Three Wounds of Faith - Contrite

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Servant's Heart

So, what is the first attribute of a servants heart that we learn from the life of Joseph? Look In verse 19… So her husband Joseph being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly. Do you want to know what that is?… A servants heart must be righteously compassionate? What is righteousness… well, simply put, righteousness is the perfect holiness of Christ. It means, “one who is right.

“ We receive our righteousness through Christ’s work on the cross. Isaiah says: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Proverbs says: “The LORD detests the way of the wicked, but he loves those who pursue righteousness.” Paul’s says “There is none righteous, no not one”? So, if sin is considered filthy rugs, and no one is righteous, then who can really pursue it?

How can we be redeemed and righteous? That’s a really good question… and the answer is no one can on this own. “Jesus said, Apart from me you can do nothing” Our whole faith is depended upon whether or not we are in Christ. Christ is our standard. So righteousness sets the standard of our service because by faith Jesus becomes our everything. He becomes our strength, he becomes our life, he becomes our savior, he becomes the model of righteousness, and he becomes our righteaouness.

Really, that’s what holiness is… we take on the righteousness of Christ when Christ takes on our sin as his. Joseph was righteous…. By being a righteous Jew, he was careful to keep the Law of Moses, which allowed separation for infidelity (Deuteronomy 24:1). But what we realize is that you can not have righteousness without compassion, and vice versa. Peter gives one of my favorite verses that calls us into compassion in the context of biblical marriage.

I Peter 3:8 Peter writes: “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.” Compassion calls for us to be sympathetic towards one another. To be sympathetic, it simply means to put yourself in their shoes. How would your outlook be different if you spent time putting yourself in someone else shoes? There’s an old saying I’m sure we’ve all heard it… “do not judge a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes”.

It means, to see something from someone else’s perspective… and that’s tough, is it not?. Because for many of the people we see come into contact with, Most times, we will never fully know or understand what they have gone through in their life. A great thinker of his time named Obi Wan Kenobi once said, “Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view”.

One of the hardest things in our Christian walk is setting aside our ego, and our perspective to consider a different opinion from someone else. Just because someone has a different opinion than we do, it doesn’t make them wrong. Most truth is subjective anyway… right? Most truth is filtered through our experiences. But if we’re ever going to understand others and consider different opinions from others, it’s requires us to sympathize with them.

But, there is a danger here by putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes and trying to see from their perspective.…. We, have a tendency to always view ourselves as the hero to every story and we also have a tendency, that when we put ourselves in other peoples shoes, we rarely ever see ourselves as wrong, or even as the villain. Typically we put ourselves in their shoes and we go…

why don’t you just get up and go. Or, This is what I would do in your situation. We say those things and we don’t even know what resources they have available to them.. We just assume they have, all they need, just like us to get through. It might be surprising, but we have been geared our entire life as always looking at ourselves as the pinnacle of our life.

And so, sanctification and holiness is always a direct attack on our hearts because it requires a kingship change of our hearts. Holiness requires surrender. And seeing others in the eyes of Jesus requires his Rightirouness. The bibles says: Phillipians (2:4) Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Romans (12:10) Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

(1 C. 10:24) tells us: Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. And so where does this loving others and being sympathetic towards others come from? It comes from our pursuit of putting Jesus at the center of our lives, and living and pursuing HIs righteousness, while we pursue a deep loving relationship with God. That’s holiness. Jesus, I want to be one with you as your are with the Father!

Isn’t that what our Scripture says about being like minded? To love one another? Jesus tells us says: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33 Who’s the king of the kingdom of God… it’s Jesus. And we follow his example of living a compassionate life, giving up ourselves, for the service and the uplifting of others. But that’s hard isn’t it…

Think about it…. Would you sacrifice your life to serve the town drunk? Would you sacrifice your life to serve unconditionally that one kid without a father, or a mother? Would you sacrifice your life to serve that person who’s dealing with shame and unforgivness? Let’s ask this.. could you love someone who is hard to love? Would you love someone that is your enemy? Would you love someone that you can’t stand to be around…

Well the answer should be yes… But how… how do we love the unloveable, or in Marys case, how do we love someone who has sinned against God, and us? Humility. Remember, Peter said: “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate” And then he follows by showing the husband and wife, the church and all of us to drive all of those attributes of Christ forward in humility.

Why? Why does humility lead from behind, love, sympathy, like mindedness and compassion? It leads from behind because real servitude is not that we serve, or how we serve, but where we direct the praise while and as we serve others. Because if you’re like me… I’m human, I’ve been human my whole live and I’ve sinned, and acted unsanctified for most of my life before Christ raised me from death to life, and then he sanctified my heart.

My first initial, carnal reaction to me serving someone else with compassion was always, what do I get in return. Right? I mean, didn’t we learn that at the core of sin is us stealing the praise from God, and placing that praise upon what we Idolize most… and that’s us. Sin redirects praise to ourselves while righteousness points the praise back to God. That’s why it’s so important that in the love we have for Jesus, we take sin serious because we’re robbing Him of the praise He deserves when we choose to live in sin rather than have him as our life.

I think of James chapter 4 often when I serve… James says.. but he gives more grace… I dunno about you, but I need grace for every moment in my life. This will cause your brain to fart… did you know God is giving you the same grace that he’s giving that person living in sin and choosing to walk away? It’s not different grace, it just means more to you and me because our eyes have been opened to see the beauty of Christ…

But When we serve a person, and they reject us… God gives us both, me and the one who rejected me more grace. When we step out and send a text to someone and they don’t text back, or they left the conversation.… God gives us both, me and the one who rejected me more grace. When we step out to do something nice for someone and they say all kinds of hurtful things about us to others behind our backs…

God gives us both, me and the one who rejected me more grace. Why grace? Because 2 Peter 1 says, “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness” (vs. 2-3). You see the grace of God is more than salvation but also everything we need for life and godliness.

The definition of grace could be “God's life, power and righteousness given to us by unmerited favor.” James in chapter 4 goes on to say. But he gives more grace. “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” He also says in the same chapter, 10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” And so what we learn that when it comes to serving others with humility.

Humility takes grace, which is sufficient, looks to Christ who is the the ultimate reward in our service, and goes, Jesus you are good and my reward and portion. Joesph was righteous and Compassionate towards Mary. And what we realize is that by us putting ourselves in other peoples shoes, and through humility, treating them as we would treat ourselves, expecting nothing in return. We learn that Real God given compassion, is God’s righteous compassion exploding out of us as we love God, Love others and as we serve both.

We learn that we can care about what is right and wrong and also care about people as well. One more thing we learn about a servants heart… Look with me back in Matthew chapter 1 at the life of Joseph, beginning in verse 20… 20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

At this moment, Joseph had already made up his mind on what he was going to do… He just said in verse 19, He decided to divorce her secretly. His mind was made up. But watch what happens after his encounter with God’s messenger. Look down in verse 24 with me….. 24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her 25 but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son.

And he named him Jesus. When we read this… Many of us would think changing our mind as someone who is wishy washy. Right? But what we see is that Jospeh isn’t being wishy washy, but he’s actually showing us that he had a soft heart. A soft heart is a heart that is willing to change and stay in the conversation, not obeying what God has said, but what God is saying.

Now let me explain that because I can just imagine a lot of you hearing this, and going… did our pastor just say not to obey what God has said…. Let me explain. Joseph went to bed with his mind made up that he was divorcing Mary, but then, after the angel brought God’s message, Joseph wakes up with the plan to take on the potential shame of Marys pregnancy. And so, let’s asked the question…

What caused him to do that? What caused him to change his mind?… I believe it was his faith. Righteousness and compassion is our faith on display. And when anything is out in the open and on display, it gets tested doesn’t it. Because Real faith must be tested. Faith isn’t faith unless it’s proven. We can sit here in church all day saying we have real faith, but at some point we need to ask, has our faith been proven and tested?

Has it endured? Think of the life of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. Verse 1 says, after saying all these things God tested Abraham and said to him.. Abraham! Take your son Issac, whom you love (So God said, Abraham, I know you love your son… do you love me?) and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.

So, Abraham got up the next morning and went…. That’s Abraham hearing what God had said, and by faith he was committed. Committed faith is obeying faith… but it’s also trusting faith as well. Abraham trusted in God. Now here’s where I want to dial into what God is showing us today about having a soft heart that serves. A soft heart is a heart that obeys by faith, but it’s also a heart that stays in the conversation with God because it trust.

Jospeh went to bed knowing the law, he was righteous, he loved God and he knew GOd loved Mary… I believe Joesph loved Mary too… God loves people, and Jospeh had to love those GOd loved… and so Jospeh decided to divorce her.. but then his righteousness is tested, his faith is tested, and his faith is also rewarded. Do you know how Abraham answered the Lord when he was about to sacrifice Issac?

He says, Here I am. Right before he takes the life of his only son, he hears the angel of the Lord, some believe this was Jesus, I believe the same… and he says… yes! Here I am….. all of me… right now… I am here, and I hear you. Faith is always rewarded and do you want to know what Abraham’s reward was…. Some might think it was his son…

but it wasn’t… what’s better at that moment than having your son alive… If I was a betting man, I would bet Abraham would say his greatest reward that day was hearing the voice of God again… Oh that’s so good…. The reward was the relationship Abraham still had with God!!… Thank goodness he listens for what God was saying and not just following what God had said. Thank goodness he stayed in the conversation and heard what God was now saying to him later.

This is why presence is so important in our walk with God… that we stay in His presence while living in the present. Think about this as I close… Abraham’s reward to his faith was this deep relationship with the Father… Jospehs reward to his faith was the reward of relationship with God’s only son… He got to be Jesus’s earthly step daddy…. Oh that’s good stuff right there… I’m gonna close now..

I promise… but I wanna close with with these 7 words…. Do you have a servants heart today? A Heart that pursues righteousness. A heart of compassion, showing unity and humility as you serve A heart that’s soft and pliable and workable? Willing to listen to what GOd is saying… rather than just what he had said. Or maybe I should ask a greater question with 7 more words…… Does Jesus have your hearts attention today…..

Are you listening and trusting and obeying? *

Joy Giver

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wholeness of Grace

This morning I am confessing that I am a walking testimony of God’s grace. Every morning when I wake up I receive God’s grace. I receive Grace which is God’s gift. It’s a gift given to us by God to be applied into our life so that we have the strength to come before a Holy and just God and ask Him for forgiveness of our sins through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

Paul tells the romans (5:20), Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Simply put, the more sin we have in our life, the more grace God has for us. Honestly, in this context of our lives. What we must realize is that there is no sin in our life that is greater than the grace that can be applied. For me, grace is like a salve to a wounded Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit, as the great comforter will come into the heart of man and he will apply this grace willingly…. But it can only happen when we are repentant. I stand before you today as a man who’s washed by the blood of the lamb, and I receive this holy treatment every morning. Every morning I am a man who must receive grace to…. Crucify the love of self praise Who still wakes up to struggle with the same fear I had at 8 that I do now as a 40 year old man, the fear of looking foolish, feeling left out, being unloved, abandoned and unwelcome.

Who is prone to feel self pity and pout when he doesn’t get loved the way he wants; Who is almost never sure he has used his time in the best way and therefor struggles with guilt. Who is short on compassion and long on criticism. Who can freeze up emotionally when he’s tired, and feels that it is someone else’s fault. Who loves to praise God in the assembly of the saints and feels constraint in his Spirit in his own living room and office.

Who’s willing to pursue a church but feels that he doesn’t pursue his own family with the same zeal. Who has loved his wife imperfectly and spent countless times wondering if she loves him in return. And who never feels sure that his motives are pure… I too am scared, I doubt at times, I fall short many days of my life, I find it easier to give up than to get up from the pit of depression and anxiety.

I trip, I stumble and I get confused at goals. That’s a part of my life, I want to be completely honest with you and open with you but there’s a part of my life that knows that for many, these words will fall upon deaf ears and hardened hearts. Some may even hear these shortcomings and begin to load their cannons of hurt and criticism. But my prayer is that you will take a moment to look at the shortcomings of my life and wonder to yourself…

how does he even walk with God? And if that is what he goes through.. what hope do I have in this life for myself? I will admit that God already has.. infinite reasons to throw me away and to say that’s enough. To say, I have no use for you… He has infinite reasons to tell me I’ve missed it. You had your shot and you blew it. But he hasn’t done it.

This week I have found deep comfort in reading from Psalm 63:3… “ “The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life” I love that phrase that He has steadfast love for me. Love that is sweeter than anything I can find here on earth. That’s the kind of love I really need. God’s love is loyal, faithful, committed, devoted, dedicated, dependable, reliable, steady, true, and constant. His love is built on the solid ground of His holiness.

It’s stable and not shaky. But yet i ask the very old question that has plagued mankind throughout the generations….., “Can I, in all of my utter failures in life. Failing at so many things in my life, Ever live a life of sanctification to be holy and utterly surrendered to Christ in all area’s of my life? My job, my marriage, my friendships.. can i be utterly and totally surrendered?

Can I when sin is uncovered in my life be able to give it up to be washed by the blood of the lamb? So that I can walk forward in perfect unity towards eternity with the Holy Spirit in my life? Will I ever be able to hear the call for my life to be holy and has given me all the tools and power I need to walk in that holiness here on earth?

The answer to that question is yes. Holiness is possible in our life and in this life and it begins with grace. Paul tells us in his prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5:23: and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NLT This morning that is what I want to dive into… How does God make our Spirit, soul and body whole?

To which we call holiness and sanctification. What does it mean to keep our whole Spirit and soul and body blameless? Where do we begin… Well, to get somewhere we need to what? Begin somewhere. And this morning I want to begin with grace. What is grace? Well, some would say that grace is unmerited favor. But it’s more than just that. The best way to describe grace is like this: Grace is: “God's life, power and righteousness freely given to us by unmerited favor for us to live a life of unified holiness with Him and with others.

It’s not just unmerited favor. It’s more than than. It’s unmerited favor with power and with a purpose. And I believe it’s purpose it to be applied to our lives like a salve on a wound. Have you ever put salve on something? Salve it’s real thick and sticky and robust. And when it’s applied it fills and coats and brings healing to the wounds we have. To me, that’s what God’s grace is like.

We’re being filled with the fullness of His presence and we are filled with the fullness of His grace. John 1:14 tells us that “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” There is a fullness that comes with his grace… and it comes because we know the truth, that he is complete.

There is no lacking in God’s presence. Jesus even tells us, that he is the way, the truth and life. The problem we face when it comes to grace is our wrong views on how to receive it. We think our works bestows upon the right for God’s unmerited grace. We think being kind and loving on the outside but greedy and unrighteousness on the inside will help us receive God’s grace.

We think coming to church earns us a spot at the banquet table of the marriage supper. We think serving in ministries and outreaches earns us treasures to show the world the glory of our works and inclusion with God. We make all kinds of excuses and rebuttals to God when things do not go our way…. We look to God and we say, well I’m giving you my best. I’m giving you what I can.

I come to church, I serve, I do this and I do that. What else do you want from me? What if God doesn't want any of those things? What if God doesn't want our service. That’s right.. what if he doesn’t want your service. What if instead of trying to serve God, we let Him serve us? What if instead of what we can do, we trust in what he has already done for us and given to us and will for for us?

What if we actually believed that all we have is given by God. Every ounce of strength, every ounce of love, every ounce of grace. What if, it’s all through His fullness and what he gives to us and there is nothing we can do to earn it? Isn’t that what the Bible’s teaches us in Acts 17:25 says: “that God is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything.

He gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. If that is true of God the father, it’s also true of Christ as he comes into the world, as the word full of grace and truth. Not to be served but to serve. Mark 10 verse 45 tells us, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” We don’t serve him — he serves us.

The problem is that we try to serve without first being served by Christ in our lives. We’re needing to be surrendered and served by Him. The first act of salvation is not to just jump into serving, but it’s learning to humble ourselves so that we can be served and ministered to by the Holy Spirit. God is always on the ramparts of His glory and he’s on the lookout for anyone who is humble enough and weak enough to let him be strong for them.

He must become our portion, he must become our strength, he just become all that we need in this life…and When we humble ourselves before the fullness of God, we are served by Him. He’s pouring his salve of grace into our lives. He’s pouring his life into us. His fullness is overflowing from the bottomless fountain of His grace. We always try to jump into serving… we always correlate serving as faith.

But real faith comes through surrender and trust, not by doing. This is where so many Christians fail. Picture it like this… God’s grace is like an overflowing and never ending mountain spring. In our life we are looking to glorify God. We are looking to please God. We even want to have more and be closer to God, but in our humanness we try to earn it through our service.

And so every day, by our works, and by our deeds, by our words we pick up the overflowing abundant grace freely available, that is flowing at our feet in buckets of works. And we tirelessly try to carry it up the mountain to throw heaping buckets of human labor towards a pure, unending mountain spring of God. As if God needs us to replenish Him with our works. But that isn’t being served, that is us trying to serve.

Being served by God is putting our faith and our face in the water that is at our feet through humility , and then coming up for air and saying, Ah… that was so refreshing. Thank you God for the overflow and the fullness of all that you are. You are the giver of all things. You over flow into me, you serve me first, and give to me so that i may overflow into others.

David puts it better when he writes Psalm 42. He says, “I long to drink of you, O God, to drink deeply from the streams of pleasure flowing from your presence. My longings overwhelm me for more of you! 2My soul thirsts, pants, and longs for the living God.” V. 1-2 What we learn is that it is far better to be served by God than trying to serve God. Thats how we receive grace.

John said, From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. We don’t earn it, we receive it. For what? To transform us. Paul tells us and he tells the Corinthians, “Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. We are being transformed. Into what? Into the same image of Christ from one degree of glory to another.

When God created mankind, He made us in the image of God, or as Genesis 1:27 says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” and “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27) He keeps repeating it over and over.. he created them, he created them, he created them… it’s a reminder that we are created for Him, to be sustained by him, to bring glory to Him.

Resemble That was the original plan of God, that we would resemble God in so many ways, that we would seek to do nothing but good. And everything was fine until the fall. Now instead of reflecting God’s Goodness, We try to take matters into our own hands. There’s nothing good in me apart from Christ. Paul tells us that: “good itself does not dwell within me, that is, in my sinful nature.

FOr I have the desire to do what is good, but i cannot carry it out.” “David writes in psalm 16 “You are my Lord, apart from you i have no good thing.” When I step out to serve God in my own strength and in my own power and in my own understanding. I will always fail. Because there’s nothing good within me apart from Christ. When we see evil go unpunished, we desire to see justice brought upon that evil.

