The sermon podcast for Sunday, October 31 is up on Asbury Church’s website. This is sermon is about “Heaven” and is our Annual All Saint’s Day Message. The text is Hebrews 12: 1-4.
You can listen to it by clicking here, or you can listen to it here on this blog by clicking below. And, as always, you can subscribe to my sermon podcasts through iTunes.
What does God want?
That’s a big question. It’s something we all wonder. It’s something we all struggle with.
Something we all feel like we need to know to live the way that He wants us to live.
We have passages like Micah 6:8 – God wants us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
Jesus tells us throughout the Gospels that the whole law is summed up in one command – love the lord your God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself.
We see several different commands and points that we are supposed to live by.
But, we see where it all starts today in Psalm 50:
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving *
and make good your vows to the Most High.
15 Call upon me in the day of trouble; *
I will deliver you, and you shall honor me.”
The sacrifice that God most demands from us is one of a broken and thankful heart.
Broken in terms of understanding that we are not the people that we ought to be. Broken in terms of understanding that we miss the mark over and over again.
Broken in terms of understanding that for our sins He suffered in died.
Broken in understanding who we are.
But, thankful, most of all, in knowing that we are loved. We are forgiven. We are treasured by God, no matter what.
Yes, we have all done wrong. We have all sinned. We all fall down.
You do, I do.
And we are loved. In spite of it all, God loves us. Forgives us. Saves us. Make us His.
What does He want from us today?
A thankful heart.
May we be thankful for all that He has forgiven us and for all He has given us.
And may we love others, as He has loved us.
Today, Wednesday October 27, a bunch of us pastors “tweeted” everything we did throughout the day so that folks could “see” what it is that we “do” all day. If you’d like to just get a snapshot at what I do as a pastor on this Wendnesday, you can check out these tweets.
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
revandys Andy Stoddard
We see today in a reading from Luke, Jesus is in conflict with the Pharisees. It seems like He’s always in conflict with these teachers from His day.
They were very religious folk, they were actually the religious leaders of His day.
They were the ones that everyone turned too. They were the ones that everyone looked to for religious leadership, for how the Law should be in interpreted, and how they should live.
This sounds great. But, here’s the problem.
They were more in love with religion than they were with God.
They were more concerned with “looking” right instead of “being” right.
They were more concerned with “looking” religious for other folks to see than in being committed to God on the inside.
That’s why we see Jesus say today:
39 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes. I don’t know who said it originally, but I know it to be true – “Character is what we do when no one is watching.”
Are we one way in public, and another way when no one is watching? If we are not careful, we may live one way publically, and another when no one sees.
If we are not careful, we will find ourselves to be like the Pharisees, more worried about trying to appear to be religious, than actually seeking God from the inside out.
Does this mean that we should not try to live a religious life? Or course not. We should try to glorify God with all the we do and all that we are.
But it does mean this. It needs to start on the inside. God is most worried about our inside. He’s most worried about heart.
Because if He has our heart, He’ll have our actions. It starts with the heart. And goes to the outside.
Today, may God have our heart. And, when He has that, He will have our life.
One of the few things I remember from all the science I had to take while I was in college is this – There is no such thing as darkness.
Now, you’re thinking – Andy, you work up too early this morning. Sure there’s darkness. Didn’t you see it? It was dark this morning, and it will be dark tonight.
You though you saw darkness. But you didn’t.
Darkness does not exist. Darkness isn’t a “thing.” What darkness “is” is the absence of light.
Darkness is simply there being no light. When light enters, darkness vanishes. Because darkness is not a “thing.” It is the absence of light.
Darkness cannot be there when light is. It is physically impossible.
Listen to the words of Jesus today from Luke:
33 “No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house.
Today, by taking His light with you, everywhere you go – you are going to drive out the darkness.
By taking His light everywhere you go – good is going to triumph over evil. Light will win over dark.
Every time you show His love. His mercy. His truth. His compassion. His life. His righteousness. His live.
Light wins.
Every time.
The darkness is driven out.
You are a bearer of the light of Christ today. You are His witness today. You shine His light today.
And darkness simply cannot triumph over that light. It’s just impossible.
Today, know that light is going to win. And you are part of that victory.
Live in the victory, the power, and light of Christ today!
As I was reading one of my favorite Psalms this morning, it made me think about my son, Thomas’ birthday party yesterday.
Thomas turns 4 tomorrow, and yesterday we had his party. Lots of fun, lots of kids, and most importantly for every party, lots of sugar.
After the eating was done, the kids were playing at the park. They played on the swings, played football, and just ran around and acted like kids.
Some of them were playing “hide and seek” and they were having a blast not so much hiding, but in the chasing of each other when they found each other.
I always thing of “hide and seek” when I read Psalm 139
7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave,you are there.
9 If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
I love this passage because it tell us, we can never hide from God. That notion scares us sometimes. That notion seems bad, sometimes.
If we think God is out to get us.
