Introduction
Global Warming has become such a hot button issue. It has divided people politically and scientifically. The once pristine and popular Weather Channel has even come under some fire for the individual views on the topic.
As I read this past week, I found that I was personally responsible for Global warming.
There was an article by Patrick Sawer in the London Telegraph entitled, “Fat People Blamed for Global Warming”
As if they didn’t already have enough problems on their hands fat people are now being blamed for global warming. British scientists say they use up more fuel to transport them around and the amount of food they eat requires more energy to produce than that consumed by those on smaller diets. According to a team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine this adds to food shortages and higher energy prices.
Describing the Biblical Text
This is one of the Bible’s most significant texts.
It is the description of the creation of the New Testament church.
The day of Pentecost in about AD 33 marked the beginning of what we would call a new dispensation in the history of God’s revelation with Man.
The Holy Spirit was poured out to be a permanent part of the life of Faith.
He was given to regenerate men and women, to give faith, and to bring repentance.
This is a primary characteristic of the New Covenant in the blood and the body of Christ.
He left that the comforter or the Spirit of Truth might come.
Narrate the Contextual application
Now, as we look at His coming, we see the world beginning to heat up.
The church is born and it is rapidly catching fire and in the first century alone, much of the civilized world will be aware of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Global warming of a spiritual nature is occurring and the entire world is going to be changed.
The early church sought God and His spirit and as the Spirit moved, the church submitted, people were changed and lives were renewed for Christ.
Life Application (thesis)
We are people of an independent spirit aren’t we?
These people in the early church were people that were moved by some very significant events.
They were moved by the resurrection of Jesus.
They were moved by his teaching before he ascended.
They were moved by the great commission.
Now we see them moved by an incredible work of God.
It is a work of God that was never duplicated but it was repeated in less significant ways in the book of Acts.
When was the last time we were truly moved by something?
When we are placing all that we are on the shoulders of God, we can know what it means to be moved by God.
Relying on God means that we trust His spirit to do His work in our lives and in this church.
It means that we are giving God control.
In our church and in our lives, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to see people get saved and grow in the Lord.
SO WHAT!! (Outline)
Every time there is a so called crisis, people come up with initiatives.
Global warming is no different.
Except is our case these initiatives are designed to cause global warming that the world would set on fire for Christ.
The first initiative is God’s initiative.
God takes the initiative in moving people to Himself.
As we think about the disciples that are gathered here, we need to remember what they were told to do.
They were told to do nothing.
Wait in Jerusalem until you are endued with power.
All they had to d was sit there and just wait for the Lord to send His power to them.
I want to tell you, that is hard for me. No one hates to take the kids to the orthodontist more than I do because I hate to sit in the waiting room. I really get round the bend with myself when I don’t bring a book or a palm pilot or borrow a Gameboy from the kids.
And, what really makes the idea of waiting so really cool was that they were waiting on the power of God.
They were waiting on the movement of God.
Isaiah 43 tells us something like that it says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”
It is really neat how waiting on the Lord strengthens us.
It builds us up because we are working under His power and not our own.
We see in Acts 2, God taking the initiative.
He is refreshing his covenant in a new and miraculous way.
But, it is a way that demonstrates His power.
Look at verse 2.
The sound of the rush, the sight of the fiery tongues, the languages of the people were signs of the power of God.
I want us to see particularly the languages that the people were speaking.
This was not some super secret sanctified spirit languages.
These were the tongues of the people who were there.
This was Jewish feast day and there were people gathered from everywhere to celebrate Pentecost.
There were people from both the ancient near east and modern day Europe.
Yet they were hearing people testify of the Lord in their own language from people who did not speak their language.
God was doing what he always does and that is break down the barriers to those who are to come to Him.
The language barrier was now eroded opening the door for the Sermon that Peter would preach.
We have to remember that as depraved beings, we are incapable of coming to the knowledge of God in Christ without God’s regenerating work through His Spirit.
So God breaks down the barriers to us coming to Him by coming to us.
This is what he did in eternity past when he knew and loved us and what he did in his electing work.
He has removed the natural man through His Spirit and the heart of stone that was ours when we were dead in our trespasses and sins was replaced by a heart of flesh given to us in regeneration enabling us to understand Christ and the gospel.
The breaking down of the language barrier is just a way here that God has initiated moving His people to Himself.
Our second initiative is found here also.
God testifies of His Son through His people and His word.
Don’t you love it when your plans work out?
I love to make plans for something and then see the plans I have made come together.
What is really cool is that when God makes plans they always come together just the way he desires.
The trouble is that we don’t always see things the way that God does.
The sermon that Peter preaches from verse 14-36 is all about the plans of God.
17-21 shows us God’s plan to pour out His spirit as fulfilled at Pentecost.
22-36 was about the plan of God to redeem His people through Jesus.
God’s plans include us too.
They include us teaching His word and telling His world about Jesus.
Peter was used on the day of Pentecost but He was not used in any manner that would be considered any greater than what God could or would do through us.
The great commission only has one command but it has three prongs.
Why does a milking stool have three legs? The cow has the udder one.
Picture in your mind a milking stool. The stool has a platform or a seat. Yet that seat is supported by 3 legs.
Think of the great commission that way.
The seat is the command to make disciples and the legs are the support for the seat.
The first leg is going. Our minds should be disciple focused as we go asbout the affairs of just living life.
As you go, make disciples.
The second leg is sharing the gospel. Baptizing is the equivalent in the great commission.