When we see someone hurt another, we know that it’s wrong. When we see unfairness we want to see judgement. The time will come when God will judge the whole world and every knee will bow, but until then we must understand that He will and must transform us into His likeness first. We’ve got to stop trying to get the cart before the horse. Judgment comes, but we must be in his likeness.

Because if we are not turned into HIs likeness then when the Father looks upon us will he see Jesus or will he see an imitation of Jesus? Think of that condemning Scripture in matthew 7. Jesus said depart from me for I do not know you. What was their reply to Jesus, we served in your name, we did this and we did that for the glory of God…. No you didn’t.

All you did was imitated me. But I was never in you because you would not surrender and let me serve you first. You kept building relationship with work and not with the son. Imitation is not indication of a life given to Christ. It’s actually worse. It’s worst to know what we should do and not do it to the full degree that we’ve been instructed and entrusted in. We need to behold Him and allow Him to do the transforming work within us.

Jesus must serve us first! What i am trying to say is what John the Baptist said, he must increase and I must decrease if any good is going to come to a world where we find that it is hard to see the good in All things. And God does that through humility, and repentance and surrender. To be transformed into His likeness is to surrender ourself to the fullness of His grace so that the work of holiness can begin in our lives.

What’s holiness… simply put it’s Christ in me. More of Him, less of me. Jesus must first serve us, and then he serves others through us for Himself.. this is why we must rely on his strength and provisions in life. This is the reason we must learn to abide in him. He must serve us first..if we are going to belong to him. How do I know this… Would you do something for me?

Would you turn your bibles to Johns gospel and find with me chapter 13 and verses 4. In this moment Jesus was sharing Passover with his disciples and he begin to prepare to wash their feet. When Jesus was washing the feet of the disciples, in verse 6 peter looks down at Jesus and says, Lord, are you going to wash my feet. We know Peter didn’t understand what Jesus was doing.

We look at this moment and say to ourselves… this is Jesus showing us that we must serve others because Jesus is a servant…. And i believe were wrong for thinking that… the feet washing wasn’t to teach us to serve because Jesus was serving, it was to teach us that we must be willing to be served first by Christ if were going to belong to Christ. Jesus said to Peter, you don’t understand what I am doing now, but someday you will.

So peter protested in verse 8 and said, you will never wash my feet…. Isn’t that how we treat God most times in our lives. No Jesus… you don’t serve me I serve you. No Jesus let me go out and serve in the church but my unrepentant heart refuses to surrender. Look at what Jesus said in John 13:8… he said, unless i wash you, you wont belong to me.

What Jesus is saying in this moment and he is saying to every heart here this morning… is this… Unless i serve you first, you wont belong to me. Jesus message when he came to earth was to call people to repentance and to build the kingdom. Just because we celebrate and will celebrate the resurrection here soon doesn't mean that this isn’t still his plan. We forget that don’t we..

Luke tells us that Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” His plan is to still serve, to call sinners to repentance and to build his kingdom and he does that through us. He does that through us because we’ve not made it about our works, but about the grace he gives to us by serving us first. And then as we surrender and we go from one degree to the other…

When was the last time you made a visit to the alter of your heart and sat down and said Lord, wash me? When was the last time you came to be served and ministered to by God? When was the last time you felt the overwhelming presence of love and forgiveness? That’s grace….. That‘s His overflowing grace readily available where you are and all you need to do is stop trying to take it to him, just fall where you are and let him serve you.

Let him minster to you. It’s not by action. Love isn’t about action. My wife can make me a sandwich and say she loves me but deep inside be totally mad at me for walking on her mopped floors. Love isn’t just an action. If someone tells you that love is by what someone does for you.. they are leading you down the wrong path. Love is willingly surrendering to Christ to let him serve you to love someone enough to lead them to the mourners bench of repentance so that Jesus can serve them too.

I want to close with this one last thought…. God’s grace is abundant.. it’s grace upon grace, and it’s transforming us from one glory to another. And he’s sanctifying our body, soul and Spirit through this precious gift called grace. And when we surrender he serves us through peace and humility. But why and for what purpose? Well, that is why Denny read the last Scripture to us in Ephesians 1:6…

“To the praise of His glorious grace.” Church we are called, adopted, predestined to be in Christ for the purpose of his will, to be served by Him and to the praise of His glorious grace. Did you know that? We are served by Christ to become more like Christ so that Christ can serve others through us so that our lives end up praising His glorious grace. In john 2:11, he writes “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory.

And his disciples believed in him.” He manifested his glory. What does that mean? Basically, Jesus is beginning here to show his identity, and this progresses throughout the book of John. We’re learning more and more about who Jesus is as he does different miracles and he delivers different teachings, but it’s all under the banner, the umbrella of him manifesting his glory. Showing his attributes to those who follow him.

I was reading this and I started thinking. I want to encourage you to think about all the ways God has manifested his glory to you. Obviously, ultimately in Jesus. We have seen the glory of God in Jesus. That’s John chapter 1. The word has become flesh and dwelt among us. We’ve seen his glory. The glory full of grace and truth. We see his glory in creation. Creation is shouting the glory of God.

But how does he do that through us? How do we see the goodness of God in us? He does that by serving us, and pouring his presence into us, and revealing his glory to us and we are growing from one glory to another and by doing so we rejoice and worship to praise his glorious grace among the nations and those around us. We’ve got to stop making it about ourselves.

We’ve got to stop serving just to serve. Everything we do, must be through the humility of surrender so that Christ can shine and manifest himself in us, so that others will believe. *

There is Living Hope

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elements: Father

It’s good to be here this morning… I’ve been anticipating and preparing this series for awhile now. Today we embark in a new series called, Elements. I’ve come to realize, and I mentioned it a couple weeks ago, but It’s no easy task to take all of our differences and uniquenesses and experiences and then, to bring them together to make a unique song of unified adoring worship to God. What I’ve learned over the years of pastoring..

was that Church gatherings have a tendency to be a mixture of people who are either new to the faith, or from another denomination of faith, or who are from the Nazarene/Wesleyan faith. We hear words like God the father, son and Holy Spirit. We hear about sin, we teach about grace. We know all these things are key words of our faith. But do we really understand why these truths are a part of the foundation of what we believe and how they interact with one another.

It’s kind of like… The periodic table…. The periodic table is a tabular arrangement of the chemical elements, ordered by their atomic number, electron configurations, and recurring chemical properties. The table becomes this useful tool for modern students and scientists because it helps predict the types of chemical reactions that are likely for an element. For instance H2O is known as the chemical compound of two hydrogens and one Oxygen and those two elements in that sequence creates water.

But if you add another oxygen element, and it becomes H2O2, it’s no longer water, but becomes hydrogen peroxide. So, one compound if drank sustains life and the other compound if drank can take life away. It’s the same principle to our faith. What we believe about our articles of faith as Nazarenes, when brought together and combined, can create this beautiful song of unified worship within the church which creates an envioemnt for Christ like unity, or it can cause division because we’re trying to add things that may go together but instead of leading us to life, it leads us to misunderstanding and death.

So, in this series, we will use the periodic table as a framework to take a deep dive into the foundational “elements” of our faith as a way to illustrate that we can predict the outcome when we place our faith in God! Today, we’re going to be looking at the first element of the trinity, God the Father. Let’s read some scriptures to help get us on track to understanding, God the Father.

The first is Deuteronomy 6:4-5 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. The second is Exodus 4:22-23 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’” The third Scripture, comes from dueteronly 1:29-31 29 Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them.

30 The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” These are some of the EARLIEST writings we have that compare God as father. And we learn throughout the Old Testament that God does refer to himself as Father.

So, what? What does that mean for us? God the Father? What is a father and why does Scripture use this word to describe God? Well, what we learn from the Bible is that: In exodus 4 and Deuteronomy 1, we see that God the Father will protect his children. He has freed them from slavery, freed them from that which has held them back. They were oppressed, they were in bondage, and God never gave up, but helped them taste freedom.

In Deuteronomy 1:30-31 we see a God who has guided and protected them as they go through life, towards a good gift he has for them. God the Father has carried them through their troubles and he is guiding them towards a better, liberated life. And, in Deuteronomy 4, God the Father is teaches us how to live, like a father should. He, through Moses, is trying to teach them to trust in and love him–as he will guide and protect them.

These are things that Fathers do. Or as I would say, these were the things my mother had done for me! Our parents teach, protect and guide, trying to give their children the freedom from that which holds them back. That’s what good parents do. Good parents guide their children towards better lives, not forcing them one way or another, but showing them the way. Right? I mean hear the wisdom Solomon writes about parents in proverbs…

Proverbs 22:6 - “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Why? Why, as parents train our children in the way to go… well one reason is because of legacy. The father who is loving, and kind, and patient, guiding, and protecting wants to see their child grow so that they can be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

The truth is: We all want to be a part of something bigger than us. And one way a family can do that is by passing down a legacy to the next generation. These jewish people lived in a patriarchal society. and in this patriarchal society, The father would love, and protect, and teach and then pass on, or give forward his blessing to his children. Billy Graham once said: “The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.” John Wesley would go on to say: “...do not send your children to hell by leaving them your wealth.

Have pity on them!” I don’t think there is one person here who does not want a blessing from God? Right? For some, I think they would wish to come to church and have God the father just hand out blessing like Oprah. You get a blessing and you get a blessing and you get a blessing. What would you do with a blessing if you did get one? Now be honest because God knows your heart.

You can fool me and fool others… but you can’t fool God the Father… who knows your heart. Would you share it someone else while taking none of the credit? In Genesis 12:2, God speaking to Abraham and here’s what he tells him before Abraham leaves his earthly father and family to follow God the Father who wants to hand him a blessing and legacy… God the Father says: “I will make you into a great nation (That sounds great…), and I will bless you (ok..

it’s getting better…); I will make your name great (No way… that means people will know my name. I’m all in…), and you will be a blessing. (Wait a minute… what?) The living bibles says: 2 If you do (meaning leaving behind everything Abram had always known), I will cause you to become the father of a great nation; I will bless you and make your name famous, and you will be a blessing to many others.

What we learn is that… Our heavenly father blesses us so that we might be a BLESSING to others. That truth flies in the face of our current Christianity in todays world. I used to laugh at the Israelites because, man they had horrible faith. It’s true. I would be like.. man, The red sea parted, Water from a rock, Fire by night and smoke by day. God’s presence would come down into the tabernacle…

but time after time the first generation that came out of slavery kept being rebellious… not only to Moses, making their spiritual leaders life absolutely exhausting and stressful .., but to God the father. Every step of the way, God was proving that he was with them and he’d take care of them. That he would protect them…. But YHWH and Moses were taking too long. So one time, Moses went up and was on the mountain for a little longer than the Israelites wanted him to be, so they got is brother Aaron to build a golden calf.

Can you imagine how weird it would be to create something with you’re own hands, and then worship it? Like hear what God’s word says about this in Isaiah 44 18 They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand.19 No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate.

Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” 20 Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?” Even when God the Father freed them, and gave himself to them, and protected them, they got bored and restless. So, at the first chance they got, they went back to their old idolatrous ways they’d learned in captivity and built an idol..

and never thought to think… man, I’m worship something I have made with my own hands. The Father wanted them to have a blessing, but they made an idol instead… How many times have we done the same thing in our own life? When God wants to bless us, we take matters into our own hands and we create idols in our life. We create red elephants and blue donkeys hoping that one of them will save us from ourselves.

We create documents, and rights and amendments hoping they will provide security. We create traditions, that are good but over time hold people back from exploring faith. We create altars of worship around our families, and our weapons, and our finances, and our politics bringing them sacrifices and unending loyalty in hopes that those things might provide security and direction for our lives. Did you know, that the first few of the 10 commandments are dominated by warnings against idolatry.

And so, we might look at them and laugh… but the truth is, we’re no different. The truth is…. Anything in the world that successfully competes with our love for God is an idol. And the Bible tells us… to stay away from them. Turn with me to I John as I close and find with me chapter 5 and the last verse in this letter… verse 21 it says: 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

ESV Here in the NLT… it says: Dear Children, keep away from anything that might take GOd’s place in your heart. It’s odd that John would finish here…. What’s odd, is that He doesn’t speak of idols in the entire letter. Out of the blue comes this closing sentence with the very word idol that ordinarily means a statue of something that we use to replace God with. “Don’t give in to idols; keep yourselves from idols.” And I wondered..

why would he end this way? Here’s what I think… in chapter 2 verse 15, he write: 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Now, John may have truly meant to keep away from physical idols in our life, WHICH IS TRUE, but I also want to believe he’s saying, keep away from anything that competes against our love for God as an idol. the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life..is not a blessing or a legacy of the Father but is given to us from idolizing the world.” Think of it this way: God wants to give us blessings but our idols take them away.

In a world where God says he is enough, Idols always require more from us. Idols require our time. Idols require maintenance. Idols require endless sacrifice for their appeasement. And in return we get earthly comforts, we get immediate responses. We get satisfaction. And so many times we bring those expectations into church, while expecting the same immediate blessing. God, my kids gave me satisfaction. God, the money I made from my job gave me some nice comforts.

What are you able to give me? Many times I think we’re like a JG Wentworth commercial when we come into church… It’s my blessing and I want it now… Our blessings are meant for us to be inheritances. But also blessings we pass down to the next generation. Think of this… what we inherit as the ultimate enteral blessing in our life, is Jesus. And many of us is giving up that inheritance for worldly idols.

Galatians 4:6 touched my hear this week and I want to share it with you.… “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His son into our hearts, crying abba father… Aww… man… that’s so tender. Do you understand what’s being said here.. Because we are sons, and daughters of God the father…… because we are adopted through our faith in Jesus Christ and heirs to the kingdom. God blesses us with the Spirit of His son, so that our hearts would cry, Daddy…

that’s what abba father means… it means Daddy.. I love you. Does your heart cry ABBA FATHER when you worship? And if not.. could there be idols in your life that prevents you from this kind of relationship? I had one of the many hard father decisions to make this week. As our kids settle into school and begin journeying into sports and extra curricular activities. Chloe got a chance to begin practicing for basketball.

And her mother and I support her in it. This Tuesday they had a clinic to prepare for the upcoming season and the coach offered the middle schoolers to come on Wednesday nights to practice with the High schoolers. And I know from explreince what this kind of practice can do as an athlete… it can increase her awareness, her speed, her strength by practicing and scrimmaging with other girls who are taller and stronger than she is and.

Make her a far better player for this season… but we had a problem. It competed against Wednesday night church for our Family. Wednesday nights are teen nights for Twin Hills. Over the last few weeks we’ve been taking a fully loaded van of teens and children to Crossroads so that they too can worship and learn with those their age. And so, my daughter was a bit disappointed in hearing that we weren’t skipping church for basketball.

But guess what… her two friends that have been coming with us… who they both play basketball as well with Chloe and they both chose to give up basketball, to come to teens with Chloe. As parents, the truth is we want what’s best for our children. We want to protect, to guide and to teach them how to live just like God the father teach us… but as christian Fathers and Mothers, we also know what’s better, and that’s receiving the blessing of Jesus, so we can give the blessing of Jesus to others.

We’re called to share the blessing God gives… but you can only share Jesus if you have Jesus shared with you first, and he’s crying out Abba Father in your heart as you worship. *

Desperate for Sanctification

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who Is Jesus?

Two weeks ago we began a new teaching series called, Elements, “The building blocks of our faith.” Our goal as a church is to learn the ground level beliefs of our faith and how all of these blocks fit together to have a better understanding of who God is and our relationship with him. Today I want to ask this question… “who is Jesus?” If someone asks you, “Who is Jesus?” How would you answer?

Would you describe to them the characteristics Jesus’s? He’s compassionate. He’s a servant. He’s loving, kind and forgiving. What about using biblical quotes to answer the question who is Jesus? Well Saul, known as Paul was blinded on the road and Jesus referred to himself as Jesus the Nazarene that he pursues to persecute. How about Ponius Pilate? He asked Jesus, are you the king of the jews? If someone was to ask, Who is Alicia Waggoner.

I don’t say.. she’s the daughter of Doug French and Jeanie Kanagy. She was born on January 4th, 1984. And went to school in Huntingdon, PA No… How would I answer the question, Who is Alicia? I would say, She’s my wife and I am her husband. She’s my life’s partner. She’s my best friend. I would even say, Alicia is my biggest supporter. When the hardships of life and ministry begin to weigh upon me, she’s there to encourage and to care for and bandage the wounds of ministry.

What we learn is that when the question is asked, who is Alicia…. I don’t answer with characteristics or her qualities,……. I answer that question relationally. And the reality is, Only when we truly know someone deeply, can we answer who they are through relationship. I want to read a Scripture from the gospel of Mark and in chapter 8, if you would like, turn with me to Mark 8. And let’s look at the question, with a relational intent, who is Jesus?

Beginning in verse 27… Im going to read it with a little bit of commentary. 27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. Jesus has been ministering in Galilee and a lot has happened. His own town rejected him, his beloved cousin, John the Baptist was beheaded, Jesus sent the disciples out to call for repentance. We find in chapter 8 that Jesus feeds the 4,000 and the pharisees demand a sign from Jesus to prove his authority.

And so, we find Jesus and the disciples making their way up from Galilee to Caesarea Philippi. The place where Jesus will eventually say to Peter, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. And so, Jesus asked his disciples… “Who do people say I am?” 28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” It’s really a question to test the faith of the disciples.

Right? I mean, how many times have you been around someone that has said something negative about someone else, knowing that they have had very little, to no relationship with that person. Think about it…? How many times have we judged or Assassinated someones character based off of what someone else has said about them? And not only that, but how many times have we based our judgment on someone without really having any relationship to them.

Right? As humans it is easy for us to judge a persons character based off of the lens of someone else’s perception. And most times the hardest part is hearing the negativity of what has been said and being open ourselves to the fact that most perceptions of those who is assassinating someone’s else’s character, They’re subjective. Meaning that the truth they speak of, might be true to them, but is mainly truth based off of personal feelings and experiences without deep relationship with the one they are gossiping against.

But Jesus isn’t looking for the disciples to get this wrong, he’s looking to gauge their faithful relationship to him, not to what others would say about him. So he turns to his disciples and in a wya goes, ok well Im not interested in who they think I am.. let me ask the 12 of you…. 29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” That’s relationship.

