Global Warming -- Saving the Planet -- 2 Timothy 4:6-8

Introduction
As we look at the gospel of Mark, we see that version of the great commission saying, “preach the gospel to every creature.”
Each of the Gospel writers include a version of the great commission that is unique to them because I am sure that Jesus communicated the Great Commission in more than one way and at more than one time.
Each Gospel writer heard and remembered in the way that was most applicable to their purpose.
Mark just wanted to communicate basic good news to Greek readers.
His gospel actually starts and ends with the idea of the gospel.
Now, why am I bringing up Mark when Paul is our subject and Timothy is our text?
Because Mark gives us a very important instruction and we see that Paul had done all in His power to fulfill it.

Describing the Biblical Text
Our text this morning is a text that describes Paul’s feeling as he believes he is nearing the end of His ministry and yes, his life.
Yet, he remains constant in his commitment to the Gospel and the Lord of the gospel.
He is continuing to instruct Timothy and he wants to see more apostles and evangelists in order to continue to equip them in the gospel that when he dies they will be ready.

Narrate the Contextual application
When we are facing the end of our lives, what will we be saying and doing to continue our work for the gospel of Jesus.
Paul had a life on which he could look back and know thqat he did all he could do to communicate Christ faithfully.
That needs to be what we consider as well.
What will we look back and say?
Will we say we have fought the good fight or will we simply be content to look back on a life that accomplished very little for the Lord?
We all know who Alexander Graham Bell is don’t we? We all know Thomas Edison and Marie curie.
Yet who is Charles Hancock? Who is Tom Rush?
We may not know these men for any great scientific contributions to man however, these men have led a number of people to Christ.
Their names won’t be recorded in any history book but they will be the instrument used to validate some of the names written in the Lambs book of life.

Life Application (thesis)
If we are going to one day say we have fought the good fight and kept the faith then our lives will have to be faithfully lived for Jesus.
We must be committed to use our lives for Christ.

SO WHAT!! (Outline)
The commitment to use our lives for Christ will be defined by the two other commitments that we see in this passage today.
We must be committed to use our time for Christ.
Just how important is our time and the way we use it?
[Video clip here]
Every moment counts doesn’t it
Think of it like this.
Our lives are about 35 minutes shorter now than they were when we came in here this morning.
The real question is then, “Were the last 35 minutes of my life useful in the kingdom of God?”
I would like to think they were since you were here but what the 35 minutes that started yesterday at 3:22 in the afternoon.
Or the 35 minutes that began at 7:15 last Thursday night?

Paul is looking back over his life.
In the present, he is declaring that his time for departure has come.
He is declaring that his future in Christ is secure as he will receive a crown of righteousness which will be awarded to all who have loved Jesus’ appearing.
But he is also declaring his past as he writes that he has fought the good fight, finished his course and kept the faith.
The idea of a course finished is that it was completed successfully in that a race or a designated path was completed.

I want us to consider our lives like a race.
We see that imagery used elsewhere in the New Testament such as Philippians 3 and Hebrews 12.
There are several ways we can approach a race.
We can race to win
IOW we can run it like we have to finish in first place.
We can run the race to finish
This means that we are content to merely cross the finijnsh line with no regard to place or time.
Or, we can run the race with no finish in mind.
We will simply run until we stop with no goal to finish.
If we are going to use every moment that we can for the Lord, we have to eye the finish.
We don’t have to necessarily look for the win because we don’t know how long some things we do for the Lord will take but we must always be pushing for the prize at the finish line.
Swimming is a very interesting sport because in the turn, the swimmer is allowed to do almost anything. Between the time they touch the wall and then push off from the wall they can stop, adjust their goggles, stretch, chat with the coaches and timers, and pull their swim cap down tight. Then they can take off swimming again. Now most swimmers don’t do that because the object in swimming is to drop time or to swim faster this race than in the last race.
Why would we stop and waist our time when we have a world to reach for Jesus?
We need to finish our course.

