyday from that day till today reminding us that he still loves us. So it’s absolutely vital that we learn That… God’s silence is our proving grounds of our reliance. What we do in the silence, proves our trust and intimacy for him. Think of the story of Emmaus road in Luke 24. To be honest I think that is the road we choose to walk often in our lives.

Here are these disciples, followers, men who probably were a part of the crowd singing Hosanna as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, men who could have broken bread with Jesus, and here they are, walking Emmaus road, overwhelmed by sorrow. Plagued with questions. Wondering where God is in all of this madness… when, all along, he’s walking beside them. Walking with them, silently, but not absent. I think of Mary and Martha in this story and I wonder….

By their waiting they received a greater miracle than just healing of a sick body. They witnessed the resurrection of a soul. Could they have ever imagined, in their wildest dreams that the answer that Jesus had for them by their waiting in silence, was to witness a raised brother, and the manifestation of the glory of God and the understanding of Jesus Christ in a way that has blessed the church for 21 centuries?

I want to close out our message with this one thought… I hope it helps with your walk with God. So many times we associate love as in what we get. If you love me, you will give to me. And that is how we expect prayer to be… Jesus if you love me, you’ll answer me. Prayer is not waiting to be blessed. Prayer is not that GOD MAY BLESS US.

Prayer is how we give glory to God. Jesus tells his disciples that his waiting was for what? To bring glory to the Father. I believe we read the Bible through a very selfish intentions sometimes. And for the most part that is because we don’t read the Bible through prayer. remember, prayer is what interrupts our personal ambition. It redirects us back to God and off of our elves. One of the greatest love scriptures in the Bible is John 3:16.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. That’s love being given..It’s selfish of us… to only read that verse and go.. I get something… i get eternal life. Because I believe in Jesus, the son of God, i get enteral life. I have receive Jesus, so now I get eternal life. It’s selfish of us to read that without knowing that is not what eternal life means.

Eternal life isn’t me getting life for me, eternally. So, What does that mean? Eternal life? Eternal life isn’t me going to heaven and playing golf for eternity. Eternal life isn’t me gaining health, wealth and comfort in this life to prepare me for an eternity in heaven. No, we can only define eternal life through Christ, through His word. What’s this gift, we receive that cost him his Son’s life?

SO let s ask Jesus to define eternal life. The definition of Eternal life comes from John 17:3… “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” That they know you… Do you see it!!!! To know God is to love God. To know God is to be known by Him. To love God is to be focused on the Son, so that his glory is reflected out into the world and back to Him.

One of the greatest realities is when we pray… Our chief end is to glorify God and to know Him. That’s eternal life: to know him, to know him forever, to know him with increasing knowledge, and increasing admiration, and increasing wonder, and increasing joy. That’s eternal life. Now reread John 3:16 with the understanding of what the chief end of man is… For God so loved the world (yuou and me that is in the world), that he gave his only Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in him (Jesus) should not perish (that means death away from God in hell, a part from his presence) but have eternal life (meaning a life that knows God and knows the one that God has sent.) Our life is to be reflections of his hope to a community that has no hope.

And the only way that… the only way a Christian gains this increasing of knowledge, admiration, wonder and joy, is through prayer and learning to walk by faith, even when God seems to be silent. TO know him means we trust him…. To know him means to rely on him. To know him means… we give to him all praise and honor and glory.. even when he feels distant, silent but not absent….

Silent but reliable. *

Saturation - Week 1 - Wait and See

In the fall of 2007 I was just a few weeks out of our field supervisor school with my job with Halliburton and I received a very interesting phone call. On the other end of the line was a lady from Colorado that had gotten my test scores from my class in Oklahoma and was wanting to know if I would be interested interviewing for a lab position they had opened at their Brighton yard.

I had an interest at that time in petroleum engineering and Brighton just so happened to be where the company sent their young field engineers to train. When I arrived in Colorado it was a rainy and drizzly day. I drove to the hotel and remember asking the front desk… I’ve never really heard a whole lot about Colorado or what this state is known for… what’s something to do before I leave.