Jesus’s main concerned isn’t about what others think he is… most of them I would bet aren’t even following him. You see, he’s drawing his disciples in and away from other peoples subjectives truths to focus on the objective truth of who he is… this objective truth is built off of this… Deep personal Relationship. And so, how did Peter answer… Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” 30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

Messiah was a huge term to use. It’s translated as Christo’s. Meaning, the anointed one. Christ. You’ll be surprised that Christ isn’t Jesus last name… Christo’s, is the word for Messiah. Messiah means, anointed one. And we find in Scripture three offices where one would be anointed. There were three elected and established offices where they gathered… poured oil over your head and declared you the anointed one to fulfill this place.

And it was Prophet, priest and king. So the first is Prophet…. Jesus as the anointed prophet. A prophet was one who would speak for God. And they usually would say something like this….. “thus saith the Lord.” But Jesus wasn’t just any prophet, but “the” greatest prophet. And he didn’t say, thus saith the Lord, he would say I say unto you… He didn’t speak for God, he spoke as God.

And he speaks to us with a prophetic message. Let me ask…What was usually the message a prophet would bring? A prophet would bring to the people the message of repentance. All Throughout Israel’s history, God sent prophets to his people to speak on his behalf, to call them away from the unfaithfulness of idolatry and back to him. It was a tough anointing and position because no one wants to hear the message of a prophet.

No one wants to hear, repent you sinful people and bring your hearts back in line with God’s word. So, What was Jesus’s message? His message was: Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near. I think we always miss that sometimes… and no I’m not trying to downplay the cross… that’s a good part. The best part is His resurrection because there would be no reason for us to be here today if we didn’t believe by faith in the resurrection of Jesus…

But how many times have we glazed over scriptures like Matthew 4:17 when Jesus comes out of the wilderness and the Bible says, “ from then on, Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near. As greatest Prophet, he calls us to repent and to return. His message is the ultimate message of the kingdom. It’s greater than any of the messages to ever be given.

It’s greater than Moses’s message and greater than Elijah’s. At Jesus’s transfiguration in Matthew 17:5, when the Father announces that Jesus is his beloved Son, he adds the command, “Listen to him” It points back into the old Testament word in Deuteronomy 18:15: 15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers (He’s speaking of Jesus prophetically)—it is to him you shall listen— And when Jesus transfigures?

Who shows up? Moses and Elijah. The message is clear: Jesus is the greater prophet — the greatest prophet — the actual living Word of God. He spoke not on God’s behalf, but as God. He spoke not just the words of God, but as the word of God. That’s what Johns gospel introduces to us. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus spoke not with the authority of God, but with all the authority of being God!

His word is his word.. and it’s final. Because he’s anointed and appointed by God. Jesus is also the highest of priest. Priest are the mediators between God and man. When I was in middle school I became a peer mediator. My role was when two people would argue, fight or have a disagreement, I was trained to Interject between the two parties and bring them into a solid understanding towards peace.

And what was the base issue in most arguments and misunderstandings? Poor communication. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,…” So, we have no one but Jesus to mediate between us and God. Sadly many of us are missing out on relationship with Jesus because we have poor communication with him. If you really want to see how Jesus mediates between us and God, I would challenge you to read the book of John, chapters 14-17.

That is known as the high priestly prayer of Jesus. If I was given only a few chapters for the rest of my life, I would choose John chapters 14-17… Jesus prays for you and me. He interceded for you and me before the cross. He begins in chapter 14 with the truth by saying, I am the way, truth and life. No one comes near the fathers except through Him.

He sets himself up as the mediator, the hight priest of God’s people. Then in chapter 15 he promises the holy Spirit. Who will lead his people into all truth… so where does the Spirit lead??… to Jesus who is the word, who is the truth, who is the high priest. Who intercedes for us between God and man. Chapter 15 talks about being children of God and being attached to the true vine.

Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the branches. And all through these four chapters, one main truth is evident. Those who belong to Jesus are called, to bare fruit. And not just any kind of fruit but eternal fruit. He warns everyone, the world will hate you, but I have put my spirit within you. This is why Paul says in Romans, 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. Jesus is the greatest mediator. He doesn’t have a term. It doesn’t run out. It was bought by his very blood. So God the Father expects that what we do, we do not do on our own, but we do through Jesus.

We face our loneliness through Jesus. We face our hurt and rejection of others, through Jesus. Jesus becomes our real help in times of trouble and trials. Jesus is our permeant and forever mediator…. Because He’s anointed and appointed by God almighty. He’s also the king of kings. Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” What government is he talking about? I believe one of the greatest misconceptions that we believe… is that we are a christian nation…. I’m sorry but we are not a Christian nation. A christian nation would be a nation that pursues holiness and oneness with Christ. I don’t see that in America. We have great intentions on being a good Christian Nation…

but we’re not and I’m not sure if we will ever be. A christian nation would seek the souls of the lost. I don’t see that being on any political ticket or agenda this voting season. When was the last time someone running for office had on their ticket, “Seeking the lost?” A christian nation would seek truth. All I see from Washington, the seat of America is that they are making us so lost in truth that we don't know what’s up or down anymore.

Billy Graham sermon in 1971… listen to what he says, “Some people say that Jesus Christ is the one upon which Western culture has been built and that America is really Jesus organization on earth. Well I want to tell you if his organization depends on the bureaucracy we built up in Washington, we’re finished. There’s not much hope for the world. Jesus Christ…he is not the establishment Christ. He’s building another kingdom.

He’s building an eternal kingdom.” Jesus reminds us in John 18:36, that My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” The kingdom we are heirs to as born again Christians is one of peace and unity. Isaiah a few chapters later would write: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.” The unity the church proclaims and the kingdom we are adopted into comes from the child that is born, King of Kings.

And wherever the king is, His kingdom is there as well. Jesus is prophet who speaks for God, he is the priest that mediates between us and God and Jesus comes into our life and he asks, am I your king? Sometimes God speaks to us in inconvenient ways. And this is what he laid on my heart to share with you today… “In a world where the generation is confused about identity, Jesus asks you, who am I to you?” He is asking you a question that will either be answered by what you know about Jesus, or by your relationship with Him.

How can he be? How can Jesus relationally be our prophet, priest and king? One answer… “Galatians 2:20… I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” I have been crucified. Your wants, Your desires, Your comforts, Your way of living, Your perception of how things should be….

Has All of who I am, been given over to, Jesus, the anointed one. For me, I guess the biggest question I had to ask myself was this… has what I ever wanted led me to walk closer to Christ and has my preferences ever driven me to seek the lost? Or have they been comforts to keep me comfortable where I am… I dunno about you, but relying on my preferences and comforts sounds to me a whole lot like bondage.

Everything and everyone else’s demands of me or how they think I should remain the same.. must be rendered under, The anointed words of the prophet The anointed mediation of the priest And the anointed command of my king. It’s to be answered relationally. Not just what you know about Jesus… not just what you’ve heard about Jesus… what who do you say he is? Only when we truly do not know someone do we answer with characteristics and qualities.

So hear the words of the Lord… asking you this morning….Who do you say I am? *

Courage of New Birth

We’re in our third week of Advent and this week we’re looking at Christmas Courage through the eyes Mary, the mother of Jesus. Our story is found in the book of Luke chapter one. So if you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 1 and as you’re finding your place, just listen on in as I give some context. Mary’s story begins 6 months after the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth with the conception of John the Baptist.

So Elizabeth is about 6 months pregnant with little John. And in Mary’s story, the Angel Gabriel was sent by God, just Like Zechariah’s story to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to meet with Mary. What’s interesting about this visit is that it’s not like a dream, like the one her soon to be husband Joseph had, nor was it like a vision, like many of biblical accounts we read in the Bible were like.

This was believed to be a forthright conversation as if the angel was standing before Mary and speaking to her as if I am speaking to you. Then the angel in verse 28 came in and said something pretty amazing… he gave her a compliment. This is where I want to begin reading together with you.. look with me in verse 28… “28 And the angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman!

The Lord is with you.”29 But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be.” What a greeting… Greetings favored woman, the Lord is with you. I Love what the message version says about this verse, the Message paraphrase version says, “Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her: Good morning! You’re beautiful with God’s beauty, Beautiful inside and out! God be with you.” Now, that’s a compliment!

I dunno about you, but it’s special to hear from someone, I see God in you… or I see Jesus in you. And because I see Jesus in you, You’re beautiful inside and out. It Reminded me of Romans where Paul writes, “Beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” But did you notice how Mary reacts to the angels greeting?… in verse 29 she reacts by being deeply troubled and wondering what kind of greeting this could be.

She’s confused! And why not? At this moment, Mary still had no idea what was in store for her as the angel approaches her and tells her that she’s favored and that the Lord is with her. At this moment…Mary probably realized, on some level that most individuals in previous Bible stories, who are highly favored by God, usually means God is going to call them out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary.

Think about it….every time God told someone in the OT that, "the Lord was with them," those people were used by God to be a part of an amazing, faithful journey, but a lot of times that amazing faithful journey also meant amazingly hard trials that sometimes brings with it doubt and hardships. Faith many times is learning to listen even when we’re confused. We don’t always know what God is up to.

That’s the beautiful side of confusion. Being confused is a humbling part of our life. It reveals we don’t have all the answers and we don’t have everything figured out. There are still problems in my life, that I’m unsure of what God has planned. And that is a good thing. God puts us into places where we are confused to show us that we aren’t God. God tells Isaiah: ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord.

‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts’” We don’t know what God is up to… Most times… when it comes walking with the Lord. He just nudge us.. he will give us some sort of glimpse at where he’s wanting us to go… and we walk in the direction he points us by faith. John piper once said, “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been worried about one thing, and totally missed another area of my life that I should have been paying attention to.

There are things God was doing that I had no clue was happening. I think Mary thought of all these things and like Jospeh, she decided to stay in the conversation with the angel. Because when confusion settles in, We learn that many times confusion is the seedbed of faithfulness. We’ve got to be reminded that there is no faith where there is no astonishment, no turmoil and no uncertainty. Confusion often leads, to having questions..

What was Marys response to her confusion… Let’s read on… beginning in verse 30 30 Then the angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.

33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.”34 Mary asked the angel, “How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?” Her confusion turned into questioning. Is it ok to ask God questions? Absolutely. Questioning leads to what? Questioning leads to seeking. Questioning means we’re staying in the conversation. Isn’t questioning how your faith began? I dunno about you but when I started having dreams that was leading me towards Christ…

I began asking questions. I had questions that I didn’t know answers to. I went to the boy in high school that was known for his faith in Jesus and I began asking him questions. I went to church with that girl and I began asking questions. Questions lead me to ask one of the greatest questions of my life… Is Jesus who he says he is? Is he truly the way the truth and the life.

Will I believe by faith that Jesus was and is everything he had said he was? I didn’t know… and to be honest, even when I was led to the altar as a young college kid, I still didn’t know what I was doing.. All I knew was, I was not living a life that saw Christ as the pinnacle of my life. I wasn’t… and when I first believed I didn’t have any of the answers I needed…

honestly, I had more questions than anything else and guess what…. that’s faith! Walking with God is walking and asking some tough questions. I’ve asked God what does he want with my life, I’ve asked God how He can love the most disgusting sinful person and forgive them. I asked hard questions.. I came to Him boldly, but with humility, and I learned that God wants dialogue with us. He started speaking to me through his word and prayer and the Bible and by spending time with him, and that time became intimate, and as I began sensing his presence, I became like a moth in the night seeking light.

I learned that as I sought questions and stayed in the conversation with him, he sought relationship with me. And I find that as I grew in this relationship with God, my curiosity didn’t dwindle, My confusion was still there about things I didn’t understand, but as I got older Spiritually, I found more joy in our conversation with God than just asking him questions. Honestly, confusion turned questioning into trusting.

I’ve found that my curiosity turned the conversation more into generosity. the more I spend time with the Lord, in reading and writing, and preaching, and teaching, and worshipping and praying, and all the things he calls us into when it comes to discipleship. I find God becomes more generous with grace and I become more thirsty for his goodness. I delight in Him. And that comes through asking questions and meaningful relationship.

Mary asked questions, she asked how… and the angels response was amazing. Let’s continue to read starting in verse 35. 35 The angel replied to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 And consider your relative Elizabeth—even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless.

37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” Mary was confused, she asked questions and then the angel gave her three things.. He said, The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the most high will overshadow you and because of those two things… The child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God. What did the angel give her… he gave her a promise.

And then he proves that God is faithful by pointing her to her aunt Elizabeth as the evidence of God’s power to fulfill what Gabriel is saying he’ll do. And before Mary could ask any more question… Gabriel Caps the conversation with this… 37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.” What if I told you that every time we worship. Every time, we praise, every time we say thank you because we’re redeemed children of God, we, are returning God’s word and promise back to him and we are showing in our right worship, that God is faithful and true.

Let me show you, turn with me to Isaiahs 9:6.. Isaiah 9:6.. ready? For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The promise of the Messiah right? Now turn with me to Isaiah 55:11 Isaiah 55:11… ready? “It is the same with my word.

I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” Now what does that mean.. that means, When God speaks, something happens. God can come into nothing, speak something and get anything. That’s the power of God. And When God says, let there be light, there is light. When God says, let the waters part, the waters part.

When God says, your womb will open and let the virgin conceive, babies are born. When God says, let the word from my mouth go out, I assure you it will never return to Him void. Whatever God says, will happen. Do you know what the context and the heading of this chapter in Isaiah 55 is about? Chapter 55 in Isaiah is all about about coming to the Lord. And giving ourselves to the Lord.

It’s a relationship. He calls us to come… he’s wooing us to come… Now watch this… Let’s go back to Luke’s gospel to the Story of Mary and look with me in verse 35… This is Gabriel giving Mary God’s word, right? Let’s remember, this message is from God. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the most high will overshadow you. The child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.

God’s promise is being fulfilled… God’s word that a messiah to come is being fulfilled and it doesn’t stop there.. remember last week I said, I believe that since Joseph was a righteous and compassionate man who loved God… I believe that he would have taught that to Jesus as well. And I also believed that when Mary listened to the angel say, 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” I believe she would have remembered that phrase for the rest of her life.

I asked Alicia, do you remember 15 years ago when you were pregnant with Gabriel. Like, do you still remember how it felt to be with child for the first time. Do you remember the 30+ hours of labor. And she was like… Duh.. I was there. I was like, That is forever cemented into your heart isn’t it. I believe Mary would have been the same. The last words given to Mary from God through the angel was this..

7 For nothing will be impossible with God.” Where do we hear those words being echoed? It’s in the book of Luke chapter 18 verse 27. Jesus says: “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” What is the context? Jesus just got done talking to the rich young ruler who wanted to know how to inherit the kingdom, and Jesus saying in verse 25: 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

Those who heard this message were like, then who can be saved? And Jesus goes, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” He was echoing his mothers encounter with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is telling them…You can’t save yourself… you can’t do it, its impossible… but God can. Paul would go on to say, “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you…” Are you seeing this?

The birth of Christ in Mary is the same birth of Christ in us. The Holy Spirit will come upon you Mary. That’s what we would call prevention grace. Prevenient grace is the work of the Holy Spirit drawing us to God. The Spirit is upon you. The power of the most high will overshadow you. Overshadowing means: the spiritual reality of His Presence focused upon that object experiences the full effects of His purposes.

What is the purpose? We could say that the initial purpose is for the Holy Spirit to live within us, not out of us. The Spirit gives us life and faith in Christ. and because of these two things… The child to be born will be born in you. Jesus says in John 3: 3“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It’s impossible unless there’s a birth.

John 1:13 says: 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. It’s impossible to man, but possible to God. Remember, Paul to the Galatians? “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you…” Galatians 4:19 (NIV) You and I are a part of the Christmas story..

and I don’t know about you.. but that makes me realize that Christmas just got a lot more special and meaningful. That’s good news.. no wonder today is focused on Joy! We’re celebrating the birth of Christ in us! Every Christmas we celebrate Because of the birth of Christ in Mary, I can be reminded of the birth of Christ in me and I can say like Mary Said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Did you catch that…

according to your word. What did God say to Isaiah in 55:11… ready? “It is the same with my word. I send it out (I make nothing out of something, I make the impossible possible), and it always produces fruit (That’s Mary and that’s us, with the Holy Spirit in us we participating in God’s promises.) It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” Our praise this morning…

is taking God’s word 700 years before the birth of Christ, and proving it to be true 2700+ years later. By being here, by opening our hearts in worship… we are praising and worshiping through God’s word, as living examples of his faithfulness. And get this… you’re life is living testimony of the Bethlehem birth. What we have in common with Mary is that you and I, by faith, get to carry Christ in us too.

My Bethlehem happened in December of 2002…. But my willingness to say to God, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” That day never came till 2010. And sadly, many christians who’s eyes have been open to the grace of God never realize that until later in life. You see, I wasn’t prepared like Mary was to hear from God and walk in trusting faith.

I couldn’t wrap my head around, what Jesus says, “with man it is impossible.” Trusting faith comes by the means of relationship. Our faithful life is every day to be a proof that God works impossibilities; our faithful life is to be a series of impossibilities made possible and actual by Gods almighty power. You ever wonder why sanctification is such an important part of our walk, and why we put so much emphasis on holiness as Nazarenes?

Because without being sanctified we will never say to Jesus, “Behold, I am the servant of my Lord; let it be to me according to your word,.” That’s why I believe Mary had courage… she had the courage to surrender and to submit to the will of God. Benediction Be people of joy. Let joy live in your heart and share the joy of Christ with all you meet. Share joy by seeing the good in each other.

Share joy by remembering good times and hoping for good times to come. Share joy by praying for our world. In this Advent season, we need to see, feel, and share joy. As you go out into the wonder of God’s creations, share joy, peace, and hope with those you meet. Amen.*

Vision Leads to Faith

Let’s open our baubles back to Habakkuk chapter 2 and let’s reread our Scripture for today. Read Habakkuk 2:1-3 So what have we learned thus far, let’s kind of recap. We learned that prayer is not a part of the natural life, but of the spiritual life. Prayer nourishes the life of God in us. So, If we do not pray we starve our Spiritual life. We starve God’s presence in our life.

But when we pray, we nourish the soul and we draw nearer to Him. Last week, we learned that prayer moves us into being at awe and wonder of God. We all wonder over snow cap mountains. We all are at wonder over the sunsets and sunrises. We are at wonder over the big things that we can point to and be like that’s God, God made those things. But what about the little things in life?

