Tag Archives: God

The Prayer of Jabez

Gallery January 7, 2001 David 1 Comment

The Prayer of Jabez
January 07, 2001	Sermon by DRW	Passage 1 Chronicles 4.9-10

What could I bring to you today, this first real Sunday of the Millennium? I was thinking that I could offer you seven steps to being a great student. Maybe, how to deal with parents with three easy words. Or, 4 ways to wisely choose friends. But, as I thought about these things, I began to think about you. What is your greatest need? It isn’t success in school or at home or with your friends. What is it that will bring about the greatest change in your life, whether it is school, home, or friends? We learned three weeks ago that Jesus is the only option we have in this area. But what can I bring to you today that will effectively bring this about? When you become my age, I want you to be able to look back over your lives and see the pivotal points in your life. I want you to be able to see the handful of people who have brought you to those pivotal points that turned you around to become the people you will be. And, I want this time to be one of them.

I want to direct your attention to a little prayer in 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10. I would like to read it to you. There is a long set of people’s names that the Bible gives us, then it stops at this person and say this:

He was more honorable than his brothers.

The writer then writes one sentence about him and then continues with his long list of names. Wouldn’t it be incredible if God were to stop at your name and say that you were more honorable than the rest? Wouldn’t you want to be known as the one who stood out in your generation, who God used to change the lives of many people?

At the end of today’s message, I am going to ask you to join me in the prayer of Jabez. I will read it to you now. It has four parts and each of these four parts are exactly the opposite of how we have been taught to pray.

“Oh that You would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let Your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will not cause pain.”

Take a look at the first one: “O that you would bless me indeed!” We don’t ask God for blessings because we feel He already does. We feel that there is a limited amount of blessings and that God dispenses only as He feels like it. Jesus tells us there are innumerable blessings that we don’t receive because we don’t ask for them. [Mr Jones story?]. Somehow we think it is wrong to ask God to bless us. I can only imagine what I would do if Joshua would come up to me and ask me to bless him. There would be an emotional charge going through me. This is how I imagine our Father in heaven might feel when I go to Him to ask Him to bless me. When you ask God to bless you, really, time will pass, as you are praying for His blessing, that you will sit down and will think about the blessings that God has given you and you will weep over the knowledge of the fact. There may even come a time when you will ask God to stop giving the blessings, because you are overwhelmed by them.

“God, my Heavenly Father, will you bless me a lot.” Don’t specify what the blessing should be but pray for His blessing. He will bless you. I can almost imagine that most of you haven’t prayed for a blessing today. That you haven’t asked God to bless you today while you are here.

The second part is for God to enlarge his business, his borders, or whatever. It is right for me to ask God to increase the amount of people who come here. It is right to ask God to bless my wife’s work. It is right for me to ask for more ministry opportunities today. When was the last time you asked God to give you more ministry?

Let me tell you a few stories about how God helped me to have more ministry. There was a woman at the Chevron station by my house. I had prayed that God would bless me with an opportunity to minister to someone that day. This woman got out of her car and began to swear over the Camaro. I was remembering my prayer of the morning and, looking to heaven, I thought that this couldn’t be it. God wouldn’t want me to minister to this cranky, cursing woman. So, I continued to pump the gas and she continue to swear at the car. I was getting ready to go. I thanked God that this wasn’t the ministry opportunity that He had for me. But, being the nice guy that I am, I asked Him one last time: “God, if this woman is someone that You put into my path, let me know that she is without a doubt in my mind.” Don’t ever do that, because God will answer that prayer. The woman quit swearing for a brief moment and look around the gas pump and looked at me. She asked me to help her. I did, she was still cursing at the car. I left that area not telling her about Jesus, but I did help.

Another time, I was praying on Christmas for opportunities to help people. I find it hard to be around Karen’s grandma because of her mental condition. But that night, she was walking around frustrated and confused, so I talked with her. I then found myself doing something that I thought that I would never do, I hugged her. It was so difficult for me, but that was what God had planned for me.

One last story, I have been praying that God would bless this ministry. About four weeks ago I specifically asked God to bring people to FNF. I decided to set up 12 chairs to see what would happen. Well, 12 people came. That next Sunday, I printed 31 bulletins (I normally make 25). I had asked God to bring more people. He brought 31 that day. The next Friday, the amount of chairs I had set up was the amount of people that came. The next Sunday, the amount of bulletins I printed (35) were the amount of people present. I don’t know what that means, but Karen told me to print 1,000 bulletins. I guess she has more faith than I do.

The reason God left you here on earth was for more ministry. Don’t define how the ministry should come but merely ask for more opportunities. Beg Him for more. Tell Him you want to do more for Him. He will bless you with that ministry. Press beyond your comfort zone and ask God to enlarge your ministry. That He would give you more opportunities. Think of Isaiah 6. “Who will go for us, who can we send?” He is looking for people to be used in miraculous ways. There are so few people who are willing to say, “Here am I, send me!” Beg Him for more ministry. That He would put people within your borders, that He would direct people to you; that He would bring the opportunities to you! He will! “Lord, give me somebody who needs You.” He will bring somebody to you that has a need that needs to be met. When that person comes, ask them what you can do for them. Ask them, “How can I help you?” That person is your ministry for that moment. You have been called to meet his need. Then you tell them, “That’s why I am here!”

I remember just this past week. I was asking someone how they were doing and they wouldn’t answer me. I thought about it for a bit, I asked them, “How can I help you?” It was at this point they started to share with me how I could help them. It was interesting to watch God at work.

When was the last time you asked God to send somebody to you that needs Him? He will send the ministry to you. God will send you this appointment, if you ask Him. God won’t send someone to you that you are incapable of helping. He knows your abilities.

What would your life be like if you started praying this on a daily basis? God would give you the wisdom and the knowledge to help those He sends to you.

You need God’s blessings, so ask for them; you can have ministry opportunities that He will bless you with, if you ask Him for them. This will get you to live beyond your box of comfort. He will enlarge your borders. This will bring you to your uncomfortable zone. In the box, you are comfortable. When your borders are enlarged, you will become uncomfortable and you will feel fear and you will be overwhelmed. You will be uncomfortable, as I was hugging Karen’s Grandma, because you have never been there before. It is not a pleasant feeling and will make us not to want to go there. We don’t want to go there because we are so used to comfort and peace that we don’t want to step out of it and begin to lose control of the things around us. You are telling God that you want to enlarge your ministries, to move you out of your comfort zone. God is excited about this and He gives you the opportunities. Now you are faced with giants that you have never faced before. This is why God always told the leaders before He sent them out not to be afraid because He would be there with them (Joshua 1).

Listen to this, it is so important. When you break through from the comfort to the discomfort zone, that will become the comfort zone. And God can now use you in this bigger box. If you don’t stop and you continue to ask Him to give you more ministry, your box will grow larger. You will find yourself saying, “Change me so You can give me more ministry.” God will then give your ministry and will change you and you will grow. “Take me from the comfort to the discomfort zone.” The fear of being overwhelmed comes at every single point that you are about to break through from comfort to discomfort. It doesn’t matter how many giants you have killed before, they will get bigger. Most people become uncomfortable and think that God couldn’t be calling them to this and they back off. This is not true. God takes you to the uncomfortable so you can rely on Him to break through in your life and the lives of others through you. Through this come miracles in our life. How many times has God sought to move you and you refused because you thought you weren’t able to do so? He will then ask, as He did with Moses and others, “I created all things and I can use all things, so let Me! If I can use a donkey to convince Balaam, I can use you. I indwell you, what makes you think that I can’t do this? Get your eyes off of yourself and get them on Me!” If you do this you will never question whether your life is significant or not. But, you have to ask for God to bless and enlarge your sphere of influence.

The third part of that prayer sounds wrong if we focus on the prayers of today. Lord, bless me greatly. Lord, give me more ministry. Think about this next statement. See, when the Lord blesses us and gives us greater ministry opportunities, we will be overwhelmed. We will be so overwhelmed that we will shout out that we cannot do it. This is where you will pray the statement that Jabez prayed next. “That Your hand might be with me.” When was the last time that God expanded your ministry so much that you had to exclaim, “Lord, unleash Your strong arm on my behalf. I can’t do this!”

Think about this: when was the last time you were so overwhelmed with what God had for you to do that you had to fall down and exclaim, “God help me!” The problem with Christianity today, not all Christians but Christianity in general, is that she doesn’t live this way. The majority of Christians in the world today will shrink back from the feeling of being overwhelmed until they get back to the point where they feel they are in control, where it is comfortable. God is calling us to live beyond this, He wants us to be Spirit led and not led by the flesh. Any point that we are in control of our lives, we are in the flesh. Any point where we are so overwhelmed with life and ministry that we call out to God for help, we are living by the Spirit. We wonder why we don’t see the mighty hand of God at work in our lives. Here is the reason: we won’t let it.

What does it take for God to do this. God says that He is searching throughout the earth to find a heart that is loyal to Him so He can show His arm strong in his behalf. The arm of God is shown strong as we expand our borders and our ministry. It happens when we get to the point where we say to God, “Father, I can’t do this on my own. It is too big for me. I need Your help!” There are times when Joshua realizes taht he has gotten into something to big. That is when he begins to scream and look to Daddy or Mommy to come and help him. When nothing is in his way, he is running around like crazy. He doesn’t need me there. He is comfortable. It is only in the places where he feels out of control, uncomfortable that he calls on me. When was the last time you needed God’s help? When was the last time you called out to Him to be there to help you do His work? That is what life is all about.

You ask God to bless you and He will. You ask God to expand your ministry and He will burst through your borders and allow you to influence people and change this old world. He will give you exceeding abundantly beyond what you can even imagine. If you were to pray this prayer everyday, you could never begin to imagine what He will do through you. When you ask Him to have His hand on you, here is what takes place: God will bless you, expand your borders of influence, and He will be with you.

You will go from here into darkness, to a place you have never been before. As you go into the darkness you will bring back those people who have strayed, who need your light. God will only send those people to you that He knows You can help. This will become normal for you. As you move out into the darkness, you are really moving out into the darkness. You are now in Satan’s territory. Here is what happens here. You will feel the enemy coming after you. That is why the last part of the prayer is there. The fourth part of the prayer: “Keep me from evil,” he says. Why? Because that is where you are going. Most people don’t pray this way. When was the last time you prayed to God, “Lord, keep evil away from me!” We don’t pray this way. We are not to pray to be kept through temptation. When Jesus was asked how to pray, He didn’t say, “Lord, keep us in temptation.” He said, “Lead us not into temptation.” He was praying what Jabez prayed: Keep me from evil! Keep evil away from me!

The more you do these things the more miraculous your life will become and the more you will give God glory. If this church really did this, if you really did this, you would never go back to the mundane life you had before.

This is your life as a Christian. I just want to say, “It is time for you to enjoy it.”

I am asking you to commit to praying this prayer of Jabez for thirty days. If you do commit to this, please stand. Please keep standing. Our usher has a gift for you. It is a little book called “The Prayer of Jabez.”

Please be seated. Let’s all pray this prayer together.

Dear God,

please bless me a lot,

give me more ministry,

put your hand on me

and keep me from evil.

Now, with your eyes open, look up and ask Him, mean it:

Dear God,

Would You please bless me a lot

Give me more ministry

Put Your hand on me

And keep me from evil.

Now, Father, I stand as your minister here at Cerritos and ask that You truly bless this church. That You would cause us to grow spiritually and numerically in this community. Give us a double portion of Your blessings. We ask Father that You would give us the ministry that would affect our community. We pray Father that You would keep us from evil and help us to be a light to those in darkness. Father, we cannot do any of this without You. Be with us and guide us, in Jesus name, amen!

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Old Testament, Psalms, Sermons

Talking About Him

Gallery November 18, 2000 David

Talking About Him
November 18, 2000	Sermon by DRW	Passage Psalm 40

Scripture Reading: Psalm 70

When I was younger, our church used to have Thanksgiving breakfasts. It really was coffee and doughnuts, but nobody ever complained. We gathered together to recount the year that we had. We gave testimonies of the good things that we received and of the hard times we were brought through. For us, Thanksgiving was a time of reflection and drawing closer to those we love. We would think about where we had been and rejoiced over the happy times and mourned over the sad times with those around us. This was a time that each person in the church looked forward too. A time of gathering and thanking, a time of fellowship.

I realized during those special times, that to be truly thankful I must have two qualities in my life: truth and justice. When I am truthful, I give God the credit for all things in my life. Whether they are good or bad, I tell Him and those around me that He has freely given me all things. Justice tells me to take all things into account that God has given me and respond to Him in some tangible way. To perform some ministry as evidence that I am truly thankful to Him for what He has brought into my life.

Let’s look at the first five verses of the Psalm before us. For the sake of time, I will ask you to read these verses to yourself.

I. Does Your Life Show Him? (1-5)

1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. 4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. 5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

David begins this Psalm with a profession of thankfulness. In being thankful, he shows his confidence in His God. He said: “I waited patiently for the Lord.” What follows is what David was thankful for.

1. God heard his prayers: “He inclined his ear, and heard my cry.”

2. God delivered him from some form of bondage. “He brought me out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay.”

3. God placed him in a safe place. “He set my feet upon a rock.”

4. God steadied him so he wouldn’t fall back into the horrible pit and miry clay. “He established my goings.”

5. God gave David every reason to be thankful. “He hath put a new song in my mouth.”

The first three verses offer David’s testimony of His divine rescue. The slimy pit endangered many travelers, it could be a common sin or difficulty that many people get into. It could be things like lust or financial difficulties. Many people fall into this pit, this slippery place, either from willful sin or through no fault of their own. This was David’s case. He was having difficult times in his life and God rescued him. The rescue from the slippery place to the Solid Rock was evident to all around him. It was such a dramatic change, deliverance, that David had to sing out loud for joy.

We have all experienced this. I know that there have been times in my life where I see the hand of God at work and the only way I can rejoice is through singing. I remember hearing about a friend who was in trouble. God helped him in his time of need. I had to sing, “God is so Good.” Deliverance brings joy.

The great thing about this is that other people will see this and they will rejoice, be thankful, for what God has done in your life. They may even trust Him in a greater way because of your changed life, your deliverance, your joy. When God gives you a reason to be thankful, He expects there to be a change in your lifestyle. Your life should be a steady, regular walk and conduct that displays Jesus Christ that others may see this and rejoice in Him. Or, as Jesus said: “Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.”

David believes, and the Bible testifies, that a changed life becomes a living billboard for God. David says, “Many shall see my deliverance and my thanksgiving, and shall fear God, and acknowledge His grace, His providence, and protection; and because of this, they will be led to put their trust in Him.”

It is here that David provides us with a type of thanksgiving. —

He tells us two great truths:

1. David tells us that the man who trusts and relies on God is truly blessed.

1. “Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust.”

2. “And blessed is he who respects not the proud;” men who are proud of their wealth and power, or those who turn to believe in lies and not the truth.

2. David then admires God’s mercies, and proclaims God’s goodness to people everywhere.

1. He proclaims the vastness of God’s works “Many, O Lord my God, are thy works.”

2. He proclaims their divine origin “Thy wonderful works.”

3. He proclaims the wisdom God had in doing what He had done for him “Many, O Lord, are thy wondrous works; and thy thoughts to us-ward, they cannot be reckoned up.”

I have listed two questions in the notes that you should think about and answer sometime today.