We need to keep the faith.
The ide of keeping is to stand our watch.
It is to serve the prescribed time that God has assigned us to serve.
My Dad used to have a saying about the way they worked when he was a child.
He would say they worked from can see to can’t see.
IOW it was from sun up to Sundown.
Our watch or shift begins when we receive Christ.
It ends when we see Christ.
For Paul to say he has kept the faith, it means that he remained faithful to the end of the shift
He committed to use His time for Christ in that he finished his race and he kept his watch of faith.
The words of Paul in Ephesians 5 say this “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

The second commitment we see this morning is this.
We must be committed to use our strength for Christ.
Think about that.
What else do we really have to give?
Time and strength equal about everything we have.
It is Paul’s admonition to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:12 is to fight the good fight.
Here, Paul is saying that the good fight had been fought.
The word fight in this verse is the word from which we get our word agony.
It might be rendered here in this passage as struggle.

You really have to wonder why Paul considered his walk of faith a struggle or a fight.
I think it is because it is so easy and so tempting to simply stop and to say I’ve had enough.
Look down at verse 14 for just a minute.
Paul struggled with the accusations of Alexander the coppersmith and it even led Paul receive Physical harm.
But He knew that the Lord would deal with Alexander in kind with the way he treated Paul.
Now notice the next thing we see in this passage is that Paul stood without support in his defense.
There were no other followers of Jesus there to help or support Paul.
He was rescued from the Lion’s mouth.
But all this was as it happened because of verse 17.
God gave Paul the strength that he needed to accomplish what he had been called to do.
For Paul, that is preaching the gospel to the Gentiles.
We are believers today because of Paul’s ministry which led to the spread of Christianity through all of Europe.

But Paul struggled.
He fought
He strove.
What are doing to make sure we are fulfilling all that God has called us to do?
Are we giving all our strength to Him in our service?
Are we giving all we are to accomplish the calling of the great commission?
You remember the great Commandment is to love the Lord God with our hearts, minds, souls, and all of our strength.
That means that our whole being is poured into the love of God all of who we are is to be serving Him.
We are to hold nothing back.

All of the Christian life is a fight; it is a struggle.
But, in the strength and in the provision of God it is an easy yoke or burden to bear.
Essentially, He bears it for us and bears us up under it.
This is how we can commit our lives for Christ’s service
It is how we can let our time be redeemed for the Lord and how we can serve Him with the strength he has given us.
There will come a day when we will be looking back on our lives and hopefully we will say the same things that Paul is saying here.
I have fought the good fight, finished the course and kept the faith.

Global Warming -- Thinking Globally, Acting Locally -- Acts 13:1-3

Introduction
Within the environmental movement, there is a commonly used slogan that goes Think Globally; Act Locally. What lies behind this slogan is a very important idea. The idea is that we can do something in our own community that will make a difference worldwide. If enough people do what they need to do to make a difference at home, it will change the world.
The kingdom of God is very much like that.
We saw last week how a few random events in the life of Peter came together to open the door of the preaching the gospel to the gentiles.

Describing the Biblical Text
Today, we will see the gospel assigned and the apostles sent out to the work.
In our text, we have a very intriguing account first, Luke
Goes to the trouble to name the disciples who are in Antioch and it is very possible that some of them we have seen before.
Simeon called Niger may well be the same Simon of Cyrene who carried the cross of Jesus down the Via Dolorosa.
In this text we see the calling and the setting apart of Saul and Barnabas to the work of the gospel.

Narrate the Contextual application
Here we see the church at Antioch planning to be a missional church.
Missional is the new churchy word that describes a church or a ministry that places an emphasis on missions.
But then, shouldn’t all churches and all followers of Jesus be missional in their approach to the gospel.
I have even heard a teacher lately say all scripture should be understood through missional principles of interpretation.
But, that makes sense also if Christianity is a Missional faith then missions has to be the principle by which we will understand our scriptures.
The church at Antioch was certainly taking their place alongside the church at Jerusalem in terms of being a church that would try to reach the world.

Life Application (thesis)
So often, when we seek to be missional, we sort of relegate the idea of missions to denominational agencies and boards and we often do not think that we are missionaries where we are and where we serve right here in High Point, NC.
But, the great commission makes us missionaries and makes our tasks at church missional activity.
But, the question then has to be asked, “What is the missional purpose in what we do?”
Hopefully we will have a better handle on answering that question as we look at this thesis.
We must be prepared to win the world for Christ by taking action in our church.