Can’t we be at wonder and awe over the little insignificant things? Or things we deemed to be unimportant. We learned that prayer leads us and grows us in his presence, but it also leads us to be people of generosity and gratitude. I just believe with all of my heart, that a life of gratitude and generosity will teach us to love all people no matter who they are and what they are known by.

Remember, Jesus injected light into the samaritans woman life at the well by generously being compassionate with her. And he generously gives us his Holy Spirit in our life because he’s compassionate for us and for that I am grateful. Today, I want us to see how presence, being in prayer, and being at awe of God in all area’s of our life, whether large or small, leads us into the larger picture of his desire for us.

For us individually and for as a local church. prayer leads us into seeing and witnessing God’s vision. God replies to Habakkuk to write the vision down. and he tells Habakkuk that the vision is for a future time. What God is doing is he is building the bridge between the present and the future with Habakkuk. Notice I didn’t say the bridge is built between our past and present, and I didn’t say it’s a bridge between our past and the future.

No, vision takes us where we are and it bridges us too where we need to be. The Bible says in proverbs 29:18 where there is on vision the people persist. Why.. why do people perish if they have no vision. Well, they persist because they have no purpose. People perish because they are stuck in who they were and they have no foresight on who God is calling them to be…

so they become complacent in where they are, facing their past and yearning for what once was. PK Bernard once penned, A man without a vision is a man without a future. A man without a future will always return to his past.” I like to put it this way. Our direction in life will draw us into the direction of what we hope in the most. What do we hope in?

Is our hope in the government? Is our hope in our culture? Or community Is our hope in ourselves? Or our families? No, Our hope must be in the Lord. Paul describes Jesus Christ as “our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1) and calls Jesus “the blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). So, Jesus not only came to bring hope. We learn that he becomes our hope and he is our hope. He’s our forward anchor in life.

And because of Jesus being our forward anchor, he gives us assurance for a better future. Jeremiah 29:11 also reminds us of how hope is in our future. He write:, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” So our hope isn’t where we once was, Our hope cant be where we’ve been…NO!

Hope is where were heading. It’s our forward direction. A couple years ago I led our board in a book by Thomas Rainer called, autopsy of a deceased church. 12 ways to keep yours alive. My intention was to teach them that a dying church isn’t always obvious. Thomas Rainer said in his book, that there were even churches that were financially set that still died, they bellied up with cash in their treasury because they lost the vision God has had for them.

He called the process of thier decline, slow erosion. They were eroding so slow they just didn’t realize it until it was too late. And a part of this slow erosion was the reality that they spent more time looking in the past more than the future. As Thomas began his autopsy of these dead churches, in all cases he found that the people in the church lived for long periods of time with the past as the hero.

And each year, they held more tightly and clung to things of the past with desperation and fear. While not realizing the danger and not willing to step out by faith into what the future held. They made the past the hero. They were unwilling to change worship styles, they were unwilling to change the building, and the decorations. Instead of fighting for the gospel.. and instead of fighting for doctrine, most of these church fought over preferential things.

He found that they were fighting for the past. The good old days. The way it used to be. The way we want it today. And he even said, there were those who came to the chruch who pointed it out… peolle who would come and not conform and warn the chruch… but the church didn’t listen.. they were too stuck in thier way. You see this all throughout Scripture. I love the story of Simeon in the Bible.

Every Christmas I read his story because it reminds me of having faith, it reminds me that God is good to come through on his promises and it reminds me that the hope of his first coming is the same hope we have today for his second coming. But I also read it to reminds me to not to be stuck in the past, but look forward to the future. Simeon in Luke’s Gospel was told by God that he would not die until he saw the messiah.

The consolation of Israel. I love that! He will see and experience the comfort of God! Which is Emmanuel…God with us…. Isn’t that the Best comfort of all… what better comfort than knowing God is with you. And we today get to experience this comforter because of His spirit within us. When Jesus was born, hundreds upon thousands of people missed it because they were too busy looking for hope elsewhere, many of them were looking for hope in the past and missed him in that present moment.

But not Simenon and Anna… they were witnesses to God’s glory because they were willing to look forward and be ready. This went on to when Jesus was visited by the men of the Far East. The wisemen were looking forward to Jesus’s coming and they came because they were looking forward to the signs, but even the people living near Jesus, along with King Herod missed it because they were too concerned with their life.

Church, don’t let the past become your hero. We need to let it go. Remember the past, but stop trying to live as if its all God has for us.. he has more for us… but we need to let go of the past so we have the avaible hands and hearts to gather more as well walk into the future. Isn’t that what Paul teaches us in Philippians? Paul teaches us that if were going to run this race of holy significance.

this enteral race God has put us in, we need to lean forward into the future, not lean back into who we were once were. I like to ask myself this question that helps me walk by faith. Does my life today look different than my life 1 year ago. Do I have more faith, trust, hope, love, and obedience in Christ today than yesterday? If so.. rejoice! Be confident that he who began the good work in you, will perfect it into the day of JEsus Christ.

What did Paul say to the Philippians 3:12-14? He said: 2 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. He presses on… that means he moved forward. He took the best that’s offered in Christ and he continues to move forward in a way that’s deliberate.. that giving maximum effort.

Remember, hope is a direction. Faith is a direction. The ultimate reward is to receive eternal life in Gods presence. He says: 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

He said, we press on… did you notice he mentioned it twice? I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. I press on toward the goal to win the price which God has caseload me heavenward in Christ. He isn’t slowed down by what’s behind him… I believe he mentions it twice because he knows we have a tendency in our life to want to stay and marvel over the past.

If were going to be the church God wants us to be in 2022, we’ve got to learn to lean forward not backwards. I’ve got a new favorite song. Well, it’s not new. But it’s new to me. And perhaps you’ve heard it. It’s a song sung and made famous by a man name Steve green. It’s kind of my anthem when it comes to the our vision God gave us last year.

living faith preserves hope for future generations. Listen to the lyrics… 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 Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful I love that song… I love the fact that were not in the race alone. Did you know that.. stop trying to run this race alone.

The local church is designed to be a safe place for runners to come and train. Because this race that we’re in… I believe that it is a relay race. Unless Christ comes at some point we will eventually pass the baton of faith and hope to the next generation. And here’s the thing… it’s not all about what we give to them as much as its about what we instill within them.

Right?!!! It’s not about how big of a church we hand over, or how much money in the treasury we hand over to the next generation…. I’m talking about handing over earthly possessions and treasures. No! it’s what we have instilled within them. Within their hearts…That’s the important thing to hand over. We hand over a life of faith and hope into the next generation. That’s what preserving the hope means in our vision statement.

We are living by faith now, we are active in our faith now, and by doing so that preserves the hope for the next generation. We don’t just hand over buildings, but we hand over committed hope and faith so that the next generation can see first hand the living faith in our lives which in turns propels them to step out by faith too. That is what makes the difference in their life.

did we leave behind a legacy of faith or unfaithfulness. One leads to life sustaining hope filled trust and the other leads to death. And I’d hate for this generation to be known as the unfaithful generation. I don’t want that. I don’t believe you want to be known as the generation of unfaithfulness. So how can i close this out? Well I want to close out todays sermon with one word…

commitment. Every year roughly around July. I begin seeking God’s direction for the next year. Last year, 2021 was to be a year of faith for us. And it was… by faith we gained a new church vision. By faith we were called to live deep lives trusting in God. Did you step out by faith last year? Praise God! You were a part of your churches direction. For 2022, the Lord laid this word on my heart…

and I want to share it with you OFFICIALLY TODAY… it’s COMMITMENT. NO great work of faith begins without the people of God being committed to the Lord. Faith takes great sacrifice. Hope requires faith And so, Vision takes commitment. Jesus’s greatest test was when he knelt alone in the the garden and he began to say, not your will but mine be done. It was a moment of deep love for the father, but it was also a moment where he would pick the sinful cup of the world and drink of it out of his commitment to the fathers will.

His commitment was to complete obedience. His concern was to do precisely as he was instructed, that the promise of the Lord would be fulfilled. There is two scriptures that the Lord laid heavily on my heart for us this year that go along with our word. "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” - Ps. 37:5 “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

- Prov. 16:3 Commit your way to the Lord.. to commit your way to the Lord is to build your life upon the values of his Kingdom. It is to bring your time, your talents, and your treasures into full alignment with his will and purpose. And heres the thing… it’s really an act of trust. Do we trust him..? DO we trust him enough to lay down our past and to run forward?

What about committing our work to the Lord? Commit is a word that in the Hebrew language means literally “to roll”. The idea is completely giving something over to God while depending on Him. Picture it like this…. You have this large backpack on your back. Burdens perhaps your carrying around… your responsibilities, your works, you’re calling, your circumstance. You are burdened to carry them… to commit means to roll them off your back.

TO roll it off and to dump it. Dump it at the lords feet and then ask him to take charge of it. Asking him to multiply it to bless it, to care for it. When we ”commit” our works to the Lord, we are offering everything we do completely to Him. We are rolling it to him. You’re committing your work, you’re giving him your best. That’s what Jesus has for us in 2022….

We’re not going to recieve God’s left overs. We need to stop trying to bring the past into the present. stop trying to squeeze out yesterdays provision into todays provision… his provision is sufficient for each and every day. Jesus wants us to have his best.. and his best is him. His best is forward where he is, not behind us where we been. Did you know that’s always the chief end to a vision.

The end of vision is God himself, and the only way you can see the vision and know the vision, which is Jesus Christ himself, is if you have a pure heart. Have you ever wondered how does someone receive the vision of God. Well, when our hearts are pure and we are seeking God with integrity. God will reveal to us more of him. let me show you… I read Matthew chapter 5 verse 8 this week.

this verse spoke into my heart when it comes to receiving vision from God. If you want the peace that faith brings, and the salvation that Jesus gives for your past, and the strength he gives for the present and the assurance of the future, which means the hope that he gives for the future, it takes a committed heart to seek his face. It takes commitment to seek his will…

Now, this Jesus on the mount giving the beatitudes and this is his 6th point. Jesus tells those there… and to us today… God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. Matthew 5:8 What we learn is this… Godly vision comes when the persons heart, your heart and my heart, is seeking God in prayer, with a pureness of seeking nearness. That means we seek his presence.

So this is how I interpret what I just said…, God isn’t going to give anyone A PIECE of his vision until we begin to SEEK for the wholeness of his presence. Vision is prayerfully seeking God with a pure heart in all aspects of life to see God. And we walk by faith into what he calls us into. We walk by faith because we have committed our life to Him.

What are you committed to? Who are you committed to? I can answer that.. only you can*

Jesus Came

Let’s stand as we read Psalm 95 together. … (Read verses 1-7) You may be seated. Would you open your Hymn books with me… and find Hymn 113 again. Would you, where you are, sing with me once again, verse one only… let’s sing verse 1, three times. Amen. Psalm 95 is about whole self worship. Not “self” worship.

Not worship that asks, how do I prefer to worship… but to whole heartedly with all of my heart, my soul, & my mind. How do I rightly focus on Jesus and worship Him? The very hymn that we just sung together was that reminder… That we have come. And we have come to a place. A place we call his house… the house of the lOrd, and we’ve come to gather in HIs name…

to worship him. Christ the Lord. What’s remarkable about this verse is that it reminds the worshipper that there is a journey ahead of them. There’s a direction & there’s a path. But there is one thing we must remember… at some point in this journey and on this path… we come to a crossroads. We come to an intersection. In the very first verse the Psalmist writes, “Oh Come, let us sing to the Lord.” When we dive into the meaning of this word Oh come.

In the Hebrew language… it is pronounced Haw-Lak. Which means to come, too physically show up. To be present. To go.. it’s a verb there’s an action. It can be meant to make a journey…. Let’s turn in our bibles to verses 4-7. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) Jesus said, "I have to go to Samaria. And he didn’t linger, so the very next verses says, so he came.

Next we see a woman who was a Samaritan coming is way. Verse 7 says, she came to draw water. I often wondered… what was on her mind as she approached the well. Was it another ordinary day in Sychar. Did it begin like every other day? There in her ordinary life. Skipping the crowds of other, more nobler women gathering water because she’s the harlot of harlots. She’s a woman of disgrace.

A promiscuous woman. A woman on the outside of the social status of the community. I often wondered.. what was she thinking as she came to the well? Was she thinking to her self, oh no, there’s someone at the well when I’m usually there alone. I can understand that… sometimes I don’t want to be engaged by someone else. Sometimes I want to stay in my bubble of solitude because I feel safe there.

Or I rather not be bothered. Was she thinking, I don’t feel like talking to anyone else? Was she thinking, I’m not in the mood for the drama of what this jew might say or do, or even what other Samaritans who might see me engaging with this jew. What kind of rumors and hurtful comment might they say if they see me interacting with this jewish man. I don’t know what she was thinking, but I do know this…

Regardless of anything that could have been on her mind… she still came. And Jesus engages her asking her for a drink… I remember the day I met Jesus at the alter where and when he altered my life. It was an ordinary day just like today. I got up, showered and then dressed. I probably skipped breakfast that day like I usually did. I got into my car and I drove to church to be with a girl that I was trying to date.

And Jesus was there waiting for me… I still remember that day of when Jesus had to go to a little southern baptist church in Nutterfort. And so he came. He made that journey. The king of kings. The prince of peace… Emmanuel.. sent his presence to this small, insignificant southern baptist church.. and I showed up with the wrong intentions and the wrong motives. But I still came and guess what…

Jesus engaged me too. Little did I know, Jesus in his abundant grace was going to meet me at the well of salvation… and change my life forever. I didn’t show up for Christ, but I showed up and Christ met me in my sin, in my filth. I didn’t deserve it.., But he loved me and he pursued me. I believe he would have said, that he had to go.

5 So he came to a town in Nutter fort for Matthew. I would like for all of us to imagine this is our story like the woman at the well… Did we come today to church with the willingness to be engaged by Jesus? … Think of this.. as we sing the next verse… Alicia shared this with me yesterday… she reminded me that it wasn’t for a drink of water Jesus came …..

Jesus came for the woman. And this morning Jesus’s presence is here as well… for you and for me… the question is did you showed up with the willingness to let him engage you? Denny. Would you where you are…. Would you lead us in singing verse 1, one time, and verse 2, two times. As we sing this hymn together… Lt’s all of us take the time to ask… Am I engaging with Jesus?

So forget about yourself, and concentrate on him and worship him… (Singing) Pslam 95 verse 2 says: “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!” What’s unique is that this word come in verse 2.. is different than the the world com in verse one. In Hebrew the second word come is Kaw-dam. It means to come or to be in front of, to meet.

The Psalmist is saying, I’ve come to show up ( Haw-Lak) , but I also come to be in His presence (Kaw-dam ). It simply means that he’s aligning his mind and his heart to focus only on God and to be before God. It’s the same as what we just sang. Forget about yourself and concentrate on Him and worship HIm. The Psalmist is Coming into God’s presence and aligning his heart and mind to think of nothing else but God.

Let’s go back to the book of John and see what happens at the crossroads where Jesus and the woman have met at the well. Read - Verse 9 - 15. What we find is two things. Jesus engages her mind. She begins in verse 9 by trying to understand what Jesus is even talking to her. She’s stuck… she’s stuck in tradition. She’s stuck on what others think and she’s stuck on the cultural norm.

Jews and Samaritans hated each other. It was so bad, that if a jew drank water at a Samaritan well. The jews believed it was as bad as eating the flesh of a pig… Which of course is not kosher. So, Jesus needs to break through what tradition says, and what the culture says. So he replies with a simple gift… he replies with a phrase that gets us every time…

“if you only knew…” How many times have you had a secrete and someone who doesn’t know the full story or the full issue and you come alone and hear their limited perspective but you know more information than them… what do you say to yourself when they speak of their limited information… You say, … “oh man… if you only knew..” Jesus just opened her curiosity. But she’s still stuck in what her tradition says.

So Jesus lets her in on the secrete.. is says, if you only knew… what.. what is it Jesus? Jesus says, if you only knew that anyone who drinks the water I offer them will never be thirsty again. Her reply… please!!!.. give me some of that. In but a moment Jesus breaks through culture and tradition and he’s got her mind centering him and his words. The second thing Jesus goes after is now her heart.

Why? Why the mind first and then the heart? Because the mind serves the heart. If her heart is burning with affection but her mind does not know why.. the mind tells the heart it’s not real. So many people come to church day in and day out with the mindset that they are saved and that they believe but there hearts are dead. There’s no real joy, there’s no real affection for Jesus.

The furnace of affection is starved of prayer and seeking Christ as the treasure of the Bible. And Because of sin, neither the heart nor the mind does what it is supposed to do. So Jesus needs to redirect them both , the heart and the mind for her to understand how true worshippers will worship in spirit. Not on this mountain, or that mountain. Not with this Genre or that Genre.

Not because this generation is better than the last or the next. So, Jesus has got her attention, but now he needs to get her heart affections on him. ( Read John 4:16-24) It curious the Jesus brings up the Womans husband. We might think for a moment that this is kind personal. But remember, Jesus is seeking a bride. And we might think this is personal, but see if for what it is…

One reason I believe Jesus mentions her promiscuous life and calls her bluff on her being unmarried… is that he’s letting her know that he knows her past. Because of sin, neither the heart nor the mind does what it is supposed to do. So he needs her to know that he knows. We all have a past. And sometimes our past prevents us from truly trusting in Jesus and moving forward.

We’ve been hurt by others, we’ve been hurt by the church, we’ve been cheated on, ridiculed, and let down… but the truth is… Jesus already knows that and he wants us to know that he knows. One of the greatest tings I’ve learned about sin is that there is nothing we can do to hide our past, nor is there anything we can do to hide what our life is like from GOd.

He already knows our faults. But what I’ve learned is that confession isn’t me telling God something he does not know. Confession and repentance is me agreeing, it’s me aligning up to what he already knows about me and applying the grace he gives to draw me closer to Jesus. Jesus is aligning her mind and her heart into one focus… and that’s to be all on him so that when he drops the mic with what true worship is…

her thoughts are not of herself and her affection is not finding homes with other men… but her thoughts and affection is focused on Christ. I think of it like this… when I fold my hands I prayer, it reminds me that I am taking my mind, and I am taking my heart and I am aligning them together to focus solely on Christ. Only on Christ… Christ is looking for a bride.

And the bride needs to be pure. The bride needs to be faithful. The bride needs to yearn for Christ and have this desire to please only the bridegroom. There’s a Scripture in Revelation that reminds me of the Spirit and the Bride.. it’s Revelation 22:17: The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

Let them come… And so it’s an invitation of Christ to come, to align ourselves on him and receive the water of life that he offers. But there’s an issue. So many times we come into this sanctuary and our hearts and minds are no where near where they need to be to worship Jesus. Our minds wonder to the pot roast roasting in our ovens and the family gatherings after church.

