When They Frustrate Us

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

Are you ever tempted to look at someone and say – you know better! Why are you doing that? Why do you keep making the same mistakes? Come on, man, you know better than to do that!

I’m sure each of us has felt that way. We may have felt that way with our kids before. Maybe someone in our family. Or with a friend. A co-worker. Someone.

We can get so frustrated. We want to give up on them, don’t we?

What do we do then? What do we do when we want to give up someone?

Listen to what Paul tells us today in Romans 15: 1-3:

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

Paul says this – when you want to give up one someone, remember. We don’t live for ourselves. We live to serve and help others. We don’t live for us.

It’s so easy to get frustrated with others. With their weakness. With their mistakes. With their stuff. They can really irritate us. But remember what Paul said. We don’t live for us.

We live for Jesus. And we live for others. We live to point them to Jesus. And that’s one of the keys. As Paul says, Jesus didn’t live to please Himself, He lived for His prose. To point us to His Father.

And you know, you know Jesus must get frustrated with us sometimes, huh? At our weakness. Our faults. Our mistakes. Our stuff.

And how does He respond? He loves. So should we.

He loved us in our weakness and mistakes.

We are to love to love them, in their weakness and mistakes. Because love points to Jesus. And only Jesus can help. Only Jesus can change.

Be patient. You can only do that through Jesus and His spirit. Love them. Point them to Jesus.

And let Him change them. That’s not your job. That’s His job. Let Him do His work. Your job is just to point to Him, in all things.

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What are You For?

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

When we think about the world we live in, it can be a scary place, can’t it? We can feel overwhelmed by challenges, worries, fears, doubts.

We can feel like there is much evil in the world, many things that are wrong, things are against. Things that we feel like we must speak out against and oppose. We can feel like that’s what we are supposed to do.

And, in a world full of evil, we do have to stand for what we believe. But here’s the thing, standing against evil isn’t the totality of our duty and our calling. There’s more. Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5: 11:

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

I don’t just want to stand against what is wrong. I want to persuade others to do what is right. I heard Tim Keller say at a lecture recently, “it isn’t just that we proclaim the Gospel, it is that we are to persuade people to follow it and love it.”

I don’t just want to be know for what I’m against. I want to be known for what I am for. Jesus.

Today, we are not just to be against something. We are called to be for something. I don’t want to just stand against sin (as important as that is); I want to convince people, persuade people to follow Jesus.

Well, how do we do that? First, with our lives. If we are going to convince people to follow Jesus, we have to follow Him ourselves. There must be something different about us that makes folks want to follow Him.

Second, with our love. As we love folks as He loves them, they will want to know Him. They will. They will. They will want to know this Jesus that causes others to radically love others.

Today, that’s our calling. Not just to be against the evils of this world. But to persuade others to follow our Jesus.

Today may we live, may we love. And as we do that, may we give glory to our saviour!

So, What Next?

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

One of the things that I stress a lot, that I talk about a lot, that I really believe is that we are all sinful. We are all broken. All of us.

And when I talk about that, I’m not talking about it in terms of us being the worst people who have ever lived in the history of the world, but all of us, me, you, each of us, we need Jesus. If we aren’t sinful, if we aren’t in need of saving, then why did Jesus come.

Our own experience tells us our need for Jesus and we all fall down. We just know that. We have all experienced that.

Ok, go it. But here’s the thing that I always come to when it comes to talking about our sin, our mistakes. What next? We get it. We are broken. We are messed up. We make mistakes. Ok, got it. But what next?

I want to know what I can do it about it. I don’t want to be just like I am. I don’t want to stay the same.

Listen to what it says today in Romans 6: 12-14:

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

There’s that last verse – for sin will have no dominion over you. That’s stuck with me since I’ve read it again recently. As many mistakes as we have made, as much as we mess up every day, as long as we fall down, remember.

As powerful as sin is. God is more powerful. Really. He is. As powerful as temptation is, God is more powerful. As powerful as your faults are, God is more powerful.

You can be more faithful today than you were yesterday.

Today is a new day. Yesterday is past. Done. Gone. Today is new.

Today, let’s be faithful. Let’s not let the mistakes of yesterday, the things that happen, the past, the old, the failings.

Today is a new day. I’m not saying that everything is going to be perfect. I’m not saying that you are going to be perfect. I’m not saying that there won’t be mistakes made.

But what I am saying is that it’s a new day. A today, we can be more faithful than yesterday. We can. We really can. If we are believers, then we have the Holy Spirit within us. We have the very power of God within us, pulling us, pushing us, helping us.