I. Are You Convinced God Loves You?

Do you really believe that God is in love with you, that He always seeks what is best for you? Can you say with Joseph in Genesis 50.20: “What man has planned for evil, God intended for good.” Through the good and bad times, do you see that God loves you?

II. Do Your Actions Show He Loves You?

If you believe that God loves you, that He has given you reason to be thankful, does your life show it? Do you verbally thank God, do you sing joyfully to Him, to you praise Him among all the people?

This leads us into the next five verses of Psalm 40. Although these verses are attributed to Christ by the writer of Hebrews, we see David, and ourselves, in them as-well.

II Do You Proclaim Him? (6-10)

6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. 9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest. 10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

[For David’s thanksgiving, the usual sacrifices and offerings are set aside] in favor of complete obedience from the heart, and full acknowledgment, in public assembly, of the saving goodness of God (Elwell, 1989).

David acknowledges his thankfulness and expresses his gratitude to God. He was so grateful to God that he felt himself bound to be obedient to the Word of God. He felt that his best sacrifice would be the sacrifice of his very life to God, just as Paul mentions in Romans 12.1: “I urge you, therefore, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as living sacrifices—holy and acceptable to God.”

What David is showing us here is that outward worship is of little worth, if sincerity and obedience are not in it. “Sacrifice and offering thou did not require.” David brings to mind here an ancient tradition of slavery that was common in Old Testament Israel. When a slaves time of service was over, after the 6^th year, he could be freed. When a slave saw that his master was a good master, full of mercy and kindnesses, he could stay with him. If the slave chose not to leave and the master chose to keep him, the slave would have his ears opened, pierced, to show that he is now a permanent slave to his master. So, when David says: “mine ears hast thou opened,” he is referring to the opening made by the awl that would pierce the ears of the slave. This is the sign of a voluntary and obedient servant (Exodus 21:5, 6). Like Paul, David said: “I will be Your voluntary and obedient servant. Lo, I come! I am ready to hear thy commands.” David then follows with a description of his obedience. David said that he would perform whatever God asked of him with a cheerful heart: “I delight to do Your will. Your law is in my heart. The obedience of eyes, hands, and feet may be hypocritical; that which is of the heart cannot. You desire my heart, and my heart You shall have; and for that purpose I have put Your law in my heart.” David would serve God and tell others about God with all his heart, just as Paul tells us to do in Colossians.

David did this for the glory of God and the benefit of others. His life became a living proclamation of Good News, the Gospel. David says, “I have preached righteousness in the great congregation.” And, “I have not stopped my lips from proclaiming your goodness” And, “I have not hid Your righteousness within my heart.” But, “I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation.” Because “I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and truth from the great congregation.”

The questions that I ask you to ponder as you think about these verses are:

A. Is Your Life Set Apart for Him?

This is asking whether you have given all that you are to Christ. Is your life a walking testimony of God? If it is, praise Him; if not, why not?

B. Do You Profess Him to Others?

The answer to this question determines the answer of the first question. There is no way your life is set apart for God if you are not proclaiming Him to others. A life of thanksgiving is a life that shouts out the greatness of God for all to hear.

If I were to put these verses into something that you could take home, something that would remind you of Thanksgiving, I would put it into an acronym that spells Thanksgiving.

Trust God to be their in every situation that you are in. Whether you are going through good or bad times, trust the goodness of God to bring only those things into your life which will produce a life that is good (Romans 8.28)

Honor God by giving Him the praise that is due His name. Praise Him for all that He has brought you through. Glorify His name for the good times and the hard times. Whatever has happened in your life, honor Him with praise (Colossians 3.17).

Acknowledge your joys and your pains. Don’t merely thank God for the joys in your life, but remember even the pain. This is what makes you, you. In every aspect of your life, acknowledge that God is taking an active part in your life (Proverbs 3.5-6).

Notice the hard times and the good time. This tells us to learn from every situation that comes into our lives. Don’t allow a day to go by without thinking through the day and giving God glory and learning a lesson for it. We should never let a day go by, with all the joys and pains that God allows in it, without acknowledging that it is for a purpose (Psalm 119.71, 73; Isaiah 29.24).

Know you are a part of God’s plan (Genesis 50.20). We need to come to a realization that all that happens in our lives is part of God’s greater plan to mold us into the image of Jesus Christ. Everything that comes our way is to bring us closer to His image. This is God’s plan. Just a cookie is made from both good tasting and bad tasting ingredients, so our life is made. Just as it takes time, heat, and energy to produce a cookie from cookie dough, so it will take time, heat and energy in us to produce Christlikeness.

Set yourself apart for God. We are to give our lives over to God for Him to do as He pleases in it. We are to be people of holiness (1 Thessalonians 4.13).

Give praise to God. Daily we are to offer Him praise, no matter the situation. For us to be truly thankful, we need to praise God much as David did (Hebrews 13.15).

Initiate healing of the hurts you may have. Just as David went before God (Psalms), so we must go before God and tell Him our hurts, pains, griefs. We are to come before Him with everything. We can freely come to Him with all our problems and joys.

Validate your feelings. Once we realize that we are in God’s plans, we must take our feelings into that. We must recognize our emotions and deal with them in the knowledge that God is in control and has a plan for my life. This doesn’t mean I deny my emotions, but I express them to God in a healthy manner. God is concerned with them (Jeremiah 8.21). He allows them to come into our lives and wants us to talk to Him about them.

Invite the Holy Spirit to be active in your life. If there is sin in your life, confess it; if there is a hurt in your heart, have Him cleanse it; if there is joy in your life, let Him enhance it. Allow the Holy Spirit to be active in your life (Ephesians 5.18).

Nail your hurts to the cross. For those who have sinned against you and have caused you pain, forgive them just as Christ has forgiven you and forget them just as Christ has forgotten yours (Psalm 103).

Glorify God in all things for this is the will of God for your life (1 Corinthians 6.20).

For a truly memorable Thanksgiving, let us live out the acronym above just as David has shown us in Psalm 40 to do. I would like you to consider what David has taught us from Psalm 40 during this Thanksgiving time. During this week, ask yourself the questions from the outline, look at the acronym and ask God to give you the strength to live a life that shows Him, proclaims Him, and relies upon Him.

Let us pray

Father, I thank You for caring for each one of us. For bring us good things for us to rejoice in and for allowing hard times so we may grow in them. I pray, that You would enable each one of us to take time this week to be truly thankful to You for all that You have done for us. Show us ways to express our thankfulness to You this week. In Jesus name, amen.

Trust God (Romans 8.28)

Honor God (Colossians 3.17).

Acknowledge your joys and your pains. (Proverbs 3.5-6).

Notice the hard times and the good time. (Psalm 119.71, 73; Isaiah 29.24).

Know you are a part of God’s plan (Genesis 50.20).

Set yourself apart for God. (1 Thessalonians 4.13).

Give praise to God. (Hebrews 13.15).

Initiate healing of the hurts you may have. (Psalms).

Validate your feelings. (Jeremiah 8.21).

Invite the Holy Spirit to be active in your life. (Ephesians 5.18).

Nail your hurts to the cross. (Psalm 103).

Glorify God in all things (1 Corinthians 6.20).

Exodus, Old Testament, Sermons

Alfred, I’m Tired

Gallery October 22, 2000 David

Alfred, I’m Tired
October 22, 2000	Sermon by DRW	Passage Exodus 20.8-11

In Chuck Swindoll’s book “To Laugh Again,” he writes this anecdote.

“The population of this country is 200 million. 84 million are retired. That leaves 116 million to do the work. There are 75 million in school, which leaves 41 million to do the work. Of this total, there are 22 million employed by the federal government.

“That leaves 19 million to do the work. 4 million are in the armed forces, which leaves 15 million to do the work. Take from that total the 14.8 million who work for state and city governments and that leaves 200,000 to do the work. There are 188,000 people in the hospital at any given time, leaving 12,000 to do the work. Currently, there are 11,998 people in jail. That leaves just two people to do the work – you and me. And you’re just sitting there listening. No wonder I’m stressed” (Swindoll, 1992)!

Now, that’s the perspective of a person who needs a break, wouldn’t you say? Of course, many of us from time to time have that same feeling. Many of us came here this morning stressed-out from the demands of the job, the family, school and a host of other assorted activities. The question is, what can we do about it? How can we break the power of stress and strain in our lives?

Before we begin, let me tell just how pervasive stress is in America.

1. 65 million people suffer with high blood pressure.

2. 1 million people die of heart disease, yearly.

3. Millions of people are afflicted with ulcers and stomach problems.

4. Millions of people have panic/anxiety disorder.

1. This is number one for women

2. This is number two for men (number one is substance abuse)

3. Panic attack is an out-of-the-blue attack

Stress comes from anxiety.

5. 40-50 million people have sleep disorder.

1. The average American under-sleeps an 1 ½ – 2 hours a night.

6. 80 million people suffer with headaches.

7. Millions of people suffer from depression.

This is a picture of stress. Although we will be discussing stress and its consequences, what I want to talk to you this morning about a solution that God has prescribed in the Bible. And let me come right out and say it:

God’s answer to the stress and strain on us is what the Bible calls the Sabbath, which to the best of my understanding means a “regular time of leisure” – a consistent pattern of breaking from the routine of our responsibilities.

I’ll explain that definition in a bit more detail in just a minute, but let me first show you why I say this is God’s answer to the problem. In at least two places in the Bible, God makes some amazing promises concerning the Sabbath principle.

“Happy is the one who refuses to work during my Sabbath days of rest, but honors them.” Isaiah 56:2aTLBM

“… if you call the Sabbath [in this case, a regular day of leisure] a delight and the LORD’S holy day honorable, and if you honor it … then you will find your joy in the LORD and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land …” Isaiah 58:13―14NIV

God promises that the byproducts of building a Sabbath – a regular time of leisure – into our lives are happiness and joy. Last time I checked, those were at one end of the mental health spectrum and stress was at the other.

But even at that, I have to admit that this idea of a “Sabbath” sounds a little out of place in the twenty-first century. It sounds like something associated with people who still dress in clothes from the 18th century and travel by horse and buggy. Even the word “Sabbath” has an odd ring to it, something that’s reserved for monks. In fact, when they hear the word “Sabbath,” most people think of getting up on Sunday morning, wearing uncomfortable clothes, sitting in a boring church service and walking around with a serious look on your face for the rest of the day. But that’s not what the Sabbath principle is about. The Sabbath is a direct response to the nature of stress.

Stress by nature is the fast pace of modern life. “We are designed for camel travel—but continue to behave like supersonic jets.” This has its price if pushed to the limit. It is also found in the tyranny of time where, as the song goes, “Everyone is in a hurry to get things done, we rush and we rush until life’s no fun.” It is also evident in Emergency living (urgency). Stress response is for emergencies. However, most of us live in a perpetual state of emergency, which is equivalent to great stress. We are so stressed out that our stress hormones go up and never come back

What are the effects of stress?

1. Increase in blood pressure (this causes the second effect). In an emergency this should rise (fight or flight). But it shouldn’t stay up, which is what is happening in today’s society.

2. There is an increase in blood cholesterol (the cardiovascular system is effected)

3. Release of fatty deposits in arteries

4. Narrowing of capillaries

5. Peripheral vaso-constriction

6. Fatigue where the adrenal system becomes exhausted.

7. If you are tired a lot it may be from stress

A Description of Leisure

In fact, all of those impressions are incorrect. None of them represent what God had in mind when He prescribed this stress solution. Very simply, God said ..

“Keep the Sabbath holy [by the way, that word does not mean “religious” – it means “different.” God is saying “make this day different from the other days”]. This is my command. [Here’s how it’s to be different.] Work the other six days, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God; no work shall be done that day by you or by any of your household — your sons, daughters, servants, oxen, donkeys, or cattle; even foreigners living among you must obey this law. Everybody must rest as you do.” Deuteronomy 5:12―14TLB

In this case God is talking about a weekly Sabbath that takes an entire day. But that’s not the only pattern mentioned in the Bible. In other places God tells the people to take off several times every year and – to put it bluntly – party. A Sabbath can be something that happens for part of the day every day. The bottom line is that there needs to be a regular and consistent pattern of leisure in your life.

Well, what is leisure? How do you define it? Leland Ryken in his book, Work and Leisure in Christian Perspective, gives a great three-point definition of leisure (Ryken, 1989) He says …

1. Leisure is time devoted to activities that are freely chosen.

The first question you have to ask yourself whenever you approach any activity and wonder whether it’s leisure is, am I freely choosing to do this or am I serving someone else’s agenda?

Let’s take golf. Is golf leisure activity? If you’ve got a golf game scheduled for this Tuesday afternoon with one of your strategic clients and you’re taking him or her out to play golf in the hopes that it will make your professional relationship more profitable, it’s not pure leisure because it’s not freely chosen. It’s a “have to,” a responsibility.

On the other hand, if you’ve got a free day coming up and you don’t have any pressure or responsibility and you play a round of golf because you want to, that could be leisure. Of course, that depends on how well your golf game fits part two of the definition.

2. Leisure is time devoted to activities that are pleasurable and satisfying.

If you get angry and frustrated when you play golf, it’s not leisure, because leisure is supposed to put a smile on your face. Leisure is something that you get excited about doing. That’ll be different things to different people.

3. Finally, Ryken says, leisure is time devoted to activities that relax and refresh.

For it to be true leisure, it needs to recalibrate us. It needs to send us back to work with our batteries physically, emotionally, mentally, relationally, spiritually recharged.

Lots of activities fit into this definition, don’t they?

You know what else should be included in leisure? Attending church! You should go because you freely choose to – not because you have to; it should be pleasurable – even when we address the heavy issues as we do from time to time; and it should be relaxing and refreshing.

Why Leisure Is Necessary (Dethmer, 1990)

So far we’ve defined leisure and seen that God tells us to do it on a regular basis. But why? Why is it so important that we do it? Jim Dethmer, who was a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, says …

1. Leisure is necessary because we tend to forget that we are more than what we do.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the pressure of getting a job done that we begin to think of ourselves as being merely workers — high-paid plow horses. When we make time for leisure, when we get away from the to-do list that perspective is restored.

2. Leisure is necessary because we are created in the image of God and even He “leisured.”

On the seventh day, having finished his task, God ceased from this work he had been doing, and God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he ceased this work of creation. Genesis 2:2―3TLB

If I understand this verse, leisure is one of the most spiritual things we can do, because God did it. But in addition to that, because we are created in the image of God, we are designed to experience rest and refreshment and leisure. The Sabbath principle is part of what it means to be fully human. It’s part of our makeup to require that downtime.

Types of Sabbaths (Rieland, 1996)

So, let’s talk specifics – how do you integrate this idea into your life on a regular basis? Another pastor remarked that there were four areas of life where the Sabbath principle could a make real difference. He said, “there is a Sabbath of the body, a Sabbath of the mind, a Sabbath of the soul and a Sabbath of the heart.” I want to talk about them and the frequency at which I think they should occur.

3. Sabbath of the body – sleep and proper exercise on a regular basis. Sleep is a daily issue, exercise several times a week.

I want to spend a few minutes talking about sleep at this point in the message.

We need to pay attention to sleep habits. Let me ask you a question. Why did God create sleep? He created sleep to restore the immune system, because it gives tranquility to the brain so it is rested and refreshed, and it provides for growth in young children. According to some experts in sleep, a minimum of 9 hours of sleep to be maximumly effective. This is God’s provision as a valley to help us deal with success and the mountains that we travel through during the day. If we don’t get enough sleep we will begin to see more “accidents” happening because of us, our work at school and our job diminishes, etc.