Our minds are often already thinking of 2 or three of more hours ahead… and all were doing is coming to church to check off the, I showed up to church box. That’s got to count for something. Our minds think of every other thing but Jesus Christ when we are here. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:5, 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

When we pray, and our mind wonders, we take it captive and make it obedient to Christ. When we find ourselves face to face with our culture that says what we should follow, we take it captive and make it obedient to Christ. It’s the same with our hearts. If our hearts are not finding this burning affection in worship… Then are we truly treasuring Christ as much as we say we do?

Are we forgetting about our self and concentrating on Him and worshipping him? The question now is this.. now that we have come… Are we willing to let Jesus infiltrate our hearts and minds this morning? Would you, where you are, sing with me verse 1 and 2, and then let’s sing verse 3, two times. As we sing this hymn together… Lt’s all of us take the time to ask…

Am I forgetting me.. am I forgetting what I want and what I desire in this world, even myself and focusing on centering myself on his presence? The last part of our Psalm is Pslam 95 and verse 6. The first come is to come and to show up (Haw-Lak), the second come is to align our hearts and minds for worship ( Kaw-dom ), but the third come is a simple Hebrew word called, ( Bo ).

Bo means to bring it to pass. To apply. To be blessed. I want to finished our time together with that truth. When we come, and we align and we praise… we apply and worship with hearts and minds that kneel and bow. Let us lift up holy hands, and magnify his name and worship him…. Only a soul that is burning with joyful affection for Jesus and a mind that is held captive to Christ and centered on Christ can worship like this.

Let’s go back to Johns gospel. Verse 25 gives us one of the most amazing parts of this conversation… she realizes that Jesus is the messiah.. and she drops everything and she goes to tell others. Read John 4: 25-29 What was her response when she realized that Jesus was the messiah… did you hear verse 29… she goes.. comes and see. Why didn’t Jesus start here? Why didn’t Jesus just say.

I am the Messiah give me some water. I believe it’s because she would have never of believed it… her heart and her mind were not tuned to hearing that message. She was focused on her self, She was focused on her culture, what was right or wrong between jews and Samaritans. Even the Disciples came back wondering why in the world is Jesus talking to this Samaritan. Jesus is talking to her because he’s showing that you can never be to far in sin for the son of God, to save you from your sin.

And ya know.. I always thought this was interesting… Jesus disciples go into town and nothing is mentioned that they bring one person to him. But Jesus spends some time ministering with a woman that everyone else overlooks. And next thing you know… she bringing he entire town with her to meet Jesus. Hebrews 13: 15-16 says: 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. She shared what she had…. And that was Jesus because she came, she aligned and she worshipped. I want to do one last thing but before we do… I want us to see the warning that the Psalmist gives… he says in verse 7 and into 8….

If you hear his voice.. don’t harden your heart. We’re going to close out with one final song.. It’s a contemporary song… but it’s a song that draws the hearer to focus only on the name of Jesus. Would you as we sing this final song… would you drop every pre conceived idea you have of church. Would you just let go of all the things you cling to that is about worship and how we worship..

and focus strictly on who we worship… Because I guarneee….. if you focus on who we worship… You’ll learn real quick…how we do it fades away. *

Holy Spirit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

may we be, a family. Amen. *

Forgive

Let’s open our bibles to the book of Ephesians, and find chapter 4 and while you’re going to Ephesians I will join you in a moment as I’m gonna go to Hosea and read again our series Scripture. This is our overarching theme… and it’s found in the book of Hosea, chapter 14 and verse 4… God tells His people… that when you repent and turn to him… he says, “I will heal their faithlessness , I will freely love them.” Now, I ask for grace as I turn to Ephesians to join you, and as I find chapter 4 where you should already be…

and now find with me verse 25. We’re gonna read 25 down to verse 32… it should take us to the end of the chapter. 25 Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. 26 Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and don’t give the devil an opportunity. 28 Let the thief no longer steal.

Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. 29 No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. 30 And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice.

Here’s the Scripture that’s on my heart this morning… it’s in verse 32…. 32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you, in Christ. And all of God's people said, Amen. Over the course of the last two weeks, we’ve learned that God Fully loves. He desires faithful love from his people, and last week we learned that living in perfect love requires intentional effort to love God and to love others well, even in the face of fear and uncertainty.

And we learned that fear never stands a chance when we are living and pursing God’s perfect love. In laymen terms what that means, is that we, as God’s children, pursue holiness in our lives. John reminds us that perfect love is complete love. It’s love that is whole. It’s without measure… and it’s a love that is available in it’s entirety and fullness to us through Jesus Christ. So when we take the knowledge that God truly and fully loves us without measure, right, and we take faith, and we couple our faith with repentance.

What we find is that this union brings us forgiveness. And so this morning I’d like to talk a little about forgiveness.. But before we get to forgiveness, let’s look at the requirement of forgiveness.… What’s the requirement for forgiveness… It’s simply this…. Paul tells the Ephesians… that Kindness, compassion forgiveness must be, In Christ. Two words are the requirement. In Christ… everything we do must be in Christ. When we woke up this morning, our first breath of grace must be in Christ.

When we lay our heads down on the pillow filled with the days joys and sorrows of today and already carrying the worries of tomorrow, we must “in Christ” yield them to his calming hand. The moment a sinner looks to Christ, the burden of his sin rolls from off his shoulders. If Christ has washed you and clothed you in scarlet, and delivered you from sin, then your eyes must stay upon the one who went to the cross and made a way..

That’s the requirement, For Love, That’s the requirement, for kindness, That’s the requirement. for compassion and forgiveness… the requirement begins “in Christ”. There is no other substitutes…. And when we come to Christ with repentance on our hearts, and a desire to turn from our old ways… there you will find a savior who’s ready and willing to forgive. I found a definition on forgiveness this week and it makes my heart tender…

It said this: Forgiveness is to surrender the right to hurt others in response to the way they’ve hurt us. Where could you find a better definition when you think of Jesus? Can you imagine, Jesus, laying upon the cross, Stripped, bleeding, humiliated. Being nailed to the cross and in pain and agony, but with kind, and compassion bursting out of every wound, and in humility, looking into the eyes of the ones hurting him, and saying with the very precious life giving breathe he had left, Father, forgive them…

because they do not understand what they are doing. Can you imagine what kind of compassion and love, and kindness Jesus has, to pray blessings over the one hurting him. But yet, in His love, and in his forgiveness, Jesus is hoisted up for the world to see…. Look, world!!… it’s Love on a stick!!… but people don’t see it when they are blinded by their own selfishness… When we are blinded by our own selfishness and greed and desires and preferences, they will try with all of their might to hurt those they feel that are taking away thier comfort…

isn’t that the way the world works. Isn’t that the life we’ve been saved from? Isn’t that the life that has been washed away in the crimson tide? You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours… but if you stab me in the back, I will stab yours. There’s no difference to the evil in this world and to the selfishness of this world when it comes to those hoisting love on a stick.

But just as they hoisted love they also hoisted thief's and robbers on a stick as well…. I guess the mindset is this… we are no respecters of persons… we will crucify sinners and saints alike. But for those who have come to love Jesus, they see the cross as a beautiful thing. The cross and crucifixion upon calvary is the most beautiful moment to the Christian. Yes, it pains us to see our beloved Lord in agony.

Yes, it hurts to watch him struggle to breath…. But without the cross and the perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins, there can be no other way to the Father… and without a way to the father there can be no access to faithful love. Jesus says, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If we want to taste the sweetness of kindness, and the warmth of compassion and the grace of foreignness, then it must come, personally by one means, and one means only…

it must come through being, in Christ. That’s the beginning to forgiveness…. Jesus showed it on the cross as he was being nailed to it… It’s easily defined as…to surrender the right to hurt others in response to the way they’ve hurt us. Isn’t that calvary? Jesus surrendering the right to hurt others in response to the way they hurt him? Here’s the greatest hindrance to a Christian… One of the greatest hindrance to the Christian, is a Christian who creates suffering more than they seeks to love those who are suffering.

I believe, that when hurt comes, one of the greatest issues within a Christian is when it wants to take that hurt and churn it. They want to agitate it and before long, hurt turns into bitterness. Bitterness is the butter of the enemy… And when we have bitterness on our hands, we can’t cling to Jesus. We cannot hold onto both. But God gives us forgiveness… Forgiveness is when the salve of grace can come and take all of sin, and hate and bitterness and by faith and grace it gives us the ability to come, and to cling to Christ.

If you feel you’re struggling to walk with Jesus or to forgives others as Christ has forgiven you, perhaps you need grace. More, and abundantly sufficient grace. Paul tells the Colossians: Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. I do not know how to put this next word, that I am going to say. There must forgiveness of others or there cannot be salvation; at the same time you must not do it from compulsion; you must do it freely.

Remember, God told us in Hosea, I will freely love them, and I desire faithful love. Did you know you’ve got to love your enemy to get into heaven? I’ve said this before, but you can’t tell me anyone has Christ in then, yet they show the fruit of having no love for others. No kindness, no compassion and no forgiveness. You can’t force love, you can’t imitate love either… it must be a genuine love the world can’t reproduce.

It’s a love that money can not buy… listen church.. There is no grace where there is no willingness to overlook the faults of others. There’s no forgiveness for one, without that one extending it to another. John said, Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

You can’t receive forgiveness from God and not extend it to others. Paul said, forgive one another, as God has forgiven you. How do we extend it to others? We extend forgiveness through opportunities of kindness and compassion for them. Have you ever thought about the meaning of the word kind? Kind has two amazing meanings. First it means to show kindness, to be kind to others. It’s the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate to others.

But the second meaning, means this…to be similar and to mean to be alike To be kind means, to draw them into your group. Into the loving embrace of the church. It mean to be of one accord, to be of kind means that there is unity. Luke tells us in the early part of Pentecost that the early christians lived in unity. They lived to encourage, to show compassion for one another.

They came together and sold their belongings, and land and brought the money to the church. It's a sense of familiarity. It's a sense of unity, it's a sense of love. It was so no one in their group would suffer. Could you imagine right now, if every person who calls themself a member of this church, sold every single possession that they own, and sold everything that they had, and then they brought the money to the church, just to make sure that everyone in the church was living in unity, and now one had more than the other.

I often think about that, that we are called to be kind, we are called to be kind to those who are around us, we are called to see the marginalized, and those who are the least of these, we are called to love and to be compassionate. Is that not the second thing that we learned in our Scripture today? Paul says that we are to be kind and we are to be compassionate to one another?

What does it mean to be compassionate? What does it mean to show compassion to one another, to show compassionate moments of our life? It means that we show sympathy and empathy for others. It means that when we see them in a situation that we know that could be a situation of bondage, we are tender hearted, we are soft hearted, we are sensitive to what they are going through, we are sensitive to what they are dealing with.

And when we look upon a brother or sister with a caring heart, a compassionate heart, and we have a desire burning within our heart to be christlike, and to bring them to into the fold to be of a kind, to be one one accord, what we'll realize is that we will begin to be who Christ has called us to be. God’s love must come into us, and through us.

Without hindrance to us wanting to control his love. Can I ask you something this morning… Does your life point others to the cross? It can. We need more forgiveness so that we can lead others to forgiveness. We need people who point life to life itself. Jesus. This week, someone sent me a song and it’s touched me deeply. I was sitting in my office praying for the message today and I began listening to this song she had sent.

She had asked me if she could sing it this week, and Of course, I said, you do what the Holy Spirt is leading you. I trust God and I trust you. And I do trust her. Gods anointing is on her life and she’s shining brighter today than she has ever before. You can tell she’s walking with Jesus… But as I was listening to this song that she had sent me, I began to focus on these words…

I wanna heart that loves everybody, even my enemies I wanna love like You, be like You, just like You did. That’s love. That’s love that points to the cross. A heart that’s willing to forgive is a heart that loves and points others to the cross. They point others to Jesus…. As this song plays… I simply ask, for you to ask… do I have this kind of love?

To forgive as I’ve been forgiven? The early Christians.. it says in acts 2: They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity. We take the elements because it represents the Lords Death… the body that was broken for you, and the blood that was shed for you… Holy God, We gather at this, your table, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who by your Spirit was anointed to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, set at liberty those who are oppressed.

Christ healed the sick, fed the hungry, ate with sinners, and established the new covenant for forgiveness of sins. We live in the hope of His coming again. On the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to His disciples, and said: “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Likewise, when the supper was over, He took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to His disciples, and said: “Drink from it, all of you.

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Matthew 26:27–29, Luke 22:19) And so, we gather as the Body of Christ to offer ourselves to you in praise and thanksgiving. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these your gifts. Make them by the power of your Spirit to be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.

By your Spirit make us one in Christ, one with each other, and one in the ministry of Christ to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, let us pray: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. As you eat this, Do so in the remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. As you drink this, Do so in the remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful. Prayer.. may we point others to the cross. *

Doubt

Have you ever doubted something? I think we all have had doubt. Maybe even today doubt crept in. Doubt can be a lonely road when we are left wondering how to handle any situation. Or, if we’ve made the right decision or choice in our current situation. What I’ve learned in my 40 years of life was that doubt is always going to be there. It’s always going to be a part of my life.

But the hardest thing I’ve learned was that I’m not the only person in the world that doubts. Barna did a study a couple years ago, right before covid hit and they discovered that out of those who self identify as Christian. Just over one-quarter, or 26% of them said they experience spiritual doubt. Those who have been through College and encountered an array of ideas, philosophies and worldviews were twice as likely to experience doubt as those who have a high school education or less (37% vs.

19%). The study would go on and reveal how people would respond to their doubt. When faced with Spiritual doubt… The highest response was 45% responded by leaving the church. 3 out the 10 adults stopped reading the Bible and praying. While another quarter (25%) quit talking with friends or family about spirituality, God or religion. So when faced with doubt, instead of coming to church and talking about it among trusted friends and family, reading their bibles and praying, they dealt with doubt by leaving the church and figuring out their doubts either alone or perhaps not even at all.

When I think of faith and growing faith in Christ, I remember that faith grows. It’s alive. It’s active. It’s living. But also, Faith isn’t a light switch that is either on or off. It is more like a muscle; it gets stronger the more you use it. All of us are somewhere between complete faith and complete doubt. Like the father in Mark 9:24, we cry out “I do believe; help my unbelief.” And so, I realized this week.

Doubt isn’t bad because I face it, doubt is only bad if I run from it, or I don’t take care of it when it arises in my mind and my heart. Asaph in Pslam 73 is dealing with doubts. He’s not just some average guy. We’re talking about a major leader in the temple of God. And so, we find in this Psalm a leader and a teacher who faces real life tests and battles that we all face.

And he shows us how to deal with doubt in our faith. Because this Psalm isn’t just about doubt… it’s about how we deal and face doubt when it’s before us with faith. The first things we learn is to face our frustration….. Asaph I would say is lamenting. He’s writing out what’s bothering him. He begins in verse 3 and goes all the way to verse 14. Theses evil people..

They’re prospering in their wickedness. v.3 Their bodies are not bothered by arthritis and callouses and back and knee issues. They’re healthy and strong. v.4 Their not plagued with trouble or problems like everyone else. v.5 I love what the NLT says in verse 7.. these fat cats have everything their hearts could wish for. Honestly, he’s saying these people are living their best life now and it’s not fair because those who are living by righteousness, they don’t seem to have a reward.

v13 What’s the point to live righteous lives when those living wickedly reap all the benefits and the righteous are “stricken all day long and chastened every morning.” V.14 It’s a real question and it’s a real doubt by Asaph. So what does he do… he lays out a buffet of doubt onto the lap of God. He get’s it all out… I was sitting at the dinner table this week and of course in the course of my study for today, I came across a really amazing fact that I shared with our family while we were eating dinner.

I looked down at Alicia’s Zucchini that she had fried up for dinner … and I said, Hunny. Guess what I learned today… I learned that sea cucumbers throw up their guts and let the predator who’s attacking them eat their guts until their full and swim away. Now you can imagine the look on our families face as I lay out this amazing graphic scene to my wife and kids as we eat Dennies Zucchini.

But I found it fascinating… And here is what’s even cooler… they do this, knowing that once they get it out there, they can suck it all back in and regrow their guts incase another predator comes along. Now that’s a weird fact, but it’s true and an amazing fact when we consider that sometimes in our doubt we just need to get it out there. We need to share it and since we have a god that’s relational, he wants us to bring it to him, and trust in him, that he will take care of what needs to be taken care of.

I wanna believe Aspaph learned this from his king, which was David. David in Pslam 62:8 says, “Trust in the Lord at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him.” It’s hard to deal with a problem or a doubt if we’re not willing to put it all out on the table. I love how Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 5:7, when he says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for us” He’s talking about Jesus btw…

but Some translations say, “cast your cares.” Others say, “cast your worries.” I’m sure we can add just one more to that… why not trust in the Lord at all times and cast your doubts on Him as well? Because Jesus cares for us. The second step Asaph takes is that he asks questions and he reasons with his doubt. Verse 16 says, “When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight.” What he is doing is taking his doubt and now he’s mentally beginning to wrestle with it and ask some hard questions.

And guess what… his doubt was causing him grief. Children are amazing are they not. When piper’s over I love just watching her play and seeing little hints of her attitude here and there. I love watching her curiosity. Do you want to know one reason why I think children and grandchildren are a blessing from God…Just one out of the many… but one reason. I believe in all of God’s wisdom and all of God’s love for us.

He gives us opportunities to be around children for them to teach us the truth that asking questions is ok. It’s ok… it’s ok to doubt. It’s ok to reason through our doubt… It’s ok to Ask questions. Jesus said, “… unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3, ESV). When we are around kids I believe God blesses us with their presence because they’re to remind us that we’re never too old to ask questions.

We need them just as much as they need us. Just like we as the church body, need each other to grow and sharpen one another in our faith. That’s the value we find in discipleship. That’s why we gather to pray and to read, and to encourage and to ask questions like, how can I better serve you. How can I pray for you… it’s awful hard to let our doubts get in the way of asking questions when we’re busy enjoying the adventure to learn with one another.