People are baptized who have demonstrated their conversion which is in Christ Jesus hence the gospel is necessarily preached leading to baptism.
I want to hold that third leg for just a minute.
So we see here that God ordained the means of salvation.
Verse 22 tells us this: Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— 23this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24“But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.
What are we doing to see that God’s plan is fulfilled here right where we are?
What are we doing to make the Great commission a reality here?
Now back to our third lag for that milking stool and our third initiative this morning.
When Carbon units have their sin remitted, the church must initiate their growth.
This simply means that we as the church should be teaching people how to live for Jesus.
In verse 42, we see that the church continued in several things, the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer.
These are those things that Jesus called teaching whatever I commanded you when He gave the Great Commission.
If we are disciple making Church, then we will initiate teaching that will endeavor to make disciples grow.
Warming the globe though the power of the Gospel is what we are commanded to do.
God is taking the initiative in our salvation and we need to take the initiative to be faithful in preaching, teaching and going.
We can set the world on fire starting right here in High Point.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
The Road Best Traveled -- A Peaceful Life -- Philippians 4:1-9
Introduction
Are any of you familiar with the great American Chicken Track? If you were a child of the 70’s, I am sure that you are. Some people called it the peace sign.
Peace means many things we think about the word.
It could mean well being or it could mean personal contentment; it could mean coexistence between nations; it could mean an unhindered relationship with God.
Even the new bumper stickers are declaring things like creating a department of peace and my personal favorite “visualize whirled peas.”
Describing the Biblical Text
As we look at the text this morning, we see Paul is winding up his letter to the Philippians by offering them some final instructions.
Narrate the Contextual application
These instructions were to help believers in Jesus to pursue peace: peace in the body, peace in life and peace with God.
As they followed these instructions, the church would be a better witness for Christ because the people in the church would certainly be getting along, life would be a testimony to the power of God and followers of Jesus would be keeping their testimonies consistent with the God they profess to follow.
Life Application (thesis)
The key in this passage is trusting God.
Jesus said in Matthew that if we seek God and his kingdom first, all the necessities of life will be given to us.
If we want to have peace, then we must seek after God’s face.
We must pursue vital fellowship with Him.
Our life in church with outher followers of Jesus, in our circumstances, and in the pursuit of holiness is a function of our faith.
It is a function of trusting God.
Therefore all of life revolves around trusting God.
SO WHAT!! (Outline)
As we study this text this morning, let’s examine three traffic lights that we see here in order to live the peaceful life.
The red light – Disunity – We can never accomplish all that the Lord has for us when we quarrel about petit things.
In his book, The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer compares unity to tuned pianos. Listen to how he described unity.
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
Look if you will to verse 2.
Notice that Euodia and Syntyche are told to agree in the Lord.
I wish this passage elaborated more on what their disagreement was over but one thing can be certain.
It was over some petit and unimportant matter.
I laughed out loud in my office this past week when I wondered if it was over music.
The worship wars of the 1990’s did a lot to damage the cause of Christ but disunity over non issues always hurts the church.
Disunity in the body of Christ is so destructive that it is called one of the things that is an abomination to God.
There are six things the Lord hates; seven are an abomination to Him.
One who sows discord among brothers is on that list in Proverbs 6 along with lying and pursuing evil plans.
I have been in churches where that was a common practice.
I even had a secretary at one point who would secretly call a committee chairman in the church if she did not like a decision that I made regarding something in the church.
I have seen disunity right in the pastor’s office and let me tell you it was a terrible situation trying to maintain ministry in that church.
That situation finally resolved when she lost her job for lying about the calls she made.
But, as far as my ministry was concerned there, permanent damage was done to the ministry.
Disunity will destroy a congregation
I believe that is why Jesus prayed for us the way He did.
Notice his prayer in John 17
Listen to these words of Jesus High Priestly prayer form John 17:20, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
Jesus prayed for unity but is not for unity in a vacuum for earlier in 17 He prayed this, “sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth.”
This what Paul was demanding from Euodia and Syntyche – to agree in the Lord.
They had labored together in the Gospel before with some very significant church fathers like Clement and Paul and doing some important work in the gospel.
Yet neither one was willing to relent.
Look at verse 5 let your gentleness or your reasonableness or your yielding spirit be seen by all.
When it is not an issue of Doctrinal necessity, it is okay to say, “let’s do it your way.”
These women had previously been responsible for bringing people to Jesus and now they were tearing the church apart.
They were unreasonable, not gentle and unyielding and the gospel suffered because of it.
Let’s not let that be our legacy.
We have seen the red light of disunity.
Now we will examine the yellow light of anxiety – Worry will inhibit our ability to trust God in our circumstances.
Do you know what lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches?
A nervous wreck
I love my rocking chair at home because I love to rock. I bought it for Valerie as a gift when we were expecting Alyson and I have kind of taken it over. I read somewhere that worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.
That is pretty much true.
All too often, followers of Christ rock in their worries rather than trusting God to deal with their circumstances.
Look at verse 6
Do not be anxious.
When we see this, we might be inclined to see it as a suggestion but Paul wrote thin in the imperative mode.
IOW, this is a command to followers of Christ.
Don’t lose yourself in worry.
God is fully aware of your circumstances and By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, God will deal with them and with your attitude toward them.
Prayer and supplication are essentially synonyms which enjoin us to ask God to work in our circumstances.
It requests that He take an active role in determining the outcome of where we are in life.
And, we thank Him.
