The sermon podcast for Sunday, October 16, 2011 is up on Asbury Church’s website. This is the third sermon in our series “The Unbaptized Arm.” This sermon deals with “The Unbaptized Mind.” It deals with the fears that we all face, the fears of our head, and the fears of our heart. The texts for this sermon are 2 Corinthians 10: 3-6 and 1 John 4:18. Also by clicking on these verses you can see my notes from the sermon as a note in the YouVersion online Bible. 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.
Monthly Archives: October 2011
The Best is Yet to Come
There is a biblical command to keep our eyes on things above. There is this notion that our eyes, and our lives, are to fixed on what really matters.
Not the things of this world that are shifting and changing, but the things of heaven that remain constant and the same. Listen to what it says today in Hebrews 8: 5-7
They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
In this passage, we see the author of Hebrews say this – they were serving a copy and a shadow of heavenly things. That’s a powerful concept.
Think about this for a minute. There’s some good stuff in this life. There are moments that are really amazing. Moments where we feel the power of God. Moments where we feel the movement of the spirit. Moments where we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is using us.
These are truly life changing moments.
And Hebrews tells us that these moments are just a shadow of heaven. The best is yet to come.
So, live life. Enjoy it. Serve God. Live fully. Love fully. Be salt and light. Work for good. Work for God. Wring every drop of life out of this life.
But always remember, that the best is yet to come.
The Power of Godly Friendship
David is one of more interesting lives in all of scripture. There is so much that we can learn from him.
We can learn the power of doing good and being faithful. David was a man after God’s own heart. He loved God with all that he was. He believe in the power of worship and faith and change.
More so than nearly anyone in scripture, David really sought after God and tried to be faithful to God.
But, David also teaches that even the most faithful are going to make mistakes. David made some terrible, terrible mistakes and suffered the consequences of those choices.
We can learn a lot, both good and bad, from David.
We can learn a lot from David today in 1 Samuel 18: 1-4
As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt
In this passage, we learn power of friendship. David and Jonathan were great friends. Scripture actually said that they loved each other. That’s a powerful concept to think about friendship in that way.
Friends are gifts from God. We need friends in our lives. We need folks to surrond us. We need folks to laugh with us. Cry with us. Pray with us. Carry us in tough times, celebrate with us in times of victory. We need friends.
David and Jonathan had some challenges in their friendship, but they remained friends through it all. God placed them together as friends, and that friendship strengthened each of their lives.
We need good, Godly friends in our lives, as David had with Jonathan.
Today, do you have those type of friends in your life? Do you have those Godly friends in your life?
Are you being that type of friend to your friends? Are you being a Godly friend?
Friendship matters. May we seek, and be, the type of friends that God wants for us.
Inside Out
My ringtone is a song by Hillsong United called “From the Inside Out.” Every time someone calls me, it’s the song that I hear. It’s also my alarm sound for my alarm in the morning, so it’s the first thing I hear in the mornings, normally several times as I keep hitting snooze 🙂
That song is one of my favorites and it has a foundation in what we read here in Jeremiah 31:31-33. Listen to what this text says:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
In this passage, the God is speaking through the prophet about the days that are to come. In the Old Testament, there is so much emphasis placed on the covenant. Israel is to keep it. They are to be obedient. They are to follow. They are to to obey.
Over and over in scripture, God tells the people, if you do your part, I’ll do my. (Or course we read over and over again in scripture, that God is faithful, in spite of how unfaithful the people are). But, in spite of God’s faithfulness, the people never keep the covenant. They always wander away. They always choose wrong. They always do wrong. They always choose their way instead of God’s way.
So, God says this. There will come a time when instead of giving you laws to command, I am going to write the law on your heart. Instead of it being about your actions, it will be about your heart.
Not that your actions won’t be important. Because they will. We will still have “stuff” we are supposed to be doing (loving, serving, caring, and so many others) but these things come because of the change that God has made on our heart.
We are an inside out religion. God changes our hearts. And that in turn changes our lives. We are changed from the inside out.
So, today, when the question is ask, does God have your actions, the first question asked is this. Does He have your heart?
Today, may we be obedient, from the inside out
God Hears
We see when looking at the story of the Israelites in Exodus a lot of things that can impact our lives and our walk with God.
We see God’s power. We see how strong He is. We see our powerful He is.
We see in Moses the power of good, Godly leadership. Leadership that seeks God before all else and that seeks to lead the people to be faithful to God in all things.
We see the power of God to lead His people through the wilderness.
We see so much.
But today in Exodus 3: 7-10, we see something else. Listen to what it says:
Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
We see in this passage something that need to always remember. God hears. God hears our concerns. He hears our fears. He hears our cries. God hears us. He does not turn a deaf ear to us.
No matter what we are going through. No matter what is happening. No matter what is going on.
God hears.
Even when it feels like He is not. Even we our lives feel like He is ignoring us. Even when we feel abandoned or alone.
Don’t worry. Don’t fear. Don’t forget. God hears.
He hears our cries. He does not forget us. He will not leave us. We are His. Rejoice. And remember. No matter what.
God hears.
The Unbaptized Life Podcast
The sermon podcast for Sunday, October 9, 2011 is up on Asbury Church’s website. This is the second sermon in our series “The Unbaptized Arm.” This sermon deals with “The Unbaptized Life.” The text for this sermon is Matthew 6: 19-24. Also by clicking on these verses you can see my notes from the sermon as a note in the YouVersion online Bible. 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.
