Monthly Archives: November 2011

What Are We Here For?

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Why are we here? What are we here for? That’s a question that we’ve asked at some point in our lives. That’s a question we’ve all pondered at some point in our lives. That’s a question that we’ve all thought about it. It may be something that’s kept us up, robed our sleep, caused us worry.

Why are we here? What are we here for? What is our purpose? Why does God have us here.

Today, Paul answers that question for us. Now, He doesn’t give us specific answers – like you are supposed to go to McDonald’s for lunch, but he gives the big picture.

Listen to what we hear today in Acts 17: 24-27:

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

You were given life by the God that made everything. This God does not live in houses made by man. He is not served by human hands. He made all of humanity for this reason – to seek Him and to find Him.

That’s what you are here for today – to seek and find God. To know Him. To love Him. To serve Him. To delight in Him. To walk with Him.

That’s not specific, I know. But that’s the point of it all. That’s the why. That’s why you are here.

And everything must start with that. If God is the point of it all, the reason for our breath, the point for our very lives. And it all flow from there.

The specifics are figured out through the basics. The basic is seeking God. Knowing God. And if you do that, if you seek Him first above all things, He will reveal to you the specifics. He will point the way to the other things. He will point you in the right direction.

If we seek Him first, He will show us the way to go.

So, today, are we seeking Him above all else? Is our walk with Him primary above all else? Is He the main thing?

If so, everything else will fall into place. Today, may He be the point of it all. And He will direct our paths.

Why We Rejoice in Trials

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There is a theme that imerges all across scripture. We see it in the life of the Israelites, we see it early in Jesus’ ministry, we see it in Paul’s writings, and we see it today in 1 Peter.

This theme is this – when you are tested, when there are trials and troubles, when there are worries, rejoice! Be happy! Be excited!

Don’t let the trials and troubles you face get you down. In fact, the more trials you face, the more excited you should be!

Israel was tested. Jesus was tested. Paul was tested. We see Peter reference that testing today.

Listen to what Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:6-7:

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Why? Why should we be happy about testing? Why should we rejoice in trials?

Two reasons. First, something better is coming. This world is not the end. This life is not the end. This trial is not the end.

There are times in our lives when we are going through a trial and we think that this time of testing will be end of it all. But you know what happens? It’s not. We survive. We move on. We keep going.

These times of trial are not the end. And in fact, something better is coming. Something more life giving is coming. This is not the end.

And we rejoice secondly because these times of testing, they are just that. A test. They will make us better. They will make us stronger. They will make us more faithful.

And they make us cling to Jesus. They make us hold fast to what matters most. They make us hold on to what matters.

These trials won’t last forever. But Jesus will. Life in God will. That will last for all of eternity. So, today, if you are going through a tough time, hold fast to what matters most. Hold onto life. Hold onto faith. Hold onto what is most important.

Today, rejoice in your trials. And know that something better is coming. And let this time draw you closer to God.

Today, rejoice!

A Few Thoughts on an Election Day

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I’m writing this on November 8, 2011. It’s an election day here in Mississippi. If you’re not in Mississippi reading this, sorry about it. But maybe these thoughts will be helpful the next time you get to vote!

Every election day brings a couple of thoughts to my mind. The first is that voting is a privilege. I think about what Paul writes in Romans 13:1-7:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed

Paul writes to Christians at time when the Roman government was starting to persecute Christians for the fact that they would not worship Caesar as God. It was tough to be a Christian in the world they were in. The government was working against them to stop and, potentially kill them.

How does Paul respond to this? He tells them to be the best citizens. Respect the authorities placed above them. Do right. Trust in God, even when the authorities might not be the ones you’d like, trust in God and be a responsible citizen.

So, today, vote. Too many people have sacrificed too much for us to have this right and not use it. Today. Vote.

But my second thought comes from Psalm 2. Listent to Psalm 2:1-4:

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

This Psalm deals with the kings of earth making their plans. They are plotting and scheming. They have a plan. They are going to thwart God and His plan. They are going to win. They are going to stop God and they are going to prevail.

And how does the Lord respond to this? The Lord in heaven laughs.

Why? Because no human can stop the Lord’s plan.

They can’t stop the Lord’s plan. They can’t stop the Lord’s will. They can’t stop what the Lord is going to do.

God is God. He is in control. He has a plan and a way. No mater what happens in an election. No matter what happens in life. No matter how bad we think it may be.

God is in control. God wins. God is king.

So, do your duty. Vote. But more than voting, know that God is God, He is in control. He has a plan.

Do your duty. But trust in God more.

Be Ready!

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I don’t know what today holds. I’m sure that it will hold problems that I can’t anticipate right now. Emails will fill my inbox. There will be phone calls I can’t get to immediately. There will be visits, there will be planning, there will be conversations, there will be lots of stuff happening today that I don’t even know are possible.

