Share the Hope

“Things into which angels long to look.” — 1 Peter 1:12

We say it every week in one way or another. We are a community led by the Holy Spirit that loves God, loves people, and proclaims new life in Christ. That’s our rhythm. That’s what we do.

And our horizon — the thing we’re walking toward — is to bring the gospel to every heart, every neighborhood, every generation, one relationship at a time.

I believe that. I have given my life to that. And most Sundays I stand up here and talk about what that looks like — how we love, how we serve, how we share the gospel with the people God has put in front of us.

But this morning I want to stop and ask a question that I don’t think we ask often enough.

And it’s a strange question. It’s not about us. It’s not about our neighbors or our kids or the people we’re trying to reach.

It’s about angels. If you have a Bible, turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 1. I want to read you a few verses, starting at verse 8. Peter says this:

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Now drop to verse 10: Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

Things into which angels long to look. Things into which angels long to look. I want you to sit with that for a moment. Don’t move past it.

What Peter just said is extraordinary. He said that the salvation you received — not someone else’s salvation, yours, sitting right here in this gym this morning — is something that angels are craning their necks to peer into.

The word means to stoop down, to bend over and look into something, like you would lean over the edge of a well to see what’s at the bottom.

And that image goes all the way back to the beginning of Israel’s worship. When God told Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant, He placed two cherubim on top of the mercy seat — and their faces were bent downward.

Not looking outward. Not looking up. Looking down, toward the place where blood would be sprinkled for the sins of the people.

Angels, permanently fixed in a posture of gazing at mercy. And now Peter says the angels are still leaning in. The shadow became flesh. Christ shed His own blood. And the angels are still stooping down to look.

Angels do that. They do that when they look at you.

And did you catch what Peter said just before that?

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

The angels see God. They have always seen Him. They see the face of God and they worship and they have never had to trust, because trust is what you do when you can’t see.

But you — you have never seen His face. Not once. You have never heard His voice with your ears. You have never touched Him.

And you love Him. You love someone you have never seen, and your love is so real that it produces joy you can’t even put into words.

The angels see and worship. You believe without seeing and love anyway. And something about that is so foreign to their experience that they can’t stop looking. So here is the question I want to walk through with you this morning.

What are the angels looking at? II THE EXCHANGE Not Me, Never Me So what is it about my life that angels are astonished with?

I think about that. I think about my life — what I’ve accomplished, what I’ve pursued, what I’ve tried to build on my own.

I think about the things I’m proud of and the things I don’t talk about. I think about who I am when nobody is watching and who I pretend to be when everyone is.

And I cannot find the thing that would make an angel stop gazing at the throne of Almighty God and look at me.

And then the Bible tells me why.

Romans 1 says we are creatures after our own glory. Paul says that humanity — not some distant pagan civilization, but us, all of us — exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images.

We had the glory. It was right there. The most beautiful, the most weighty, the most satisfying reality in existence, and we looked at it and said, “No thank you. I’d rather have something else.”

And this is not just something we read about in the Bible where Adam and Eve made a wrong choice and now all their descendants choose sin. We inherit it. It’s originally ours. We own it, we live in it.

David said it this way in Psalm 51:

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. And Paul said it in Ephesians 2:

We were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

By nature. Not by accident. Not by bad luck.

John Wesley said that the human heart after the fall is bent inward on itself. We were made to look outward toward God in worship, but instead we curve back toward ourselves. We choose ourselves first, defend ourselves first, justify ourselves first.

That is the shape of sin. It is not just what we do. It is what we are.

And do you know what we traded the glory for? Paul says images resembling mortal man. We traded the glory of God for ourselves. That’s the exchange. I didn’t trade God for some obvious evil. I traded God for me.

And every day I’m tempted, and sometimes the natural in me takes over. It looks like waking up in the morning and the first thing I reach for is not God — it’s my phone.

And I tell myself I’m checking the time. But I’m not checking the time. I’m checking to see if anyone needs me, if anyone noticed me, if anything happened in the world that I need to have an opinion about.

Before my feet hit the floor, I have already made myself the center of the story. It looks like rehearsing a conversation in my head — one that hasn’t happened yet, or one that happened yesterday — and in every version, I come out looking right. I rearrange the words until I win. My mind defaults to a story where I am the hero and the other person just didn’t understand.

It looks like sitting in the car in the driveway after a long day. The engine is off. The house is right there.

And you don’t go in.

Because inside that house there are people who need things from you. Your wife needs you to be present. Your kids need you to be engaged. And you have nothing left.

So you sit in the car and scroll your phone for ten more minutes because at least out here, nobody is asking you for anything. At least out here, the algorithms know you and know what you desire, and they are designed to feed you — although you never realize that they’re actually consuming you.

It looks like snapping at your kids and then feeling guilty.

But the guilt isn’t really about them. If you’re honest — and this is hard to be honest about — the guilt is about your image of yourself. You’re not grieved that you hurt them. You’re grieved that you’re not the parent you thought you were.

The idol cracked and you saw what was behind it and you didn’t like what you saw.

So you apologize, not to restore them, but to restore the image. To get the idol back on its pedestal. That is the exchange. Every day. Not Adam’s exchange. Mine. That is not something an angel would bend down to look at. Angels have watched human beings choose themselves over God since the garden. It is the oldest and most boring story in the universe — a creature choosing itself over its Creator.

So if the angels are not looking at me, then what are they looking at? III WHAT THE ANGELS HAVE NEVER TASTED Maybe it’s not me. Maybe it’s something happening in me.

What does mercy really look like? Not out here — not as a concept, not as a word we sing about. What does mercy look like when it lands on a heart that was made to receive it?

Because the angels have never known.

They stand in the presence of God. They see His face. They sing Holy, Holy, Holy and they mean it with everything they are.

But they have never once said, “Forgive me.” They have never once heard, “You are mine.” They have never once felt the arms of the Father close around them after they wandered away, because they never wandered.

Mercy is something they can only watch.

But you — you know what mercy feels like from the inside.

You know what it’s like to be the one who was wrong — not theoretically wrong, not doctrinally wrong, but wrong in the way that costs you something.

Wrong in the way where you looked at someone you love and saw the damage you caused in their eyes.

Wrong in the way where you sat on the edge of the bed at two in the morning and couldn’t sleep because you finally saw yourself clearly and you didn’t like what was there.

You know what it’s like to carry that. The weight of it. The way it sits in your stomach. The way you avoid eye contact with God the same way you avoid eye contact with someone you’ve hurt. You don’t stop believing He exists. You just stop looking at Him. And then mercy comes.

And it doesn’t come the way you expected.

You expected conditions. You expected a lecture. You expected God to say, “We need to talk about what you did.” Because that’s what every human relationship has trained you to expect — that forgiveness has a cost, and the cost is your dignity.

Peter knew that feeling.

Peter was the one who looked Jesus in the face and said, “I will never deny you. Even if everyone else falls away, I won’t.”

And then the worst night of his life happened. Three times someone asked if he knew Jesus. Three times he said no. And the rooster crowed, and Luke tells us that Jesus turned and looked at him.

And Peter went out and wept bitterly.

That is a man standing in the wreckage. He didn’t just fail privately. He denied Christ publicly, while Christ was being led to His death. The strongest disciple, the one who swore he’d die before he’d deny — he crumbled in front of a servant girl by a fire.

And after the resurrection, Peter went back to fishing. He went back to his old life. Because what do you do when you’ve failed that completely? You go back to what you were before. You assume you’re disqualified. And Jesus found him there. John 21. Early morning. Peter is on the boat. And Jesus is standing on the shore.

And He doesn’t lecture him. He doesn’t say, “We need to talk about what you did.”

He makes breakfast.

He builds a fire on the beach. And then He asks Peter three times — once for each denial — “Do you love me?”

Not “Are you sorry?” Not “Will you do better?” Not “Can I trust you this time?”

Do you love me?

And Peter, broken, says, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” That is mercy. Not a transaction. Not conditions. Not a lecture followed by probation. Jesus made the man who denied Him breakfast and asked him about love.

That is what mercy looks like when it lands on a heart that expected to be disqualified. And that is what God does with you.

He looks at you — you, the glory-exchanger, the one who sat in the car because you had nothing left — and He doesn’t ask for an apology. He doesn’t demand a plan for how you’ll do better.

He says, “You are mine.”

Not after you cleaned up. Not after you proved yourself. While you were still in it. While the idol was still warm in your hands.

And I need to stop here for a second.

Because I’m not just telling you about this. This is my story. I am the man who sat in the car. I am the man who avoided God’s eyes. I am the man who kept the idol warm in his hands and heard God say, “You are mine,” and I did not deserve a single syllable of it.

And if that doesn’t break you, I don’t know what will.

Because it breaks me. Every time. Not because I’m emotional. Because it’s true.

The God I traded for a mirror looked at me and said, “Come home.”

And He meant it. And He means it right now, for whoever in this room has been avoiding His eyes.

That is what mercy looks like when it lands on a heart made to receive it. And the angels have never felt it. They have never stood in the wreckage of their own choices and heard God say, not “I told you so,” but “come home.”

They can worship it. They cannot taste it. IV THE SPIRIT OFTHESON The Cry the Angels Have Never Cried And now we come to the part that, when I first saw it, I had to put my pen down and just sit there.

Because it’s not only that God forgave us. It’s what He put inside us.

Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

God shone in our hearts.

The same God who spoke light into existence at the beginning of the world spoke light into you. And that light didn’t just illuminate you. It didn’t just show you the truth about God from a distance. It moved in. It took up residence.

The glory of God — the very thing we exchanged for the mirror — came back. And it came back not as something you look at, but as something that lives inside you.

We have this treasure in jars of clay. That’s you. That’s me. We are the clay. And the treasure is inside.

And the treasure is not silent. The glory of God does not move into a human heart and stay quiet. It speaks. It cries out.

Listen to what it says.

Romans 8:15: For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

And Galatians 4:6 says it even more stunningly:

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

God sent the Spirit of His Son into your heart. And that Spirit does something inside of you that you could never do on your own.

It cries out, Abba. Father.

That is not your cry. That is the Son’s cry.

The same intimacy that the Son has with the Father from all eternity — that relationship, that closeness, that voice — is now happening inside of you.

Inside a rebel. Inside someone whose heart was bent inward. The Father put His own Son’s voice inside your chest. But here is what I want you to see, because I think these two verses are telling us something about the whole journey of the Christian life.

In Romans, we cry. In Galatians, the Spirit cries.

And if you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you know the difference between those two cries. You know it in your bones.

You know what your cry sounds like. Your cry has self in it.

Your cry says Abba but it also says, “Am I doing this right?” Your cry says Father but it also says, “Do I mean this enough? Am I sincere enough? Is God hearing me or am I just talking to the ceiling?”

Your cry is real. It’s not fake. But it’s divided. Part of it is reaching for God and part of it is watching yourself reach for God, and those are not the same thing.

So what does the Spirit’s cry sound like? I think we hear it in Gethsemane.

The night before the cross, Jesus falls on His face and prays. And Mark tells us exactly what He said:

Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.

Listen to that prayer.

It is intimate — Abba. It is honest — remove this cup.

There is no performance in that prayer. There is no self- watching. Jesus is not wondering if He sounds sincere enough. He is not checking to see if the disciples are impressed.

He is face down in the dirt, bleeding, and the only thing coming out of Him is the truth of who He is in relationship to the Father.

That is the Spirit’s cry. Intimate. Honest. And it leads somewhere we don’t always want to go.

Not my will but yours.

Not because worship forces us into surrender, but because when you are that close to the Father — that intimate, that honest — surrender is just what happens. It’s not a decision you make. It’s the natural posture of a heart that is actually with God instead of performing for Him. And here is what I think has gone wrong for so many of us.

Do you remember the first time? Do you remember when the dust and grit were rubbed from your eyes and you heard “come” and it was the most real thing you had ever experienced?

The glory was there. Christ was there. And you didn’t have to manufacture anything. You just responded. The cry came out of you and it was genuine and it was the Spirit’s cry moving through you and you didn’t even know the theology of it yet.

You just knew it was real.

And then you spent the rest of your life trying to get back there.

You tried to recreate that moment with your own effort. More service. More prayer. More Sundays. More bracelets and verse walls and worship playlists.

And it didn’t work.

And you got disappointed. And you thought something was wrong with you. Or something was wrong with God. Why doesn’t this feel like it used to? Why am I going through the motions?

And so you worked harder. You served more. You showed up earlier. You stayed later.

And the disappointment deepened. Because the harder you tried to produce the cry, the further you got from the real thing. You were manufacturing praise. Manufacturing devotion. Manufacturing a spiritual life that looked right from the outside but felt hollow from the inside. And that manufactured life — that powerless, relational-less life full of duty and disappointment — that is what happens when your cry replaces the Spirit’s cry.

There is a terrifying moment in Matthew 7 where Jesus looks at people who did things in His name and says, “I never knew you.”

Not I never saw what you did. I never knew you. The doing was there. But the being — the intimacy, the honest cry, the heart that is actually with God — was missing.

This is why what God puts inside you matters more than anything you do for Him.

Because the Spirit’s cry doesn’t come from your effort. It comes from His presence.

When the Spirit of the Son enters a dead heart — a heart that was bent inward, a heart that had exchanged the glory for the mirror — something happens that you cannot produce on your own.

You begin to feel Christ. Not know about Him. Feel Him.

You begin to walk with Him. Not perform for Him. Walk with Him.

You begin to yearn for Him the way you used to yearn for the things you put in His place.

And your cry becomes genuine. Not because you tried harder. But because the Spirit is actually crying through you now.

The gap between Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6 is closing. Your voice and His voice are becoming one voice. Not because you strained to sound like Him. Because He filled you so completely that His cry and your cry are no longer two things. That is what it looks like when the light of Christ doesn’t just open your heart but renews it.

His voice, moving through you, the way breath moves through a flute. The flute doesn’t make the music. The breath does. But the music comes out shaped like the flute.

And wonder comes back. Not as an emotion you chase. Not as a feeling you try to recreate from that first moment years ago. Wonder comes back because you are actually with God again instead of working for Him.

And when you are with Him — genuinely, intimately, honestly — you cannot be bored. You cannot be disappointed. Because He is not disappointing. Only the manufactured version of Him is.

You become an extension of God’s own presence — the glory of heaven, alive inside clay, shining out through the cracks.

And the angels have never cried that cry.

They have called Him God. They have called Him Holy. They have called Him Almighty and Everlasting and Wonderful.

But they have never called Him Father.

That word — Abba — belongs to the Son. And now, by the Spirit, it belongs to you.

That is what the angels are looking at. Not your performance. Not your prayer life. They are looking at jars of clay full of glory. They are looking at rebels calling God Father in a voice that isn’t even theirs. V OPEN THE EYES OF MY HEART

Have you ever watched a child on a swing?

You push them and they scream with delight and the second they slow down they say, “Again! Do it again!” And on the fifteenth time you are exhausted and you think, surely by now they’re done.

But they’re not. Because for a child, the fifteenth time is just as miraculous as the first. They have not yet learned to be bored by what is right in front of them.

We have.

Somewhere along the way, we grew out of wonder. We learned to see the sunrise and not notice it. We learned to hold our spouse’s hand and not feel it. We learned to hear the gospel and nod instead of weep.

But God never did.

God looks at the sun every morning and says, “Do it again.” And it rises. And He is not tired of it. He has made the sun rise ten billion times and He still delights in it.

Because God is strong enough to find wonder in what we have decided is ordinary.

The angels are like that. They have been gazing at mercy since before we existed. They watched the blood hit the mercy seat. They watched the prophets strain to understand. They watched Christ go to the cross. They watched the tomb open.

And they are still leaning in. Still stooping down. Still staring. The wonder has not worn off. Not for them. Not for God.

Only for us.

We are the ones who tasted mercy and let it become familiar. We are the ones who heard the Spirit cry Abba from inside our chest and stopped noticing. We are the ones who stood in the presence of the living God and checked our phones. And I stand here this morning as a man who has done all of that. And I am not going to pretend otherwise.

I have let the most astonishing reality in the universe become background noise in my life. I have traded wonder for duty.

And I am tired of living that way.

So I’m not going to ask you to try harder. I’m not going to give you steps or strategies. I’m going to do the only thing I know how to do when I’ve run out of my own effort.

I’m going to surrender.

I’m going to stop being the subject of the sentence. I’m going to stop performing. I’m going to stop manufacturing a cry that was never meant to come from me.

And I’m going to ask God to do the one thing I cannot do for myself.

Open my eyes. Because that’s what this has always been about.

From the beginning — from the cherubim bending over the mercy seat, from the prophets searching and inquiring, from the Spirit testifying about the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow — it has always been about seeing.

And we have gone blind. Not because the glory left. Because we stopped looking. So this morning, I’m asking God to rub the dust from my eyes one more time.

To let me see what the angels see.

To let me feel what Peter felt on that beach when Jesus didn’t lecture him but loved him.

To let me hear the Spirit cry Abba from inside my chest and actually be undone by it instead of managing it.

I want to see His glory again. Not the manufactured version. The real thing. The mercy of God, alive inside a jar of clay, shining through the cracks.

And I want to be the man who looks at that and says, with everything in him — Do it again, Lord. Do it again. The angels are looking. Not at you. At the mercy of God, alive inside of you, calling out in a voice that isn’t even yours.

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see You. Share the Hope — Week 1 Falcon Community Church of the Nazarene

Baptism

I want to invite you to open your bibles with me to Philippians chapter 1. And when you get to Philippians 1, lets go down to verse 20 together….. There are two words I want us to explore. One is life, and the other is death. Today, we're going to baptize people into the faith, and this is going to carry over until next week as well. So, as we read this verse, I want us to pay close attention to how Paul uses the words life and death. You ready? Lets read God’s word together… 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:20-21) I'm learning to love God. And I believe you are too. The Christian journey is learning to love God, and to love others, and to make him known throughout the world together. That's our calling. Our purpose. But early on in my faith, I recognized that it's not easy. And I need to tell you up front, what I'm about to share with you is personal to me. I'm going to share with you my own struggle. My struggle for joy in the Christian life. My struggle with what it means to live a holy life in the middle of everything else that's going on.

The Universal Desire So, let's begin here. I've always wanted to be happy. I mean, who doesn't, right? I can't not want to be happy any more than I could skip eating for two days and not feel hungry. It's just part of being human. But here's where it got complicated for me. There was this tension warring inside me, and I couldn't figure out how to make sense of it.