We thank him for what he has done because that keeps us mindful of His mighty working hand.
We thank Him for what He is doing because that keeps us looking for what He is doing.
We thank Him for what He will do because that is the exercising of our faith in what He is going to do.
Look what happens when we commit these things to prayer and to thanksgiving.
The peace of God which is beyond our ability to comprehend guards our hearts and minds in Christ.
The word guard is a military word that means to prevent invasion or escape.
You think about a city being guarded. The spoils of war are protected from those in the city from leaving with the victor’s winnings, hence no escape.
Or, the guarded city is protected from a hostile army coming in and taking over.
Think about what the peace of God is doing in our lives.
It is keeping the security of God’s love, care and concern in our lives and in our hearts while at the same time turning back the enemy’s darts of doubt and despair.
That is why it is so very important to commit our lives and our circumstances to the Lord.
Worry is a killer but peace keeps our lives secure in Christ.
Now, let’s take a look at our green light – fixing our minds on Godly things – fixing our minds on Godly things will keep them off ungodly things.
That simply goes back to the old computer adage – garbage in, garbage out.
Look at verse 8
Think about these things; dwell on these things.
The idea is that we are giving them careful consideration like we do when we are going over that financing contract or that contract extension for next season.
There are just some things that we weigh very heavily.
The price of gas is causing many of us right now to reconsider vacations and travel plans.
But this text tells us to dwell on the things of God.
These things described in verse 8 are the Excellencies of life, the beauties of living.
These are things that make you take notice of just how wonderfully excellent God is in the richness of His blessing toward us.
All too often we get lost in thoughts that just don’t honor God.
We get lost in workplace gossip, in getting in good with the boss, in making excuses for not doing our best, in cliques and popularity, and in floods of bad and ungodly actions and attitudes that he world throws at us every day.
But, the way we think affects the way we live
Our actions pour out of our thoughts.
That is Why Jesus said that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him but what comes out of his mouth because that comes from his heart.
What we think about is what we do and it determines how we live.
Minds fixed on holy things live lives that are pleasing to God but minds that are fixed on the ungodly do not produce godly behavior.
They produce just the opposite, sinful attitudes and sinful actions that cannot be associated with God.
Look at verse 9.
That is about the actions coming from the thoughts of verse 8.
Paul declares that he has taught and shown how followers of Jesus should live and notice the reward.
The God of peace will be with you.
A peaceful life is the Life that the God of Peace inhabits.
That is the life focused on Him and His ways in our thoughts and in our actions.
We have an opportunity to refocus our lives today.
If we are living lives that lack peace it might be because our thinking is all wrong.
That can fixed through a relationship with Jesus Christ as He leads you down the road best traveled without worry, with Peace through knowing the God and Prince of peace.
Are any of you familiar with the great American Chicken Track? If you were a child of the 70’s, I am sure that you are. Some people called it the peace sign.
Peace means many things we think about the word.
It could mean well being or it could mean personal contentment; it could mean coexistence between nations; it could mean an unhindered relationship with God.
Even the new bumper stickers are declaring things like creating a department of peace and my personal favorite “visualize whirled peas.”
Describing the Biblical Text
As we look at the text this morning, we see Paul is winding up his letter to the Philippians by offering them some final instructions.
Narrate the Contextual application
These instructions were to help believers in Jesus to pursue peace: peace in the body, peace in life and peace with God.
As they followed these instructions, the church would be a better witness for Christ because the people in the church would certainly be getting along, life would be a testimony to the power of God and followers of Jesus would be keeping their testimonies consistent with the God they profess to follow.
Life Application (thesis)
The key in this passage is trusting God.
Jesus said in Matthew that if we seek God and his kingdom first, all the necessities of life will be given to us.
If we want to have peace, then we must seek after God’s face.
We must pursue vital fellowship with Him.
Our life in church with outher followers of Jesus, in our circumstances, and in the pursuit of holiness is a function of our faith.
It is a function of trusting God.
Therefore all of life revolves around trusting God.
SO WHAT!! (Outline)
As we study this text this morning, let’s examine three traffic lights that we see here in order to live the peaceful life.
The red light – Disunity – We can never accomplish all that the Lord has for us when we quarrel about petit things.
In his book, The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer compares unity to tuned pianos. Listen to how he described unity.
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
Look if you will to verse 2.
Notice that Euodia and Syntyche are told to agree in the Lord.
I wish this passage elaborated more on what their disagreement was over but one thing can be certain.
It was over some petit and unimportant matter.
I laughed out loud in my office this past week when I wondered if it was over music.
The worship wars of the 1990’s did a lot to damage the cause of Christ but disunity over non issues always hurts the church.
Disunity in the body of Christ is so destructive that it is called one of the things that is an abomination to God.
There are six things the Lord hates; seven are an abomination to Him.
One who sows discord among brothers is on that list in Proverbs 6 along with lying and pursuing evil plans.
I have been in churches where that was a common practice.
I even had a secretary at one point who would secretly call a committee chairman in the church if she did not like a decision that I made regarding something in the church.
I have seen disunity right in the pastor’s office and let me tell you it was a terrible situation trying to maintain ministry in that church.
That situation finally resolved when she lost her job for lying about the calls she made.
But, as far as my ministry was concerned there, permanent damage was done to the ministry.
Disunity will destroy a congregation
I believe that is why Jesus prayed for us the way He did.
Notice his prayer in John 17
Listen to these words of Jesus High Priestly prayer form John 17:20, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
Jesus prayed for unity but is not for unity in a vacuum for earlier in 17 He prayed this, “sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth.”