And as important as those things are, they are the thing that I need to prepared for.

Listen to what Jesus says in Luke 12:39-40:

But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, het would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

As Jesus said today in this text, He will return, and at an hour that none of us expect. To me this verse is a comfort, and a challenge.

It’s comfort because all those folks on TV and selling books that can tell you for sure that they know when it’s going to happen? They are wrong. No one knows the hour or the day. No one.

Now, sure, each day we are here is a day that we are closer to his return, but all the folks that claim to have inside info, or have figured it out, they are wrong. Jesus said His return will be a time no one expects.

So, pay these people no attention.

But, it is a challenge to me to live in a way that if He does return today, I’ll be giving Him honor. I want to live my life in such a way that when He returns He’ll find me being faithful.

So today, don’t worry about the end of the world. Don’t spend time thinking about the false prophets and the people that claim to have figured it out.

Because they haven’t.

But do seek to live your life in a way that will honor Him, if He returns today. Or a 1000 years from now.

May every moment of our lives, may we seek to give Him glory and honor! Let’s be ready to do that!

Being Thankful – Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Podcast

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The sermon podcast for Sunday, November 6, 2011 is up on Asbury Church’s website.  This is first sermon in our series “Being Thankful.”  We talk about in this message how we are thankful because we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  The text for this sermon is Psalm 139: 1-18.  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 the link below. And, as always, you can subscribe to my sermon podcasts through iTunes.

CLICK HERE

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

How Do You React?

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There are lots of good Bible Songs we learned as children. I love seeing kids today, my kids in particular, learn the old songs that I learned when I was a kid.

Formost among them is Zacchaeus. You remember him, right? He was a wee little man and a wee little man was he? Most all of us know that song pretty well, and my deepest hope is that after reading the first line from the song just now, you’ll have the song stuck in your head the rest of the day 🙂

But I bet most of us remember more about the song than we do the actual story in the Bible. When we look at the story, there’s lots of things to notice.

Zacchaeus was tax collector, which means in this day he was despised by all, because he worked collecting taxes for the hated Roman government. It also mean that because of his power, he was a thief, he was able to rob from others under the cloak of tax collecting.

He was not a well-liked person.

Listen to the story, as found in Luke 19: 5-10:

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. “So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. “And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

And, so, it was very surprising when Jesus not only told Zacchaeus to come down, but told him that He would be coming to Zacchaeus’ home. Which is always a big deal. But in that day, it was more than a meal. Jesus is saying, but coming to his home, that he was worthy. He was loved. Jesus love him. Jesus saw his worth. In spite of all the rotten things Zacchaeus had done, Jesus still loved him.

That’s powerful. That’s awesome. Jesus loved Zacchaeus more than He disapproved of the things that he had done.

And then, we see the reaction of the people. They grumbled. They said why? Why would Jesus go there? Don’t they know that Zacchaeus is a bad guy? Not worth much? A liar and a cheat?

And Jesus responds that He has come to save the lost.

He came to forgive the ones in need for forgiveness. He came to save the lost.

How do we react to that? In our own lives? Are we willing to receive His grace? Admit our need? Find His love? It isn’t until we admit we need Him that we can find Him.

And in the lives of others? That person you don’t like? How do you feel when they receive God’s grace? The people grumped when Jesus showed Zacchaeus love. How do we react to grace?

Today, may we seek after grace in our own lives. And may we give grace to others.

The One Thing I Do Know

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What do you truly and totally understand? Well, I guess it depends on what we are talking about, huh? I don’t understand how at this point, my Rebels can lose this many SEC games in a row, but that’s not important in the grand scheme of things.

What is important in the grand scheme is God. Is faith. Is Scripture. Is salvation. These things matter; these things are important.

And we want to be able to understand them. We want to be able to really know what is important.

But, we don’t fully know, do we? We don’t fully understand, do we? There are things about God, faith, salvation, and scripture that we may not fully understand this side of glory.

Today in John 9:24-25, we see a many questions about his healing by Jesus. He is being asked by the religious leaders, what about this? What about this? What about this?

Listen to what the man says:

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

He finally says, I don’t know the answers to the questions you are asking, but one thing I do know. I once was blind and now I see.

I love that answer. There are lots of things about faith I don’t understand. Lots of things that don’t make sense to me. Lots of things in life that I can’t figure out.

But, I do know this. I once was blind. But now I see. I once was lost and now I’m found. I once was wandering away from God and now I’m home.

I can’t understand every deep thing about God. But I do know that He loved me enough to save me.

Just as He loves you that much.

Today, no matter what you don’t know and don’t understand, one thing I do know. God loves you and wants to be in relationship with you.

And that’s the best thing of all!