Arch of Prayer

Let’s open our bibles together and find with me Psalms chapter 1. As you find Psalms chapter 1. Would you stand as we read the word of the God. This morning I would like to focus on Psalm chapter 1 verses 1-2, and If you do not mind. I would like to skip over to chapter 2 and finish our reading together in verse 12. I wont read all of Psalm 1 and 2, but I do want to give two anchor points to where the Lord has been leading me this week.

So, Psalm 1: 1-2, and Then flip the page and find with me Psalm chapter 2, verse 12. Say amen when you’re ready. Psalm 1 1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Now flip over one chapter and find chapter 2 and head all the way to the end of chapter 2 and find with me verse 12. 12 Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. And all of God’s people said together, Amen. You may be seated.

Today we begin a new series called, Summer in the Psalms. I still believe that the Lord is leading us into being commitment to prayer. And to be honest with you, I still believe prayer is where we need to be as a follower of Christ, but also as a church. Over the course of the summer, what we will be diving into is the practicality of having a tangible prayer life.

Meaning, to have a prayer life that is real, and it's growing and thriving and taking us even out of our comfort Zones to be men and woman of prayer. So, Let’s ask probably one of most important anchoring questions into this series… What is the book of Psalms? The book of Psalms as we just witness is found in the Old Testament. And it’s full of these lyrical poems written by multiple authors.

Most of us know that King David wrote many of the Psalms.. My favorite Psalm, Psalm 42 which is as the Deer pants for the stream… it was written by David. King David, If I remember has wrote a little over 70 of the current known Psalms. Asaph wrote twelve, Korah wrote around 10 and even David’s son, King Solomon, is known to of written one or two of these Psalms.

So, Psalms are these lyrical ancient hymns of God’s people. there are a total of 150 Psalms in the book of Psalms and these 150 Psalms are organized into five different books or 5 different sections within this one book. I would like to give you, kind of a mental picture of how I personally see the book of Psalms in my life. I see mentally the book of Psalms as this amazing rose garden of prayer.

Because there is so much we can find and learn in the book of Psalms that can help us with daily life. I believe every situation any person will deal with in life, there’s a Psalm for it. The best way to explain how I see this rose garden is from a book I ‘ve read a little from this week on roses. This book is called, “A Book about Roses”..

can you guess what this book was about.. (Ha ha)!! It was written by an Anglican priests who’s name was, Samuel Reynolds’s Hole. Samuel was well known throughout the UK in the mid 1800’s for having the most amazing rose garden. People from all over the UK would ride to see his garden and ask him, how they could imitate his rose garden. So, in 1869 he wrote a book to share with others on how to care for rose gardens.

Listen to this excerpt about faith and roses… he writes: “Over time these roses of faith with great care become beds of beauty. Beds of roses, with fountains of roses, banks of roses, bowers of roses, hedges of roses, edgings of roses, pillars of roses, vistas and alleys of the roses. There are White Roses, Striped Roses, Blush Roses, Pink Roses, Rose Roses, Carmine Roses, Crimson Roses, Scarlet Roses, Vermilion Roses, Maroon Roses, Purple Roses, Roses almost black, and Roses of a glowing gold.

What a diversity, and yet what a harmony, of outline!” This is how I imagine what the garden of prayer is like in the book of Psalms. It’s a place with all these amazing roses laid out in difference colors and presented in different ways. It’s like each rose and each color of a rose represents each life’s trial we face. And every time we are triumphal at coming into the garden of prayer with a lament, or an issue.

God just pulls out the thistle of doubt, and fear, and sin, and replaces it with a rose of joy, and the rose gentleness, and compassion. And before long, after a life long pursuit of being in the garden of prayer, we find beds of roses, and fountains of roses. And I love even the thought that once a rose is planted in my life, I’m share the seed of faith, love and joy, down through the ages and into the next generation.

And can you imagine the aroma of walking through a rose garden like that? Just filled from one edge to the other with beautiful roses giving off their beautiful aromatics that just draws in life. So, the book of Psalms is this book of expressed worship and when we open up this book of Psalms, what we find is that is a garden of encouragement, and praise, and worship that illuminate with it’s beauty, the greatness of our God, They affirm His faithfulness to us in times of trouble, and they remind us of the absolute centrality of His Word.

And.. they point us to this amazing relationship with Jesus. But, Unless we intentionally walk into the garden, we will never experience the full capacity, beauty and aroma of prayer. NO, we must come and enter into and experience the garden for ourselves. So, where do we begin? Well think of this. We must enter into the garden of prayer through the archway. This is a picture of the entrance into Disney land.

No one can experience first hand Disney without first coming into the park. Yeah, we can admire it’s beauty from afar. We can admire the beauty in books and magazines and websites, We can admire and watch the excitement of those coming in and out of the park but there is nothing like actually experiencing the flying dumbo’s, or the haunted mansion, or the paddle boat ride, or even seeing the joy in our kids faces without experiencing the park itself.

We experience the park with the hearing the laughter and joy, and seeing the people watch their kids run and giggle with delight, and tasting of the amazing dole whip treats and churros. We smell the amazing aroma’s from street car vendors and places to eat. We feel the excitement first hand deep within our hearts as we see the characters we cherish and love. But no one can experience those things first hand unless unless they drive through the archway to go into the park.

It’s the same with the book of Psalms. To experience the Psalms and to enter this amazing garden of prayer, we first must begin by coming through the archway. For Disney, when driving through the archway it sets the tone for everything we would experience. You’re expecting to experience Magic and imagination as you drive through the archway. If the Psalms are the garden of Prayer, then Psalm 1 and 2 are the archway into the garden.

How can we have a more intimate and meaningful experience in the garden of prayer? Well, it begins with the first half of the archway. The first half of the archway comes from Psalm 1: We enter the garden of prayer with the word of God on our hearts and minds. Psalm 1 reminds us of this: “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” The writer reminds us that the word of God is essential to coming into the garden of prayer.

Psalm 1 reminds us that we must delight in the word. We delight in the law and we meditate on his law. So, how can we delight in the word of God? Well it begins by asking God to give us new tastebuds on the tongue of our heart as we meditate with our mind his glorious word. When our kids were little. We would feed them all kinds of baby food.

Peaches, and green beans and spaghetti. And it was always kind of funny when we would try to feed our kids a food They didn’t like, we would watch them spit it out. We would scoop it back off of their lower lip with the baby spoon and then shove it back in. They didn’t like the mashed up green bean baby food. But we knew it was good for them.

I also think of the period of time when Gabriel was in his chicken nugget phase. Every where we would go, it was always chicken nuggets. We would go to the zoo, chicken nuggets. We would go to the fair, chicken nuggets, we would send him to Nana’s.. chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. And you can imagine I had to have a talk with my mom about that one. Then, one day.

Gabriel decided he was going to try a hamburger. And he ate that hamburger and his face lit up and he was like, wow this is sooo good. Of course, mom and I was like. We’ve tried to feed you hamburgers before. And he would go, yeah but now I love them. Something clicked and now his taste buds rejoiced over hamburgers. Why do we struggle reading the word of God…

I think it’s because our hearts crave every thing else the world has to offer and it’s got to learn to crave the goodness of God’s word. A recent survey from 2021 found that only 11 percent of Americans read the Bible daily. 11%! But yet, 56% have a desire to read the Bible. The sad news is this: the study shows a consistent decline in that 11% and a decline in the desire to read it.

So, what we learn is that over time, our taste buds change. But are they changing to desire or to reject the word of God? The Psalmist wrote in 119 verse 103, “How sweet are your words to my taste” (Psalm 119:103) He also wrote, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18) He prayer was that he would desire Spiritual eyes to see the glory of God, or for God to give him spiritual tastebuds on the tongue of his heart, because to taste and see that the Lord is good, is a gift from God.

We do not naturally hunger for, and delight in, God and his wisdom. We do not naturally seek the goodness of God and delight in him. For many, when they come to the word of God they spit out the wisdom because it goes against their personal wisdom. It goes against theirs desire. But when we are able to open up our bibles, what we need is to learn to lay down our need to be strong, smart and independent.

We must learn to have focused affection and prayerful dependence, and God gives the understanding. and the comfort, and the healing for all wounds. Even lingering bitter wounds. He gives us the breakthrough in fighting sin, he gives us the insight for difficult relationships and situations, and one of the greatest realities and most of all, we obtain an awe inspired and wonder of beholding His beauty over and over and over.

Think of this, God is not only sitting next to us when we read His word, but he’s within us, for those of us born again by His spirit. And so, to walk into this garden of prayer, we need to have a heart and mind that finds delight in God’s word. The second half of this archway comes from Psalm chapter 2 and it’s this: We enter into the garden of prayer with Christ on our minds.

If we delight in God’s word, we must also delight in God’s Son. Matthew Henry’s commentary interprets Psalm 2, verses 1–6 as viewed as threats against Christ's kingdom. It’s a continuation from Psalm 1. If you notice, Psalm one begins with a positive, delighting and meditating on God‘s word, and it follows this path of concerns for those who reject his word. Those who are wicked will be scattered like chaff in the wind, those who are wicked walk the path of destruction, those who are wicked will be judged.

Then you get to chapter two and it continues on this path of threats against God’s kingdom. But then it begins to get better because. Verses 7–9 Shows us a promise of Christ to be the head of this kingdom, and verses 10–12 as counsel to all to serve Christ as the head of the church and head of this kingdom. What we realize in Psalm 2 is that God’s kingdom is going to be established with Christ as King.

It’s a promise, but also a celebration for those delighting in His word, walking in His way and blessed are those who take refuge in the Son! We come into this garden of prayer delighting, and honoring and loving and seeking to have Christ above all else in our life. We find delight as we take refuge in Christ, the head of the church. So, do we delight in Christ? I ask because our life is a life that must pursue to delight in the son in all things in life.

Our sanctification and holiness is not to just receive blessing after blessing after blessing, but it’s all to lead us to the one giving out and dishing out the blessing. Holiness is simply delighting in the son to be transferred into the sons likeness. It’s simply Jesus in me, manifesting through me. It’s to lead us in praise and honor and glory for the giver and not just the gift. Do we read God’s word to find delight in the Son?

Do we pray to find God’s direction, and revelation to find the kings will in all things? I want to remind you of what I said before… I believe it is possible to read the Bible with very selfish intentions. And for the most part that is because we don’t read the Bible through prayer. remember, prayer is what interrupts our personal ambition. It redirects us back to God and off of ourselves.

One of the greatest love scriptures in the Bible is John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. That’s love being given..It’s selfish of us… to only read that verse and go.. I get something… i get eternal life. Because I believe in Jesus, the son of God, i get enteral life. I have receive Jesus, so now I get eternal life.

It’s selfish of us to read that without knowing, that is not what eternal life means. Eternal life isn’t me getting life for me, eternally. Eternal life isn’t me going to heaven and playing golf for eternity. Eternal life isn’t me gaining health, wealth and comfort in this life to prepare me for an eternity in heaven. No, we can only define eternal life through Christ, through His word. What’s this gift, that we receives that cost the Son’s life?

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

One of the greatest realities is when we pray… Our chief end is to glorify God, to know Him and to exalt the Son. That’s eternal life: to know Jesus, to know him forever, to know him with increasing knowledge, and increasing admiration, and increasing wonder, and increasing joy and increasing delight. That’s eternal life. Now reread John 3:16 with the understanding that Jesus is to always be on our mind…

For God so loved the world (you and me that is in the world), that he gave his only Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in him (Jesus) should not perish (that means death away from God in hell, a part from his presence) but have eternal life (meaning a life that knows God and knows the one that God has sent.) Our life is to be reflections of his hope to a community that has no hope as we live out eternal life at this moment by admiring the son who gives eternal life and is our eternal life.

Prayer without Chrsit in mind is only prayer that aims to achieve to satisfy my longing for comfort. But!, and I say that with a big but…. If my desire is to come into the garden of prayer with Christ in mind, then my desire must not be distant from His presence, and my desire is to know more of king who rules his kingdom with love and justice , and my longing is to know Christ more intimately, not in eternity afar, not in eternity after death, but for eternity and eternity is being lived out right now for you and me at this very moment.

To walk into this garden of prayer, this rose garden of prayer, to learn from the entirety of the Book of Psalms. We must come through the archway of having delight in God’s word and delight in knowing Gods son as our king, so that we can enjoy the amazing beauty for what the garden truly is, and delight in the amazing aroma of diverse unity that we witness together as we pray together.

Do you want to know what aroma is pleasing to God? !!!! The aroma that is pleasing to God is a church, delighting in God’s word and desiring Christ above all to pray together in unity inside of the garden of prayer. Now… my final thought is this. Do we ever leave the garden of prayer.. Well, no. Our life is to be a constant life of prayer. Paul reminds us to; “Pray without ceasing,” He said, “in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Quench not the Spirit.” (1 Thes. 5:17–19.) We give thanks. We pray without ceasing. What we learn is that prayer is realizing that we are carrying the presence of God with us wherever we go. And so, our prayer life changes. We no longer pray with anxiety but we pray with calmness: Colossians 3:15-17 We no longer pray with fear of rejection but now we pray with boldness and courage. And we no longer have indifference to others and the world but we pray with compassion and to have compassion for both.

And what we find when we exit our time of prayer is that we do not get up with burdens, or pain, or anxiety, but we get up and walk a life with praise. Let’s do that today! Let’s stand together as I give our benediction. As you stand, turn with me to Psalm 150. You see, if the Psalms is a garden of prayer, and Psalm 1 and 2 are the archway.

Then the final Psalm in this book show us an example of a life that lives in the garden. Let me read it with you… Read Psalm 150 As you leave here today, praise him. Show the world why you praise him in the storm. Show the world why you praise him when life seems tough. Show the world why your love for His word and His son, our King is important…

Show the world your daily walk in the garden of prayer by praising Him, by praise the one true king, by praising Jesus with your life. Praise him… and let the aroma of prayerful unity saturate every life you come into contact with this week. Let’s pray. *

A Desperate Heart

This week, on Wednesday night. The Lord jolted my heart awake. I awoke to find myself looking down a long black tunnel with a light at the end. There was this sense of urgency that came over my heart and all I could do in that moment was pray, “Lord, I am but a sinful man… I’m sorry, forgive me of my sins… and before he lifted from me I asked, Lord, If we’re going to move forward as a church we need to be desperate for you.

help us as a church be desperate for you” As soon as I prayed the Lord lifted His presence and I went back to sleep. As soon as I woke up early in the morning I came out into the living room and I began writing in my journal. All I could think about this week was, are we desperate for God’s presence. Our culture today doesn't seek the Holy Spirit anymore.

The church no longer needs the Holy Spirit anymore. I wager it is safe to say, that in our culture today, and in the churches of today, we’re a part of a religious system that has created a whole host of means and methods for doing church that, in the end, requires little, if any help at all from the Holy Spirit of God. We’ve created a church atmosphere where we no longer fall to our faces and fast for the church to grow.

