The sermon podcast for Sunday, September 18, 2011 is up on Asbury Church’s website. This is the next sermon in our series about discipleship and the transformed life entitled “Follow Me.” This deals with following Jesus to Love and we examine the life of John. We look at Luke 9: 51-56, 1 John 4: 7-11, and Romans 2:4. In these we see how following Jesus changed John. 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.
Tag Archives: Grace
You are not Powerless
Sometimes we focus in our devotional life about the reality of our sin.
We understand how sinful we are; our broken nature, and these things make us all the more thankful for God, for His salvation, and for His grace.
And those are all very good things. Those are all things that we need to know. We need to know that we are loved, no matter what we’ve done. We need to know that we need to never get too proud; it’s the pride that comes before the fall. We need to understand that only through grace can we stand.
It’s good for us to know these things.
But, it’s also good for us to read James. Because James tells us to bow up. Do right. Act right. Stop doing things that are wrong. Start doing things that are right.
Yes, we are sinful. Yes, we have done things wrong. Yes, we will make mistakes.
But, you know what? You aren’t powerless.
Listen to what James writes today in James 4:
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you.
Humble yourself before God. Know that your strength comes from God, not from you. Without Him, you are powerless. Without Him, there’s nothing you can do. Without Him, we have no hope.
But, with Him, resist the devil, and he will flee. With Him, we have the greatest power. With Him, we are not powerless and helpless. With Him, we are more than conquers.
Today, you are not powerless. Today, you are not at the whims of the devil. Today, you have a choice to make.
Will you follow along with the plans of the devil? Or will you resist?
Today, you are not powerless. Today, through God, you have strength and power. Today, through God, resist the devil and he will flee.
Today, you are not powerless. Today, you have a choice to make. What choice will you make?
Why Behave?
Why do we try to be faithful?
I mean, why do we try to live a life glorifying God?
There may be a lot of reasons. Maybe we are afraid of God and afraid of judgement. Maybe we are afraid of what our sins will do and afraid of what God will do to us because of our sin.
Maybe we just feel like we “have” to. Just a child has to do what their parents say, maybe try to behave because we have to it. It’s just our duty. It’s just what we are supposed to do.
May we do it because someone is making us. Our parents. Our spouse. Some outward pressure. Maybe that’s why.
There’s a problem with each of these motivations. In these, we are not being faithful because we want to. We would be doing it because we have to. Anything that we “have” to do, we will eventually get tired of it. We eventually give up. We will find that we can’t make ourselves do it.
Listen to what the Psalmist said today, talking about this in Psalm 86:
Teach me your ways, O Lord,
that I may live according to your truth!
Grant me purity of heart,
so that I may honor you.
With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.
I will give glory to your name forever,
for your love for me is very great.
You have rescued me from the depths of death.
He honors God, because God has rescued Him.
Why behave? Why do right? Why be faithful? Why try to do what God wants us to do? Why try to love and serve and care?
That is the response of a thankful heart. God has loved you. He has given you His son. He has showered you with love that will never end and never stop.
Why behave?
He loves you, that’s why. And the only response we have to a love so great is to love others. And love Him.
Today, out of a thankful heart, may we be faithful. As we have been shown so great love, may we show that same love to others.
Something Good for Monday
Well, today, it started. The start of the new school year is always fun and games until you get to about week two or so.
Then, getting up is no fun. Eating breakfast is no fun. Getting started is no fun.
And my daughter Sarah is not too excited about it either!
And in this start to a new week, we can become overwhelmed with all that we face this. All we have to worry about. All that is going on. All that that this week contains. All that we deal with.
So, before you start this week, do me a favor. Right now.
Stop, whatever you are doing, unless you are driving. And listen. Slow down. Listen to the words of 1 Peter this morning:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
You are God’s people this morning. A chosen people. A royal priesthood. Once you were not a people – now you are God’s people. Once you did not know mercy – now you know mercy. Once you were lost – now you are found.
Once you were in darkness – now you are in light.
You are His own possession. And He loves you.
It’s going to be a good week. No matter what happens. No matter what you face. No matter what challenges fill your plate. It’s going to be a good week.
He has called you by name. You are His. He will be with you all week, through all that happens.
So, remember on this Monday, who you are. And remember whose you are. You are a child of God. Live into that promise today.
In this week, live like the loved child of God that you are!
The Israel of God? Huh?
Last night in my Asbury Small Group Connection (by the way, quick plug, if you’d like to sign up for one of our Small Group Connections, you can click here) we finished up Galatians. Galatians is one of my favorite books of the Bible. It deals with grace, and law, and faith.
And, as Paul ends this letter, he is reminding the people of what he has stressed to them throughout the letter – you are saved by grace. Not by action. Not be the law, not by anything you can do.