And so what we find out is that there is this joy in adventuring to find something we value. What if… and I’m Just asking.. but what if what we value having the company of Jesus and each other’s company on this adventure we call faith and life? What if, When Doubt begins to rear it’s head in our life, instead of not sharing it, perhaps like the statistics show and running away, what if, God had some weird plan to have brothers and sisters in Christ share their doubt with each other, knowing that Jesus makes a way for forgiveness, and grace, and mercy and love and understanding.

We remind ourselves of having a child like faith with the wiliness to ask the tough questions? What if… it’s really not about getting the right answer, as much as it is walking life together in Christ and with each other? Well what do you mean by that pastor… what I mean is this… what if worship and relationship was the answer to our doubts? Obviously Asaph was troubled by his doubt…

I don’t think he’s trouble by his doubt because he doesn’t know the answer. I believe He’s troubled by his doubt because he’s taken his eyes off the one who holds the answer. Right… He says, I’ve tried to understand my doubt but I couldn’t… so what did he do? Well verse 17 says he went to the sanctuary. Do you know what the sanctuary is here in this text… you guessed it…

he went to be in God’s presence. Verse 17….”Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked.” Asaph was having trouble understanding his doubt because he wasn’t laying it out before God, he was trying to lay it out before himself. He was trying to understand and reason a worldly problem with a worldly mindset. And no matter what he thought, or what he said, or what he did…

it all came up with the same outcome. He was still stuck in his doubt… and it was troublesome to him. So he went to the sanctuary to be in God’s presence and that is where transformation happened. Because once he begins to align his heart and mind through worship. All the things he was troubled over began to find their proper place in relationship to who God is. That’s because, Worship reframes the way we see God, the way we see ourselves, and how we see others.

What kind of benefit do we gain when we are near God? Well, first Asaph tells us that despite our jealously and bitterness, God is still present with us. Verse 23 says, “Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand.” I love the fact that we have Jesus praying in the garden in our foyer. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked over here to be alone in the sanctuary and I come into the church and I take a moment to look intently at our painting.

I stare at that painting more intimately now because God opened my heart to the truth and the power of the word yet. Jesus was about to be betrayed. Matthew tells of Jesus praying in chapter 26, verse 39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; Jesus was about to go to the cross.

He was staring at the cup of sin. He was thinking of the agony of the cross and in a split moment he asked the father if there was any other way…. But what stood in the enemies way to derail the savior onto the cross was one word… Jesus said, yet not as I will, but as You will.” Asaph said I might not understand, I might be doubting, but yet I still belong to you Lord and you hold my hand and lead me…

He’s a debtor just like Paul said he was a debtor to Christ. I’ve found in my walk that sometimes I need to learn to turn from being a doubter and focus more on being a debtor. Doubting can lead me to be self focused, while being a debtor leads me to be God and others focused. He also finds in verse 24 that God guides him when he worships. You guide me with your counsel.

He’s being guided. This is the language of letting God lead him. You hold my right hand, and you lead me. Like a parent and a child. Like a Shepard leading his flock to the cool waters and green pastures. His focus isn’t on the destination, he’s focused on who’s leading him. How do we know this… Look in verse 28.. The best conclusion to be drawn from the psalm is found in v28 28: He writes, But for me, it is good to be near God; and I have made God my refuge.

When presence matters most we find the most joy in our relationship to God. I’ve found that sometimes as we seek God, He can seem difficult to find at times. Sometimes in our doubt we try seeking God but we don’t sense his presence. We don’t sense him coming along side of us and holding our hands and leading us through the crossroads of our doubt. And in the pursuit of our seeking, it can be easy to doubt that He’s there at all.

But what I have learned is that sometimes it’s not about God making himself known to us, as much as it’s about the joy and the delight of the Journey to find Him. I want to end our time together with something I thought was very interesting about the statistic I first shared about doubt. When those people who were polled faced doubt, they were asked a very simple question… Where did you go to find help and answers.

What do you think the highest answer was this… 40% of the people polled said that they went to Friends and family to help deal with their doubt. What if… the journey to find God was never meant for us to journey it alone? What if the journey was meant for us to gather together in a sanctuary, just like Asaph had done, to worship, to yearn, to seek Jesus…. together with others?

When Mary and Martha called Jesus to come because the one he loved, Lazarus had passed away. What did Jesus do… he stayed where he was for a little longer instead of going at the request of Mary and Martha… You see, when Jesus arrived in their mourning people had gathered. What if instead of us walking this crossroads of faith alone, we instead gathered together as a body, worshipped together…

and God took us all by the hand and led our hearts into the intimate relationship with Him? You see… this is how I see the church. This is what I pray for every day for us at Twin Hills. That we would yearn to be here, that we would yearn to pray for one another, and that we would yearn do this faith walk together, while finding the joy of HIs presence.

Everyone of us has exierenend a time when we Thought God was unfair, or being righteous is pointless, or your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. These times become harder if we think we are alone and are the only ones to ever ask these questions or walk these paths. When we gather in the sancusary were not jut worhispping God, but were also Sharing our stories and asking questions. It’s a place where we can have the confidence to ask some tough questions.

And when we do life together, It also gives us opportinuesi for us to share with others the paths we took to find answers. Because This psalm, Psalm 73… is a testimony of the importance of sharing our story for the purpose of helping others. Because 53% of those polled said that when they went their friends, when they asked questions, when they went to the church and the Bible… 53% said their faith grew stronger.

I dont know what kind of doubts you’re dealing with today.. but I can assure you… you’re not alone. Perhaps what you need alone with all of us here… is to worship. *

Sin and Grace

Since the Christmas season is almost here. I was thinking this week, on a weird family tradition we do as a family. Every year on Christmas Eve we hide this small fake green pickle somewhere on the Christmas tree. And the first kid to find the pickle, either got a little extra gift or the bragging rights that they found the pickle. I’m not sure where this tradition came from. It was something that Alicia brought into our marriage and now we do it every year during Christmas.

I did a little research on this tradition and it comes to find out, that, hiding the pickle was a tradition from Germany. So, I am assuming this tradition was passed down from her grandparents to her parents and then it became a tradition to our family through my wife. And the story of this tradition is really interesting because no one knows where the tradition originated. There’s a lot of stories from Santa But the truth is, it’s good to have traditions.

Tradition are good because they can contribute a sense of comfort and belonging. But traditions are also good because many times it tells a story. Think about this… many times what we don’t realize is that choices of our previous family members have determined many details of our lives, even before we’ve begun deciding anything. We think we are the masters of our own lives, but in reality we have been shaped and molded by other peoples choices.

And what’s true of our physical family is also true of our spiritual family. I’m not sure where and when this tradition of hiding the pickle began in Alicia’s family. And it’s kind of fun to talk about. But there is one tradition that we do not like to talk about. And it is a tradition that we all have a part of our life. And it’s the tradition of sin.

Sin isn’t a fun topic because that means there is a need to reveal what doesn’t want to be revealed. Unlike the pickle where there is joy, and excitement and unity, and possibilities and perhaps, even a great prize at the end of the search. Sin is the opposite. It brings anxiety, and Sadness, and no purpose and the great prize at the end of sin is death. Paul reminds us: “For the wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23 Sin does not want to be revealed, and the only way to really uproot sin, or to find it and for it to be revealed is by having a deep relational love in Christ.

It’s kind of like the relationship we have with our spouses. If I do something wrong against my marriage. Because I love Alicia, and I have this deep relationship with her, I want to tell her the truth and be honest with her because I can not bear knowing that I am hiding secretes from her. I deeply love her… Did you know true intimate and deep Love hides nothing from others.

Did you know that one 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 the issue of sin brought to light and eradicated from our hearts. That’s a part of sanctification. Sanctification is the truth that sin can be eradicated from the heart and we can be relatively perfected to be who God desires for us to be.

And that’s to love him with our whole being, and to love others the same. But when we foster and cater to and hid sin in our lives. We totally miss the mark on loving God. So let’s ask the question then… what is sin? To begin to answer that question, we need to begin with one truth. And it’s a hard one to swallow. Every person here and listening online is a sinner.

Paul is very clear on this in Romans chapter 1-3. In Romans 3:9 Paul writes:, “All people are under the power of sin.” And then shortly after that verse we find in verse 23: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Now, that’s everyone. You, me, the person sitting next to you. Yes, they have sinned. You’re a sinner, sitting next to a sinner, listening to a sinner preaching on sin in a room full of sinners.

Let that brain buster settle in your mind. What we realize in Scripture, is that all people sin, and we all fall short of the glory of God, that immediately should remind us of this…. Sin is a great equalizer. If there was one thing we all have in common is that we all have sin in our lives. 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. Now how can we define it then if we all have it. Well, let’s begin to peel apart the onion of sin to get to the root of it. To begin to find out how we can define sin and find the root of sin.

Let’s read romans 1:18: 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. So the first layer is this: the unrighteousness of man will suppress truth. Sin repels the light of truth and runs to the darkness of falsehood. I posted on Facebook earlier this week. Darkness can not reveal darkness. You can’t do dark things and expect God’s light to shine into it.

Think of what Jesus tells us in John “Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light.” John 3:19 So, Remember, we are defining the relationship. “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with (What)… the truth.” 1 Corinthians 13:6 Jesus said that we are guilty sinners not because we are victims of the darkness but because we are lovers of the darkness. Not lovers of truth.

Not lovers of Him. We don’t delight in him. If we loved Him, we would be honest with him. But by our sinful nature, we cover up truth. What kind of truth does sin try to cover up? Well, look with me at verse 19 in Romans 1 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. We cover up the knowledge of GOd.

People suppress the truth because Knowledge of God is repulsive to sin. Sin tried to cover up the knowledge of GOd. What Paul is saying is that God has revealed truth to the world. But sin is disgusted with that truth. The world is a lover of darkness. Do you ever think this is why so may people associate with being a Christian but they do not read their bibles? A study showed that in 2021 only 11% of people read their bibles.

The highest number on that chart was 29% who claim to be christian doesn’t read it at all. Listen, no one can love the Lord and not love the word. So, Sin suppress the truth, and it repels the knowledge of God. But there is a third onion peel to sin’s core. Look with me in Romans 1 verse 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 in Romans 1:21 with some pastor Matthew’s commentary 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 were suppressing the truth and repelling God’s knowledge, we just learned that. They knew about God, but they didn’t love Him.

They came to church, but they weren’t engaged in worship, they read the Bible every now and then, but they never read it for relationship. And since there was no real relationship, they became futile, foolish in hearts, and their hearts were darkened and eventually, their hearts become hardened to grace. And then Paul says, God gave them over to their desires. But the main text I am focusing on is this one…The Bible tells us that people around the early church, they would exchange the glory of God for idols.

Now let me ask this important question… what do you, as a modern day christian think is your most treasured idol? 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 your 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. Now watch this.. because this is going to be a mind blowing moment for us… 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, and you stirred the pot, and stirred them together, and then leaned over to see what was in this pot… what we would find is the most purist idol of all, ……

it’s ourselves. We prefer created glory over of God’s glory. And a lot of times this is what many people do with faith. They come to the altar, they give GOd some idols that are holding them back, but they never give God the greatest idol and that’s themselves. 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. Nothing else in this world has the image of God, but us.

Nothing else in this world has the breath of life, but us. We have been created, bone and marrow, soul and Spirit and given life with a purpose to worship and adore God. With our whole hearts… but sin doesn’t allow that. Sin hates the truth of God, suppresses it, and exchanges it for what sin loves and worships most. Sin loves to worship and serve the creature not the Creator.

That’s the root of sinning. It’s to self glorify and sin rejects God’s truth and is repulsive to the knowledge of God. And the hard truth is the fact that we are naturally born to love ourselves and our sin. That’s what we call original sin. Original sin is the tendency to sin and it is innate in all human beings. 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 this crack poured death. Remember Romans 6 earlier… the wages of sin is death. So, Sin doesn’t want to be revealed and when left unchecked and uncovered, it leads to spiritual eternal death. One part of ministry that I do not like. I hate it and wish it wasn’t true…

but one aspect of ministry that I mourn over is the fact that I have a front row seat as a pastor, to watch people love their sin and think they are walking with God. 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 of mankind with Adam. The second 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. We glory the creation more than the creator. You might be thinking… well pastor. I’m not that bad of a person.

I tithe to the church. I help others. I’m modest and kind and good. Have you ever drove down the road and saw a panhandler and then all of a sudden, an urge popped into your heart that you should help that person. What did you do? Did you talk yourself out of it? Awe man… what. I feel like I should buy them some food but they need to get a job.

Or, man, if I give them my last $20 they’re just going to go buy drugs or beer with it. And Im against those things… so I am better off not giving them anything so I can make sure they stay clean. How did you know that, that prompting wasn’t the Holy Spirit asking you to be Jesus at that crossroads of previenent grace to them? That’s a known sin. You can be modest, and kind and a good model citizen of the world, and still reject say no to the Holy Spirit in your life.

God always speaks to our heart.. the problem we have is that many times our minds will talk our hearts out of anything because it doesn’t make sense to us. And think of this… Does it ever amaze you that God speaks to the heart? He speaks to the heart, the seat of our affection. He speaks directly to the king of our hearts… And he gives truth and light…. what do we do most times?…

we analyze it and talk ourselves out of it , we reject the truth, and reject the knowledge of God because we lack faith.. We lack faith because we lack real authentic trusting relationship with the creator of all things. 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.

And guess what… we all have it… Sin is the great equalizer. But do you know what the greater equalizer than sin is???…. it’s God’s grace. I promise I’m almost done, but if we all have sin, we need a way to get rid of it. Let’s go back into another Scripture found 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, one that does not reject truth, one that does not suppress the truth, and one that does not exchange the glory of God,…….

It begins at the cross. It’s at the cross where we find grace. When we come to the altar we come as equals. Equal sinners, but equal in receiving grace. We all can receive grace today, if only you don’t reject the truth for what it stands for. Paul writes tot he Ephesians, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered” Jesus’s gift was presented at the cross.

His gift was the blood that covers all sins, original and personal sin. His gift to us is His redeeming grace, but his blood is to be received by faith. *

Generational Division

The unifying message of Jesus endures generational pressure to divide when all generations love and work together in harmony. When you think about it, I would submit that’s a pretty theologically profound and personally engaging truth. I’m looking across to every person here in this gathering today, there’s not many of us, so it does feel uncomfortable to have someone stare at you but there is a variety of people here today with different ideas and experiences from life, and family upbringings and from different generations.

It’s no easy task to take all of these differences and uniquenesses and experiences and to bring them together to make a unique song of adoring worship. A song that is loving, and where affections are burning with adoration and desire for Jesus. A church body centered on Christ alone, by faith alone. Today I want us to focus on old and young together, unified by the Spirit in ministry according to our Scripture in Acts 2:17.

Let me begin with a question. Are we so different during the final days that unity is impossible? 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’re either a traditionalist, a baby Boomer, generation X or a millennial.

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 so different and unique that in the final days, is unity impossible? A unique opportunity was given to Peter once he was filled with the Holy Spirit. In verses 3-4 The Spirit filled the room and then He filled everyone in the room. They walk out from that room and among the community. Every time I read this I just think… isn’t this a beautiful example to the local church of today?

We come in here, we worship, we meet God and then like the first Christians filled with the Holy Spirit, they walked out into the world on fire for mission. My prayer each and every Sunday is that when we leave, we leave here with hearts blazen because we met the God of the universe in worship. But when they exited that room they were confronted by those wandering are they dunk?

So, Peter steps out empowered by the Holy Spirit and he teaches those who would listen and begins by pulling up something they would understand. Which was the Old Testament. He gets their attention and says in verse 14, “listen carefully”. And then he brings out the old Testament from the book of Joel. Verse 17 is our focus verse this morning… Peter says: “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. What’s the first thing you think of when you think of the phrase, in the last days? The end times, right?. For many the end times reminds them of the hurt and pain and falseness and judgment to come and that’s true…Paul tells young Timothy about the people in the church during the last days….

People will be lovers of themselves (2 Timothy 3:2) People will be covetous (2 Timothy 3:2) People will be boasters (2 Timothy 3:2) People will be proud. (2 Timothy 3:2) People will be blasphemers (2 Timothy 3:2) People will be disobedient to parents (2 Timothy 3:2) People will be unthankful (2 Timothy 3:2) People will consider nothing as sacred (2 Timothy 3:2) People will be unloving (2 Timothy 3:3) People will be unforgiving (2 Timothy 3:3) People will slander others (2 Timothy 3:3) People will have no self-control (2 Timothy 3:3) People will be unusually cruel (2 Timothy 3:3) People will have no interest in what is good (2 Timothy 3:3) People will betray friends (2 Timothy 3:4) People will be reckless (2 Timothy 3:4) People will be puffed up with pride (2 Timothy 3:4) People will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:4) People will have a form of godliness but deny God (2 Timothy 3:5) People will take advantage of women, weakened by sin (2 Timothy 3:6) People will always be learning but not coming to knowledge of truth (2 Timothy 3:7) People will resist the truth (2 Timothy 3:8) People will have corrupt minds (2 Timothy 3:8) People will have a fake faith from a depraved mind (2 Timothy 3:8) People will not progress in fake faith and fail miserably (2 Timothy 3:9) That’s just 25 things from one letter.

How can all generations work together for the gospel? How can unity be possible in the last days? If this is true? Well, before we answer that, let's turn to I corinthians chapter 3. I want to show you what happens when we live in a church community of division. Peter is writing to the Corinthians who were all to aware of division. And so, in chapter 3, the first three verses he says: , But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

Paul begins by saying, You’re not walking in the Spirit. The first division we witness in the last days is this… Fleshly division. When we walk by the flesh we walk in our own & old understanding… The Corinthians were plagued by fleshly divisions among them. Chapters 1-3 they were divided into partisan loyalties and of course the greek/roman culture infiltrated their church to where they had worldly wisdom and culture.

Then the worldly speech got to them. We find in chapter 4 that they were easily swayed by those who slandered Paul when he was absent. They were character killers and murmurers and gossipers. speaking falseness behind each others back. In chapter 5 we find the they were tolerating sexual immorality. Chapter 6 they were suing each other in court. The list keeps going on. But this is people in a local church, living in the flesh, not by the Spirit.

And here is what’s so beautiful… Paul doesn’t call them out and say.. you’re a bunch of unsaved wicked people. The last days said you would be like this, that you’re nit a Christian. We actually find that Paul doesn’t even call them false christians, he called them fleshly christians. They were people governed more by carnal discernment and desire than by the Spirt in many different areas. What we learn is that when it comes to fleshly division, true christian unity can be expressed and maintained only when there is christlike love governing.