We have marketing to do that. We don’t have to bring the crowds in through prayer anymore. We pay others to do those things for us. We talk of revival but we’re not willing to show up to a prayer meeting to seek revival. Have we grasped why prayer must become our native language of our heart if we are to be set apart and from the kingdom of God? Has prayer increased in my life.

J.I. Packer. Once said, "Revival is the visitation of God which brings to life Christians who have been sleeping and restores a deep sense of God's near presence and holiness." This is what packer is saying, “if we desire holiness and God’s presence We cant expect God to visit if God’s people aren’t asking Him to Come and expecting Him to come. This might be a bold statement but I do not believe it is an understatement.

“the greatest hindrance to the advancement of the glory of God in the world today is the attempt of the church of God to do the work of God apart from the power of the Spirit of God.” And so I ask, are we dependent on ourselves or are we desperate for His Spirit? Are we desperate for the Holy Spirit in our lives? Are we desperate to gather to pray?

Are we desperate to see People who we love come to Christ and for them to find a passion serving God and expanding His kingdom? Are we desperate for the Holy Presence in our life to consume our hearts with the Love of Jesus and the love for Jesus? Let’s turn our bibles to Exodus 33. As your finding that chapter in the front of your Bible, let’s stand together as we read together from the word of God.

Exodus 32. 3 All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” 5 Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf.

Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!” 6 The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry. 7 The Lord told Moses, “Quick! Go down the mountain! Your people whom you brought from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. Now turn with me to Exodus 33: 1-3 “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.” Now, go down to verses 15 with me… Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?

What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory In chapter 32, Moses goes up the mountain to receive the tablets and while he is gone, the people who have walked with God and Moses are now talking Aaron, Moses’s brother, into creating an idol.

Most of us know this story as the story of the golden calf. The word says in chapter 32 verse 5, 5 Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Now, why is this important. It’s important because it shows us Aarons focus. Did you notice where Aaron was looking. He was wasn’t looking for God’s presence, but he was focused on what the people wanted.

He was being a people pleaser not a God pleaser. And When he saw how happy the people responded to what he approved to be done, he was excited to please the people by giving them what they wanted. I can assure you, this is and will always be a terrible idea. Lao Tzu an ancient chinease philosopher and founder of Taoism once said, “Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” Larcrae a modern Christian wrapper once said, “If you live for peoples acceptance, you will die from their rejection.” What we learn from Aarons decision is that Living for the approval of others is never a worthy goal.

He’s living for the dependence on what others want him to do. And before we get mad at him… and say wow, Aaron you blew it. Let’s just be reminded that there isn’t much difference in todays churches. In todays world, there’s a lot of Aarons who I believe mean well, and may even say that they are Christian and they even come to church and perhaps even serve, They know a lot about God.

but there is a difference between being a Christian by name and being a Spirit filled Christian who is in desperate pursuit of God’s Presence. The danger is, a christian that does not seek God’s presence is liable to seek the approval from others. Of course, God knows what is going on at the base of the mountains and He sends Moses back to them. Moses comes down the mountain and the people of God are worshipping this golden calf and indulging in all kinds a revelry.

Which Basically means, they are having this big huge party. It’s a big celebration. And guess what.. God was never invited. And in this moment, Moses begins to intercede for the peoples great sin against God and by the grace of God only 3,000 people die that day. So there Moses is. Standing before the people, interceding for the people. Pleading with God. God tells Moses, Listen, I made a promise.

I promised to give you this land. A land flowing with milk and Honey. It’s yours, go, leave here and go take it. But, and it’s a huge but… i’m not going with you into that land. And it’s an amazing offer… right? God is essentially saying. You can have it. You can have the blessing you want apart from the presence of God. How would you respond this morning if God came to you and said, you can have the blessing.

You can have what it is you desire, Peace, comfort, a church setting where it requires no sacrifice from you. You can have this promise, but my presence wont be with you. How would you respond? Be careful as you answer that question. Isn’t that exactly the kind of Christianity we have pursued today? Pray this prayer, go to heaven. Come and experience the great atmosphere and blessings of God. You don’t even need to live with Him as your savior and your God.

You don't have to experience HIs authority over your life on a moment by moment basis. We can set up a church where we live in perfect peace and comfort and there is no need for the desperate prayer of, Oh God, we cant move without you. Isn’t that the kind of religion the world is setting up? Moses pleads with God, God, I cannot even move one step forward without the fullness of your presence.

Keep in mind we’re asking the questions, are we dependent on ourselves or are we desperate for His Spirit? Why should we be desperate for the presence of God? We’re desperate for the presence of God because we have a god that we cant even fathom. We can’t Fathom HIm. Moses in verse 18 says: Now show me your glory! What a bold statement. Can you imagine standing before God and saying, Lord, show me your glory?

Think about this, Moses seen His glory in the burning bush, he was front row to the plagues in Egypt. He just went up the mountain and seen the glory of God. If there was anybody who had witnessed the glory of God it was him. But how can he ask such a question? Can I see your glory? He asks because once you taste the glory of God, you have this insatiable desire for more, and more, and more and more, and more.

When a Christian comes to Christ and we realize we have be saved by the grace given to us by God. My sins are forgiven because of Jesus Christ. All throughout that christians life, don’t we yearn and want and desire to be faithful christians. There is one saying I am guilty of and it’s this, Lord, I want to pray more, I want to read more, I want to be involved more.

I want to know the depths of your love, and understand you word more. I’ve heard it all almost be very church I’ve attended, pastor., I have this huge desire to know the Lord more than I do now, but I just struggle with actually do it… Do you know why we yearn and struggle for those things… We struggle because we’ve never been sanctified. God calls us to become holy.

But honestly, do you want to know why we’re not where we want to be and it’s only a desire within us? Because for the most part i am convinced that the church has failed at it’s mission to teach and lead others to ask God to sanctify them. The church of Christ has failed at being the church led by Christ. And if were not a church led by Christ then we will never be a church sanctified to Christ.

because we wont pursue him in desperation. Aaron’s issue wasn’t just not knowing, His issue included the act of looking to the people for their approval. QKListen church, we’re not sanctified by what others think we should do. We’re sanctified because we’re desperate for God’s presence to control all areas of our life. Moses had spent time praying and being in God’s presence. Perhaps I am wrong, but I haven found anything where it says, Aaron was taught any better.

He was a Jew, he knew of His god but he never really been taught how to intimately know God. Learning to be in constant prayer and teaching others to walk with God is the best way for the anyone to begin to see that they are lacking a real relationship and commitment. Prayer is what redirects our hearts off of ourselves and back onto Jesus. Prayer is the native language in the kingdom of God.

Prayer is what looks upon the throne of the Lamb and says to the king of kings, I am yours, Save me Lord. It’s intentional.. intentional relationship that develops through prayer. Just keep reminding yourself, relationship happens when we intentionally show up to be relational. When we realize who we have in us and we pursue a relationship to the Holy Spirt in our lives, it changes what comes out of us.

Visible Fruit can only be produced when we’ve had the Holy Spirit planted in our hearts and we water our relationship with him through daily prayer and reading out bibles. Listen church, if all we ever want see the Spirit of God as a force and an it and not as a person. We will always try to wield it rather than yield to Him. Secondly, We have a family we cannot forget.

Moses is doing what in verse 15 and 16.. he’s praying. And Not just for Gods amazing blessings for himself but for God’s blessings on the people. For 12+ weeks we gathered on Sunday night to pray, and on those nights we prayed for you. Our family. We are a family. We have a family here. We should be an earless church because your ears should have been burning so badly because of all the prayers for you that they should have fell of in a dusty crisp.

I don’t know who said it, but It’s in my heart.. “The greatest gifts we can give to each other, is to pray for one another.” Why would we pray for one another. Well, Galatians 6:2 tells us, “Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Prayer unites us in community under the lordship of Jesus Christ. And it lightens the burdens of each believer.

Did you know that It is a loving act to pray for someone and join them in taking the pain of their heart to God. My heart is to see the Spirit of God move among His people here at Twin Hills. No one will see the Spirit move if we never tell of how the Spirit moved us. But let us remember this… ultimately, God’s work is individually, but it’s also about a people being conformed into the image of Christ.

We are together in this. Lastly, You probably knew it was coming. We are to be desperate for God because we have an mission we can’t fulfill. Moses looks at what God is calling him to do and he examines the task that God has put before him. He’s called by God to lead these people into the promise land, and guess what he says, ……I can’t do it God. I cant do it.

God, there is obviously an issue, there’s a conflict in what you’re calling me into vs the resources that i have to do it. He sees the depth, and the magnitude of the task that he has and that drives him to desperation. Perhaps one of the reasons we lose the sense of desperation for the Spirit is because we lose sight of the magnitude of the mission to which we have been called.

Think, just this week this world has seen countless innocent lives killed by war and murder. We watch the news and see the divide over politics and masks and vaccines and race. This week we’ve seen the anger and fighting over abortion. People are dying all across the world with little to no knowledge of the gospel. There’s a world crisis over hunger and people needing homes and security for their children.

As long as we think we can program our way out of this in the church, then we are hopeless. When we can say, “God, this task is too great for us to do, we’ve got to have your Spirit,” then we will understand. We have an assignment that we cannot fulfill. This is why we have to be desperate for His Spirit. Church, on this road to Pentecost. Ask ourself.

How desperate are we for the Holy Spirit to come and be a very intimate part of our life. Jonathan Edwards said, in the middle of the Great Awakening, “When God has something very great to accomplish for His church, it is His will that there should precede it, the extraordinary prayers of His people.” As we stand together, and prepare for our benediction. Let me give you four prayers.. May God’s presence come down.

Psalm 44:23, “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself!...” Psalm 80:14, “Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see!” Awaken us. May God’s presence come down in our hearts in a powerful way this week. May God’s Word come home. In Nehemiah chapter 8, Ezra opens up the book and everybody stands. They lift their hands and start shouting, “Amen! Amen!” They bow down with their faces to the ground in response to His Word.

In 2 Chronicles 34, “We found the book, the book we’ve neglected, the book we’ve ignored. We found it!” It sparks revival among the people of Israel. May God’s Word come home. May we receive His Word. May we receive the Word like they did when Ezra opened the book in Nehemiah 8 and people responded and worshipped. May we reproduce His word. Im not up here talking to entertain us.

I am up here giving eeryoje the word of GOd so that it can equip us to be ready and willing to walk into what God calls us into. lastly, May God’s holiness come through. I am praying that apathy be struck down in this room right now in the name of Jesus. I am praying that complacency be struck down and a fresh eagerness and desire to know the glory of God through the power of the Holy Spirit overwhelms our hearts.

I pray you walk out of here asking the very important question, how desperate are we for the presence of God in this church and in this community? Let’s pray Father, we come before you and express the depth of our need for your grace in this room. We know that not one of us sits where we find ourselves now by our own merit or work. We are saved by your grace.

We have your Word by your grace. We are dependent on your grace for the next breath that we breathe. We need you in every way. We pray that you would give us the sense that Moses had of the danger in trying to move one step forward, in our lives or as your church, apart from the power of the fullness of your presence. That you would give us hearts that cry out, “Show us your glory.

We want your glory. We are desperate for your glory” We pray that the power of your presence would be manifest in this room this morning—be clear, unmistakable. That your Word would ring in our ears and our minds and our hearts as treasure. We pray, God, that you would purify us and, by your grace, transform us this week. Awaken us. God, we pray that you would awaken us to your glory and to the reality of the things you say in your Word.

God, awaken our hearts and our minds to see you for who you are and to enjoy you and delight in you and worship you, to stand in adoration of you and to proclaim you—along with our persecuted brothers and sisters—to the nations. Father, we pray that your Spirit would permeate our time together in a supernatural, extraordinary, indescribable way. We pray, knowing that we can do nothing to manufacture that or make it happen, knowing that it is all according to your sovereign grace.

We plead God, show the fullness of your presence to us in your Word tonight. Help us experience your presence in our lives and in your church tonight. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.*

The Prayerful Person

I don’t think I have ever met someone who enjoys to wait. And yet we spend most of our lives doing exactly that. Sometimes, waiting is just inconvenient. We wait for phone calls, many of us are waiting for vacations, and even this week I know some were waiting for doctor’s appointments. We wait in grocery-store lines, we wait for our Amazon packages to arrive. I tell Alicia often, I’m envious of those who live in larger cities that can order something on Amazon and it says it can be delivered today.

That’s amazingly fast. Waiting is a part of our childhood years, we’ve waited, year after year, for Christmas morning. Teenagers are waiting to get that taste of freedom to be able to drive. When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to be older. Some can’t wait to get married, and there are some who are waiting to be engaged. And so what we really is that life is full of waiting.

Waiting is also a part of our spiritual life as well. We’re waiting for healing and answered prayer. We’re waiting for God’s direction for our life. We’re waiting on the return of Christ. And just like we’re waiting for the second coming of Christ, the people in our story today know all too well what waiting was like for the first coming. Simon and Anna have waited their whole life to see the arrival of the long awaited messiah.

Think of it like this… it’s been roughly 700 years since Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would come. And Simeon and Anna are a part of this generational strand of passed down hope that would have been taught to every generation. This also includes the 400 years of silence. The last 400 years were years of silence from God. Which means no new prophets were raised and God revealed nothing new to the Jewish people.

So our story begins in Luke chapter 2… But as we read, I want to ask a question… “What is God trying to teach us about how we should be living and waiting in these last days until Jesus comes?” What can we learn about waiting that will strengthen our witness, or strengthen our faith, or even help us be the generational strand of Hope to our kids, and to our grandkids while we teach them to hold onto the hope to come.

One of my biggest fears is that our hope today, will hinder the hope of tomorrow because we haven’t learned to wait well. Let’s read… verse 25 - 32 While in the temple, they meet a man named Simeon. The first things we learn about Simeon are four qualities of his character. He’s righteous. Righteous seems to be the main thread to every person who’s played a role in the birth of Christ.

Zechariah, Mary and Joseph have all bee found to be righteous, and now Simeon. Righteous doesn’t mean he was perfect or that he was better than others. What it means in a nut shell is that he loved God and he loved others. Secondly, we read that Simeon is Devout. Being Devout has to do with his habits. He didn't just think about being righteous, he put rubber to road and he developed a habit or routine of performing righteous acts.

Good Spiritual Habits are amazingly important in the life of a Christ follower. We’re talking about the habits of prayer, Scripture reading, devotional time. But also habits like generosity, and gratitude, and service. He’s looking for the consolation of Israel… now that’s a weird phrase right? Consolation means comfort, hope, restoration. But in this context, the consolation of Israel.. it means he’s waiting for the one that will come as God’s promised to comfort all.