The Tension It felt like there were two paths in front of me, and I could only walk down one. Path One: God's Glory On one side, there was God's glory. And what is God’s glory? It’s the beauty of all that God is—His holiness put on display, His goodness made visible, His love and power shining through everything He does. God’s glory is the public showing of His worth. In Isaiah 43:7, God says He created us “for my glory.” That means every breath we take, every step we walk, every word we speak was designed to point back to Him—to show that He is better, greater, more satisfying than anything else in the universe. Stage One: Salvation... For Me My faith began like this: I was made and created for salvation. That's where it started for me. Jesus died for my sins. I needed to be saved. I accepted that. I believed it. And for a while, that was enough. Still, conflict and hardship came, and I made this salvation about me. Jesus saves me, for me to be comfortable... and that, church, is nowhere near what the Bible says…

Stage Two: Worship... For Me Because then, after a while, I came to this deeper conclusion: I was made and created for worship. Not just to be saved, but to worship the one who saved me. To give my life back to God in gratitude and praise. And that's true. That's absolutely true. But I even made that for me... Did I like the worship music? Was it comfortable to me? Was church meeting my needs?

Stage Three: Extending God's Glory But then, as I've grown in Christ, I've learned something even bigger: I was made to extend the glory of God. Not just to receive salvation. Not just to worship in the safety of the sanctuary. But to carry his glory out into the world. To make him known. To live in such a way that people see my life and say, "There's something different here. There's something worth paying attention to." It's what Paul says in verse 20: "Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." My whole life—the way I live, the way I love, even the way I die—is supposed to magnify Jesus. To make him look as glorious as he actually is. And when I realized that... it changed everything. But it also made the tension worse.

Path Two: My Desire for Happiness Because, on the other side, there was this second truth: I wanted to be happy. That was part of what it means for me to be human. I couldn't just turn that off. I had desires, and joys in my life that I would go back to. They fed me. I wanted to feel alive. I wanted satisfaction. I wanted joy that went deeper than just getting through another day. I wanted to wake up in the morning and feel like my life mattered, like it was going somewhere, like there was something worth being excited about. I guess, when I think about it... I wanted purpose. But I wanted that purpose to feed my happiness. And I mea, that can be very selfish of me…. But I couldn't make that desire go away. No matter how hard I tried. No matter how much I told myself I was being selfish or immature or unspiritual—the hunger for happiness, and joy was still there.

The Problem And here's where the problem came in. Somewhere along the way, I picked up this picture of God as this tyrannical parent. Someone who would force me into what he wants, whether I liked it or not. You know—"Put your will on the altar. Die to yourself. Stop wanting what you want and just do what God wants." And honestly? That version of God never felt like something I wanted. It didn't feel like good news. It felt... heavy. Oppressive, even. As if faith was a dog collar meant to control. And I couldn't shake the feeling that wanting joy somehow made me less spiritual. Like if I was doing something good because it brought me joy, then it didn't really count. The God-centeredness of it was compromised. So there I was, caught between these two truths. God's glory demanded everything from me. And my heart desperately wanted to be happy. And I couldn't see how both could be true at the same time. The Breakthrough And over time, what I have recognized was this... The Christian life is a struggle to see and savor Christ as an all-satisfying Savior. That word "struggle" is important. Because it's not automatic. It's not like you wake up one day and suddenly Jesus is more satisfying to you than everything else. A Word to Those Being Baptized For those of you being baptized today, we're going to say you're dead to sin and alive in Christ. And that's true. When you came to faith in Jesus, and the blood of Christ covered you, something real happened. You were made new. The old you—the one enslaved to sin, separated from God—that person died. And you were raised to new life in Christ. But here's what I want you to know: being dead to sin and alive in Christ doesn't mean the struggle is over. It means the struggle has just begun. Because now you have to learn what it means to actually live like someone who's dead to sin. You have to fight to see Christ as more satisfying than the things that used to satisfy you. The approval of others. The comfort of control. The pleasure of getting your own way. Whatever it was that you used to run to for happiness—you now have to wrestle with whether Christ is truly better. And that's the struggle. It's a daily fight to see and savor Jesus. To believe he's enough. To trust that he's better than everything else this world offers. The Breakthrough and The Battle How Everything Changed But then, I came to these two verses, which changed everything for me. Look back at verse 20 with me. Paul says his one all-consuming passion is that Christ would be magnified—honored—in his body, whether by life or by death. And I remember reading that and thinking, "Yes. That's what I want. I want Christ to be seen as magnificent through my life." But I'd never really followed Paul's logic into verse 21. I'd never paid attention to how he connects these ideas. Watch this. As soon as Paul says in verse 20 that Christ can be magnified in his life or his death, he immediately gives us verse 21: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." See the connection? "To live is Christ" corresponds to "by life" in verse 20. And "to die is gain" corresponds to "by death" in verse 20. Paul's showing us how Christ becomes magnificent in both his living and his dying. And here's where everything clicked for me. For so long, I thought pursuing my happiness and pursuing God's glory were two different things. That I had to choose. But Paul shows us something completely different here.

Understanding Death as Gain Let's just focus on the death part for a moment. Collapse verses 20 and 21 together and read it like this: "Christ will be magnified in my body by death... for to me to die is gain." Now when you die, everything's gone. Your spouse is gone. Your kids are gone. That dream retirement you've been planning? Gone. Your hobbies, gone. Sex is gone. All of your pleasures, your body itself—until the resurrection—all of it, gone. Until the resurrection, your body and all of its pleasure are gone. So, what does Paul mean that all this loss can be called gain? He tells us in verses 22 and 23: "If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better." Did you catch that? "Far better." When Paul weighs everything this world has to offer against being with Jesus, he doesn't hesitate. Death is gain. Because Christ is far better than all of it. And here's what finally broke through for me: Paul's not just enduring death out of duty. And he's not just looking for his own happiness. No, he genuinely desires Christ more. And that's what makes Jesus look glorious. Think about it. If I'm desperately holding onto this world, and then death comes and tears it all away from me, what does that say about Christ? It says he's not enough. It says I'd rather have what I'm losing than what I'm gaining. And so this struggle—duty or happiness—had taught me something crucial: If my happiness is found in anything else other than magnifying God, then I'll always be torn. I'll always feel that tension. Because either I'll resent God for taking away what makes me happy, or I'll feel guilty for wanting to be happy instead of just doing my duty. The Human Struggle And I bet that's you too. I mean, I'm human. You're human. And all we've ever known is this life. We live in a fallen world. Unstable. Corrupt. Full of trouble and sorrow. Every single one of us is marked by that fallenness. We carry it with us. We see it in our relationships, in our disappointments, in the way things never quite turn out the way we hoped. And here's what I want: I want to love freely. No reservations. No holding back. No wondering if people will reject my love or if they'll let me down. I want to love fully, without fear. And just as important—I want others to experience that kind of love with joy. But here is the heart of my conflict: The only way I've learned to do that—the only way I've found to love like that—is to finally find my joy in Christ... in Christ alone. Which means this... (lower tone) I must die, each day, and every moment to all other joys in my life, so that Christ can be my gain. I am dead to sin, and now, I am alive in Christ.

The Battle Ahead You see, to those of you being baptized today, there's going to be a battle. And I bet most of you have already felt this battle. But this battle is a battle to see and savor Christ as an all-satisfying Savior. But here's what you need to understand: This isn't a battle to perform. It's not a battle to achieve some spiritual milestone or prove how committed you are. The battle is this: Can you see Jesus clearly enough to find Him more satisfying than everything else? And here's the problem—and I want you to really hear this— (building intensity) The reason that's a battle is because this world keeps offering you broken cisterns. Jeremiah 2:13 says, "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." That's what sin is. Sin isn't just breaking rules. Sin is the choice to drink from empty wells when there's a mountain spring right in front of you. It's choosing the relationship that can't satisfy you over the God who can. It's choosing the approval of people who don't even know your name over the approval of the One who calls you His beloved. It's choosing comfort, or control, or success—things that will one day turn to dust—over Christ. And the only way to win that battle— The only way to keep choosing Christ over those broken cisterns... is to keep seeing Him clearly. To keep tasting Him. To keep experiencing Him as better. This is why you have to die daily. Not because God is cruel. Not because He wants you miserable. But because every single day, something or someone is going to try to take Christ's place in your heart. And if you don't kill it—if you don't put it to death—it will slowly edge Jesus out... until you can't see Him anymore. And I want you to know... this is what you're going to face in your faith.

A Word to Those Being Baptized So with that in mind, before we begin these baptisms, I want to take a moment to speak directly to those of you being baptized. Baptism isn't just a public display. Or some kind of spiritual ritual or tradition. It's a declaration. That's why people celebrate... because at some moment, God's love met your heart, and you gave your life to Christ. And so, you're making a declaration about death. You're saying three things.

First: "I'm Dying So Christ Can Live Through Me" Paul says when you die, everything's gone. Your spouse—gone. Your kids—gone. Your career, your reputation, your hobbies, your body and all its pleasures—until the resurrection, all of it, gone. And yet Paul calls that gain. Why? Because he's already died to finding his satisfaction in those things. He's already loosened his grip. He's already experienced Christ as "far better." So baptism is you saying, "I'm dying today. I'm dying to finding my life in approval. I'm dying to finding my security in control. I'm dying to finding my joy in comfort.” Alb ause, “Christ is better than comfort. Christ is better than control. Christ is better than life itself.” You know what your thing is. The thing you've been holding onto as your source of life. And when you go under that water, you're saying, "I'm letting it go. Not because it's evil, but because Christ is better." But here's what makes this glorious—you're not just dying for the sake of dying. You're dying so Christ can be seen. Paul's whole passion in verse 20 is that "Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death." His death isn't just about him going to heaven. It's about making Jesus look glorious. And how does death make Jesus look glorious? When Paul can look at losing everything and call it gain because getting Christ is worth it. So when you go under that water, you're saying, "My death isn't about me. It's about making Jesus look as magnificent as He actually is." Every time you die to something competing with Christ—every time you choose Him over approval, or comfort, or control—you're magnifying Jesus. You're showing the world, "Look how good Christ must be if I'm willing to let go of this, or that... for Him." That's what makes Christ look magnificent in your death—when you can let go of what everyone else thinks is essential, because you've found something more satisfying. That's the point of baptism. Not just "I believe in Jesus." But "Jesus is so satisfying that I'm willing to die to everything else so people can see how glorious He is.”

Second: "I'm Joining Christ in His Death and Resurrection" Now, here's the foundation that makes all of this possible. Romans 6—listen to this, this is glorious—Romans 6 says, "We were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Oh, do you see what's happening here? When you put your faith in Jesus—at that moment of saving faith—something real happened. Something massive. You were united to Him. Joined to Him. What's true of Him became true of you. So when Jesus died, you died with Him. When He was buried in that tomb, you were buried with Him. And when the Father—in all His glorious power and majesty—raised Jesus from the dead, you were raised with Him too! Raised into a completely new kind of life! Now, faith is what united you to Christ. Faith is the means. But baptism—baptism shows that faith. Baptism says that faith. Baptism dramatizes what happened spiritually when you received Christ. The Wedding Ring It's like a wedding ring. When you say, "With this ring I thee wed," you don't mean the ring makes you married. No! The covenant-making vows make the marriage. The ring shows the covenant. It symbolizes the covenant. It displays the covenant. Let me tell you what I mean. When I lost my wedding ring, I was devastated. Not because the ring was the marriage—my 20 years of marriage to my wife didn't end when I lost that ring. But that ring was my outward sign of the inward union to Alicia. Twenty years of hardships, of loss, love, care, tears, struggles... it was on my hand for all of it. That ring bore witness to something real. Something precious. And losing it felt like I'd lost a visible reminder of everything we'd walked through together. That's what baptism is. It's not what saves you. Faith in Christ is what saves you. But baptism shows that faith. It displays your union with Christ to the world. "I died with Him. I was buried with Him. I rose with Him." Listen, you can't have resurrection without death. You can't have new life without burying the old one. So when you go under that water, you're not creating something new. You're confessing something that already happened. You're acting out what happened spiritually when you put your faith in Christ: Your old self of unbelief and rebellion died, and a new you of faith and submission came into being. You're saying, "Jesus, You died to bring glory to Your Father. You died to deal with my sin. And I died with You. I'm done living for myself. I'm done with my sin. I'm done with everything that competes with God getting the glory He deserves." "You took me down into Your death so You could bring me up into Your life. And that life? It's not about me anymore. It's about making the Father look as glorious as You made Him look.”

Third: "I'm Committing to Fight This Battle Daily" Now here's what you need to understand—and this is crucial: Baptism isn't the end. It's the beginning. Just as Christ was buried and raised, you're being buried and raised in this baptism. When you come up out of that water, you're stepping into the newness of life that's already yours in Christ through faith. But that new life? It's a battle. Every single day, something or someone is going to try to take Christ's place in your heart. The approval of others. The comfort of control. The pleasure of getting your own way. Whatever it was that you used to run to for happiness—you now have to wrestle with whether Christ is truly better. And if you don't kill it—if you don't put it to death—it will slowly edge Jesus out... until you can't see Him anymore. This is why you have to die daily. Not because God is cruel. Not because He wants you miserable. But because the only way to keep choosing Christ over those broken cisterns... is to keep seeing Him clearly. To keep tasting Him. To keep experiencing Him as better. So when you come up out of that water today, you're not saying, "I'm done. I made it." You're saying, "I'm starting. This is day one of dying daily so Christ can live through me. This is day one of the battle to see and savor Jesus as better than everything else." Next week, we'll unpack what that new life actually looks like—what it means when Paul says "to live is Christ." But today? Today is about the death. It's about letting the old you drown. The version of you that lived for your own glory. That chased your own satisfaction. That was building your own little kingdom. That person goes under the water today and doesn't come back up. What comes up is someone new. Someone whose life is Christ. Someone whose glory is God. Someone who's committed to fighting the daily battle to see Jesus as more satisfying than everything else this world offers. The Choice Remember what I said at the beginning—I wanted to love freely, without fear, without holding back. And the only way I found to do that was to die daily to everything else and find my joy in Christ alone. That's what you're choosing today. You're choosing the death that leads to life. You're choosing the loss that leads to gain. You're choosing Christ. To live is Christ. To die is gain. Let's baptize. *

Filter

I want to invite you to open your bibles with me to Matthew chapter nine. We’re going to read our anchor Scripture first, and then, we’ll move on to a few different places in our bibles. But for now, lets anchor ourselves in this moment in Matthew, to see how compassion unfolds with Jesus. So, Matthew chapter 9, and when you’re ready to read the word together, say amen. Verse 35… 35 Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.” Last week, we talked about what it means to stop and see. We saw how Jesus didn’t just glance at the crowd—He really saw them. He noticed their pain, their exhaustion, their hopelessness. And we asked the question, “Do we see people the way Jesus sees them?” We talked about the need to slow down, to lift our eyes from our own schedules, and to see the image of God in the people right in front of us. But seeing is only the beginning. Because the truth is, even when we see people, we don’t always see them clearly. Think about it… our vision is shaped, and sometimes even warped, by the filters we’ve picked up along the way in life. IN today’s world, we see filters everywhere. Snapchat is a favorite among a lot of our younger generation, where you can take a perfectly normal photo of yourself and add a filter—suddenly you’ve got puppy ears, or a cartoon face, or a crown on your head. Here, let me show you a few I found of myself this week. It’s fun to laugh at those because they’re harmless. They change how we look in a picture, but they don’t change who we are. The filters I’m talking about today go deeper than photographs. They’re the ones we pick up through life—our upbringing, our culture, our wounds, our preferences. The danger is that they change how we see people. They can blur the image of God in someone, replacing compassion with judgment, grace with suspicion, and drawing near with pulling away.

What if Jesus looked at people through those kinds of filters? But yet, our anchor text said, When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. That word.. compassion do you remember what it means? It meant that when Jesus saw the people… every single one that was present… he was moved deep within his bowels for them. It’s the idea of being moved in the deepest part of your gut. And I think about that feeling. Like the butterflies on the first time I saw Alicia. I was moved deep within the core of my soul. Or the first time I saw each of our children. There was a deepness within my core, it was like… a mixture of of love, joy, and an almost aching awareness that life would never be the same again. And here’s the question that wrecks me…. what would it look like for us, as a church, to be moved like that toward everyone, even our enemies? Not just the ones we love or who love us back, but those who may never thank us, never agree with us, and might even reject us. Before we go further, I want to pause and teach into this for a moment. In the Beatitudes, which begins in chapter 5, it says, in verse one… Now when Jesus saw the crowds. And as he saw them, he began to teach them. And when you really stop and think about the word crowds, it’s not just a number—it’s a mix. Right… like a bag of skittles. Many different colors and flavors. It’s people from different backgrounds, different languages, different upbringings, different political views, different moral choices. People carrying wounds you can’t see and sins you can’t imagine. People with personalities that would probably rub you raw if you had to stand next to them too long.

And in the middle of this massive crowd, right at the end of His sermon, Jesus leans in and says something that flips their whole understanding upside down. He says in Matthew 5:43 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. What?… like, did you hear what Jesus said? you’ll have enemies. I don’t know about you, but I struggle with that. I like harmony. In my top five leadership strengths, harmony is number 3. I want everyone to be my friend. But the truth is, my personality will rub some people the wrong way. And I’ll be honest, there are people I struggle to be around, too. But Jesus doesn’t sugarcoat it—He says you will have enemies in this world. People who are hostile toward you. People who misunderstand you, misrepresent you, maybe even try to tear you down. So when someone speaks ill of you, or twists your words, or opposes you—don’t be shocked. Be ready… ready to love them in return. But that raises a huge question……… HOW? How do you love someone who’s hostile towa4rds you? How does compassion fit into that category? Listen ot what Dietrich Bonhoeffer says about our eneiomes. , who suffered and was eventually killed in Nazi Germany, wrote in his book The Cost of Discipleship: He said, “This is the supreme command: through the medium of prayer, we go to our enemy, stand by his side, and plead for him to God.” That’s radical! Can you imagine standing next to someone thats not just in disagreement with you, but a person who wants to harm you or is hostile towards you and you come beside of them, and plead for them before God. Right! That is everything against my natural nature. But yet, in the midst of this, we read Jesus’s words, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Think about what is written to Timothy…in 2 Timothy 3:12, Paul tells young Timothy about leadership in the church. He says, … “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” That does not say some may be persecuted. It says all will be persecuted. Everybody. Do you want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus? Identify with him, proclaim him in the world? You will experience hostility in this world. And maybe, that is why we all struggle to be evangelist, or people of Christ with a heart for the lost. We’ve fallen in love with persecuting others rather than being persecuted. In fact, look at what Jesus says in Luke 6:26, “Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” In other words, if everyone only says positive things about you in this fallen world, you’re probably not taking a true stand for Jesus and you’re not in good company. Thats worrisome for me. Because the truth is, I like comfort. I like being liked. But Jesus calls us to something deeper than comfort—He calls us to have this deep rooted compassion for everyone, I-even those who are hard to love. I think of Romans 12:1–2 all the time… , where Paul urges us to be living sacrifices. And then he says this: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Or, as The Message paraphrase puts it: Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. That’s exactly the tension here. Why would we love our enemies? Why would we pray for them? And not just pray from a safe distance—but why are we called to come close, stand beside them, kneel with them in their pain, sit with them in their hardships, and plead for them before God? Here’s Jesus’ answer. and its amazingly beautiful. We love our enemies like this… because we have been loved by God like this. Has it ever occurred to you that every person in this room, either right now, at or at one time was or is an enemy of God? Let’s not forget it, we weren’t always singing songs about Jesus, sitting in church, and talking about His goodness. We were once His enemies. Not neutral. Not “a little lost.” No, we were running from him. Choosing our way over His way. Shaking our fists at the very God who gave us breath. And yet… He loved us, even in and through our rebellion. And still loves us.. even in our little tiny moments of rebellion. This is the gospel that we preach. That we live. that we celebrate every Sunday. The very foundation of our faith. We have been lovingly created by God for relationship with Him, and yet every single one of us turned away. We defied the Holy God of the universe and, in doing so, earned eternal judgment. But God……….oh, those are two of the sweetest words in the Bible…..but God loves His enemies. He loves them so much that He sent His only Son into the messiness off our lives ot show us compassion. Jesus died for every sin, every offense, every act of rebellion. And then, three days later, He walked out of the grave in victory. Which means that anyone—no matter who you are or what you’ve done—if you will trust in this “agape” love, God will wipe away every sin. Gone. Forgotten. You’ll be restored to Him forever. This is Romans 5:8,10: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us… 10, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” And Peter picks up the same thought: “When you do good and you suffer for it, endure… this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you might follow in His steps.” What does that mean??—is tmeansx this… loving those who do not love us back is part of the deal of our faith.