SO WHAT!! (Outline)
Since we are talking about acting locally, let’s look at a couple of actions that we are to take when it comes to missionally understanding our purpose and doing our job to win the globe.
We must be serving the Lord openly and without shame.
Onomatopoeia is a really cool thing.
Just what is onomatopoeia? It is a word that sounds like what it is. Buzz, zoom, Ho Ho Ho, squeal.
Look at what the church at Antioch had, Prophets and teachers.
What do you think they were doing?
They were prophesying and teaching.
They were doing the Lord’s work and they were doing it unapologetically and without shame.
The prophet was the NT proclaimer of truth in regards to what the Lord was doing and what he would do.
He was more of a forthteller that he was a foreteller.
And, in the formative years of the NT Church, the prophet would be a main source of truth.
It will not surprise me to learn in glory one day that much of the truth that we find in the scriptures; particularly in Paul’s letters was a direct result of the prophets in Antioch.

So we see here that the church at Antioch was openly teaching and preaching Christ.
They were organized for ministry as the presence of officers like prophets and teachers would indicate.

The church at Antioch was also a church that was seeking in all things to do the Lords work.
In verse 2 we see that the church was worshiping the Lord or ministering to the Lord.
The word worship here is the word from which we get the word liturgical but its biblical meaning is really cool when you look at it.
It literally means a public service and it comes from combining two words, people and work.
So literally worship was seen as the public serving of Christ as the work of His people.
Worship is one of the essentials that we see as we think about what the church is supposed to do in terms of serving Christ.
Throughout the process of visioning for the church, there are a lot of questions that have to be considered and it all starts with who we are then where we are but then we get to the all important what question based on who we are and where we are, what must we do?
Worship is one of those non-negotiables when you ask the what question concerning the church.
We have to worship; it is a part of who we are as followers of Christ.
Worship is in the DNA of the church.

The Antioch gang was also engaged in the practice of fasting as they considered what the Lord would do through them.
Fasting is simply an act of self denial as one seeks the Lord’s instruction.
It can be practiced in a number of ways.
The most common is to go for a period of time without eating.
1 Corinthians describes a form of fasting in which married couples would avoid intimacy for a time as they prayed together for things.

In the process of their worship and fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke and they took the second action.
We must be obedient to the Lord’s commands.
That is something that we ought to know and something that we ought to do.
But I fear that our focus is less on obedience than on our appearance and our participation.
I know that the we now have the Bible and the need for the Biblical prophet has passed.
That being said, the Biblical gifts can still be employed by the Lord as He needs them but at this moment, we really don’t need the prophet as we have the bible to convey the truth of God.

What we really need to figure is this, “Do we obey what we know we are to do?”
All too often, we are like the person who is looking for the excuse not to obey.
There is the person who can’t share his faith because he flunked math in high school.
There is the person who cannot come to church because he is out of mayonnaise.
But obedience is never really that hard.
Jesus called those who were weak and heavy laden because his burden would be light.
So obedience is only as difficult as our surrender to Christ makes it.
If we are sold out surrendered to Christ, then obedience is never a question.
But, if our faith is not as mature, then obedience is something with which we struggle and until we commit ourselves to growing in the grace and the knowledge of Christ, we will always struggle with it.
We see an obedient church in Antioch because they were a worshiping, serving, spirit led church.

But something else they did was to also leave God in control.
They did not presume upon God but rather they trusted Him with the results of their obedience.
There are churches that will try to look at everything in terms of numerical statistics rather than to simply trust God for the results of their obedience.
This text simply says that the church sent Paul and Barnabas off.
The church just did what the Lord commanded they left everything else in His hands.
If we believe that conversion is the Lord’s work then we have to leave it in his hands.

That is how we will win the world to Christ.
We will worship, pray, fast, obey and then leave the results to God.
This means we will tell others about the saving power of God through Christ or else we will not be obeying.
We will disciple believers in his word or else we will not be obeying.
We have a whole wide world to influence.
As we walk out that door this morning, let’s ddo our part in our little corner of it.
That local action could change the world forever.
It did in Antioch.