He’s looking for the one who will bring comfort to a broken and sinful world. He’s waiting for the one called Emmanuel. The one who would comfort all. Fourthly, Simeon is Holy Spirit led. He’s righteous, he’s devout, he’s looking for the promise of God, he’s looking for the one who will be the consolation of Israel… and now he’s being led by the Spirit to the temple. Verse 27 says: “That day the Spirit led him….” Learning to be led by the Holy Spirit takes time, but it also takes everything we just talked about in the life of Simeon.

This is the meat of what I want to talk about today, became being led by the Spirit takes, righteousness, devoutness and seeking Christ above all other things. But I also believe that in the context of loving God and loving others, being led by the Spirit is the key to waiting well. So how is one, led by the Spirit to wait well? It begins by acknowledging from our hearts that we are helpless to do any good apart from the enablement of the Holy Spirit.

Paul says: “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing.” Jesus tells us in his high priestly prayers, without me, you can do nothing. Of course we can do something…The only thing we can do without Christ is sin. That’s it. If you’re heart has been awakened by Christ and you now have this war of desires going on within you… you have two options, give in to the flesh and sin, or realize there is nothing you can do but surrender to grace.

We cannot do anything pleasing to God without the constant enablement of the Holy Spirit. And so, Acknowledging our utter dependance on God is the first requirement to Spiritual walking. Then Acknowledging leads to grace filled prayer, Paul says, Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (Ephesians 1:15-23) What does it mean to be constant… it means to be persistent in prayer. Persevere in it. Stay at it.

Be devoted to it, Don’t give up or slack off. Be habitual. Be devout. Let prayer consume your daily life. Constant means that we should treat prayer the way we treat eating and sleeping and doing our job. But keep in mind this… prayer isn’t your life line to get blessings from God. This took me forever to learn.. Let me share with you an excerpt from the book, “If you will ask,” by Oswald Chambers.

Oswald writes: prayer isn’t a part of the natural life. “If we do not pray, what will suffer is the life of God in us, which is nourished not by food but by prayer.” “Prayer is not a means of self-development; we do not find that idea in the Bible. And prayer is other than meditation. Prayer develops the life of God in us. When we are born from above, the life of the Son of God begins in us, and we can either starve that life or nourish it.” Prayer is our connection with Jesus through the Spirit that builds our relationship with the Father.

And through Prayer, it leads to relationship, it leads to trusting: Trusting is the meat of our faith, trusting faith is developed by praying in the Spirit. How does that work? Think of it like this… A lack of faith is a sign of a weak prayer life. Prayer provides the unceasing and continual contact with God. We can call it, Practicing the presence of God. It’s being and searching and following God’s presence at all times.

The prayerful person becomes the faithful person, not the other way around. Hebrews 11:6 - But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. You see, the reward of prayer and faith isn’t given to everyone… it’s only given to those who actively seek it, by faith. The gift of living faith, not dead faith like James tells us, but living faith is actively seeking Christ.

And in the process of trusting Christ, and living faith is produced, it leads to serving. In my infant life as a christian, serving was always my number one. I would skip Acknowledging, I would skip prayer, I would skip trusting, and I would serve because serving is a command. But that’s not learning to walk by the Spirit. Galatians 5 says: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Listen, church, There is no walking if there is no living in the Spirit first. Living in the Spirit, must be first priority. Acknowledging, Praying, trusting by faith are all prerequisites to live in the Spirit, and then, because of those things, and we are pursuing a Christ centered life , we act accordingly, we walk in the Spirit. The final step in walking in the Spirit is this… Being thankful.

It’s gratitude. The final step in walking by the Spirit is learning to be thankful for all Christ does in us, and all he leads us to be a part of that out of us. Remember, sin wants to steal the glory of God, walking by the Spirit takes that glory we receive from our service, and we in turn lay that praise down at the feet of Jesus. Look at Simeon’s life in verse 27..

it says: he was guided by the Spirit (Meaning he was acknowledging, praying, and living by faith that led him to to the temple that day)… then look down in verse 28… he took him up in his arms (Speaking of Jesus), and he praised God. Walking in the Spirit will always lead a person to praise God in all things. But Simon wasn’t the only one praising God.. Anna was too.

Anna, in verses 36-38 shows us what happens when we praise God… Look in verse 38.. 38 She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem. When we righty praise God, it leads others who are walking the same life as we are, to praise God…

and did you notice what she did… in her praise, she began to evangelize and preach Jesus to others. So let’s go back to our main question. “What is God trying to teach us about how we should be living and waiting in these last days until Jesus comes?” Waiting well requires a focused heart. Ask yourself… what is my heart focused on? Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” Have you sat down and asked, what does my heart desire?

Paul tells the phillipians “It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13 NIV). When we want God’s direction for our lives, we should get our hearts desires out of the way so that we can honestly say, “God, I’m willing to go either way — whatever you want is what I want.” Six words I’ve etched into my heart over the past 8-12 months are this…

“I can trust God with this.” I can trust God to heal the hurt caused to me. I can trust God to heal the hurt I’ve caused others. I can trust God to fill the emptiness that I feel, or the loss I experience. I can trust God to speak to me through his word. You see, A heart focused on God, is a heart willing to wait upon God. One good test to know God’s desire…

It’s the test of time. It’s learning to wait well even when the waiting is hard. It’s saying with David in Psalm 31:15.. My life, my every moment, my destiny—it’s all in your hands. So I know you can deliver me from those who persecute me relentlessly. I’m willing to go either way — whatever you want is what I want.” Secondly, Waiting Well Requires Focusing our Habits Simeon was devout.

He was persistent in his faith. When I was a youth leader, I asked a great man of prayer, teach me to pray like you pray. When you pray, it’s powerful, and worshipful, and imaginary, and absolutely amazing… He looks down at me and goes.. Matthew, I can’t teach you that. I never knew what that meant until I learned this phrase… It’s more caught than taught.

What does that mean… it means that our faith is a matter of the heart, not a cold belief in a set of facts that someone has taught them. I can teach you all about Christ… but you gotta want it… you gotta have a heart change and then pursue it. I had to learn, prayer isn’t something you can teach another, it’s got to be something that springs from a heart of gratitude and thankfulness.

Examine your habits, find another family to do life with. Start a small group. One that aims to love and forgive, and pray, and learn and do life together. Listen, life gets messy, isn’t it better to get messy with others. In West Virginia we went mud bogging all the time… it’s a lot more fun when others are getting in there and dirty with you. And Finally, Waiting Well Requires Focusing our Hope Hebrews tells us: We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:19 The anchor represents safety. The early Christians would use it as a symbol of Hope. When the writer of hebrews says, this hope is an anchor for the soul, it means it’s supporting steadfast hope during any trial or doubt.

Anchors are really neat tools used by ships to slow down them down and to stables the vessel. It’s like a brake. When our hope is focused on Christ, he becomes our stability. He becomes our anchor. When my life is drifting from God, The anchor pulls me back. Listen, you will always drift in a storm, without the right anchor. Our anchor is God’s presence… the best Scripture that teaches us this is the Shepards Psalm.

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4 NIV). So as I close let’s ask… “What is God trying to teach us about how we should be living and waiting in these last days until Jesus comes?” He’s trying to tach us that “Love is found by looking back to the witnesses, up to Jesus, and forward to joy."*

Value of Silent Prayer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Silent but reliable. *

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*

Holy Scripture

“IN THE BEGINNING, God . . . ” (Genesis 1:1). “There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job” (Job 1:1). “Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus” (Luke 2:1). “There came a man sent from God, whose name was John” (John 1:6). “Jesus said, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers’” (Luke 10:30). What’s one thing all five of these scriptures tell us?

They tell us that God is telling the world a story. This story begins in eternity past and stretches into eternity future. This story includes people like Noah, and Joseph and King David. It includes Peter, John and Paul. It includes famous people like Joan of Arc, Leonardo Divinci, and Napoleon. And it includes ordinary people like you and me. All throughout eternity, we find etched into time and space different stories from all different kinds of people, and from different generations.

And the theme of this story is shalom. It’s a story of peace. I believe it’s a story of God restoring peace. Meaning that all things in their created place, doing what they were created to do. And it’s simple… we are created to be in loving relationship with our creator and in harmony with one another as His creation. At some point in our life, we realize that as humans, we are living our lives as a story.

We are born into stories. We have been raised in stories, and we are living and we will die in stories. And what I find interesting but yet humbling, is that God has invited each of us to play our part in the over all story of life by living in this grand story we call faith. Whenever we have to answer a big question — who am I, why am I here, what should I do, what happens to me when I die?

— we tell our story through the lens of faith. Faith is more than just a thought. It’s more than just having good intentions. Faith at it’s very core is to be lived out through our lives, in the over all story of life. Did you know, that There is no other way to to please God than by faith. Think of what the writer of hebrews tells us from the message paraphrase translation, 6 And it is impossible to please God without faith.

Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. What we realize is that Faith is not merely holding to certain teachings, or holding onto traditions, or anything else… but rather Faith is a strong conviction that the world around us is part of a greater plan and story. God’s Story. Faith means that although at times the world looks chaotic and uncontrolled, we feel deep down that this chaotic world is not where we truly live.

That, our existences are guided by God’s strength and power. When it comes to this journey, what we learn is that our faith journey begins by understanding how our story fits into God’s story. But for that to be true we need to understand God’s story and how our story fits or belongs. I want to take a moment and read to you our stance as Nazarenes on what we say as a denomination, of what our belief is about the Holy Scriptures.

“We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, by which we understand the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation, so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith.” Now, We hear some big theological words in this article of faith..

The first one we believe as Nazarene is in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Spirit put a burden upon someone’s heart to write about a particular topic or event and guided them with thoughts or memories in order to bring about God’s message. Which simply means God intentionally gave to us his word. That’s what theopneustis means. It’s, Divinely Inspired, meaning that it was delivered to us intentionally from God.

Think of it like this, salvation is a gift, mercy is a gift, grace is a gift, but did you know, the Bible, the words of God, in its entirety, is a gift, to us from God. No one can say, “God does not speak to me.” That’s untrue. God throughout every life on earth, in eternity past and eternity forward is always trying to reach the heart of man to bring mankind, or humanity back into the story of peace through the salvation of God’s son, Jesus Christ.

We learn from this gift, the word of God, is that It teaches us everything we need to know about how to be saved, reconciled to God. Martin Luther said,“The Bible is the manger in which Christ is laid.” We derive no doctrine that is not verified within the word of God. With that being said, now don’t just hear what the Nazarene church believes, but what the Word of God says about itself, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed (Theo-pnuestus) and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So the Bible is important for you to grow in your faith, life and your purpose. But it’s also a call to submit your life to God’s word for teaching and correcting. Let me ask, who’s correcting you and redirecting you? Who in your life has the ability, right now, to say, hey, you’re walk is not lining up with what you’re saying it is? Is there someone, perhaps not including our solitude that you have given the right to speak life and truth into your heart?

One danger I have seen with online church is that you can learn a whole lot about faith, you can learn a lot about Jesus, but it still never provides anyone with accountability. And without accountability, our faith will always drive in the direction of our own understanding. Psalm 119:130 says, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple” When we unfold the word, it shines light in the dark places.

Light not only gives illumination, but it also gives one understanding. It enlightens what was dark. It brings to light what lies in secrete. But what lies in secrete needs to be dealt with… it needs to be extinguished. Think of Hebrews 4:12 “The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” It’s not passive, the HS makes it active in you, It cuts through the confusion and rebellion in thoughts and attitudes.

So what we learn is that the scriptures become our standard, it’s the standard to the story that we live out in our walk of faith. The scriptures must be this overarching theme of our own story. So, why do we need to read the Scripture? Well, its how we answer the big questions in life. We find the Nature of God The nature of humanity. Why are we here How to have a relationship with God How to have a relationship with each other How to live life as our creator intended it to be lived.

How to find real Joy, peace and purpose, We learn about life after death. And so, how we read the scriptures is that we read it as one grand story from beginning to end. I’ve always loved this phrase. The Bible is a love letter from God to you. It’s an amazing grand story of what God is up to in his world. One of the main problems is that many people read a few words or one act and try to make a determination of who God is by one part: It can’t work like that.

You have to understand the big story. God created humanity for fellowship, relationship and love. Humanity broke that relationship That breaking has caused imperfections, flaws, rebellion, and brought pain into this world And so, what we read is that God has been acting on behalf of humanity. He’s teaching humanity who he is He guides our lives in how the should live Then ultimately bringing Jesus to show and pay the price for humanity’s wrongdoing All of the individual stories, actions, commands, history are a piece of the journey to the grand ending of reconciliation with God.

It’s a story. It’s a A journey of restoration……. And peace. I think NT wright gives an amazing illustration on how to read God’s word. “Suppose a never before seen Shakespearean play is uncovered. It is a seven act play, but only six of the acts are found. The sixth act is missing. Several options are discussed, including having someone write the missing sixth act. Finally, it is decided to enlist several Shakespearean actors who would study and rehearse the first five acts and the final seventh act.

Then, on the night of the performance, the actors would improvise the sixth act while on stage, knowing they must be faithful to the first five acts and be ready for the final culminating act.” So what are the acts of the Bible? Act I - Creation God created all things and placed humans in the garden of Eden. Things are perfect. Perfect peace, perfect relationship, everything in creation is working as it should.

Act II - The Fall Adam and Eve sinned against God and were cast out of the garden. Sin now caused man and woman to be separated from God. Act III - Israel God chose to bring salvation to the world through his unique relationship and revelation to the descendants of Abraham. How did Abraham walk? By faith. Let’s visit what I said earlier.. Faith is more than just a thought.

It’s more than just having good intentions. Faith at it’s very core is to be lived out through our lives, in the over all story of life. Act IV - The Messiah Jesus came as the fulfillment of the promises of Israel, he came to save and redeem people through his life, death and resurrection. Act V - The Early Church After Jesus ascended to heaven, God sent the Holy Spirit to the believers, who formed the church, the body of Christ.

Act VI - (Blank) Act VII - The New Creation At the end of the age, Jesus returns to earth bringing heaven with him. The new age begins with Christ as Lord of all and his people called to rule creation. Here in a few weeks, we celebrate this reality and truth with anticipation of Jesus’s return as Christ the King Sunday. This is what that day and that feast represents.

Jesus is King, we are at the banquet supper with the Lamb. Singing and praising. But did you notice something….. Every act we find in scriptures had a story, and those story were being lived out by people use like you and me. People who struggle with financials. People who struggle with prayer and Scripture reading People who struggle with their faith and trust. People who have failed, and failed and failed, only to find mercy and grace.

We have the first five acts of human history where all of these people have struggled with faith just like we do. and then we have the final act. Our call, is to study and understand those who have gone before and to prepare ourselves for the final act. We are not called to repeat a specific act, but rather be faithful in the act that God has called us to live out our own story of faith.