So what does this love actually look like? Let’s work backward through what Jesus says. Sometimes it’s something as simple as a greeting. Verse 47 says, “If you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?” That’s so ordinary it almost feels out of place in a passage about enemies. But it’s not. Jesus means this for all of life. Who will you greet today? Like, I think of church sometime and we take a time to greet, and I wonder, are there people we try to avoid? Or even out in the world, are there people you just try hide from? Are you Only greeting the people who greet you first? Only the ones you like? Only your friends? Jesus says, greet the ones who are at odds with you. This is how we challenge our faith.. can we love those against us? Who annoy us, can we see them in a different way other than enemy, but created in gods image and needing grace just as we need grace? It may not fix the relationship, but it removes the option of snubbing them. Because love can be as small—and as big—as a simple hello. And listen, most reconciliations don’t begin with a long conversation or a deep apology. They begin with that one small step… a simple, genuine, “Hey.”

Other times it’s meeting a simple physical need. Verse 45 says God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Have you ever thought about that every person here needs food and water? Even those who are at odds with you need water and food to live. And we all want life. That’s a part pf our daily life, food, water. And after church naps. In this moment, love isn’t just an idea, its practical. Its a practical effort to meet the needs of those around you. Paul picks this up in Romans 12:20, quoting Proverbs: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” In other words, don’t just feel something toward your enemy—do something for them. Sometimes love looks like groceries showing up at their door. Sometimes it’s paying for the meal of someone who’s hurt you. Sometimes it’s a blanket for someone sleeping outside—even if that someone cursed you last week. Sometimes, its writing a card and saying hi. Thinking of you. Loving your enemy isn’t just a warm feeling in your heart—it’s choosing to step into their need, even when they don’t deserve it, just like God does for you every single day.

Which leads me to the third need. Prayer. Verse 44 says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Prayer is one of the deepest forms of love because you can’t fake it in God’s presence. You have to actually want something good for them if you’re going to pray for them. It might be their salvation. It might be their repentance. It might even be that God stops them in their sin for their own good. But it’s for their good. That’s what Jesus prayed from the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” And Stephen, as the stones were hitting him, prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” This isn’t just doing nice things for an enemy you still secretly hope will fail. This is actually wanting their best, even when they’re not around to see it. And this is us being obedient… did you know that Jesus commands for us to live like this? Remember he say, ”Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

And here’s where it comes back to those filters we talked about at the start. Every one of these things—greeting, meeting needs, praying for enemies—requires seeing people the way Jesus sees them. And that means letting Him take off the filters that blur the image of God that we see in others. Have you ever thought about that? You have filters in real life. We all do. The way you were raised. The culture you grew up in. The hurts you’ve carried. The preferences you’ve built. Those filters shape how you see people—sometimes in ways you don’t even notice. And here’s the thing—if those filters stay on, you’ll never see people the way Jesus does. Compassion for others will always be selective. As we close, and the worship team comes back to lead us in our benediction., I want to share with you some filters I think hinder compassion towards others.

1. The Performance Filter This filter says, “I’ll love you when you’ve earned it. I’ll be kind when you’ve proved yourself worthy of my time.” It’s the scoreboard in your heart, keeping track of who’s pulled their weight, who’s done enough, who’s apologized the right way. The problem? If God used that filter, none of us would be here. Romans 5:8 says, “God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Not after you cleaned yourself up. Not after you got your act together. While you were still in full rebellion against Him, Christ went to the cross for you. If He could take that filter off for you, how can you keep it on for someone else?

The next filter is a sneaky one. It’s the Appearance Filter. We don’t even notice it half the time. It’s the snap judgment you make based on what someone wears, how they talk, what neighborhood they live in, how put-together—or not—they seem. But God warns against this in 1 Samuel 16:7, “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Jesus saw the leper—someone the culture labeled “unclean”—and He touched him. He saw Zacchaeus—a man despised as a traitor—and He invited Himself to his house. He saw the Samaritan woman at the well—a scandal in her community—and He offered her living water. If you only see the outside, you’ll miss the soul God died to save.

The third filter is a church killer. This is why so many churches struggle. Its because they have the The Tribal Filter This is the filter that only lets people in if they’re “like us.” They have to think like you, vote like you, worship like you, raise their kids like you. If they don’t, they’re “the other.” But Galatians 3:28 says, “There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The gospel isn’t tribal—it’s global. Jesus didn’t die to make you more comfortable with your own group; He died to make enemies into family. And let’s be honest—sometimes our “tribe” feels safer because it shields us from being challenged. But the cross tears down those walls. If your love stops at the edge of your group, it’s not the love of Jesus yet.

Ands lastly, 4. The Self-Protection Filter This filter grows out of pain. You’ve been betrayed, lied to, used, hurt. So now you keep your guard up. You keep people at a safe distance. You call it wisdom, but often it’s just fear. And fear kills compassion. 1 John 4:18 says, “Perfect love drives out fear.” Real love takes the risk of being hurt again. Jesus knew Judas would betray Him—and still washed His feet. He knew Peter would deny Him—and still called him “the rock.” He knew you would fail Him—and still went to the cross. The safest place for your heart isn’t behind a wall; it’s in the hands of the One who risked everything to love you.

This… this is how we live out our new vision, church. To bring the gospel to every heart, every neighborhood, and every generation, one relationship at a time.” When those filters come off, you can greet without snubbing. You can meet a need without resentment. You can pray for someone’s good without bitterness. And in that moment, the world doesn’t just see you—they see Christ in you. This is how we love our enemies. This is how we live compassion without filters. And it’s not because they deserve it—it’s because Jesus loved us like this when we were His enemies. So let’s stand together as one body, and let’s declare this out loud—not just as words we say, but as a way we choose to live:

“Jesus, help us love like You. Help us see through Your eyes. Break our filters. Fill us with Your Spirit. And use us to show Your love— to every heart, every neighborhood, and every generation— one relationship at a time. Amen.”

Lets pray. And sing our benediction. *

Grace on Display

So, why is this so important to us? Well, today is a celebration. Baptism is a celebration of grace. We are celebrating that Christ has taken our sin upon Himself, so that, through faith in Him, we can be forgiven of all of our sins, all of our trespasses. Paul said in our Scripture, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” We’ve been buried with Christ!

His baptism is showing us a picture that we are dead to sin because He has conquered sin on our behalf. He died on a cross as our substitute, took our place, died for our sins, and then He rose from the grave as our Savior. Baptism is a celebration of that. Baptism is a celebration of the fact that we have been made right before God because of what Jesus did, not because of what we do.

I like to think of it this way… “baptism is grace on display.” Think of it like this… how can anyone around you know of the Spiritual work that took place in your heart if they do not see the work of that spiritual world being lived out and on display for the world to see? How would you live out grace so that the world can see? In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 17, God instructed Adam and Eve: “From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” The truth about death created a truth about judgement, but it also created the possibility of grace.

In Genesis chapter 3, that possibility became a reality. In verse 6, “The woman saw the tree was good for food; it was a delight to the eyes; it was desirable to make one wise. She took from it and ate and gave to her husband with her, and he ate. The eyes of both of them were opened; they knew they were naked; they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” In their own power, this was their way of covering their shame.

This was their way of covering their guilt and their iniquity. But we see down in verse 21, God had a better way. “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” That’s grace….. Man makes an inadequate attempt to cover his guilt, and God comes, and you witness the first instance of death as God executes an animal, a picture of the lamb of God who would one day come, in order to provide a covering for these two sinners.

And the rest is history as we would witness it through the word of God. The Bible is God’s way of unfolding the story of grace. I dunno about you, but does it not mean anything to know that you’re a part of that story? That your life is a part of the amazing story of grace. And it all ends in amazing fashion…. In revelation 22:17 and 18 it says: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.” So ask the question this morning…

Is my life a continuous celebration of the grace that took place? Why is that important to answer? Well, because Not only is it grace on display and a celebration of grace, but Baptism is also a beautiful tangible illustration of the gospel. I was reading an article one time of this town in Arabia where the Muslim religion was strong… and it began to talk about how one by one, people began having dreams of Christ.

And, so the Lord sent a person to give the gospel to help explain Christ. And before you know it, there was a small band of Christians in a town full of Muslims. In secret…Right… if anyone found out that Jesus was being preached, or found out that you were a Christian, you would be instantly killed. So, in this article they asked the question… well then how do you evangelize the gospel?

And the person said, by how we live. Our life is the gospel on display. By that, they meant. The love, and compassion and care for those who are the least of these. I’m like wow! Can you imagine living here in our own town and not being able to go to church, and if they knew you were a Christian you could be instantly dragged out into the street and stoned. I mean…

we take what we do in American church for granted. The music is good, it’s bad, the sermon is long or short. It’s too hot, it’s too cold. Should I go to church today… or should I stay home. I wonder… what would our life and how we live it for Christ say about the gospel being on display. Our life is the gospel on display… Baptism is a picture of the gospel displayed before all to see.

If you were to look at a picture of my three children, you would probably think those are three really amazing and cute kids. But here’s the truth. Those pictures are not my kids. My kids, are at this moment serving in this church. One is serving downstairs with my wife in pre-school. One is serving in the back with one of our leaders. Why? Cause we taught our kids, that church is a place where you come to worship and you come to serve.

I love Joshua when he said, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. And why would you not want to serve? My life has utterly been transformed and changed by the gospel. I illustrated that change in my baptism, but now, I live out that illustration in my every day life as a servant. In the same way, with baptism. When a brother or sister of ours is baptized, this is not salvation taking place.

It’s a picture; it’s a representation; it’s an illustration of our salvation that has already occurred in their life. The truth is…… salvation has already taken root in their heart. Baptism is a picture for the whole world to see what Christ did in our hearts. Let me ask you… does your heart still show the love and grace Christ shown to you? One of the first ways we actually illustrate what the Holy Spirit does within us, is by showing the world that I am no longer bound to sin, but now, I’m kin to Him…

Baptism is such a beautiful reminder… of the gospel… but it doesn’t end there. We live it out in service to one another. In kindness to one another. In patience with one another. In forgiveness to one another… Didn’t Jesus say, I believe it’s in Matthew… You will know they are of me, by the fruit they produce. For many, the seed of life has never truly been planted. The gospel is just what we’ve always known.

My grandparents were saved, and my parents took me to church… so I must be in.. I must be a christian. I choose Jesus. There’s a lot of people who have chosen to know about Jesus who really do not know him personally… because to know him is to be connected to him…. And when we are connected to him, that life, of grace will be on display for others to see.

Lastly, baptism is a proclamation of the glory of God. It’s a public announcement. Not just to us, but to the church and to the world. What are we proclaiming? We’re proclaiming the Glory of God. Psalm 19 verses 1-2 says: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands…. “ When I pray this Scripture… I add…. “And in my baptism and walk Lord, I proclaim the work of your Spirit in my life.

The fact is… we’re called to be worshippers. We’re designed to be worshipers. And a worshipper is someone who proclaims the goodness of God. And all that God does.. not just here in the church… but even in our homes, in our lives and we proclaim him in our baptism. A.W. Tozer once said: “We are saved to worship God. All that Christ has done in the past and all that He is doing now leads to this one end.” That’s why we’re here today….

We’re here for many of us because God has saved us and we’re here to worship. Worship is from the heart. Heart worship is what God is looking for; those who will worship Him in Spirit and truth (John 4:24) Many of us need to check our hearts. By that I mean, you need to check your motives. The Father knows why you’re here… he knows whether or not your heart is tuned to his grace.

The truth is… you can’t receive grace and not be willing to give it as well. You can’t tell others Jesus is within you but have no grace to give to others. Baptism is a proclamation to the world… I am his… and He lives in me. And what Christ is, I am too. This is the beauty of baptism. Baptism is an essential and joyful declaration to the world that we belong to Jesus.

Let me tell you a story about this wedding ring right here. It wasn’t really that romantic and a bit chaotic. I wanted to ask Alicia to marry me. I knew from the moment I saw her sitting in my dorm room at college this was the one. We would talk for hours on the phone and AIM and MSN video messenger and then one day, three months of continuous phones calls…

I would get the chance to meet her. Love at first sight… well at least for me… I can’t speak for her.. but I’m sure she just looked over at me with those big brown eyes and went… man… he’s such a stud. I at least imagine that. Now it might be where in the world did 17 years go. But Everything in my life changed the week I first met her.

We met in Lock Haven and I remember how nervous I was to kiss her. I mean, I still remember watching her walk upstairs from her room and it was like God’s light was shining on her… she was wearing these open toed heels, blue jeans and this pink top. The closer she got the more nervous I got and of course I’m a guy.. so I was wondering… when do I hold her hand?

How do It do it? When can I kiss her. Finally after she paraded me around her campus to all of her friends, we were alone and it happened… our first kiss. Then that led to a late night run to Dunkin’ Donuts. Magical moments… for kisses and donuts. Because of our first encounter I knew, I just knew we were meant to be together. Every time I was around her my heart would just flutter.

I was in college and every time a girl would flirt with me, I would get this queasy feeling that I was going to be unfaithful to her. And I didn’t want to mess that up. That summer I would propose to her and I couldn’t afford a ring.. so I took a twisty tie and placed it on her finger. And if you think that was romantic… wait for this….

I proposed to her in the most romantic fashion… I proposed to Alicia, in the front seat of the black 2001 Ford Focus, that she had bought me that summer. And as I was dropping her off at college and hoping for that special goodbye kiss, I popped the question. Will you marry me. Like I said, not the most romantic way to propose. But I wanted this love I had for her to go further.

I had planned that summer to take her to a scenic overlook and get down on one knee and make it all special…. But it just didn’t work out that way. Then, in May of 2005, barely a year after we first met, I stood at an altar with her, and I took the vow, with this ring I thee wed. Thankfully she said the same. And we placed rings on each other’s fingers and we publicly declare on that day, before God, family and our friends that we belong to each other.

But listen church. Love was not created on that day. Love was born in our hearts long before we were engaged, and married. Now it was declared very clearly to everyone in such a way that, whenever you see me, you will see this ring on my finger, and you will know that I belong to her, and whenever you see her and see that huge rock, that you can’t miss on her finger, you will know that she belongs to me.

I want you to see, church, listen, I want you to see in a much more beautiful way, the God of this universe, by his grace, has reached down into your heart. He has changed you, he has transformed you, He’s forgiven you and cleansed you from all your sins, delivered you from sin and given you new life with Him. Why would you not want to identify your life with Him through the picture that He has given us in Scripture?

Why would you not want to celebrate His grace… why would you not want to illustrate the gospel for others to see and to come to know Jesus better, and why would you not want to proclaim his glory… Baptism is such a joyful declaration to the world… I belong to him. As our worship leader comes up and prepares our last song.. I want you to think about that.. do I belong to him?

For many of us here we’ve been baptized. God has already reached down into our hearts and placed his seal… his ring… he placed the Holy Spirit into our lives to say… he or she belongs to me. But here’s the question of questions… have you been faithful. Have you shown others the same grace God has shown you? Have you forgiven others as God has forgiven you? Has God received your whole heart in worship today?

I don’t know your heart… but God does… for many of us we’ve gone all week long and for some you may have gone weeks and months being unfaithful. Don’t miss the beauty of today to rededicate your life and to come and be baptized, but also don’t miss the beauty of what the sacrament means. Here in a moment, I am going to ask you to give your heart to Jesus and when you’re ready..

come… and take the elements prepared for you here at this table. You have to come to be a part of what God calls us into… Revelation 22:17 says: The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. The bread represents the body broken for you, and the juice represents the blood spilt for you….

The elements are a reminder of that grace broken and poured out.. and freely given to you.. without cost. God isn’t going to force His grace upon you… you must, with a willing heart, come to receive it. So as our worship leader leads us, come, drink, eat when you’re ready and witness God's grace in your life today and celebrate the illustration of the gospel for the glory of God.

Faith and the Unknown

If you have your Bible, and I hope you do. I’d like for you to join me in opening them up to Acts chapter 2. It’s been one of those weeks. This past week has been tough for me. It's been a week of doubt, of week of questioning, and even moments of frustration. And, I found myself asking God why certain things were happening, and at times, I wondered why He seemed to be silent when the world around me is so loud.

Perhaps some of you can relate to that. It's in these moments of struggle and uncertainty that our faith is tested, and we're confronted with the reality of our limitations. I hate being limited at times… I like the all or nothing mindset. I bet We've all had weeks like that. We've all faced moments of doubt, fear, and questioning. It's a part of our journey of sanctification. And the good news is that we have a God who understands our struggles and walks with us through every step of the way.

Amen? And come to think about it… aren’t you glad God’s presence is with us… Amen? I was thinking this week, life is unpredictable. Life sometimes seems to throws curveballs and lemons our way when we least expect it. Every day, every moment we face challenges, disappointments, and uncertainties that can leave us feeling lost and confused. And In those moments, it's easy to question if God is truly present. I’ve been guilty of times when I wonder if He sees my struggles, if He hears my prayers, or in my case this week, has God heard my groanings, and I sometimes wonder if He cares about my pain.