This what Paul was demanding from Euodia and Syntyche – to agree in the Lord.
They had labored together in the Gospel before with some very significant church fathers like Clement and Paul and doing some important work in the gospel.
Yet neither one was willing to relent.
Look at verse 5 let your gentleness or your reasonableness or your yielding spirit be seen by all.
When it is not an issue of Doctrinal necessity, it is okay to say, “let’s do it your way.”
These women had previously been responsible for bringing people to Jesus and now they were tearing the church apart.
They were unreasonable, not gentle and unyielding and the gospel suffered because of it.
Let’s not let that be our legacy.
We have seen the red light of disunity.
Now we will examine the yellow light of anxiety – Worry will inhibit our ability to trust God in our circumstances.
Do you know what lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches?
A nervous wreck
I love my rocking chair at home because I love to rock. I bought it for Valerie as a gift when we were expecting Alyson and I have kind of taken it over. I read somewhere that worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.
That is pretty much true.
All too often, followers of Christ rock in their worries rather than trusting God to deal with their circumstances.
Look at verse 6
Do not be anxious.
When we see this, we might be inclined to see it as a suggestion but Paul wrote thin in the imperative mode.
IOW, this is a command to followers of Christ.
Don’t lose yourself in worry.
God is fully aware of your circumstances and By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, God will deal with them and with your attitude toward them.
Prayer and supplication are essentially synonyms which enjoin us to ask God to work in our circumstances.
It requests that He take an active role in determining the outcome of where we are in life.
And, we thank Him.
We thank him for what he has done because that keeps us mindful of His mighty working hand.
We thank Him for what He is doing because that keeps us looking for what He is doing.
We thank Him for what He will do because that is the exercising of our faith in what He is going to do.
Look what happens when we commit these things to prayer and to thanksgiving.
The peace of God which is beyond our ability to comprehend guards our hearts and minds in Christ.
The word guard is a military word that means to prevent invasion or escape.
You think about a city being guarded. The spoils of war are protected from those in the city from leaving with the victor’s winnings, hence no escape.
Or, the guarded city is protected from a hostile army coming in and taking over.
Think about what the peace of God is doing in our lives.
It is keeping the security of God’s love, care and concern in our lives and in our hearts while at the same time turning back the enemy’s darts of doubt and despair.
That is why it is so very important to commit our lives and our circumstances to the Lord.
Worry is a killer but peace keeps our lives secure in Christ.
Now, let’s take a look at our green light – fixing our minds on Godly things – fixing our minds on Godly things will keep them off ungodly things.
That simply goes back to the old computer adage – garbage in, garbage out.
Look at verse 8
Think about these things; dwell on these things.
The idea is that we are giving them careful consideration like we do when we are going over that financing contract or that contract extension for next season.
There are just some things that we weigh very heavily.
The price of gas is causing many of us right now to reconsider vacations and travel plans.
But this text tells us to dwell on the things of God.
These things described in verse 8 are the Excellencies of life, the beauties of living.
These are things that make you take notice of just how wonderfully excellent God is in the richness of His blessing toward us.
All too often we get lost in thoughts that just don’t honor God.
We get lost in workplace gossip, in getting in good with the boss, in making excuses for not doing our best, in cliques and popularity, and in floods of bad and ungodly actions and attitudes that he world throws at us every day.
But, the way we think affects the way we live
Our actions pour out of our thoughts.
That is Why Jesus said that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him but what comes out of his mouth because that comes from his heart.
What we think about is what we do and it determines how we live.
Minds fixed on holy things live lives that are pleasing to God but minds that are fixed on the ungodly do not produce godly behavior.
They produce just the opposite, sinful attitudes and sinful actions that cannot be associated with God.
Look at verse 9.
That is about the actions coming from the thoughts of verse 8.
Paul declares that he has taught and shown how followers of Jesus should live and notice the reward.
The God of peace will be with you.
A peaceful life is the Life that the God of Peace inhabits.
That is the life focused on Him and His ways in our thoughts and in our actions.
We have an opportunity to refocus our lives today.
If we are living lives that lack peace it might be because our thinking is all wrong.
That can fixed through a relationship with Jesus Christ as He leads you down the road best traveled without worry, with Peace through knowing the God and Prince of peace.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Mother's Day - Behold, Your Mother - John 19:25-27
to listen to this message, click here To download it right click here and follow your browsers protocols.
Introduction
In the 1600’s, there was a church declared holiday in England for those in the working class who served their families. They were allowed not to work, to travel to their home towns to be with families, to have a holiday from the fasting and penance of lent in order to enjoy a feast. The holiday was declared by the church as Mothering Day. This clerical declaration is probably the origin on the day that we now know as mother’s day sans all the commercialization.
Describing the Biblical Text
As we look at our text this morning, we see a very poignant picture of the cross.
Jesus is dying and as he is hanging there and bearing the penalty for the sins of His people, He sees his mother in the crowd and immediately makes provision for her before He dies.
Narrate the Contextual application
We see here a man who was dying.
He literally had the weight of the world on His shoulders and yet in hid dying hours, he remembered that His mother needed care and he made the provision for it.
Jesus was simply doing what he knew the scriptures would demand and that would be to honor his father and his mother.
No one really knows what happened to Joseph but it has been surmised that he had passed away but Jesus mother, Mary is still there at his death.