Global Warming -- Driving a Hybrid -- Acts 10

Introduction
When I was a kid, we had hybrids stuff all the time. It usually came our of Dad’s garden. The best hybrid I remember was silver queen corn. Man do I love that stuff when it is fresh and you are shucking it and cutting the corn worm out of the end of the ear. Then you cook it, butter it and oh yeah. You get to eat it. If you like it cooked even better, put it in the husk in water for about ten minutes and then lay it on the grill and let it steam in the husk.
But, enough about corn Oh wait.
1 question: When you eat corn on the cob how many of you eat it by turning the cob and going around? How many eat it using the typewriter motion going across.
Enough about corn, Hybrids today refer to cars and guess what they do.
They run on a combination of fuels like gas and electricity or gas and corn, hey, corn Alcohol.

Describing the Biblical Text
The Chapter that we are seeing here is actually the beginning of the third section of the book of Acts as the church is beginning its spread to the utter most parts of the earth.
Peter goes to Caesarea which is about 4 miles or so north of Joppa which is on the Israeli coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
As we looked at Peter’s travels last time, we saw him go to Samaria which for all intents and purposes was a Jewish style of type of province since they still held to the Law of Moses.
But now he is going to Caesarea, a Roman city in Israel.
This is where we will see him encounter Cornelius and again be present when the Holy Spirit of God is poured out from heaven signifying the Gospel is for all people and that people can be converted from every tongue nation people and tribe.

Narrate the Contextual application
The implications for us are certainly intense in this passage.
We are seeing the gospel move from being an essentially Jewish message to being a message that changed the lives of people all over the world.
What we might find interesting here is Luke’s chronology in the book of Acts.
We have the conversion of the Samaritans in chapter 8 and then the conversion of Saul of Tarsus in chapter 9 and them the conversion of the Gentile Cornelius in chapter 10.
We certainly see the groundwork for the worldwide expansion of the Gospel, don’t we?
It is amazing how just one person coming to Christ can make so much of a difference.
It took Cornelius to make conversion a normal thing for gentiles and it took Saul, later Paul, to spread that word to the known civilized world.

Life Application (thesis)
You see, what was happening here was the very thing that Jesus said would happen in Act 1:8.
You shall be witnesses unto me in both Judea and Jerusalem Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
This was a clarion call to the church at Jerusalem that they would not be the sole church but rather the church would exist for the remainder of the age and it would exist throughout the world.
The church would exist in many places and believe it or not, would take many forms.
Maybe if a series on the church we can look at that but today we will stick with our expansion of the church via global warming.
It is our responsibility to share the gospel with every creature no matter who they are.

SO WHAT!! (Outline)
You know what you can’t do?
You cannot start your hybrid without you got a set of keys.
This morning, we are going to look at 3 keys to help us understand how we will see new ways and opportunities to share Christ.
I must be seeking the transformation of my own life.
In Romans 12, we are told to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Interestingly enough, it is the way we think that determines who we are by what we do.
Jesus said that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him but rather that which comes out.
IOW what you say is what can destroy you because it comes from the heart.
Peter was still conformed to his Judaistic ideas of thinking and if you don’t believe he had trouble overcoming that, read the book of Galatians in the NT and see how Paul had to rebuke him over it.
Peter the Jew is in Joppa and he stops for a bite to eat. Suddenly he falls into a trance and has a vision.
A large sheet is lowered from heaven and it has all kinds of animals on it.
You figure it had to have a pig and maybe a rabbit, a couple of nice meaty lizards, an owl or a hawk, and who knows, maybe even an oyster or a lobster.
It certainly had unclean foods for any good Jew.
Peter was not about to partake.
This was even after the Lord gave Him the instructions to kill and eat.
Peter simply said, “No way.”
Peter saw this vision repeated 3 times and we know he received the instruction to call nothing unclean that the Lord had cleansed.