That was me on Monday… On Monday I was just absolutely defeated. I felt rejected all day. I felt like it was the bottom of the barrel and I felt like I had no support, no friends, I have no one to encourage and be there for me… until…… God’s presence broke through the clouds of my pity party and he rescued me, well from myself. There’s truth in the statement, You’re greatest critic is yourself.

Monday night I went to Abby’s choir concert upset, and I sat there with my arms crossed and then the singing starts, and all of sudden a few songs in, these kids being singing this song called Child of Peace… They sang peace in, I believe 7 different languages and every time they would say the word peace, it was like a hammer hitting the hard shell surrounding my heart. Every time…

peace… hammer… Shalom… hammer, Lay-Pan… Hammer.. Then something amazing happened… in the moment, I stopped focusing on myself, and looked around and realized that I was in place packed with people, and I realized God was there in that room. God’s presence unveiled himself in that auditorium, and he just began to love on this tired, grumpy and wayward heart of mine. Can I just testy that our God is not a distant God!

Amen? God spoke to my heart Monday night and when I got home here’s the word that I wrote down that I believe He wanted me to share with you this morning… Are you ready….??? Is Faith really faith if I’m unwilling to step out into the unknown. Could you say that with me… Do you believe that? Hebrews 11 tells us.. “Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see.” I was having a discussion with Alicia just the other day in our living room, And I siad, Hunny….

Do you remember the song Danger Zone from Top Gun? Kenny loggins sings these words, ( Revvin’ up your engine, Listen to her howlin' roar, Metal under tension, Beggin’ you to touch and go, (Now, listen to this… ) Highway to the Danger Zone, Ride into the Danger Zone ) I was telling Alicia… ya know what… when it comes to faith, if we’re not willing to step out into the unknown, can it really be called faith?

Right… Do you know how different the movie Top Gun would have be if Kenny Loggins would have changed the lyrics, to highway to the comfort zone….. ride into the Comfort zone… ???? I mean, what song ever sings… let’s stay where we are and in the comfort zone?????… Even Elsa from the Disney cartoon sings, “into the unknown”…. And it was meant to brush off, or turn away from the old way of life and to embrace who she really was inside…

To me, that sounds a whole lot like holiness. To turn from the old me, and to embrace and cling to the life giving Spirit that God has put into me…. Which His very presence… Could you Imagine if we lived life solely in our comfort zones. If we were content to stay where we are, never taking risks, never venturing into uncharted territory. Never stepping out into the unknown or trying new things.

What kind of faith would that be? Or how about this… What kind of story would we tell with our lives if we never lived by radical faith that requires us to step out by faith into situations that we have no clue what the outcome would be? Wouldn’t, our lives would be stagnant if we lived the way? In the comfort zone?, wouldn’t we lack enthusiasm? I mean there can be growth in the comfort zone..…

but, the typically the only growth we see most times when we stay put, and we’re unwilling to change or move, is dust and rust. I want to read a verse to you, and then just camp out here for today.. is that ok? Acts 2, and you should already be there, and find with me verse 14. “14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.” There’s so much that has happened before this moment.

The disciples have just experienced the amazing resurrection of Jesus Christ! They've spent, face to face time with Jesus, receiving further instructions and promises of the Holy Spirit to come. And so, they gathered together in the upper room, and they began together, pressing in with prayer and seeking God's face. Days turn into nights, and nights turn into days, and still, they’re waiting. But here's the catch: their waiting isn't passive.

No, this is active waiting! They are expectant, preparing their hearts for the unknown. Here is a life principle we all need to understand… “preparing doesn’t mean standing still”… to prepare… it means to make preparation… You see, waiting is not about inactivity; it's about active preparation. The disciples understood this. They knew that the fulfillment of God's promise required their preparation and participation. So what did they do.. well, we know from just before this moment, they all participated in prayer……they sought the promised Spirit, fervently, seeking His guidance, and His presence.

Their waiting was marked by prayer, by worship, and by aligning their hearts with God's purposes. I love what Oswald Chambers writes, "Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.” Do you understand what Oswald is saying??? Prayer changes me… Not the situation… prayer changes me and then, it prepares me for any situation. You see, church, waiting is not a passive state of existence. It’s not finding the comfort zone, or the easy groove and making “no” attempt at anything new or different.

Prayerful waiting is an opportunity for us to surrender our will, and our desires, and our timelines to Jesus so that he can take our everyday, ordinary life and make it His life, in us and through us. We should be having upper room prayer life experiences everyday… I was at the park on Tuesday and in my moments of my upper room moment with God, he sends this Butterfly and it’s just flying around, in all of it’s grace and beauty.

There’s a message in that butterfly… Spiritually, I believe God sent that butterfly to remind me of my encounter in Israel where God told me to be still, and to be patient….. Where the person I met told be about how a caterpillar undergoes metamorphosis in its cocoon. To us on the outside, it may seem like a stagnant and confining existence. But within that hidden space, a miraculous transformation is taking place.

The caterpillar is being transformed into a beautiful butterfly, destined to soar the skies with grace and beauty. Those outside of our prayer life don’t always see what’s going on in our prayer room. So they dont always know what God is saying to us. But When it comes to receiving godly advice from others, there's at least one telltale sign that sets apart whether they are giving you spiritual counsel or just mere human wisdom – and it is this…

“is there a willingness to wait in the prayer room with you.” Think about the story of Job? Job was a man who faced unimaginable trials and suffering, but he had friends who came to offer their perspective and counsel. They begin to offer explanations for his suffering, after awhile, they began to say it to his own wrongdoing or lack of righteousness. What we read and learn from the book of Job, is that his friends failed to grasp this one profound spiritual truth that I think we all forget……

“Just by being present with others is the most compassionate advice we can give without saying anything.” Just be present with others… When Jobs friends we’re telling Job of all the things he’s done wrong, guess who waited with him? God! God Himself waits with Job, listens to his cries, Hears his questions, and understands his frustrations. That’s compassion. And God doesn’t rush to give an immediate explanation but instead, he invites Job into a deeper understanding of His sovereignty and wisdom.

And what we realize in the book of Job, and in my life at the park… is that God is always there, he’s always with his… and he is always inviting us into a deeper relationship, with him. True godly advice is not a rush to provide answers but a patient journey of empathy and compassion. It's about being present which says without words, "I'm here with you, and we will prayerfully wait together until clarity emerges." That, my friends, is the mark of genuine friendship and godly counsel.

And I had to learn that truth this week myself. God used Abby’s song, child of peace to speak to my heart.. God was saying, I’m with you… I got you… Matthew, just focus on me… not on what others are saying.. not on what you think you should do who are outside of the situation… Matthew, I am here with you and when you focus on me… clarity will emerge…

Paul tells the corinthians.. God is not the author of confusion but of peace and whenever you feel confused, you can be sure that God is not part of it. Paul writes in Romans 12:15 (NIV): "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” You see, Romans 12:15 is Godly Counsel… I am here with you when you cry tears of joy and I am here with you with you cry and mourn…

I'm here with you, and we will prayerfully wait together until clarity emerges." That’s what Peter and the 11 did.. they found clarity on what they had to surrendered to the power of the Holy Spirit, read with me again in verse 14… Peter stood up with the eleven… Peter and the 11 had every reason to be afraid…. But because of prayer and God’s presence they stood together in the peace the Spirit gave to them.…

What’s so significant about this? What’s so significant about waiting, and preparing with others… … well it led them into transformation. Into transformation….. What that means is this… Stepping out by faith into the unknown always leads to change. One main reason why we fear the unknown… Let’s just be honest.. we fear the unknown because deep down, we know, that when we go into the unknown, it will change us.

Without a shadow of a doubt, we know I am going be different when I come to other side… and sometimes, we’re just happy where we are. I believe the familiar is wonderful until the familiar keeps us from what God is trying to unveil in our life…. All Throughout history, whenever someone stepped into the unknown by faith and with faith, something incredible happened. Noah stepped into the unknown and witnessed the unveiling of a world-transforming flood and a rainbow promise.

Abraham stepped into the unknown and experienced the unveiling of a promised land and a lineage as numerous as the stars. Moses stepped into the unknown and witnessed the unveiling of God's mighty power, parting the Red Sea and leading the Israelites to freedom. And let's not forget about the ultimate unveiling. Jesus, the Son of God, stepped into the unknown of Calvary, bearing the weight of our sins, and through His death and resurrection, He not only tore the veil unveiling access to God, but he unveiled the greatest act of love and redemption the world has ever known.

And sometimes, we may not see or realize it at first… it may be shrouded in darkness.. it may be hiding behind something… or it may not be clear to us… But it’s there… hidden and waiting to be unveiled by God….. but it can only be unveiled if we’re willing to trust in God, and walk with God by faith to where he wants to unveil himself to us. When I left for Colorado for my very first plane ride in 2008.

I flew into Denver international airport under the cover of clouds and rain… and I was like… man, what’s so special about this place.. The next morning in my hotel room, I woke up and flung the curtains open and to my surprise… there in all of its glory, as if God had just painted it over night… the Colorado mountains… towering above everything, snow glistening in the sun… and it was amazing…

Every unknown brings about changes, but behind every 'unknown' lies an 'unveiling'! Church, let me remind us of something amazing before I close… faith doesn't require having it all figured out but it does require us to step out of our comfort zone. It's not about creating our own detailed manual or a step-by-step guidebook. Faith is about taking that leap into the unknown, even when you have no clue what you're doing.

Faith is stepping into the unknown of forgiveness, not knowing whether or not the other person will want to reconcile. But yet, when we ask God for forgiveness and others to forgive us, we’re changed. Our faith deepens. Reconciliation happens when they are changed as well, and we can’t force them to change. Faith is stepping out into the unknown of being honest about our sin. And asking God to root around in our hearts, to root out of our hearts anything that is not his Son, Jesus.

Faith is stepping out into the unknown with others because we pray with one another and for one another, and when it comes time to step out and do, we can do so in the Spirit of Christ, together. Peter and the eleven disciples stood up, and in that moment, they had no hymnals, no bulletins, and no established order of service. They didn't have all the answers, but they had something far greater: They had each other ……And more importantly, they had power of the Holy Spirit within them….

Here's the beautiful truth: we are not alone. I’m not alone, you’re not alone. Just as the early disciples had each other and the Holy Spirit, we too have a community of believers and the same Spirit dwelling within us. The power of unity, of standing together in faith, is immeasurable. We don't need to have all the answers or a perfectly planned script on how to do church. What we need is the courage to pray with one another, and then when God wants us to, step out hand in hand, trusting one another and trusting The holy Spirit within us, to lead us through the unknowns.

That's why I'm wearing this sweater, it’s a reminder of the word the Lord gave me this year: "prepare." It's a call to be ready for whatever lies ahead. And in this moment, as we face major changes and the unknowns of ministry, I ask each and every one of you to let go of any fear of the unfamiliar and embrace faith with me. And here’s one final thought I have…

we’re going to get scars when we step out by faith into the unknown together… we will get hurt, and we may get buried… But also remember Jesus, staggering on his broken feet out of the tomb toward the Resurrection, bearing on his body the proud scars of the defeat which is victory, all by faith, he stepped into the unknown of death, and in the end God the father unveiled life to us…

Its Jesus… he’s our life… but we can only have Jesus as our life…. If we’re willing to come to him by faith… We can have as much of Jesus as were willing to receive…. And we can have as much as faith as were willing to trust… You see, the unknown might not be known by us… but you can know, the one who has already been there… and done that…because.…

He’s the way maker.. and the miracle worker, the promise keeper… Jesus is the light in the darkness… That is who He is…. Let’s pray… *

Three Wounds of Faith - Contrite

Before Martin Luther’s infamous moment in church history when he nailed the 95 thesis to the door of a Catholic Church that began the Protestant reformation. There’s lived a lady 200 years before Martin Luther by the name of Julian of Norwich. Her story is quite interesting. While she’s was praying one day, and of course during this time the Catholic Church had all these stuff you had to do for prayer, and the Lord appeared to her and said, “You don’t have to have all this stuff to pray; All God wants and expects is that You should believe in Him and love Him with all of your heart.” So 200 years before Martin Luther would challenge the church on justification by faith.

400 years before John Wesley her one book would teach on perfect love. Lady Julian would write: If you love God with all of your heart and believe in His son, you will be all right. She realized way before Martin Luther that we are saved by faith not by our works. And One of the things she talked about was how we should love the Lord until that love became like a burning bush, flaming in our hearts.

Another belief that she had was in divine healing. One day she became very sick and she laid on her death bed. She thought this was the end, and people began to gather because they thought she was going to die. So, of course they began to do all the ritual things they did back then. Anointed her with oil, sprinkled water on her and all sorts of things the Catholic Church believes needs to happen on the death bed.

Her feet began to get cold and dead. It moved up from her feet to her waist. She was dying, and at this moment everything from her waist down was dead. So she began to cry out to God, “Lord, Lord, I am only 30 years old. I would hate to die and leave my work. Now, it’s perfectly alright if you want me to die. I’ll die, but think about it a little and see whether it wouldn’t be a good idea if I lived, for i am still young.

I’ve got a long time on earth in the natural course of things, and if I die, I won’t do much good. So, father, just give me some attention.” She continued to die but after her prayer she was dying now from her head down. She writes, “My head began to die and i went blind. There was total darkness, and it began to settle down towards my heart, and i felt myself going.

Just when I was about to breathe my last breath, suddenly and instantaneously i was perfectly well. I know God I did it, and it wasn’t nature, but grace, because it came so suddenly and i was dying and i knew it. Now, obviously i do not claim to know all that God does and I never will. But in my heart I believed that as death began to overtake her legs and brought darkness to her mind, and once death reached her heart.

Her hearts burning affection for Christ was so stoked by the coals of adoration. That if Death was going to take her, it was going to take her with a bright burning heart of affectionate worship towards God. And perhaps, i dunno but i imagine at that last moment, death looked to the throne of grace, yes even death has a master named Jesus and said, Lord, are you sure, there much work to be done for the kingdom.

Lord, you don’t find many Hearts like this. Hearts with a burning desire to grow the kingdom. I don’t know why God spared her. I do not know why God spares some who cry out for mercy and not others. I can only imagine he does what he does because of grace. he knows more than i know… but Her heart was not only burning with affection but that affection was leading her heart to be a faithful servant.

Now, we are not saved by our works.. right? Paul reminds us in Romans 5:1: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.. But as long as Jesus has yet to return. I believe we must realize there is Kingdom work to be done. And for death to reach the heart of this woman and see nothing but a stoked fire of affection, with perfect love for God.

I just want to believe with all of my heart God spared her to further his kingdom. And he did. Again, 200 years before Martin Luther was this woman’s burning heart for justification by faith. 400 years before John Wesley and the Methodist moment was this woman’s affectionate heart of perfection. Yes, we are not perfected totally until we are in heaven, but as Nazarenes from the holiness tradition we do believe on this side of the cross we can be relatively perfected to love God and to love others.

It’s through holiness that, it becomes possible. She lived and preached perfect love before it was something known to the world to pursue and to receive. That my friends, is all a part of the Prevenient Grace God gives throughout the generations of the world. So, why do I share this story. I shared this story because i want to share her prayer.. were in a series called saturated as we look at prayer and her prayer had a tender affect on my heart.

She prayed, “I want thee to wound me with the wound of contrition, and then i want thee to wound me with the wound of compassion, and then I want thee to wound me with the wound of very longing after God.” And God did. She lived a very long life, and people came from the north to the south and the east to the west and they found a lady of compassion and a woman pursuing and longing for God.

Three wounds.. Three faithful wounds. Our Scripture today reminds us that faithful are the wounds of a friend. It’s a weird thing to see what wounds do to a person. when we are wounded our perception changes. Soldier’s on the battlefield in WWII would have great self confidence and a youthful zeal for country. And then they head out into harms way to only have a small piece of shrapnel mortally wound them.

You’d read and hear the stories from the medics, doctors and nurses who would work on a 200 lb man who was strong and tall and as the medics worked on those men, as they cried out and they would often revert back to their childhood and talk of how their peaceful tender loving mothers would care for them. A once carnal, self confident man is now laying on their death bed with all the fight gone out of them.

The Bible tells us the same. Abraham was wounded when called by God to take his son that he loved to the hillside altar. As Abraham with love in His heart lifted that knife. God said no! Abraham was changed on that day. He was never the same man again. He was wounded by his friend. He was wounded by the saving of himself. He was loving Isaiah more than God.

That is always the reason why God wounds men, to same them from themselves. Jacob wrestled with God and the angel touched his thigh and he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. Paul was wounded in his sight and with a thorn in his flesh. And let us not forget that as the passion week is almost upon us, that God had sent his son Jesus to be wounded as well.

Romans 8:32 reminds us that; 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Peter who’s pride was wounded when Jesus said to him, you will deny me. He would also hear his Lord say to him, “get behind me Satan.” That same peter would go on to write about his wound in I peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed.” He knows this to be true because John tells us that Jesus has been healed. Faithful Thomas not doubtful Thomas was in the room with the disciples too which Jesus shows up after the resurrection and tells Faithful Thomas.. “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (John 20:27) Church, there is no need for healing if there are no wounds.

And many times we are wounded because God is calling us back to him. All through church history the people of God have been wounded. Until God had cut them, and wounded them to death, and beaten them down and wounded them, made them helpless, and then he did what? He brought them back to life again. I read the words, Faithful are the wounds of a friend… I wonder if that would put new meaning too the hymn, what a friend we have in Jesus.

and what a friend he truly is, who is willing to wound to bring us closer to him. The first wound is the wound lady Julian prayed for was the wound of a contrite heart. It’s a heart that seeks repentance. It’s a heart that cries out, not my will but yours be done. It’s a heart that says Lord, I'm hurt and wounded, and instead of running away, the person runs to and asks God with an open heart and a gaping wound…

“Lord is this your will!” Many of the wounds we experience in life is God pleading for his people to return. that’s true love. And often the love we need most is the love we want least. When we are wounded it feels harsh. It feels unfair. It feels like the world is against us. Before salvation, before the heart is regenerated it must be wounded towards repentance. Before justification one must seek the path of repentance.

We find that path most times through the wounds the Lord gives us. Most times when God wounds, he’s got to, he’s got to wound us to empty us of us. How great is our god that he’s willing to do that. That’s he says in his infinite power, I can do anything I desire but I chose to use you for my purpose. But before I can use you, i must empty you of you and replace it with my son, Jesus.