Life Application (thesis)
We need to remember that even though the Law cannot save us because we cannot perfectly keep it, it is still the standard by which we are judged by God.
The only person who ever did fully keep the Law was Jesus and he continued to honor his mother even at His death.
The conclusion that we must draw then is this.
We are to honor our mothers throughout our lives.
SO WHAT!! (Outline)
As we consider this theme this morning let’s look at 2 principles on which we can build lives of honor to our mothers.
We cannot ignore our mothers due to our circumstances.
In 1999, there were more than 1.6 million people living in nursing homes.
When you think about that you have to wonder just how many of those people were forgotten moms. You know what I mean. Bobby and Susie had gone out gotten married, had kids, made a name for themselves and then Mom got sick so they checked her in to the home and they show up to see on mother’s day or maybe her birthday or to take the kids by to get their annual 5 dollar bill on their birthdays.
The scarier part of that though is that it might be us one day.
What has tended to happen is that people have gotten bogged down just trying to make ends meet, taking the kids from soccer to karate and meeting with the PTA, the civic association, the lodge and the Lions club.
In the midst of those circumstances, we start to overlook the relationship with the woman who brought us into the world and who wiped our snotty little noses and fixed our meals as we grew up.
I wonder what our lives would be like if our mothers would have treated us the way that we treated them as they aged and as we grew up.
I doubt that we would be the same people that we are now.
We would be like the kids raised by wolves and living off raw fish and tree roots.
Our moms did a lot for us.
I believe that I am a follower of Jesus right now because My mom prayed for me to get saved
None of us can probably imagine the pain and the suffering associated with something like a crucifixion.
It is horrendous to even think about and as graphic as the passion of the Christ was, I don’t think it did justice to the suffering of our Lord.
Yet, in the midst of the suffering of the cross he looked up and saw his mother.
He honored her.
He made sure that her care would be given for her whole life by declaring her to be John’s mother.
He kept the fifth commandment even in his dying hours.
Bearing that in mind you may or may not remember some of the criticism that he heaped on the Jewish leaders over their practice of corban.
In Mark 7, the Jewish leaders confront Jesus about his disciples eating without ceremonially washing their hands and Jesus comes back at them accusing them of dismissing the law for the sake of their traditions.
And, He uses the practice of corban as his example.
Listen to these verses from Mark 7 as Jesus answers the Pharisees.
Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. “For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death’; but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.
Honoring our mothers is nothing short of obeying the will of God.
In their older age, it is our responsibility to care for them and to keep them.
It is our responsibility to meet their needs as best we can with the resources that the Lord provides.
In our younger age is our responsibility to obey and listen to them.
It is our responsibility to honor them and our circumstances become secondary to the privilege and opportunity to obey God by honoring our mothers.
Our second principle this morning in reality is just a restatement of our thesis.
Honoring our mothers is a lifelong responsibility.
Of course as we see Jesus on the cross, he is remembering his mother.
It is not as often that we see parents outliving children yet in the case of Jesus, he dies around the age of 33 leaving his mom in the hands of John the disciple whom Jesus’ loved.
You might be thinking, “What if my mom was never very supportive of me or hates my wife or has disowned me?”
In Mark 3, there is a passage where Jesus mother and brothers are trying to speak with Him and the implication is that they think he is maybe not exactly doing what he ought to be doing.
Actually, they think he might be crazy.
So, she was not exactly supportive of his ministry all the way through even though she treasure all that stuff in heart when he was born.
Did Jesus hold that grudge; did he forget or write off his mom?
No, He remembered her and he cared for her.
We have no less a responsibility.
I think that it is important that we see this take place while he was on the cross.
I divine transaction was taking place.
You see, Jesus was paying the price of sin and ransoming himself for the salvation of His people.
He was dying to give life to all those who would follow Him.
It behooves us this morning then to ask the question, “Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?
What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?
It means that we have come to a place in our lives that we have understood our absolute wretchedness before God because of our sin.
We have violated the law of God and because of that, we stand poised for Judgment and the wrath of God is upon us.
Unless of course Jesus, in his death on the cross, paid the price for your sins.
We have become jaded in our view of what salvation is because we want to count decisions.
But if we really look at Biblical salvation, it is not walking an aisle and repeating a prayer.
That is a modern perversion of what salvation is.
Salvation is following Jesus Christ and living for him to the Glory of God.
Being saved is realizing your pure wretchedness before God and then realizing that Only God through the cross of Christ can remedy that.
It is calling on Christ by the faith that God gives through His grace because we realize that God’s mercy through the cross is the only hope we have.
It is calling on Christ knowing that God’s strength will enable you to live for him and to serve Him.
He changes us and causes us through being born again to become new creatures that we live our lives for Him.
I want to encourage you this morning to consider the idea of sinful wretchedness as it applies to our lives.
Then consider whether or not we have been living for Jesus, not just living while knowing about Him but actually living for Him in all that we do.
It is not enough to have walked an aisle and said a prayer.
As a matter of fact, if you are basing your salvation on that, you will in all likelihood be disappointed when you hear the words, “depart from me for I never knew you.”
To honor our mothers is to keep the law and to follow Christ is to walk in His grace.
I pray that you will leave here today doing both.
Introduction
In the 1600’s, there was a church declared holiday in England for those in the working class who served their families. They were allowed not to work, to travel to their home towns to be with families, to have a holiday from the fasting and penance of lent in order to enjoy a feast. The holiday was declared by the church as Mothering Day. This clerical declaration is probably the origin on the day that we now know as mother’s day sans all the commercialization.
