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Matt 5:6; Luke 10:25-37-Hungry Enough? Thirsty Enough?

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Matt. 5:6; Luke 10; 25-37-Hungry Enough? Thirsty Enough?-2/8/15

We look here as we are peering into our Lord’s greatest sermon: The Sermon on the Mount.

He is giving us as His disciples today a set of new commands to live by. We are now hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and looking at the story many of us know: the Good Samaritan. Now, why do we hunger?

Because our flesh needs nourishment. Why do we thirst? Because our bodies need water…To have a healthy appetite is seen as a good thing.

On the other hand, if your body is hungry but it knows it’s not getting anything to eat, it shuts off your appetite. It is the same thing for our spiritual lives as Christians.

If we seek to do God’s will, if we hunger and thirst to be more like Jesus in every way, if we would desire that which God desires, then not only will we grown and mature, but we will also find ourselves with increased appetites, wanting more and more to be shaped and molded and sculpted by God into what we were meant to be.

Sometimes we starve our spirits by not taking time to feed on God’s Word, sometimes our souls become parched because we do not drink in the gift of prayer and communion with God…and sometimes we begin to suffocate because we don’t breathe in the joy of community and fellowship with other believers.

And so our spiritual lives begin to deteriorate and die rather than grown and thrive.

Just like our bodies need to hunger and be fed and then grown so they can hunger again, likewise our souls need to hunger and be fed and mature Likewise we ourselves cannot fill ourselves up spiritually.

We must turn to God for that. Our souls hunger, desiring to be fed by God. How can we have this increasing hunger? The Good Samaritan has the key to the answer.

I heard one commentator put it in this way, “The priest looked at the wounded man as a problem to avoid. The Levite as an object of curiosity. It is only the Samaritan who treated him as a person to be loved, as a human being to be cared for, as a fellow man to be looked after.”

The robbers beat him up, the priest and Levite passed him up, but it was the Samaritan who picked him up. The thief said, “what’s yours is mine, I’ll take it.” The priest and Levite said, “What’s mine is mine, I’ll keep it”. But the Samaritan said, “What’s mine is yours, we’ll share it”

The Samaritan hungers and thirsts, for right-living before God, and justice for his neighbor.

We find ourselves at the crossroads, asking that same question, “Who is my neighbor?” Friends, remember who you are in Jesus, remember your new lives in Him, remember that we are to see our enemies not as needing to be destroyed, but rather needing to be redeemed.

See when Jesus says “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”, that word “righteousness” could also be translated justice.

Righteousness means personal holiness to God. Justice means love toward neighbor.

Caring for neighbor goes hand in hand with loving God. We don’t have to choose between feeding on Scripture and feeding the hungry, between reaching out to God and reaching out to those in need. Who is our neighbor?

Our neighbor is anyone who needs our help, not just those already part of our group, our church, or local community, but everyone who needs it, the hungry, the injured, the hurting.

How can we do this though? How can we love all men as our neighbors? friends be encouraged. When the Lord saved you, the Holy Spirit came within you as part of the package deal.

When we as believers let Him take full command, God’s Holy Spirit fills us with dynamic power, power to love our neighbors all over. That is what God wants from us, to be filled with power to do the godly thing in this world.

Where brokenness is found in the world, the church mends, where hunger, it heals, where suffering, it assuages. Even when the problem seems bigger than just one Christian or one church, and it requires official persons and large governments, it is still up to the church to call forth justice and righteousness from those groups so that they will act justly and love mercy.

We the people of God are called to do whatever is at hand to do, act with all our might to hear our neighbor’s cry and answer it lovingly. A Spirit-filled, Spirit-led believer in a spirit-filled, spirit-led church will constantly hunger and thirst for more of God’s righteousness and justice.

Friends, when we have that hunger, God satisfies. AMEN

Blessed are the Meek-A little man with a big faith

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Matt 5:5; Luke 19:1-10-Little Man, Big Faith-2/1/15

We are continuing looking at Jesus’ sayings in the Beatitudes, and after seeing what it means to be poor in Spirit is to be rich in God, and to those who mourn they will find comfort, we now turn to the third, which seem to be just as unique to our ears as the first two.

The meek? Really? This value is not a trait we hold high in society today, and what’s more Jesus uses an odd figure to summarize it. Yet, we must not forget God often works the opposite of what we would expect.