My son, who was also wounded by me for your transgressions. A contrite heart is a heart that seeks Christ above all things. Its not just a turn from sin, but its pouring our sin out of us through our wounds at the foot of the cross. It’s pouring it out from the heart where we have kept our transgressions against God. It’s running away from the uncleanliness of what defiles our souls that God would reject.

So repentance doesn’t become this change of mind. Listen, church repentance is not that, now you believe in Jesus. Every demon in the world believes in Jesus. They know him. But what makes a christian different from every enemy of God is that they are willing to submit to Jesus. A Christ follower is willing to obey him. Listen, brothers and sisters… We accept nothing, and believe in nothing unless we are willing to do the will of God.

And the enemy of God is not willing to do the will of God. A sinful person is not willing to do the will of God. A prideful; person is not willing to do the will of God. The will of God is pressed upon their hears and its seen as if His will is like gnats dancing around our eyeballs. It’s just a neuicense. To do the will of God, one must be burdened with their sin.

Unless the heart is broken open and wounded and filled with the salve of grace God gives freely through Christ, all his will becomes to us is a neuicense. We swat his presence away with our transgressions and we rather not be bothered with the will of God. We’re too busy with life… how am I to pursue my will and your will to Lord? I can’t be bothered with it.

Well, how does God get me to see that kind of lifestyle? By wounding me and calling me to repent. What I’ve learned in my life… If something bothers me and I still choose to do it, I’m not living a repetnful life. I’ve learned that anxiety in my life isn’t a call to run away and sleep, but a call for prayer. If something bothers me and I chose to do it anyway, am i truly living a repentful life?

What do I mean about that? I think of drinking Alcohol and using tobacco. SO many people will argue that there is nothing wrong with Alcohol and tobacco. The Bible is filled with people who drank wine. Jesus created wine from water. Paul tells Timothy to have some wine for his tummy. Jesus tells us that there is wine at the banquet table. There’s nothing in the Bible that tells us that smoking and chewing snuff is bad either.

I believe there are people in heaven who drank and smoked cigarettes and chewed tobacco. But I also once heard you might go to heaven chewing tobacco, but you’ll need to step into hell to spit. Now, don’t walk out of here saying that Matthew is ok with tobacco and alcohol. that’s not what I am saying. I gave it up because I’ve seen the life of a alcoholic be destroyed, while destroying other lives around them.

I gave up tobacco not because I didn’t like it, but because I loved Christ more. Holiness is a process where we walk forward and we lay down things in this world that capture us and cause us to be addicted to on this side of the heaven, so that we can be captured and enraptured by the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus. I cant be captured by Jesus if every time I get anxiety I run to the bottle.

I cant be captured by Jesus if after a meal I’m urging for a cigarette or some snuff. Well pastor, im not addicted to it… I just use them for recreation. Well, ok, but if that’s true then let me ask… have you not tasted the Lord and saw how good he is? Have you not found joy in Him? Im not saying it’s all wrong, but I’m saying what holds you captive?

I’ve seen pictures of Dietrich Bonhoeffer the famous theologian who was imprisoned during WWII for his faith in Christ and being outspoken about the wrongs of hitler. He’s there in pictures with cigarettes in his hand but he also wrote amazing words of devotion of what it cost to follow Jesus. the famous words to the book called, “the cost of a disciple.” The same book that reminds us that: “It is only because he became like us that we can become like him.” The same book that reads: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” The same book from a man with a cigarette in his hand that reads: Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance..

Grace is costly when Jesus calls us to follow Him. Quitting tobacco and alcohol requires a sacrifice. And it requires a sacrifice to give up those things that can kinder our loyalty to Christ. Church, What have we left on the side of the road to walk freely with Jesus? What are we willing to leave behind so that there is no more carnal pull that drives us back into our old life?

Tobacco? Alcohol? Pursuit of Money? A Comfortable Christ-less life where I gain all the glory on earth to live in comfort but miss the bus to heaven? No! grace cost us something when we go from come and see, to follow me. Jesus said to the disciples of John….Come and see. To Andrew and his friend is the invitation to witness what grace is like, but responding to the words come, follow me is the first costly sacrifice we must make in a life of walking with Jesus.

Come and follow is the first costly grace we walk into because it requires us to examine our lives and lay on the side of the road all the things that hinder our walk with Jesus. A call to repentance is always a call to examine our hearts and ask the question… What am i willing to leave behind? What am I still carrying that I need to let go. If our sin does not bother us and wound us, then we’re trying to dodge the enviable.

And if something bothers me and I still choose to do it, I’m not living a repetnful life. Church, listen. The Lord is looking for a people who are hungry for Him.. who’s willing to be wounded for him and are through with sin, and they feel within them a burning desire to rid themselves of it. God is looking for people who will feel the cold press of the darkness that they are walking in and and turn their face to the warmth of the light.

Where truth is found. And God will wound our hearts so that we can realize we’re walking down a path towards darkness. Have you ever walked into the basement or cellar on a hot summer day and felt the pressing cold and darkness? When I was a young boy we lived on a 500 acre farm, and when I was asked to go get potatoes on a hot summer day. I would walk into our outdoor cellar and instantly be greeted with darkness and the cold musty air that had settled in there.

The cold darkness would feel amazing on those hot summer days. But I also knew as a kid that I wanted to be in the light. Where my family was. Where my dog was. There was nothing in the darkness for me but potatoes. My biggest fear in darkness was the spiders. there all kind of creepy things in the darkness. Man has always been afraid of the darkness. We’re afraid because we cant see.

But yet we find comfort in our darkenss because the closer we get to God, and to his all consuming burning holiness we realize how lowly we truly are. And before long, we find refuge in our darkness. Oh God, I pray that you would wound our hearts so that the darkness in our hearts will let your glory shine light into our lives. Let us feel the warmth of the son.

Wound us Lord, so that we can return to you. And many times, that is what the church needs to realize. Many times we need to have faithful wounds that are from faithful friends so that we can be reminded that the dark cellar is not as amazing as being before the throne of grace. Many times the church becomes potatoes in the dark cellar of life. There is no more prayer, there is no more joy of worship.

There is no more faithful repentance upon the alter of sacrifice. It’s sad that we witness the church become sellers where potatoes are held. Yes I understand that potatoes grow in the the darkness. And sometimes that potatoes must be wounded and cut in half to multiply. But the flower of that potatoes must reach it’s palms up and out of the ground to receive the rays of the son, shinning down upon it.

That is where it gets it strength to grow. Not from the darkenss but from the sun. And I also understand that potatoes only become useful to us when they are tilled from the darkness and brought into the light. The ground must be wounded for the potatoes to be surfaced. And it is then that they are harvested and shared with others. They can be wounded to be used for multiple things.

They are wounded to make Potato salad, French fries, baked potatoes, mash potatoes, Scalloped potatoes. Potatoes are wounded and used to smooth burns, to remove rust and to remove broken lightbulbs. Did you know if your soup was too salty you can cut a few chunks of potatoes and use them to draw the salt out of your soup. When the potato is brought into the light and wounded, it’s used for many different things.

But here is the key… it can only be useful if it surrenders to the full will of one who is using it. There are many of you here today who’s trying to be one thing and you’re purpose is another. There’s many of you here today who’s trying to be French fries when God is calling you to sooth and heal wounds. There’s many of you here today trying to be a potato salad but you’re being called to rescue a salty situation.

There are many of you who are trying to be a baked potato but your being called to be wounded so that you can be rubbed on a rusty situation. There is many of you that at this moment, God is calling you to be wounded and your pride cut in half so that you can be planted to multiply his kingdom. All of those things come from a repetnful heart and a willing soul who is willing to surrender to the full will of God and be brought into the light.

Otherwise, all we will ever be if we refuse to be used, is a bin full of stinky, rotten and dirty potatoes that are thrown out and discarded. The ultimate question this morning is this… are you willing to be wounded and used? Lady Julian prayed, Lord wound me. Wound me with a heart of contrition. And she carried that wound every day. She didn’t care whether or not she was happy or sad.

That’s the power of presence. The power of walking with Jesus and in His presence. When we are totally focused on Christ, this walk becomes a peaceful walk. Living faith is not toil. It’s not hard. Faith is peace when we’re in the presence of the Prince of peace. But when she was reminded of that faithful wound, she would be reminded of His faithfulness. Church, as I close this morning.

I want to give one more final urge. There is a friend who wants to rebuke us to lead us back to him. He wants to lead us into a path of holiness. We have a friend who wants to shoot the arrow of repentance strait through our hearts and give us a wound for him. Do you have the courage to say Lord, would you wound me? Am I running away from you Lord.

Is there an urge in my life that would say, I want you to do this to me? If so, I pray that you ask, just as Lady Julian asked, “Lord, do this without condition.” “Do it Lord at any cost.” Are you able and willing to do that this morning? When we talk about revival, repentance is the key to the door of revival. All great movements began with knees to the floor.

The saints in the upper room prayed and fasted until the Holy Spirit fell. The great revivals of the ages all began with hearts on fire in unity praying, repenting and seeking. Will revival happen in this church, and in our hearts? I cant answer that… only you can. But I wonder…….. if there is anyone here today willing to stand and say, wound me Lord? Here in a moment were going to pray..

but before we do… is there anyone who is willing to stand, at this moment where you are and say, Matthew, I pray God will also give me the wound of a contrite heart. Matthew, I know there is something wrong, and maybe this is it. Maybe i need to repent. I want God to do something more than I have known. I want you to pray for me that ill have the courage to pray for myself to request God to grant me this faithful wound.

Is there anyone here today willing to do that? Is there anyone in this room willing to stand where you are and say I want that kind of Christian life. It means ostracism. To be rejected by society. It means misunderstanding, it means wondering lonely at times. but never far from the presence of God. It means my ways are not HIs ways. It means many times I wont understand why God does something, but I rather walk into it than away from it.

Is there anyone today who’s willing to stand and ask God for that kind of wound before we pray? *

Joy Giver

Let’s open our bibles to Romans chapter 5. When you find Romans five, would you stand with me as we read God’s word together. Romans 5 and we will be in verses 1 through 5. Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. And all of God’s people said together, amen.

You may be seated. Monday I took some of the morning to pray for my dear friend Paul and April. Just a week or two ago a gunman from what I have scarcely been figuring out from words and sifting through news articles and videos, It seems perhaps a man with a jealous rage fired a weapon into the car with my friends 25 year old daughter Faith and her friend inside.

Faith’s life was taken at the scene while her friend still fights for their life in the ICU. I’ve been watching her dads videos on social media as he brings Jesus into every conversation. Just yesterday he took us into her apartment as they packed it up and he reminded us that JEsus still cares for us. Tuesday our family drove to Hughesville for one of Abby’s softball games. In between innings I had picked up my phone to check Facebook and then saw that there was a shooting at a Texas elementary school.

I went to a news page to read what was going on, and my heart sank as I watched in horror with all of the world the tragic death of innocent children and their teachers. I watched as they would say, 5 to 10 to 19 to 21 people lost their life that day. What really punched me in the gut was when I was watching the early videos. It would show desperate mothers running down the street towards the school.

Tears began to well up and all I could think of in that moment was how scary and horrific it must be to know that you child is in danger and to not know whether or not they are going to make it out of that danger. How scary it is to know you’re not with them in a moment of need. One of my biggest fears as a father is that one of my kids would need me and I wouldn’t be able to be there to help them.

Wednesday, i took our kids to school and as I returned home. I was greeted with my wife bringing out our daughters chrome book. As i began to back out of our drive way there was a white car that pulled in behind me. A lady rushes out with tears flowing. She was desperate. She had no where to go and could only think to come to our little church where she knew there was a praying pastor.

She came up to my car and began to tell me how her mom had fell and how she had surgery on her leg and Hip but there is something wrong, She’s not acting like herself and it seems she had symptoms of a stroke. So, i got out of my car, came around to where she was, and I prayed with her in our parking lot. I let her know to give me some time, I needed to change into something more appropriate and I would go to the hospital to pray for her mom as well.

I showed up at the hospital and as I was walking towards the main entrance, I hear my name being called by someone at the ambulance entrance. As i walked to the right there was a couple walking by and the guy said hi, as if he knew me. I said hi and continued on to the ambulance to talk to a friend of mine who is a firefighter.

I turn to walk back to the front entrance of Williamsport hospital and there standing was the couple that I had passed and said hi too. As I was signing in to go visit my friends mother, the man that said hi spoke up with trembling in his voice, and he said, my dad had a stroke. Now at this point it didn’t matter whether or not he knew me and if I knew him…

what mattered was.. as someone who aims to bring JEsus to wherever i go, I heard his heart for prayer. I ask for his dads name and room number. And I made my way through the hospital room by room telling people Jesus as sent me, and he wants me to tell you that he sees you. After I left the hospital, I made a quick trip over to see a friend of mine to see how he was doing and to let him know were still praying.

I am sure there’s at least one or two of you hear today who would agree that you too had a tough week as well. To which I want to say too you this morning, you matter… Jesus sees you and he cares. This prayer has been laying heavy on my heart all week……… Lord, We live in a world…. We live in a world that has lost its way… and the church has lost its voice.

We live in a world where unborn babies are dying one week and there are national leaders who seems to be ok with it until, they witness our born children being gunned down the next week. And now those leaders enthusiastically call for reform because innocent lives are being taken. I struggle to understand that. We live in a world that has lost it’s foundation in Christ alone by faith alone.

We live in a dark world, and in dark times. We hear the cry from those in the pews of how God needs to be reestablished into schools. But how can God be reestablished in the schools if he isn’t the head of the church and the home? Everyone wants the power of the Spirit and the inheritance the Spirit gives but no one wants to heed to the calling the Spirit places on our lives anymore.

Change doesn’t happen if the church isn’t changed and transformed by the very presence of God with in them. No one hears a voice unless it speaks up and lives up to what they are speaking. The voice of the church can’t be heard today, because the world has the church so afraid to pray in public that it’s afraid to even show up to church and to pray at the alter.

I’ve seen more life at a pot luck than at prayer meeting. And worst yet, the world has the church so afraid of prayer that it’s lost it in the homes of the people as well. We pray for blessing.. no doubt. But when was the last time you just laid in bed and before you gently fell asleep, just prayed,. Lord, I’m just desperate for you? I’m so ashamed to say that were more surrendered to God when we sleep than we are awake and aware.

IM ashamed to say, that the dead bodies in the cemetery show more life than the church of today does. Because At least they show up and are accounted for. At least every Sunday those in the cemetery are present and ready. The greatest danger in our churches today is that it’s filled with dead bodies that think their alive. It’s filled with powerless christians that live with no hope and have no time for God.

But the church isn’t a cemetery is it? It can’t be. God’s people are to grow. There aught to be life burning within the church. We aught to be showing up to the church with heart aglow and fanned into flame a deep rich adoration for God. That’s my prayer this week… We live in a world.. that is lost and the church has lost its voice. Now, you’re probably wondering what does that have to do with our Scripture this morning…

I’m praying for God’s love to be poured out into His people and we find hope for the future of this church and the future of this community. God has given us a new start. We have a fresh start. He has given us a vision. He has given us direction. He has called people into leadership and we have $160,000 dollars + or - available to us for the work he’s calling us into.

The only thing we’re missing is hope filled Christians with a burning desire to share the gospel with compassion. That’s it! I’m praying for A loved filled hope and the only way we find this love filled hope is by us having a love for God because God’s Spirit is pouring his love into us. Did you catch the ending of verse 5? The father has given to us, the Holy Spirit who fills our hearts with His love.

not my love. My love is dung compared to God’s love. The only true love that I can give to my wife, is love that comes from God to me. Men, if you want to truly love your wife. Love her with the love of God. Not your own. Wemon, if you wan to exp[reince that love fro your husband then be a wife that encourages him to be a man filled with the SPirit.

this hope Paul talks about.. the hope of faith. The hope of being regenerated and justified and adopted. This hope that we have because the Holy Spirit has now taken up residence within us. This hope we have that is in our most troubling moments and trials we can have unshakable faith in Christ, and not only that. That our foundation in Christ is so firm and secure, he not only develops within us endurance, but our character changes as well.

That means who you are changes.. you’re being transformed from who you were into who you were called to become and we’re called to become holy which means were being transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit is pouring out the love of God into our hearts and minds, and Souls. Why our hearts? Why doesn’t the Holy Spirit pour his love into our minds. Right? When someone says Matthew, how can I pray for you.

I always say two things, Pray I know and stay in God’s presence, and, pray that i have the mind of Christ. Praying for presence and a staying in presence is really to pray that I stay within the will of God. Like Moses I do not want to make any decisions without God’s presence moving me in that direction. And yes, God will move us to make some tough decisions that others will disagree with.

Especially when it comes to living a life of purity. praying for the mind of Christ is so that my mind is aware of His presence. But, my mind isn’t as strong as my heart is for Christ. It’s true. And it’s also true that God will always speak to our heart first. And if you and i do not have the mind of Christ, our mind will always talk our hearts out of what God tells us to do.

Why? Because our hearts is not an organ of performance, but an organ of preference. If our walk with God was about performance then we would never have any issue finding people to serve in the church. Right? If God’s glory and presence fell to this place at this time and said, Hey. I’ve changed my mind. Live by works and not by faith. Every Sunday school class would have lists of people wanting to teach and serve in the church.

But why our heart and not our minds Even JEsus when asked by the scribe what’s the greatest commandment, what did Jesus say and put first? To love the Lord your God with all of your what? Your heart. Heart is what he uses first. IN Deuteronomy chapter 6, the Jewish shema where Jesus got the greatest commandment from. What does the shema put first? It says, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart.

Then soul, then might. God speaks and pours his love into our heart because there is where our desire is. Our heart isn’t about performance. It’s about preference. The heart prefers, and then we do stuff in accordance to what our preferences are. The first commandment is loving God with all of our preference. We prefer Jesus over any other thing in this world. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, that was what was broken when they sinned.

They preferred the fruit and they let that preference move them into the act of sinning against God. It’s the same with us. Before Christ we preferred our darkness. and even in Christ we fight this pull towards our old life, that craves darkness. Remember, regeneration, being born again is our old self bound, but sanctification is our old self thrown out. Regeneration is sanctification begun, but sanctification is the work complete.

When we are made holy in this life through the Holy Spirt and sanctified, when the darkness pulls, it’s no longer like trying to walk up stream through raging rapids that’s trying to pull us back down, but holiness is like wading through a mud puddle. Right now in your life you struggle because your preference isn’t all in with Christ. And so, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives through the new birth and we begin to prefer Christ.

We prefer Him but as we grow we also begin to delight in him too. Think about it, we don’t delight in things we do not love. I’ve never seen my wife delight in house chores and laundry. I’ve never delighted in washing the dishes or. I’ve never seen someone delight in being chained to prison walls either. But I do witness delight in my wife when she watches our kids grow.

