4/14/16-Matt. 20:1-16-His Amazing Grace

In this parable, the Master goes out and hires workers to work in the vineyard. So the Master goes out to hire.

The Master is right up front with the first of the workers, saying “I will pay you a full day’s wage”. So the early workers went, and then the Master traveled again to hire, and again, and again.

And each time he went out He found more workers, more people anxiously waiting, and keep this in mind. These workers wanted a job, and the wanted to be hired early, because the later you got in the day, the less you worked, and hence the less money you earned.

By the time we get to vs. 6, it is the 11^th hour, very late and the work day is almost done, and you still have these last few workers, who maybe felt rejected because no one had chosen them to work.

Maybe they are thinking, “What are we going to do? We have to eat, and we have families to feed, but no one has hired us!”

But here comes this generous Master, and He asks, “What are you guys doing?” Then when they answer, I can imagine He says joyfully “You too, you get the chance to go work in my vineyard, so go!”

These last workers know they won’t get a full day’s wage, but what choice to they have? It is either work a little and get a little, or go home with nothing. So I would imagine these workers would be excited and thankful to go serve.

So when it is time to pay up, the ones that picked one bunch of grapes…get the same payment as those who worked all day and picked a full barrel.

So imagine the joy and excitement of those workers who were shown generosity! The Master gave them grace and mercy, and it shows the Master is supremely good.

Can you imagine getting that kind of grace when they didn’t deserve it? That amazing grace!

Now they may be excited, but what about the other workers? Well they are a bit perturbed. Yet their frustration, while understandable, is not justified at all.

If the Master (God) tried to cheat them or not pay them anything, they would have a right to be upset.

Yet, look at the Master. He upholds both truth and grace. It is truth because He honored His agreement to pay the first workers a full day’s wage. It is grace because he also showed compassion to those who only worked a little bit, and still payed them the same.

So if the Mastered honored the agreement, and it is His money to do with it as He wants, and He chose to be very good with his actions, what right do these workers have to complain?

These workers had the wrong attitude, and we as Christians must guard against having this attitude as well. We should not be bitter when God chooses to extend grace to those we do not think deserve it, because the truth is none of us deserved it, that is why it is a gift of love from God. “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, so no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8, 9).

The right attitude is that of the Master: joy and compassion. They could have said, “Wow, look at this Master. He kept His word to pay us, He was truthful, and He is also gracious and generous that He is showering those other workers plenty, so hey let’s go out and tell other workers, the poor, the downtrodden, all about this gracious Master and maybe they will want to serve Him too!”

Brothers and sisters, lets go out and tell others, the poor, the rich, the downtrodden, the well-off about our Master and His grace and love, and maybe they will want to serve Him too.

Remember these points

1. From the early workers, we know God treats no one unfairly

2. From the late workers, we know God is quite generous

3. All of us disciples are equal in God’s eyes and given the same salvation, based in Jesus Christ. For we are made perfect in Him.

4. God’s Grace is Equal and Open to All. 

4/3/16-Luke 24:13-35-God’s Viewpoint

So last Sunday was Easter, Now we sit here one week later but when we look at what we celebrated last week, we are left with a question.

…Is Easter just going to be a holiday or is there something more to it? Is the Resurrection of Jesus only going to be one-time event to celebrate. OR will it shape us and mold us as a church?

The Resurrection of Jesus is not only a fact, but a way of doing life for us as Christians.

It is through having a relationship with God that we have those “big questions” answered (“why am I here?” “Do I have a purpose?”). To answer those questions, we have to see the world the way God sees it.

When we spend time with God, in church, reading His Word, in prayer, in service to others, even in our work, schools, and homes, God is constantly shaping us and molding us to help us see as He sees. God shows us how life is meant to be, and through our lives, we show the world there is another way to live, the way of Jesus.

So with that said, let us look at our story. These two disciples of Jesus (not any of the Twelve) are walking to a village called Emmaus. They were probably going back and forth between each other, wondering if Jesus was who He claimed to be. (Remember, they did not know Jesus was raised from the dead yet).

If they were going on the road to Emmaus, they were probably going home, but Jesus has more in store for them then just returning to their old lives.