Today, you can do it. Really. You can. Or better said, God can do it through you. He can.

Jesus Demands a Choice

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

We have made a mistake with Jesus. We have made a major one. I don’t know that it’s on purpose, but I do know that it has happened over time.

It’s a mistake in understanding exactly who He is. We have made someone He is not. We have made Jesus something He is not.

What is this thing we have done? What is this mistake we have made about Jesus? What have we made Jesus, that He isn’t?

We have made Jesus safe.

Jesus is a lot of things. But one of those things is not safe.

We have made Jesus to be a safe little kitty cat, instead of being the roaring lion of Judah. We have made Jesus someone who is primarily concerned with our happiness and our fulfillment, instead of being the very Son of God, God Himself, creator of all.

We have made Him the one thing He is not. Safe.

Listen to what it says today in Luke 12: 49-53:

“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Jesus basically says this – you have to make a choice. You have to make a choice about me. Follow me, or not. But you have to make a choice. You can follow me as Lord. Or you can walk away from me. But you have to choose.

And we don’t like to think about Jesus like that do we? We like to see Him someone who only wants us to be happy. But that is not who Jesus is. Jesus is not as concerned with our happiness as we are.

He is concerned with our life.

He don’t offers us happiness. He offers us abundant life. He offers something so much more than just simple happiness. He offers us life, today, each day, and for all eternity.

Happiness is fleeting. Life is eternal.

But the only way that we will know that life is we have to make a choice. Jesus wants us to make a choice. Choose to follow. Or not. It’s your choice.

It’s my choice.

It’s our choice.

Jesus demands a choice. What will we choose today?

Who Is Jesus to You?

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

Who is Jesus to you? That’s the question that really matters in our lives. Not who is He to our parents or grandparents.

Not who is He to our children or our family or our church.

But who is He to me? Who is He to you? Who is He? Listen to what it says in Mark 8: 27-29:

And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

Peter confessed Jesus as Lord. He said, you are the Christ. You are the Messiah. You are the anointed savior of the world.

And that’s what everything comes down to. So, today, starting a new week, that’s my question. It’s not what trials face you.

Or what circumstances stand in your way. Or what worries cloud your mind.

What defeats jog your memories. What successes cloud your eyes.

None of these. Those are not the question. This is the question.

Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus to you?

In this week may He be your friend, your guide, your savior, and your Lord. May He be your entire world.

What is Peace?

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

What is peace? What do you think of when you think of peace?

For most of us, we think of some vague feeling or concept, something that we “feel” that we may not even be able to explain what it is that we feel or experience. We think of the passage where it says that the peace that passes understanding will guard our hearts.

So, for most of us, we associate peace with that “sort of” feeling.

And that is great, but the only problem with associating everything with feelings is what about when we don’t “feel” it. What happens when we don’t have that feeling? Do we still have peace? Or joy or whatever?

I want to share with you something I read this morning. Listen to what it says in Ephesians 2: 14-19:

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers

It says in Ephesians that peace is not a feeling or a concept, but it is a person. Jesus. We are told today that Jesus is our peace. He guards our hearts. He is the one that keeps it all together.

What does this mean for us today? Seek Jesus. If you want peace, don’t seek “peace.” Seek Jesus. Because here’s the thing.

If you seek a feeling, you may or may not get it or feel it. It may not happen. But, if you seek Jesus, if you chase Him, if you are faithful to Him and seek Him, with your whole heart, you will find peace.

You will.

Jesus is our peace.

Peace is not a feeling. Peace is a person. Jesus. He will guard us. He will keep us. He will save us.

Today, don’t chase after that feeling. Chase after that person. Chase after Jesus. And you will find peace. Because He is our peace.

A Little Crazy

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

As a child of the 90s one the songs that always takes me back to Bogue Chitto High School is Crazy by Seal. Some of you may remember it, some of our younger audience may have no idea about the song, or Seal, or even the 90s!

Today as I was reading our text for this morning, that song was running through my head. Listen to what happens to Paul in Acts 26: 24-25:

And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.

Paul is preaching, and the King says – Paul, you’re crazy. You’ve lost it. You’re too smart, and it’s made you crazy!

And Paul says, nope. I’m not. I’m in my right mind. I am speaking true and rational words.

He basically goes on to say; I just love Jesus, and He has changed me. And that makes me, in this world, look and act a little crazy.

And so should we. We should look and act a little crazy. We shouldn’t be like the world. We shouldn’t be like the culture. We should be different. We should act different. We should never become so much like the that we aren’t noticed.