I have to give a point here though. When the Bible here uses the word “meek” it does not mean “passive” or “weak”.

Rather it means “Gentle, disciplined strength, grace under fire, allowing God to take control so you can have more self-control” It means giving the Holy Spirit the steering wheel. It means acting like Jesus, who was not passive or weak but rather gentle in heart.

Jesus is saying, that to be righteous in His kingdom, you have to be gentle, humble, trusting God-And He uses Zaccahaeus to make this very point!

He may have been short in so many ways, but that does not stop him. NO! This meek man with his shortcomings, is determined to see Jesus, and so he takes the initiative, climbing a tree like a child.

See, the crowd thinks (right or wrong) that Zacchaeus is a sinner, and is offended by Jesus’ interaction with him.

So Jesus invites himself over, and Zacchaeus in his meekness and joy gladly accepts, but then something interesting happens.

Zacchaeus, almost sensing the glares and scorn from the crowd gets up and say this.

“Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

This teaches us something more about Zacchaeus and Jesus and what it means to be meek. Jesus too was meek. He was gentle. He was gentle with the sinners, not judging them but rather offering them grace.

He was gentle and patient with the disciples, when they did not seem to get it. He was gentle even his enemies, even after he rebuked them.

If Zachaeus promises that he will do this after having been a tax cheat, then he is showing his meekness by saying, “I will give half my goods to the poor and restore 4x over anyone I cheated”

You want to talk about a good tax refund!

He’s basically saying“God, I want to be a radical disciple for you, so half of my stuff, I give it away”

Now watch, Zacchaeus is not doing this giving away to be saved, rather he is doing this in response to being saved, which Jesus Christ confirms when He says that salvation has been brought to this house, all because of Zacchaeus’ meekness.

He does not let his salvation lie away hidden and dormant, instead he lets his light shine before men so they may see his good deeds.

He let his faith grow and bloom and produce ripe fruit from which others could feed.

Zacchaeus may have been meek, but in giving up what he had held onto (in this case his wealth), he inherited the earth. He found the Kingdom of God.

But on the other hand, if Zachaeus is already doing this, then it teaches the crowd to be meek, and humble, and not to judge.

He shows up and gives salvation to those we think are not worthy, or untouchable. It shows God’s mercy runs deeper than our expectations.

Remember the words of our Lord Jesus, “any who loses his life for my sake will find true life”.

Maybe for Zachaeus he wanted to own part of the world. Yet in giving up “the worldly stuff” Jesus promises him salvation, and eternal life. The world can have all the stuff that will pass away.

Remember, fellow servants in Jesus, blessed are you when you are gentle, meek, and humble, for you will inherit the earth.

Beatitudes 2-Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

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Matt. 5:4; Luke 7:36-50-Mourning Turned to Joy-1/18/15

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. This is a great encouragement to us who sometimes reach those points in our lives when we feel like we cannot go back.

Maybe if we meet or know someone who feels that their whole life has been given over to a life of sin, who might think ”How could God ever love me?”

Friends, in the mercy of God, a sinful past is not a hopeless liability.

Forgiveness comes to those who truly love Christ. A wise man once said, “sinners make the best saints” Why? Because they can truly speak of the joy and peace and hope of having truly been forgiven by God.

We mourn and are sorry for many reasons: When we lose a loved one and we miss them, when we are sorry when we have hurt someone, when we see n the world the sin that breaks the heart of God.

So when Jesus says, “blessed are the mourners” which of these does he mean? All of them! They (and we) will be comforted.

In Luke 7, Simon does not greet Jesus as one typically would greet a guest. No kiss on the cheek or hand, no hug, no handshake, not even a head nod.

It would be the equivalent of being invited into a home, and your host does not even pay enough attention so as to offer to remove your coat.

I think Simon is trying to walk a tightrope and keep all of his bases covered.

“If Jesus is a prophet of God, well then he gets in good with God, because, hey, I did invite Him to a banquet.

…and if he is not a prophet…well, I can still save face because I did not really do all these other things for him.”

Friends, do not miss the irony here, Simon is a religious teacher, he studied the Bible, and he, more than most, was supposed to recognize Jesus, and yet Simon misses it.

He knew all about Jesus but did not know Jesus.