How can you improve the quality and quantity of your sleep? Darken your environment. A few hours before (1-2 hours) going to bed begin to dim the lights. The invention of electricity has effectively shut down melatonin production (used for sleep). If the area is darkened, the brain produces melatonin and sleep occurs.

You should try going to bed at the same time everyday. Our body clock will go away if we don’t regulate our sleep. Bright lights will basically stop your body’s clock.

You can reduce the noise levels around you. Wear earplugs if necessary.

There is something that we often neglect and that is trying to makeup sleep. If you can’t get enough sleep during the night, you have up to a week to make-up that sleep. That is why most teenagers sleep in on Saturdays.

As for the exercising, people who sit at a desk job the whole day need to exercise; those who have a physical job or sport, need to rest.

4. Sabbath of the mind – “visionary thinking.”

It’s when you mentally step back from the details and contemplate the big picture.

A few years ago in the Final Four of college basketball, Mike Krzyzewski, the coach of Duke University, called a time-out at a critical point in the game. The pressure was intense. He gathers the players around him and he says, “Hey, guys. Take in the moment. You’ll never have another one like it'” (Dethmer). That’s a Sabbath of the mind.

In our lives, this is where we find a quiet place with a pad of paper, maybe some books, and think and write stuff down – “what am I going to do in my relationships? What about my finances? What barriers are keeping me from accomplishing my vision?”

I have a pastor friend who regularly goes to a monastery with a Bible and a yellow pad. and talks to God and thinks. I think once a month is about the minimum frequency for this kind of Sabbath. It helps us to slow down and realize that our life isn’t to be lived in a perpetual state of emergency.

5. Sabbath of the soul – fun that makes you feel alive. (some fun makes you feel dead!)

I’ve neglected this one recently. As I have neglected the day off. I’ve felt exhausted, stressed out. I realized this week that I needed a day just to have some fun.

I need that day, as do each of you.

6. Sabbath of the heart – time alone with God

I think this should happen every day. Ten minutes a day where you sit down and say, “Daddy <which is what Jesus told us to call God>, it’s me. Would you remind me how much you love me? … Thanks, Daddy for … And Daddy, I’ve got some things that are weighing me down. Could you help me?” If you don’t do anything else from this message – ten minutes of that every day will change your stress level.

Here’s what I’m saying: when I observe a Sabbath of body, the mind, the soul and the heart – when I do these things on a regular basis, I find the power of stress breaking up in my life. On the other hand, when I neglect them, I become exhausted and fatigued. Life stops being fun. I become relationally detached. I begin to see people as just another obligation or responsibility. I become suspicious, cynical, impatient and irritable. Ever feel that way?

Common Objections (Dethmer)

But the question that really bugs me is, “Knowing this is the case, why don’t I take the Sabbath principle more seriously?” I thought about it and I realized that there are two thoughts that pop up in my head on this.

1. “I don’t have the time!”

I have too much to do already without making time for a Sabbath. My stress level will only go up if I have to try and squeeze all of this in!

2. “I benefit more by working”

Working is what gets you ahead. Let’s face it: in our world, the badge of honor goes to people who worked 60 hours last week not to people who say no to work so they can say yes to, say, the Sabbath of the mind.

Those two reasons on your list aren’t the real reason you neglect the Sabbath in your life. They’re not the reason you don’t really take off on your day off. They’re not the reason you feel too rushed to sit down and talk to God during the day. It’s a trust issue.

The real reason: “I don’t trust God enough to call time out from what I’m doing and do the Sabbath stuff.”

When it comes right down to it, I’ve got the same problem with the Sabbath principle that many people have with the tithing principle. “God won’t provide.” God won’t help me to do the daily work if I take a Sabbath of the heart – 10 minutes with Him. God won’t help me enough on the other six days to be able to completely relax on the seventh.

How Sabbaths Break Stress

For me, I’m realizing that this whole thing is a trust issue. That’s why God makes such a big deal out of it in the Bible.

1. Let me put it this way: observing a Sabbath (in whatever form) is a declaration that “I am dependent on God.”

“Hallow (respect) my Sabbaths; for they are a symbol of the contract between us to help you remember that I am the Lord your God.” Ezekiel 20:20TLB

Why should you keep the Sabbath? It is because you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out with a great display of miracles. Deuteronomy 5:15TLB

What’s he saying? “You didn’t do it all by yourself. I did the hard part. When you regularly build a time of leisure into your schedule, when you set up a consistent pattern of breaking from your regular responsibilities, it reminds you that I am your strength. I am your provider. You can depend on me!”

2. Guess what? Dependence on God is what alleviates stress.

“If you obey me,’ says the Lord, “and refuse to work on the Sabbath day and keep it separate, special and holy, then this nation shall continue forever. There shall always be descendants of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem; there shall always be kings and princes riding in pomp and splendor among the people, and this city shall remain forever [sounds pretty stress free doesn’t it?] … But if you will not listen to me, if you refuse to keep the Sabbath holy, if on the Sabbath you bring in loads of merchandise through these gates of Jerusalem, just as on other days, then I will set fire to these gates. The fire shall spread to the palaces and utterly destroy them, and no one shall be able to put out the raging flames.'” Jeremiah 17:24―25, 27TLB

Now that’s stress!

Conclusion

What are you going to do? I challenge you to come up with a plan today.

May I suggest that you take a Sabbath of the mind to determine where you are living your life today.

1 Thessalonians, New Testament, Sermons

Living Life God’s Way

Gallery September 9, 2000 David

Living Life God’s Way
September 09, 2000	Sermon by DRW	Passage 1 Thessalonians

Many committed Christians wrestle with feeling like they’re just not doing well in their relationship with God. The symptoms include: a burning desire to please the Lord; a fear, no matter how much you’re doing that it isn’t quite enough; a growing anger or frustration in your Christian life; a tendency to compare your Christian life with others. (Miller, 1989).

Many Christians hold as true these words of a song quipped by Mike Warnke:

“I come before Thy throne of grace

And fall down upon my face;

I know that I am but a worm —

So, step on me God and watch me squirm!”

However, our lives in Christ are far removed from this thinking. It can be seen in an illustration of Worms and Butterflies:

Being made into a new creation is like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Originally an earthbound crawling creature, a caterpillar weaves a cocoon and is totally immersed in it. Then a marvelous process takes place, called metamorphosis. Finally a totally new creature — a butterfly — emerges. Once ground-bound, the butterfly can now soar above the earth. It now can view life from [a loftier perch] the sky downward. In the same way, as a new creature in Christ you must begin to see yourself as God sees you.

If you were to see a butterfly, it would never occur to you to say, “Hey, everybody! Come look at this good-looking converted worm!” Why not? After all, it was a worm. And it was “converted.” No, now it is a new creature, and you don’t think of it in terms of what it was. You see it as it is now — a butterfly.

In exactly the same way, God sees you as His new creature in Christ. Although you might not always act like a good butterfly — you might land on things you shouldn’t, or forget you are a butterfly and crawl around with your old worm buddies — the truth of the matter is, you are never going to be a worm again!

This is why the usual New Testament word for a person in Christ is “saint,” meaning “holy one.” Paul, for example, in nearly all his letters addressed them to the “saints.” Yet all the time I hear Christians referring to themselves as “just an old sinner saved by grace.” No! That’s like calling a butterfly a converted worm. We were sinners and we were saved by grace, but the Word of God calls us saints from the moment we become identified with Christ. (George, 2000)

The Bible speaks of holiness, or sanctification, in three phases—

1. What Happened to Me when I got Saved?

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3.1-3)

1. What Happened to Me in the Past

“That state of separation in the spiritual realm accomplished by God the Father by means of the blood of Christ instantaneously at spiritual birth for each Christian” (Fairman).

This is involvement of our position: But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: (2 Thessalonians 2:13) and not our practice. This is freedom from the condemnation of sin: [There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1); not the temporary deliverance from the effects and consequences of sin. This is the beginning of new life for the butterfly, the Christian.

2. What is Happening to Me Now

“Conformity to Christ enabled by all of the Godhead. This conformity is endeavored by the believer, continuously during spiritual growth for each Christian” (Fairman).

This is the temporal aspect as seen in verses like:

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)

But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which [was bestowed] upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

This involves freedom from sin’s control: There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it]. (1 Corinthians 10:13). This is a continuing process from spiritual birth to the end of life on earth. Both God and man are involved: Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure. (Philippians 2.12-13).

3. What will Happen to Me in the Future

“State of perfection accomplished by the Father, instantaneously by death or rapture” (Fairman).

This is the merging of positional and present sanctification: Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present [you] faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, (Jude 1:24)

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8.29-30)

Today, however, I would like to look into that area of what is happening in our lives today.

II There are Two Steps that I Have to Take in My Life Now

A. I Need to be Dependent upon God

1. I Need to Yield to God through . . .

a. Repentance

For God took the initiative to bring us into a relationship with Himself, not thαt we should continue to live in impurity, but that we should be wholly consecrated to Him. (1 Thessalonians 4.7). Before the Christian life can be lived we must acknowledge that we sin; that we have rebelled against a perfect God: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23). When this is recognized we must realize that: the wages of that sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).

When we realize that we have sinned we must repent of that sin. We all identify with Peter in his sin, but often we fail to learn the lesson of his repentance. The characteristics of repentance are:

1) It is divine, initiated by God. Being sorry that we have sinned is not necessarily penitence. Responding to God and yielding to God.

2) It is very sensitive. God always deals with us gently.

3) It is an intense experience.

4) The experience is a lonely one. In Peter’s case, only between God and Peter. Luke 22:61,62.

(Drummond, 1989).

Repentance is a 180 degree turn away from what we were doing, “crawling around with your old worm buddies,” and returning to the position God placed us in when we became Christians, a butterfly.

There is not a passage more clear on this than 1 John 1.9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).

When I think about this verse I automatically recall a most vivid illustration that I have told many people:

I have always wondered why God asks us to repent in prayer when He knows our hearts. This verse has always bothered me until I realized that God is our Father. When I get married and have children (now I can idealize this because I am not there; therefore, those of you who are married and have children, don’t rain on my parade), I would discipline like this:

When Naomi hits Mephibosheth (these are the names I want to give my children and I realize that who ever I marry will voice her opinion rather strongly), and she will, and she comes to me wanting to play, talk and joke around; no matter how hard, I will have to refuse until she tells “Meph” she’s sorry. She may come to me daily and cry out to me but I won’t be able to respond until she “repents” of her sin. In the meantime Meph and I shall talk and play together. She will come up to me, hopefully sooner and not later, and tell me she’s sorry for hitting her brother. I will ask her if she told him; have her tell him; have both of them come to me and tell me so; and take both of them in my arms and play with them, talk with them, and joke around with them: love them

You see, God wants us to show our love for Him by confessing to others of the deeds we did against them, thus showing our love for them.

b. Dependance

After we repent of our sins and in confession tell God this, we need to lean on God for strength not to fall into that deed, that sin, again.

We do not need to fall into that sin again for we view life from a loftier perch: My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: (1 John 2:1)

2. I am Free From Sin as I Depend on God

Christians are freed from sin by God’s power from within to without: It shows on the outside what is inherent on the inside.

Illustration: “Let’s imagine that a king made a decree in his land that there would be a blanket pardon extended to all prostitutes. Would that be good news to you if you were a prostitute? Of course it would. No longer would you have to live in hiding, fearing the sheriff. No longer would you have a criminal record; all past offenses are wiped off the books. So the pardon would definitely be good news. But would it be any motivation at all for you to change your lifestyle? No, not a bit.

But let’s go a little further with our illustration. Let’s say that not only is a blanket pardon extended to all who have practiced prostitution, but the king has asked you, in particular, to become his bride. What happens when a prostitute marries a king? She becomes a queen. NOW would you have a reason for a change in lifestyle? Absolutely. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the lifestyle of a queen is several levels superior to that of a prostitute. No woman in her right mind would go back to her previous life.

As long as a half-gospel continues to be taught, we are going to continue producing Christians who are very thankful that they will not be judged for their sins, but who have no significant self-motivation to change their behavior. That’s why so many leaders have to use the hammer of the law and suffocating peer pressure to keep their people in line.

But what is the church called in the New Testament? The Βride of Christ! The gospel message is in effect a marriage proposal. And just as the prostitute became a queen by marrying the king, guilty sinners have become sons of God by becoming identified with Christ. It is that relationship and our new identity that becomes our motivation, and it is motivation that comes from within. ((George, 2000, 96-97)

This is God working within us, changing us to be like Him. We can behave like the butterfly He created us to be: Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

B. I Need to Know What is in God’s Word

“While sanctification is exclusively of God, that is, its power rests entirely on his holiness, the believer is constantly exhorted to work and to grow in the matters pertaining to salvation” (Erickson, 1998).

1. I Grow in Christ by . . .

As Christians we are to GROW not by rules and regulations and the resultant guilt, but by:

a. Pursuing Holiness

Follow peace with all [men], and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: (Hebrews 12:14). Our lives as Christians need to be characterized by that which is holy.

Holiness is God’s Word expressed in action — It is faith gone to work. — It is love coined into conduct; devotion helping human suffering, and going up in intercession to the great source of all good. (Huntington)

b. Depending on Others

In a recent article of Decision, Billy Graham asked these questions to ascertain whether a Christian was in right relationship with God:

1) Is your conversion true and acceptable to God?

2) Are you following the calling God extended to you?

3) Is your life acceptable, including prayer and daily devotional time?

4) Are your message and your delivery acceptable?

5) Do you have compassion for others?

He then asks an interesting question, that is essential for Christian living today:

6) Are your relationships with other Christians acceptable?

God asks us in Scripture to “…love one another…serve one another…be patient with each other… be courteous to one another…set an example to each other…forgive one another…not to judge each other…be subject one to another…edify one another…pray for one another.” (Graham, 1989)

Do we? This is how we grow. Proverbs says: “As iron sharpens iron so a friend sharpens a friend.”

2. I Need to be Active in God’s Word and the World

Blessed is the memory of those who have kept themselves unspotted from the world. — Yet more blessed and more dear the memory of those who have kept themselves unspotted in the world. (Jameson)

A holy life is not an ascetic, or gloomy, or solitary life, but a life regulated by divine truth and faithful in Christian duty. — It is living above the world while we are still in it. (Edwards)

Christianity is to be characterized by the Fruit of the Spirit, Jesus said that all men will know that we are His if we love one another.

Although Christianity in its various forms is the world’s largest religion, at least nominally so, Islam is threatening to take control of what used to be Europe’s Christian heartland. There are 2 million Moslems in West Germany. Germany has over 1,000 mosques and Islamic houses of prayer. Muslims doing missionary work in nominally Christian countries–where freedom of religion generally prevails–is three times that of the number of Christians working among Muslims. “The greatest weakness of Christianity in Europe does not result from the unfair rules of competition, but from the moribund state of the Christian churches throughout most of Europe.” And, therefore, the Christians within those churches.

There are times when we feel like we have blown it in our Christian lives, because we do not live up to our “Ten rules for getting to heaven,” but if we follow what we learned in today’s message we will not be defeated in this life. Remember, over and over again Christians blow it, but God is always ready to begin again. God uses disobedient, silent, unholy people for His purposes. Adam and Eve disobeyed, Noah was silent, Abraham was impatient, Joseph was self-centered and egotistical, but God used all of them. (Mars, 1989)

However, we must remember, as-well, that each one of these, in turn, were yielded to God; they were free from sin; and they continued to grow in Him. God was at work within them and they were active in the world, are you.