As they are walking along, this stranger comes along whom they do not recognize. Why don’t they know it is Jesus? Scripture does not really give an answer, but this stranger asks them, “So, what are you guys talking about?” and Jesus could see they were in deep thought and they were both sad and confused.

Like we sometimes are when we lose someone we love and cannot understand why. Well, after they had finished telling Jesus, I am sure they were still sad, and Jesus, wanting to reassure them that their faith wasn’t in vain, showed them the truth about who He was.

I love this because Jesus is having his own personal Bible study with them! He opens the true meaning of the Bible, and they start to understand. As they reach the village, they still don’t know it is Jesus, but they invite this wonderful stranger to stay with them. So then they sit to eat, and this stranger takes the bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and suddenly they recognize Him: IT’S JESUS!!

It is as if, by teaching them the Bible (the Word), and sharing the bread (communion), Jesus is saying “When you see me, you see truth, you see reality, you see that I am more real than anything else”

When we study God’s Word, we too have the Holy Spirit to help us understand, and we we come together during Lovefeast, we too are in the presence of Jesus when we eat.

After Jesus breaks the bread, He disappears. And the two start to say, “didn’t our hearts feel strangely warmed when He spoke to us?”

Then, they went straight back to Jerusalem where they came from, for they knew they could not return to their old life, and now they they knew Jesus was alive they didn’t want to return anyway!

They were no longer content to think this is the real world and that is all there is. Instead they had seen the One who is creating all things new, who is using His kingdom (you and me) to redeem the world!

In Jesus, we lack nothing, and we have everything.

These two were changed because their eyes were opened to see things as God sees them. And Jesus showed them as He does us, “don’t look at this situation as hopeless. Instead, look at this the way God looks at this, and when you do, you will see what I am talking about.”

Look at the world, look at your neighbor, look at reality the way God does. If God created all things, what is more real? The creation or the Creator? It is the Creator!

Our answer to those big questions comes from having a relationship with Him. When we spend time with God, He tells us how we got here and where we come from. When we read His Word, He shows us truth, how to live, and our eternal destiny.

Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him. This is not complicated to understand. Think about the needs we have, and what we have to meet the needs. For we would not have hunger if God had not created food. So when we look around the world and the hurt and the pain and sadness, and say “Lord there must be something better than this” Guess what, there is!

Kings and Kingdoms may all pass away, but there is just something about that Name.

These disciples here were shown that there is something beyond all this, and they were to live that way everywhere they went, to be ambassadors of God’s kingdom.

When we spend time with God, reading His word, praying, gathering here for worship, serving, doing all we can in His name, when we do that, we get reminded that He is more real than anything else.

So the next time you feel hopeless, down, troubled, look at your situation through God’s eyes. And you will see there is nothing our Lord cannot handle. We don’t come to church to escape “the real world”. Instead we come to worship the One who is real, and then go and show the world He is real.

You Can Always Come Home: John 21:1-19-3/27/16

I hope the joy of Easter is in your hearts and in your smiles. It is time to celebrate! Lent is over, the dark night of the crucifixion has passed. Death has been defeated and OUR SAVIOR LIVES!!!

If He lives then we too who put our trust in Him also will live. Here in this story today we see that resurrection joy when Jesus forgives and restores one of the disciples and best friends, Peter.

Peter and the other disciples saw Jesus after He had been raised from the dead. Yet Peter wanted to go back to something familiar, back to business as usual. Maybe there was a time in your life where you felt like Peter, when you knew Jesus but walked away for awhile and wanted to go back to business as usual. Maybe you were thinking God could not possibly love you after what you have done.

Dear friends, if you think that then Jesus has some wonderful news to share with you today. He loves you, and you can always come home. So let us go back to Peter and see what kind of business he is trying to do.

He tries to go fishing and he catches….nothing. Then, this man tells the disciples to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, and when they listened, they pulled in a huge catch! Then they recognize the stranger on the shore…It is Jesus! They wanted to go back to business as usual, but God had a greater purpose in store for them. You may want to return too, but God has a greater purpose in store for you as well!

This story is a living parable: the disciples were told that if they followed Jesus, they would be fishers of men. Then in this story, they listened to Jesus even when they don’t know it is Him, and they catch fish.