Peter did not understand what it meant.
But the men of Cornelius house found Peter and took him back to Cornelius the next day.
That is when the meaning of the message became clear to Peter.
Look at verse 28.
Peter was not to call any person unclean or common.
Peter went from being a thinker that the gospel for only for his kind of people to thinking that the gospel was for the entire world.
A second key to remember is this.
I must be searching for God’s opportunities.
It is amazing how God’s opportunities will come our way if we are simply waiting and listening for God to speak.
Before His Joppa vision, Peter had gone to Lydda, a city near Joppa and was preaching there and had actually performed a miracle healing there and many people came to the Lord.
Well, a member of the church in Joppa, Tabitha, died so the brothers and sisters there sent to Lydda where Peter was for Peter to come.
Lydda and Joppa are about 15 miles apart. So Peter struck a trot and went to Joppa and prayed over Tabitha and she was raised from the dead.
So Tabitha Died to bring Peter to Joppa so that Cornelius’ men could find Peter in the home of Simon the Tanner.

Everything there just sounds like it is so random yet it takes only a few small circumstances coming together at the right time to create a huge event.
A low pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico, an arctic cold front plowing down from Canada, a huge dip in the Gulf Stream carrying the low up the coast, And voila you have a blizzard.
It is amazing how an opportunity can be in the smallest of circumstances.
But we have to be looking at them as opportunities.
We might simply look at our circumstances and our situation as being a matter of fate or fortune and never ever see the opening or the closing of Doors that God has intended for us.
Opportunity does not always knock.
Sometimes it waits outside to see if we are going to open the door.
Sometimes opportunity just rides by seek for us to chase it down.
But, very seldom is opportunity standing by or knocking if you will seeking us.

In life, a regular question that we ought to be asking is, “What does God want me to do?”
What has God prepared me to do?
Have I been faithful in following Him to both find and to take the opportunities before me?
I think if we were honest with ourselves, the answer to that question would be no.
Mostly we look for opportunities to find us.
We seldom want to go out of our way to find what the Lord wants for us to do.
Back up just a second into chapter 9:32
Peter could have been content right in Jerusalem and I am sure that he would have found many people needing to hear the gospel.
But, He went looking for opportunity.
When he looked for opportunity, opportunity found Him.

A third key that we can see this morning is this.
I must be sharing God’s word with others to drive hybrid beings.
We all know that a hybrid is a mixed sort of thing.
Cornelius was a gentile who was receiving the good news that was expanded out of Judaism.
He and his house were the first gentile converts that would receive the Holy Spirit in power.
But every person who receives Christ is a hybrid being.
We are sinners scorned and shamed by our sin.
We are wretches without the fear of God and without the knowledge of God.
We are pitiful beings.
Then God Grace comes and makes us alive together with Christ.
His grace infuses us with new life and a new attitude about life because we have a new relationship with God through His son Jesus.
Look at Acts 10:34
Do you see here that Peter simply preached Jesus.

We can do that.
We can tell the story of Jesus.
That is the only thing that will make a difference in people’s lives.
God’s Spirit does not empower the HP Enterprise to convert people.
He does not move in eh works of William Shakespeare to bring followers of Christ in the Kingdom.
God’s Spirit works through the story of Jesus for the gospel is the power of God to salvation for all who believe.
The salvation of God is revealed in the story of Jesus.
Look at verse 44.

I am ready to be amazed as God pours His Spirit our on those with whom we share his word.
Are you?

Fathers Day -- Exodus 12:25-28 -- Teach Your Children Well

Introduction
Introductory video
I hope that one day my girls will thank me for their spiritual heritage.

Describing the Biblical Text
Egypt has suffered several plague because Pharaoh's refusal to release the Israelites to go into the wilderness and to sacrifice to God.
Now, a tenth and final plague has been announced and Moses has passed the information on the people.
The final plague will come to be known as the Passover as God will judge the Egyptians by sending the angel of death to claim the firstborn of each family.
It will be celebrated for time immemorial including in the death of Christ as we partake of the Lord’s Supper.

Narrate the Contextual application
But, included in the description of the Passover is a reference to our heritage as followers of God in that the instructions for passing on the celebration from generation to generation are included.
The Passover was such a vital part of the Hebrew faith that I know of one OT Scholar that actually begins his teaching odf the OT with the book of Exodus.
This vitality and understanding needs to be passed from generation to generation.