If we keep in mind Peter’s words in 2 Peter we shall do well. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that [pertain] unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1.1-11)

When we come to the knowledge of who we are in Christ (our positional sanctification) and what He is doing in us (present sanctification) and what He desires for us to become (permanent sanctification) then we can live in His freedom. This knowledge of who God is and who we are in Christ leads us to love Him more. The more knowledge that we have of Him, the more love we have for Him, the more dependent we become on Him. Dependency then becomes our motivation to live like Christ wants us to live. When we become motivated to serve Him, progressing in present sanctification (in Christ, by the Holy Spirit), we will desire to know more of His Word. The more we desire to know more of His Word, the more we know Him and the reality of Him in our lives becomes salient. Thus, we have come full-circle: knowledge leads to love, leading to dependency, leading to motivation to know Him and serve Him.

Where are you, butterfly?

Prayer:

Father, it is only in You that sins are forgiven, life is for real, and eternity is found. I thank you for all that You desire to do in us and for all that You are doing in us. I pray that we would come to You in our life situations. That we would come to You for strength, for help, in our times of need, that we would come to You in our times of exultation. Help us to remember You in all that we do. Keep Your Word before us in all things that we do.

Amen.

Ephesians, New Testament, Sermons

What would Jesus Want You to Do (part 2)?

Gallery August 12, 2000 David

What would Jesus Want You to Do (part 2)?
August 12, 2000	Sermon by DRW	Passage Ephesians 5.1

The question we pose this week is the same as the one from last week: What Would Jesus Want You to Do? We have already seen that we must learn the Bible, listen to the Holy Spirit, lean on the resurrection power of God, and love Jesus. But, what will we look like when we do these things? What would our life be characterized by? If we begin to do the things that Jesus would want us to do, by following those four steps, what would we look like? We know that our life would be characterized by those characteristics that were consistently demonstrated in the life and ministry of Jesus Himself.

When people saw Him, they knew He was different. It wasn’t because He looked different (Isaiah says He was no different than any man in appearance); not because He was wealthy (the Gospels tell us that He relied on the gifts of those who followed Him); not because He had power (His power was withheld; He told the officials that He could send down legions of angels to destroy them and yet didn’t). What made Him different was that His message aligned with His life. He was what He preached, first and foremost. If we truly want to have an impact on the world around us, we need to portray those same things that Jesus did on a daily basis.

1. What Jesus would do, I should do . . .

1. He was gracious, I need to be too (Luke 4.22; John 1.14f, John 1.18f)

Jesus was grace personified. He came to explain the Father and His words were gracious, that is filled with grace. His number one priority in life was to allow people to experience that grace in salvation. Our lives need to have the number one priority of allowing people to experience the grace of God through our lives. God’s riches at Christ’s expense for our sake is a good definition of grace. This means displaying our personal relationship with God before others and to live a life that personifies forgiveness. For this is grace, the art of graciousness.

2. He was angry, I need to be too

In a dramatic scene, Mark portrays Jesus “looking around with anger” at religious leaders (3:5). They were concerned only to see if Jesus would break their rules by healing a man on the Sabbath. When Jesus did, they immediately plotted to kill Him. But though Jesus was angry with these religious rulers, He was also “grieved by their hardness of heart.” While the cruelty of their callousness deserved His anger, the condition of their stony hearts caused Him grief.

Aristotle saw clearly that “anyone can become angry — that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not easy.” That is the challenge before us.

Jesus felt “indignant” (Mark 10:14) when His disciples did not allow mothers to bring their children to Him for his blessing. The disciples’ self-importance irritated Jesus. Jesus slapped them with stinging rebukes: “Let the children come to Me; stop preventing them.” Jesus then hugged the children, blessed them, and laid His hands on them (10:16). Jesus’ feeling of annoyance with the disciples quickly gave way to an outpouring of warm affection for the children.

In another instance, commercialism in the temple inflamed the zealous anger of Jesus and moved Him to a violent action. The words of the prophet were like fire in His bones: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11:17, quoting Isa. 56:7). …Though the terrified merchants running from the crack of His whip saw only the destruction of business as usual, Jesus’ anger was motivated by “zeal for [God’s] house” (John 2:17, quoting Ps. 69:9).

Our anger is often sparked by a threat to our own self-interests and usually results in bitter hostility. We need to heed Paul’s warning: “Be angry, but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil” (Eph. 4:26-27). The temple-cleansing story is too often used to justify incivility and unforgiving animosity. Paul knew of our propensity to legitimize our self-centeredness, and so his words on anger are full of warning. Anger is fire. When it burns destructively, it harms and destroys life. But the anger of Jesus kindles a flame within us that warms and restores life.

It is this passion for the holiness of God that must consume us in holy rage. To be angry like He was angry is to know the Word of God so deeply that we know what angers Him and we get involved with Him. What angers Him today in your life?

3. He showed grief, I need to as-well

Think about the story we call Jesus’ “triumphal entry” (Luke 19:41-44). In Roman tradition, a triumphal procession showcased a victorious general riding in a gold-covered chariot pulled by powerful white horses. His army marched in resplendent array behind him. Wagons loaded with spoils and slaves attested to his power.

But Jesus rode on the colt of a donkey. A motley parade of peasants and children cheered Him on His way as their long-awaited king. And the emotion that best describes Jesus’ state as He rode was grief.

Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem as He rode down the Mount of Olives into the city. His words describing the impending catastrophe were hyphenated by sobs. He wept, He wailed with grief over the coming desolation of Jerusalem.

Jesus also wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Witnesses said, “See how He loved him” (John 11:36). When Jesus saw Mary weeping, “He was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” (11:33). When He stepped near to the tomb of His friend, “again He was greatly disturbed” (11:38). When the word “disturbed” was used for animal sounds, it denoted the loud, angry snorting of horses. When used for human emotions, it emphasized the mixture of anguish and rage. Jesus wept. His groans welled up from the depths of His spirit, racked His body, shook the tombs, and echoed back from them. He raged against death, that terrible enemy that had attacked this, and every, family.

Likewise, Jesus was “troubled in spirit” when He told His disciples that one of them would betray Him (John 13:21). He grieved over this betrayal by His friend Judas. Jesus had lavishly given His love to Judas. He called Judas to be one of the inner circle with the Twelve, to be close to Him, and to participate in His work. He gave Judas the moneybag. He washed his feet. He gave Judas the place of honor next to Him at the table. He gave him the dipped bread, a sign of love. All the time He knew that Judas would betray Him. But still Jesus did not withdraw to protect Himself. He gave himself to Judas without measure, and so he set Himself up to suffer the pain of betrayal. When Judas led the temple troops to arrest Jesus in the garden, Jesus called him “friend.”

The Gospels portray Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane as one who is crushed by a heavy load of grief. He did not shrink from disclosing His deepest and darkest emotions to His disciples: “I am deeply grieved, even to death” (Matt. 26:38). He begged them to stay awake and keep Him company, but they “slept because of sorrow.” His emotions were too heavy for them to bear. They escaped into sleep, leaving Jesus alone. “Terror-stricken and in terrible anguish” (Mark 14:33), Jesus agonized over the awful choice to endure or to escape the cross. As He wrestled in prayer, He was drenched in His own sweat “which ran like blood to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

Jesus’ familiarity with grief should give us pause. Too often we hear Americanized versions of the gospel that offer quick fixes, easy solutions, and suffering-free Christianity. We need the reminder that the man who knew God most intimately and fulfilled His will most completely was described by Isaiah as a “suffering servant”: “Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows” (53:4).

What is grieving you today? Your sins grieve Jesus, do they grieve you? Are you hurting over the loss of a loved one, have you grieved. Today, Karen isn’t here so I can tell the story of the year I grieved. JUDI.

Do you see others around you who are grieving? Are you ministering to their hurts or adding to them by passing them up? Think of someone who needs comfort, will you comfort them today? Write them a letter, call them, e-mail them. Let them know you care.

4. He was joyful, I need to be too (Luke 10.21f)

While Jesus was a “Man of Sorrows,” Luke also paints a scene where Jesus “rejoiced very greatly in the Spirit” (Luke 10:21)—which implies more than cracking a smile. The occasion for this outburst was the return of the 70 from their successful mission. They had been given spiritual authority over all the powers of the enemy and had liberated hostages. There was good reason to celebrate.

But Jesus cautions them, “Do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (10:20). No matter how much power they exercised in their ministry, the ultimate source of their joy was to be rooted in their heavenly community: their names were written in heaven. Ministry is temporary. Life in the Kingdom is permanent. Then Jesus joyfully thanked the Father for opening the hearts of the disciples to see this and to enter into the fellowship of the Father and the Son (10:21-24).

On the evening of His execution, Jesus told His disciples that all He had revealed to them was so that “My joy may be in you and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11; 17:13). They should abide in His love as He always abides in the love of the Father (15:10), and they should be one as He and the Father are one (17:11). Here again joy is the mark of life within divine love relationships.

Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, was also the Man of Joy. He obeyed the will of the Father and endured the cross by focusing on the joy set before Him—the joy of unshakable love relationships in heaven (Hebrews 12:2, 22).

What brings you joy? Not happiness, which is temporary, but lasting joy? Where did Jesus joy come from? It came from His relationship with the Father and His brothers. 1 John 1.1-4 reminds us that our joy comes from the same place: our relationship with God and our brothers.

How are you doing in those very important relationships? Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your brother as yourself? This is your cause for joy. The way you can tell whether your relationship with God is good is if your relationships with people are good (1 John 4). If you want joy in your life, check your relationships with others. Are they godly?

5. He was truthful, I need to be too (John 1.18; Ephesians 4.15; John 14.6)

This quality of Jesus often got Him into a lot of trouble. When He told the Pharisees the truth, they sought to kill Him. If you claim to be honest, claim to have integrity, you set yourself up to be shot at. Jimmy Carter once said, “I won’t lie to you”. A correspondent on the White House staff said that as soon as the president said that, a whole group of correspondents determined to prove that he lied. They weren’t interested in anything else. This is Jesus, and needs to be us.

Jesus was honest with the rich young ruler, the Pharisees, the Samaritan woman, and many others in the Gospels. Even though this might have estranged them, He spoke the truth. It was more important to have integrity, to be truthful, than to be accepted with dishonesty. Even though He was rejected by many and accepted by few, He felt it necessary to always speak the truth in love, to wrap His words in grace.

How do you speak to your friends? Are you always truthful? What about with your parents? Your boss? Your teachers? Do these people trust you? Do they say that your word is as good as gold? I remember watching Kung Fu: The Legend Continues where Kane was asked if he was lying by someone who didn’t know him. The person asked him, “How can I believe you?” His response was, “I never lie.” That needs to be our response as-well. No matter the circumstances, we always bear a truthful witness. When we lie, we are letting others and God know that we don’t trust God. Tell the truth.

6. He was flexible, I need to be too

1 Thessalonians 5.14-we must realize that we meet the needs of people in different ways. As the old saying goes, “Different strokes for different folks.” Or as Paul said, “I become all things to all men that I might win some to the Lord. To the Jew, I am a Jew; to the Greek, a Greek.”

Jesus confronted the Pharisees; admonished James and John; comforted Timothy (2 Timothy 1.7); and prayed for Peter.

We must admonish the unruly; encouraged those of little faith; and support the weak. This is being flexible. How do you fare? When dealing with your brother or sister, do you treat them as if they were older, younger? Do you treat you friends, family, co-workers, etc., as they need to be treated? That is, you don’t treat a 28 year-old as if he were a 12 year-old. And you don’t treat an 8^th grader as if he held a degree in engineering. How you treat people is important, but how you change to meet their needs is even more important. That is the art of being flexible.

7. He was patient, I need to be too

1 Thessalonians 5.14 reminds us to be patient with all men. Jesus was patient with the sleeping disciples. He gave them a gentle admonition. Jesus is very patient with us because He loves us. God is waiting for people to come to know Him as Saviour; His love waits. Love motivates patience.

There is a story of a mother who took her six-year-old boy into a doctor’s crowded waiting room. As they waited their turn, he began to ask her all kinds of questions. In half an hour he managed to cover almost every subject known to humanity. To the wonder of all the others sitting in the room, his mother answered each question carefully and patiently.

Inevitably, he got around to God. As the other people listened to his relentless “how’s” and “why’s,” it was plain to see by the expressions on their faces that they wondered: “How does she stand it?” But when she answered her son’s next question, she answered theirs too. “Why,” he asked, “doesn’t God ever get tired and just stop?” “Because,” she replied after a moment’s thought, “God is love; and love never gets tired.”

How patient are we toward people? I dare say, not as patient as we should be. Our love for God determines our love for people and our patience towards them.

If we are truly patient with people we will build a hopeful future for them. Jesus was being asked many questions during the last supper. He could have tired. But He continued answering questions. In John 14 we see why. He wanted to give them a hope that tomorrow will still be there, and He will be with them in the Holy Spirit. Do we provide people with hope? We do when we show them patience.

8. He was empowering, I need to be too

Jesus enabled the 70 to evangelize, the 12 to change the world. And He empowers us to do mighty works today through the power of the Spirit who dwells in us. The Holy Spirit is our ally. He produces in us conviction, regeneration, and transformation. He is the agent of change in our lives. He enables us to do what we previously were incapable of doing.

At one time a group of men were attempting to raise an obelisk in Egypt to its base, and the work was under the supervision of a very exact and careful engineer. They had raised the great mass of granite to within a few inches of the level of the base and then were unable to lift it further. They could not get it up to the level of the pedestal by their utmost efforts. But there was a secret in nature that they did not know. There was a sailor there who knew all about it. He shouted, “Wet the ropes!” As they did so, the ropes began to groan, and strain, and shrink, and the great mass rose, and rose, till it came to the level of the base, and they could push it over and establish it firmly on its pedestal. It was a little secret, but it was an effectual one. The men had pulled at the cordage and strained away at it, but the obelisk was in mid-air, and there it hung until the cry came to wet the ropes. The instant you let the Holy Spirit saturate your soul, the Lord Jesus Christ brings into it all His infinite forces of love and power. One touch of God will do all that your tugging and struggling could not do.

This is what Jesus has done for us. Are we doing this for other people. I am not saying that we become the Holy Spirit for them. But that we enable them to trust the Spirit, that we free them to trust the Word of God by our trust, that we trust the Spirit’s power and direction so that it is contagious and others will want what we have.

9. He was humble, I need to be too

Although He is the Creator of the universe, He became a creation. Although He deserves to be praised and worshiped by all living creatures, He served those around Him even to the point of washing their feet.

How are we doing here? Are there things you won’t do because you feel it is below you to do them? Did Jesus? No. Are there people you won’t talk to because they don’t fit in with your kind? Did Jesus? No.

10. He was cooperative, I need to be too

Jesus had the 12 disciples helping Him. Today, He has us as His ambassadors to this world. We need to be cooperative with His people and with His Spirit so we can accomplish great things here in Southern California.

During World War II, over China and Burma, the Flying Tigers of General Claire Chennault were out-numbered—in the air, on the ground, and in planes, pilots, and parts. Yet they destroyed 217 enemy planes and probably 43 more, according to James Wilson in his book “The Principles of War.” Chennault had 20 operational P-40s and this remarkable record was accomplished in 31 encounters. His losses were six pilots and 16 planes.

