Thursday, May 6, 2010
“Sincerely, Jesus Christ”- 2 Corinthians 3:1-6- Kairo EM Worship
We live in a world where qualifications are needed for everything.
It seems like in everything, people want proof of your credentials and qualifications. We need proof for whether or not people are good enough, so we require letters of Rec.
When you apply for college, When you go for a new job, When you go on missions: you need a letter of rec.
People need proof for who you are and what you’ve done.
But how truthful and honest are letters of Recommendation. Are they really going to give you the full picture?
When people ask you for a letter of Rec, you know they ask you because they expect that you will say nice things about them. No one’s going to tell the WHOLE truth, right?
Letter of Recommendation for Mr. Smith
“While working with Mr. Smith, I have always found him
working studiously and sincerely at his table without
gossiping with colleagues in the office. He seldom
wastes his time on useless things. Given a job, he always
finishes the given assignment in time. He is always
deeply engrossed in his official work, and can never be
found chitchatting in the canteen (toilet). He has absolutely no
vanity in spite of his high accomplishment and profound
knowledge of his field. I think he can easily be
classed as outstanding, and should on no account be
dispensed with. I strongly feel that Mr. Smith should be
pushed to accept promotion, and a proposal to management be
sent away as soon as possible.
Regards,
Branch Manager
A second note followed the report:
“Mr. Smith was present when I was writing the report mailed to you today. Kindly read only the odd numbered lines for my true assessment of him.”
Regards,
Branch Manager
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How reliable are Letters of rec? Letters of recommendation were just as common back in Paul’s as they are today, perhaps even more common.
In fact, people were insisting that Paul present his in order to continue ministry among the Corinthians.
1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 3You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts
Our Lives are Letters of Christ (v. 1-3)
Letters of Recommendation in Rome
They actually played quite an important role in ancient Roman society.
These letters gained them hospitality, accommodations, opportunity to speak, and even reimbursement.
Like when Travelers visited a town, they would get letters of recommendation of people from that city in order to stay in the nicer inns instead of the ghetto ones.
Some parties would use it to introduce themselves to another party, in order to advance socially.
Many preachers and evangelists would travel around and introduce themselves with letters of recommendation from different churches.
We normally invite speakers like Ted Ewing and Dr. Wang, because we know them.”
Apparently some false teachers would just show up in town to speak. And because no one knew them, they would present these letters of rec. to prove their qualifications. Some were using letters of rec. to speak in the Corinthian church, and then asking the Corinthians to recommend them to speak in other churches.
Paul’s authority questioned is like UREGAMA questioned
IN our study of 2 Corinthians, I hope you guys remember that Paul’s authority/authenticity as an apostle/teacher is being questioned by some other false teachers.
They were possibly saying, “We have ours. Where’s Paul’s letter of rec if he’s a real teacher”?
EX: I grew up in this church, like some of you. I’ve been here since 6th grade, when I was 11. That’s 18 years ago! It’s like if one day all of a sudden we say to UREG and AMA, we’re not sure if you’re really servants of Christ. Can you prove it, perhaps provide a resume or letter?
So you can imagine Paul, when he says to them in v. 1, “Come on, do I really need a letter of recommendation to minister to you? In fact, do I need it from you?
If I needed one, I would ask you for it. I could get one for you, but it’d be from you!
The Corinthians’ are living Letters of Recommendation…
You are my letter of recommendation. You are the proof of my teaching.
Your lives are testimonies to the effectiveness and the authenticity of my ministry.
You are living proof that there is power in my ministry, God’s hand is in it, that it does bear fruit, that it is effective, that I am legitimate.
Do you really need a letter from me? You are my letters to you. Look at your lives!
(V. 2) People all over know about the Church because of the testimony about them, and they know that it’s a fruit of Paul’s ministry.
There’s a saying “Your life is the only Bible that some people will ever read”.
Meaning, that people see your life, and they will know if you are a Christ follower or not. They will see if Christ is really in your life.
This is more than a fluffy letter written that highlights the good things about you.
And according to Paul, their transformation and changed lives is seen by everyone, like a letter read by everyone.