Today, as believers, we have to be different. We do. If there is no difference between us and the world, then something is wrong.

And if they think we are crazy, that’s ok. Really. It’s ok. We don’t live for their approval, we live for God’s approval.

They thought Paul was crazy. Nope, he just loved and was changed by Jesus. Today, I hope they think the same thing about each of us.

Let’s act a little crazy today.

The Church is Bigger Than Me

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

The Church is bigger than me. It is bigger than my church. It is bigger than the denomination that I’m a part of. It’s bigger than the churches that I’m in partnership with here locally.

The Church is bigger than me.

It’s made of people (and churches) that are different than me. It’s made of up of people (and churches) that are like me. They may worship like we do; they may worship differently than we do. They may have disagreements on lots of things.

And that’s ok. Because the church is bigger than me. It’s bigger than my church. It’s made up of all of those that profess the name of Jesus Christ.

Listen to what happens today in Luke 9: 49-50:

John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.”

Jesus said; it’s bigger than just us. While they may not be “part”
of us, they are part of us.

So, today, if we are working for the same God, have the same purpose, the same salvation, the same calling, the same reason, we are on the same team.

We are. In spite of differences, in spite of preferences, in spite of all these things we are part of the same team.

And we as Christians, we’ve got to live like that. Seriously. We’ve got to live with that truth in our lives. We’ve got to live with that purpose.

The church is bigger than me. It’s bigger than my church. It’s bigger than my style of worship. It’s bigger than my theology.

It’s bigger that all of these. It’s about Jesus. And His will and His purpose.

Let’s live like that today. Me and you. We can do it.

And I know if we all do, each of us together. We can change the world.

Who Do We Live For?

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

I wanted to share something with this morning that we talked about last night at Bible Study at Asbury. I love our Wednesday nights here; we have lots of adult small groups that meet across campus, youth worship, and children’s activities. It’s a really good time.

But last night we are in the process of working through Romans and started talking about the law, keeping the law, doing right, grace and all kind of things.

And I began to talk about our lives, and the thing that should really matter the most in our lives is God, and then from that, other people. I don’t live for myself, I live for God.

And I want my life for God to influence others for Him. So, on one aspect, I really don’t care what others think about me. Really, I don’t. I don’t live for the approval of other people. I live for the approval of God.

But, I also don’t want my life, the things I do, I don’t want these things to harm others or harm their faith. I want my life to be a blessing to others. Not a harm.

Listen to what Paul says in Romans 14: 13-15:

Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died

Our faith is not about actions. By what we eat, or by what we drink, these things don’t save or condemn us. What Paul is talking about is food sacrificed to idols. Here is a pretty good explanation of what that is.

But what Paul winds up saying is this. What you eat or what you drink, those aren’t big deals. They don’t save or condemn you. But, you want to make sure that by what you do, you don’t harm others.

Your life is a witness about God to others. We live for God’s purpose and His plan. He is our concern. But we never want to harm others.

In short, we don’t just live for ourselves. We live for others. We live for God. We live to make a difference.

And today, you do. You can make a difference. Let your light shine, let your life make a difference. You can. You can make a difference. You can make an impact. You were placed here to do it.

Live for God’s glory. Live to impact others. Live to take His word with you.

You can do it.

This Time Matters

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

One of the things that I think we can do as Christians to really change our lives is to look at Jesus. He is the visible image of the invisible God. So, in other words, to know God, we have to know Jesus.

How do we know Jesus?

We look at the Word and see what it teaches. What does it say about Him, His life, His ministry, who He is?

So, if you really want to change your life, read a Gospel. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Read it and see what you learn about Jesus. And when learn something about Jesus, you will learn something about God.

Today, we take a look at something that happens in Luke 4: 42-44. Listen to what it says:

And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea

What do we learn here? Well, lots of things. Jesus had a mission. He obeyed it, even when it was a challenge and misunderstood. He was always moving and faithful.

But what I took away was this. He was alone. He went to a place where it was just Him and God. He went alone and prayed.

He is the very Son of God. He is God Himself. He is part of the Trinity. And He knew the importance of prayer. He knew the importance of study. He knew the importance of being alone with God.

It mattered to Jesus.

And so it should matter to us. This time matters. No matter where you are right now. At home. In the office. On the bus. In the car. Wherever. This time matters.

In this moment, turn your heart towards God. Listen to Him. Seek Him. Know Him. This right here is the most important time of your day.

Jesus knew the importance of His time with God. So should we.

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