Life Application (thesis)
I always hated the music to which my dad & mom listened. They liked the swinging sounds of big bands, country/western and Neil Diamond.
Now as I have grown up, I really like Glenn Miller, Charley Pride, and I crank up the sound when I hear “Cracklin’ Rosie” and “Brother Love’s Travelin’ Salvation Show.”
The point is, the kids may not seem interested, even if they ask but they will not forget your life surrendered to the Lord.
Dads, we have a job to do as we bring our children up in the nurture and admonition or in the instruction and discipline of the Lord.
Fathers are to make sure that Children have a reliable understanding of their faith.

SO WHAT!! (Outline)
In looking at this text, we will see two things that dads must keep in mind when teaching their children spiritual things.
The curiosity of our Children will make them teachable.
Children are naturally curious creatures.
They use all of their senses in trying to see what something is and trying to learn about it.
I remember a video on America’s funniest that showed a little boy putting a frog in his mouth.
Why do kids eat dirt, play with bugs, crawl into boxes, play in the toilet, climb out of their beds, or are attracted or repulses by loud noises?
It is because they have a natural curiosity about things, which can even be harmful as we have to put locks on cabinets and keep matches and lighters out of reach, that makes children teachable.

I can promise you that if you are around Children, they will ask you questions about why you do and why you believe the things you do.
So, what do we do when they ask that all important question about your faith.
Do we put them off or do we take advantage o that teachable moment by sharing Christ, his doctrine, his expected lifestyle or his means of relating to others?
Our kids will give us teachable moments.
What happens though when one of those teachable moments comes along and we miss it?
We could end up doing exactly what the New Testament says that a father is not supposed to do and that is to exasperate our children.
I used to have a friend who lived across the street from me when I was a child and whenever he asked his parents a question, the usual answer that they gave him was something like I told you so or worry about that when you are older.

If his curiosity was never fed by his father and he never received the answers to life’s questions that he needed, how would he end up spiritually?
Tom wound up being an atheist.
He is cynical about any religious teaching and I think a good part of that was that no one fed the foundations of his curiosity and he ended up pouring himself into science fiction that was completely naturalistic in its world view.

I want to tell you something dad.
Our kids will be curious and they will come to us with questions.
We need to let that natural curiosity give us the opportunities we need to teach them about the foundations of our faith.

A second thing we need to consider this morning is this.
We must know the tenets of our faith to be able to teach them.
I need to ask Heath Ward a question.
In NASCAR racing, how many crew members are allowed over the pit wall during a pit stop?
Obviously, Heath would not know that answer like say Scott Hutchins would.
Well, dads, we need to know the answers to our kids’ spiritual questions.
Look at verse 27
You shall say.
We have to know how to answer the spiritual questions that our children will ask.
It is our job to lay the Biblical foundation for them as they grow into adulthood.
That is how we can help to keep them from going astray or from feeling like it is natural for every boy to go out and sow his wild oats.

But that also means that as fathers, we need to be ready to lead.
Leading our families spiritually is one of our most important responsibilities.
A father that does not think it is important to be involved in the spiritual development of his children is simply lazy and truthfully he is a slacker in the faith.
The book of Malachi tells us that one of the reasons that God gave marriage was to produce Godly offspring.
The fathers of Israel needed to know what their heritage and what their faith were about.
They needed to know why their God was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But you know dads; we need to know the same things.
Why do we believe that a person will perish in hell apart from a relationship with God through Jesus?
Why do we believe that the cross is necessary in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ?
What are faith and repentance and from where do they come?
There are countless people and ideologies out there just waiting to lead your young skulls full of mush astray.
The world’s system is constantly bombarding them with the idea that they are nothing more than an advanced “read evolved” piece of pond scum.
I bet we can go right into the church youth in almost any church in this city and find kids that believe that homosexuality is a normal alternative lifestyle.
Listen to the language that this generation uses.
They word normatively that used to be considered vulgar or at least questionable in mixed company.
This is because fathers have dropped the ball in teaching their children.

But sadly, society has dropped the ball on fatherhood and its importance.
Back in the mid 1990’s, there was a huge controversy over then VP Dan Quayle commenting that single TV mom Murphy Brown was sending a bad cultural signal by intentionally having a baby in a fatherless home.
The talking heads and the pundits all thought that Dan Quayle was a dolt for his backward thing but he has since been proven right.
Dad, How important are you in the home?
63% of youth suicides are from homes without fathers.
90% of homeless and runaway kids are from fatherless homes.
75% of youth in chemical dependence treatment centers are from fatherless homes.
71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.
We can see that a father is not just a vital part of the family; a father is a vital part of society.