He was a fan, rather than a follower. Some people are fans of Jesus, while others are followers.

Many know a lot about Jesus, but His desire is to have us know Him, in a personal relationship, and that is what this woman is about to show us that she wants. That personal relationship with the Comforter of those who mourn

This woman seems like she has a great deal to mourn over. Some belief that she may have been a loose woman, a prostitute, a street-walker.

Suddenly, in walks this woman, and suddenly heads turn. Maybe she had to endure the glares and stares of those who would not associate with her, but as she beholds this man the call Jesus,

Something starts to happen. As she hears Him talk, she wonders, “Maybe this God loves me and wants to forgive me!”

She thought, “God may have given up on me, but I see Jesus and He tells me about God’s love for me. Maybe I can be a follower too!”

What she does next is reckless, and bold, and shocking, and exactly the kind of follower Jesus wants.

He gives her not a look of condemnation, but welcome, as if He is glad that she is here, like a daughter returning home to her father. And I can imagine as her gaze met His, the tears welled up, and she uses this hair to kneel and wipe his dirty feet, and she goes even further, she takes a jar of perfume, (her line of work needed this, so she would have used one drop at a time)

…and yet she pours it all out for she doesn’t care, she just wants to show her love to this, her Savior.

I don’t know if you have ever felt that you have reached a point in your life where you thought God could never love you anymore. I hope you have never felt that, but even if you haven’t, you probably know someone who has. Maybe that is why they say, “how could God want someone like me? I am too far gone”

No such thing friends, for Jesus says, “any who would come to me, I will never turn away.

When Jesus would heal someone, he would not only heal them physically, but he would declare that they are now made right with God.

This woman mourned, sought Jesus, and in doing so, felt that wholeness, that salvation, and that is what the Kingdom of God is all about. Blessed are you who mourn, and may you experience the peace and comfort of Jesus Christ today

Beatitudes 1-The Poor in Spirit

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1/11/15Advantages to Being “Poor in Spirit” from Matt. 5:3

Taken from Philip Yancey’s The Jesus I Never Knew

–The poor know they are in urgent need of redemption.

-The poor know not only their dependence on God and on powerful people but also their interdependence with one another.

-The poor rest their security not on things but on people.

-The poor have no exaggerated sense of their own importance, and no exaggerated need of privacy.

-The poor expect little from competition and much from cooperation

-The poor can distinguish between necessities and luxuries.

-The poor can wait, because they have acquired a kind of dogged patience born of acknowledged dependence.

-The fears of the poor are more realistic and less exaggerate, because they already know that one can survive great suffering and want.

-When the poor have the Gospel preached to them, it sounds like good news and not like a threat or a scolding.

-The poor can respond to the call of the Gospel with a certain abandonment and uncomplicated totality because they have so little to lose.

New Year; New Beginnings-Lamentations 3:22-24; Revelation 21:5

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Lamentations 3:22-24; Revelation 21:5-Sermon Notes

There is something refreshing about new things.

God promises to be faithful; His promises to never leave; He promises to take the challenges and pains that we face and not only walk with us through the struggle but bring the struggle itself to a point that will glorify Him/be for our ultimate good.

Jeremiah began to see his nation (Israel) fall. The people forgot God, and then they began to forget about each other. They forgot about the poor, they forgot about living holy and moral lives, and then finally, another army came and invaded them and destroyed everything even their church.

As you can imagine Jeremiah was asking those questions we sometimes ask when we get our worlds rocked…“Where is God?” “Has He forgotten about me?” “Is He angry with me because maybe I have done something wrong?”

True, God may have been angry but that does not mean He does not care about His people. Jeremiah’s grief ran deep.

He was the weeping prophet, and his tears flowed from a broken heart, and it was because the people had rejected God out of selfishness and sinfulness.

And Jeremiah does not hold back either. He is honest with God. Yet after he vents and is frustrated, his mood turns, and comes back to the one rock that He can always stand upon.

God’s faithfulness. Most important part of Lamentations. It is constant, yet always new.

God’s faithfulness, that constant-‘there-ness’ the fact that He is always there. That is new precisely because it does not change. The one we read who was at the table of the last supper with his disciples is the same one in who’s presence we worship here and who’s presence we eat our lovefeast.