There’s a song sung by Steven Green. We're pilgrims on the journey Of the narrow road, And those who've gone before us Line the way. Cheering on the faithful, Encouraging the weary, Their lives a stirring testament To God's sustaining grace. O may all who come behind us Find us faithful, May the fire of our devotion Light their way. May the footprints that we leave, Lead them to believe, And the lives we live Inspire them to obey.

O may all who come behind us Find us faithful. Church… I do not know what lies ahead…. For me, our family. For you and your family, and for us as a church. But faith isn’t in what we know… Faith is to be lived out with what we’ve learned from God’s word and then made active by His Spirit in and through us as Jesus manifests himself through us and into the world, making us all a part of a grander story as his redeemed people.

The Lord laid a very intimate Scripture on my heart this week….It comes for Joshua. 21:45 and Joshua 23:14. Joshua reminds us twice that: “Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” If you want to know what feeds our faith on this faith journey… it’s trust. Trust feeds your faith. God’ s word and his promises has always been a guide and a light to those on this faithful journey.

David reminds us, “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet, and a light for my path.” Your word.,…. Your holy Scripture. It guides us and lights the way for us… why? So that Jesus can be shared with those we say we love. Romans 10:15 says: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" My prayers for this church is this.. what ever happens from here on out…I pray: Lord, may thier story be…

that we are earthly vessel that bring heavenly good news so that Your story, Oh Lord, is lived out through the Story I live and leave behind for those to come. May we be found faithful. *

Faith - Fail

When we open the dictionary and find the word failure, this is what it tells us: Failure is: the lack of success, or the omission of expected or require action. So, an Easy way of understanding failure is by understanding that failure is an inability to perform a normal function well. So, if failure is unable to perform a function well, then I fail at a lot of things. I’ve failed at making coffee the other day.

I put the coffee in, I got my cup ready, I refilled the water resiviour, I turned on the coffee pot and then I walked away to begin my morning devotional. I began to smell the amazing aroma of a fresh cup of coffee. So I got up and went into the kitchen and guess where I found my morning coffee? all over the counter. I had put my cup on the counter in front of the coffee pot, but I failed to put my cup where the coffee dispenses.

and yes! I cleaned my mess up as any good faithful husband would do before my wife got up and saw my failure. If that story isn’t bad enough.. I did I it again on Thursday night. This time, I made tea. I put water in the machine, I placed my tea bag in my cup. I let the machine run and the tea sat on the counter to steep. I then went to bed and woke up the next morning to make my coffee and guess what?

my tea was just sitting there on the counter. I failed to remember I had made it and it sat there all night. I’ve experienced so much ‘failure’ in my life. I’ve failed in college, I’ve ‘failed’ in ministry, I’ve ‘failed’ in my marriage, ‘failed’ as a dad, ‘failed’ my friends, the list can go on and on. One thing I’ve seen throughout my life of failures is that failure can stop us from taking chances.

And at times, failure can stop us from being vulnerable and also failure can hinder us from wanting to take risks again. Failure can also prevent us from wanting to lead or trying something new. Have you ever wanted to do something new, but you fear you wont do it as well as someone else? Failure can fill us with self-pity and prevent us from believing in God’s plan for our lives.

Failure -or even just the fear of it- can destroy our faith! That’s the aim of Satan in our lives. To sift us till our faith falters and then fails. So that he can devour us as unbelievers. One thing Jesus is teaching peter and the disciples is that Satan Aims to sift our faith. Jesus tells Peter and the other disciples in verse 31, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat." That sounds kind of harsh doesn’t it?

Satan wants to sift you. He wants to thrash you around and separate you. Now, before we go forward we need to understand something. In English we read this as if Jesus was having a conversation with only Simon Peter. As if Jesus was telling Simon what Satan intends to do to him. But in the Greek language, this “you” that is used is plural. So we could interpret this passage as, “Hey, listen, especially you, Simon.

Satan plans to sift all of “you” disciples like wheat. It’s plural.” Now, this thrashing is basically meaning that Satan is looking to cause a major disturbance and then prey on those weakened through the thrashing. This reminds me of mountain lions. Mountain lions prowl around looking for vulnerabilities. They search for the weakest, the youngest, the sick and the injured. Studies have shown that they follow the scent of their prey and then feast on whatever it is that they find.

It’s the same principle in our spiritual life. Our Hope is in Christ, but what takes us from focusing on our hope? What makes us fail in our faith? Turmoil and trouble. Turmoil comes because the enemy of our hope and happiness hunts with that same instinct, and with a cold-hearted and ruthless hunger for the weak and hurting. And because he’s clever he spends a lot of his time among the suffering.

He lies in wait, wanting to consume the fragile and vulnerable. Peter here soon will begin in the school of suffering, and he is about to learn this truth the hard way. He tells us what he learned in this school of suffering in I Peter 5:8 to be “8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” Two things we need to know about Satan.

Satan has a lot of power in this world. Jesus calls him the "prince" or "ruler of this world" (John 16:11), and Paul calls him the "God of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4) and the "ruler of the authority of the air" (Ephesians 2:2). He blinds the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4) and holds them in his snare until God releases them through the gospel (2 Timothy 2:25, 26). He can take life, as with Job's children; ruin health, as with Job's body (cf.

also Luke 13:16); torment with demons (Luke 11:18); provoke evil deeds (Luke 22:3); and cause natural disasters (Job 1:19). The fact that Satan has this much power in the world should give a kind of seriousness to our lives which unbelievers don't have. Should not our prayer life increase knowing that Satan has this much power? But the second thing we need to know and be reminded of is this: Satan's power is by permission from God.

There are not two ultimate powers in this universe. There is no Flying and an equally powerful counterpart called Yang. Satan has no ultimate power in this universe. We know from Job that Satan must come before God and ask for permission to do anything. There is only one: God. When Satan wants to have the disciples, he must go to God first. So, Jesus pictures satan as a farmer sifting violently the disciples as wheat.

He’s shaking their faith. Peter pictures Satan as a lion roaming around devouring anything in his path. And the only thing that Satan can not devour or sift is their faith. So what does Jesus do… well if Satan’s aim is to sift our faith, Jesus’s aim is to lift our faith. How does Jesus lift our faith… well he does it through prayer. I find it interesting that, we as Christians struggle with prayer.

I do too… I still struggle with praying in public. Prayer must become a daily part of our lives. And it amazes me that Christian’s are able to know in their heads when they hear that we should be people of prayer, but we tend to find time for it. But why? Well I believe we know why but refuse to change the why….. I think we fail at prayer because Our faith is not as high as we might think.

We think very highly of ourselves. We stink with our own pride. What causes a person to not repent. Pride. What causes a person to not seek forgiveness. Pride. What causes a person to refuse to pray. Pride. Honestly, pride is more natural to us than prayer. Pride really takes away our reliance on God. and as long as we are self-sufficient and complacent, we don’t need to ask God for anything.

We don’t want him. It is only when we know we are powerless that we are prepared to listen to Jesus Christ and then do what he says. Prayer isn’t natural to us when humility isn’t leading our lives? And for most Christians, Prayer only becomes natural when all of their gifts, and all of their resources are exhausted. Prayer is hard because it interrupts the natural man’s tendency to seek personal ambition, and no person who is too busy has time to pray.

We must be reminded that… Prayer is what strengthens our faith. It’s our lifeline to God and it anchors our soul to God’s promises. Jesus used prayer to nourish the life of God in Him. And when we are born from above, the life of the son of God begins in us, and we can either starve it or nourish it. But prayer is how we nourish God’s presence in our life.

Now, put this into perspective… If there is an enemy that is trying to devour and sift us as God’s people and the only way for us to be safe during the enemies advances is faith, then wouldn't and shouldn’t we be people of constant prayer to strengthen our faith? If the only thing that can not go down the gullet of Satan is faith, would we not be found trusting and praying for more faith?

Jesus told Peter that he was praying for him, that his faith would not fail. And his faith did not fail. At the tomb, Peter stood and ran and stooped and looked. What he saw — or rather, what he did not see — changed everything (Luke 24:12). When a death-defying Savior prays that our faith does not fail, it doesn’t. Jesus had a plan for him. It wasn’t one without bumps and bruises, but it was Jesus’s plan, and he would pray it through.

What this means for us is that no matter how low or far we may have fallen, we again can stand in Jesus’s keeping power. We can turn again back to Jesus. We can lift our eyes to Christ and put our faith and trust into Him. But the issue is our pride. We can’t lift up our eyes to the cross if we refuse to take our eyes off of ourselves.

C.S. Lewis,, called pride “the great sin.” Every believer should read his chapter by that title in Mere Christianity. There Lewis said, “According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea bites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind…

it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began. It’s pride that keeps the world trapped in the snares of Satan. It’s pride that keeps the nations at war with each other. It’s pride that keeps a church from repenting and focusing on Jesus. As I’ve heard before, no church will move into revival unless the people want and desire it.

And the only way to receive it is through the repentance of sins and coming too place our eyes on Jesus Christ the perfected of our faith. All of our faith on our own is nothing but counterfeit. Any faith of man that does not yield to the sanctifying grace and power of the cross is not faith at all, but a false faith that comes through pride. Honeslty,. Pride is dead faith.

And the devil’s most effective and destructive tool in our lives and in the church is to get people stuck on their faithless pride to devour them. So what does Jesus do, he prays for Simon, he prays for the disciples and he’s praying for us… Hebrews 12:2 reminds us to what? “To fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith… Jesus — full of grace, who is risen from the dead, prays for us, guiding us when it feels like we have nothing to offer, when we feel like we’ve ruined our chances — Jesus says to us, “I can still use you.” I want you.

I don’t care of your failures, Jesus said, bring them to me.. and I can use you….. turn your eyes on me, and I will perfect your faith. Isn’t that what we sing in our hymn books? O soul are you weary and troubled, No light in the darkness you see, There's light for a look at the Savior, And life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of his glory and grace.

The Truth is, God doesn’t see failure the way we do. God only sees something as a ‘failure’ when we quit. Put this in your heart this morning… when it comes to God’s grace and our failures.. His grace seeks nothing less than a new creation into the likeness of Jesus Christ, and the only time grace fails is when we fail by not receiving it and trying to walk in this life with false faith.

My point it this… If we already have an enemy that is trying to steal, kill and destroy our faith, and he devours the faithless. Why would we not want to look to Christ where our faith is uplifted, and strengthened and we’re kept safe from the ultimate battle of losing our souls. Why would we not pursue prayer to encourage and uplift. And if were Christians why would we not want to encourage one another.

That takes me to the final thought.. Satan aims to sift, Jesus aims to lift… and then Jesus strengthens us so that we can strengthen one another. Here Jesus was telling Simon and the disciples. Satan is coming for you. That’s a fact.. and guess what. Satan to this day, right now is gunning for us today. He wants to sift us and divide us and get our faith in Christ to fail.

And one way he can do that is to get us to turn from being encouragers. When was the last time you took a moment to encourage someone? I find in my life that when I am hurt, or feeling pitty for myself and getting down. The best way to get myself encouraged is by encouraging others. This week on Friday I was praying for for the lords anointing and after prayer at 7:58am, i get a text from a person in our church that reads, “Just wanted to say, Hope you have a good day.” Earlier in my personal devotional time I was praying Proverbs 16:24..

“Kind words are a honey, sweet to the soul and healing to the body.” So my prayer was answered on Friday…. Because my prayer on Friday morning for us as a church was this… “Jesus, if your kingdom is going to be realized here at twin Hills, it must begin with people who are seeking to be encouragers like you, and not discouragers.” That was my personal prayer on Friday for all of us.

So, what did I do? Well I left and went to Panera bread to study. The word of God that is, not soup and Sandwiches. Although… Panera does reminds me of the bread of life and Jesus makes us one like a delicious Cheesey broccoli soup. But as I was there eating and writing the message for today, the Lord said, Matthew.. my word never returns to me void. Why not put that to the test.

So… I saved an image from my Bible app with proverbs 16:24 and I texted it to over 120 people to encourage them. Because I was encouraged earlier. Out of all of those text messages, i got maybe 1-2% to respond back. But again, I'm not looking for validation as much as I am looking for open communication with others. Ya know, peolle might give up on us.. but there is one thing I can say.

I personally haven’t given up on anyone. I still believe that repentance works. But as I encouraged over 120 people. One person wrote back: “Matt, you have me in tears. I just sent an encouraging text to some of my Sunday school teachers and a prayer that God laid on my heart. I literally pushed send as you texted me. It amazes me that while I'm trying to encourage others, you encouraged me !!

God is so good!!! Thank you!” There were many more who wrote back encouraging reminders of God’s goodness. Friday was an amazing day of encouragement for me. And a test to show me that God is good and he is faithful… and he is the ultimate encourager who strengthens our faith. So I shared that text with the one who first shared encouragement. And I reminded them, that their beautiful one seed of encouremgent.

Blossomed into a beautiful garden of love and encouragement for others. It was to show them that one act of encouragement can spread like fire among people who are willing to receive it and then to return it to others. Be an encourager to others.. pride must be laid down at the foot of the cross and faith in Christ must be received through Christ who strengthens us by His prayers.

Remember what I said a couple weeks ago, before we do anything for Christ, he must serve us first before we attempt to serve others. That is what happened to Peter… on the night of His betrayal and peters denial, Satan began to sieve Peter. And on that night, God broke the back of Peter's pride. He let Peter go through the sieve, but he never lets him go. He turned him around and forgave him and restored him and strengthened his faith.

And now it was Peter's mission to strengthen andf to encourage the other ten. This week I wrote this in my prayer journal and I hope it helps you… “Sometimes God must break the backs of the prideful and the self-reliant. Jesus isn’t letting us go but taking us to a place of repentance to strengthen our faith and to restore us on the rightful path of living faith.” The great lesson for us is this…

Sometimes God must deal with us through the sifting of Satan’s sieve to get us to a place where faith can take hold in our lives so that we can be encouragers. And when we are encouraged, we should reach out to encourage others. And when we are feeling blue and down, that is a sign that we should be reaching out to encourage others. The strengthened becomes the strengthener. As we depart this morning, I want to give us two concluding thoughts for us to think about and to take home.

What if our turmoil and trouble is actually God driving us to a place of greater faith? And what if the things we deal with on a daily life are opporuntities for us to be encourgers? If we’re desiring a deeper faith, it’s going to require a deeper commitment and cost to us. A deeper life in Christ will cost us. ultimately it will drive our pride to humility. But it will cost us friends, it will cost us a comfortable lifestyle, it will cost us Financial stability.

It could cost us our very lives. Jesus tells us, we need to count that cost. To pick up our cross and to follow him. Where he leads us, we may not know. It could be through the valley of the shadow of death… that sounds fun doesnt it? I hope it’s a cruise… but we all know when we go through that kind of valley, it’s usually a slow pilgrimage.