She delights in the company of our pets, and she delights in knowing she has a that trophy husband. She delights in these things because she loves us. And so, since GOd is pouring out His love into her heart, and my heart and into your heart there should be joy in our hearts for God and for others. We receive our joy from God’s presence in our lives. What we realize All through the Scripture is that we see joy played out and developed…

IN the Old Testament joy is mainly attached to the actions of GOd. God is our protector… He is our provider.. healer.,. Savior. These are the actions. It’s good because it’s important today as it was for those who lived in that period of time. Now, in this day and age, we live with the fact that a savior is born, crucified, buried, resurrected and ascended. We live in an age where we have the promised Holy SPirit pouring God’s love into our lives.

And so, abundant love is provided and fills our hearts and joy is deepened, even greater than those of faith before Christ. And here is the thing, when it comes to joy, for todays world, it’s not solely attached to what God does for us… but more more than who he is to us… You see where I am going with this.. IM trying to help us understand that joy comes from who Jesus is to us, and how we delight in him.

And our joy comes from this beautiful delightful relationship we have with him through the Holy Spirit. Some of you have been placed in situations where God can do great things with you…. I think we’re seeing this already.

Some of you have stepped out by faith to join the church, and some of you have stepped out by faith to lead in the church. I cant wait to see what fruit that produces to advance the gospel here at Twin HIlls because of your willingness to serve. Last year I was so proud of all of you who poured your hearts into those 12 kids for VBS. Sometimes we can just sit in our bitterness and what we would call a bad circumstance and gripe about it all…

that doesn’t bring joy. I’ve been there.. I’ve been that guy who’s said, why didn’t they do this, or why didn’t they do that. But at the same time not lifting a finger to actually make myself available to offer any help. It’s so much easier to be a joy killer than a joy giver. And that is what God wants us to be at twin Hills… He wants us to be so filled with His love, and delight only in him that we have joy in all situations.

But how do we become a joy giver and not a joy killer? Well first, live beyond circumstances and people. Living beyond the circumstance and people means we change our attitude. When our attitude is towards gratitude, we’re more prone to be outgoing and overflowing with Joy and presence. Stephen manly our camps evangelist once said, are we willing to turn Jesus’s loose to live his life of love through us?

How can any of us be a joy givers if the Holy SPirit isnt pouring his love into us. And how can the Holy Spirit pour love into us if we never show up in prayer to tap into His presence? Secondly, we’re joy givers when we receive the joy of God presence. There is a reason why we say, presence matters most. Presence matters because we’re reliant on the Holy Spirit.

Remember Moses didn’t want to move without God’s presence. In Europe there is a castle with a throne room that has a painting of Jesus ascending into heaven through clouds above the throne. When one fellow asked why this was, the tour guide simply said, the king who used to live here always wanted to be reminded that when he sat on the throne he didn’t want to forget that he was the little king serving under the king of kings.

Gods presence is more than just a saying, it‘s life. And his presence in our life needs to reminds us that were not individuals who are independent, but we are people who must be reliant. The king of kings might have ascended into heaven, but he still sent the Spirit of our living Lord to remain on earth to reign on the throne of our hearts. Joy givers, are people who radiate God’s living presence because God presence sits on the throne of thier life.

Thirdly, and lastly, we become joy givers because we stay in the life of others. Now, i will confess i have a tendency to act more humanly than holy. What i mean by that is loving the Lord with all of my heart, soul mind and strength is a lot easier than loving my neighbor as myself. I struggle with loving people that doesn’t love me back. I asked God one time to help me with this and he did.

He opened my heart wide open for it… I prayed one day at the school board meeting and it happened to be over 100 people there. It was so full we had to use the auditorium. I stepped up to the podium and I began to talk from my heart. And as I looked over the crowds God hit me in the gut… he said Matthew, do you see all these people here.

I said yes… he said they are a flock in need of a Shepard… are you mine.. I said yes… then care for my people. Jesus reminded me that day of John 10:16, I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd. I prayed my heart out for unity and as soon as I was done every step out up from that podium and to the door, and then to the outside door, towards my car, my heart kept falling, and melting and tears were welling up and as I jumped into my car before any one could see me I was weeping uncontrollably.

That was the day I changed my title from senior/lead pastor to vision pastor. Because Without vision, people perish. If we’re going to be joy givers we’ve got to love those we’re bringing joy to and per the Bible that is everyone, even those who hate us and those who ignore us. So this morning… let me ask you… Is the Holy Spirit filling your heart with His love?

Do you prefer God over a everything else in your life? Do you delight in him. Do you find joy in him? And can you be a joy giver to those around you? If not, perhaps this morning is the morning you need to be the one crying out.. To Jesus? *

There is Living Hope

There is a story this week, as I was preparing the sermon that God reminded me of. Not too long ago, as a first responder I was sharing stories to a good friend of mine on some of the tragedies we’ve experienced on calls. My friend was telling me of one where he was called out to a guy who was unconscious. So, he rushed out there with lights and sirens.

He gets there, runs over to the gentleman, checks for a pulse, no pulse. Checks for breathing, no breathing. And as he is evaluating this lifeless guy, he tells himself. This guy is 100%gone. He looks around and notices some evidence that he had maybe taken some drugs. So he reaches into his medical bag, pulls out some narcan, and he begins to give the unconscious man chest compressions. The thing with Narcan is, that it’s kind of like a miracle drug.

One minute a person can be laying limp on the ground and once Narcan is administered, within minutes the person can be on their feet, talking as if nothing had happened. He administered the drug, and this man instantly came back to life, got up and my friend guided him towards the ambulance. He looked at the person, said “man! Do you realize that you were just gone?, You had no pulse, you weren’t breathing, and if it wasn’t for someone walking by and finding you, you wouldn’t be here right now.” The man looked at my friend, their eyes met and locked and he said something to my friend that he had never forgotten.

The man shrugged his shoulders and said, “So, what?” In that moment, he looked and he realized that this man had no hope. There was nothing in his eyes that said there’s something in the future for him. There was no hope in his eyes of the future, there was no hope of what was to come tomorrow, there was no hope of the next day or what he was going to do with his life, or what God was going to bring him to, or what salvation was waiting for him.

There was no hope inside of him in that moment. I often think of the state of the church. How’s it that when we are resuscitated and brought to new life, we get up, turn away from Christ and give this shrug of indifference towards the grace he has given and continues to give. How is it we can show up to church week after week but yet still feel hopeless about life?

Where’s the joy of our Hope? Where’s the expectation of something greater and better in store? Where’s the willingness to step out by living faith? And so I ask the Lord…. Where is that hope? Where’s the hope that keeps us focusing on Jesus no matter the storm were in? Where is the passion to make a difference in the world, to be captivated by a savior and to search and to reach the lost?

All of these things come down to one answer that has two words… Living Hope. Peter reminds us in our Scripture today: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great and mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” If you are here today, and you're looking for hope. Well, guess what?

It’s available to you. But how? Where does it come from? What’s the foundation of this hope? What is the future of this hope and what present experience can we have now that we have this hope. That’s the three things I want to talk about today when it comes to two words found in our Scripture, Living hope. Foundation, expectation and experience. In the midst of living hope we witness at the very core…

God’s great mercy. Peter says, ”according to his great mercy!” Mercy is where everything starts. Mercy is what makes the difference in everything we feel when we have been rescued from death and torment. When it comes to our walk with God, mercy is on the forefront of our understanding of coming to Jesus. Mercy is co-joined with God's grace. If love was a coin, then grace would be one side and the other would be his mercy.

Mercy is a compassionate love to the weak, and grace is a generous love to the unworthy. So, what is mercy like? Think of it this way. You’re home watching tv when suddenly there is a knock on the door. You open the door to see a kid dressed in their baseball/softball outfit selling candy bars. You answer the door and the kid goes, Hi would you like to buy a candy bar for 2 dollars for our little league team.

You reach into your pocket and pull out two dollars and take an almond chocolate bar. In that moment there was no mercy given. What had happened was a transaction. It was nothing more than a moment of supply and demand. Mercy is when that young kid comes to your door, offers you a 2 dollar candy bar, and you have compassion for the kid and their cause, so you take a candy bar give the kid a 20 and tell him to keep the change.

They don’t deserve the extra 18 dollars, but yet you feel generous. That is God towards us. We’re born again not because there is a sticker price on us and he paid it. We’re not walking around here with our sins hanging from our noses like a used car lot hoping that God has enough credit to purchase us. No, he’s sufficiently able to do so, and willing to do so through abundant mercy.

He went infinitely beyond the sticker price. It’s not him who is deficit, it’s us in our sin that is deficit. All of my hope and being born again are by the underserving kindness of God, which should fill us with this great confidence. I didn’t earn it. It was free. I’m just praying every week that we as a church would get that. It would be an amazedly sweet thing, when we as a church realize that when the church is filled with people who know everything we have is from mercy.

It would changes everything. It changes the way we treat each other. It changes the way we serve together. It changes everything at the board meetings. It changes the way we see ministry and worship services. It changes us because we no longer come to church expecting to be served, or expecting to get away with the bare minimal of our faith. It changes everything in worship services when everybody looks at everybody else saying, “I don’t deserve anything.

I don’t deserve your friendship. I don’t deserve you to be nice to me. I don’t deserve the sweetness of this worship. I don’t deserve a family of believers, I don’t deserve life, and I don’t deserve breath. Everything I have, especially my living hope, is free because of mercy.” Mercy changes everything. It changes because through God’s great mercy, when we are born again we are then united with the resurrected Christ.

When we are born again, it’s through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we are born again, it happens here.. In our heart, in our souls, in our Spirit. When the Holy Spirit invades our life, he comes comes into our life and he causes us to be reborn, we become a new person. A new Spiritual being that the Holy Spirit knits to our Spirit and a new person is coming into being.

What he is doing is, the Spirit is uniting us to Christ. Romans 6:5 reminds us: “If we have been united to him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united to him in a resurrection like his.” That’s the foundational work of the Holy Spirit. It’s not the only work of the Spirit, it’s just part of the foundational work. It’s a miracle. Do you know that? When you and I came alive in Christ that was a miracle.

The Holy Spirit knits and unites with our soul, with our Spirit so that the death of Jesus counts as our death. My debt has been paid. And because of this, because of His great mercy and the Holy Spirit invading our lives, another part of this foundational living hope is this: We are born again. Paul said: “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope.” Everything I just talked about, mercy and knitting of the Holy Spirit is all internal.

It happens within here. We don’t see it, but we experience it. Remember, I’ve mentioned before, we never really believe in something unless we experience it. So, let me ask…What was your experience like? For me, God has through His prevenient grace pursued me since I was a kid. In a home that did not know him. In a home that did not pursue Him, but yet in His infinite mercy and abundant and sufficient grace he pursued me even when I was pursuing other things in my life.

What was your experience like when you were made alive in Christ? Was it amazing? Did it break chains? Did it cause you to weep? Did your life change? Are are you still bound by the things and the sins of your former life? Peter tells us in chapter three: “Always be ready to make a defense, to give an answer to the one who asked you for the reason for the hope that is in you,” What changed?

One minute you were pursuing things of the world, then all of a sudden you’re not! What happened? What’s the difference? One day you weren’t the least interested in the things of God and now there is this huge desire to read the Bible, to pray, to walk in truth and light. What happened? How do you explain it? If someone comes to you right now and says, there’s something different about you.

What’s your reason for hope. How would you answer? It’s hard to answer that kind of question unless there has been something miraculous and amazing that has happen within you. How would you answer the new birth? I’d answer it like this: Christianity all seemed boring and weird, and untrue to me, but then someone shared a story of grace and mercy with me. I heard that I may not have a father in my life, but there was a heavenly father who loves me.

I heard that he was a personal God. I heard that he created the world. I heard that all humans have become sinful and we naturally walk away from Him, but he doesn’t want that for us. And guess what, I have experienced all of this. Im fatherless, I don’t feel loved, I see that some of the things I do are very selfish and not kind, or gentle or good.

Honestly, at this point I am living a wild life that is all about pleasure. I’m living a life of humanism, a life that brings joy to me. A life that says that at the end of the day, the goal is to bring myself happiness and pleasure. So, in God the Father’s great love for me he sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, who died a humiliating death on the cross so that I, a sinful man did not need to die eternally away from Him.

So in three days, he rose from the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit, and he is going to come again one day. He’s gathering people. Together… and he’s uniting them. I’ve heard that story, and something happened. I didn’t see it, there was no shock, or thunderclap, or holy light from the sky shining down on me that I or others could see. But in my heart, deep within my heart I beheld the glory of God, and I felt a presence that I’ve never felt before and I saw with new eyes the beauty of God.

It was as if instead of feeling of falling backwards, something tipped me and now I was slowly falling forward by living faith and a new hope towards the loving arms of Jesus Christ. I am now compelled and I can’t fully explain it. But I pursue it with a burning affection. That’s what it’s like for me when I was born again. And that is the foundation of my living hope.

Mercy, union with Christ through the Spirit and a new birth all wrapped up as a gift of grace and placed within my heart so that every time I begin to turn from Him, I am reminded of a better love and a better life. Now, that’s a foundation to hope in…? What about the expectation to come? Well, living hope is placing our trust in Christ for something better to come.

We live with hope because it’s not just a foundation but also an expectation to come. Paul reminds us this: “You are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” here it is, “to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.” The word inheritance refers and implies to something in the future. Our Inheritance is when we receive something through a birth right.

It’s linked with the word hereditary. It’s handed down and passed on. And Paul reminds that we are born again into the family of God and what’s to come isn’t going to be lost. He said, it’s imperishable, unfading and kept in heaven for you. You and I can’t lose it. Thank the Lord, because if I had to keep hope with with me now, tucked away somewhere in my house, I’d lose it.

I can barley remember where my credit card and car keys are half the time. When I was like 10, my aunt and uncle bought a house from a sale and it still had all of the stuff in there from the previous owner. So, before they could move in, they had to get all of that stuff out of the house to make room for all of their stuff. When we came, they said, Matthew, if you see something you like you can have it.

Otherwise were just going to throw it all out. So I went into the garage and began going through all the cool things this person had accumulated throughout their life and there in the corner was this golf bag. So I bought it out and my aunt and uncle said I could have it. I sat outside playing with it until I decided to unzip one of the pockets and low and behold there was 5 freshly crisp one hundred dollar bills.

Immediately someone saw my amazing gift that I just inherited but before long I had to give my inheritance to someone else. Now, that was unfair. That was my $500 dollars. It’s not like that with our future hope. It’s not given to me and then taken away by the world. How is it that we can walk through fire, and go through the storms of life and have still have unshakable hope?

How is it that we can be ridiculed for our faith, or to endure being criticized by others. Or even put down by others claiming to be christians. It’s because we have a living hope in what’s to come. I treasure Christ more than anything we can have here in this life. Everything I own, everything I have is nothing compared to the treasure I have in Christ that is secured for me in heaven.

What do we have to hope for in this living hope? It’s an inheritance that’ll never let us down, and when he comes and brings us into His glorious presence… there we will experience our greatest gift and reward…. The treasure above all others treasures…God himself. Our greatest reward is Jesus! And the best thing about this reward… is that it’s not only something to come and a inheritance that is before us, but we also get to experience it now!

That’s the third and final thing… Living hope has a foundation, it has an amazing future expectation but we do not need to wait. We get to experience the goodness and awesomeness of this hope now! Real quick here is what we experience today. Faith. Verse 5 says: “Being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Verse 8: “Though you do not now see him, you believe in him.” We walk this life by faith guarded by faith.

You and I do not see him, but we believe in Him. We’re believing. We’re trusting. And were resting in Christ as our living hope. We experience that now. Love. We love Him. Verse 8: “Though you have not seen him, you love him.” Awhile back I taught this one truth. Love is not spacial, it’s relational. We have a tendency to think, “that the smaller the church the better intimacy there is” Intimacy doesn’t come because a church remains small, that’s small thinking and a wrong perspective on love and relationship and it severely hinders church growth and it hinders reaching people for Jesus.

It puts a requirement on growth. Once we reach this number, we need to stop or else we will outgrow our intimacy. no… that’s just wrong thinking… Intimacy is when we’re intentional on pursuing relationships with others, because Jesus pursued others intentionally. What hinders intimacy is the fact were not willing to grow our sphere of influence with others. We’re not willing to allow more people to be a part of our lives.

Would you like to experience love… find a person that is obedient to the Holy Spirit and watch them. Find a person who will love the undeserving, the outcast, the ones who society has forgotten. Find a person that urges you to step out by faith and love those who are invisible. Every month I head to the Retirment home and you’ll be amazed by how many times when you see someone sitting in a wheel chair, or sitting there all alone and when I walk by, I will look them in the eye and say, Jesus sees you, and I see you.

You’re loved. Almost immediately tears begin to well up, and then you will see a smile and if you stay long enough to talk with them, you’ll experience the third thing that we get to experience in this life of living a life of living hope. It’s Joy. It’s Joy! There is joy inexpressible and glorified! Verse 6: “In this you rejoice,” that is in this keeping that God does of you, and in this inheritance you rejoice.

Then verse 8: “Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,” We’re filled with joy as we walk this life of faith, love and living hope. If you feel your life slipping and no hope is available. Then more than likely you’ve taken your eyes off of Christ. You’ve lost the truth. Christian joy is more than just happiness, it’s more than this good feeling.

It feels good, it is amazing but christian joy is joy produced by the Holy Spirit that causes us to see the amazing wonder and beauty of Jesus Christ in the word and in the world. Philippians 3:1 says, “Rejoice in the Lord.” How do you rejoice in the Lord if you don’t know anything about the Lord? How do you rejoice in the Lord if you are not seeing things about the Lord that cause joy to rise up in your heart?

That is the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s not a switch you turn on and off. The Holy Spirit is given, according to John 16:14, to glorify Jesus Christ, which means the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of my heart to see the beauty of Christ. When I see Christ in all that he is doing, and all that he is, then my heart is drawn out in joy towards him.

Church, you have living hope. It’s right here. It’s right in front of us and before us, and with us. Living Hope is the truth that Jesus has loved us to call us to walk by faith, to find joy in this life to be Him more than anything else in this world. You have a living hope because God is great in mercy, because Jesus is raised from the dead, because you have been born again, unto this living hope, which is an inheritance that will never fail you.

It will never be defective in any way. It will always be perfectly suited to satisfy you forever, and now, in this present time, you believe him, you love him. You rejoice in him, and maybe, best of all…. You’re willing to walk with him all the days of your life.. if that is your hope this morning.. won’t you say amen? *

Desperate for Sanctification

Let’s open our bibles together. I Peter Chapter 1 and find with me verse 3. 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. 6 So be truly glad.There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.