Lamentations 3 from beginning to end, is one man’s cry out to God, in his time of need, and yet God brings him from a place of hurt to a place of hope. He had to be humble, to go from hurt to hope.

We all face our struggles, and we all have times in our lives when it seems like that walls of our cities are coming down on us. Even then, God offers us these great words of hope When we trust him day by day, we gain a greater confidence in his great promises.

We see how in Jesus, how God is faithful. We see Him coming to us, comforting and encouraging us, saying to us, “those who seek me will find life, true life, a life that is eternal, a life how it was meant to be” with Christ we always have a do-over. A chance to start newGod will dwell with his people, and he will make all things new. Friends, let us start 2015 with a sense of hope, and diligence.

Encouraging one another, that He has made us new, new creatures, new believers. Let us commit anew to follow him both here and in our daily lives. And wherever He calls us, whether it be to the familiar, or to the new…remember…Lam. 3:22-23. AMEN

SYMMETRICAL STRUCTURE OF LAMENTATIONS

1. She, Zion, is desolate and devastated: terrible reversal of Judah’s Fortunes; prosperous “days of old” (yeme qedem) are over; gates are desolate; fate of princes; desperation to acquire bread; pursuers allow no rest; reason: she has sinned (1:1-11)

2. I, Zion, was betrayed and defeated; there is none to help or comfort me; they rejoice over my fall; vain hope for help from allies; cry for vengeance (1:12-22)

3. He, Yahweh, has caused this in his anger; Yahweh has poured out his anger and wrath, which has devoured Zion’s structures like fire (2:1-8)

4. They,-princes, maidens, nurslings, children, mothers—suffer; children starve and perish in the town squares (2:9-12)

5. You, Zion, should cry out to God; let tears stream down like a river without ceasing or rest; enemies open mouths against you; Yahweh has slain without pity; prayer (2:13-22)

6. He, Yahweh, has afflicted (‘nh) me (the poet—a “man” [geber]); his complaint (3:1-20)

7. CLIMAX: YAHWEH’S GREAT LOVE (3:21-32)

6′. He, Yahweh, afflicts (‘nh) men (3:33-39) *Mitigating note: Yahweh does not enjoy afflicting men (geber); men shouldn’t complain if they suffer for sins

5′. You, Yahweh—to you I cry out; my tears stream down like a river without ceasing or rest; enemies open mouths against me; Yahweh has slain without pity; prayer (3:40-66) *Mitigating note: prayer for Yahweh’s justice

4′. They—princes, maidens, nurslings, children, mothers—suffer; children starve and perish in the town squares (4:1-10) *Mitigating note: Yahweh is just; his punishment was because Judah’s sins and iniquities were worse than Sodom’s 

3′. He, Yahweh, has caused this in his anger; Yahweh has poured out his anger and wrath, which has devoured Zion’s structures like fire (4:11-16) *Mitigating note: Yahweh is just; his punishment was for Judah’s sins and iniquities

2′. We, the people of Zion, were betrayed and defeated; our allies failed to help; Edom rejoices (4:17-22) *Mitigating note: Yahweh is just; he will restore Judah and punish Edom for her sins and iniquities

1′. We are desolate and devastated; terrible reversal of Judah’s fortunes; prosperous “days of old” (yeme qedem) are over; gates are desolate; fate of princes; desperation to acquire bread; pursuers allow no rest; reason: we have sinned  (chap 5) *Mitigating note: Poet’s prayer, “Restore us, so that we may return!”

12/14/14-Advent Week 3-Luke 1-Love: God’s Greatest Gift

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Well, it is Christmas season, and we always want to remember the less well-off.

-Then I began to wonder, ”those whom we help, the less well-off, they are a great deal like Mary, Jesus’ mom.” Mary was a young woman, poor, and she might not be my first choice as far as who God can use, but remember, man looks at the outside, God looks at the heart.

She had these characteristics, yet God did indeed use her, and when she receives the news that she will be carrying this Christ child, she was no doubt scared, maybe a bit confused, yet her love for her Lord gave her the strength and will to say, “yes”.

We read in Luke’s gospel, Mary gets the announcement, goes and visits her relative Elizabeth, and then John the Baptist is born, and we don’t see Mary again until Jesus is born. Mary visits Elizabeth when Mary is only 3 months pregnant and right after that it is the story of going to Bethlehem for Jesus’ birth. So right there we have all these months not mentioned.