And it’s living proof that Paul’s ministry is real, really from God.
…Written By Christ with the ink of the Holy Spirit
But Notice who Paul says is the writer of these letters. Not Paul, not the Corinthians. But Jesus Christ himself.
(3) You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God…
Christ is the writer, meaning that he is the one who moves through the ministry. Christ is the one who is producing fruit. Christ is the one transforming the lives of the Corinthians.
Christ writes in the lives of the people of Corinth, not Paul.
But Paul sees that Christ’s hand in their lives is the letter of recommendation for his ministry, and it’s like Christ looks down with approval: “This is my good and faithful servant, and through him I am powerfully at work. Just look at how I’ve blessed his ministry.”
EX: Ghost writer and recognizable ink
Let’s explore Paul’s analogy a little further. What do these letters look like?
How does Christ write these letters? He writes it on the hearts and in the lives of the Corinthians.
What does he write with?
(v. 3) “Not with ink, but with the Spirit of God.”
EX: Some people use a distinct ink, and you know who it is and who it’s from. When I was in High School, I received this secret admirer letter in the mail. It had a special kind of ink, and written in a special calligraphy font. I read it, and I was like dizzy because I had never gotten a letter like this before. But after doing some investigation, I found out that one of the girls in our church took classes on calligraphy. It was EVIE! Evie knew calligraphy and had a special calligraphy pen. But my secret admirer wasn’t Evie, Evie was the ghost writer. And after this first letter, an occasional letter would come in the mail, maybe 2 or three more. But once I saw that letter, with special ink and writing on it, I knew without a doubt, that it was the ghost writer! Written for someone else, the secret admirer.
The Holy Spirit is Distinguishing Mark of Christ in their lives because of Paul
Well the Corinthians were a living letter, written by a ghost writer. The HOLY GHOST writer! Jesus Christ, writing with the ink of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the distinctive mark, the recognizable ink, of Christ’s authorship. The Holy Spirit was the ink that Christ uses on the hearts and in the lives of the Corinthians.
They received the Holy Spirit through the ministry of Paul
It was evidence that Paul’s ministry was true, and the he was indeed an apostle of Christ. The evidence of fruit and change in their lives shows that Christ does commend and give authenticity and authority to Paul’s teaching.
Application
Church, would we be able to say the same thing is true of our ministry?
Leaders, Does Jesus commend us, write us a letter of recommendation, and say “Yes, I commend my servant. Yes, indeed he is powerfully ministering as my instrument. I am bearing fruit through him.”
Has he? Would the people of our ministry be genuine letters of qualification, giving testimony that God really does work through us and bless our ministry. Not just by the word of their testimonies, but by the letters of their lives? DO their lives bear witness?
This is food for thought, both for our leadership, but also for the people of this church.
What if UREGAMA, or any one from our leadership were put on the spot. What if they were to ask for our qualifications, to see if we really are true teachers from God. But instead of a mere letter, asked to see living proof of our ministry.
I’ll be speaking at a retreat in a couple weeks.
And so they came to check you guys out. To see how you live, how you talk with one another. In fact, they were to spend the week with you. To live with you. To see how you conduct yourselves as believers, if you live out what you’ve been taught. What you think about during the week, what you do in your spare time, how much time you spend doing godly things, and how much doing worldly things.
Let’s do some reflection: Would they see evidence of a transformed life? One that bears the fruit of the Spirit? Everyone consider your own life, but I also want the leaders to consider the Church:
Worship leaders, consider your team. Consider the congregation. Is Christ developing passionate worshippers through your leadership. Not just in music, but also in life.
Bible study teachers, consider the flock. Is Christ changing their lives by the truth in your teaching.
Prayer mtg leaders: Is Christ raising up prayer warriors through your leading?
TC leaders, consider your community, is Christ transforming them through your counsel?
Small group leaders, consider your small group.
Mentors, consider your mentees.
New Life Leaders, consider your club.
It really puts us into perspective, does Christ commend our leadership, by writing with the Holy Spirit in the lives of those we lead?
I think it’s easy to get comfortable with the fact that we are Christians, and meet in this Church building, and so we assume that the Holy Spirit is at work.