Jesus is showing them what He is showing us: Follow His instructions and we too can catch people with the Gospel. If we trust and obey, then just as God drew the fish into these nets, He will use us to draw people to come to Jesus!

Once they recognize it is Jesus who is there, Peter gets excited and jumps off the boat and into the water, and swims to Jesus. Jesus has actually made them breakfast.

And this is where we wonder as Peter walks toward Jesus on the shore, “What is he going to say to Peter? What would He say to us?” Maybe we have wondered what Jesus would say to us if we came back to Him, would He be mad, scornful, angry.

Maybe Peter remembered Judas and what happened to him, and in a way Peter’s choice is a choice we all must make.

Will we be like Judas and think God could never forgive us and just give up? Or will be listen to the words of Jesus in Mark 16:4-7. Go get my disciples and Peter! Jesus is saying, I know Peter is feeling horrible right now, but go get my friend, I am not done with Him yet!

Jesus did not give up on Peter. And He will never give up on you either. He is not done with you or me. We still have a purpose.

You can always come back to Jesus and find forgiveness and a home, for Romans 8 says, “Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.

So what happens to Peter in this one final encounter with Jesus? Well the moment has come, but Jesus is not there to finger-point, and there is no anger, no judging. Instead Jesus asks Peter a question, and it is the most important question of Peter’s life.

See, Jesus wasn’t going to leave Peter go back to the life he once knew, because it is too important of a question. He won’t let us go either because it is too important of a question…”Do you love me?”

Jesus wants us to say yes so He can say “then follow Me, follow Me and find life”. Even after all the highs and lows of Peter, and just when he thinks, “how can god love me, after all the mess I have made?” Jesus answers…”follow me”.

“Peter, I have forgiven you, follow me!” Jesus gives us that same offer. The offer to forgive our sins and then invites us to follow Him.

Today is a day to celebrate joyfully. Because Jesus lives, we are free from sin, free to live, freed from the chains that once bound us. We are forgiven, restored, put back together, and healed. Now he says to all of us, “Follow Me” No matter who you are, what you’ve done, how far gone you feel, you can always come home. Jesus is offering forgiveness and says to you and I…
Follow Me.

And to top it off, Matthew West’s wonderful song, “Grace Wins”

John 13:1-17; Mark 14:22-25-”When You’re Here, You’re Family”

A simple meal, water, bread and cup. These right here are more than mere elements. They are reminders of God’s grace. They are part of the holy chords that bind us together.

Before we get into the meat of this message, we have to begin with the most glorious and exciting truth of all…It is no on less than Jesus Himself who invites us into this supper when we partake of it. We should never view Lovefeast as something we have to do, but as a holy act that we get to do.

We should view it as a blessing of being a Christian, for each time we eat and drink, we are making God a promise. That promise is an answer to His promise that He has already made to us, to never leave us nor forsake us. We, in turn, promise Him, “Lord we will always strive to trust in You, and in your death on the cross as the only way in which we are saved and redeemed”.

Now let us begin, and I broke this into 3 parts.

Pt. I-The meal. Jesus and His disciples at a meal, they had fellowship with one another, just as Christ calls us here to have holy, encouraging fellowship with one another.

The meal reminds us both of God’s love, and also that we are a part of His family. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord. By His grace, we are made a family, adopted sons and daughters of the King! If you are ever feeling low about yourself, remember you are a child of the KING OF KINGS! That is a great privilege.

We are a holy nation, a family of priests. Remember we are all ministers, and as servants, it brings us to part II.

Pt. II Feetwashing. Jesus washes the disciples feet. This was no glamorous task, and it was reserved only for the lowliest servants. Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, loves us so much He is willing to act like a servant to show it, so we therefore do this to follow His example out of love for Him and one another.

Our God is not afraid to get his hands dirty, and He says to us, “You cannot be afraid to get your hands dirty either.” We focus on the physical act of washing feet, but I see something deeper here too. God is showing us we cannot be afraid of one another’s dirtiness. It is part of loving your neighbor, scars and all.

None of us are perfect, and yet God still loves us 🙂 We also ought to love one another.

We all have true friends, friends that are beyond just acquaintances. They are the special ones who have seen us at our best and worst, let us laugh and cry. They are the friends we are not afraid to show our scars and brokenness, because they have proven to us they will not leave us.