And the desk clerk looked at me and said, “oh, were known for the Rocky Mountains. Let me give you a room overlooking the mountains. I went to my room, put down my luggage and walked over to the picture window and looked out into the horizon… and I saw something that did not impress me….. All i saw was clouds and rain. To be honest, I never really expected much.

I’ve lived in the mountains my whole life. I know what mountains look like. I know what their like. Trust me… i’ve experienced mountains before. We’re known for our lush green mountains in West Virginia. And Honestly I know mountains very well because I experience them. When I was a kid, I had to walk up them my entire life both ways just to go to school. But that night, I went to bed and never thought one moment about it.

I woke up the next morning, I walked downstairs, ate my breakfast and then proceeded to get ready for my interview. But Before I left my room, I like to open up the curtains. There’s just something invigorating about letting the sun and light into a dark room and just kind of picks you up emotionally. As I opened those curtains, i just stood there, and I saw something... I couldn’t explain.

I don’t believe that there is anything you can do to prepare yourself when you see something you can’t explain. You just stand there in awe.. and marvel over the amazing thing you’re experiencing. Have you ever had those moments when, for whatever reason. You turn a certain way and something catches your eye and then when it comes into full focus of what it is, it now catches your attention?

And it mesmerizes you. It was like the first time I seen my wife. I still remember the day i showed up in her dorms at Lock Haven. And here she came up from the basement with her pink top, blue jeans and open toed hills. I was instantly in love with her. It was like the first time I saw our kids when they are born. Or even when we look up and we see the moon large, full of a radiant light reflecting the suns rays and it’s breathtaking…

And what do we do in those moments when we see the moon? “We grab our phones”, because We want to capture this amazing moment and we aim and shoot and we get the most horrible looking picture you can take. Our eyes and brains have been creatively designed to see and to witness something absolutely amazing, but our phones do not capture what we are seeing with our eyes in full detail and perfection.

But on that morning the clouds rolled away and I saw something in the far distance that I wasn’t able to see the day before… I saw for the first time the snow covered Rocky mountains. Like the ones you see in paintings. That’s what having a vision from God is like. One moment you can’t see anything in the distance. You don’t know which way to turn, you don’t know which way to go.

You find yourself asking God, Hey… things around here doesn't look good. The horizon is hazy, the distance looks cloudy. There seems to be no hope. And when we look around, we see nothing but corruption. The authorities are corrupt. The leaders are corrupt. The people are not following God’s ways and just living life carelessly for themselves and for their own comfort.. They’re not searching for you, Lord. That’s what Habakkuk is dealing with.

He’s face to face with corruptions. The leaders of the nation, the leaders of their faith and the people are rejecting God through the decisions of their lives and he laments to God, he pours out his heart to God, he asked God why? Why Lord… How long Lord do I need to call for help. How long Lord will I witness violence everywhere. Everywhere I look all i see is corruption and violence.

When are you going to come with justice. And the Lord answers Habbakkuk.. the Lord tells him… I'm doing something… In chapter one verse five he said… look! Here’s what I'm about to do… but here’s the thing… you wont believe me. Remember, Billy Graham preached this message and i shared it with you last year at our annual meeting. Even if I told you my plan, you wouldn’t believe it.