But sometimes we can become like the false teachers of Corinth, who operated in the church, but operated apart from Christ, on their own abilities, ideas, and strength.
See, realize that these teachers accusing Paul, were teachers! Some were even recommended by other churches and given letters to qualify themselves.
But what distinguished Paul’s ministry from theirs?
Paul’s ministry, who’s operation really belongs to Christ, is written all over with the ink of the Spirit. Their changed lives are the distinct, undeniable mark of Christ’s approval.
They are living letters of Christ. Are we written with the same ink?
4Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (jack will talk about that)
Our Confidence is in the Competence of Christ (v.4-6)
It’s a lot of pressure isn’t it? That our ministries should be bearing fruit?
That there really is supposed to be evidence of the Holy Spirit’s transforming power?
That those we minister to ought to be living letters of Christ’s commendation over our ministry?
That spiritual growth is proof that this is a legitimate ministry of Christ?
Well, I think Paul understands the pressure.
And Paul can easily come off pretty confident up to this point in the letter.
He’s been talking about himself a lot and his ministry, and how God is using him. , since ch. 1,
And so I’d like to give Paul a break, and now I’d like to talk about myself, and how I can grow pretty confident sometimes as well when doing ministry.
Speaking at West Covina
EX: I was invited to preach at a 3-day revival rally in West Covina. And I’m not sure I’ve ever prayed so fervently for a message that I had to give. I mean I was praying about this thing weeks in advance, and praying really sincerely that God would give me the ability to speak truth to these high schoolers.
I gathered a team of 10 people and called them by phone and asked them personally to pray for the rally everyday leading up to the rally.
I fasted for 3 days, just praying for God’s power in ministry.
Well, came the weekend of the event. Totally like “God, I need your help.”
There were maybe 80-90 people there.
The first night I gave a message, and about 60-70 youth came forward to make commitments. We had a system to track how many commitments were made.
The next day, they were encouraged to bring their friends, and I gave a Gospel message, and about 50 more high schoolers made commitments to Christ.
I was floored! My confidence level shot through the roof.
Some of you are thinking, “Greg, you must feel really confident.”
I do! But it’s ok! See, because Paul was confident too!
And Paul doesn’t deny it one bit.
Instead he makes it very clear that he is confident, because God is competent.
Competence is from the Greek work ikanos, which means ability, capability, sufficiency. His God is able, his God is capable, his God is sufficient, and therefore in Christ, so is he.
Paul says “I’m confident in my competence, because I have a God who’s competent, and I’m confident in His competence.”
Remember I gave a sermon on humility, staying low, and talked about humility isn’t denying your gift, but pointing to the giver.
It’s not denying your ability, but acknowledging the one who makes you able?
Paul’s position exactly!
He says, “I don’t deny that I’m competent. I just acknowledge that Christ is competent, and that my competence is through him.”
And there’s where my confidence lies. Not in me, in my Lord Jesus Christ!
It’s not me who transforms you, it’s the Transformer.
It’s not me who writes these letters on your hearts, it is Christ writing on your hearts, the author and perfecter of your faith.
Paul has extremely high confidence in God, and when we can really understand the ability and sufficiency of God, then we really find a lot of confidence in what we do for Him, because we realize it’s not about what we can do, but what He can do, through us.
Speaking at UCR
EX: See I can get pretty confident myself sometimes. That revival rally I went to was off the hook. It was amazing what God was able to do that night.
Not too long after that, I was invited by UCR’s AACF, and they told me it would be great if I could preach the Gospel. SO I was like, dude, I just preached it at The Revival and it was awesome what God was doing through it, so I’ll just preach the same message again.
And so once again, I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed. I asked God to do the same thing and speak to the people through the message.
When I got there, there were probably 150 people or so, almost double the size of the rally in WC.
And so I preached it, just like I did before. Same message, same ability.
And at the end I asked if anyone wanted to make a commitment to Christ, and ALL OF A SUDDEN, about 2-3 people raised their hands to make commitments.
Our Confidence Grows
And my Confidence…. Grew!