We have a friend like that in Jesus, and He calls us to be that kind of friend to one another in the church, to walk with each other through the good and bad of life.

Feetwashing also reminds us of our baptism. Every time we wash, we encourage one another to stay faithful, strong, and keep following Jesus.

See what Peter says here? “Lord are you going to wash my feet?” Basically Peter is saying “God I do not want you near the dirtiest part of my body”. We are like Peter. We give God some parts, but the dirtiest parts that are shameful, we hold back.

We say, “God you really don’t want to touch this stuff” And God answers, “Yes I do, I want all of you, your brokenness, mess, shame, all of it”, because if we do not trust Him to heal us, forgive our sins, restore our life. If we do not trust Him to handle our brokenness and dirtiness, then we do not have a place with Him.

Jesus says to Peter what He says to all of us, “I want your dirtiness so I can cleanse you because I love you”

Finally, Pt III-The Bread and Cup-People today want a faith they can experience, a faith they in which they can engage their senses.

God makes Himself known to us by the ear when we hear His Word preached. He makes himself known to us by the eye, when we ready the Bible ourselves.

Yet, here is a symbol of God’s presence in our lives. We touch it, we taste it. Preaching reveals the truth of God in speech. Bread and cup reveals the truth of God in symbol. Bread and cup are heavenly symbols. They present Christ to us, who’s body was broken and blood was shed for us.

Jesus gave His life so we could have freedom from sin’s icy cold grasp. And now He invites us to this same table as well. To Eat and Find Life! Jesus is extending the table to us as imperfect and broken humanity, and saying “Come friends, feed upon the bread of life”

When we eat the bread and drink the cup, that is our “yes” to God’s offer of grace. The bread and cup reminds us of new life, beginning now and lasting through eternity. Fellowship with the meal, rededication with the feetwashing, unity with God in the Bread and Cup.

Matt. 13:33-35-3/13/15

This parable is similar to the one we looked at last week and you could draw the same lesson from it. God’s kingdom starts small, grows big, and invites people.

So let us dig here and see what Jesus is getting at. So we got dough here and we got yeast. Yeast turns bread dough into something it wasn’t before. In other words, it transforms it. It changes it from flour to human food.

It is similar in our lives as Christians, both individually and as a body, the church. See dough does not naturally have yeast contained within it, the yeast has to be added to the flour. It has to be put in.

None of us were sinless before we came to Christ, yet when we put our trust in Jesus, a divine trade happens. God takes our sins and our brokenness, and then gives life, peace, righteousness, and holiness. Remember the story with the King and the new robes He gave to His subjects?

God takes away our old life and gives us eternal life. He gives us all we need to live holy lives, and it is our responsibility every day to say “Jesus work through me today”

Just like the yeast is gifted to the dough to make it what it was meant to be, God’s amazing grace is gifted to us to make us who we were meant to be…mirror images of His Son.

Although the yeast looks like a minor ingredient, it works its way through the whole loaf.

This speaks to us on two levels. The dough goes through a transformation. Likewise, when we accept Christ, we are a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come.

When we make Him our King and our Savior, Lord and Master, He gives us a new heart that seeks to obey Him.

So if we have a new heart that wants to obey God? Why do we still sin? Well, God’s grace is like the yeast. It is working its way through you, perfecting you day by day. Remember, you and I are God’s masterpieces, and just like the best of artists, God wants to take His time, one step at a time.

Pray, “Lord, make me more like you”. Be patient, and have joy that His work in you is not done yet :).

So, with God’s grace working as leaven in the bread of our lives as individual believers, what does it mean as a group?

This is the main thrust of the parable: the leaven may not start very big, but it grows bigger, gets into everything, and you can’t stop it.

Likewise, the Kingdom of God did not start very big, but it grew bigger and bigger into everything and you cannot stop it.

And it did not just become another social club, but instead, an entirely new way of living and thinking and looking at the world.

This world is the dough, and we as Christians are to be the yeast, the leaven. We are to be the Kingdom of God that exercises influence, that brings about change.

Let me wrap this up with some encouragement. The Gospel of Jesus Christ changed the world in the way that we view everything today.

Where slavery was once accepted as necessary and normal, the Gospel changed minds about that. Where sexual immorality is celebrated, the Gospel shows a way to holiness. Where poverty is a problem, the Gospel challenges the world to do something about it.