Throughout the campaign, Chennault used a strategy that the enemy apparently never discovered. His men flew in pairs firmly committed to each other. Even when out-numbered 10 to one, Chennault never sent up 10 planes to the enemy’s 100. He sent up five pairs of two; each pair went after one enemy plane at a time. His two aircraft always out-numbered the enemy’s one.

Chennault was using the principle of concentration. Before, his pilots engaged in individual dogfights which as sport were superb, he said, but as war were all wrong.

We are at war against the prince of the power of the air—Satan, the deceiver, who can still be overcome by those who use cooperation and other sound principles found in God’s Word. Jesus used cooperation when He sent out the disciples in pairs.

Who are you in ministry with? Who do you have to confide in? Who do you know will support you? Who do you know that will back you up and help you out?

11. He was prayerful, I need to be too

One of the survival tactics of Jesus was prayer. Whenever a decision came, He prayed. Whenever a need arose, He prayed. Whenever He was hurting, He prayed. Whenever He was thankful, He prayed. This is why Paul tells us to pray without ceasing.

Why don’t we pray? There are at least five reasons we don’t pray, according to Richard Halverson:

1. Unbelief.

1. We don’t think it really works.

2. It’s just something you have to endure in church.

2. Indifference.

1. We don’t pray until a problem is huge because we think we can handle it.

3. Priorities.

1. Other things are more important to us and we think it will work itself out.

4. It is hard work to focus on God and give Him our daily life and all it entails.

5. We are focused on this world.

1. We limit our goals to what we expect here and now.

2. The things of God do not mean much to us because they deal with something other than the here and now in our minds.

We are called to be like Jesus in prayer. He prayed as if His life depended on it, do we?

12. He was goal oriented, I need to be too

Jesus was seeking change in the lives of people. Whenever He met someone, their lives changed. Simon became Peter; the Samaritan woman turned her life around; Martha quit being busy and sought Jesus; the rich young ruler refused to change. He was asking each of these to consider what they live for. If it wasn’t eternal, He asked them to change their goals.

What do you have to live for? Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that “Hope without an object cannot live.” If you have ever lost the focus of life, you understand hopelessness. Perhaps you have invested much into your job, marriage, or the struggles of life; and then you saw it all destroyed. The object of your hope is gone, and you feel dead and aimless.

Psychologist William Marston asked 3,000 people this question: “What do you have to live for?”

94 percent responded that they were merely enduring their lives, hoping someday that things would get better. This is something that we need change. This world is living for a hopeless end. The Christian has an endless hope. How can we live our lives in such a way as to offer life changing, goal oriented hope?

I like what Thoreau said: In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore . . . they had better aim at something high.

I believe this is important for us today. As people are looking for something to live for, we can offer them something mediocre or something great, depending upon what we are aiming at. I am aiming at becoming Christ-like. What are you aiming for? If it is anything less it will produce anxiety and hopelessness in the long run. If we achieve our goals, we have no purpose for living; if we don’t, we are left hopeless. The good news of the gospel is that the goal of becoming Christ-like is attainable when we reach Heaven. But, I can see the progress down here too. What changes do you need to make in order to be more like Him?

13. He was peaceful, I need to be too

Although Jesus did lash out in holy anger at times, for the most part He was a very peaceful man. When times were tough, He was at peace. When they were trying to frame Him in the courts, He was peaceful. He found His rest in God (Isaiah 30.15).

We need to know that God is in control. Then we shall have peace. If we truly want to live a peaceful life, we must know that God is in control of everything.

14. He was forgiving, I need to be too (Luke 23.34)

When Jesus was on the cross, He asked the Father to forgive the people who crucified Him. When Jesus was asked how many times should we forgive someone, He answered cryptically. We know He told Peter, 70 times 7. This doesn’t mean 490 times. It may not even imply an infinite amount of times. The book of Daniel tells us that Jesus will come back to establish His throne at the end of 70 times 7 weeks. Could Jesus be telling us to forgive until He returns, when no forgiveness will be necessary?

What happens when we don’t forgive? When somebody’s done me wrong, my gut instinct is to lash back, to let the anger burn, to plot revenge. Often, forgiveness is the last thing on my mind. But then I start to get these weird feelings. I get tense. Upset. Mad.

When I don’t forgive, those feelings get even uglier, going through a typical progression. When I don’t forgive, I often feel…

* judgmental (“You’re a jerk!”)

* hateful (“I despise you!”)

* guilty (“I feel bad about the way I reacted.”)

* unforgiven (“If I don’t forgive you, do I deserve God’s forgiveness?”)

There’s a reason, of course, that my thoughts progress to the point of feeling unforgiven:

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15).

When I don’t forgive others, I’m essentially saying, “You’re a sinner, and I’m not.” But God can’t forgive me until I admit that I, like everyone else, have “sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and that I need his forgiveness.

When I do choose to forgive, I go through a whole new set of feelings, feelings that free me, alleviate my stress, and generally make me more fun to be around. Feelings that, pretty much, are just the opposite of the ones I’ve already described.

When I forgive, I feel:

* non-judgmental

* merciful

* guilt-free

* forgiven

Those are good things. But they’re not the only reasons to forgive. The main reason is this: God tells us to forgive.

Forgiveness is healing—not only for me, but also for those I forgive. When I choose to forgive, relationships can be restored—not only between me and others, but between me and God, too.

Now, forgiveness isn’t easy. Sometimes, it seems downright impossible—and without God’s help, it would be. God never said forgiveness would be easy. Do you think it was easy for Jesus, His hands and feet nailed to the cross, to forgive the people who so mercilessly carried out such a cruel execution (See Luke 23:34.)?

It’s not easy for us to forgive others either—even though the “trespasses against us” that we experience almost every day are pretty insignificant compared to Jesus death.

But forgiveness is the right thing to do. Not only because it brings the nice, warm feelings of freedom and joy, but because God wants us to do it. And that’s reason enough to forgive.

Who do you need to forgive today? Who do you need to seek forgiveness from?

15. He was loving, I need to be too

Love permeated, guided, and empowered the spectrum of Jesus’ emotions. He felt compassion, was angry, grieved, and rejoiced because He loved. Love is an unshakable commitment of the will. Love transcends feelings and keeps on going when feelings falter or vanish. But love also involves and expresses emotions.

Jesus loved with strong desire. He told His friends, “I have desired with great desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). The combination of the verb “desire” and the noun “desire” doubles the intensity in Jesus’ expression of His deep longing to be with His friends.

When a wealthy young man ran up to Jesus, knelt before him, and asked how he could inherit eternal life, “Jesus looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10:21). As soon as He saw him, affection welled up in His heart for him, just as sometimes when you meet someone, you get a strong feeling that this person could be your best friend.

His love led Him to suffer and die. Jesus pointed to His sacrificial death as the ultimate measure of His love. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). He asks His friends to live up to that standard of love. “This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you…. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:12, 14). To live by that standard of love requires much more than emotions. It calls for total commitment to give up your life for someone else and to trust in the power of God to keep that commitment. But loving as Jesus loves also includes emotions—intense, diverse, deep emotions. His kind of love will arouse emotions of compassion, anger, grief, and joy.

Sometimes we want insurance against the heartbreaks of love. The way of Stoic “apathy” seems safer than the emotional traumas that inevitably accompany the way of loving as Jesus loved. But hardening ourselves against the pains of love kills the capacity to love. As C. S. Lewis warns us in THE FOUR LOVES: “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

I am spellbound by the intensity of Jesus’ emotions: not a twinge of pity, but heartbroken compassion; not a passing irritation, but terrifying anger; not a silent tear, but groans of anguish; not a weak smile, but ecstatic celebration. Jesus’ emotions are like a mountain river, cascading with clear water. My emotions are more like a muddy water or feeble trickling. Jesus invites us to come to Him and drink. Whoever is thirsty and believes in Him will have the river of His life flowing out from the innermost being (John 7:37-38). We are not to be merely spellbound by what we see in the emotional Jesus; we are to be unbound by His Spirit so that His life becomes our life, His emotions our emotions, to be “transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory.”

As we follow the four “L’s” from last week (learn, listen, lean, and love), these will things that we have spoken on today will become parts of our lives. Some will come more easily than others; some will require work on our part; but the good news is that God will develop them in our lives as we submit to Him.

Father,

The gospel writers paint their portraits of Jesus using a kaleidoscope of brilliant “emotional” colors. Jesus felt COMPASSION; he was ANGRY, INDIGNANT, and CONSUMED WITH ZEAL; he was TROUBLED, GREATLY DISTRESSED, VERY SORROWFUL, DEPRESSED, DEEPLY MOVED, and GRIEVED; He SIGHED; He WEPT and SOBBED; He GROANED; He was IN AGONY; He was SURPRISED and AMAZED; He REJOICED VERY GREATLY and was FULL OF JOY; He GREATLY DESIRED, and He LOVED.

In our quest to be like Jesus we often overlook the emotions that characterized His life. We know, Father, that Jesus reveals what it means to be fully human and made in the Your image. His emotions reflect the Your image without any deficiency or distortion. When we compare our own emotional lives to His, we become aware of our need for a transformation of our emotions so that we can be fully human, as He was.

Help us to do this. Help us to recognize our need to be more like Jesus. Look over the incomplete list before you. Ask God to take one of them and help you become more like Jesus this week in that area. Make a commitment to Him to do what Jesus would want you to do.

Father, we commit our lives to You. Help us to be more like You.

Amen.

Ephesians, New Testament, Sermons

What would Jesus Want You to Do (part 1)?

Gallery August 5, 2000 David

What would Jesus Want You to Do (part 1)?
August 05, 2000	Sermon by DRW	Passage Ephesians

Question	Yes	No	Maybe(only 2)
1. hang out with people who treat others badly
2. hug a stranger who has AIDS
3. cheat on a test to get a passing grade
4. help a relative die who has a terminal illness
5. stay at a party where people are drinking
6. copy answers from a friend’s homework
7. keep the money when the cashier gives you too much change
8. smoke a cigarette
9. lie to your parents
10. speed to make it to school on time
11. maintain sexual purity
12. spread rumors about someone who hurt you
13. lie for a friend to an authority figure
14. be the first to talk to the new person in school
15. date someone who doesn’t believe in God
16. sneak out after curfew

Directions for chart:

Read off each statement, have the people place a check mark in the appropriate box. Let them know they can only have two maybe’s. Have them “take a stand” on an issue. Yes, they would do that or no, they would not. Only allow two maybes per person. The goal is for them to make a decision.

The trick about this is not telling them what you plan to do after you go through the entire list. After you read off the last item, you repeat the list with a different question. It’s no longer “what would you do,” but instead it is “what would Jesus want you to do?” At this point they will place a X to signify their answer. If it is the same, they can make their check into an X.

What did you notice about the marks you made? Were they the same in both cases or do you realize that you have to change a few things in your life to match the title of the sermon? This is why we ask this important question:

I. What would Jesus Want You to Do?

A. A significant and answerable question because it is a

1. Call to imitation (Ephesians 5.1)

The apostle Paul made this very commitment. He resolved to live his life for Jesus, no matter the cost or consequences. In Ephesians 5.1 he wrote, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.” The word for “followers” is μιμηταὶ. The word means to imitate and describes a mimic, an actor. True Christians are imitators of Christ. In Acts 11.26, it says the followers of Christ were “first called Christians at Antioch” because their lives, actions, values, and attitudes reminded unbelievers of Jesus Christ! He was their purpose for living. Paul thought he knew God until he met Jesus Christ. Jesus came to this earth to reveal God and redeem man. Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, confessed Him as Lord and Savior, and became a mimic, an imitator, a follower of Jesus!

The apostle Paul voices his commitment in Philippians 3.7-14. Paul says, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not say that I have laid hold of it yet: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Here we can see that Paul had a passion for Jesus Christ. He wanted to be identified with Him, please Him, and live for Him. However, Paul also knew to do so was not easy. He had his own struggles in following Jesus. He surely would tell us that doing what Jesus would do, requires preparation. Here are four steps from Paul’s life, to consider as we make our own commitment to imitate Christ.

a. Step One: LEARN the Scriptures for they speak of Christ, they include the words and deeds of Jesus Christ. In Philippians 3.10, Paul expressed the desire to know the Savior. He said, “That I may know Him.” How can we aspire to do what Jesus would do in every situation no matter what the cost or consequences, if we do not know Jesus?

They say that when you have been married for twenty five years, you begin to know what a spouse will say, think, respond, and feel about most everything! How does this happen? We get to know a person by spending time with that person, entering into the life of that person!

It’s the same with Jesus Christ. We must become disciples of Jesus, if we are going to do what He would do in each and every situation. A disciple is a student, a pupil. To know Jesus we must search the Scriptures, study the life of Jesus, the words of Jesus, the desire of Jesus, what made Him happy, what made Him sad, what made Him mad. It is more than putting on a shirt or bracelet. It is putting on a life!

1) Came to meet people’s needs

a) Luke 4.18-19; Isaiah 61

b) Bind the broken hearted

2) Came to be a man for the valley

a) Luke 9.37

b) Transfigurationneed to bo back down; Meet needs of people

3) Came to be a servant

a) Mark 10.45

b) John 13 (esp 12f)

c) Stand along side of

b. Step Two: LISTEN to the Spirit of Christ within. Jesus speaks to His followers, not just through the written Word, but through His indwelling Spirit. The voice of the Holy Spirit, is also called the Spirit of Christ, because He always confirms the will of God and of Christ (John 14, 16).

Just as we tune in on a certain frequency to hear our favorite radio station, we must tune in on the voice of God, the Spirit of Christ within. Those who truly seek the Lord, His will, His way, will find Him!

1) Prepared well for His valley engagements

a) Luke 2.40ff-Listening/learning among the teachers

b) A process to prepare Him well for the valley (Hind’s Feet on High Places)

c) Hebrews 10.24-25-We are a people of the assembly where we learn to be prepared

c. Step Three: LEAN upon the supernatural, spiritual resurrection power of Christ. Paul wanted not only to know more of the person, Jesus Christ, but he wanted to know more of the power of the resurrected Christ. In Philippians 3.10 he says, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection.”

We do not possess the necessary power to face the opposition and live for Jesus. The power must come from the Holy Spirit of God within our hearts! Notice these verses. In 2 Corinthians 4.7 Paul says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” Then in Romans 8.11-14 Paul says, “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” We must remain connected to the power source of God’s Spirit!

1) Placed Himself totally under His Father’s authority

a) Hebrews 10.7-God-man in the valley for His Father

b) John 7.17

(1) We have come as ambassadors of God, with His message, under His authority, proclaiming His love, grace, and word.

(2) With authority, not as an authoritarian.

c) Humble

d) Accountable

(1) Not My will but Yours be done.

e) Direction

(1) As He sought He healed

(2) His intent to do His will (we are intended and created to do His will)

f) Commitment

2) Committed Himself completely to obeying God’s Word and following the leading of the Holy Spirit.

a) God said it, I believe it, and that settles it (Billy Graham)

b) Luke 4.1ff

(1) In the desert He was led and greatly tempted but overcame

(2) “It is written”

c) Ecclesiastes 12.9-11

(1) Dependence on Him

(2) Pray for guidance.

(3) Take the Word of God and match it to the situation.