You are saved by the grace of God. That’s it. That’s the list.
As I told my group last night, there’s nothing you can do to make God love you any more. Nothing. You can’t make God love you anymore. He simple loves you more than you’ll ever imagine, right now. You can’t make God love you any more. You can’t make God love you any less. He simply loves you.
Remember that. We aren’t faithful to make God love us. We are faithful because that is the response of a thankful heart.
And Paul ends this letter on grace and love with these words:
For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
It’s that last phrase that I love. All who walk by grace will be the “Israel of God.” Notice when you hear those words in scripture, it’s normally the “God of Israel.” Here is the Israel of God. Paul spends time throughout Galatians saying that those that live by faith, not the law, are the true children of God, and they can claim the promises of the Old Testament.
Here, Paul calls those of us that believe, the “new” Israel. And he is saying in that, that we belong to God. We are His. He claims us. He owns us. We are His.
You, today, are the Israel of God. Your identity, your worth, your everything, it comes not from anything you can do, it comes from what He has done.
Today, above all else that counts in your life, there is this. You are a child of God. Remember that. You are His. That’s what counts. That’s what matter. You are His.
Today, remember who you. Remember whose you are. You are the Israel of God. Don’t forget.
Lists
This morning as I was reading in Mark, I noticed Jesus do something that I seem to only catch in Paul. I’m sure Jesus did it quiet often, but something about it caught my eye today.
He gave a list.
Jesus was teaching about things that make one “clean” or ‘unclean.” His disciples had been fussed at because they were “unclean.” They hadn’t washed their hands and the religious leaders said – hey, they are unclean! Jesus did some teaching on the truth of what makes someone unclean. He said what makes you unclean isn’t what’s on your hands, but what’s in your heart.
And then, He lists off some of this things. Listen to what He says in Mark 7:
And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”
And what always sticks out to me is this. It’s the same thing that Paul does a lot. He says the unclean things like sexual immorality, theft, murder, things like this and folks are thinking, yeah God! Get ’em!
Get those evil, immoral people! They deserve to be smited! They deserve your judgement! Get ’em!
But the list doesn’t stop there. It keeps going. He gets to envy. . . . pride. . . . . foolishness. . . . . gulp. Suddenly our judgement is gone. Jesus has gone from preaching to meddling. It’s not just “them” who are sinful. It’s us too.
And that’s the problem with lists. That’s the problem with any of us thinking we are better than anyone else. We are all lacking somewhere. We are have some fault, somewhere. We all miss the mark somewhere.
That’s why it’s called grace. That’s why we can’t earn it. That’s why we all are saved by faith, not by works.
If we are saved by works, then we’d all end up on the “naughty” list.
So today, let’s not keep lists. Let’s not keep a list of “their” sin. Or “our” sin. Let’s just love. Love as we’ve been loved. Forgive as we’ve been forgiven. And know that God wants our heart, above all else. And if He has our heart, He’ll take care of the rest.
Today, may we give Him our total hearts.
No Mark
As I’ve said several times that the thing I love most about the Psalms is that they are honest. When the Psalmist is angry, you 
know it through reading what’s on the page. When the Psalmist is happy and full of joy, you know it by reading what’s on the page. When the Psalmist is struggling with something, you know it.
And the struggles that the Psalmist has with God is apparent in different times. Sometimes he’s upset with God about something. Sometimes he’s afraid that God will be mad at him because of something he has done. Sometimes he is just scared of his enemies, of his sin, of the things in his life.
I just love them because they are so honest about the things that we go through. The emotions behind them match the emotions of our lives. We are the same. The Psalms reflect what we feel, so many times in our lives.
Listen to part of the words of one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 130:
Lord, if you kept a record of our sins,
who, O Lord, could ever survive?
But you offer forgiveness,
that we might learn to fear you.
If the Lord kept a record of sins, who among us could stand? If the Lord were to mark our mistakes, His book would be full of failures and sins. If we had to do more good than bad in our lives to earn His love, we wouldn’t be able to stand. None of us could do that. None of us could undo the bad that we’ve done.
We can’t do enough good to make God ignore the bad.
That was the work of the cross. Through the cross, our sins are done away with. Through the cross we are forgiven. Through the cross, things have changed, life is different, we are new. Through the cross, our sin is forgiven.
Through the power of the cross, there is no mark. It is erased. It is forgiven. It is forgotten. It is gone.
Through the power and grace and love of God, offered through the cross, there is no mark. There is no record. There is no sin. The Psalms also tell us that as far as the East is from the West, that’s how far our sins are from God.
Today, you are forgiven. Today, there is no mark. Today, they are gone.
Today, may we live like the forgiven children of God that we are.