Gladiator games were once the pinnacle of entertainment, until God used the church to stop it. Women and children were once seen as helpless and property, then god used believers to remind them that they had worth and value.

Hunger, sickness, even war, the gospel speaks to all these things, and when the world tries to silence us, it is up to us to ask God to give us the courage to continue to be Christ’s body in the world…as agents of reconciliation, bringing holiness, healing, and hope.

In short,

As individuals-We are the dough and Christ’s grace is the leaven, the yeast, which works its way into every area of our lives, transforming us into being more like Christ every day. It is our responsibility to not harden ourselves, but to make time and allow the Holy Spirit to mold us, through prayer, Bible reading, service, and more.

As a church-We are to be the yeast in the dough that is the world. Acting as Jesus’ hands and feet and heart to show the world what the kingdom of God is truly like, in our workplaces, in our homes, everywhere.

Matt 13:31-32-Big Things Come In Small Packages 3/6/16

A mustard seed. An ordinary item in our everyday world and yet used to teach us extraordinary truths.

Often we read in Scripture the stories about God using people, and we think “man, I wish God would use me the way He used so and so”

What we forget is that these people in the Bible, they were just ordinary people like you and me. They had shortcomings and flaws yet God still used them. In fact, God has a history of using the most unlikely of characters to get the job done.

I believe He does this to show us two deep facts. 1) No matter what it takes all things are possible with God. And second, 2) No matter your past mistakes, never think God can’t use you. He will

He uses us in big ways and small ways and always to His glory, so with that as an introduction, let’s take a look at this parables.

I think the mustard seed is meant to show us who really deserves all the credit for using us to build His kingdom.

Remember David and Goliath? David did not stand a chance, but with God all things are possible, and I believe God used David to show David and his people and all of us that “it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” that these impossible tasks are accomplished.

The mustard seed was the smallest seed a farmer used, yet it grew into a pretty big shrub (from 4-15 feet high!) and it got so big, birds would perch in it. So what does this have to do with the Kingdom of God?

Like the mustard seed, the Kingdom was not all that impressive when it first arrived. Why not try to spread this kingdom in some other, more powerful way?

Yet God does not operate like us. He chooses the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. The mustard seed was small, just like the Kingdom of God started out small. But the seed grew and produced great results, and it was just being faithful as a tree. Likewise the Kingdom of God started out small, yet because those disciples were faithful to the king, in the end it grew and grew and produced us!

So what is the deal with the birds? Well to Jesus’ audience (who were mostly Jews) thought the kingdom of God was only meant for them, not for Gentiles. Gentiles to their minds were the enemy, the Romans. Gentiles to them, were the heathens who didn’t bother to worship God.

-Could the Gentiles really be included in God’s kingdom too? Well, if one looks back at the Old Testament in Ezekiel 17:23; 31:6 and Daniel 4:21, that is exactly what God’s plan was all along.

Jew and Gentile, all perching in one tree, all in one kingdom, all calling on one King for salvation.

All of us know groups of people in our lives who maybe we don’t know well, or don’t even like, and we may be tempted to think, “Can the Kingdom of God really be open for them too?” If they come to Jesus and submit to Him, then yes it is! And we can celebrate the miracle of someone being saved.

We don’t have to be always perfect, we just need to always point to the one who is perfect.

See Kudzu plants, like mustard shrubs, grow pretty wiled and cannot be contained. You cut Kudzu, it grows back, and nothing can stop it. It is the same with the Kingdom of God. Try to cut it back, it keeps growing, and nothing can stop it!

Remember this: For the first 300 years after Jesus and the first disciples walked this early, the church was powerless and up against the biggest empire of the day: The Roman Empire. Yet how did it survive?

3 ways.

-1) Outhought-They knew the Bible and their faith for why they believed what they believed

-2) Outloved-They showed that faith in their actions to others

-3) Outlasted-They were determined to never give up no matter what

So when you think that Christianity is losing ground in the world today, take heart, people are still coming to faith in Jesus, and we still have a mission to do.

Remember the Kudzu plant, remember the kingdom of God cannot be stopped, and remember these truths about this parable.