(4) Powerful allies-the Word of God and the Spirit of God

d) 1 Kings 3

(1) “Perspiring over the biblical text to find the verse that will meet the need of the hurting, the bruised, the broken.

d. Step Four: LOVE the Savior, Jesus Christ more than anything. Paul was willing to suffer to know Christ and follow Him. In Philippians 3.10 he concludes, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.” Jesus said to be His disciples, His followers, we must “deny ourselves.” Sin is selfish, it is preoccupied with pleasing self, loving self over God and others. Self is our greatest obstacle to overcome, if we are to be like Christ.

Conclusion of WWJYD-part 1

Someone once wrote with sarcasm: “I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb not a new birth. I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I’d like to buy $3 worth of God, please.” How much of God do we want? How closely do we want to follow in Christ’s steps?

Do we want enough of God that we stop using our money, resources and time selfishly, and start using them to help others and build the kingdom of God?

Do we want enough of God that we develop a ravenous hunger for the Word and let all other priorities fall behind it?

Do we want enough of God that we become passionate about prayer instead of speaking to God in thoughtless, trite phrases when we want something?

Do we want enough of God that we give ourselves as humble servants to others?

Do we want enough of God that we learn to forgive those who hurt us, forgo bitterness, give up resentment, and if possible, make peace with our enemies?

Do we want enough of God that we develop His compassion and love for the most unlovely, that we lay aside our pharisaical, condescending attitudes and love all men with the passionate love of Christ?

How much do we want to follow “in His steps?” How serious are we about doing what Jesus would do? How much of God do we want? Three dollars?… Discipleship is far more than a What Would Jesus Do wristband. Jesus said in Luke 14.33 “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”

Here are some questions to consider when answering WWJWYD?

1. Would Jesus be saved? He IS salvation. Acts 4.12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

2. Would Jesus be baptized? Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist to “fulfill all righteousness.”

3. Would Jesus Join our Church? It was Jesus who said, “I will build my church.” Jesus established His church. He’s the head of the church.

4. Would Jesus go out of His way for you or for someone else? He went to the cross for you and me.

5. Would Jesus come to Sunday school or Wednesday night Bible Study? His habit was to worship .

6. Would Jesus bring his friends to church? Jesus was the “friend of sinners.”

I realize what is going on in your minds right about now. You are thinking that there is a huge gap between doing what you are currently doing and doing what Jesus would want you to do. And do you know what that gap is? It’s called life. You leave here. It’s your job. It’s your parents. It’s piano practice. It’s school. It’s your boss with a last minute assignment. It’s your teacher with a Summer assignment. It’s paying the bills. It’s having to fix the computer after it has broke for the third time. It’s an argument with your sister. It’s life. And we meander through this life. And we get back to church the next Sunday and there’s the preacher telling us again that we need to be obedient and committed. And he just doesn’t understand all the things we have to do. I’m lucky if I get back here to get a little more of that presence of Christ.

So what are we to do with this gap? With this thing called life that sits in between the presence of Christ and our obedience to him? Well, what if we took the question what would Jesus want me to do? What if we took that question and instead of trying to fit it into our life or tag it onto the end of our life what if we put it at the beginning of our life right after the presence of Christ. What if after we left here that became the question that preceded everything we did? What if obedience came right after presence? And then life came after that?

Well, that’s not practical, you might say. And I would say yes. That would inform everything I do, you might say. And I would say yes. That would mean having to rearrange my whole life, you might say. And I would say yes. That would mean a whole new set of priorities, you might say. And I would say yeah, you’’re probably right.

Well I don’t know that I can do that. And that’s the real point, isn’t it? When the preacher calls for obedience we’re just not sure we can do it. And do you know what? We can’t. We don’t have it within us to be obedient. But here’s the good news. The Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit does have it within Him to be obedient. The Holy Spirit has it within Him to cause us to be obedient. And maybe the way by which we would avail ourselves to the Spirit is to simply commit ourselves to the daily and the hourly asking of the question. What would Jesus want us to do? What would Jesus do? And ask the Spirit to take over from there. It might just change things for you and me. they might wonder what we’re up to. They might just start calling us that obedient and committed church.

Is there something that is keeping you from doing what Jesus would want you to do? Can I pray for you? Write it out on the registration card. Would you like to talk with me about ways you can incorporate this into your life, to evaluate your life, so you can be freed from the worries of this life and be free to do what Jesus would want you to do? Please let me know on the registration card.

Let’s pray:

Father, here Your children gather to seek You, to know You better and to do Your will in this world. Some have come today seeking You, others have come out of habit, I pray that You have touched each person’s heart to desire to do Your will.

You know, people, the first step in doing what Jesus would do is to be saved. If you desire this, please raise your hand now and then write on your registration card that you have made that decision.

Speak to our Father today and ask Him to help you as you travel through life to be committed to Him. Ask Him for boldness to overcome the fear of failure, the fear of peers, the fear of letting go. He will. Father, help us to lead the obedient committed life You have created for us and have always intended for us to live.

Amen.

Old Testament, Proverbs, Sermons

Trust the Lord with Your Family

Gallery June 18, 2000 David

Trust the Lord with Your Family
June 18, 2000	Sermon by DRW	Passage Proverbs 3.5-6

Some of you may not know, but Karen and I had our first child in January. He is a joy to the both of us. This can’t and doesn’t qualify me to speak to you today about raising a family. I have been in the ministry with youth for two decades and have been teaching middle school children for 6 years. This may add some credence to what I have to say. All I ask of you is not to be like John Guzman. On our second to last day of school, the 8^th graders were allowed to visit classes and sit in to talk with the other students who weren’t graduating. In my classes, I don’t allow the students to visit. If you come into my room any day of the year, we are learning something. John popped his head into my room, looked around, and said: “Let’s don’t go in there. They are learning.” Today let’s learn what the Bible tells to us fathers about raising a family for Him.

1. You must be saved (Trust in the Lord with all your heart)

Before we can expect our children to follow the ways of the Lord , we need to follow Him. This begins with our own salvation. We need to accept Christ as our Savior and follow after Him before we can truly expect our children to. What does becoming a Christian involve?

a. believing that you have sinned, done wrong

b. believing that this sin keeps you from being the person God intended and created you to be.

c. believing that God has done something to change your situation.

d. believing that Jesus Christ is God and that He died to pay the penalty for your sins.

e. accepting His payment as your own by praying to Him and accepting the truth of the Gospel.

There is a true story about a man who needed a heart transplant in order for him to live. He felt that it was wrong for anybody to have to die in order for him to live, so he wouldn’t take the transplant. He was 51 years old at the time and had resigned to the fact that people in his family died young from heart disease. His own mother died at 57. Although his daughter kept prodding him to get the transplant, he always refused. And always told her that he thought it was wrong for someone to die so that he could live. This is the way many of us were when we heard the story about Jesus dying so we could live. We refuse to believe that it is an option for us. We believe that we are destined to die and that is the end of the story, after all everybody else dies. So we live thinking that salvation, a real heart transplant, isn’t for us.

That man’s story doesn’t end there, it would be tragic if it did. For years the family and friends and doctors prodded him to get on the waiting list for the heart transplant. He always refused. Then one morning when the daughter wasn’t present the father decided to get the transplant. That afternoon he received the heart he so badly needed. What changed his mind? His daughter was killed in an automobile accident, he received her heart. Each one of us, before we can truly raise our children the way God had created them and intended them to grow, we need to accept His heart transplant of salvation.

Many of us in this room have already accepted God’s salvation, for us we need to daily choose to follow Him by following His Word. When we do this we will not trust nor follow the world’s way of raising a child.

2. You must not trust the world’s way of doing things (lean not on you own understanding)

Someone once wrote an inventory of what can be done to ensure that your child will not grow up to be the person you want him/her to be. He entitled it: How to Bring Down a Son

1. Provide him with plenty of free spending money.

This way he thinks money is the answer to all the problems and questions in life. He will spend his life pursuing this and, in the process, leave morals and family far behind.

2. Permit him to choose his own companions without restraint or direction.

Paul tells us that we shouldn’t be fooled. He says that bad company does corrupts good morals. As parents, we need to guard our children from the corruption this world and the people in it have to offer. This means you have to get to know your children’s friends. My sister does this because she is really concerned for her children. We all need to do this.

3. Give him a latchkey and allow him to return home at any hour of the night.

This lets him know that you don’t really care too much about him. Where he goes, how long he is there, or when and if he gets back.

4. Make no inquiry as to where and with whom he spends his leisure hours.

When we don’t talk to our children we lead them to believe that we don’t care about them. When we don’t ask them questions they feel they aren’t accountable to us. Talk to your children, even if they don’t want to answer back. Over time, if you show them that you care enough about them to be rejected when asking a simple question but you continually ask that question, they will return to you for the hard ones. I remember my step father, Joe, before he was my step-father, he was my Sunday School teacher. He would continually asked me to come to church with him, I always said yes. However, after he drove the many miles to our house to pick me up, I would tell him that I didn’t want to go. He did this countless times, because he was persistent even in rejection I stand before you today as a pastor. If you want your children to follow God, talk to them; if you don’t want them to grow up godly, don’t talk with them.

5. Allow him to believe that manners make a good substitute for morals.

The world today expects manners without morals. They want us to act good and not be good. This is taught in the schools, in business, and sadly in the home. God tells us that our manners come from our morals. To act like we have manners and disregard the morals is to set ourselves up for failure when the times get tough where morals really count. We need to seek inward conformity to God’s Word which will produce actions that are godly.

6. Let him expect to be paid for every act of helpfulness he offers.

Far to often today, I see it in the school settings, children expect to be rewarded financially or materially for doing what is right. I have students who expect a “treat” every time they turn their homework in on time. Others won’t get good grades unless they are paid to get them.

7. Let him spend his church-time hours on the street or in bed instead of in church.

When we spend our time at home when we should be at church, our children learn this and model it as-well. If we truly want our children to be brought down in life, don’t let them go to church and don’t let them see you go to church.

8. Be careful never to let him hear you pray.

Sad truth these days, men think it is a sign of weakness to pray. Our greatest strength as fathers is our prayer life. Don’t neglect it.

The world tells us that the child should be allowed to choose freely what he or she will do and the parent should accept whatever they choose. There is an interesting verse in Proverbs that can be seen two totally different ways: Train up a child in the way he should go and when he gets older he will not depart from it. The normal way to look at this verse is to say that when we train a child in the ways of the Lord, when he gets older he will not leave it. For a moment he might depart from the path of the Lord but in the end, he will return to the training in the Lord that he received as a youth. The other way of looking at this verse is to say: If I train my child in the way that he wants to grow, when he gets older he will stay in that path. If I let the child do what he wants, when he wants, he will remain that way for the rest of his life. We need to train them in the ways of the Lord.

There is another myth out there that tells us we must control all that our children do. This might be true for those that are younger and can’t make wise choices. But at the age of accountability, around 12 in Jewish terms, they should be allowed to do things and have responsibilities. If we have trained them in the ways of the Lord, we can trust them with responsibility and the privileges that go with them. If they have studied and done homework, they should be allowed to have leisure time. If they have fulfilled their responsibilities, we need to allow them the privileges that go with it. As parents we have the responsibility to raise the children to make wise choices and not to control them into doing what we think is right or best.

Another way the world says you should raise your children is to work so hard that you neglect the spiritual and emotional and social development of your children. The logic behind this is natural. I need to make enough money to buy what my child needs to succeed. The problem is we don’t truly understand what a child needs or what we as fathers need. A recent study showed that professionals are saying that their lives are empty. 4,126 male business executives, in 1996, revealed widespread dissatisfaction with the corporate experience. Forty-eight percent of all middle managers said that despite years spent striving to achieve their professional goals, their lives seemed “empty and meaningless.” 68% of senior executives said that they had neglected their family lives to pursue professional goals, and half said they would spend less time working and more time with their wives and children if they could start over again. The question that men are asking today is: “What am I doing all this for?” The answer to that question is found in our family. Socrates once said: “Could I climb the highest place in Athens, I would lift my voice and proclaim: ‘Fellow citizens, why do you turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and take so little care of your children, to whom one day you must relinquish it all?’” Most people find out to late that spending time with the family is what is needed the most in our lives. A few years ago Harry Chapin wrote a song called “Cats in the Cradle”. One of the points the song makes is the most important thing we can give our children, and ultimately ourselves, and that is our time. We are finding more and more that it isn’t mere “quality” time that is important it is also the quantity of time.

It is said of James Boswell, the famous writer, that he often referred to a special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing. The day was fixed in his adult mind, and he often reflected upon many of the things his father had taught him in the course of their fishing experience together. After having heard of that particular excursion so often, it occurred to someone much later to check the journal that Boswell’s father kept and determine what had been said about the fishing trip from the parental perspective. Turning to that date, the reader found only one sentence entered: “Gone fishing today with my son — a day wasted.”

Few have ever heard of Boswell’s father; many have heard of Boswell. But in spite of his relative obscurity, he must have managed to set a place in his son’s life which lasted for a lifetime and beyond. On one day alone he inlaid along the grain of his son’s life ideas that would mark him long into his adulthood. What he did, not only touched a boy’s life, but it set in motion certain benefits that would affect the world of classical literature. Too bad that Boswell’s father couldn’t appreciate the significance of a fishing trip and the pacesetting that was going on even while worms were being squeezed on to hooks.

I don’t know about you, but when Joshua is old enough to participate in sports and events at school and church, I will be there to embarrass him (that is a parent’s prerogative isn’t it?). I will be their to help him and teach him the things of life that we all so desperately need as children. We need to be actively involved in our children’s life. As fathers, we should never place money or career over the gift God has given us in our children.

About 15 years ago I was playing volleyball. One of the players whom I never had met before, started a conversation with me. After a few minutes it turned to her college major. She was in her fourth year as a child psychology major. She was a few months away from graduating. She started to ask my opinion on children and to formulate some ideas on children for her research. I started to talk with her. After four hours of talking she stopped and asked me where I received my degree. I told her that I hadn’t. She wondered where I learned so much about child psychology. We were discussing things that her teachers were just starting to discuss and this was her graduating year. I told her the only material I had ever read on child psychology was the Bible. That blew her mind. I hope it makes you think. You want to know how to raise a child and raise him/her well? Base it on this book. This is our third point.

3. You must follow His Word in Raising your children (acknowledge the Lord in all your ways)

With that in mind, here are ten truths to understand:

1. Acknowledge that your child is a gift from God (see Ps 127:3, GNB). Children are on loan to us by God and we need to take care of them.

2. Dedicate your child to the Lord to be used in his service (see 1 Sam. 1:11, RSV). Have a place for him at home and at church to serve God on a weekly, if not daily basis.

3. Make a personal commitment to God to grow as a Christian parent. The only imitate what we do.

4. Identify your values and convey these values consistently in your behavior. It isn’t words that will win an argument, it is a life that lives those words.

5. Express to your children love and acceptance. They need to know that you love them no matter what they do. If they don’t know this, they will never feel comfortable coming to you when they do something wrong.

6. View discipline as an ongoing process of helping your children ultimately to become self-controlled and self-disciplined. Discipline should be used to teach morality and safety. It should never be done merely to punish.

7. Pray daily for each member of your family. Pray with them, too.

8. Maintain family worship and Bible study in your home. A daily Bible study between you and your wife is important. A daily devotion and praise of God is important too. The dinner table is a good way to do this. Don’t eat until you have prayed and praised together.

9. Involve all family members in church activities. Have something for each person in the family to do at church, no matter how small or how big.

Sociologist and historian Carle Zimmerman, in his 1947 book Family and Civilization, tells of some interesting insights as he compared the disintegration of various cultures with the parallel decline of family life in those cultures. Eight specific patterns of domestic behavior typified the downward spiral of each culture Zimmerman studied.