What was Mary going through during those 6 months before the birth? Because being an unwed teenage mother back then was huge taboo. Forbidden. Now, it is a bit less surprising, but then, oh boy! When Mary said yes to God, that was risky.

What was her family going to think, what was her friends going to think, what was Joseph, her fiancé going to think? You think Mary had to endure whispers behind her back, maybe people shunning her.

Mary was doing God’s will, but that does not mean it is easy. In fact, when she sang this song that we read in the second set of verses, we see this teenager thanking God for his justice of all things.

We see her giving praise to God who brings down the proud and uplifts the humble. The One who sends the rich away empty and yet fills the hungry with good things

-God is faithful to those who fear him, exalting low, bringing down high.

In Mary’s song, God is pictured as the champion of the outcast, the oppressed.

Mary is praising God for His justice. Now what does justice have to do with love. We think of love and justice as polar opposites.

We think of love as something done for the sake of the innocent, and justice as something done to the guilty. Yet justice, at least from what the Bible speaks about, is not simply about dishing out punishment. Rather, it is about harmony, it is about putting things right. God judges yes, but remember He judges with mercy.

Justice is about completeness-This same Mary has to trust that God is a god of both justice and love. We have all faced situations in our life where our hearts ache and cry out, “God where are you in this situation?”

“God we want you to make it right. We want you to show your love and your justice and right the wrong”

In this little baby soon to arrive. In this precious child, God does exactly that.

In Jesus, we have God’s divine reversal. God lowered Himself to raise us. He came down from paradise to lift us from the muddy pits of sin. In Jesus Christ, God suffers injustice, in order to bring about true justice. He suffers the brokenness, to give us the wholeness.

In this reversal, God became what we are (human) so that we might be what He is (eternal and perfect). It is a divine reversal, like the King who takes the torn, shredded rags of clothing from us and gives us his beautiful robes to now wear.

At a crime, you can punish the guilty, you can help the innocent, but until you can match those perfectly, you don’t have true justice.

God did just that. At the cross, God’s justice and God’s love met. When we look at the cross, we see God’s justice and love, are one & same.

God was reconciling the world to Himself, and He was not only forgiving our sins, but He shows that in His kingdom, we have the strength to love one another in true brotherhood, experiencing forgiveness when we have been wronged.

God is love. Let love, true-gospel defined love be the motivation for everything you do. God’s love is power, it is the life of the church.

Friends, have courage when doing the work God has called you to do. Mary’s life was not easy, and likewise you may be called to obey God and take up something that will not be easy either, but there is a reason we are still talking about Mary 2,000 years later.

Through her love for God, our Savior entered the world, and saved us all.

When we put our trust in this Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit transforms us, and gives us the love that we did not have as unsaved people.

Let love be your foundation. Love in action, in good deeds. Let love become a habit to you. Intentionally seek to practice it, prove your Christian faith by your love this Christmas season. Love as God loves, and love who God loves…and that is everybody, even the sinner…especially the sinner.

Here it is in a nutshell…Love God and do whatever you want!…because by loving God, you will eventually find yourself desiring the things God desires.

He is the great equalizer, the merciful judge, and found in a manager in Bethlehem so long ago this token of His love is the proof of his justice.

To have God’s justice and love is one and the same, to desire one is to desire the other. When you act in love toward God and toward others, you become a witness to His kingdom.

And in this kingdom, there is a mission of redemption, and You become a co-rescuer. Let love be your driving force. Amen

2014-Advent Week 2-Luke 2:14-Give Peace a Chance

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Peace, a dream of mankind ever since Cain looked sideways at Abel. For some, it is but a fantasy, a fancy abstract concept, reserved for rulers and dreamers alike.

Yet, for the Christian, peace is as concrete and real as the pew upon which you are sitting.

This is not some head-in-the-clouds escape from reality, but rather is the reality.

A lifestyle that should characterize the life of a believer, and to others, be as obvious in our lives as the clothes we wear.

Because now, it is possible for God’s peace to be felt by you and me as people: God’s peace is available to us!

God’s rescue mission in giving us Himself is to clear the way so that nothing stops us from experiencing the peace.

Anyone can have it, regardless of your past or what you have done. “Craig, but what about me?” you may ask, “I still struggle and I am not perfect, so what peace does God have to offer me?”