Which is why Paul goes in chapter 13 with the list of what love is. Love is patient love is kind, love knows no wrongs.. etc. Peter knows about needing to be loved… 1 Peter 4:8 says: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Solomon knows love and mercy needs to be granted as well.. in proverbs 10:12 he says: “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.

What these fleshly christians needed was to be loved and they needed to learn how to love one another. The second kind of division we see in the final days is maturity division. Maturity division is usually caused by pride and lack of humility. Any heart filled, evangelizing disciple making, prayerful church will have many levels of maturity among its members. You’ll have different generations, different life experiences, Spiritual knowledge and over all different levels of sanctification.

All of which does help stretch the church and grow the church. For example, a young person might have more experience in a certain area than an older person. Or a long time christian might grow weeds of the flesh in their life and be governed by the flesh than a new convert. Or hebrews 5:12 teaches us that some who ought to be teachers may regressed in maturity by habitually indulging in sin, and they need spiritual milk again.

We put so much emphasis on going from Spiritual milk to Spiritual solid food, but we can fall back and need to be nursed back to being mature again. I believe this is where humility is applied in our lives. Here’s the point though… Maturity diversity is normal within every church but it can lead to maturity division. The positive side to having different maturity levels within the church is that it gives ample opportunities to learn from each other and to grow in grace.

The negative side is this… we just don’t always seize the opportunity and instead of forgiveness and grace, we grow in division. The third and final division is the one that I believe God never wants, but it’s necessary sometimes… And so that is where it gets its name… necessary division. I Corinthians 11:19 says: There must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.

Jesus taught in Mathew 13:24-30 the parable of the weeds in wheat. (Read) What Jesus teaches us is that in the final days, our churches will remain a mixture of Christians and non christians. That’s a fact… and through humility, and grace, and love within the church, our calling is to always be living among the weeds with the hope that the weeds become wheat by the end. But some weeds stay weeds and the danger is, those are the people we call false teachers, and people who cause division among others.

Paul in Romans 16:17-18 warns us, I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create dissensions and obstacles, in opposition to the teaching that you learned; avoid them. 18For such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by fair and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the innocent. Jude 17-19 reminds us, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.

It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. And that’s the main theme of todays sermon… remember I asked us.. Are we so different during the final days that unity is impossible? The answer is no.. You see, Peter is speaking the first holy Spirit filled sermon pointing us to the fact that in the last days, it’s not just division and wrath and judgment that we fearfully wait for…

but in the last days is a day that God will pour out HIs Holy Spirit among all people. It’s a promise… The Spirit is poured out to the old men, and to the young men. The old ladies and the young ladies. They will dream together, and Vision together and prophecy together. It’s a picture of kingdom unity. That’s good news. We’re visioning and dreaming and prophesying together to draw us together so that we make much of the calling to be missional Chsritians that love every single person in this world.

It’s good news because this means that the outpouring of the fullness of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh means it is not to be restricted or held in; God means it to be shared worldwide. We’re living in the great time of mission, not division. Fleshly division is overturned with Spirit filled unity. Maturity division is brought together through Spirit filled unity. And necessary division pulls the weeds of those who refuse to love, who refuse to forgive, who refuse to show mercy, so that those who remain can grow.

When I read acts 2:17.. it’s one of the most amazing scriptures on the fact that in the last days… we have hope of unity because we have the Holy Spirit being poured out! So how do we begin… simple… we begin by repenting. Proverbs 1:23 says: Reptant at my rebuke, then I will pour out my thoughts to you, and I will make known to you my teachings.

The same message the prophet Joel preached, repent, rend your heart and return to me and then I will pour out my spirit upon you…. The same message Peter preached, repent, each of you.. not just me, he said repent all of you, each individual…. I want to believe that every person in the upper room received the holy Spirit because each one individually repented of their own sin, and then the Spirit came and united them together in Christ.

Not because they showed up to church… not because they said they believed… but because they repented. And the Holy Spirit was poured out and they received… freely and fully. I want to look at one more Scripture… it’s verse 40… and it says, then Peter, continued preaching urging all his listeners, Save yourself from this crooked generation. Earlier I asked you, what generation to you belong to?

The worldly generation only leads to worldly living.. Do you know why it’s crooked… because it is a generation that refuses to take responsibility for it’s sin. And that’s not just the traditionalist, the baby boomers, the generation X or even the Millennials. We all must take responsibility for our own sin, and become apart of the greatest generation… generations saved, sanctified and full of the Holy Spirit… because that is the only generation that will inherit eternal life.

What generation do you belong to? “Lord help me to never think that my crooked ways are better than the strait and narrow way of repentance that will always lead me to you. I want to be an offering not an offense to you. Forgive me of my pride, and may those who hold anything against me show me mercy as you’ve been so abundant in showing us all mercy. Help bring us back together in unity.

Let us put all pride and ill thought towards one another away. Let it begin with me. I’ve been hurt, my character has been attacked. Untrue things have been said. But Lord, you know all things. I still believe in unity. I believe in it, because you words tells us we’ll have it when we’ve laid ourselves down and take up the cross to love all. Just as you love all…

help me Lord… to see the sin in others as a calling to love and not a calling to judge… I just want to please you… let that be my song to you today… let my breaking heart of repentance be pleasing to you. Thank you Jesus by faith I believe. Amen. *

There and Back Again

Let’s open our bibles to Psalm 84. Find with me Psalm 84. Let’ Stand and read it together. (Read Psalm 84 - ESV) And all of Gods people said together, amen. Have you ever been somewhere that you had a hard time leaving and coming home? I would like for you to think back to a time where you’ve gone somewhere, perhaps it’s to a family members house as a kid.

Or, perhaps it’s a destination like Disney, or some other type of vacation you’ve gone on. Now, as your thinking of this place. How did you feel on the last night you were there, knowing, that in the morning you were going to prepare for the journey back home, and back into the life you left behind. Sometimes I’ve gone on vacation and I had an amazing time. But I was ready for my own bed.

I was ready for the comforts that I had bought for our homes that I had to go without for a week. Like those moments you go camping, and you long for your shower. We long for those comforts we have at home. But, What about those times when you’ve went somewhere and had this magical amazing time, and now the night before it sinks in that you’re leaving in the morning, and it becomes this bitter sweet moment of celebrating the joy you’ve experienced, but at the same time your sad that you have to go back to the real world.

Alicia and I would probably say, that was our Puerto Rico experience. Our Puerto Rico experience was so impactful on our lives, that Alicia was trying to find a church for me to work at, a house for us to live and a job so we could just stay and live in Puerto Rico. UNfotnualy, we had to return my mom home and pick up our dogs. But Her experience caused her to desire to stay in this place of joy.

What we find most times, is that when it comes to vacations and our experiences away from our home. The road back home is often a hard one to travel because we long to be back where we were, because we experienced something amazing. And To be honest, I mope a little bit when we begin to head back home. Usually, the car is quiet with the kids passed out in the back.

And I am sitting there driving looking over to Alicia knowing what she’s thinking. Most times, I believe she’s thinking “Why can’t we just live there? Right? When we were leaving family camp this past year, Gabe said to us in the car… we should move here. Most times I believe if it wasn’t for us coming home to get our dogs from the sitter, Alicia might try to convince me to not come home at all and to replant in Cape May or even Puerto Rico.

This is probably the closest many of us will come to understand of what is happening in this Psalm. Because instead of the Psalmist being on vacation. What we’re reading is that they have just experienced an amazing time of worship in the house of the Lord. And it wasn’t just any experience, but it was a joyful one. It was an experience of being in the very presence of God, and they were overflowing with joy.

But, many of us don’t think of worship as joyful. Honestly, a lot of the time we come to church with a vague sense of obligation. Like, I got to go to church today because I’ve gotta teach or I got to do something. It’s like serving in the church has become this obligation instead of an opportunity. It’s no longer, “WOW! I have the opportunity to come to the House of the Lord.

I have the opportunity to be in his glorious presence with others seeking His presence. Or the opportunity to love on others who may not of had a good week, or a worst week than I had and I get the oppomritty to uplift and encourage someone else. We feel like we are supposed to go but we will use whatever excuse we can find not to go. If there is literally anything else that we could do instead, many times we find reasons to do it so we can skip church.

I believe, if we drill down or get to the root of why this is true. What we would find is that many times we show up to church without the expectation of service today being ,transformative. We don’t expect to be changed. And perhaps we do not expect change because we truly, do not want to be changed. One of the first signs of a prideful selfish life? Is a life that says, I can’t grow anymore.

That I’ve have arrived to where God wants us to be. And the danger of this kind of mindset will turn a person from growth, to maintenance. And instead of coming to church, to meet God and to experience Him and His goodness and to grow in relationship wit God and with others, we come to church expecting church to meet us and our needs. Francis chan spoke one time that he had a church member come up to him after service and say, “I just didn’t like worship today, I didn’t like any of the music.

And Francis looks at them and goes, Well Good… because we didn’t come to worship you.” It’s really easy for us to reject change, and comfortably live in maintenance mode. Psalm 84 is encouraging the worshipper to re-center their lives on seeking God and this Psalm begins by doing this in corporate worship, or in the temple, or as we would say, at church. Really this Psalms begins by showing us how important it is to gather together for His strength in corporate worship.

And we know that God’s presence and activity are not confined to any one place, whether it be a temple or a church, or whatever, but what is remarkable about when we gather for worship is that God’s inspiration flows from the places where he is more obviously found. That is why in Hebrews 10:25, we are told not to forsake the assembly of believers. We need worship. It reboots our lives and keeps us pointed in the right direction and running forward towards the prize set before us.

So, how do we leave a place where we undeniably come to worship and meet God but head back out into the real world where life happens and the atmosphere in our life can be harsh and unforgiving experiences? Well the Psalmist teaches us that we “Must Dig blessings out of the Harsh Conditions of our Lives.” Look with me in Psalm 84 verses 5. 5 “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” The worshipper realizes that as he leaves the temple that he isn’t leaving the presence of God.

God’s presence is going with him and giving him strength. Get this: His body is full of the strength of God. Meaning I am physically able to do what God is calling me to do. Blessed are those who’s strength is in you he writes. And why am I doing it? Because His mind is full of the remembrance of his time in the Temple. He’s been changed. God impacted his life and he has worshipped, and God’s presence is changing him and he doesn’t want to be who he once was.

But he knows that going back into his old life, he’s going to experience the harshness of life. Right? How many of you would love your church walk to be the same as your home walk! We’re so much more confident when we are in church. We’re much more prone to worship and pray and read our Bible and mingle with a christlike hearts at the temple, at church… but that hardly ever carries over into our private life.

So what does he do? Well, here is the key… he creates wells on the ways home and where he lives. Now watch this.. he’s leaving and heading back home. He’s going through the Valley of Baca… Verse 6 says, As they go through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. Baca means two things. No it’s not some hillbilly slang for Levi Garret or Copenhagen…

It either means a shrub that withstands the harshness of dessert life. Or it means weeping. So, as he journeys away from the temple and he walks in this what? This valley of harshness and weeping…. he realizes that going back into his old life can be sad, full of weeping and he also finds it to be spiritually dry and harsh. Like, why can’t my worship at home be as vibrant and amazing as it was at the temple.

So, In the midst of this dryness and weeping, the presence of God that has gone with him from the temple calls him to dig wells. He makes it a place of Springs, meaning he’s going to need to dig these springs where he lives. We learn that Springs and wells are places of presence. God met Hagar at a well. Jesus met the Samaritan Woman at the well. They are places where we are gaining strength.

And for those two ladies, they gained more than strength, they gained God’s presence. Many communities would built cities around the well. It was a community meeting place. But here’s the thing.. wells don’t just dig themselves. They require planning and hard work. And perhaps that’s why many christians experience Spiritually dry spells when they leave for home after worship. Have you ever heard the phrase.. I come to church to get filled up for the week.

or I come to mid week services to get refilled? Every time I hear that phrase, my heart breaks. I get sad because, I personally don’t need to come to church to get filled. I’m filled all week long. Most Christians only experience a deeper relationship here, at church, because this is the only well they draw from in their life. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying church is useless…

because in Psalm 84, although God calls him to dig spiritual wells, he still longs to be in the house of the Lord. As should we. We should be longing to be in church. Because this well is refreshing, and cool, and kind, and where we worship with our community and it should be where we draw others in. But the biggest problem with todays Christianity is that the only time most Christians drink from the well is on Sunday morning in church.

The problem is, is when sometimes we say things like, I need church, or a mid week service because I need to fill up. If that analogy is true, then the problem isn’t you’re running dry throughout the week. The real and more deeper problem is, is that you haven’t built wells where you live. You’re leaving church and going out in the dry and parched land, and perhaps with hearts singing…

wow what an amazing worship service.. wow what an amazing word form the pastor. and then as you walk this world, you’re becoming weary because there’s no wells in your home, or at your work, or where you take your kids to activities. Because if there was, You’d be filled and overflowing all the time. I sense the greatest problem with our culture today is that our homes, our jobs and where we do life are actually places that are shallow with fakes wells.

We have scriptures on our walls as decoration, we have bibles laying around our house, we have everything we need for our homes to look like this amazing well of God, but it’s actually just a hole in the ground with some bricks to look nice. We can’t draw living water form imitation wells. When I was kid, my mom took me to the dollar store and there was this trumpet.

Now, growing up, I was a boy scout. And I saw this bugle at the dollar store and I begged my mom for it. I wanted it sooo bad, and I was already telling her how I was going to play with it, and practice and how awesome it would be to use it at boy scout camp. But she wouldn’t let me have it. She said no because my mother said, it was fake.

It was an imitation bugle. And I was like no.. it’s real mom. Finally I broke her down and she gave me the money to go in and get it.. but guess what… it was just a wall decoration. Even if I had bought it… I could only use it as a decoration. Real music comes from a real bugle. And it the same with wells… real living water only comes from real life giving sources.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not talking about literal wells. I’m taking about So he does two things and it has a result. Highway to God and Builds wells. And the result is growth. Have you ever heard the phrase.. I come to church to get filled up for the week. or I come to mid week services to get refilled? I believe that statement is one of the worst theological statements a christian can believe.

If you are born again Christian, with the indwelling presence of Christ within you, we’ve got to stop this whole idea that church is a filling station. You wanna know why people feel drained and they believe that they are filled up per say at church? They feel this way because at church, it’s the only well in their life they ever draw from. I sense the greatest problem with our culture today is that our homes, our jobs and where we do life are actually places that have no wells or imitation wells.

Wells draws people in. And someone can even say, well what about church? Can a church dry up… you bet.. you wanna know how? Churches become ghost towns because the wells of the people attending that church have dried up. It’s been capped off, the water no longer is fresh living water, but it’s stagnant. It needs stirred and it needs fresh living water to pour into it. When a church goes into maintenance mode instead of mission mode.

It because a dry well. Communities can’t thrive off of wells that are stagnate, bitter or empty. So how do we dig wells? Well first it’s by prayer. Oswald chambers wrote: “The purpose of prayer is to reveal the presence of God, equally present at all times and in every condition.” Prayer is what saturates the soul in God’s presence. It’s where the mouth of this living water begins. Our wells at home and at work and out in the community will always be dry if we’re not bathing ourselves in prayer.

Second, by faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” When I think of faith I think of the hard work of digging wells. The water, or perhaps gods presence many times isn’t always seen, until we do the work. Living faith is faith that is active and moving. Dead faith is faith that is just that… dead. Thirdly, trust.

The Psalmist closed this Psalm by saying, “O Lord of host, blessed is the one who trust in you.” True Worshippers are called dig blessings out of the harsh conditions of life so that others can gather to experience the life giving presence of Jesus. So what happens when we pave highways and we dig wells in our homes and communities and we lead people to church. Well, look with me for my final thought…

Verse 7.. they go from strength to strength each one appears before God in Zion. When I first read this I thought it was saying, when you leave the temple, you create highways and dig wells so you can go from well to well to gain strength. And ya know… that could be true. BUt strength to strength means this… It means to becoming *

Peace in Christ - Shalom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Freedom of God's Love

I recently had a conversation with Alicia where we discussed how we sometimes do something special for someone in our lives, but don't always receive the recognition we feel we deserve for it. For instance, In 2019, Alicia left for a Womans retreat and while she was away, I was wanting to make sure she knew everything in the house was ok while she was away. And I also wanted to send her some sexy pictures of me, so I sent her these: ** Slide **(The one on the left is me washing dishes, and the other is me sweeping the floor.) You know ladies, there’s nothing hotter than a bearded husband doing house chores.

Amen? And guess what… no appreciation for any of the awesome things I did. Here’s another one for you… last year while my wife was away at another Womans retreat, we had a major leak in our bathroom. And so, to do what we husbands do best, I alerted the wife to our dilemma. Here’s the conversation. Show conversation slide - ** Slide ** Now at this point, Alicia knew what I was talking about because we’ve been fighting this leaky shower head for months.

We would tighten it and tighten it, and it just kept leaking and getting looser and spraying water everywhere. So, I fixed it… here’s a before picture of the leak. ** Slide ** No! Appreciation. And if you look close enough… you’d see that there was actually two leaks I took care of, not just one. It can be disheartening when we put effort into something meaningful and it goes unnoticed or unappreciated.

I’m sure you’ve experienced this as well. Maybe you did something, or made something, or fixed something and the recognition was lacking, or maybe you just wanted a simple thank you, but it never came. What do you do when those moments come into our lives? What do you do when it seems like relationships are just one sided? Or your work goes unnoticed? The Spirit has had my heart camped out in Hosea, and it’s a beautiful book.

Hosea is a lesser-known prophet. The book of Hosea tells the story of a prophet named Hosea who was instructed by God to marry a promiscuous and unfaithful woman named Gomer. And so throughout this book, Hosea’s relationship with Gomer serves as an analogy for God's relationship with Israel, which had strayed away from God and turned to idols. But Despite Israel's unfaithfulness, God remained faithful and continued to love them, just as Hosea continued to love and care for Gomer even when she was unfaithful to him.

So what we learn is that Hosea's story is a touching reminder that even when we stray from God, He remains faithful and loving towards us, and is always ready to welcome us back into His arms. Would it be ok for me share two scriptures that have deeply touched me. ** Slide ** Hosea, 6:6 says: “For I desire Faithful Love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Faithful love, is love that is a committed and unwavering in devotion.