Isn’t that true in our lives..lol God says I will never leave you nor forsake you.. but we fear. God says in my presence is peace and joy… but we seem to go find turmoil and let our circumstances lead us into unhappiness. But then God amuses Habakkuk and tells him a part of the plan… and guess what. Habakkuk didn’t like that plan and didn’t believe him. God says guess what…

I'm going to send in the Babylonians in to ransack you. To defeat you… to tear you down and to take some of you away. Habakkuk answers….Where’s the justice in that Oh Lord? You mean your going to send in an army who is more corrupt than we are to teach us a lesson? Yup! Now I want to say this before you start thinking bad about Habbakkuk. We do have a tendency to look down on top Gods anointed and be like…

tisk tisk tisk… but no He’s not believing in God’s plan because he hasn’t lost his faith in God… no.. he stays faithful to God. But just like you and me we sometimes have a hard time understanding why God does things. I’ve said before… Vernon McGee a radio preacher and amazing teacher once said it…. “This is God’s universe, and God does things his way. You may have a better way, but you don’t have a universe.” Right?

I have a lot of ideas on how I would run this world. I think pizza should taste good and help us lose weight. I think lounging at home eating Cheeto’s, eating ice cream and watching Netflix should produce rippling six pack abs. But that’s not how it works. I don’t have a universe. God does, and we live in it and he does whatever he wants, he does it his way.

Because it’s his. So what does Habakkuk do? He does something very important to understand God’s way and God’s direction. He climbs on to the watchtower and he places himself in a place of prayer. He says, I will wait to see what the Lord says. Why would he do that? He does that because he understood that even though God gave him a natural answer.., im going to bring in the Babylonians to correct them.

But also because There was still a Spiritual side to it. Right? We got to understand that prayer is not a part of the natural life. If we go into prayer trying to pray for natural things we find out real quick that those prayers don’t get answered very often. that’s because prayer is spiritual and it’s relational. There is a difference in the Old Testament and the New Testament when it comes to prayer.

IN the Old Testament prayer is based on the character of God. We find in Habbakkuk chapter 3 where he appeals to gods great mercies. But in the New Testament prayer is based on a relationship with God through Jesus. Jesus says, pray like this.. our farther. It’s relational. Jesus teaches us that in John 4 that God is Spirit and his worshippers must worship in spiritual and truth. Jesus didn’t say you must worship in natural things.

If we did worship in natural things then our prayers will be self focused. Lord, I pray for that situation to move. Intentional prayer is the interruption of person ambition. It interrupts our daily life. Our daily life that takes our minds and our hearts off of the things of this world and it redirects us back into the spiritual realm to focus only on Jesus. I worry when I hear people say I don’t like to pray.

Im like why? Why not?? Do you even pray? Let’s be honest… I’ve lived that life where i wanted to pray but I didn’t. I know you have the desire but it just doesn’t happen. I know. I know because I also know the culprit. Pride. Pride tells God I got this. I don’t need you and when i do need you, I’ll come asking. You want God purpose in your life don’t you…

yes… You want God’s presence in your life don’t you? Yes…Well then how do you think we receive those things? By showing up to church once in a while? By praying when you’ve met the end of your earthly provision and your in a no win Situation? By hurting others and not reconciling relationships? By not trusting in God’s plan? Church, Prayer is what developers the life of God in us.

It develops his character in us. The mind of Christ… it comes through prayer. Prayer is what develops the relationship within us. That is why prayer is important in your life. You want to change the world for Christ… then pray! Why would we do that? Because listen. Prayer doesn’t change the world by changing the natural things around us. That’s not what prayer is for. God didn’t give you prayer to move mountains.

That’s not what its designed to do. Prayer changes the world because it changes us. It transforms us. You want to move mountains? What does the Bible say we need to have to move mountains… it says we need to have faith. What do we believe at twin Hills… not just any kind of faith but living faith. Faith in action. Not dead faith but faith that is alive. But what does Jesus say..he says…

Faith as small as a mustard seed moves mountains. Right? This is what I’ve learned in my Christian life. It takes faith to move mountains but before those mountains in your life can be moved, it takes prayer to learn what mountains need to be moved in the first place. Many times we try to move mountains that aren’t even our mountains to move. (Story from David. Sometimes we need to learn to just go around them.