Well, if you look at this story, God picked shepherds, the most unlikeliest of characters to receive this announcement!

Do not think God cannot use you wherever you are at in your life, no matter the age or life situation. You may be in a rut, but God can still use you! He has cleared the way and invites us to be a part of that Kingdom of His, that Kingdom of Heaven, that Kingdom of peace.

When the Bible talks about peace, it means it in a relational sense. This is often deeper than what we think of when we hear the word.

To us, peace often conjures up the idea of a cease-fire between warring parties, or perhaps it makes you think of tranquility in a noisy world.

But the true peace the Scriptures talk about, the true peace that is to be found in Jesus Christ, the true peace that the angels sing to these bewildered shepherds is what is known as Shalom–Wholeness, completeness

Our blessed Savior to be born soon, is not only the great physician telling us about our sickness, but offers us the treatment, and even greater than that, the cure!

1 Timothy says, “godliness with contentment is great gain”

This shalom, this wholeness, is offered to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have

Peace with God

Peace with Neighbor

Peace with Self

When we take this babe in a manger and make Him king in our lives, He gives us forgiveness from sin, purpose, healing, and new life and peace. This King provides us with great love and compassion, and it is this love He has shown us most fully in Himself.

This is the foundation for peace between us and God.

It is as if God has granted us this great peace, and now we want to share with others. This peace should be a way of life for the believer.

The Bible says in Ephesians 2 that God has already broken down the dividing walls of hostility and created a place where true is to be found. And do you know where this place is to be? The Church!

Here is where God has made it possible for all of us who may be different to be one people.

A New Humanity in the World

The way to have peace with your fellow man is to remember three truths.

First, God made both you and them in His image, and He cares for you and for them too

Two, we are all broken by this blight known as sin, so you or I, we are no better than anyone outside of Jesus Christ.

Three, The same merciful hands that reached out to you and I while we were drowning in our sea of sin and selfishness, those same hands are reaching out to your fellow man to bring them also into God’s kingdom.

I think we need to see ourselves the way our Savior sees us…a beloved mess. Beloved, yet a mess. A mess, yet beloved.

Are you struggling with not liking who you are? Understand that God has forged you with loving yet strong hands, and He loves you even when you feel like no one else on earth ever could. Forgive yourself as God has forgiven you.

Just like the Psalmist said, “the Lord is my shepherd, and with Him I lack nothing.”

We have a new life, a new wholeness, a new Shalom, a new peace.

Jeremiah 29:1-14-Follow Plan “J”

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11/16/14-Jeremiah 29:1-14; 1 Tim.2:1-4-“Follow Plan J”

The prophet Jeremiah lived a long, long time ago, and he wrote this passage to his people when they were hurting.

To really grasp how welcome these words would have sounded, we must go back to biblical times.

After Moses, Joshua, Saul, David, and Solomon, when all finally seemed peaceful in the kingdom of Israel, things started to go south. God’s people began to forget about Him and started to live without Him, doing whatever felt right with no regard to the Holy One who had redeemed them to freedom.

God loves Israel like a husband loves a wife, and these wrongs and sins and chasing after other gods is just like infidelity. Yet, God wants to give His beloved another chance, and another, and another.

And so for 400 years, God sent prophet after prophet after prophet to try and win his bride back, to woo her back, out of his deep care.

Yet, Israel would not listen, so they became vulnerable to attack, and they got into a war, and they lost. They lost a war, and they were taking captive away from their homes to the capital of the empire that just beat them to live as refugees for the rest of their lives.

If anyone needed to be reminded that God was still there, it was these guys, and here is Jeremiah and he saw all of it.

These guys needed to know God knew the plans they had for them. They needed to know there was hope and a future and, that is exactly what they got. 🙂

Pray for the land you are in to prosper, for we as believers know that we too are refugees in a way. Our home is heaven, so we can pray for the prosperity of the land for our land.

And we too can pray for the land we are in for we as believers are called to pray for all sorts of reasons. Do we pray for the lost in our land, that they would come to know Jesus? We mention our joys and concerns, yet we must not forget those who still have yet to have the hope that we claim.

Do we pray for our leaders, even when we disagree with them? Because remember, God desires to save them too.
When the people in Jeremiah’s time lost everything, they thought God had abandoned them.