Ok, maybe it didn’t right away, but as I think upon that time, I realize that my service to God is not about what I can do or what I can’t do.
My confidence grows when I come to the realization that my ministry is really not my ministry. That our ministry is God’s ministry.
I gave the same exact message according to the same ability that God gave me each time. God chose to work through different settings with different results.
God was not caught off guard by the drastically different responses.
Why? Because God will be competent to do what He wants to do.
And he will give us the competence to do just that when we choose to make way for him.
When I understand that my competence in serving the Lord comes TOTALLY from God, then I grow tremendously in my confidence in God.
My confidence grows because I understand that God will do as he pleases, and he will give us the right amount of competence/ability to do so, when we acknowledge that it’s his.
WE don’t need to be afraid.
We don’t have to be afraid to step up to what God entrusts us to do.
I’m not just talking to Core, or to just coworkers. But to all of us. When we talk about ministry, we mean service. And we are all called to be servants, we are all called to do ministry.
If we willing to be make way for God, not step aside, but make way by opening up our mind and heart so that he could be competent through us, then Christ can come and start writing in the lives of those we serve, and the Holy Spirit will bear fruit through us.
When we truly comprehend that this is God’s ministry, we don’t have to be afraid of what he gives us, Because it’s HIS ministry.
At the same time, we don’t have to be afraid of what he takes away, because it’s HIS ministry.
When we are faithful to be servants in God’s ministry, he may give, and he may take away, but it’s ok, we are confident that he will give us the competence to carry out HIS ministry.
CLOSING
I really want to close by testifying to what God was teaching me that first hand.
Before this week started, I knew that it was going to be intense. The hardest week of this semester.
I knew I was going to have a hard week before it began, Hebrew quizzes and Homework, long beach rescue mission, work, school, Kairo Sermon, UCI sermon, and Perspectives paper due.
So at the beginning of this week, I had already asked people to pray for me. A LOT of people. I asked Jeff, I asked Rich, Matt prayed with me, all the TC guys prayed for me, Monica was praying for me.
So I’m going through the week, cranking out this Paper, getting 33 pgs typed, working on the Kairo sermon, which was hard for me, but it started coming together, finding some moments to write the UCI gospel sermon…
And on Thursday, my computer freezes.
Like, it doesn’t work. It won’t start up.
Let me tell you that I’m not one who can just whip up sermons together. I like to take a full week to prepare, 2 if I can, but it takes a lot for me to prepare a sermon.
So I was super freaking out, but as I was praying, and it hit me really hard.
Friday, we take it to the Apple store, and the “Genius” at the Genius Bar is like, “Dude, it’s dead”.
This is God’s ministry, and He is sovereign over it. You are his people. He’s the one who writes on your hearts. Not me.
Nothing takes God by surprise. If he wants to take away the sermon I prepared, I need not fear. My Confidence is in Him. He’ll minister to you somehow.
And if he gets me my computer and my sermon back, well, still my Confidence is in him, for He is the one who makes us able.
So let us not step out of the way, but let us make way, by opening our hearts and our minds to his Competence and letting His Holy Spirit write on the hearts of his people through us.
You’re Being Watched- Sila Church
INTRO: Video- Photobooth
Do you ever feel like you’re being watched? Do you ever feel like someone’s watching you?
I’m not paranoid or anything, but with all these shows with hidden cameras and stuff, sometimes I can’t help but to think someone is watching me.
When I was growing up, I used to wonder if I was the only one in this world, and everybody was set up to be a player or actor in my life. Silly idea. But then the Truman show came out and I was like, whoa! It’s true!
(chuckle) Well, today I want to make it clear to you… YOU ARE BEING WATCHED. Really, I can prove it to you in the bible.
Who are we being watched by?
You are being watched by Unbelievers.
We are being watched by non-Christians.
Seriously, they are all around you! Think about it… in your class, at your school, in the mall… what do you do every time you find out someone is a Christian? You go “Whoa! That’s so cool! I’m a Christian too!”
Why is it so exciting? Because I think we assume and acknowledge that there are so many people around us who aren’t Christians. It’s just an accepted fact.