Describing the Biblical Text
As we look at our text this morning, we see a very poignant picture of the cross.
Jesus is dying and as he is hanging there and bearing the penalty for the sins of His people, He sees his mother in the crowd and immediately makes provision for her before He dies.
Narrate the Contextual application
We see here a man who was dying.
He literally had the weight of the world on His shoulders and yet in hid dying hours, he remembered that His mother needed care and he made the provision for it.
Jesus was simply doing what he knew the scriptures would demand and that would be to honor his father and his mother.
No one really knows what happened to Joseph but it has been surmised that he had passed away but Jesus mother, Mary is still there at his death.
Life Application (thesis)
We need to remember that even though the Law cannot save us because we cannot perfectly keep it, it is still the standard by which we are judged by God.
The only person who ever did fully keep the Law was Jesus and he continued to honor his mother even at His death.
The conclusion that we must draw then is this.
We are to honor our mothers throughout our lives.
SO WHAT!! (Outline)
As we consider this theme this morning let’s look at 2 principles on which we can build lives of honor to our mothers.
We cannot ignore our mothers due to our circumstances.
In 1999, there were more than 1.6 million people living in nursing homes.
When you think about that you have to wonder just how many of those people were forgotten moms. You know what I mean. Bobby and Susie had gone out gotten married, had kids, made a name for themselves and then Mom got sick so they checked her in to the home and they show up to see on mother’s day or maybe her birthday or to take the kids by to get their annual 5 dollar bill on their birthdays.
The scarier part of that though is that it might be us one day.
What has tended to happen is that people have gotten bogged down just trying to make ends meet, taking the kids from soccer to karate and meeting with the PTA, the civic association, the lodge and the Lions club.
In the midst of those circumstances, we start to overlook the relationship with the woman who brought us into the world and who wiped our snotty little noses and fixed our meals as we grew up.
I wonder what our lives would be like if our mothers would have treated us the way that we treated them as they aged and as we grew up.
I doubt that we would be the same people that we are now.
We would be like the kids raised by wolves and living off raw fish and tree roots.
Our moms did a lot for us.
I believe that I am a follower of Jesus right now because My mom prayed for me to get saved
None of us can probably imagine the pain and the suffering associated with something like a crucifixion.
It is horrendous to even think about and as graphic as the passion of the Christ was, I don’t think it did justice to the suffering of our Lord.
Yet, in the midst of the suffering of the cross he looked up and saw his mother.
He honored her.
He made sure that her care would be given for her whole life by declaring her to be John’s mother.
He kept the fifth commandment even in his dying hours.
Bearing that in mind you may or may not remember some of the criticism that he heaped on the Jewish leaders over their practice of corban.
In Mark 7, the Jewish leaders confront Jesus about his disciples eating without ceremonially washing their hands and Jesus comes back at them accusing them of dismissing the law for the sake of their traditions.
And, He uses the practice of corban as his example.
Listen to these verses from Mark 7 as Jesus answers the Pharisees.
Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. “For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death’; but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.
Honoring our mothers is nothing short of obeying the will of God.
In their older age, it is our responsibility to care for them and to keep them.
It is our responsibility to meet their needs as best we can with the resources that the Lord provides.
In our younger age is our responsibility to obey and listen to them.
It is our responsibility to honor them and our circumstances become secondary to the privilege and opportunity to obey God by honoring our mothers.
Our second principle this morning in reality is just a restatement of our thesis.
Honoring our mothers is a lifelong responsibility.
Of course as we see Jesus on the cross, he is remembering his mother.
It is not as often that we see parents outliving children yet in the case of Jesus, he dies around the age of 33 leaving his mom in the hands of John the disciple whom Jesus’ loved.
You might be thinking, “What if my mom was never very supportive of me or hates my wife or has disowned me?”
In Mark 3, there is a passage where Jesus mother and brothers are trying to speak with Him and the implication is that they think he is maybe not exactly doing what he ought to be doing.
Actually, they think he might be crazy.
So, she was not exactly supportive of his ministry all the way through even though she treasure all that stuff in heart when he was born.
Did Jesus hold that grudge; did he forget or write off his mom?
No, He remembered her and he cared for her.
We have no less a responsibility.
I think that it is important that we see this take place while he was on the cross.
I divine transaction was taking place.
You see, Jesus was paying the price of sin and ransoming himself for the salvation of His people.
He was dying to give life to all those who would follow Him.
It behooves us this morning then to ask the question, “Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?
What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?
It means that we have come to a place in our lives that we have understood our absolute wretchedness before God because of our sin.
We have violated the law of God and because of that, we stand poised for Judgment and the wrath of God is upon us.
Unless of course Jesus, in his death on the cross, paid the price for your sins.
We have become jaded in our view of what salvation is because we want to count decisions.
But if we really look at Biblical salvation, it is not walking an aisle and repeating a prayer.
That is a modern perversion of what salvation is.
Salvation is following Jesus Christ and living for him to the Glory of God.
Being saved is realizing your pure wretchedness before God and then realizing that Only God through the cross of Christ can remedy that.
It is calling on Christ by the faith that God gives through His grace because we realize that God’s mercy through the cross is the only hope we have.
It is calling on Christ knowing that God’s strength will enable you to live for him and to serve Him.
He changes us and causes us through being born again to become new creatures that we live our lives for Him.
I want to encourage you this morning to consider the idea of sinful wretchedness as it applies to our lives.