Dads, we can make a difference but only if we are intentionally active in our families and with our kids.

Global Warming -- Thinking Green -- Acts 8:4-25

Introduction
Lately when we hear the term thinking green, we associate it with the idea of being environmentally minded.
We ask political candidates what their green initiatives are.
We want to see a company’s green policies and they even make a big deal out of those policies.
We even have slogans like think green.
But, before our current notion of thinking green, there was another idea of what it meant to think green.
Grenn is the color of money isn’t it.
Thinking of green was what Rev Ike was famous for doing with slogans like “You can’t lose with what I use.” And, “The lack of money is the root of all evil.”

Describing the Biblical Text
In our text, we have such a thinker.
He is looking for ways to buy the power of the Holy Spirit in that he could bestow that power on people.
But as an immature follower of Christ, he did not understand that the giving of the Spirit is a sovereign act of God that no man has the authority to give or withhold.
There is something interesting about Peter being herewith these Samaritans.
Let’s remember the instructions that Jesus gave in Acts 1:8.
You will be witnesses in Judea Samaria and the utter most parts of the earth.
The Judea part of the assignment was in Jerusalem.
The Holy Spirit came in power and Peter preached leading thousands to the Lord.
Peter is her is Samaria when the Holy Spirit comes in power.
In Acts 10, Peter Goes to Caesarea and the witnesses to a gentile of the uttermost parts of the earth and the Holy Spirit again came with power.
It is not accidental that Peter was there every time the spirit was poured out in a great move of God to expand the churches place on the earth.
When Jesus told Simon that his name was Peter and that on this rock he would build the church, he was pointing to Peter’s later usefulness in the process of build the church on earth.

Narrate the Contextual application
As we look at this text we see that the church was scattered.
Stephen was just martyred and followers of Jesus scattered to places like Samaria where Philip wound up.
The martyrdom of Stephen, though tragic, was essential in seeing the great commission fulfilled in the early church age.In Samaria, a number of people hearing the preaching of the gospel of Jesus believed.
There was even a man who had been known as The Great power of God because of his ability to do magic.\
I believe that this illusion could lead someone to desire “the real thing” when it comes to power.
If you live in the spotlight as a pagan, it is easy to seek the spotlight as a follower of Christ.
This is what Simon the sorcerer was experiencing in this text.
He was just thinking green like he had always done but now Peter was about to give Him a new lesson.

Life Application (thesis)
These followers of Jesus had believed and had been regenerated but the spirit had not yet fallen on them in power.
What is normative in conversion for us had not yet become the norm as it would in the fulfillment of the great commission.
Now, we receive the Holy Spirit as a result of the Grace of God leading to our mindful conversion.
When we receive Him, we receive the power of God.
Like Simon the sorcerer, our maturity hinders our recognition and our understanding of the Spiritual presence in our lives.
Why do we receive the Spirit?
There are some things we can name from the scriptures such as the earnest of our inheritance, the power of sanctification, or the, gift of our service but the ultimate answer is that when we receive the Holy Spirit, it is to Glorify the Lord.

SO WHAT!! (Outline)
There is one thing that green thinkers like to do and that is to protest.
As we consider what a spiritual life looks like, there are some things that we could protest as well.
We will discuss three of them here today.
We must protest the temptation to remain silent.
There is an old saying and a four season’s song that reminds us that silence is golden and even encouragement in proverbs that tells us that even a fool is counted wise when he remains silent.
Yet, there is a time to speak and that time is when the gospel is being shared with the lost pagan world in which we live.
Saul of tarsus and the boys who were out to stymie Christianity wanted to silence followers of Christ when they despicably murdered Stephen the Deacon.
Yet here is Philip in Samaria and he went looking for a hideout in which to stay until he could quietly sneak back to Jerusamen.
No Pastor Charlie, that is not what happened.
Look at verse 5.
Philip immediately started to proclaim Christ.
The murder of Stephen had to be in the front of His mind but so was his new faith in the Lord Jesus.