–The Kingdom of God starts small but His mighty power grows it big and deep.

-All Things are possible with God.

-It may attract people we expect, and we say AMEN, and it may attract people we don’t expect, and we still say AMEN

-God can use any of us to do anything, so let us not be discouraged.

-The kingdom of God can never be stopped.

-Out-think (know the Word), out-love (show charity), and outlast (never give up)

2/20/16-Matt. 13:24-30; 36-43-Wheat and Tares

Jesus tells a story here, and let us examine it to pull its meaning and understand. Plus, there is good news for us. Jesus gives us help in understanding it by giving us an explanation.

The story starts off simple enough Farmer goes out and sows seed

But then the plot thickens: while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came in and sowed weeds, or tares.

Just to clarify here: tares means weeds.

This sowing of tares would have been disastrous, it was an act of sabotage, and later in vs 38-39, we see who is responsible. It is the evil one, the devil, has done this.

And that ol’ snake in the grass is dastardly, because he has used tares that look like good wheat.

Looking at a young wheat sown by God and young tares so by the devil, they look the same.

It is only after they mature, can you really tell the difference between good and bad.

And yet, look at the reaction of the farmer…He doesn’t say, “All right boys, get your weed-whackers and go to work!”

Instead, He says, “wait”. The farmer knows this is a problem. He says wait not because He wants the weeds there, rather, it is because he loves the good wheat so much that He does not want the servants to damage them.

God does not want harm to come to the wheat until the final harvest. Until then, he is more concerned about preserving the good then destroying the evil. And not only is this about preserving the wheat, the farmer, God, can also give time for the tares.

Yes, time for God to turn the tares into wheat, for with God, all things are possible.

So, how does this parable related to us today? This pertains and instructs us on how to be a church in the world. God makes us more perfect, by working in our hearts and minds to make us more like Jesus.

That’s the good perfect.

The tares (unbelievers) and wheat (believers) must live side by side in the world.

Yet at the end, the one qualified to judge will judge, because He knows more than we do because He looks at the heart.

We do not have to judge, and that should be a burden off our shoulders. The wheat does not have to judge the tares.

The wheat just has to…be wheat.

We in the church do not have to judge someone’s salvation. Instead like the wheat, we are just called to be faithful. And the one attitude that helps me is to remember this: We were all tares once.

We were all lost until God’s grace got a hold of us.

And if he can make us new, and change us from tares to wheat, then instead of trying to rid the tares ourselves so we can be perfect on the outside, we should pray for the tares so that God can make them wheat and make us perfect on the inside.

God desires that all people no matter how broken, turn to Him and live.

One final metaphor to remember: The church is to be a hospital for sinners rather than a museum for saints.

If we ever start to think we should only want perfect people in our local body of Christ, then we must remember God’s heart for the broken.

As the Master strives to seek and save the lost, so should we the servants.

God can bring new life to dead places.

Allow God to be the final judge, for we were all tares once before He saved us.

And he can change the most broken tare to the most fruitful wheat…oh and let God do the weed-whacking.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

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Once again, I hear the rumble. No, it is not the sound of my stomach in eager anticipation for Thanksgiving food…ahhh. No, it is the thunder of footsteps and the roaring of car engines as once again, Black Friday is coming. It is that time of year that prompt executives and managers to push discounts and deals, and that day retail workers pray they can endure. If you are reading this now and have gone Black Friday shopping in the past, I don’t blame you. If you plan on it this year, I don’t blame you either. I only write this blog to share an experience I once had while Black Friday shopping (Ok, more like, I was dragged to go shopping 🙂

It happened a few years ago, and it started by waiting in line at a large department store chain around midnight on Black Friday. The store was to open, and the organized chaos under the guise of “buying and selling” was about to commence. When the doors were unlocked and the line of people, which by this point had wrapped around the store completely, streamed into the store, I came through and started to take in my surroundings. As I walked through the entrance toward the back of the store and turned a corner, I just stopped and did some observing. What I saw, I can only compare to most film portrayals of Wall Street: the shouting, noisy, incoherent, mad rush back and forth of who can spend the most (or least) money in the least amount of time. Only here it was rushing to find the best deals, the exact toy or electronic, or the quickest checkout lane. As I stood there, slowly continuing to peer around, I reflected, “None of what is bought here can truly satisfy.” “Why is everyone chasing these temporary trinkets that are here today and gone tomorrow?” I am not suggesting that gifts go unappreciated. I appreciate mine and I am sure you do too. Yet, how far have we come when the striving for what is temporary has overshadowed the striving for what is permanent?