∙ Marriage loses its sacredness; is frequently broken by divorce.

∙ Traditional meaning of the marriage ceremony is lost.

∙ Feminist movements abound.

∙ Increased public disrespect for parents and authority in general.

∙ Acceleration of juvenile delinquency, promiscuity, and rebellion.

∙ Refusal of people with traditional marriages to accept family responsibilities.

∙ Growing desire for and acceptance of adultery.

∙ Increasing interest in and spread of sexual perversions and sex- related crimes.

We have to keep the family involved in church and with each other.

10. Participate in events your church will offer to help you grow as a Christian parent. There are times we have Saturday or Sunday seminars on child rearing, attend these.

That same person who wrote an inventory of what can be done to ensure that your child will not grow up to be the person you want him/her to be, also wrote one on How to Bring Up a Son

1. Make home the brightest and most attractive place on earth. Your children need to see home as the best place they could possibly be.

2. Make him responsible for the performance of a limited number of daily duties. Have them develop character by taking out the trash, washing the dishes, vacuuming.

3. Never punish him in anger.

4. Do not ridicule his conceits, but rather talk frankly on matters in which he is interested.

5. Let him invite his friends to your home and table.

6. Be careful to impress upon his mind that making character is more important than making money.

7. Live uprightly before him at all times; then you will be able to talk to him with power.

8. Be much in prayer for his spiritual salvation and growth, pray with him daily as well as praying for him in private.

So, what does the Bible say about being a good father, about raising your children in His ways?

a. teach them Deuteronomy 6.1-9

A recent study of prison inmates in Southern Florida related these startling facts:

99% of prisoners are male.

86% claim to have had no relationship with their father.

Of the thousands studied only 7 of those men are Jewish. Why only seven? I think the answer lies in the traditional manner in which the father is involved with the children in the Jewish home. The more time spent with our children as fathers, the less likely they will stray from our values. This means our values and morals must be godly. You are to know that God is God and to have a passion for Him that will be evident to your children. In your everyday activities they should see that God is real to you and that He is an important part of your life. The English group learned about praising God last week in our service. Fathers, this is an important part of your life that your children need to experience with you, outside of church.

b. Greatest commandment (Mark 12.28-31).

You need to teach your children about caring for others as much as God cares for you. They need to know and see this in your life. They need to see this great example of God’s love for the people around you as it is manifested in your life. This is next week’s message for the English group.

c. Great commission (Matthew 28.19-20)

You need to show them how important God is to you by telling others about Jesus as-well. Your children’s faith and maturity will increase as you make the decision to show them that you are fulfilling God’s Word by telling others. This is an important part of your life that they need to see. This is what the English group will learn in a message in July.

d. Trust the Lord to lead them

After you have done all that you can, after you have accepted Christ as Saviour, after you have forsaken the world’s method of raising children, after you have shown them the importance of God’s Word in your life and for them; then you need to trust the Lord for the results.

I pray the verses we started with make more sense to you and provide you with insights on how to trust the Lord with your family:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

don’t depend on your own understanding.

Remember the Lord in all that you do

and He will give you success!

Trust the Lord with your family!

John, New Testament, Sermons

Scrapping Dross: God’s Method for Growth

Gallery September 13, 1998 David

Scrapping Dross: God’s Method for Growth
Septermber 13, 1998	Sermon by DRW	Passage John 6.16-21

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake,

17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them.

18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.

19 When they had rowed three or three and a half miles,* they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified.

* Greek rowed twenty-five or thirty stadia (about 5 or 6 kilometers)

20 But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.”

21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

The oriental silversmiths working in the marketplaces do something very lucrative for them and insightful for us. They take coins that Western tourists give them and then melt them down. Then they form them into little silver trinkets, small jewelry and the like. Then they sell them back to the tourists who had given them the money in the first place. You see, very lucrative.

It is done in a primitive way. Normally, there is a small furnace that has a pot set over it containing molten silver. They drop the coins into this and melt it away. Every now and then the silversmith goes back to the pot, looks into it, scrapes a little of the dross off that had risen to the top. He then goes back to work selling and buying things. After a short time if he looks in and finds the silver is ready, he will begin his work of forming the silver in trinkets.

The interesting thing is that he continually looks into the pot even though he knows there will be dross on top. If we were to ask him why, his answer would go something like this:

“I look into the silver until I find that the dross is all gone and the silver purified; I know when the dross is gone, because I can see myself reflected in the silver as in a fine mirror.”

This might help explain Malachi and other Old and New Testament writers.

PRO 25:4 Remove the dross from the silver, and out comes a vessel for the silversmith;

ISA 1:22 Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water. ISA 1:25 I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.

EZE 22:18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them are the copper, tin, iron and lead left inside a furnace. They are but the dross of silver.

MAL 3:3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,

This may explain why we go through some much testing, as if by fire. God desires to remove the dross from our life until His image is reflected in us for the world to see.

HEB 12:6 “the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

The principle of refining and purifying for His image to be found in us is seen in John 6.16-21. If you are taking notes, here is the outline

I. Jesus Saw Them in Their Need (Mk 6.48)

II. Jesus Was There in Their Need (Mk 6.48)

III. Jesus Saw Them Through Their Need (Jn 6.21)

Let’s recall the setting:

Jesus had just heard the news that John the Baptist had died, the disciples had come telling stories of their victories over Satan, the multitudes were following after them, He fed the 15,000, twelve baskets of food were left over and He sent the disciples away so He could pray. Now, the odds are that they had taken the twelve baskets on that boat. He dismissed the crowds and went to the mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee and prayed.

I. Jesus Saw Them in Their Need (Mk 6.48)

Mark 6:44-48 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them,

A. Jesus knew what they were getting into

We need to see something about this storm. It wasn’t caused by great black clouds like we feared yesterday at the park, those clouds that sent us running to our cars. I don’t think the disciples would have went if they saw dark and black clouds. This was a storm caused by winds, these were very common on the Sea of Galilee.

The disciples did not see what was on the horizon which made the time through the storm more harsh. The point is that Jesus knew what He was sending them into.

He knew that a gale would come up against them and would drive against them and would overtake them. He knew that after nine hours of striving they would need salvation to come to them or else they would die in a boating accident.

B. Jesus knows what His brothers and sisters are getting into

He knew what Noah was about to get into, Abraham, Job, Moses, Joshua, David, Paul, Wyclif, Zwingli, Luther, Spurgeon, you and me. He knows. He sees what happens to us. He sees how the silver is refined. He keeps looking to see if His image is being reflected.

Have you ever thought that He didn’t see or that He wasn’t there when you went through that harsh time, that time of growth? He was there, looking in to see how you are being refined. How sanctification is coming along, how you are growing.

Have you ever sat down and wondered about 1 Corinthians 10.13? I have. What does Paul mean when he says that God has given us a way out, that we may be able to escape? I believe that question is answered in this text: Jesus sees us in our need, sometimes He sends us there for growth. He knows there will be a point that we need to turn to Him to deliver us from the temptation. We will find that we need to call upon the Lord, as Peter did, and His arm will reach out to us to save us. He will allow us to struggle at times, prayer may seem dry, Bible study boring, our faith dry. He may call us to days of dryness for us to struggle through to work our muscles of faith. He allowed the disciples to row hard for nine hours before He came to them. Jesus told them to go the other side and that He would meet them there. They knew that if they stayed true to His words that they need not fear death nor futility although every circumstance pointed out it was a failure. The believed, but the winds kept blowing and the waves grew higher. They believed but the water kept coming on board faster than they could throw it back. An interesting thing is they didn’t fear the waters but they were afraid because they saw what they thought was a ghost coming to them.

John 6.16-20 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.”

C. Jesus removes the dross to help purify us

If you remember earlier in Jesus ministry He was really tired and decided to go across this sea and went to sleep in the bottom of the boat. The storms came and Jesus remained asleep. His disciples became very fearful and woke Him up. He told them they had a small faith and then calmed the sea and went back to bed (Mk 4.35-41).

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

They weren’t fearful because of the wind and the waves. They were struggling through to get to the other side. Jesus had already removed that dross and His image became a little clearer in them. I imagine they had a feeling that God would come and rescue them but they were looking for something great and marvelous. When Jesus came to them then they became fearful because they didn’t know who He was. I really don’t think that I would expect God to come to me that way either. I can almost hear their prayers for deliverance: Part the waters oh Lord. Calm the Sea Father. Bring us to shore quickly and safely through Your mighty hand.

God answers their prayers by walking past them on the water. Since He didn’t come the way they expected Him to come, they almost missed Him.

I guess the point of this section is that Jesus sees our needs, knows what struggles we go through and is waiting to come and help us in our need but not always the way we expect Him too.

II. Jesus Was There in Their Need (Mk 6.48)

God is always with us. Never is He away. We are going to see something fascinating here. Something that you may have never seen before concerning this miracle of Jesus. Let me give you a preview by saying: the disciples didn’t realize the power of Jesus until it happened to them.

MAT 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.

MAT 10:30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

MAT 10:31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

MAT 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

A. Jesus came but they didn’t recognize Him

1. They thought He was a ghost. The answers to their prayers almost passed them by because they were seeking something great and tumultuous to happen when God had other plans. Jesus was going to walk quietly by and let them call upon Him.

Sometimes God comes to us in quiet unassuming way. Remember He showed Elijah that He comes sometimes in balls of fire, sometimes in great whirlwinds, but most of the time in a still small voice. Allow me to illustrate. A man who works in a lumber mill had lost his watch in all the tailings and saw dust. It was a very valuable and personal watch. He placed a reward for it and dozens of men came to sift through that rubble. After three hours no one had found it. They had used rakes, they had used every machine available to them but to no avail. They left for dinner and a boy came in. Within 10 minutes he came outside with the watch. The other workers asked him how he did it: “I laid down in the sawdust and listened. After a while I heard the ticking and found the watch.”

The disciples had not yet learned to lie down and listen for His voice, His quiet work.

2. We think He is a ghost too. We look for answers to bring us through the storms of life. We too expect God to come in a mighty fashion and deliver us. Most likely He won’t. Allow me to illustrate how God has worked in the past, quietly and if I wasn’t watching I would have missed Him as He walked by.

I have a friend named Kim who has had a bad back for her entire life. She has had a rod in her back for the most part of her life. I have mentioned her before. She was being taken care of by a physician who was in it for the money. He really didn’t care too much for her, except for what the insurance premiums would pay. One day her insurance decided not to pay, so he quit her. Another doctor had heard this and came to her and told her that he was willing to help her out. Her only cost would be hospital time. He told her that he would be willing to pick-up the bill for everything else. When she entered the hospital things started to happen. She was there for some time. The amount of money was mounting and she couldn’t pay it. Something wacky happened with her nurse who came in and told her that if she were truly a Christian God would heal her, so Kim probably wasn’t a Christian. The administration of the hospital learned about this. The next thing Kim knows her hospital bill disappeared.

Did you see Jesus quietly passing by in that situation? I was exasperated with people. I thought that people were all going rotten. Then Jesus shone a little light on the subject and whispered to me, look at the doctor and the hospital. They care for Kim even though she cannot pay. Did you see Jesus walking by, I did.

Allow me another illustration of Jesus passing by. Larry Brown coaches/coached the San Antonio Spurs. One afternoon he spent an afternoon at a clothing store for men in San Antonio. He was scheduled to appear for two hours, but he stayed three, signing autographs, talking, and taking pictures.

He was able to leave the store. As he was getting into his car he saw a boy who was late getting there. He jumped off his bike and pressed his nose against the window to see if Coach Brown was there. He saw that the coach had gone and turned in disappointment. Coach Brown saw this. Turned his car off and walked to the boy. Sign and autograph, bought him a soda, spent lunch with him, and encouraged him. Only one other person had seen this. He showed the boy and the observer that he had the heart of a coach. It wasn’t money and games that day, it was a child and round ball.

Did you see Jesus walking by? That observer did and his day was enriched.

When the disciples saw Jesus walking by in the middle of their storm, they called Him a ghost. A phantom. An hallucination. To them the gentle light was anything but God.

When we see these little lights shining, we often have the same reaction. We dismiss these occasional kindnesses as apparitions, accidents, anomalies, not religious. Anything but God.

When Jesus comes the disciples and we think, He will split open the skies step out and our storm will be over. When Jesus comes all pain will be gone. Life will be easy and all doubt removed.

Because we look for God in the great bonfire, we miss His gentle lights. Because we listen for the shout, we miss His whisper. Someday He will come in great glory and with the shouts of heaven, but today He speaks in a small voice, gently. “When you doubt, look around; I am closer than you think.”

B. When they did recognize Him they worship Him

Jesus came in an unexpected way. He came quietly and was intent upon passing them by unless they recognized Him.

Matthew 14.33, a parallel account of John 6.16-21 gives us some insight into what was going on in the disciples mind. Jesus had just calmed the sea and stepped into the boat. The disciples then did something they had never done before. They never did something as a group. This time they did. A first for the disciples. They all shouted, Truly, You are the Son of God. The worshiped Him. Corporate worship. They all bowed and exalted the name of Jesus.

They didn’t worship Him when He healed the leper. Not even when He forgives the adulterer. Those sermons never led them to corporately worship Him. They were willing to follow, to leave their families, to cast out demons, to be His army as we shall see next week, but they never corporately worshiped Him.

Why?

Simple.

Before the leper was healed, not them; the adulterer was forgiven, not them. But here they were the ones who were saved. This time they were the ones whom God reached out and touched. They plucked them from certain doom. They worshiped as only those who have been given a pardon, a reprieve from the Great God of Heaven could.

We say all too often, and it is true, that God is the Creator of the Heavens and the earth. And we stand back and admire His work. We see His wisdom and learn from Him. We understand His strength and we rely on it. But only until He saves you will you worship Him.

I have gone through some storms of my life in which I almost missed God quietly coming to me; but I did see Him. He came in and at that moment, He was no longer a deity to be admired, no longer a teacher to listen and observe, no longer a master to obey. He became a Saviour to be worshiped.

Allow me to illustrate this. Remember the scenario: The disciples were rowing hard against the wind for about nine hours and their boat was about to go down. Jesus came and saved them and they worshiped Him. About 1900 years later a similar incident occurred. John was his name. His father had trained him to be a sailor for her majesty’s royal fleet. He was a great sailor but lacked discipline and moral integrity. Instead of promotions he was flogged and discharged. He became a sailor on a slave ship. One day on a journey from Africa to the America’s a storm hit that ship. For nine hours the shipped was tossed. The hull gave way. The ship would normally have sunk but because of the buoyant cargo it didn’t. John climbed from the belly of the ship to the deck and cried out to God to save him. God did. The entire crew was safe in harbor in a moment of time. No one else from that ship saw God’s hand in their deliverance, but John did.

He was so profoundly effected by that nine hours in the storm that he gave himself over to God and His work on earth. He became a preacher and wrote a few songs. You may recognize one of them: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see. Through many dangers toils and snares, I have already come. Twas grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home. When we’ve been there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun, we’ll no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.

He experienced God’s salvation personally and had to worship.

Have you been driven to worship God in your life because of what He has done? Before we continue let’s take time now to praise God in prayer and worship Him there.

III. Jesus Saw Them Through Their Need (Jn 6.21)

There is one more point I’d like to show. Jesus not only saw their storm, not only came to their storm, He saw them through their storm.