) Jesus said: For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. Jesus said, Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). that’s relationship Jesus said my sheep hear my voice. That’s intimacy. You’re yearning to hear the voice of the one you love. Jesus came to alter us. Because the biggest mountain in your life isn’t that circumstance that seems as high as a mountain....

it isn’t that tough situation that your facing… no, the biggest mountain in your life is you. Trust me, the biggest hurdle isn’t the world, the biggest hurdle isn’t the circumstance or the problem. No… the biggest hurdle in a life of prayer and faith is your limited relationship with Jesus through prayer. You don’t have faith in God’s provision because there’s no prayer life in you. He came to alter us, not alter our situations.

Prayer is not altering things externally, but working wonders within our minds and our character. Prayer is the means where God and us build relationship and when we are in a relationship we learn to see things from other perspectives. When we pray, we see situations differently. We see things from a spiritual perspective. When we pray, circumstances remain the same but we are altered. And since we are altered we move forward by faith and in that process we change the world.

You wan tot make a difference in this world for Christ… get on the tower with God and pray and wait for his vision and direction. Isn’t that the biggest problem with pride? Pride says no, you change for me. Pride says, I have an expectation and so you must meet that expectation and you must change for me. pride says, I will do it my way. Love says: Christ now lives in me..

so I am altered, I am changed. I am different from who i once was and made new into who I am today because of the relationship with Christ through prayer. The same thing happens when we fall in love with someone. We always hear, dont change who you are but we do change. Why? Because we’re in love with them. In my relationship with my wife and my kids I’ve learned this.

I never knew how selfish i was until I got married. I had to learn to change from me to we. I had to change my perspective on how to share because I had a responsibility to care for my wife. But also, i never knew how angry i was until I had kids. man.. kids do some of the weirdest and stupidest things… but they don’t know any better.. They’ve never experienced what I’ve experienced.

And I'm living in the present and my kids are teaching me to kinder and softer. They might not realize it… but by the time grandkids come along they will notice a difference in us. You ever wonder how your parents can whip the tar out of you for being stupid in your youth but when you kids come over to your parents house their eating ice a cream and cookies for breakfast…

because their changed. I mean come one… what happened? My kids think I'm a liar… what do you mean grandma used to make you go out and pick your own switches to get a butt whipped. I don’t see it… grandma lets us pick out what flavor ice cream for breakfast. God help her… I tell my kids all the time that’s not the woman i knew growing up…. That’s just an old lady trying to get into heaven.

Our prayer life leads us into change and transformation. We lay down our pride so that our relationship with God can grow. Our circumstances and the conditions in our natural life stay the same, but we begin to be different, we begin to see things differently. Your heart now beats for Christ. And if we have been born of Christ and Christ is formed in us, instantly we begin to see things differently.

2nd Corinthians reminds us of this. If anyone is in Christ, he is what? …….. a new creation. Habakkuk says, I will wait.. he doesn’t like what the lords says, but he climbs the power and says, i will wait to hear the lords voice. I will put myself in this place of prayer, and i will wait for the Lord. I think we all need to learn to watch and wait at the right place where the Lord puts us.

We are watching for God’s answers and were waiting. If your discouraged right now.. I want you to know its ok…. Habakkuk was discouraged to. But his faith led him back to prayer. And it’s there where we learn to wait to see what the Lord commands of us. A lot of heartache can be prevented in our life when we learn to get in the tower with God. learn to watch and wait.

A lot of times your standing at your window and all you see is fog. But if you wait, and wait patiently and prayerfully, God will part the fog long enough for you to catch a glimpse of the vision ahead. And when you see what good he has for you in the future… then enduring the circumstance we’re in doesn’t seem so bad…. And when we climb back down of the tower…

we can through faith walk in any situation because out of prayer, we carry the light of the Christ into a dark world. How? Because he tells us so… Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to guide My feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 37:23-24: “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” Both of those things are true because of prayer and relationship.

What will 2022 look like for you? Have you climbed the tower and waited on the Lord? Have you seen the good ahead even though we might walk through a hard year? *