But regardless of what mountaintop or valley he leads us to.. it’s needed in our lives at times to strengthen our faith so that we can strengthen others. So here are my two concluding thoughts… Only in a world where faith is difficult can faith exist. And only in a world where pain is real can love be proved. Faith cant exist in a world that’s easy, and if there is no pain in what it costs us to be ripped from the grasp of this world to follow Christ by faith, would we even truly love Jesus and one another?

Whenever God encourages our heart with the promise, that Jesus prays for us, while Satan tried to sift our faith, his promises is that he will not fail or falter to care for us, but he will encourage and double our joy by using the sieve to strengthen us, so that we can return and strengthen our brothers and sisters who are struggling as well. Let’s stand and pray together. *

Faithfulness

In the prayerful Scripture that we’ve been studying over the past few weeks in I Thessalonians. Paul prays, 23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We’ve learned that holiness begins with God’s peace. His Peace means wholeness and completeness. It’s sufficient, it’s all we need. His peace brings with it atonement and Atonement is the only ground of salvation, and that it is sufficient for every individual in the world today.

After we receive this peace through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we then are sustained by His grace. Receiving His grace is an everyday process. We learned that His grace is sufficient, we learned that this grace is transforming us from one degree of glory to another, and in the process of this graceful transition, Jesus is manifesting himself within us to the praise of His glorious grace. That grace is through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

He must serve us first, and serve us daily. Before we can ever rightly serve others. But then Paul finishes his prayer with one trustworthy reminder… he writes: 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. It’s an amazing reminder in our lives when we can say “God is faithful” and “we can wholeheartedly trust in Him.” There are times when as a minister I got to make tough decisions and even in the midst of those tough decisions, I must believe with a trusting heart that God is faithful.

Because, Faithfulness and trust go hand in hand but what we learn is that when it comes to trust and faithfulness, fear is standing in clear opposition as the chief enemy and divider of faithfulness and trust. Fear is the great immobilizer. Fear is what paralyzed the Israelite army before Goliath. An entire army stood still, over fearing one man. Fear from the disciples is what woke Jesus up in the middle of a storm.

Fear caused Peter to deny Jesus during the passion and fear has been the thorn in the side of the church that desires to move forward, but can not and will not because it has been paralyzed by fear. And when we let fear go unchecked in our lives, and we give it more rope in our lives and we place fear on our mantle of truth rather than faith… Fear will guide our thoughts, our decisions, our actions and even will decrease how much faith we put in Jesus Christ.

Paul says, The one who calls you is faithful. And he will do it. So the question isn’t, “is God faithful.” The question we must ask this morning is this, How do I trust in His faithfulness and walk in it by faith and not by fear? Let’s start with this: We recognize God’s faithfulness through a local church body living out His faithfulness towards one another. Meaning, “We overcome our fear and remain faithful by reassuring one another in the local church.

There are four main cords to the rope of faithfulness within the local church? Living a life of Gratitude - I am thankful for you. I mentioned a few sermons ago, I had begun to place at the end of my text messages and emails, Grateful. I am grateful. As I said, I do that on purpose. I am purposely living out and seeking to live a life of gratitude. It takes time.

The Lord is changing my attitude from selfishness and pride to one of being grateful and thankful. And that’s the first step of gratitude.. be intentional and put into practice. Trust me, when most people hear words of encouragement. The tone of their voice changes, their attitude changes. Recently, an Eighteen year-old photographer and student, Shea Glover, decided to "film “what I thought was beautiful." Without intending to, she has conducted an amazing social experiment on the effect of simple positivity and a compliment.

The reactions of those she videoed were perfect! Every person came into that photo shoot with what looked like a fake smile. As if they were hiding something. And they were… they were hiding their happiness, they were hiding their confidence. But during the shoot the photographer would say to them, you’re beautiful… and then she captured something amazing… with those three words, you are beautiful their face changed from uncertainty to raptured joy.

It’s so amazing to me how a little encouragement can become a chain reaction of praise and thankfulness. The Bible reminds us that “Gentle words bring life and health; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.” Pr. 15:4 “Kind words are like honey–sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.”pr. 16:24 A person's words can be life-giving water; words of true wisdom are as refreshing as a bubbling brook. Pr. 18:4 Unceasing Gratitude is what cultivates unity.

Gratitude helps people feel more positive, it builds a foundation of understanding and it builds confidence in one another to improve relationships. When it comes to unity and fellowship, Gratitude is what begins to build the threshold of relationship. It’s the porch to intentional relationships. If we’re looking for people to be a part of our live and to let us into thier lives, I begins with letting them know that the are worthy.

It begins by letting them know they matter and that they belong. Why not begin to build that doorway, the doorway into each other’s loves with appreciation. Fear in our life will have a way to exit when the door of gratitude is lived out within community. The second cord of faithfulness lived out within the church is fellowship. John piper writes: Fellowship is a mutual bond that Christian’s have with Christ that puts us in a deep, eternal relationship with one another.

So after gratitude, I am thankful for you. We put the practice of fellowship into place, I want to spend time with you. When alicia in 2004 began talking. That relationship began by spending 3 months on the phone encouraging one another. We would spend hours talking to one another through AIM, and we would video chat through MSN Messenger. She would have a bad day and I would be there to encourage her, and vice verse.

But the one thing that I believe drove our relationship closer was the desire to spend time in fellowship with each other. In the Greek language there is an interesting word called, Koi-known-ya. Koi - known - ya. Simply, koi-known-ia means fellowship. But it’s deeper than just fellowship. In the book of acts chapter 2 verse 42 that we read at our annual meeting. It says: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship (koinonia), to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” But you can also find that word in two other places in the NT…

the 2nd book of Corinthians 9:13. “They will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution (koinonia) for them and for all others.” in Philippians 3:10 he writes: “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share (koinonia) his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” Acts focuses on relationship among believers, Corinthians used fellowship to express generosity within community, and Paul used koinonia to describe what connects us as a local body to God and what we share with one another, our faith in Christ.

So, koinonia can be simply defined like this: koinonia is Fellowship that is lived out in relationship between God and those of us who believe in Jesus and share new life with each other through Christ. It’s being intentional about showing up. Being present with one another. I love the fact that we can record our sermons and services online. I love the fact we can go live and give the world a taste of what we do here…

But it doesn’t and should never replaced intentional fellowship within these walls. We can’t as a local church live out koinonia by not being present and showing up to work out our salvation, to live out grace and forgiveness, and actively be people of gratitude with one another. Fear of fellowship will always drive us away from each other. Fear will always look for the individual to walk alone. But walking in fellowship will always build the foundation for a living community that seeks unity through the shared new life of being in Christ.

Thirdly, conquering the fear of faithfulness takes intentional empathy towards one another. There is one truth I have held near my heart as a christian and as a pastor. And it’s this: The world will never understand what we do and why we do it. There is no way the world can empathize with our calling to walk obedient lives to Jesus Christ and also to be led and to trust in the Holy Spirit.

However, one mark of our faithfulness should be, that within the fellowship of the church should be able to empathizes with one another. The world might not understand our faith, but we should as a family of faith be able empathize with one another. What empathy does is that it connects us to one another so that we know were not alone when we struggle. Empathy couples us to one another and we walk this faithful life in unity.

My favorite sociologist Brenee Brown once wrote: “Empathy has no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It’s simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of ‘You’re not alone.’” Isn’t that what Jesus teaches us in our life? He tells us, my presence is with you.. You’re not alone. A few months ago I preached on compassion and there was a moment where Jesus had landed his boat and saw a large crowd, and he had compassion on them because they were like a sheep without a Shepard.

He said they were people confused and helpless. That means they were people who seems to be beaten down by life and every time they tried to get up they were beaten down again. And so, Jesus had compassion on them. What greater message than this, I Jesus, the Nazarene, from the town of the least of these, through the line of David, the least of the brothers of Jesse. I see you and My presence is with you…

You’re not alone. Compassion is like taking the Spiritual fruit of kindness (being friendly, generous and considerate), coupling it with empathy (the ability to understand and share the feelings of another) and that leads us to living out compassion… which means to suffer with another. I Know what you are going through.. you’re not alone. You see, compassion, Changes the way we live for God and for one another. There is no right or wrong way when it comes to compassion.

Just be present to bring presence. Just show up. Kerry Willis in his book Showing up said, “what we want is the privilege of relationship in our community.” If our primary purpose is to carry the presence of Christ in our lives, shouldn’t we be carrying him to others so that he can manifest himself within us and through us. Meeting the needs of our community, and our neighbors is the key that unlocks many more opportunities to love, to be a friend and to be there.

The only wrong way to compassion is not showing compassion at all. And that’s fear. Fear will drive you away from being compassionate towards others. Finally and lastly, blessing is the final part of casting the fear of faithfulness away from our lives. Gratitude, I am thankful for you. That’s the threshold, the porch and door into faithfulness. Fellowship, I want to spend time with you. That’s laying a solid foundation for unity.

Empathy, I know what you’re going through. That is intentionally walking in life and relationship with one another and understanding the walk and being compassionate towards one another. And blessing is saying, you are a blessing to me. How encouraging it is to receive a card from someone in the church, or a phone call from a pastor, or a text from myself, or a phone call, letter, email, text or visit from anyone in the church saying.

I’m praying for you. This week the Lord laid on my heart a family that’s very close to my heart. I texted them, I don’t want to sound weird, but I miss you. And i did. I fervently prayed for them to know the love of God this week. Yes, Shepards miss their flock. For those of you not here.. and watching online. you are missed and you are loved. Don’t make it a habit to stay at home, don’t make it a habit to not live out your faith within community.

Whether here or some were else, find a community to live your faith out in. And learn to see them as a blessing, not as a curse. Otherwise we will fall into the trap of fear, and disunity and unfaithfulness. It’s very easy for us to disconnect than to connect. It’s easier to live for ourselves and not for community. Do not let the enemy tell you that you do not belong.

Sometimes to overcome fear we need more than just compassion, gratitude and fellowship. We need to be reminded that those we love are blessings to us. You want a blessing… great. reach out to someone in the church. God has already provided you with a blessing, do we see others as a blessing? A church will grow not because of fancy programs. It will grow when we realize that Jesus has been the greatest blessing to us all, and we want to intentionally share him with one another.

Yes, That’s living out a life of faithfulness. For the most part, fear is what keeps us from living faithfully. Fear will always paralyze any effort for faithfulness. And fear within the people will eventually starve the people spiritually. So, as you leave here today ask yourself…. Where does my hope lie? Because if your hope is anchored in Christ, and you are attached to that anchor through, gratitude, fellowship, compassion and blessing, you will have nothing to fear.

Because 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. If his name is faithful, let our name be grateful. Amen. *

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. *

Generational Unity

For the past couple weeks God has impressed a Scripture upon my Spirit. And I’ve been fixated on this one thought that sprouted roots within my heart and burst forth a truth that we all need to hear. And it’s this…. “ In the final days the old and young will dream together.” My first ever board meeting as a Christian led me to believe that ministry is a war between the older generations and the younger.

I was a youth leader pursuing a calling to be a pastor. The Senior pastor had asked if I would come to the next board meeting to kind of see what goes on behind the scenes in leadership. But Before long in this meeting, I was called by the pastor to give to the board what would help our teens grow physically but also spiritually. And so I poured out my heart.

The teens don’t feel like their group is their group. They are put in a large rectangle Sunday school room with four extremely white walls, a metal desk, and about 25 metal chairs. Half of the room was closed off with a wooden divider. The teens have mentioned coming in, painting, getting some couches, some modern decorations and making the room an extension of their culture. An extension of their generation and who they are and becoming in Christ.

And since the teens were not allowed to have fundraisers, it would be nice that the teen budget could increase from $25 dollars per quarter to something a little higher to help encourage and fund fellowship moments and outings. And finally, I would suggest that the older generation make a commitment to come down to the teen room and interact, pray with, tell the stories of faith and to encourage the teens.

There was a pause that felt like forever and then one older gentleman, who’s I would say was over 60 Spoke and said, When I was a teen. We served the older generation because the older generation had the wisdom and we had the strength. Our generation served at the fellowships, we served in church services, we played softball and we did everything that was asked of us….We’ve paid our tithes, we’ve done what was asked and now we’re the older generations and we’re looking at retirement and it’s our time to be served by the younger.

Immediately in that moment, I just realized that there was a great divide between those who were over 60 and those under 20. From the moment we’re born, our birthdate begins to define you and me within a generation. Every person here today, whether you’re 8 or 80.. you are a part of a specific group of people that define what you as a group will be known for.

You have the traditionalist’s born between 1922 - 1945. Traditionalist were raise in the depression and fought in WWII and the Korean War. They are known for their hard work, their respect for people in positions of authority and they followed the rules. With heroes like FDR, General Patton & Winston Churchill. This generation is loyal, stable and detailed oriented. But they are uncomfortable with conflict, they are hesitant to buck the system and tend to be reserved when they disagree with you.

The baby Boomers were born between 1946-1964. Baby boomers were raised when there was a remarkable increase in the standard of living in America. They lived in a era of turbulent times such as the Assassination of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. Baby Boomers has a tendency to be optimist and focused more on personal gratification, growth, health and wellness and youth. They are team players, but often sensitive to critique, they tend to be judgmental and not naturally budget minded.

The GenXer’s were born roughly between 1965 - 1980 This generation were the first latch key kids. Meaning they had duel working parents and would return home often from school to an empty house. GenXer’s were children of divorce, a declining educational system, and government scandals. They witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Persian gulf war and the aids pandemic. GenXer’s are a bit impatient and tend to lack people skills.

However, they are technically literate, independent and creative and adaptable. Finally, millennials born between 1981 - 2000 This group challenged the size and impact made by the baby boomers. Raised by child focused parents, these children lead extremely busy, stressful lives full of sports, lessons and other activities which has created a generation of confident and sociable multitaskers. They are tech savvy, highly tolerant, and optimistic generation. They witnessed the Columbine shooting, the Twin Towers attack & Hurricane Katrina.

Those events have instilled into the hearts of the millennial with the strong sense for civic duty and ethical response. However, this generation needs supervision and structure, and more attention and praise than any of the previous generations. Where do you fit into this spectrum? Now, I’m not going to split us into who’s young and old. You can do that yourself and it will save me the embarrassment of saying that you’re old when you might believe you’re still young.

But what I am going to do is ask you to think real hard about this question… Regardless of whatever camp or tribe or generation you decide to claim to be a part of…. “Are you still drawn to the local church to pursue being a part of the unified body with the unified message of Jesus to glorify Jesus Christ among the nations and among all generations? Let’s stand as we read Acts 2:17 together.

(And all of God’s people said? Amen.) There is a lot we can take from our Scripture today… One, this is Peters first sermon filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Two, this is a quote from the book of Joel of a prophecy where God called Israel to repent. And if they did repent, He would pour out his Spirit on all people. But three… I see this as a unifying message of when Peter reminds us that the final last days are here.