Be Careful
Last night in my Small Group Connection (Asbury’s Small Group) we were talking about the end of Galatians 2. In that passage it talks about how if we can earn salvation through our works or through following any law, then Jesus Christ died for nothing.
And we talked a little bit about the fact none of us are righteous. None of us.
Just because we come to church, or pray, or read our Bible, or serve, or give, or “do” anything, these things don’t make our righteous, these things don’t save us.
Jesus saves us.
In fact, I argued that those of us that are Christian are actually a little more unrighteous than others. Because we KNOW right from wrong. We KNOW what we should do and not do. And we choose to wrong. We choose sin. We know right from wrong and we choose wrong.
We know better. And we don’t do better.
So, as Christians today, we need to be careful. Be careful judging others. Be careful thinking you are righteous. Be careful thinking you are better. Be careful thinking you are holier.
Listen to what happens today in Mark 2:
Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
Let us not be like the religious leaders, who saw themselves as “better” than others. Let us realize today that we are in need of a doctor. That we are in need of a savior. That our sins are as great as anyone else’s out there.
And He loves us anyway. He loves us in spite of our sin. And let us live a life seeking after Him as a joyful response to His mercy and grace.
Let us be careful that we never think that we are “better than” others. We are simply saved by grace through faith, so none of us can boast. Let us live a joyful life in response. And let us seek to love others as Jesus loved us.
None of us are righteous, no not one. Thank God Almighty for grace, mercy, and salvation. May we show to others that same grace that Jesus shown to us.
Let us be careful to never become like the Pharisees.
God is Not Out to Get You
As a pastor, one of the things that most breaks my heart, is when broken people, people who are truly hurting don’t want to turn to God for relief, support, love, and life.
I hate seeing people struggle and hurt over things in their lives, over pain they feel, and even over pain they may have caused. And I have found, perhaps my just in my experience, the reason folks don’t want to turn to God in that moment is that they think God is mad at them.
God is out to get them.
Perhaps God is even the one causing their pain to get them back for whatever they may have done wrong in the past.
They feel like God wants to get them, punish them, destroy them.
Maybe this morning, that may even be you. Maybe you feel that way right now. Maybe you think God is out to get you, destroy you, punish you.
If so, listen to what God says through Ezekiel this morning:
“Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign Lord. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live.”
God is not out to get you. God loves you. God wants you to live. God wants you to know life. God wants you to know mercy and joy and peace and hope and life. God wants you to know and experience the depth of His love and mercy.
He loves you.
He wants to know you.
And, He wants to forgive you and bring you home today.
He wants you to know the power of hope, life, and forgiveness. God wants what’s best for you today. And, you can trust Him.
Let me say it again. You can trust Him. No matter what you’ve done, what you’re doing, what you’re going to do. He loves you.
God is not out to get you. He wants you to know life. Today, no matter where you are in your walk with God, and other people, know this.
God loves you.
Grace Changes Things
For those of you that missed it, I wrote some words about the controversy about the prediction that the world would end this past Saturday. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, you can read it by clicking here, or just by scrolling down.
Now, for today’s reflection.
Grace changes things. I fully believe that.
The most powerful thing that ever happened in my walk with God was when I came to understand grace. Now, by understand, I don’t mean that I totally understand it, or that I can know all the mysteries of God’s love and mercy, or that I am able to know the full depth of the mind of God.
That’s not what I mean about understanding grace.
What I do mean is this. I’ve learned that God loves and accepts me, no matter what. I’ve learned that there is nothing that I can do to make God love me any more, or any less, than He does at this exact moment. He simply loves me, me no matter what.
I don’t have to be prefect. I don’t have to earn it. And if I make a mistake, I still have it. It is not earned. It is given. That’s why it’s grace.
And that concept that I don’t have to earn God’s love has changed my life.
I pray that you know that this morning. I pray that you understand that your relationship with His is not based upon any works you can do, any actions you can take, any beliefs you may have. It’s based up His grace and love for you.
You can’t earn it. It’s just given.
And when you understand that, it changes your walk with God. And with other people. Because if God loves me, He must love you. And if He loves you, then I should love you as well.
Listen to what Paul tells us this morning in Colossians:
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Grace is like salt. It changes. It makes it better. It makes it more appealing. It makes it more suitable. It makes it more enjoyable.
Grace changes everything. It changes our lives.
And it should change the way we we talk. Today, has grace changed you?
Has grace changed the way you talk? I’m not talking about the words you use. I’m talking about the way you use them.
Do you criticize?
Tear down?
Destroy?
Hurt?
Mock?
Or do you build up? Encourage? Strengthen? Uphold? Paul tell us to let our words be seasoned with grace. Today, if grace has changed us, has is changed the way that we talk?
May our words today be seasoned with grace. May our words today make a difference.
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