Then consider whether or not we have been living for Jesus, not just living while knowing about Him but actually living for Him in all that we do.
It is not enough to have walked an aisle and said a prayer.
As a matter of fact, if you are basing your salvation on that, you will in all likelihood be disappointed when you hear the words, “depart from me for I never knew you.”
To honor our mothers is to keep the law and to follow Christ is to walk in His grace.
I pray that you will leave here today doing both.
The Road Best Traveled -- A Sharing Life -- Romans 10:8-17
Introduction
We are on a journey called life aren’t we?
It is one long road that begins with our birth and ends with our death.
While we are on that road, we must continually consider whether we are on the road best traveled.
If we are on the road best traveled, we will certainly be on a road that he Lord has directed for us.
The book of proverbs tells us that if we trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not to our own understanding acknowledging God in all our ways, The Lord directs our path.
He will direct our path.
Describing the Biblical Text
That is significant because it does not say that he directs us down the path.
He Directs the path.
Think about that He determines the path we walk when we are trusting Him.
How could be on anything less that the best traveled road?
Well this passage speaks to that road as Paul is describing salvation for the Jews is obtained exactly the same way that it is for the Gentiles.
Salvation is through Faith in Christ.
Yet the world does not see that unless the church is about the business of communicating the gospel.
The church must be sending people who are faithful tellers of the good news so that we can live a sharing life on the road best traveled.
Narrate the Contextual application
We can see then that the message of salvation is important.
It is the message that declares our rescue from sin.
The message of the gospel is the message that declares one righteous in the eyes of God.
It crosses all cultural barriers and social limitations.
It is a message that must be preached and we must see that it is preached.
The life that is trusting the grace of the Lord will not be put to shame.
It cannot be put to shame for in that life, the very presence of God is dwelling.
Life Application (thesis)
Do we want people to be aware of the life changing power of the Gospel of Jesus?
Do we want them to know what Jesus has done for them?
Do we want them to know that the simple faith in Jesus is the key to Justification from God and eternal righteousness?
Then, we must send people out with the gospel of Jesus Christ to see people come to faith.
SO WHAT!! (Outline)
This morning, we will look at three green lights on the road best traveled leading us to live the sharing life.
The righteousness of man depends on the gospel of Jesus.
As we look at the preaching described in verse 8, we see the results in verses 9 & 10.
With the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness.
We can all remember the OJ Simpson case can’t we? It did not matter what anyone thought about the case, all that mattered in the criminal trial was what the jury said. They pronounced Orenthal James Simpson not guilty. Therefore, the state had no compelling reason to punish Mr. Simpson.
As we have said in the past, righteousness is the same thing as justification which is God pronouncing us not guilty.
Yet, that not guilty verdict has to come from somewhere.
It comes from our expression of faith.
It comes from our believing that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead.
Yet, our faith does not occur in a vacuum.
It does not occur detached from something very important.
Our faith occurs relative to the gospel message being preached or presented as the case may be.
As many of you know, I like to look at Acts 2 as a model on which to base a NT church.
This is a model for a new fledgling church or for an older established church.
The key is to follow the prescription set out for us there.
It is at the end of chapter 2 that we see something pretty amazing happening.
The Lord was adding daily those who were being saved.
I love the way Dr. Luke puts that.
The Lord added, not forgetting that salvation is always the work of the Lord.
Yet these conversions were not happening in a vacuum.
They were happening because the church at Jerusalem was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The church was continuing in doctrine, fellowship, worshiping and praying.
As a result, they were winning souls to Jesus.
As I am praying for the vision at LABC, it will certainly include those things that we see mentioned in Acts 2 in order that we might see the Lord add souls.
That we might see people believing unto righteousness and confessing unto salvation should be our ultimate goal and then discipling those people to continue winning others to Jesus.
A second green light for us to remember is that the gospel cannot be limited by ethnic or social characteristics.
Look at verse 11-12
There was a time in our country when it really mattered whether you were white or not. The very first church that I pastured 20 years ago had a balcony but it was not like the balcony here.
The balcony in that church was there for what the church history called “the colored members.”
The church was segregated. Some time in the early 1900’s the African American members of the church asked for their letters and went down the road about ½ a mile and started a church for blacks.
I have heard it said that Sunday Morning is the most segregated hour in America.
I believe it.
Yes, I know I the studies that say that people want to worship with people like themselves and to be homogeneous.
Yet, I believe that we have created that culture with our own tendency toward only preaching the gospel to those who are like us.
What if Christianity had never reached beyond the walls of Judaism?
We would all be bound for hell right now.
When we are being exclusive with the gospel or we are saying that their kind can reach those people we are in essence saying go to hell.
I had a realization just this week regarding race. I saw two boys walking down the road neat Henry James of Greensboro Road and they were wearing the low pants. All of a sudden I saw one of the boys reach down to his thigh and grab his pants. It was a good save because had he not caught them, they would have been around his ankles. I admit that I laughed but then something hit me. To me he was just a nameless faceless African American boy like so many I see every day. Yet, he is somebody and he deserves to hear the gospel of Jesus.
Will He hear it from us or will he die and forever be condemned to a Godless, torment called hell.
There is a third green light that we must examine this morning.
We are to send forth preachers.
I think the Bible is very clear on the mandate.
It is commissioned in every one of the gospels and in the book of acts.
Yet, the church is very lax at this point.
We set up programs and call them visitation and feel good about ourselves but we don’t tell anyone about Jesus.
Look at verse 13
Do we see that?
Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
The series of questions
How will they hear without a preacher.
It is so simple faith comes by hearing
If it is that simple, why aren’t we doing anything about it
Where are we?
We are lost on the road best traveled.
It is time to find our way by living the sharing tlife
We are on a journey called life aren’t we?
It is one long road that begins with our birth and ends with our death.
While we are on that road, we must continually consider whether we are on the road best traveled.
If we are on the road best traveled, we will certainly be on a road that he Lord has directed for us.
The book of proverbs tells us that if we trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not to our own understanding acknowledging God in all our ways, The Lord directs our path.
He will direct our path.
Describing the Biblical Text
That is significant because it does not say that he directs us down the path.
He Directs the path.
Think about that He determines the path we walk when we are trusting Him.
How could be on anything less that the best traveled road?
Well this passage speaks to that road as Paul is describing salvation for the Jews is obtained exactly the same way that it is for the Gentiles.
Salvation is through Faith in Christ.
Yet the world does not see that unless the church is about the business of communicating the gospel.
The church must be sending people who are faithful tellers of the good news so that we can live a sharing life on the road best traveled.
Narrate the Contextual application
We can see then that the message of salvation is important.
It is the message that declares our rescue from sin.
The message of the gospel is the message that declares one righteous in the eyes of God.
It crosses all cultural barriers and social limitations.
It is a message that must be preached and we must see that it is preached.
The life that is trusting the grace of the Lord will not be put to shame.
It cannot be put to shame for in that life, the very presence of God is dwelling.
Life Application (thesis)
Do we want people to be aware of the life changing power of the Gospel of Jesus?
Do we want them to know what Jesus has done for them?
Do we want them to know that the simple faith in Jesus is the key to Justification from God and eternal righteousness?
Then, we must send people out with the gospel of Jesus Christ to see people come to faith.
SO WHAT!! (Outline)
This morning, we will look at three green lights on the road best traveled leading us to live the sharing life.
The righteousness of man depends on the gospel of Jesus.
As we look at the preaching described in verse 8, we see the results in verses 9 & 10.
With the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness.
We can all remember the OJ Simpson case can’t we? It did not matter what anyone thought about the case, all that mattered in the criminal trial was what the jury said. They pronounced Orenthal James Simpson not guilty. Therefore, the state had no compelling reason to punish Mr. Simpson.
As we have said in the past, righteousness is the same thing as justification which is God pronouncing us not guilty.
Yet, that not guilty verdict has to come from somewhere.
It comes from our expression of faith.
It comes from our believing that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead.
Yet, our faith does not occur in a vacuum.
It does not occur detached from something very important.
Our faith occurs relative to the gospel message being preached or presented as the case may be.
As many of you know, I like to look at Acts 2 as a model on which to base a NT church.
This is a model for a new fledgling church or for an older established church.
The key is to follow the prescription set out for us there.
It is at the end of chapter 2 that we see something pretty amazing happening.
The Lord was adding daily those who were being saved.
I love the way Dr. Luke puts that.
The Lord added, not forgetting that salvation is always the work of the Lord.
Yet these conversions were not happening in a vacuum.
They were happening because the church at Jerusalem was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The church was continuing in doctrine, fellowship, worshiping and praying.
As a result, they were winning souls to Jesus.
As I am praying for the vision at LABC, it will certainly include those things that we see mentioned in Acts 2 in order that we might see the Lord add souls.
That we might see people believing unto righteousness and confessing unto salvation should be our ultimate goal and then discipling those people to continue winning others to Jesus.
A second green light for us to remember is that the gospel cannot be limited by ethnic or social characteristics.
Look at verse 11-12
There was a time in our country when it really mattered whether you were white or not. The very first church that I pastured 20 years ago had a balcony but it was not like the balcony here.
The balcony in that church was there for what the church history called “the colored members.”
The church was segregated. Some time in the early 1900’s the African American members of the church asked for their letters and went down the road about ½ a mile and started a church for blacks.
I have heard it said that Sunday Morning is the most segregated hour in America.
I believe it.
Yes, I know I the studies that say that people want to worship with people like themselves and to be homogeneous.
Yet, I believe that we have created that culture with our own tendency toward only preaching the gospel to those who are like us.
What if Christianity had never reached beyond the walls of Judaism?
We would all be bound for hell right now.
When we are being exclusive with the gospel or we are saying that their kind can reach those people we are in essence saying go to hell.
I had a realization just this week regarding race. I saw two boys walking down the road neat Henry James of Greensboro Road and they were wearing the low pants. All of a sudden I saw one of the boys reach down to his thigh and grab his pants. It was a good save because had he not caught them, they would have been around his ankles. I admit that I laughed but then something hit me. To me he was just a nameless faceless African American boy like so many I see every day. Yet, he is somebody and he deserves to hear the gospel of Jesus.
Will He hear it from us or will he die and forever be condemned to a Godless, torment called hell.
There is a third green light that we must examine this morning.
We are to send forth preachers.
I think the Bible is very clear on the mandate.
It is commissioned in every one of the gospels and in the book of acts.
Yet, the church is very lax at this point.
We set up programs and call them visitation and feel good about ourselves but we don’t tell anyone about Jesus.
Look at verse 13
Do we see that?
Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
The series of questions
How will they hear without a preacher.
It is so simple faith comes by hearing
If it is that simple, why aren’t we doing anything about it
Where are we?
We are lost on the road best traveled.
It is time to find our way by living the sharing tlife
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)