We need the Holy Spirit in HIs fullness to be poured out into our lives. Every generation. Every person, male and female… Needs to hear this message. It’s the final days and in the final days, “Your Sons and Daughters will prophecy. You’re young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams” Not one generation or person of gender will be left out. And When the Spirit comes, he does what?

He draws together in ministry and the Sons and daughters will prophesy (v. 17) and servants will prophesy (v. 18). The Spirit will draw men and women together in ministry, he will draw low and upper class together in ministry, and he will draw old and young together in ministry (v. 17). The Spirit comes upon all, and gives His fullness to all who have bene born again by faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul reminds us that the Spirit fills all in Ephesians 5:18: 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, Paul also reminds the Corinthians that the Spirit gives gifts to all… 1 Corinthians 12:7 7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. Peter reminds us the same in I Peter 4:10: 10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.

Use them well to serve one another. But here is some truth.… It is not of the Spirit when old or young withdraw from the other or from the ministry. God gives the Spirit to make, or to transform the believer who has come by faith into a witness of the gospel that serves in ministry. Now, before you get scared when I say ministry I do not mean that every person here is called into pastoral ministry, or to sell all of your belonging and become a missionary.

If God has called you then yes, hear this as an encouragement to serve hear or wherever God Calls you in a more intimate way to glorify Jesus. But God pouring out His Spirit should be an encouragement. *

Embedded Church - Colorado Springs

Let’s open our bibles together to Acts chapter 17. As your opening your Bible. Let me just say one of the parts of unity I believe in the local church is that we get the privilege to come to worship, with our bibles, and open them up together. there’s just something special about open our bibles together as a group of believers as we anticipate gods Spirit to move among us, and in our hearts to hear his word together.

Read acts 17: 16-21 - 32 At our last General Assembly in Indianapolis. The speaker for the Friday night message was our General Superintendent Dr. Duarte. His message was around the theme, Jesus is Lord, and he commissions us as Nazarenes to go. Now, I don’t know about you. But when I hear those words, "Jesus is Lord, Go.” I felt God say to my heart what he asked very simply to Isaiah, Who will I send?

Who will go for us? I said: Here I am. Send me.” The mission of God is to reconcile people from death to life, in Jesus Christ. God has called us to be Christ filled and a space, a people, a bride, the local church that embodies the rescue plan for the entire world. And what an honor it is to be a part of what God is doing here in the local church.

One great prayer I have for us as the body of Christ is that we together will see with eyes wide open the call to be missional mined people, carrying the light of Christ into a dark world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We carry the gospel in us. Have you ever thought about this.. the gospel is an invitation. Don’t we all like receiving invitations in the mail? Don’t you remember as a kid, being invited to a party through an invitation.

That feeling you get to be included and welcomed. The treats and food set out before you for the celebration. Don’t you remember how good it felt to have the resources to invite others to your celebration? The friends and family that would come surround you to celebrate with you. Everyday God is inviting you and me with great love and compassion to the table to witness the grace of being in his great presence.

Every week, we come to the church to celebrate this great invitation to come… Isaiah speaks of the compassion of the Lord, 55:1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55 When I think of the free invitation, I also think of Revelation 22, where the Spirit and the Bride say together, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

All throughout history God has called his people to come, because he is an inviting God. Think of the two of John the baptists disciples in John chapter one where they asked Jesus where are hyou staying, what did Jesus do.. he gave them an invitation to come and see. Do you know what kind of invitation that is… its an invitation that requires no commitment. It’s only an invitation to come and witness for yourself.

Is that that what Mary and Mary experienced at the tomb after the resurrection of JEsus? Mary and Mary heard the invitation to come and see for yourselves that God is good and faithful and indeed that Jesus is not in the tomb. He calls us to step out by faith to witness the death and resurrection of Jesus. And then once we witness the goodness of God, through the Fathers plan for our great salvation in Jesus Christ, he calls us to go and tell.

So we are invited to come, and then with great love and passion we are called to go… we are invited and called, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and was resurrected in three days, and asked to step into the great commission shackled not to sin, or to our past life, but to be as a servant, and begging debtor, anchored by faith, to Jesus Christ to go and be light to the world.

Isaiah 49:6 begins to set the tone for the great commission, he says, “I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.” Is. 49:6” Jesus tells us through John’s gospel 12:46, “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” John 12:46 And then in Matthew 5:14, Jesus gives us a foretaste of the great commission by saying, You are the light of the world…

How many of you know that the gospel is not as powerful or effective if we keep it within the walls of the church? What would be the point of laughter and joy within the walls if it never pours out from the four walls of the church to the people living in darkness? We see paintings of people in hell crying out to God to save them. We read Bible accounts of the rich man begging Abraham to have Lazerus to come and give a drop of water.

Where’s the compassion in our hearts to witness first hand, neighbors and coworkers and family members of our own community living in a physical hell, right now, without Christ, without hope, without life, without light because everyday we watch people in our community live in darkness keeping the joy and the light within us and holding it from pouring out of us because we’re afraid to be labeled Christ followers. .

Keeping the gospel within the walls of the church is not going and telling. I believe that is why God has brought you to this school. To show that you are, at this very moment sitting in the mission field. You and I are literally in the mission field today. The gospel is alive. It’s alive within you and me. The light of Christ is in you and me… The gospel doesn’t need anything added to it.

One thing we do no need to do is dress up or adorn, or to make the gospel more appealing than what it already is. It’s already appealing. It’s already good and life changing and of course, it’s simple. I believe it’s simple, because I am not an educated man. If the gospel is simple enough for my Appalachian hillbilly heart and mind to grasp, it’s simple enough for anyone. So Let me give you a promise.

I am not an expert. I have no expertise in what God is calling you and me into reaching the community that is around us. I am nothing but a sinner saved by grace, and the gospel is my testimony to the world, being lived out in the world that Jesus loves us. And because of his Spirit that is within me, and with me, and for me… I can hear the call of Matthew 28 where Jesus says, I commission you to go and tell the world that Jesus is alive, IN Dr.

Duarte message he finished like this… he said “If God is calling you to GO, don’t wait until you have all the answers. Be like Abraham and go now.” How would you respond to that? Look with me in Acts 17 and verse 17, it says: 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

Paul in Acts 17 began at the temple, but then in verse 17 Paul moved from the temple into the marketplace to become a tourist, to ask questions to be curious of what the community they were embedded in beloved. He wanted to build relationship with the people to ask them what they believe, and what they were experiencing in life. And through relationship and simple conversation he was able to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So if you take notes, heres you first point… To be a missional minded church we must learn to move from the temple to the marketplace. That means we need to be where people are if we’re ever going to impact this community for Jesus. The Marketplace is where people are. That is where everyday life is lived out. The marketplace was where men and woman and children would go to buy and sell.

It’s a public space. A missional church learns that we are not fixed. And I hear all the time that we’re just pilgrims, that we’re just passing through. But I need to remind us, that our church building is not meant to be our permanent residences. It’s a tool. A missional church must learn to move beyond the confines of the four walls of the church to enter the spaces where people gather in their daily lives.

Yesterday, Stan and Anna took alicia and i out to dinner and we got to see the pinnacle of the area.. the Peyton Post office. It was magnificent. But then he began to tell us of this little store they go and meet with people. I was so encouraged. In my heart i kept saying yes, yes, this is the church. Getting out of the walls into where people live, and eat, and conversations are rich.

Do you want to know why I believe this is important? I believe this is important because it gives the church the opportunity to have it’s eyes opened to the greatest need that this world needs, and the greatest need this word needs is the gospel. Look with me in verse 16, it says, 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

If you’re to know the needs of the community you’ve to have your eyes opened. So, here is your second point… We’ve got to learn to see the world for what it is: It’s Broken. I’ll never forget the first time the Holy Spirit broke my heart for my community. There was a lot of uproar about Covid and wearing masks in school and I went to that meeting and I walked up to the pulpit and I began to pray for God’s presence, and peace and unity.

And when I turned around I began to get emotional and the further I got up the ramp to leave, the more emotional I got. And by the time I got to the main doors, tears were pouring out of my eyes and once I got into my car, I began to weep uncontrollably. Why? What happened? The Spirit had whispered into my heart this Scripture, (Luke 19:41-44) “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!

But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” I saw the world for what it was, it was broken and it desperately needed Jesus.

And just as important, I needed Jesus. We’ve become numb to the fact that this world, including those of us who showed up today need Jesus. Paul saw the idols of Athens and so his eyes were open to seeing they needed Jesus. It’s easy to become numb to our surroundings.… My bottom drawer in my dresser is broken. I fixed it once, but it broke again. And over time I began to just not care that it’s broken.

Right now, it’s still broken. And so, Alicia washes our clothes and she folds them and she takes my white t’s and she opens up that broken drawer and puts them in, and closes that broken drawer. It’s ugly…. The drawer not my wife. It’s ugly, but it also has became normal to her and i.. We have found a way to live around the fact that it needs fixed. What it has done is that, it has created within her and I this mindset that this broken drawer is normal.

We’ve worked around the issue long enough that it has become a familiar thing to us. Church, We can becomes so familiar to the broken things around us that we no longer see them as broken. If we’re ever going to pour out of the church and see the need in our communities, we need to show up to where they are, and then we need to pray that God gives us the eyes to see the world for how it truly is, it’s broken and full of idols.

What are some familiar things in your life that prevent you from seeing the brokenness of the world? Ya know, a part of repenting is being honest with how we are living our life. How we interact with people, and how we live a life that is contrary to the gospel we believe. Paul tells us romans that, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, He also reminds us in Romans, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Jesus puts it plainly to us when he tell us in John, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” That to me, would be a missional minded church. A missional minded church is an embedded church. It’s a church that embeds itself within the community to serve its community, to build deep meaningful relationships within the community. And you know what?

To build relationships with anyone, it takes Longevity. You see, the Bible tells us that Paul preached at the synagogue, then at the marketplace, and he was then invited to the Areopagus. He went from church, to the community, and basically, to a place of intimate conversation. And it’s there, when we are in those private and intimate conversations where a decisions are truly made. Yes, Church, evangelism works. We can lay tracks, we can preach in the open air, proclaiming that Jesus is coming.

All of these methods have their place and can be effective in reaching a wide audience. But, if we truly desire to make the greatest impact in our communities, we must recognize the power of being where people are and having intentional relationships that are rooted in authenticity. And keep in mind, not everyone we encounter will immediately come to know Jesus. The reality is that, like in Paul's story, some will ridicule and reject the message we share.

But there will also be those who are genuinely interested, who desire to know more. It’s not solely about the quantity of people we reach, as much as it’s also about the quality of the relationships we build with one another. When we have meaningful relationships that open up opportunities to walk alongside others, engaging in conversations that dive deeper into their doubts, thier questions, and life struggles. It’s in these relationships that provide space for vulnerability, trust, and mutual understanding.

It is within these contexts that the transformative power of the gospel can be fully realized. It creates a safe place where people will be more receptive to ask, why are you at peace? Why do you have faith.. and it’s there, in the laboratory of relationships that we can point them to Jesus, and say… because I know he, who is peace. You see church, Sometimes, we’ve got to reach people in our world that first become companions and friends of us before they will ever be willing to be introduced to Jesus.

Let us pray.. *

Praying in the Spirit

When I was on the verge of being a teenager, roughly around 12 years old or so. My best friend and I were in-separable. We would meet everyday we could during the summers and play basketball from sunrise to sunset. We would do the normal things young kids did back in the early 90’s… which was to be expected to pay outside. And yes, for the most part we were usually unsupervised and probably our curiosity got the best of us sometimes.

We also would ride our bicycles all over our small town of Jane Lew. We had another friend named Adam who lived in a couple towns away from us. Some days in the summer we would grab our mountain bikes, fill up our water bottles and we would begin a 12+ mile ride to our friends house. The only problem with that trip is was this… somewhere between our home and his home was this huge hill we had to climb.

And so, like any other person you would try to pick up as much speed as you could to hit the hill as fast as you could, Because you were hoping that your momentum would do most of the work for you. Until what? Until finally you got to a point where you had to switch gears and begin the grueling work of pedaling up the hill. For me, most times, it was about halfway up and I would lose strength and I would slow our progress by needing to get off of my bike and pushing it the rest of the way up the hill.

Over the years I did get better when I faced with the challenge of climbing in over that hill. I would say roughly around when I was 16 i was finally able to conquer that hill without having to stopping. Although it was in my 91 Ford pony hatchback… but I did it. This week, as I was praying, that’s the story that the Spirit put on my heart when it comes to walking and praying in the Spirit.

Paul remind us of that in Galatians chapter 5 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Doesn’t that sound amazing? To be led? And doesn’t it sound amazing to be led without much physical effort? As if we’re being drawn into something with ease. Something is pulling us, attracting us forward and we no longer resist but become responsive, aware, open and obedient to that leading. And then, we freely walk into whatever it is God is calling us to walk into. Even if it seems impossible.

That’s but a crumb of what walking in the Spirit is like. But our Scripture in Ephesians 6:18 isn’t talking about walking in the Spirit as much as it’s talking about praying in the Spirit. There is a difference. One is about action, the other is about relationship but both is about living a life Surrendered to God. So if we are going to understand the difference, lets begin where prayer leads us, into the relationship.

Let’s define what Paul is saying in Ephesians 6:18, What is praying in the Spirit? Oswald Chambers probably defines it best, he says: “Praying in the Holy Spirit means using the power given to us by God to maintain the relationship to Jesus Christ.” What he is saying is that we maintain and cultivate a constant need for presence. Let’s ask a very important question…What happens when we do not maintain a life of constant prayer?

Well, We starve out the presence of God in our lives and in doing so we hinder the power of God in our lives. That’s because prayer is the very foundation of our communication and relationship to God. Why do we starve our the presence of God, because most times we are self sufficient, our carnal nature, our fleshly nature will rely more on self than God. We starve the relationship between us and God by not praying.

“As long as we are self-sufficient and complacent, we don’t need to ask God for anything. We don’t want Him. It is only when we know we are powerless that we are prepared to listen to Jesus Christ and to do what He says.” So prayer is what reveals the presence of Gods. There has been times even in my life where I struggled with a constant prayer life, I struggled knowing God direction for my life.

But I also discovered that the struggle came mostly because I had a poor involvement with prayer. We can either starve the life of God in us, or we can nourish it. So praying in the Spirit is about maintaining this Holy relationship with God through Daily intentional moments of prayer. I use that word maintaining because it means to keep up, or to keep alive. keep in repair, to service & to conserve, To take good care of, look after.

Prayer life is a constant duty in the life of the Christian. IN a weird analogy its like, changing your oil after 3-5,000 miles. Putting on new tires, and new windshield wipers. Changing out the belts and batteries at certain points of being used. Washing the snow and salt off of the body of the car. We do those things for longevity. We know that if that vehicle is going to last, we maintain it.