The same Lord and Savior who rested His head in a stable in Bethlehem is the same who said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth that rust away or risk being stolen, but store up treasures in heaven, against which there is no such risk of rust, loss, or theft. These are the treasures our heavenly Father wants us to press on to attain: charity, love, mercy to our fellow man and woman, faithfulness, steadfastness, truth, and grace. I am going to try to put these virtues into practice this Christmas. Remember friends, God gave us the best gift of all when we did not deserve it, Jesus Christ. We have been discussing radical freedom in my church’s sermon series, and maybe part of that freedom of the gospel is that we do no have to worry about competing for who can get the most numerous and most expensive material possessions. These are not what define us. It is God our heavenly Father who gives us our worth and has shown us just how priceless we are. The cross reminds us of that. That is why we can have joy this and every Christmas no matter our situation.

Be blessed friends:

“Christmas my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it is Christmas.”-Dale Evans Rogers.

6/14/15-Empowered by the Spirit to Serve

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. It is that part of you when you become a believer that urges you to act like Christians.

It reminds you to live as believers rather than live as what you once were before you came to the Lord for salvation.

That intimate time when you faced a hardship and you felt God as close to you as your neighbor sitting next to you, that was the Holy Spirit.

It is Jesus, here. When Jesus says, “I am giving you the Holy Spirit. He is basically saying, I am giving you, Me”

So what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit, it is getting up daily, and saying “Lord, I want you to rule in my life”

And the Holy Spirit can be resisted, that is actually what Stephen criticized the religious leaders for doing.

He was full of the Spirit of Jesus, and they were completely empty of it, and so the author here is saying, to be mature Christian, you have to be willing to say, “Lord, in every situation, I am going to do what you want instead of what I want”

“Lord not my will, but yours be done. Help me to study and know you so well, that in the blink of an eye, when the heat is on, and time is running out, I won’t have to think twice to know what to do.

Remember, it takes practice to be a Christian, but I want to see all of us here mature into strong believers.

The life of a disciple of Jesus requires that we surrender, that we throw ourselves down and say “God, give me a fresh outpouring of your Holy Spirit, so that I would live the way you want”.

Every day you and I have a choice to make. Will we listen and be led by our base nature, our flesh, and what it desires, or will we listen and be led by the Spirit of God, and what He desires.

God wants us to grow in your faith, and the more you grow and mature, the more you will be guided by God’s Spirit instead of your own desires.

Are you ever frustrated that you can’t quite conquer that sin that has been dogging you and won’t leave you alone.

Just pause…and say “Holy Spirit, work through me” and He will. You have God on your side, but God does not want you to work alone, for that is why they here in the text and we here today were given the Holy Spirit so we could serve one another.

Every day we have a choice whether we want to operate by our limited way of seeing things, or to actively seek God, and say “Lord what do you want”

We gotta be a church that is led by God’s Holy Spirit. If we are led by our flesh, it does not really matter if we have great programs, a big budget or anything else.

We must be led by the Holy Spirit. If you are trying to discern leaders here in the future, ask yourselves, are they full of the Spirit or do they chase after the flesh? Decons, leaders, board members, Sunday School teachers,

Parents, children, everyone here, say “yes” to Jesus, and be filled with the Spirit. Look at the final verse here v. 7 it says three things happened.

God’s message was preached in ever-widening circles, the number of believers increased, and many of the Jewish priests were converted too.

The church keeps growing, because the solution worked. Church problems can be solved so long as we seek God, and do what He wants, and it was so blessed, that the gospel was even reaching and converting the very people that had Jesus killed.

The enemy is on the run, and souls are being saved and reclaimed with the gospel.

We can be that church. We can be the church, not free of problems, but that faces problems head on and discovers solutions without being rocked to our core, but it takes leaders. God may be calling you to be a leader. And with a servant’s heard full of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, nothing is impossible.

Remember, you have God on your side, and the last time I checked, that was enough.