It is a love that endures through the ups and downs, the good times and the bad, and still remains steadfast and loyal. Faithful love is greatly lived out throughout he life of Jesus and If I had to pick just one moment where we see faithful love in the way the Father had intended it, it would be the cross of course, but it would also be for me, the Gethsename moment.

In but a moment, 12 disciples that just broke bread with Jesus, who was fed by Jesus, who had their feet washed by Jesus, prayed over by Jesus, we’re now sleeping against a tree while Jesus wept in agony. When you’re willing to be ridiculed by others, alienated by others, criticized by others, and left alone in an olive grove, the place of pressing and trials because others have left or deserted you in your most vulnerable time of need…

and you’re still willing to go a little further, and fall to your knees and go, O my Father, Abba Father…, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: Yet, not as I will, but as you will. That’s Faithful love…. It’s loving without condition…… It’s faithful to the end.. even when death is inevitable. Faithful love is dripped in grace, and washed in mercy. And it continues on, even when others abandon you.

I’m not a fan of a certain phrase and I wish it would be forgotten, especially in our lives and in the church. Because there is no Biblical ground in my opinion for it. It’s this… “if you scratch my back, I’’fill scratch yours.” It’s not biblical. It’s actually faithless to say such a phrase. It sounds good… yeah. It sounds like brotherly love, it sounds like unity, but it’s missing something…

“if you scratch my back, I’’fill scratch yours.” …. It’s missing relationship. That’s why I hate it so much, because when this phrase and motto infiltrates the heart of the church, it immediately requires obedience without love because it’s more of a transaction than a relationship. THis is the kind of love that says, “Look at what I’ve done, or look at how many years, or look at me… when are you going to recognize what I’ve done, and do your part.” “if you scratch my back, I’’fill scratch yours.

comes in and instead of building a relationship, and trust, and unconditional love through mercy and grace, and looking for opportunities to love freely without condition, it will always demand for either of the parties to uphold what was bargained. And if, or I should say when, the agreement is breeched, It gives any side the right to leave, or to abandon or even be abusive. And leaving, and being abusive to others, by word or deed…

that’s not a faithful love. To me, that sounds like bondage. Turn with me to Hosea chapter 14. Here’s the second Scripture that had touched me. ** Slide ** “I will heal their iniquity, I will freely love them.” God desires faithful love, but even when we do not walk in faithful love, God tells us that through forgives and repentance, He will freely love. A love that is freely given, that’s a love without bondage.

It means "without cost or payment" or "given as a gift." Jesus tells his disciples to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons, and to do so "freely," without charging any money for their services. Matthew 10:8 Paul tells us in Romans, that believers are justified "freely by grace. Salvation isn’t earned, it’s given. As a gift. TO freely love also means "willingly" or “spontaneously." David worships in Psalsm, "I will freely sacrifice unto thee”..

what David means is that he will give without being compelled or obligated. It indicates an attitude without obligations. He wants to freely give because there’s no bondage. To love freely there needs to be freedom. Freedom is the key to love, and the key to freedom lies in having complete trust in God's love. The Father's love of life… which becomes available through the Son who made himself available. And it is all free, purchased by the death of Jesus, received by faith alone.

What does Paul say to the Galatians…. ** Slide ** He tells them, “For Freedom, Christ sets us free.” Not one ounce of the fathers love is available to you or me without Jesus. Jesus tells us, no one comes to the father unless through me. You have no access apart from Christ. Think of it like this… my son wants to use the car to take the trash out… he thinks it’s great to drive over the trash…

well, he can’t drive the car unless the father gives him the keys. The key is what makes the car start… it’s what gives permission for the car to say, let’s go… let’s ignite. The car is only able to do what it’s intended and designed to do, with the key. Otherwise, without the key, everything about that car is useless. For us, Christ is our key. Jesus is the key, the only key to receiving love, and grace, and fogginess, and mercy from the Father.

Think of it this way, Can I read to you something from Oswald Chambers, I found this bit in a Devotional from Utmost for HIs highest, ** Slide ** Oswald writes: "The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally, it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” Paul writes: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.

(Romans 7:18-19) Apart from Christ, nothing good dwells within me… apart from Christ is noting but emptiness. This is why so many people with wealth will come to the end of their years and go, I’ve accumulated it all… and I still feel empty. Charles Darwin, the famous biologist, reportedly said "I am not the least afraid to die" shortly before his death, but also expressed a sense of emptiness at the end of his life.

He wrote in a letter to a friend: "I have very little satisfaction in life — but have been sustained by a conviction that my work has been useful”. He felt empty because they’ve never tasted freely given, faithful love. Listen, church, Freely given and faithful Love is motivated by the joy of sharing the fullness of what we have in Christ Jesus, but the works of the flesh are motivated by the desire to fill our emptiness.

What does Paul mean, works of the flesh? He doesn’t mean our bodies… What he means is our pride. Our inner ego that which feels a deep emptiness and uses the means within its own power to fill that emptiness. For some… that’s religion. They may use the law. If it’s something that’s ungodly, or faithless, it could be other things, like booze, or tobacco, or unhealthy relationships that bring no honor to Christ.

It is enslaved to one desire after another in its effort to fill an emptiness which only Christ can fill. Look with me… in Galatians 5… ** Slide ** x 2 We’re looking for the freedom to love and Paul tells the Galatians in Chapter 5, verse one, this freedom you seek, is Christ… Christ sets us free. And then in this verse, verse one, he says something very important… Paul then goes on to say, Don’t submit again, to a yoke of slavery….

He’s talking about sin. He’s saying, you’ve been set free, by faith in Christ, but don’t fall back into who you once were… We have a tendency to do that.. We also have a tendency to come to faith in Christ, and then we stop pursing Christ. Most times, we stop pursuing Christ because we come to Christ with this mind set, Jesus, if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

And many times, we’re like, Jesus, I come to church, I pay tithes, I serve here and I do this… and ya know.. I Don’t feel like I’m being blessed right now. You’re not doing your part. That’s not freedom, but again, that’s bondage. That’s a transaction… I give, you give… listen, the transaction has already taken place… it was between Christ Jesus and God the father when our sin debt was paid.

Now why do I say all of this? I say all of this because of this reason..… “When you and I do not love freely, or Faithfully in Christ, we will enviably attack one another.” Look with me in verse 13: 13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another. Faithful love is free love, and free love is made available through Christ, and Christ makes us free to love those around us. Without love… from Jesus… we will do nothing but bite and devour one another. Didn’t Jesus say, They will know that you are my disciples by what? Because you came to church?..

No… by how you pay your tithe? No… by how you dress in a certain way?… no… I was praying the other day and I had this thought… if Jesus showed up to his church today to just listen in and see if there’s any transformation thier loves… I guarantee you there will be people bickering over the fact that he wore sandals to church. They will know that you are my disciples by what?

Jesus, in his sandals said, You are my disciples by how you, love one another. Where not to clothe ourselves in our sin or our old selves, but in perfect love because we’ve been set free. When, Perfect love casts out fear, and when we love Christ and one another freely and faithfully, we’ll experience the freedom and joy of Fathers love. What we learn is this.. here’s todays main idea for the message, this is what Jesus wants us to know today…

When we freely love others as God loves us through Christ, we break down walls of division and build bridges of grace and reconciliation. If we as a church desire to be a church of love, and unity… it begins by all of us clothing ourselves in Christ. Colossians says, "And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Colossians 3:14) The choice is ours… we will either create division because we feel that the other person isn’t paying their debt owed to us, or we will freely give the love we received through forgiveness.

My prayer, for us as a body of Christ,….. is that we abound more and more in love for one another and for all men (1 Thessalonians 3:12). We can only love if we are freed to love. What are you not free of this morning? Jesus promises.… “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Freedom begins with repentance and forgiveness.. and is then lived out through holiness.

Holiness is perfect love. Did you know you can have perfect love right now… You and I do not need to wait till heaven to be perfected in love. It’s available to us right now in Jesus. His Spirit, within your chest right now… has the ability to perfect you in love, right now, in this moment…. But You’ll never experience perfect love with an imperfect attitude. You’ll never experience perfect love with a “if you do for me, I’ll do for you attitude.” Because when the other person doesn’t pay what you feel you deserve, you will always, and eventually cancel the agreement of friendship and love and try to collect the debt somewhere else.

The debt has been paid… Stop trying to collect a debt that you have no right to collect. *

Stronger Dads - Stronger Homes

Let’s open up our bibles to Psalm 127. Find with me, Psalm 127 and when you find it, just hold your place there for a moment.I’ll let you know here in a moment when it’s time to stand together. Psalm 127 is one off the two recorded Psalms that have been accredited to King Solomon. I can’t remember if I mentioned it last week. But I do find it interesting that King Solomon was known for his superior intellect and wisdom.

But he still failed God. All throughout the Bible, we find great men of God who fail. Adam in Genesis, the first of a line of failures failed to lead his wife to reject the fruit and to rely on God alone. Abraham a man of superior faith, failed to love and protect his wife and failed her and others. King David was known as a man of worship and a man after God’s own heart.

He was in love with God and we see that love being lived out in the book of Psalms, but he had moral failures. Sampson had immense physical strength, but with a sinful disregard for his parents and for God. His strength ended in collapse. Peter in the New Testament was overly confident in His leadership, but yet he allowed Satan to use him to try and derail the mission of Christ to go to the cross.

Solomon had all the wisdom in the world, making him the wisest man of his day who would write proverbs that still relate to us today. Solon was wise and he was loved by God. There is a Scripture in I Chronicles 28 found in verse 6 that says, “I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father” No one in the world would hear that line until Jesus came and began his ministry.

But yet, Solomon sinned greatly against the Lord. He married pagan wives, built pagan altars for them, and even participated in pagan worship himself. And the only reason God didn’t take the kingdom from him was because of the promise God gave to David. Solomon failed miserably. I just want all the men to hear today. We can have all the extremes… faith, strength, wisdom, love and courage in our walk with God, and still fail in our walk.

We can have faith, but fail to trust God. We can have strength, but still be weak in your walk with God. We can have a heart for worship, but fail God. As I sat in my study this week, I kept thinking. If all of these men drastically failed God, then what hope is there for me. A man who wrestles with sin, and anxiety, and even self worth every day.

And then the Lord reminded me of Ephesians 6:10.. Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. The Lord laid on my heart, Be strong. Not in anyone else. Not in your appearance, or car, or money or even my wife in kids. Lay your treasures down at the foot of the cross, take upon yourself the yoke of Jesus, for it’s easy and be strong in Him, and in his power and might.

What I’ve learned in my personal walk with Christ is that Often one’s strength or weaknesses isn’t obvious until challenges arise, but I can be strong in the Lord anytime by faithfully believing God’s Word, being sensitive to His Spirit within me and then trusting him, by faith to live in His abundant grace. This morning, I want to share with you, on this Father’s Day how to be men and even women of God.

Psalm 127 gives us ways and exercises to help us become stronger dads to build stronger homes. Let’s stand together and read Psalm 127. Psalm 127:1-5… Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. 2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. 5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. And all of God’s people said together… Amen. You may be seated. This week Gabriel and I went to Walmart to buy a tire tube for his bicycle.

When we got home he had asked me if I could help him put it on. It was a heart filled moment for me because although he is 15, to ask dad to come and help meant I was going to get to go out, teach him something and spend some amazing time with him. He had already taken the tire off, which of course is the easy part. But then came the hard part of removing the inner tube and replacing the old one with the new one and then putting the tire back on the rim.

After some struggle I got everything situated and it was time to pump the tire up. So, I held the tire in place and he began to pump the tire with air. And as he was doing that, I was praying that I didn’t poke a hole in the new tube with my flat head screwdriver. But before long, the tire was filled, and everything was done and Gabriel was able to ride off and everything worked as planned.

After all was said and done, i went over to my office and I began to think back. There was a time when he wasn’t strong enough to push down bicycle pump without my help. As men, and women of God, we can very easily do whatever it is God lays on our heart without the help of God. There’s a lot of Christians who live practical atheistic lives. It’s true.

There’s a lot of people who come into churches every Sunday who are faced with some sort of problem, and instead of turning to God, they instinctively turn to themselves to fix the issue without God’s help. I’ve noticed even in my life at times, that walking by faith is easy until I am required to trust in God. I can believe in God, I can know God exist, I can even do the work that God calls me to do, but even with those truths, I can still live a life where I do not trust God in all circumstances.

Again, it is a reminder to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. It’s a call for me to always remember that all things has the fingerprint of God on them for Him. Solomon in Psalm 127 verses 1-2 is teaching us that. He reminds us that apart from God we do everything in vain. I can go out and build a porch and forget that God has given me the very breathe that helps my body have the strength to do the job.

He has given me a weekly job to pay for the material that is needed. He has given me knowledge and life experiences to give me the mental picture on how to build it. And when it’s all said and done, I can very easily stand there on the finished porch, look to my wife and kids and say, “Look at my amazing work, Lets celebrate by firing up the grill, cook some steaks and crack open an ice cold root beer.” I can do all of those things, and still forget that God’s hand was involved in every step and forget to thank God in my work.

God wants us to work hard at our jobs. He wants us to be hard workers. But not at the expense of forgetting his amazing presence in our lives. That even though we work hard at our jobs, we ultimately must work them for him. Did you know we’re called to work for Him? No, Im not talking about those just in ministry. I am talking about us, ordinary blue color people who are called to go to work every day to work for the glory of God.

Colossians 3:23-25 reminds us: 23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. 25 But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites. What’s interesting is that in Colossians we are called to work, but it never tells us what our specifics work is to be.

It only says, whatever it is, whatever you do… do your work willingly as if you doing it for the Lord… even if it’s as simple as washing the dishes. One of my favored books to read is Practicing the presence of God written in the 1500’s by a man called, brother Lawrence. Day after day, and over the course of his life, this once French soldier turned into a priest, would retreat to a place in his heart where the love of God made every detail of his life dedicated to loving God.

His biography tells us how he hated kitchen work. And of course, it seems that there’s always these people who are above us that seem they have this personal vendetta against us. What do they do? They always assign us the job no one wants. So, Brother Lawrence would be assigned to wash dishes and prepare food. And he hated it, but among the steaming pots and pans, he would often have conversations with God.

And so, as he washed dishes he would turn his drudgery into satisfied devotion. We’re called to work, and we’re called to work hard at our job. But we’re never called to work so hard that we forget God. And were never called to work so hard that we forget our family either. Sometimes the only time we hear job well done in anything we do, is when we know from our own hearts, that we accomplished our work for the Lord and when we do it for him, he always says..

great job. But here is something else we also learn from Solomon. We’re called to work hard, as if were working for the Lord. But we’re also called to rest often and take advantage of our time off. Just as it’s easy to forget God in our work, it’s also easy to forget God in our rest. I can’t tell you how many times I’d come home from work in the gas company to just want to veg out in front of my PlayStation and ignore my family.

It was so bad, that not only was I neglecting my wife, but I was also neglecting our kids. Just recently we were talking around the dinner table about being together and Chloe told me she remembers the hours I would spend on my play station and not playing with them. Talk about a knife to the heart when your daughter remembers you doing something that didn’t involve them when I should have come home and been the father I never had.

I’ve always heard the phrase, work hard, play hard. We can also say, work hard, rest hard. But don’t rest so hard that you neglect those around you that love you and that you love. Resting is just as important as working. Solomon might not have been a great Psalm writer like his father David, but he was defiantly a man of wisdom. Proverbs 23:4-5. Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich.

Be wise enough to know when to quit.5 In the blink of an eye wealth disappears, for it will sprout wings and fly away like an eagle. He reminds us that life is fleeting and meaningless if we just live to get rich. Learn how to quit and learn when to quit. Learn when to find rest. And stop trying to gain the world.. because in the end. We gain nothing if our soul has been lost.

Jesus taught, what do we benefit if we gain the whole world but lose our own soul? It’s so easy for us to forget God in our work, but it’s also easy for us to be lazy and expect God to do everything and we do nothing while we seek to find rest elsewhere. As I remember helping my son fix his tire this week, I was also reminded of when he was little, and we needed to pump up the tire to his little bike.

He realized that he couldn’t overcome the differential pressure and push down the tire pump. I then gently put my hand between his to help. Once he realized I was doing most of the work, he would let go and run off to play. Expecting me to finish the work for him. He figured that since I was pumping the tire, he didn’t need to, and he would go and find something more interesting to do.

I think we can do that with God sometimes. We can ask for help, and once he puts his divine hand on our situation, we have a tendency to go and let God and we walk away expecting God to just finish the job. What we learn is that we must rest often and take advantage of it because God is preparing us for greater things to come. And most times, those things that strengthen us require to be rested so that we can do what God calls us to do.

Not for us.. but for his purposes in expanding the kingdom. We’re given grace to give grace. we’re given strength to give strength. And we’re given rest to prepare us for the work of compassion God is calling us into. This truth is best taught in Marks gospel. In Mark chapter 6. Jesus send outs the disciples. They head out and begin telling others to repent from their sins. During this time of work, Mark includes the story of the beheading of John the Baptist.

Word reaches Jesus of Johns beheading and the disciples return from their ministry work. So Jesus says in verse 30, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest for awhile.” SO they head out into the Sea of Galilee to find rest with one another. As soon as they rest and land the boat, people are there on shore waiting for Jesus. And Jesus saw the crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like a sheep without a Shepard.

As Jesus ministries to the crowd it begins to get late. So the disciples come to Jesus and tell him, hey, it’s getting late, these people need to go back and find food. So, Jesus looks at them and says, no… You feed them. Listen church, don’t let your mind wonder off because there is going to be some real spiritual truths being laid out for you in this moment. The disciples wanted to call it a day, and rightly so.

They were tired. They worked all day. They’ve been helping Jesus and serving the people and working hard at their jobs. Their job was to be servants of Jesus for Jesus. I can imagine serving all day had to be exhausting… But Jesus wanted to involve them into the ministry of compassion. You see, I believe Jesus worked the strength and pride out of them. Because to see the compassion of Jesus..

they had to be weak so they could witness the power of Jesus. Henry Nouwen reminds us, that the compassion of Jesus requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” The story goes on that they find fish and bread and then they serve that to the people and there was enough for for everyone.

Sometimes we can work so hard in our regular day to day job that when we fail to see our work for God, and we fail to rest with him. When we fail to rest in Jesus we fail to know what Jesus wants from us. Many times we fail to see the need of compassion for others because we fail to find rest with Jesus. So, rest is needed. But do not neglect rest with Jesus because that rest is always going to lead us into moments of compassion for our family and for others.

And that’s my final thought… Solomon calls us *