He hadn’t. In fact I would think that the reason he sent them away to a foreign land was so that maybe the foreigners would be exposed to the truth of God as well.

He knows the plans he has for all of us.

He was using Jeremiah to reassure the people, “I have this all under my control, and this is going to work out for your good”.

Listen here today, God has not left you, He has not abandoned you and He has not forsaken you.

At times in our lives, we think God may have left us, moved on, but no friends, God may be preparing you, friend, just as he did then, for a new beginning with Him at the center.

And He gives us the most precious gift of all: Himself, in the Person of The Holy Spirit.

God’s goodness is secure, and we can have peace in that. When you enter times of trouble or sudden change, pray diligently, and move ahead doing whatever you can rather than give up.

Take it to Jesus, do what you can, then trust Him that He also knows the plans he has for you, plans to give you hope and a future. He knows the future, so we need not fear. His plans for us are good and full of hope.

Not only will God forgive, He will do much more than that.

To them, and to us, He will end the captivity by breaking the chains of sin, discouragement and doubt, giving us freedom to love.

To them, and to us, He will restore His people, like an artist restoring a masterpiece to its original brilliance.

To them, and to us, He will gather us from our lostness and darkness, and guide us by His holy light until we are gathered to our true land, heaven.

If we seek him wholeheartedly, he will be found. Neither a strange land, sorrow, persecution, nor physical problems can ever, ever break our fellowship with God, for we are His. No matter what we endure in life brothers and sisters, we can press on, “for He knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.”

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Psalm 121; Phil 4:6-7. Look Up!

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Sermon Notes-11/9/14-Psalm 121; Phil 4:6-7. Look Up!

This psalm would have been sung as a Jewish believer would have been traveling to Jerusalem, going to church. As such he would have to walk up hills in order to get there.

On the One hand, mountains are hard to travel, they are hard not just for the terrain, but because these hills have wild beasts and robbers. Yet, on the other hand, on those same hills that are so dangerous, rests the temple of God, the church.

And I can imagine that as he sees the temple, it reminds him of just Who is the mighty One who dwells there. And it causes him to look above the peaks of the hills, to look up and remember where his, and our, help comes from.

And we as Christians have a leg up on this Psalm writer, for we know that since Christ has come into our hearts, here is where God dwells. Not within walls of wood but within the heart and mind of a person.

We are safe and protected. In these first two verses, we learn this:

God is a Helper (v. 1,2)

As we read on, we are further given cause for peace of mind for we see our God is an ever-present sentinel, a solider on the watch, a guardian who never leaves his post, and is always faithful.

The biblical writer is showing his praise that the real God, the true God, does not need sleep, does not need slumber.

In fact, because this Lord of ours does not rest, we have the peace and the freedom to rest.

I think we would be all better off if every once in a while, we just stepped back, took a deep breath, and said “God is my protector, and He is in control.”

So, not only is He our Helper.

God is our Keeper. (v. 3,4)

He is the One who holds and comforts us and gives us the courage and the hope to face each new day with its challenges.

Not only does our help come from the One who made heaven and earth, but this help is available day or night, rain or shine, and gives round the clock protection.

Anyone who has traveled in the Middle East knows the threat of dehydration and sunstroke. Back in biblical days, just as too much exposure to the sun could be dangerous, they also thought too much exposure to the moon could pose a health threat.

So it does not matter even if these two great celestial bodies, the sun and the moon, come after you. God still has you.

So God is not only Helper (121:1,2), and Keeper (121:3,4).

Now we see Him as our Protector (121:5,6).

It says that God is watching over you, keeping you from all harm. This is more than simply nice words, or a warm sentiment. Rather, it should bring a steady stream of calm peace into our hearts and lives.

Friends, God’s is in control, and we can really have rest and peace, when we grasp that. That is liberating, that is freeing.

It means we can take the undue burdens off our back, not get so stressed at life, and take time for what really matters.

This Psalm teaches us four ultimate truths.

1) God is Helper,

2) God is Keeper,

3) God is Protector,

4) God is Preserver

With these truths laying the bedrock of our spiritual lives, why worry? I mean imagine, never worrying about anything! Paul’s advice is to turn our worries into prayers. Do we want to worry less? Then we need to pray more.

Prayer is the key to opening the door to God’s peace for a worrisome mind.