That’s an analogy we all understand. Now put it into a spiritual understanding… When we pray, that active prayer life moves our ambition from ourselves to God. Prayer replaces our pride with humility. Prayer checks our hearts condition and then through the power of the Holy Spirit when we give our hearts to God he does his work in us. He does the work under the hood per say. So, Maintaining means to keep that going.

To not give up prayer because it leads to longevity. Just like last week, when we do not hear God, or feel God or know where he is in deep moments of our lives. When His presence seem far from us and our prayers are like smoke in the wind… Our relationship doesn’t stop, because in those moments it should get deeper and wider. God has trusted us in the most intimate way he can…

in his silence, God trusts us to make Holy decisions based on His word. Sadly, we fail at this so much… I have failed at this. And I know I am not the only one who has failed at making wrong choices when it seems God was silent in my life. I’m thankful when Jesus went into the wilderness he passed his temptation test. There are times in my life when I feel like my maintenance isn’t as well as others.

There’s times I don’t want to pray. There are times I neglect my spiritual life. There’s times when all I want to do is sleep and skip out on studying. There are times when I’ve been beaten down and I don’t want to love like Christ. And most times, it’s because my flesh is stronger and my Spirit is weak. But what pushes me forward into the maintenance? Well it’s realizing that if I tried to work on me as I did my own car in my own garage.

I’d mess a bunch of stuff up, because for the most part I'm not a mechanic and I have no clue what I am doing. And Jesus knows me more than I know myself. He’s my creator, he’s my designer. We in our life realize that Prayer is not a means of self-development; we do not find that idea in the Bible. And prayer is other than meditation. Prayer is what develops the life of God in us.

So I surrender the keys of my life over to the one who holds the keys of life. And Let him design me, grow me, use me. Kinda wish he would have designed me to be a muscle car, but all I got was the herbie the love bug. J/k But I am thankful. Not one person in this room or listening online can walk forward in the Spirit if we have not maintained the relationship with the Spirits presence where we are.

And that begins with being honest with God. And being honest with what we haven’t maintained in our relationship with God. So let’s ask, why is maintaining this relationship important? Why do we pursue it? We pursue it Because in Christ, we have found through experience that our reliance on Jesus to be far better than our reliance on ourselves. When it comes to praying in the Spirit, the first thing we learn is that we truly rely on ourselves more than we do God.

We lack reliance for one part in our life because we lack honest commitment and loyalty. Right… do we always commit to pray over every meal? Do we live what we believe? It was a couple messages ago and I asked, how many times have we gone into a restaurant with our churchy clothes, or we pray over the meal but when the waitress doesn't give us the service we think we deserved, we don’t always show a Christ like attitude of being generous and grateful towards their service.

Do we wake up committed to thanking the Lord for another day and do we go to bed committed thanking the Lord for providing that day? Do we commit to pray for others? Especially when we say, I’ll pray for you? Sometimes our lifestyle doesn’t reflect our commitment. But oftentimes our commitment does reflect on who we put our trust in more. For the most part what we find in the life of a half hearted Christ follower is that they will put more trust in performance than they do in purity.

They make it about performance, more than grace. We’re all called to live a holy life. But we fail to live a holy life because it’s easier to be in love with Christ than it is to be filled with the love of Christ. Did you heart that? It’s easier to be in love with Christ than it is to be filled with the Love of Christ. There is a difference.

The best way I can explain it is like this, being in love with Christ is like praying in the flesh and having the love of Christ in us is praying in the Spirit. We lack a consistent surrendered prayerful life for the most part not just because of our misguided commitments, but mainly because we try in our own power to pray in the flesh over the Spirit. What do I mean praying in the flesh vs the SPirit?

What I mean is this, praying in the flesh calls upon human ability and effort to push past the difficulty. And often times, life’s difficulties overcome our prayer life because we are fleshly minded than Spiritual. When Jesus was in the Garden and his commitment and loyalty was being tested. HE got up and found his disciples doing what? Sleeping. They were supposed to be praying, and of course I can imagine not just praying, but praying in the Spirit.

And he found them sleeping. And even in the midst of a great spiritual war going on while JEsus was preparing to go to the cross, he comes out to his disciples, looks at them and says this to peter in Matthew 26:41: Keep alert and pray that you’ll be spared from this time of testing. You’re spirit is eager enough, but your humanity is weak. Meaning, you’re spirit is willing but your body is weak.

Peter was willing but his flesh was stronger. praying in the flesh calls upon human ability and effort to push past the difficulty. Like the beginning of my story. Praying in the flesh would represent me trying to gain as much momentum as I could in my own power, and then trying to climb the hill and struggling to do so but I try to power through. Praying in the flesh feels like an upward climb in which we are having to power up the hill in our own capabilities and abilities.

And most times, praying in the flesh comes through the neglecting of the Holy Spirit, from neglecting prayer in our life. But Praying in the Spirit reflects the reality of the downward slope in my story. It’s like, when you begin to go down hill you can’t see the force that’s pulling you, but you feel this inward leading. This energy that kind of pulls you with very little effort towards the direction you’re heading.

Obviously we know this as gravity when we are riding our bikes. But you get what I am saying. In prayer, while we are praying in the Spirit. We surrender to the force, the power and we end up actually doing less but gaining more spiritual ground because we surrender to Him. So how to begin praying in the Spirit and being in His presence? Number one: Admitting our inability to pray.

If we want a deeper prayer life, it begins by admitting that it could pray more often than we do. Honesty will always bring with it humility. The only people who grow in truth are those who are humble and honest. When we think of Growth in the spiritual life, it takes place not by acquiring something new. Spiritual growth is taking hold of something that has always been there but you couldn’t pick it up because we’re holding onto things we shouldn’t be holding onto.

Number two: Begin to enjoy living communion with God. We’re not going to pray if we do not enjoy it. A relationship with God happens most by the Spirit through the word. Don't try to run away from the Bible to find a relationship with God in the woods or in some kind of attractive encounter with nature or with a great piece of art. Yes, the heavens are telling the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), I get that.

God does use great art and great poetry to awaken us, he uses the beauty of nature to show us his awesomeness. But if we don't center on the Bible where he is speaking authoritatively and infallibly, then our relationship will become distorted by error and sin. So let the Bible be the place where God meets you and speaks to you, and let the Bible be the place where you speak back to him.

The relationship is in this communion: him to us, and us to him. Remember eternity is right now. It doesn't start tomorrow, or next week or when we die. Eternity is being lived out right now and I fear there is a a lot of people that are waiting till they are before the throne of judgment to seek to see if they have the love Jesus’s within them. Friends, that’s going to be too late.

If you do not have the love of Christ in you now, then you’re just an admirer of Christ from afar. And the Bible tells us that those people will be told to depart for I do not know you. Regardless of your service, regardless of your years a as a Christian. His love must be within you. And finally, NUmber three: Still be at wonder of God. *

Burning Heart of Worship

Read 25 - 34 Luke 24… - When I was serving as a discipleship pastor at my first associate position. I spent some time with a friend that was heightened to the presence of the Holy Spirit. He was experimenting with fasting and in his testimony he said that one day, he decided to include reading his Bible and praying during his fasting. And in a moment as he did this, he had testified that it was like God’s presence came upon him and the only way he could explain it was, it was like sticking your mouth to a fire hydrant and then turning it on…

that’s but an ounce of how over whelming this experience of being in God’s presence was. We’re talking about a guy who dint take faith serious before that. Some time had past and January of that year he had invited me to a Bethel training conference. As we walked into this conference I knew the songs they were playing but people were worshiping a little different than what I’ve ever experienced before.

There was a lot more swaying going on. I liked over towards the front of the stage and there were people crying. I looked to another spot and there were people laughing out loud hysterically. There were your typical arm raisers and chair praisers. Those are people that just sit and watch others… Which was me my first night at this event. I went back to my hotel that night frustrated.

Because I didn’t worship. The message was good, the music was edgy and familiar and modern. But as I stood and sat in a room full of people worshipping…I asked myself… Why didn’t my heart burn within me for Christ like it was so evident in the lives of others? It was saddening. The Jesus I’ve said that I love and adore, there was nothing bursting within me that was longing and adoring for Him.

It wasn’t just saddening but it was defeating. I’ve come to worship, and people gather to worship together but the only thing for the first night I got was a huge let down. I was disappointed. And I was defeated and felt alone. At a worship conference. That was supposed to uplift and encourage. And lead others in worship. - I’m sure you’ve dealt with moments like that. Have you ever gone into a worship setting and just didn't feel like raising your hands?

Maybe you looked around and saw others deeply engaged while you felt disconnected Perhaps you questioned if something was wrong with your faith Or wondered why everyone else seemed to "get it" while you were struggling Have you ever gone into a time of prayer in your home, and just got side tracked and ended up endless scrolling through social media? Started with the best intentions to spend time with God.

Found yourself 30 minutes later reading about something completely unrelated. Then what happens? The feelings of guilt begins to settle in about your lack of focus. Or, has there ever been a moment in your life where you were going through a crisis moment, and you found it hard to worship? When the doctor's report wasn't what you hoped for When your relationship fell apart When financial pressure was mounting When loss and grief made praise feel impossible We've all experienced these spiritual dry spells: Times when our hearts feel cold and distant Seasons when worship feels more like a duty than a delight Moments when we wonder if we're the only ones struggling to connect The beauty is, we're not alone in these struggles: Even David, a man after God's own heart, experienced times of spiritual drought The Psalms are filled with honest cries of "Where are you, God?” The disciples themselves sometimes struggled to stay awake during prayer These moments of disconnection are part of our shared human experience: They don't define our faith They don't determine our value to God They're often the very moments that prepare us for deeper connection or a deeper life of abiding in Christ.

- “That's good news, we're not the first people to struggle with this. Luke 24 has 4 events but I want to focus on just one that will help us answer the question, why does not my heart burn within me for worship? Tucked between the Resurrection and Jesus appearing to the disciples, is this interaction that the Bible calls, “the road to Emmaus.” The scene opens with these two men on the road shortly after the crucifixion, lamenting over the death of Jesus and by the time we get to verse 21, we see that they had lost hope.

They had a perspective of what they thought was going to happen and when it didn’t happen to how they wanted it to happen, they were hopeless. Then Jesus appears and walks alongside them, but they don’t recognize him. And Jesus begins a Bible study with them on the road. "One of our greatest battles in our faith—and the key to igniting our hearts for worship—is that we're not always Christ-Centered.

Or to put it simply: Worship runs cold when anything else takes the throne of our hearts." Jesus begins his walking podcast with the two disciples and he calls them in verse 25, “foolish and slow in heart.” Now that’s not very pastor like is it? Can you imagine if I came up along side of you and said, hey, you’re foolish and slow in heart. But there are two things we need to remember…

Foolish means to make poor judgments and slow in heart means you can’t be easily persuaded. And both of these men testified to Jesus that they were in fact foolish and slow in heart. Now How do we know? First the woman of their group came back with the report that the tomb was empty, Now be reminded that that’s a Physical testimony. Then these women not only saw angels but they heard them speak that Jesus is alive, that’s a testimony of the Spiritual and then their hearts leaped with faith declaring Yes, Jesus is Alive.

But then men didn’t believe it…. Because once the woman came back, she did they do? they sent men from their group and look at their testimony in verse 24… Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the woman had said. Their report was only physical.. there was no reports of angels, there were no reports of speaking with angelic beings proclaiming that Jesus is alive…

And so, Jesus calls them foolish… which means they were lacking judgment.. and slow to heart because they were not easily persuaded. What we realized was that these men were practicing self belief. they were trusting their own understanding, their own expectations, their own interpretation of events—rather than trusting in God's word and His promises." So Jesus comes along side of them and he begins reveling to them the old testament Scripture.

“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” It’s a beautiful moment… because Jesus was teaching them how to interpret the Bible.. and what was his main point of this on the road Bible study?…He was pointing them to himself. Verse 27: Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

These men were not practicing a Christ-centered life… They had fallen into the trap that we all fall into.. A self centered hope. Have you ever had a moment where you said.. well that didn’t go as expected? Or a moment where you had made all of these plans and you barley accomplished any of them? How may times have we read the Bible but didn’t believe in what it had said?

How many times have we listened to the word of God in church service but it went in one ear and out the other? How many times have we heard that in the end times, the people will be lovers of self, and have itching ears of preference in sermon style and worship style but we fail to understand and believe that we could ever willingly or even unwilling fall into the trap of self pleasing or self centered hope?

And not only that… but think of this… How many times… have we been in the very presence of Christ…. But we ourselves didn’t recognize him? That’s a serious question… Is it possible to be in the presence of Jesus and not even recognize him? Lets take a minute to pause and let that sink in for a moment… I believe so… I believe anyone can come into a church service and not meet Christ because we’re experiencing just what those two men experienced…

they were centered on themselves. When I was at the conference and I wasn’t worshipping. For me it wasn’t the music. It wasn’t the venue… Jesus came to the road I was standing on and he met me at the crossroads of my own heart and held a mirror to my heart and said… Matthew, what are you centered on? I was looking over to that person and asking why are they laughing hysterically.

They were crying, laughing shouting, dancing and I was not… What was I missing? I am a Christian. I am a licscends minister. I love Jesus… I’m a follower… just like those two men were on the road to Emmaus. But Until Jesus met me on my Spiritual road of Emmaus and told me to stop making much of me, and in what I had hoped for…. And center my hope on Him, I find out I couldn’t worship when all I did was center my hope and heart on myself.

- If worship is going to passionately burn within us, we need to ask the very important question, “what am I centered on and am I making much of Jesus in my life? We all need to answer the question…and I hope before we leave here today it will be answered…… “Is my life Christ centered or am I blind too?” We all need to answer this question before we leave here today: "Is my life Christ-centered, or am I blind too?" Listen carefully: becoming holy as Christ is Holy can only go as far as we're willing to surrender and focus on Jesus Christ.

If we make church about what we hoped or expected it to be, our hope will always end in disappointment If we make much of our desires rather than our desire for God's presence, we'll never recognize Jesus's presence Think about this: If we can't recognize His presence here at church, how will we recognize Him out in the world? What are you willing to surrender to make much of Jesus this morning?

Our greatest battle for a heart burning for worship isn’t preference… the greatest battle is us. The battle for worship isn't in the song, or the style, or in anything else - the battle for worship is in the soul Your worship barrier isn't the music - it's the mirror So I ask you today: Are we centered on Christ? Are we making much of Jesus... together? - I want to close with some application…

as we ask… how can we together, here in this worship setting…… Make much of Jesus? There’s a verse in an old hymn called Come, thou fount of every blessing… and it goes on to say, Tune my heart to sing thy grace. I was watching my son one day tune his bass guitar and I began thinking… Every time you take a guitar out of it’s case it needs to be tuned.