There are a lot of things in this life that can tempt us to shut down our sharing of the Gospel.
Yet, in all of life there is nothing that we have that is any more important that we communicate.
Probably one of the reasons that we don’t communicate the gospel is because it has been modeled for us incorrectly for so long.
We have been driven by decision based evangelism rather than by conversion based evangelism.
I recently read a book by Walter Chantry called Today’s Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic.
Decision based evangelism is really not the preaching of the old rugged cross.
It is selling someone a fire insurance policy.
The true Gospel calls for the wretchedness of the sin that condemns the sinner to be replaced with the grace of God accomplished in the death Burial and resurrection of Jesus that redeems the Sinner.
The gospel message has become so much like a self-help Oprah type feel good about yourself quick-fix that it gets lost in the myriad of other messages out there.
This almost deflates us because we subconsciously tell ourselves that it won’t make any difference in someone’s life so we remain silent.

Or, we fear what others might think.
Could you imagine what the Lord Jesus’ ministry would have been had he been concerned about peer pressure and the opinion of others.
That was not a consideration for Him.
Here is Philip in a strange town with strange surroundings, a place hated by the Jews and he would preach Jesus.
Whatever reasons we might have for not telling others about Christ just don’t cut it.
They all fall pale beside the example of our Lord and example of the early church.

We must protest the temptation to use our faith for our personal gain.
Maybe for us this is not really a temptation but for Simon the sorcerer it was.
And, if we are not careful we could get caught up in the nothingness of some current TV preachers who think feeling good is the gospel message.
The gospel is not about prosperity.
Salvation is not about personal security or unlocking God’s ability to give you your best day now.
The gospel is about the power of God for salvation to all who believe.
The gospel changes lives not by making us feel better but by making us better in that our lives begin to be conformed to image of God.
Simon just wanted to continue to be known as the great power of God by being able to call the Holy Spirit down on people.
That is the same message that all the “speak or create your own destiny” preachers.
You have the power over God to determine life’s outcomes and attitudes and you can tell God what he has to do for you.
We are the master and God is our servant.
That’s an enduring gospel … not!

We must protest the temptation to think we are done.
In the 1970’s things began to change in the world of candy. M&M Mars and Nestle began to grab a lot of the market share from the perpetual chocolate champion, Hershey. Things like, “N-E-S-T-L-E-S Nestles makes the very best Chocolate,” and “The milk Chocolate melts in your mouth and not in your hands,” began to pull people from the perennial leader. Hershey had to make a decision. Would they continue to let Nestle and Mars gain or would they spend some coin on advertising. They chose to advertise and came up with a simple but true yet very effective jingle, “Hershey’s is the great American chocolate bar.” But, it was not until the 1970’s that Hershey’s chocolate began advertising.
They were content to have chocolate and to sell chocolate but they did not want to market their chocolate.

We could be like that.
We could be content to have Christ and to even to grow in Christ but do we want to market Christ.
Do we want to tell others about Him?
You see, there are some here who went through the heyday of this church in 1962 and they think they are done.
There are some who have simply become content with knowing Christ and they think they are done.
There are some who are very busy doing everything under the sun and they just want to be done.
The truth of the matter is we are never done.
Look at verse 25
In returning to Jerusalem, the disciples of Jesus simply went back home and unpacked and got on with life.
No, they stopped in every little village and town and did what?
They preached the gospel.
They were fulfilling what Jesus told that woman at the well.
The hour had come when Jerusalem did not matter any more.
The gospel was to preached to all people and the word was to be spread to the uttermost parts of the earth.

How are we doing?
Have we made that our mission?
We are not done and we can prove it by simply obeying Christ.
The 1960’s were just that, the 1960’s.
The 70’s, 80’s and 90’s were decades of decline but if we were faithful to make converts then we cannot call those years failing years. And even if we numerically increased until 1962, if those were decisions and not converts, we cannot call those years successful.
Our job then is to live the life empowered by the Holy Spirit to the Glory of God seeking to convert people to faith in Jesus Christ.

Global Warming -- Carbon Remissions -- Acts 2

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.

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.

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.

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