Because through prayer, we enter into God’s presence, and when we dwell there, when we sit there, and just worship the Lord,

Cast your cares upon the Lord for He cares for you, and when you are feeling down…look up! Amen

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Psalm 23-Notes

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Psalm 23-11/2/14-Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us

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This is a familiar Psalm for many of us, and several of us may have this beloved Scripture memorized by now. Yet, sometimes it takes looking at a well-known Scripture with fresh eyes and an open mind to discover God’s deep caring for our souls.

What is a shepherd? What is the role? A shepherd, like a pet-owner, many different roles to the animal. Protector, Master, Provider, Lover, Caretaker, Delighter. And Our Lord is all of these.

The beautiful relationships given to us repeatedly in Scripture between God and man can be put another way: those of a father to his children.

This intimate relationship started in the mind of God, was made possible by the work of Christ, and are confirmed and made real to us by the Holy Spirit.

So when the simple statement is made, “The Lord is my Shepherd” it immediately implies a profound relationship between a human being and his/her Maker. It links a lump of common clay to divine destiny. It means a mere mortal becomes the cherished object of God.

God invites us to make Him the Shepherd, the Ruler, the Caregiver of our lives, and in return, He promises to take the best of care of us.

We all face struggle, and life gets hard, but with God, what do we really lack in this world? We human beings want purpose. With God we have it. We seek community and fellowship. With God we have it. We search for truth to live by, With God we have it. We desire unconditional eternal love. With God, we have it.

Verse 2 says that, He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Sheep don’t sit still very often. And is this not the same for us? If we are restless, discontented, always agitated, disturbed, we do not do very well.

How can we be free of such anxiety, such restlessness? It is to walk and live with a daily reminder that God is ever-present in our lives.

Sheep are often quieted when the know their Shepherd is in their midst, and when we live, knowing that our Shepherd is in our lives, we too can rest in peace, green pastures, quiet waters, having our souls refreshed, and be guided by His loving hand that promises care.

Verses 2 and 3 use very powerful and descriptive verbs. God makes, leads, restores, and guides. These are four characteristics of the Lord as Shepherd. He makes all things new and full of life where there once was no life.

He leads us through the dark times in our lives so we don’t stumble. He restores our hope and our broken hearts. And He guides us into peace and joy. And the last part of verse 3 says why God does this…and the answer is quite simple

Because He is good. Our God is good, we can rest in our struggles in life knowing that much.

This Psalm hits its zenith in verse 4 when it says that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and why? Because only One can walk with us through death’s dark valley and bring us safely to the other side. Yes, Life is uncertain, yet, brothers and sisters why do we need to fear? Why not instead follow the Shepherd who leads us to eternal comfort?

Our Lord Jesus is a protector and a comforter. A shepherd loves the sheep and proves this love by protecting the sheep with a rod. And a staff was used to lead.

So to protect and to lead.

To defend and bring along.

God does both.

He is the Master in Charge. We can say hearty amen to that! The Lord serves as a gracious host. We put our trust in God, we become Christians, and not only does this Mighty Shepherd give us all we will ever need, allows us to rest, restores us, bestows upon us new and eternal life, lead us through the darkness but also this Loving Shepherd actually invites us to a banquet!

For David, and for us, God serves as the master of ceremonies. The MC is the one who controls the gathering. It is He who has the final word. And this MC loves us and shields us from our enemies. For David, God is the host and the presence of enemies is no longer a cause for fear.

God does that for us. He restores. He redeems. God takes our broken, battered, and bruised lives and fixes and restores and makes new. David said that “goodness and mercy follows him. This idea of following does not simply mean, keeping a safe distance. NO! Here, following has the idea of running/chasing/overtaking. So those of us who follow the great Shepherd Jesus are overtaken by goodness and mercy, we cannot escape it even if we try! The goodness and mercy are that persistent!

We as humans were created to be in relationship with God. “We were created for you Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you”. When we put our trust in God, no struggle, no hurt, not even death can stop Him from bringing us into his house.

It is in this house, that we find safety, and where we will dwell and worship God forever. This is the most beautiful picture of heaven God writes a happy ending, where there is no more pain, no hurt, no trouble, just peace.

Christ has overcome the world. We too when we follow Him, are over-comers. Let that be your source of joy and hope my friends. Amen

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