So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

Now, if you would. Pleased move over and find with me in the same chapter, verse 13. 13 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires.

You didn’t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy. May I ask you something? After everything you know from your life thus far as a Christian. Ok, not saying you or I know it all, but let’s agree we do have some sort of knowledge of faith.

With everything you know, do you pursue holiness in your life? Or would you agree that you have come to a point in your walk with God where you’ve become comfortable where you are in your spiritual walk? It’s possible right? Peter tells us in our Scripture. He tells us, don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desire. So what he is saying is that it’s easy for us to slip back into our old life.

Our life, remember we talked about last week. Our old life without the Spirit. Before we were born again. Our hearts were hard. We were spiritually sick. We were lovers of darkness. Children of wrath.,. And I think the most scariest of all… we were spiritually dead. There is a possibility that we can fall back into our old life. Into who we were saved from. And I cant help but believe that happens when we become comfortable where we are in our spiritual walk.

Maybe I should start with this question. Would you agree with me that we are people who crave comfort? And since I asked you an honest question. Let me personally be open and honest… I crave comfort. If you don’t believe me ask my wife. Every day I come home after wearing jeans.. what do I do? I fling them off and I grab the ol’ stretchy gym shorts. And I speak in the language of my people…..

and go ahhhhhhh which is the international language of.. oh yea…. That’s better. Stretchy shorts and comfiness means I get to have no restrictions. Wearing stretchy shorts is the best because not only am I wearing clothes, but I am also comfortable. Entire sanctification and pursuing holiness is never going to be that way.. holiness is not a call into a comfortable life after the new birth. We’re called to endure the uncomfortable walk with God so that we can grow in Christ, and grow the kingdom.

So what happens? Well, when we are born again the Spirit resides in us. Right.. our body becomes the temple. Our body becomes the holy of Holy’s. OUr body becomes the place where His presences dwells. The Holy Spirit unites our lives with Christ through His presence within us. This is what we find in Romans 6:5-8 “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with...if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” That’s the new birth… We die with Christ. We live with Christ. His Spirit lives within us. Now, heres the thing. Because the Spirit is within us, and our body becomes His home. His resources becomes ours as well.

Has that ever crossed your mind? That His resources become our riches. What’s the greatest treasure in our life? Our home? Our wive? Our husbands? I mean I think i am a trophy husband. Our kids? What do we treasure most? As Christians, shouldn’t our greatest treasure be Jesus. It’s kind of wrong to say I have Christ within and not treasure that relationship. Think with me about Luke 11. And Jesus says?

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” I don’t really pray for the Spirit when I know I need something.

Right? My prayers have usually been Lord, I want a new car because mice have eaten mine from front to back. Lord, I need 20 bucks for this situation. Lord, I need a new house or a new fridge, or whatever it is that we need. But it never crosses our mind to just say, Lord, I need your holy Spirit in this situation. I need your presence in this moment of my life.

I never understood this passage until now. Think about it… Jesus teaches us.. if your son asks for a fish, would you give him a snake? If they ask for an egg, would you give them an scorpion. None of those things seems amazing. But he says, How much more will your father in heaven give you the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. I’ve always wondered what the Holy Spirit had to do with this verse.

I used to think, man, that’s nice but I didn’t pray for that. I didn’t pray for the Holy Spirit. But think about what is being offered. God is offering.. in our time of need… something greater than the provision. He’s offering the provisioner.. he’s offering to give the giver. We’re asking for comfort in this situation with specifics. Lord, I want this and that.. and when I get it. I will have comfort and all the while God is there saying, Matthew…

no… how about something better… how about I give you the comforter. You asked for help, but i will give you the helper. You ask for guidance but I give you the guide. We ask for gifts, and he gives us the giver. We ask for money, and he gives us the bank. And really, what he’s teaching us is to be men and woman seeking Jesus and His will, and not men and woman of seeking to live comfortable lives.

Honestly, if the presence of Christ doesn't dwell within us. It’s not HIs image we will bear, but our fallen image that we share with others. Has it ever crossed your mind that we tend to pray for comfort and not pray and plead for God’s presence? I believe we do that because we do not treasure what we have in Christ. Now why is that important? Why is it important that the Spirit of God regenerates and dwells within me and I treasure Him above all other things?

It’s important because since we have all the resources of heaven and everything we need living in us, then we have everything we need to hear the call of God to be holy for He is holy and then to respond by seeking to live holy lives. Now how is that possible? To live a holy life? Well… When the Spirit indwells, he sanctifies. Now, what does that mean. To Sanctify.

Well for one… sanctification is an action with a process. Who sanctifies… the Holy Spirit sanctifies... Not me.. not you and not our works. but the Holy Spirits work in our life Is to make us holy. That means the Spirit transforms our lives into the image of Christ, so that we come to mirror the standing we have in God’s sight. And this whole process is driven by the Trinity.

The father planned for you and i to be holy. Ephesians 1:4: For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. Right, So before the world was created we were always destined to be holy. So what happened? Mankind sinned, and because of our sin we are now separated from God. The father planned for us to be holy, so he sent his son, Jesus to die for us to become holy.

He gave himself up for us to become holy, to present us to himself as the radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any of blemish, but holy and blameless. So the father planned, the son died and the Spirit indwells within and works for us to be holy,. So what we realize is that sanctification is centered on Jesus. A life without the Spirit does not center itself on JEsus but on who…

it centers their life on themselves. :Listen, a life can claim Christ but never really ever be centered on Jesus. It’s sad, but true. But a life seeking holiness seeks to be centered on Christ. This is huge! Let’s remind ourselves of 2nd Corinthians 3:17… “...We, who with unveiled faces, all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed...” “...into His likeness; into the likeness of Christ with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” This is a picture of the work of the Spirt in our lives.

He sets our focus. He sets our hearts upon the glory of Christ. And then we behold HIs glory. There is a his part and a our part. Our part is to behold Christ through his word and through prayer and to walk by faith in the Spirit. The only part we play in regeneration and sanctification is our part to repent and to consecrate ourselves. His work is to keep our hearts fixated on Christ.

To burn with affection for Christ. To fan into flames the burning white coals of love and affection for the glory of Christ… until what? Until we behold the glory of Christ to the point where day by day, and moment by moment we become more like him. The more we behold him, the more we become like him. The more we behold him, the more he pulls us out of the comfort zone.

The more that we behold his glory, the more we are cleansed of past sins. That takes us back to I peter chapter 1 verse 2: watch this… ...through the sanctifying work of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ...” That means as we keep beholding His glory, day by day, we overcome the power of sin and were empowered over future sin because he is giving us power. The power of Christ defeats sin.

And it’s leading us into being people, who are entirely sanctified. He changes our desires… If we are living by the Spirit then our mind is desiring what the Spirit desires. Please, church, listen. Regeneration doesn’t just happen once. It’s initial and continuous. Sanctification is initial and it’s continuous. Regenerations has to continue in our lives, day by day, moment my moment. Regeneration needs to happen and continue over and over and over and over and more and more and more, so that we no longer desire what the world says we should desire.

Then there will come a time in our life where God will ask you, are you mine. What would your answer be if God spoke into your heart at this very moment and whispered to you, are you mine? How desperate are you? How devoted are you this morning to the Lord? And to his will? You see church, as i close this morning I would like for you to ask yourself that question.

Have I lived a comfortable life as a Christian? Have I lived a life that really requires no effort at all? Have I lived a life where Im not really challenged in my faith. Yes, we all have bad days. Yes, we all fall from grace. But what if I told you that you can behold Christ that you will never desire anything else in this world but Him? And how we do that is by stepping out of basic faith and into a life of devoted and desperate faith in Christ…

and we do that by coming to our yet moment… and then walking forward by faith. Have you reached the point of yet, yet? Do you understand that question? Have you reached the point of yet, yet? Turn with me to Luke’s gospel and let me show you something before we depart. Lukes gospel, chapter 22. And Find with me verse 41. Find verse 41.. but do not read ahead. Just find verse 41 and stop.

Ok. Don’t read ahead. Jesus in this moment is preparing his heart for the crusifixstuion and he’s praying in the place called Gethsemane. And in this garden, called Gethsename, the garden of pressing. The savior of the world reaches the pivotal point and had a choice to make. Just like you and me at this moment. We have a choice and he had a choice. The choice was, who did Jesus behold the most.

Who did he behold. Did JEsus behold the enemy? Satan did say in the great temptation that he was going to come at a more opportune time. There was not more of an opporune time for him to get JEsus to walk away than now. At the moment of yet. Did JEsus behold his disciples? Jesus did love many people. He had compassion on them. And why not? A king needs subjects.

But as the king of the world, in his earthly body he couldn't give them anything to hope for in death. And no king who loves the souls of people would leave them without an eternal hope. Did Jesus behold himself? Why not? He is the son of God? He is anointed to do many things. His name is spreading through the land. No, I beleive a more important question came long…

Jesus in desperate prayer looked up too his precious dad, and he behold His father more than anything else in this world. Look with me at verse 42: Father, , If you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me……….. YET! I want your will to be done, not time. I think every one of us knows the first part of that prayer. We know it. We know it because that is our everyday prayer.

Lord, take this health issue. Lord, help me with this job. Lord, Help me find that perfect wife or husband. Lord, I want kids. Lord, I’m sorry, now I just my kids to stop annoying me. Lord, I want a better car, more money, better opporiuntinties. Lord, I want a faith that requires little from me. Lord, take this bitter situation from me. I don’t think the kind of faith Jesus needed to go to the cross was the same kind of faith we try to live each and every day.

Jesus needed a Spirit filled faith that beheld the glory of God. He beheld the father. Romans 6:10 reminds us that Jesus lives for the glory of the God. That prayer is the same prayer we get stuck in our life. Lord, remove this burden. Lord give me. Lord grant me. Lord do this. Lord do that… but our prayers never end up going. Lord, give me your Holy Spirit. OUr prayers always comes to the point of yet…

but we tend to get to the point where we say with hearts aflamed, Lord let your will be done, not mine. But what did Jesus say? Jesus said Yet…. He said yet! If your willing, take this cup of suffering from me… Yet! Not my will but yours be done. I heard a pastor once say that he pictured the holy hosts of heaven, with tear-filled eyes, leaning over and gazing upon the agaoinizing and praying Jesus.

And as they leaned over they anxiously asked one another, has the Son of God reached yet, yet. Because as soon as Jesus finished the first part of his prayer, his heart was aflamed and burning with affection for the glory of His father to be praised among the world. His basic faith turned into desperate devoted faith. And we know when our faith turns from a basic faith of just knowing about God and thinking God is great.

Into a faith that is totally and utterly devoted to him. A faith that yearns to glorify Jesus in all aspects of our life. A faith that see God as good. Are we desperate for his presence, are we desperate to be born again and regenerated? Are we desperate to be sanctified to the point that no matter what happens in our life, or no matter what happens in the church we come to the point of yet and we are found to be as faithful as Christ with the words, not my will but yours be done….

That’s the question we need to answer… Have I reached the moment of yet, yet. And have I answered it with a faith that is utterly devoted and and desperate for His glory to be known into the world. Have you answered yet, yet? And how you can tell, is whether or not the prayer of desperation is answered with those beautiful words.. Yet, Not my will, but yours be done.

I pray you make a decision this morning… because remember this… basic faith believes in God, but desperate faith honors God and God honors desperate faith. Do you suppose that the hymn writer who penned “He Never Has Failed Me Yet” really…. meant 'God has never failed me, because I have reached and came through my "yet"?*

Sin and Grace

We’re in a teaching series called, Elements where the past few weeks we have been exploring several different elements that are the building blocks of our faith. Or you could say, we’re looking at theological beliefs we have as Christians that help us understand why we believe what we believe. And since it’s been a couple weeks. Let me real quick do a. Recap. The first element we learned was God the Father.

One over all truth we learned was: Our heavenly father blesses us so that we might be a BLESSING to others. The second element we learned was God the Son where we asked the question, who is Jesus? And we can’t answer that question by just knowing the characteristics of a person. We know that we are in a deep commitment relationship when we can answer the question who is Jesus relationally.

One thing I want to remind us is this.. Only when we truly know someone deeply, can we answer who they are through relationship. Right? God the father blesses us so that we might be a blessing to others, but we come to know the Father by our saving relationship through His son, Jesus Christ. If your relationship to Christ is broken, then you will not come to know the father and his goodness.

John 14:7 In-Context says: 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” So we concluded, Relationship matters. To know the Father, we must know the Son. But there is a third part in this Trinity and it this…

The Holy Spirit. We learned that Jesus promised the holy Spirit. Even in the previous Scripture and context about the father that Jesus tells us in John 14..… 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. But if we look at verse 15 in that same chapter… 15 “If you love me, (Right! If you love me.. that’s a deep relationship by knowing Christ intimately.) If you love me, keep my commands.

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Are you seeing this?

Because of our relationship to the Son, the Father knows us and then we are blessed even more greater because the Father sends to us through the Son the Holy Spirit who lives within us. And the best part is that we get to be a blessing to others because Jesus is living in us, and through us because of the Spirit. Then we learned about the Holy Scriptures. And how the scriptures is this amazing love story told by God and that we have a part in this overarching grand story from creation to revelation.

Right? God’s story is being lived out through our life. We are an amazing testimony to God’s goodness and grace. Yearning for the return of Christ, but living out our story for His glory right here and right now. But there’s an issue… we don’t always live for Christ do we? Today’s topic isn’t a fun one. Out of the 9 elements, there are two that are tough to preach and tough to listen to.

Those two are, Repentance, and sin. And both of these words are hard to talk about because they both require honesty and humility. Sin isn’t a fun topic because that means we need to reveal what doesn’t want to be revealed. Sin does not want to be revealed, and the only way to really uproot sin and for it to be revealed is by having a deep relational love for Christ.

It’s kind of like with my wife when I do something wrong. I want to tell her because I can not live hiding secretes from her. I love her… Love hides nothing. A attribute of love is honesty. Paul tells the corinthians, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” 1 Corinthians 13:6 When our love for Christ outweighs our desire to sin and to keep hold of sin and even hide sin, then and only then is sin found and uprooted from our hearts.

So, what is sin? Well, some would say that sin means missing the mark. It’s missing the mark of God’s standard. In a way, like the bow and arrow. We're missing the bullseye that we aimed for. But I’m not a fan of that definition. it’s not so much as making mistakes and errors as much as it’s falling short of God’s glory through conscious choosing of sin. If that’s true, then we need something better than just saying, sin is missing the mark because to me, that doesn’t help us relationally.

So I have two scriptures I want to share with you that I believe define what I believe sin is…. First, let’s look at this missing the mark part. The falling short part. It comes from Romans 3:23 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Now, that’s everyone. Paul writes, all have sinned. You, me, the person sitting next to you. Yes, they have sinned.

You’re a sinner sitting next to a sinner. Verse 9 even reminds us, “All people are under the power of sin.” Verse 23, all have sinned and fall short. That means we lack. We lack the glory of God. We all fall short. When we read this Scripture that all people sin, and fall short of the glory of God, that immediately should remind us that sin is a great equalizer.

That puts every person on the same level. We all have it! No matter how rich, how poor, how spiritual, how nice you dress! Or even how good you think you are. We all have sin in our lives. The second Scripture we need to couple with Romans 3:23 is Romans 1:23. “…and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Now, let me put this verse in some context.

Romans 1:23 talks about “exchanging the glory of God” for idols. Listen to what Paul writes: They knew God, but they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile, (Futile means they were fruitless in their thinking, they were ineffectual), Right? They knew about God, but they didn’t love Him. They came to church, but they weren’t engaged with worship, they read the Bible, but they never conversed with God, they listen to the sermons but they never made an effort towards real relationship with God and with others.

And since there was no relationship, they became futile, foolish in hearts, and their hearts were darkened and eventually, their hearts become hardened to grace. It’s the same story with Judas. How could someone follow Jesus, be in charge of the money of the group, but yet sell out his teacher and master and Lord? Judas betrays Jesus because he idolized money more than Jesus. Judas, became the poster child of 1 Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” He had no true relationship. He showed us an disheartening example of what loving money and hating God can look like. So, we just learned that The Bible tells us that the early Christians would exchange the glory of God for idols. Now let me ask this important question… what do you, a modern day christian think is your favorite idol in life?

Let me help you if you’re wondering.. Let’s define Idol, “Anything in the world that successfully competes with our love for God is an idol.” So what is an idol. Is it your Work? Is it the money you have or want to have? Is it more Recreational time? Is it, you’re Family? Your wife or husband or kids. If you were to bring together all the idols that you can think of in your life and place them into this great big melting pot, what you would find is the most purist idol of all, ……

it’s ourselves. We prefer created glory over of God’s glory. We prefer the creation over God, and let’s be honest.. what is the pinnacle of God’s creation… it’s us, it’s humanity. We are created in God's image, we have been given God's exhale, the breath of life. We have been given the knowledge of good and evil. And we all have sinned and fallen short of what? The glory of God.

We have been given everything by God but there is one thing we crave more than anything else and it’s Never ours to have in this world, and that is to be glorified. John reminds us in revelation 4:11: “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” So, what is sin then?

Sin is the character of mind and heart of ourselves to prefer human glory, especially self glory over God’s glory. So Sins is the attitudes and words, and actions that are created from a fallen character of mind and heart that expects to be self glorified over glorifying God. When we lack the glory of God, we exchange our praise and adoration and affection away from God and onto idols, and more dangerously onto ourselves.

And then we find things, or other Idols in our life that bring us the most comfort. Because sins main goal is to self glorify. And to self glorify is a condition of the heart. And we’re born with it. We as Christians have two beliefs about sin. The first is original sin. Original sin is the tendency to sin and it is innate in all human being, Meaning we’re born in Sin inherited from Adam and is the consequence of the fall.

Remember Adam and Eve in the Garden? What happened? They chose themselves over God and put a crack in creation. And in the crack poured death. Romans 6 reminds us, "For the wages of sin is death, Every person in this room inherited death because of sin. It permeates throughout all of creation. Original sin is the sin inherited from the fall. The second belief is Personal sin. Personal sin is the intentional violation of a known law of God.

So what is a known law? Well let’s just look at the first one… you shall not have no other gods but me. Where do we put our affection and attention and adoration when we are in sin? We put those attributes on ourselves. We want to be self glorified. But here’s the thing about personal sin and original sin. Original sin manifests itself in the temptation of personal sin. Think of the life of King David.

David is living in peace, his men are off to war. HE sees a woman bathing, he takes her, she becomes pregnant, he tries to get her husband to come home so David doesn’t get caught in his evil act. That fails, so David has Uriah sent to his death on the front lines, Bathsheba's husband dies, David then marries her to over up his sin. Did David know all of this was wrong.