He’s not. He loves us. He cares for us. He never leaves us.
He has not forgotten us.
Sometimes we think God has forgotten about us. Sometimes we can think that God doesn’t know about us or care about us.
Sometimes we can think that we don’t matter to God.
That we are unimportant.
This Psalm says – No! You matter. You can’t get away from God! No matter where you go, God is there!
Because He loves you!
No matter how bad, how stressful, how worrisome, how lost and forgotten you may feel – do not fear.
God has not forgotten you. He loves you. He cares for you. He is there for you.
Today, and always.
The sermon podcast for Sunday, October 24 is up on Asbury Church’s website. This is one of the sermons my series “Just Do It.,” and it’s about “Give” The text is Matthew 10: 40-42
You can listen to it by clicking here, or you can listen to it here on this blog by clicking below. And, as always, you can subscribe to my sermon podcasts through iTunes.
There’s a concept in scripture that we see a several times throughout the Bible, and it’s a powerful, powerful concept.
It’s something that can provide us great hope and great peace and joy.
It’s also a concept and passage that can be looked at the wrong way and provide us some problems.
We see this concept in one of today’s readings, from Psalm 37:
4 Take delight in the Lord, *
and he shall give you your heart’s desire.
Now, that sounds awesome, doesn’t it?
My heart desires lots of chocolate today. . . .
Or an Ole Miss victory over Arkansas this weekend. . . . .
Or a new computer. . . . . .
And, didn’t the scripture just say that God will give us our heart’s desire? So, doesn’t God want to give us these things?
I’ve heard that passage read in that way before. Some of us may be tempted to read it in that way today.
But, let’s look at what it says, – take delight in God and He will give us our heart desires.
When we delight in God, when we spend time with God when we grow closer to God, He changes our hearts.
And then, because our hearts are more like His heart, He gives us what our heart desires – more of Him.
Today, God wants to great you what your heart desires, or what your heart truly needs, more time with Him.
A deeper walk with Him.
More of His grace.
More of His mercy.
God wants you to know Him more and more and more.
God wants you to fall in love with Him today. God wants you to have what you really need – not stuff, not more, not power, not prestige, not any thing like this.
He wants you to have more of Him.
He is where life is found. He is what is our hearts truly need. He is what our hearts truly desire.
And He offers Himself to us today.
May we take Him up on His offer.
Not everything in life is as important as we make it out to be.
There’s that little book that came out a few years ago – “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.” And I believe the subtitle was “It’s all small stuff.”
Not everything in life is as important as we make it out to be. Not everything is life or death. Not everything is earth shatter.
Now, that’s not to say somethings are not important. They are. But, we need to keep focus on what is most important.
We get a glimpse of this in Luke’s Gospel this morning:
20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’
The 70 that were sent out that we talked about yesterday return, and man are they pumped. They have seen so many amazing things, so many things done in Jesus’ name, so much that they had done through Him.
They were so excited and pumped they just couldn’t stand it.
And here Jesus reminds them. Don’t be happy over this. Be happy you are in the book of life. Be happy that you are His.
That’s important for us to remember today.
We have no idea what today will include for us. There may be tremendous victorious.
There may be terrible defeats. We just don’t know what is to happen. We don’t know what all lies in store.
No matter high the highs or how low the lows, don’t celebrate too much, don’t mourn too much.
Remember what’s most important.
You’re His child. He loves you. You are His.
That’s what’s important. Tomorrow will be a new day. If we succeed today, we may fail tomorrow.
If we fail today, we may succeed tomorrow.
But, if we are His, we can rejoice no matter what.
Because we’ve got life. Life now, and life forever.
Today, remember what’s most important.
You’re a child of the Living God. And nothing beats that!
One of characters that we look at as a “hero” is the Lone Ranger. Kids that don’t know who that is, think of Batman, sort of, as a cowboy.
He’s a true hero. He rides in to save the day. He’s out there all alone, and doesn’t need any help. He can do it all alone. He doesn’t have a team, he doesn’t have a partner, he doesn’t need anyone.
It’s just him against the world.
That’s not the way Jesus wants us to do it. That’s not the way that Jesus wants us to live. That’s not the way that Jesus wants us to serve.
We see how he sends His disciples out to do ministry today in Luke’s Gospel:
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go
He sent out a lot of folks to be His witnesses, but notice what He did.
He sent them out two by two. He sent them out in pairs. He knew He was sending them out to do some tough stuff. As we read the text, we see that they will have real challenges and real trials. We see that it would not always be easy.
We see they were not supposed to be alone in this. So Jesus sent them out together.
We need each other. We need each other’s support and help. We need each other’s strength. We need each other’s encouragement.
We need each other.
We need support. We need friends. We need our team.
We need church.
You were not created to live alone. You were created to be in relationship with God, and with others.
You were not made to be the Lone Ranger.
Today, let folks into your life. Love and be loved. Care and let others care for you. Support and let others support you.
You were made for this. You were made to be loved.
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