A. He saw Peter through his ordeal.

1. Peter stepped out in faith and failed, but he stepped out in faith and until this time he was an ordinary man.

a. God was cleaning the dross from the life of Peter. Peter had said many great things and many stupid things to this point in his life. This was no exception. It was a great statement of faith and of fear. He was in a boat about to go down. He saw Jesus walking safely on the water. He chose to be with the one who seemed safe despite how it looked. Up to this point in Peter’s life, he was mostly talk; here is where he finally puts some of that talk to action. The image of Christ in him became a little clearer.

b. Peter walked on the water to Jesus. He cried out to come from desperation, he came in faith to his Saviour. He realized the rowing wasn’t working. He knew Jesus was powerful, he went. He was surprised, he actually walked on the water. Death is disarmed. I can come to Jesus and not worry about this storm. He could see God. No more worry or frets. He walked wobbly and slowly. Then he saw the storm out of the corner of his eye. He turned away from the Saviour to see the big bad waves consuming him and his faith failed. He was worse now than before. Before he had a boat and friends, now he has nothing. Nothing except a faith in a God who he can see. Peter finds something great about God right here. Not only is God within sight but within reach. The story shows us that Peter was a great distance from Jesus. But when Peter called to Jesus to save him He was there instantaneously.

After this Peter wasn’t a normal person, he was a man who personally knew the salvation of God from a great storm in life. He was a man who had faith, failed and was restored to new life. Later in this chapter he cries out that he would follow Jesus only because Jesus was life to him.

Jesus looked into the pot and scraped off some more dross, His image in Peter was getting clearer.

2. Noah, Abraham, Job, etc and before they did they were ordinary men.

Allow me to illustrate this through some ordinary men in history who were not ordinary after they took what they believed about God and acted upon it, that is after they lived by faith.

Noah was told by his God to build a boat. Imagine the ridicule, the storm that he went through as he built a boat in a landlocked area that had never known rain. I imagine he felt the pain and testing, he felt the dross being taken away, the refiners fire purifying him through these 120 years of building and stocking that ark. Yet he did what God had told him because he had heard the small voice and he reacted in faith. He was not ordinary after this.

Abraham was told to leave his home and go far away to a land he had never heard of before. Imagine the ridicule, the storm that he went through as he packed his family up and left Ur to go to who knows where. I imagine he felt the pain and testing, he felt the dross being taken away, the refiners fire purifying him until God’s image was seen in him as he walked aimlessly for 40 years and never actually lived in this new country. He failed but still reacted in faith to that small voice that told him to go. He was not ordinary after this.

Moses was told to go back to a land that was to execute him and take 3 million people who didn’t want to leave that land to a land they had never seen nor known. Imagine the ridicule, the storm that he went through as he told Pharaoh the Israelites were leaving and the Israelites were saying no way Moses. I imagine he felt the pain and testing, he felt the dross being taken away, the refiner’s fire purifying him through those years of deliverance, walking, and frustration and never being able to live in that land he was taking these people to. He failed but his faith grew because of it and he continually listened to that voice of God. He was not ordinary after this.

Luther was told to go against the establishment by telling them they were wrong. Each person before him who had done this was sent to death as a heretic. He had grown up and lived and breathed Catholicism. Imagine the ridicule, the storm that he went through as he told the church they were wrong about who God was and that grace was God’s method of salvation not works. I imagine he felt the pain and testing, he felt the dross being taken away, the refiner’s fire purifying him through those years of turmoil we know as the Great Reformation. Yet he continually listen to the voice of God. He was not ordinary after this.

3. Until we do we will be ordinary Christians.

You may not be a Noah, an Abraham, a Moses, a Peter, a Luther but neither were they until they listened to God and did His will. Until they allowed Him to work within them removing the dross and allowing His image to be seen through them.

They followed the will of God for their lives. God had a personal plan for each of them and He has one for each one of us. Many people ask what that will of God for their life is. I respond to them, He will let you know. Until that time take a step out in faith and do what He has shown you to be His will so far:

ROM 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

EPH 6:6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.

1TH 4:3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;

1TH 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

HEB 10:36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

1PE 2:15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.

1PE 4:2 As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.

1PE 4:19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

1JO 2:17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Jesus will see you through when He calls you to do the task. After that, after you have allowed Him to come and scrape the dross you will not be the ordinary you will be the supernatural for God will be at work within you to do His perfect will.

B. He saw the rest of the disciples through their storm.

C. He will see you through your storms.

PSA 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this.

Matthew, New Testament, Sermons

What Happens When Christians Pray?

Gallery June 28, 1998 David

What Happens When Christians Pray?
June 28, 1998	Sermon by DRW	Passage Matthew 6.9-13

I am pleased to see that this is a church that prays. We prayed before the service, we have prayed in the service, and there are prayer meetings during the week. It is pleasing because prayer is essential to our worship of and fellowship with God.

Today, my desire is for you to realize the importance and power of prayer in our daily lives. It is my desire for each one of us to understand five concepts of powerful, effective prayers. We need to realize that great things happen when Christians decide to pray. All that God does in this world is through the prayers of His children. People like us praying brings change into this world. Before we begin, let us pray: He is sovereign, He is in control of the meeting, He can fill our needs today, He can cleanse our sins, He is able to change us.

1. Prayer is Talking with God (Matthew 6.9)

∙ Prayer is not a natural activity.

1. It shows us we are not in control but God is.

2. It shows us we are not as independent as we would like to be.

2. Concepts of Prayer (Matthew 6.9-13)

a. Prayer includes worship (9)

1. It is telling God we recognize Him as holy, pure, and sovereign.

2. It is telling God we are thankful and grateful to Him for who He is and for what He has done.

3. It is telling God we appreciate the fact that we are His children.

a. Adoption

b. Chosen by Him to be loved by Him

4. We are asking our Father

b. It is a picture of a child seeking from the Father the good and best for self and others that the Father has for the life and mission in this world. Jesus shows us that a father would not give snakes to his child when he asks for food. We need to pray to our Heavenly Father and not be satisfied with the prayer until it has been answered. The answers of our Father are: Yes, No, Not now, you are not ready yet.

c. It is a picture of asking the Father based on relationship not some other basis.

1. It is not on the basis of a faith principle.

2. It is not on the basis of our taking authority.

3. It is not on the basis of our speaking to the spirit world.

4. It is our trusting and resting on God the Father and our relationship with Him as His children. It is resting in the knowledge that He will keep His promises.

b. Prayer includes submission (10)

1. It is telling God we acquiesce our will for His.

a. We are living in relationship with God (1 John 5.14)

b. We are living in a commitment to obedience (1 John 3.22)

c. We are living to please Him (1 John 3.22)

d. We are living to know Jesus and make Him known (1 John 3.23)

e. We are living in love with fellow believers (1 John 3.23)

2. It is telling God we want His kingdom established in our lives.

3. It is like when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and proclaimed, “Not My will, but Yours be done.”

4. Or, like John the Baptist who said he was unworthy to untie the sandal of Jesus.

c. Prayer includes requests (11)

1. Prayer is our Life (Philippians 4.6-7)

a) Prayer transcends our self (6)

i. Prayer takes our focus off ourselves and places it upon God.

ii. Peter as he was walking on the water.

b) Bringing God into our situations (7)

i. Prayer asks God into every situation in our lives.

ii. Prayer is trusting God to do what God said He already would do.

∙ Prayer is made in the knowledge of the will of God (as revealed in Scripture), or in the seeking of that will.

i) our daily needs

ii) the enjoyment of our work

iii) Jesus is our Saviour

iv) our purity

v) our ability to give sacrificially to His service

2. This doesn’t mean we merely have a shopping list.

3. It implies we come to Him on the basis of our fellowship with Him as His children, with requests.

a) With open hands

b) With honesty

c) Telling our Father to help us with the pains of life (“Father, I need You . . . “)

d) It is going back to points 1 and 2.

d. Prayer includes confession (12)

1. We can never come to God without first confessing to Him that He is holy, that He is sovereign, that He alone can meet my daily needs, and, when we sin, that He is right and we were wrong. This is confession of sin.

2. We need to learn to say to God and others, “I was wrong, I am sorry, please forgive me.”

e. Prayer includes humility (13)

1. We need to learn that we cannot live this Christian life on our own. We need God’s help in every corner of our life.

2. We need to acknowledge this to Him and before others.

3. Prayer is placing our confidence in God and nothing else.

∙ Pray as if you need God always for everything.

∙ Go from prayer as if you have God already for everything.

Conclusion: Pray this week not just for food or in front of people, but pray this week, privately and with intensity. Things happen when Christians truly pray. So, please pray. There is much that can happen when we do.

John, New Testament

He Knows

Gallery November 10, 1996 David

He Knows
November 10, 1996	Sermon by DRW	Passage John 11

Outline

1. Jesus Loved Lazarus (3, 36)

2. Wasn’t Worried (4, 9-11)

3. Jesus Was Compassionate (35)

4. Jesus Was Able (38ff)

Discussion

Introduction Have you ever been in a situation that you thought was too hard for you to handle? Maybe it was a job you sought after and couldn’t get or a helper in ministry that never showed or a helpmate for eternity that remains elusive or a child that you wanted to have that hasn’t come. Maybe it is good grades that are getting harder and harder to maintain, or a relationship with your family that is rough and beyond help. Maybe it is a tomorrow that you are worried over or a past that has caused you grievous guilt. If we are breathing, we each have been in a situation that was too hard to handle (maybe more than once). Think about that as we consider our passage before us. ***** read a portion of the passage. As we continue, we shall read the rest of it. Let us pray:

Father, open our eyes to Your wonderful truth. Allow us for this period of time to worship You in that truth. Father, show us that we are here to give you glory and honour as we worship You. Grant us understanding in how to praise You more as we seek Your Spirit’s insight into this Scripture before us today. Amen.

TRANSITION: I would like for us to notice a few things about this passage before we even begin to discuss it.

1. Jesus Loved Lazarus (3, 36) Repeat that with me. Jesus Loved Lazarus. Again.

2. Jesus Was Not Worried (4, 9-11) Repeat that with me. Jesus Was Not Worried. Again.

3. Jesus Was Compassionate (35) Repeat that with me. Jesus Was Compassionate. Again.

4. Jesus Was Able (38ff) Repeat that with me. Jesus Was Able. Again.

Remember these truths as we continue in our discussion of John 11.

1. Jesus Loved Lazarus (3, 36)

As the story goes, Jesus was somewhere other than Judea (we can guess as to the place: Nazareth; maybe the Samaritan town of John 4; probably about 4 days or so from Bethany). It was here that a man gave a message regarding Lazarus and his sickness. It is of interest to note that the man describes Lazarus as one whom Jesus loved (as did the crowd in John 11.36). I bring this to our attention today because of its significance to us when we beseech the Lord in a matter.

Martha, Lazarus and Mary were part of a family that supported Jesus financially and physically. They provided coins and a house, food and a table; they were a second family to Him. We all know that Martha was a very busy woman. In Luke 10 Martha is complaining to Jesus about Mary’s lack of service. In John 12 she is quietly serving Jesus with no complaints. Something happened between these two dinners that caused her attitude to be transformed and that had to have been what we shall see in John 11. She went from attention to herself to attention to Jesus and John 11 shows why (as we shall see).

Little is know of Lazarus for he is very quiet. His voice is never heard in the Gospels. The only mention of him outside of John 11 is John 12 where the religious leaders were seeking to kill him because of his great witness for Christ (a silent one, but effective due to the life change he had).

Mary is always seen at the feet of Jesus. In Luke 10 she is seated at His feet, in John 11 she runs and falls at His feet, and in John 12 she is wiping His feet with her hair. In her we see a simple trust and faith; a submission to the One who rules over her and a grateful heart for what he has done and (for us) will do on the cross.

So, these three send word to Jesus to heal the man of the household that He loved. Listen to their appeal: “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” They brought their burden to Jesus. They brought it to the only One they knew who could do anything about it. They brought it to Jesus as much as we should bring our to Jesus. We can also see the basis of their appeal is not what they did for Jesus and they did do a lot for Him. Sometimes, we pray that way don’t we: Lord, if I give (or I have given) to the poor, so bless me. Their appeal wasn’t on the basis of their love for Jesus, although they did love Him enough to be like an adopted family to Him. We do this: Lord, I love You so much; bless me for this love. They came to Jesus the only way possible-with request in hand; they came to Jesus for an answer-not because of their works or their love- but because He loved them. Jesus would come to them not out of obligation but out of love for them. Jesus would answer their prayers (and ours) because He loves us, not from a sense of duty or obligation. That is good news. He will hear and act from love and nothing less. Remember: Jesus loved Lazarus and he loves each of us too.

TRANSITION I guess the question must be asked: Why did He wait if He loved them (5-16). The answer is given in verse 4.

2. Jesus Wasn’t Worried (4, 9-11)

Jesus knew what was going to happen. He knows the end from the beginning. He is not limited to time-He is God. He states the sickness will not result in death. God knows. He also waited so God’s glory can be known. As we shall see, the death-life that happened to Lazarus glorified God greatly but not the way Mary and Martha would have had it (in the beginning). The waiting was also for Jesus to be glorified. Jesus publically raised someone from the dead. More than that, this showed that Jesus is able to handle even the toughest situations we can get into. Jesus wasn’t worried.

He wasn’t even worried about His possible death (because He knows the end at the beginning-for Himself as-well-as for us) by traveling through Judea (8-16). Those verses seem peculiar to me (9). Why did He mention that. I believe He meant that if any one has the light of God (not the world) in him, he doesn’t have to worry about what may or may not happen to him. If the light of God is in us (His Word and His fellowship), then we don’t have to worry about stumbling or anything else. If Jesus wasn’t worried, should we????

3. Jesus Was Compassionate (35)

More than once in Scripture we have a picture of Christ’s compassion-the bleeding woman, the woman who’s son had died. Here we can feel the compassion Jesus had. Jesus wept so says our text. Why did Jesus weep? (I think some of us men in this body need to consider whether we would weep or refuse to.) What led up to this famous passage?

Jesus made it to Bethany and Lazarus was in the ground for four days. Was He surprised at this and cried because of the death? No-He already knew this was to happen and wasn’t worried. Could it be because He was upset at their unbelief (Mary nor Martha and certainly not the crowd believed that He could raise the dead). TELL THE STORY AND EMPHASIZE THE FAITHS OF MARTHA AND MARY.

Now, Jesus wept because of the compassion He had for people, especially His people in misery. Jesus had compassion because of their pain, and He does the same for us today.

4. Jesus Was Able (38ff)

DISCUSS THE STORY OF THE RAISING OF LAZARUS FROM LUCADO’S “THUNDER”.

Conclusion: Jesus love doesn’t stop at Lazarus but extends to us; He knows our circumstances as-well-as He knew Lazarus and He wants us to see His love in our circumstances and not to gauge His love by our circumstances; His compassion extends from eternity to us today and tomorrow; His ability never ends, it is the same yesterday, today and forever.

So, if there is a situation that you are finding difficult, remember that Jesus loves you, isn’t worried, has compassion toward you and is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond what we can hope.

Do you believe? I hope so-let’s trust Him.

Jesus, thank You for being in control of all things and working good results in all things even though we may not see it. Thank You for doing what is best despite what we might want from our circumstances. Thank You for loving us and letting us grow through our circumstances. As this week progresses Lord, show us Your hand in our life. We trust You and believe You. Amen

Scriptural Truths for Today's World