You betcha he did. That’s why he was covinergin it up. Sin is characterized by the adultery and murder, while those are known sins, the real sin is that David was not living the way he is called to lived. The adultery and murder was the Personal sin, manifesting from His original sin that David was responsible for. Original sin, what we are born with always manifest itself in our personal sin.

Because Sin is a battle of the mind, at war with our heart, and played out through our flesh. Played out through our relating to anything or anyone else. It’s played out through our desire to be above all creation and even above God himself. SO here’s the truth.. since we are talking about defining the relationship through our series, Elements….. what we realize is that…. Sin is a relational issue.

All sin is a relational issue between us and God. But The best part of the story of David is the part where the prophet Nathan confronts David and he repents. Accountability is amazingly awesome when it is received with humility and what did David do… he repented. David repented because he realized that his relationship between him and God was broken. David had Nathan, but we have someone greater. We have the Holy Spirit.

And while Sin is a great equalizer, meaning that knowing we all fall short of God’s glory, we all have sinned. Right. No one here is above that truth. We all were born with original sin, and we all have personal sin and that makes us the same. The greater equalizer than sin…. is God’s grace. Let’s go back into our Scripture in Romans chapter 3… and read a little more starting back in verse 23.

. 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (We are equal in our sin) but how does grace make things better? Look in verse 24. 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. Grace is given as a gift because of the shedding of the blood of Christ and it’s to be received by faith.

Church, listen… to have a right relationship with God begins at the cross. This is why communion is so important to us as Christians. The elements reminds us of*

Prayer Sanctification

While our group was in Israel back in 2018. Our first day included a trip to Megiddo, otherwise known where the final battle of Armageddon will take place. I took some water from a water fountain and little did I know, I would be laying in bed for the next 30+ hours and sick enough that Beni, our Israeli tour guide was going to postpone our trip to Galilee to take me to the hospital.

I didn’t want that to happen to the group and so I laid in bed for an entire day and that night and I missed the whole Galilean tour. I was also bummed out because the next day, as we had to pack up and head to the south desert for the Dead Sea experience. I was extremely weak and I couldn’t help lead or participate in the baptism of our group at the Jordan river.

But I did get to lead something just as amazing, important and meaningful. On our last day in Jerusalem, since I missed the blessing of baptizing people in the Jordan, I was asked if I would lead our group in holy communion at the garden tomb. I was blessed because this was my first time leading communion as a minister of the gospel on my own. And I was a bit emotional knowing that I was about to lead communion in a place not too far where Jesus first shared communion with his disciples and possibly in a place where he was buried and possibly where the power of the resurrection took place.

At the garden Tomb, I shared with the group Romans chapter 11 and verses 11-24. It’s a section in Romans where Paul tells those who read and hear this message that we, the redeemed by Jesus Christ have been grafted into the family of God. And he uses the grafting process for olive trees to give example of how that works. Olive trees often grow wild in Israel. Kind of like wild flowers do here in the states.

And when they mature they produce bitter and worthless fruit. So to produce a good olive tree with sweet and delicious fruit to eat and share, a branch off of a good olive tree, must be grafted into the wild tree, and the wild tree would then take on the characteristics of the good tree. So, After it’s union process, the grafting process, the wild tree would take on the identity of the good tree and because it has a new identity, it would then produce good fruit that was not bitter, but sweet and delicious to eat and to share with others.

Paul in Romans, talked about the reversal of that process of how we represent the wild branches, And when we come to Christ, we, the wild branch, are then grafted into the good tree of Jesus and because of that union we then must by faith and trust shed our sinful identity and take on His identity and become bearers of good fruit. I would like to challenge you all this week to read Romans 11: 11-24.

It’s an amazing reminder that we are grafted and adopted into an amazing family of God. I shared that intimate moment this morning too lead us into our text today. And to talk about two things that my heart saturated in this week. Two words I wrestled with all week. Union and Identity. Paul in his letter ends in benediction, but that benediction is actually a prayer and a call for action.

He’s calling God’s people to lean in, more than before and trust in God and let him Every Christian is called into holiness. Every Christian is called to be set apart for the work of the kingdom. All throughout the Bible, God is revealed to the people and that begins the process of being set apart for service to the king. Each and every one of us who calls Christ our Lord, has been grafted into the good tree.

Each and everyone of us that has been grafted in, has begun the union part of being a child of God. The union is the starting point of our sanctification. This is the part where, we come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and savior. And the Holy Spirit becomes a very intimate part of our lives. We are united to Christ. Paul tells us, that we are in Christ. Almost 160 times in his letters he tells us and uses the phrase you and I are in Christ.

There is a union, this bond between Christ and us. John 17 reminds us of Jesus’s prayer of unity when He prays, “That we become one with him, as he is one with he father. He’s praying for union, he’s praying for unity.” We understand that if we are believers, that means, Christ is in us. We also understand that the New Testament says, “We are in Christ.” Now, here is what so many of us miss.

Christ in us and us in Christ is simply defining both ways of this union. We are in Him; He is in us. That is to say, we are literally engulfed in one another in an inseparable union. Again, relationship is essential part of this union. Relationship matters when it comes to sanctification and relationship must be both ways. One of my biggest fears in my walk with God is that I am willing to give my life to Christ, I am united with him but then I fail to actually give and to do my part in the relationship and i become lazy in my loyalty to him.

I become swooned by what he world offers me. And then my loyalty becomes questioned. Think of our earthly marriages. Alicia and I before God have vowed to be one till death do us part, we have resolved to be committed one hundred percent to each other. I commit to her and she has committed to me. We were two separate souls now surrendered under the rule and love of Christ.

And there is no halfway union between us. God has called us to become one and his word has also told us that there is no greater love than to give our lives up for others. I give my life up form her and she gives up her life for me. Now, think about it, What would our relationship look like in our marriage if all we and our spouse ever met was halfway.

I would say our relationship right now would be in bad shape if I told alicia that I would give her 80% loyalty, but i want to reserve 20% for someone or something else who might come along. Just like the other day, I was trying to get one of our girls attention and I couldn’t remember Chloes name and I ended up calling her Ashley. And what do she do…

both of the girls run to my wife and say, dad called us Ashley…. Who’s Ashley…?? I have no clue where that name came from. So I did the only smart thing a pastor and husband could do… I said hunny… the Lord must have given me that name for me to pray for. and so I did… do you want to hold my hand as we pray together for this Ashley?

and I prayed for myself because I’ve heard that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And I needed grace so I can sleep in my own bed and not the couch. Listen, IM 40 not 14 anymore. I got back issues. I can’t afford staying in the dog house. But, no really, 80/20 doesn’t work with loyalty. 80/20 only works with hamburger ratios not relationships. And We know it doesn’t work in our marriages.

So then when it comes to our union with Christ, why do we treat God that way? We tend to want to just give God our Sunday morning best, but for the rest of the week we want to be loyal to our lives. We want to be loyal to our sins. If God was to stir the water of our hearts this morning, and he were to examine our hearts loyalty what would he find?

What would God find that’s hidden beneath the surface? Would he find a heart blazen for holiness? Would he find a heart passionate pursuing Him in all areas of life. Or would he find a heart that is 80/20, 70/30, 10/90? What percentage is our hearts. We ask that question because holiness and sanctification comes when a heart is 100% given to Him. What are we loyal to? Loyal to our possessions.

Loyal to our preferences? Loyal to our perversions? Loyal to our extra curricular activities. Loyalty to our jobs. Loyal to our savings accounts. Loyal to our families? Are we loyal to our ideals? Are we loyal to lies? Are we loyal to our coverups of things done wrong? What are we loyal to? What ratio would Jesus find in our life if he would examine our hearts? I cant answer that for you, that comes through the the Holy Spirit searching our lives to see what in our lofe is not of God.

Are we prepared for that? Are we prepared for what sanctification will cost us. Taking on the identity of Christ will cost us everything that we hold dear to our life. Are we prepared for what that will costs? Because it will cost us a deep narrowing of all of our interest here on earth and an incredible broadening of our interest in God and the things of God. That’s where union leads us.

Union says from Ephesians chapter 1: We have been chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, grace-lavished and unconditionally loved and accepted. We are pure, blameless and forgiven. We have received the hope of spending eternity with God. When we are in Christ, these aspects of our identity can never be altered by us. It’s freely given to us through the union to Jesus Christ. But identity says, that we begin to see ourselves the way that God sees us and we take on the characteristics of Christ for the glory of God.

“Let them be one in me as we are one.” Church, it’s more than just union, It’s a life long committed relationship. And if you’re still not understanding sanctification., well then… maybe you jsut need to step out by faith and experience it. I’ve always heard you only get home by getting there. We may think about getting home, but we will never get there till we actually go there. Are you prepared for the reality of God making himself real to you?

Remember… God calls us to go deeper with Him. We do this by laying our will down to do the will of God. It won’t be easy, but it is always better for us. Going deeper will cost us: our will, our wants, the way we want to handle things, our choices. So what am I saying? What I am saying is if sanctification is something you truly desire, then what will you lay down at the foot of the cross to take more of him?

Before we take communion, let’s prayerfully ponder that question for a moment. What am I willing to give up to go deeper? Our pride? Our decisions? Our ways? What is it in your life that reflects your identity more than Christ identity in you?. Here in a moment I want to remind us all of that. Communion is a sacred time of unity. It’s a moment where we remember Christ and what Christ has done, but I believe we forget something….

We forget that it’s also a time where we must become altered ourselves and Christ must reign deeper in our lives. So communion is not just Remembrance, but a call for the Christian to sacrifice their identity to take on more of Jesus’s identity. *

Wonder

Alicia and I were on our way back from the grocery store to pick up some odd and ends for our family last week. And I did something that I do not recommend to just anyone. In the middle of our conversation, I hushed my wife. I said, shh shh shhhhh Hold On!!!! Now you can probably imagine at this point. You’re saying to yourself, Pastor, your lucky she didn’t just slap you over the head.

And maybe lucky for me I was driving. but she knew what was going on. My wife has been married to me long enough to know when the Lord is speaking to me, and when he calls me to hear, she has learned what that looks like and to just prayerfully wait with me until I hear all he wants to say to me. Oh it’s so tender and sweet when your wife knows your relationship with Jesus and she knows and respects your deep love for him.

As I was driving home, and praying over Habakkuk’s words, “I am going to wait to see what the Lord says to me. I am going to wait to see what the Lord says to me. I am… going to wait to see… what the lords says to me… I grabbed my phone, and typed this word… “Wonder” Habakkuk is there on this tower and he he finished his reply to God like this, “I am going to wait to see what the Lord says to me.“ and to me is sounds to me like Habakkuk was in a moment of wonder and awe.

Like, Lord, I can’t wait to hear for you! I cant wait to see how you’re going to answer this prayer. I wonder how God, you will answer this prayer that the Holy Spirit is praying within me. I wonder in awe over what glory God will bring to himself out of the strange difficulties I put myself into. I am in absolute awe over what you will do and say.

I’m in wonder on what kind of provision he will give out to overcome this situation or the next. I just wonder! I believe in todays culture and age we’ve lost that wonder. Listen to what I’m saying , we get so consumed with daily life that we have lost that child like wonder at being in awe of God. Yesterday I was walking across the parking lot and I looked up to the cross on the steeple and I prayed a very intimate prayer..

I said Lord, Im willing to pray for anyone and everyone. I make my self available to everyone. But it just seems like I have no one to pray for me or encourage me. Please send me a fresh anointing of your presence. Five minutes goes by while being in the church and two people walk in and say, We’re here to pray for you. Like wow God! When I ask for presence you send relationship.

I am just blown away by his goodness. No one seems to be in this great awe over the majesty of God. We live in a world where it seems that everyone is always sighing. Everyone is always coming in with downcasted faces and going oh ho hum. They are always sighing, they seem to have mental and spiritual inflammation and nothing in this life or the next seems to arouse them.

there is no child like spirit about them. There’s no Joy! After the fullness of Pentecost the Spirit roused a few people in an upper room and when they came out of that room full of fire nothing would keep them down. After that great day of Pentecost the sword came and along with the sword and persecution they were all scattered abroad, but nothing could stop them from preaching the word.

They went out with this hilarious shout of joy. I think we look at the big things in life like sun sets and sun rises and stop dead in our tracks and we marvel over them. We look up at the moon and stars and go wow! God you’re so amazing. We look at the mountains and we marvel at the grandeur of how amazing they look and how they captivate our attention!

But what about the little things in life? When was the last time something small and insignificant has captured your attention and led your heart and mind to be in a moment of worship, awe and in wonder of God. Not only that but do you live a life of sowing one small seed at a time? When covid came in 2020 I began a ministry that still continues today. I began a texting ministry…

Covid has made it hard to visit with people so I text you encouragements. I let you know that I am praying for you. Did you know there are people i have text for two years, who not once, have they said anything encouraging to me. Now, I’m not looking for validation, I'm just laying the groundwork for communication. Unity comes by communicating with one another. It cant just be one sided.

Can you appreciate the little things? We all can be mesmerized by snow cap mountains, Looking at the stars and marveling over the realities that were just a dot in the expansion of the universe. but I think we over look the little things because of the busyness of our lives and because we dont tend to gravitate and appreciate the little things. And so, I wrote in my journal this week at prayer retreat this heart filled reminder, “Being in wonder is a daily task of wondering over the little things too!” The things we consider small and insignificant, God uses them to accomplish great things.

Think about what the Bible teaches us….. The mustard seed of faith The Lords approval of the widows mites. The little boys lunch in feeding the 5,000 The Small coin in the mouth of a fish His eye is on the sparrow. He even counts the hairs of ones head Pastor Matthew’s insignificant small little texts.. lol its not in the Bible but they are meant to encourage you. All of those things began as something insignificant and small and then, God did something amazing with those things to show his power and His glory.

I just wonder… wouldn’t he want to use what we might think is insignificant in our life to do something amazing for Him? So, how can we learn to have this child like wonder over even the little things? What’s two practical things that go together Like two peas in a pod that we can do right now to help us see and appreciate the little things in life? Well it is this, “Practicing Gratitude and Generosity will teach us to appreciate and see the little things in life” Most of you, if not all of you have gotten some sort of text message, letter, email or have received a card from me.

Most times, recently I have signed that card with this one word… grateful. I do that because I really am grateful for Jesus and for you… I appreciate you. but I also do it to teach myself that being grateful over all things, whether big or small is really teaching my heart the attitude of gratitude. I want to appreciate all things, and I want to love all people and even when things go wrong and even when people are not being very lovable.

You’ll be surprised by how many people are hard to love. And you’ll be surprised at the look on people faces when you tell them you’re grateful for them. Recently, I like to go to fast food places and when I order they say thank you pull ahead and I like to do this… you’re welcome, I appreciate you… it gets me giddy every time… Do you know why? Because 99% of the time ill pull up to the window and ill see joy in thier eyes.

People want to feel loved.. they want to feel appreciated. Trust me, fast food workers are not insignificant. They have lives too, Jesus loves them too. Jesus peered into the life of the insignificant battered by life woman at the well who was drawing water alone and before long her heart was bursting forth in gratitude and generosity. Her joy lead her to lead an entire town to Jesus. I just believe we can love all people…

It’s hard, i know, but we can love even those we tend to not like or even our enemies by learning to sow seeds of gratitude and generosity in all situations and to all people. And I also believe that the little things count. Let me ask you. Can you be grateful to a waitress that you do not know that gets your order wrong? Or being bossy or inattentive? Can you have gratitude when you’re put down and criticized by others?

Can you be a person of gratitude when nothing goes your way? I’ve learned in ministry that It doesn’t take long and it’s easy for us to become ungrateful for a lot of the things in our life. As we grow from a child into an adult there is a sense of entitlement that begins to over take our mindset. Things like: I deserve better. I deserve to be served. I deserve more.

I deserve to have it my way. And when this mindset emerges in our life, what happens is that it diminishes our sense of appreciation for things. Of course I can appreciate those i love. Of course I can appreciate those people that give to me and my well being… but can you appreciate those who you might think have done you wrong? I’m so happy that Jesus teaches us to be grateful and generous in the New Testament.

Did you know that generosity goes hand in hand with gratitude. Think about it, showing gratitude to others must be through generosity. We give to those we love, yes, but if were going to grateful we’ve got to learn that generosity is for everyone.. even those who we deem to be our enemy or those we do not get along with. If we choose to allow the Holy Spirit to have his way in our lives, generosity and gratitude will characterize the way we live.

But of course there is also the other path we can choose to take. We can choose to refuse to allow the Holy Spirit to have His way in our lives, stinginess and dissatisfaction will characterize the way we die. IN the message version of Romans 12:1 as it talks about being a living sacrifice. Listen to how they paraphrase this verse to give us a realistic expectation of being grateful and generous.

“So here is what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life - and place it before God as an offering.” I want my everyday life to be an offering to God, not an offense to God. Even those who are leading beside me, for instance our board, Our Sunday school teachers, or even those who serve in some way behind the scenes.Thats the same desire Im expecting them to have as well.

None of us can lead if we not willing to come along side of each other, to pray and to give ourselves as an offering to God. When God places his thumb on my life two things will happen. I’ll either be a grape or a marble. Which one are you? Are you a grape or a marble? A grape when pushed gives all it has to the one doing the pushing and it gives up its life as an offering.

A marble when squeezed shoots off into the distance. When God places his thumb on me, I want to be like the grape. Aren’t you glad Jesus went to the garden to say to the Father, Not my will, but yours be done? He was a grape… Aren’t you glad that when Jesus’s mother asked Jesus to help with the wine at the wedding, Jesus obeyed his earthly mother and made wine for the wedding guest?

And then Jesus goes to the garden and he obeys his heavenly fathers will to be pressed into wine for the whole world?. Man! I just get joyful; knowing that. I get joyful because i realize that in that moment Jesus just proved to us all that relationships mattered. He generously poured himself out for you and for me. And we never deserved it…. So how can we expect that waiter/waitress to deserve it?

We know nothing about them. How many times have we already made the decision to lower their tip because they seemed unhappy, or messed up. All the while we sit at our seats, wear our crosses around our necks, we have on our church sweaters and maybe even pray at the table but we’re not known as people whom are willing to be generous and grateful for the sake of Christ.

church, I want you to remember that being generous and grateful are tangible realistic expectations taught by Jesus. And when your willing to surrender and be generous and grateful for those small things… I guarantee you will begin to be at wonder at how awesome our God is and how he truly does… supply our every need in life. So let our prayers be in wonder like Habakkuk’s, “I am going to wait to see what the Lord says to me.

Pray: Benediction “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God”. Ephesians 3:18-19 NLT*