On a Mission
Paul didn’t always have an easy time. In fact, if you looked at his life, especially after he became a Christian, you’d see that he had more hard days than easy days.
It is not at all uncommon for Paul to come into a town, preach, and then be beat and throw out-of-town.
It was not at all uncommon for Paul’s life to be threatened, sometimes even by people who used to be friends and associates of his.
It was not at all uncommon for Paul to be alone, despised, mistreated, abused, laughed at, mocked, arrested, placed into chains, and hated by the people of the towns that he was coming to preach.
But, he did it anyway. He kept going. He kept preaching. He kept walking He kept working. He kept trying. He kept being faithful.
He kept doing what was right, in spite of pain and opposition.
Why?
Because God had given him a mission. He was on no less than a mission from God. He was sent out to preach salvation, and to see as many come to saving faith as possible. He was going out among people who might be hostile, because he knew that God had called him to be faithful.
Listen to what Paul says today in 2 Timothy 2:8-10:
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
He called by God to something specific, and he was going to keep doing it. In spite of the trouble. Because he was on a mission.
Today, God has called you to something. It might not be easy. It might be very hard. It might be challenging. You might not thing that you can do it.
You can. If God has called you, He will give you strength and courage. You can do it.
Paul was faithful to his calling and mission. God gave him strength.
Today, in your calling. In your life, God will be faithful to you. He will give you want you need. Don’t give up. Don’t quit. Don’t stop.
God will be faithful to you. May we be faithful to Him. And to the mission He has given.
Running Uphill
Sometimes in life, we feel like we are running uphill.
It seems like the battle we face may be too great; it seems like the challenges that we are up against seem like they may be too much to overcome.
And when we are facing such a tough battle, we can think that it might be easier to just give up. What’s the point of trying.
You may be there right now. You may dealing with something right now that makes you think, there’s no way that we can do it.
It’s too hard.
It’s too tough.
We just can’t do it.
Listen to the words of Hebrews 12: 1-2 today.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God
Since you we are surrounded by all of these that have gone before us, don’t give up. Don’t quit. Don’t lose hope.
You can do it. Keep going! Keep running. Keep trying! You can do it.
And remember the example set for us by Jesus. Who, even though He faced the shame and death of the cross, He kept going.
Today, even if you running uphill, keep running. You can do it. Today, remember the example set by those that have run it race before us.
And remember the example set by Jesus. Today, keep running.
God is Proud of You
The best sermon I’ve heard in my life was taken from Hebrews 11:13-16. It preached at Presbyterian church in Jackson, MS, I think roughly in 1997. I was visiting this church with a friend that worshiped there. And I’ll never forget the sermon that was preached that Sunday.
The preacher was dealing with Hebrews 11, a chapter we sometimes call the “Hall of Faith.” This is one of the cool chapters in the Bible. This chapter talks about all the saints of God in the Bible that had faith. The folks had faith in God, in His plan, in His calling, and in what He was doing.
Listen to what this passage says:
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
It says this – they longed for these things from God, but they died not having received from God the things hoped for.
God promised Abraham a great nation. Which happened. But, not in his lifetime.
This did not invalidate the promise. It happened. Abraham just didin’t see it.
And even though he didn’t see it, he still believed. He knew that God’s promise was true, even if he didn’t see it.
And because of this, God was not ashamed to be called his God. Abraham had faith, even when he didn’t see. And because of that, God was not ashamed to be called his God.
Think about that for a second. We often think about how we shouldn’t be ashamed of God. How we should stand up! Be strong! Have faith!
But hear this. When we live in faith. When we follow, obey, and stand in faith – God is not ashamed to be called our God.
God is not ashamed of us. God is not ashamed of you. God is proud of you.
Hear that.
Today, through faith, God is proud of you. Live today, in that knowledge.
Honoring God
Starting today with my daily reflections, I’m going to be using scriptures that will be put in the bulletin weekly at Asbury Church. If you’d like to get a list of the passages I’ll be using, you can click here to see our weekly Salt and Light Bulletin. Today, we’ll be looking at 1 Samuel 2:27-36.
We see here in the passage that God says to Eli, the priest in Israel, that the actions of his sons have caused God to reject the family as priests. His sons were the priests, along with him, and their actions had brought great dishonor to God among the people.
They were supposed to serve others, and they were using their position to not to help and serve, but to get what they wanted.
They were supposed to set and example to the people of Israel what people of God should look like, and instead they lived their life in a way that brought dishonor to God.
So, today, we see God say in verse 30, those who honor Him will be honored, and those that dishonor Him will be lightly regarded.
Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
Today, in our lives, in the way that we talk, live, act, serve, in the stuff that we do, do we honor God?
In the actions and activities of our day today, will God be honored by us? Will He be pleased by us? Will we reflect Him to the people who are all around us?
Will the way that we live our lives bring to God the honor that He deserves?
And, then, going from preaching to meddling, will the things we do in private honor God? Will we see to honor God today not just in the things that other folks see, but in the things that no one sees?
Someone once said that integrity is what we what we have when no one else is watching. Will we honor God today with every action we take?
None of us are perfect. Perfection is not the standard. God is not expecting us to be perfect.
He is, through, wanting us to be faithful. Today, will you be faithful? Will do your best to honor God with all that you are, both public, and private?
Today, may we be faithful. May we give God the honor He deserves.
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