And once it’s tuned it can be left on a stand for a few days and when you pick it up again.. it needs retuned. It needs tuned because there are forces outside of its control that effect it. The wood may shrink or expand by the rising or lowering of the humidity. the strings may be new and not so stretched out. Or they may be old and too stretched to hold a tune.

A guitar left alone will always fall out of tune. Our hearts and minds are the same. Between Sunday we spend countless hours centered on ourselves. We get knocked around by life. Sin and the fallenness of humanity sends our hearts and emotional and thoughts in all different directions… But when we come back to worship together, and the Holy Spirit begins to strum the strings of our hearts, we hear an unharmous melody.

Hearts always require tuning. And hearts always require returning as well. So how can we together tune our hearts for worship? Well first… "Start your worship engine at home" You know, there's a beautiful promise in Lamentations that shapes how I start my day. It says 'His mercies are new every morning' (Lam 3:22-23). Think about that - every single morning, God has fresh mercy waiting for you. David understood this.

That's why he wrote in Psalm 143:8, 'Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love.' He wasn't just rolling out of bed and hoping to catch some spiritual momentum on the drive to church. No, he was intentionally starting his engine of worship before anything else. What would change in our worship if we treated every morning like David did - as a fresh opportunity to fuel up on God's love?” Try starting tomorrow morning with just five minutes of worship before checking your phone” For me personally, I put my phone in my bathroom to charge over night to keep from endless scrolling at night as I fall asleep, and I begin as I fall asleep to just lay in bed, and lay my hand over my heart, and say, Father, this is yours.

"Quiet your newsfeed, amplify your soul" "We live in a world of endless notifications and constant noise. But here's what's fascinating - when God wanted to speak to Elijah, He didn't come in the earthquake or the fire. He came in what 1 Kings 19 calls 'a gentle whisper.' Sometimes we need to turn down the volume of life to turn up the volume of God. Jesus knew this. That's why in Matthew 6:6, He didn't say 'check your phone first thing in the morning.' He said, 'Go into your room, close the door and pray.' Maybe the reason we struggle to hear God in worship is because we haven't created space to hear Him in the first place.”” What if we took the the next 15 minutes of our day to be still before God instead of scrolling through social media?" Third…

"Make space for grace" You know what's interesting about King David? This was a guy who literally lived in a palace, but in Psalm 84:10 he says, 'Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.' He'd rather be a doorkeeper - literally the first one there and the last to leave - in God's house than anywhere else. Why? Because he understood something we often miss: waiting on God isn't wasting time.

Isaiah 40:31 promises that 'those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength.' When we make space - when we show up early, when we prioritize His presence - we're not just killing time. We're creating space for grace to work in our hearts." So many times we come to church not alive ourselves… come early and get a head start on worship. "Could you commit to arriving 10 minutes early just to prepare your heart for worship?” What if we showed up and we all just gathered for coffee, and snacks and prayer together?

And finally… Let your first breath be surrender" "Psalm 100:4 gives us this beautiful picture of entering God's presence: 'Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.' Notice it doesn't say 'Enter his gates checking your watch' or 'Enter his courts thinking about lunch plans.' The psalmist understood something vital about those first moments. And Paul picks up this theme in Romans 12:1 when he talks about offering our bodies as 'living sacrifices.' That word 'living' is crucial - it's not a one-and-done thing.

It's our first breath and every breath after that being surrendered to God's purposes." "What if we started each worship service by consciously surrendering our expectations and agendas?" "You know what ties all of this together? Psalm 42:1-2. I took this picture on our beautiful property this week. Which encouraged this message today. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” Our faith isn't just about following a checklist of spiritual habits.

It's about cultivating a genuine thirst for God's presence. When we start our worship engine at home, when we quiet our newsfeeds to amplify our souls, when we make space for grace, and when we let our first breath be surrender - we're not just going through religious motions. We're positioning ourselves to experience the living water our souls are truly thirsting for.” "What are you truly thirsting for this morning?

For me... it's to experience more of God's presence in my own life. What about you?"*

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*

Saturation - Week 1 - Wait and See

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alluring Love

What we see in this allurement is not to entice to trick, but this persuasion is to radically suggest a different option to the way we are living. What’s some of the qualities of alluring love… let’s look at two things.. Alluring Love never forces itself on others. I’ve always loved the Emmaus road story. and in that story, two men were walking away from Jerusalem and found themselves not only walking away from Jerusalem but also walking away from thier group.

Because the story they tell a Sojourner with them, is that they sent the woman, and then sent the men and instead of hearing the two testimonies, and believing, they began to walk away. And the word tells us that Jesus was present but hid their eyes from seeing him. This is that humble love that never forces itself on other. Jesus, comes along side of them… but he doesn’t overpower them.

Even after defeating death at the grave, Jesus still is humble and meek. He had every reason to boast and be like come on guys… you had two witnesses, but instead of putting them down, he simply showed them in the scriptures on how the word of God, points to Jesus. So, God doesn’t force himself upon the one He pursues… He simply, and freely offers a different option than the one we’re chasing after…

Those men had a choice, and the choice came when they realized that their hearts were burning… and so they turned and walk back to the 11 disciples and their group. God reaches out to the heart allured by sin and shame, and He allures the heart to himself by his love. And he simply says, would you be willing to consider something different? Would you be willing to see my goodness as greater than whatever it is, that you love more, than me.

In this moment Jesus, comes up along side of those men and walks with them, even in the direction away from Jerusalem… I often wonder about this.. I imagine sometimes, Jesus even walks those turning and walking away all the way to the gates of Hell trying to allure and persuade us to turn, repent and come back with burning hearts before it’s too late. But hat leads to another thing we realize about God’s alluring love…

Is that, Alluring Love never gives up. You’ll see that all throughout the book of Hosea… He never gives up, he’s faithful. In the love chapter of I Corinthians, Paul affirms this kind of “persevering love” Its a love that never gives up..… Paul writes, "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." And what Paul is teaching to the people of Corinth is that God’s persevering love requires relationship.

Think about Emmaus road.. an those two guys were in a relationship and walking away from relationship with Jesus and the relationship of the group. I think of my marriage often. Alicia and I have had many battles in our marriage. And I confided to you about how, 7 years into our marriage we hit a tough patch and divorce was on the horizon. We discovered that we were complete opposites.

We had love in common, but there was a lot things that we had uncommon… For instance, I’m an extrovert and she’s more of an introvert. I’m more physical in my love, touchy feely and she’s more practical, like doing and serving. What we learned during this time of hardship was, was that there was a lot of wrong and broken and selfish things in our lives, and so we were going to be determined to make this marriage work….

Not just for the kids, but because we do loved each other, and we love our kids, but more importantly, we both agreed that we love Jesus more. So, We had to learn to sacrifice for one another, and honestly what we learned was that we had to “grow up.” There’s a lot of Christians out there who’s been christians for 10, 20, 30 or more years into their faith, and their still infants in Christ.

Just because they have the years, doesn’t mean they have spiritual maturity. There is a difference between longevity of time and the deepness of intimacy when it comes to relationships. Alicia and I had to grow up, physically and spiritually. Especially since we both knew I was called to pastor a church. And although our struggles never stopped, we kept on loving, and forgiving, and showing grace to one another in our struggles.

We learned to communicate with one another. And above all… we learned we had to have Jesus as the head of our marriage. Have you ever wondered what the purpose of relationships are for? This might be foreign to you.. But Relationships are meant for holiness… It’s true. Holiness is Christ in me, but it’s also a testament to the fact that God doesn’t give up on us. Paul says: being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Alicia and I, we’re going on 18 years of marriage this May.. and here’s the thing about relationships and marriage… just because we’ve been married for 18years, that doesn’t mean we’ve gotten it all figured out. We had to learn a lot of things in 18 years… One thing we had to learn in our marriage was how to love one another in our diffenrces. We had to learn that our relationship to one another wasn’t just to make “me" happy.

If marriage was just to make me happy, then love becomes selfish, not selfless. If church is only about coming into a building and having things my way, so that I can be happy. I’ve not made my worship or church about Jesus, I’ve made it about me. I’ve not made it about relationships, but rather about my own desires and preferences. True worship and church should be centered around serving and glorifying God, and building meaningful relationships with others in the community.

And any times selfless loves is overcome by selfish love, we find at the root, a heart that becomes indifferent. Phillipaisn says, ”Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." When we make our faith about indifference rather than relationships with one another.. we risk losing the true meaning and purpose of what relationship means.

Relationships require effort, let me just add.. intentional effort, It requires compromise, and a willingness to put the needs of others before our own at times. When we prioritize our own happiness over others, and we become indifferent to the needs and feelings of others, we risk damaging or even destroying the relationship. But When we make relationship and persevering love about others, we’ll find that we can, in fact truly love without ever giving up because the one who loved us first, still hasn’t given up on us.

I think that’s the greatest example of persevering love. Did you know that there is a secrete to long marriage… do you know it? Have any of you figured it out yet? The secrete is the fact that there is no secrete…. The key to a faithful marriage is the willingness to let God’s love flow through you so that he can love others. The secrete to a long marriage is sacrifice.

Paul tells the Phillipians: “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had” what’s the attitude of Christ? Love. Compassion. Humility. Sacrifice. Imitation love, will only last for so long. If we keep trying to fix marriages with imitation, and earthly love, at some point it’s going to wear out. That’s why we need Jesus’ love in us so we can offer lasting love to others. But We first have to open our life to him; then he can love others through us.

We’re called to pursue that love… it’s called holiness, we pursue holiness through relationship. Relationship with Jesus, and relationship with others. That’s why we call it, Radical Love. Look with me in the next line, because once we’re persuaded, or allured as the text reads, God does what? “He leads her into the wilderness and speaks tenderly to her” So, Speaking of relationships, the wilderness is more than just a place of trials and hardships.

It’s actually…. a place of intimacy more than anything else. But the truth is, at first.. we never see the wilderness as a place where intimacy grows… do we? Sometimes our wilderness is learning to make new friends, or finding new traditions. I think of the many times our family had to move with my job and how many times we had to make new friends, and recreate a new circle of stability where we were living.

I remember when we first moved to Colorado and we had plans to join this Baptist church, but I listened to a sermon from them on how woman are inferior to men, I decided that wasn’t a place where my family should worship. So by God’s grace, God sent us a flier from a church that happened to be a Nazarene church, which jump started my calling to become a pastor.

It was a wilderness moment for us, I didn’t really have any desire to go to church. We only went because Alicia wanted to go to a Christmas service. When we come into a wilderness moment, usually the first response is that we want out. Many times, our attitude is: when will this end, When will the sun shine once again on me, or my situation. When will you bring me through this, God?…

The problem with focusing on ourselves in the wilderness fuels this indifference while we are in the wilderness.. Think about Exodus chapter 15 and 16. Turn with me to exodus 15 and 16. The Israelites grumble about Moses’s leadership. Fresh on thier mind is thier captivity… thier bondage, thier old way of life. And once they crossed the red sea and make it to the other side, once they stepped into the wilderness…

they began to complain. Three days into the wilderness of shur, it says, in chapter 15 verse 24: The people grumbled to Moses. That means they brought thier indifference to him as thier leader. They were unsatisfied, they were unhappy. I serve on the Help net board, the compassion ministry in Ashland, PA, and I shared with our team this week, that the Pandemic EBT funds have been eliminated from those receiving extra benefits…

And I warned our team to make sure we’re prepared for an increase need for food compassion. Because for three years, those receiving these extra benefits, are going to begin walking in a wilderness. Thier way of life for three years is about to be tested, and just like the Israelites, I suspect there to be an influx of the need for food assistance, at places of compassion ministries. Now, the Israelites brought thier concerns to Moses, but then very quickly they begin to murmur and complain, and look with me verse 2, of chapter 16.

The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. They went from coming to Moses, to now coming against him. And what was Moses response? He tells them in verse 7, who are we that you complain about us, And he reminds the Israelites, your complaints are not against us, but against God. They were complaining against God. And while they complained, If only we would have died but he Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat around pots of mean and ate all the bread we wanted.

Church, they were… They were focused more on getting OUT of the wilderness than what God would do for them IN the wilderness. The wilderness was there they experienced, Intimacy with God - God wanted to make a covenant with them. Greater understanding of ourselves (Most times our selfishness and hard heartedness is fleshed out in these wilderness moments.) Community and relationships are built in wilderness moments (God wanted the people to learn to rely on one another and support one another as they came and worshiped him.

It was a place where they had the opportunity to share the journey with one another. Grace is always best lived out in community. And it was a place of Clarity and perspective: the wilderness, is a place where we can be stripped of distractions and forced to confront our priorities and values. Jesus tells us, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” When we come into he wilderness…

God’s radical love doesn’t force himself on us, we can reject him and walk out… but it does bring us to moments where when e seek him first.. he does promise that we will find him. And I Love this part, he speaks tenderly to her… I thought about this for awhile…. Why didn’t God speak to her when he was alluring her at first? The only time God speaks, he does so tenderly, but only in the wilderness…

And I’ve come up with this… Tenderly means gentleness and kindness.. it means it’s tender, easily to cut and chew. I think this… Those who God is alluring,… are people who wouldn’t of known or trusted his voice in the first place. So he needs to be tender when he is speaking to them in the wilderness… Jesus tells us, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me..

You see, those of us who are deeper and already trusting in the masters voice, we willingly walk in the wilderness because we know and trust our shepherds voice… We know wilderness means deep intimacy and we desire to know our Master more. But those who do not know him, those who have been unfaithful, and unforgiving and unrepentful…Those still walking in sin, those who love the darkness, they don’t know his voice as, being good or loving.

Once they hear the masters voice, there’s a high chance they would turn from him… because of their shame. It’s the same reason why we hide our shame… because we don’t want others to know it. That’s why God allures us at first with his radical love at first. God’s love is his language. He tells Jeremiah, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13, New International Version) This tenderly tone in God’s voice, has the meaning of speaking to her heart, to the very core of her being.

That although, like the Israelites we deserve judgment, we deserve wrath, we deserve God coming in and saying, I told you so. We don’t deserve the allurement of a holy God. We deserve the judgment of a holy God. We don’t deserve to be spoken tenderly to by a holy God who hates sin. We deserve to be cast out and condemned forever. Yet God in His grace and in His mercy, chooses to allure us.

To bring us aside from the stuff of this world that destroys us and to speak tenderly to our hearts. And here’s what is so beautiful about this truth… This is the gospel. We deserve eternal judgment before a holy God. But in his rich love, He has sent His son Jesus, God in flesh, to bear our judgment in our place on a cross. To rise after dying for our sin from the grave to make it possible for us to be forgiven of all of our sin.

Him, united with him, in relationship with him forever lasting life. Forever and ever and ever. Let’s stand together… My final question for you this morning is this… are you being allured, or are you still running away? *