So when you discover someone is a Christian like you, you get excited as if it’s rare.
Jesus even says so in Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden”
Jesus was talking to the people of Jerusalem. See because Jerusalem was this big city that sat right on top of the Mountain, and many people can see the city. But not just that, they were the People of God. They were always noticed by those surrounding them…There was no way they could go without being unnoticed.
In the same way, we as Christians, as the people of God, are always being watched. There is no way that we can go without being watched.
Unbelievers are watching, whether they are seeking truth and wanting to observe how we live, or if they’re just looking for reasons to accuse of doing wrong or being hypocrites.
Remember in Acts 20:8, Paul and the Christians would always keep the rooms where they met well lit, so that all the people outside knew what they were doing. There were unbelievers who were accusing Christians of doing immoral things at night during their meetings, but Paul didn’t want anyone to have anything to say against them. He knew they were being watched by unbelievers.
Everyday I read the news and often times there will be an article involving Christians.
And often times it’s to pick on something wrong that a famous Christian or a group of Christians did. I really feel that we are being watched more than ever.
But Jesus continues in Matthew 5:16 to say that since you are the Light of the World, you need to “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in Heaven.”
Because we know we are being watched, we ought to do good at all times so that when people see us, they can’t help but to praise God in Heaven.
In Titus 2:7-8, Paul tells a young Christian named Titus, “In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
EX: Hudson Taylor…Years ago the communist government in China commissioned an author to write a biography of Hudson Taylor with the purpose of distorting the facts and presenting him in a bad light. They wanted to discredit the name of this consecrated missionary of the gospel. As the author was doing his research, he was increasingly impressed by Taylor's saintly character and godly life, and he found it extremely difficult to carry out his assigned task with a clear conscience. Eventually, at the risk of losing his life, he laid aside his pen, renounced his atheism, and received Jesus as his personal Savior.
Whether we realize it or not, our example leaves an impression on others.
Unbelievers are watching you.
You are being watched by Believers.
You might be surrounded by unbelievers when you go out and go to school, but you also got to realize that you are also surrounded by Christians. Just look around. Christians everywhere.
Just as we need to be in good behavior, living a righteous life in front of non-believers, we to need to live in good behavior among the Believers, because they too are watching you.
Paul encourages Christians to learn from each other. He told the Christians in Corinth to “follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.”
We are to be setting examples for each other. As your leaders follow Christ, you follow them. And as you follow their example, you can be sure other Christians will be watching you and following your example.
But it goes the other way too!
In 1 Timothy 4:12, Paul tells them, “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for believers in speech, life, love, faith and purity.”
Even you, though you are in your youth, are to set examples for other believers. Examples aren’t only for the leaders to set.
EX: My Brother read the bible entirely in 6th grade! The college people at my church saw this, and started doing it themselves!
But what happens when we sin and other Christians are watching? They stumble! Meaning it may cause them to sin or lose faith. It might discourage another Christian.
Biggest Complaint: Christians. I think it’s sad that one of the biggest reasons people who used to call themselves Christians, or people who used to go to church, are no longer, is Christians.
They say Christians are all hypocrites. They blame the way Christians say one thing and do another, and say that don’t want to be like that.
EX: College…When I was in College, I was praying about whether or not I should commit to going to this fellowship. One day I was going to the Library to study, and I saw the Worship leader and his thug friends smoking outside of the library.
I was so shocked an upset. Guess what, I never went back to that fellowship again. I left because I was stumbled by another Christian.
I’m SO holy right? I won’t attend a fellowship where people smoke.
EX: Smoking New Life Leader: I was reminded of when I was in High School, and did the same thing. I would take cigarettes from my friends.
We had a mtg at my house one day, and I pretended to take out a cigarette and smoke. One of the leaders was so upset, that she went and told all my friends at school, and she never came back to the club.
Matthew 5:16 “You are the Light of the World, you need to “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in Heaven”.
EX: Pelicans…For many years Monterey, a California coast town, was a pelican's paradise. As the fishermen cleaned their fish, they flung the offal to the pelicans. The birds grew fat, lazy, and contented. Eventually, however the offal was utilized, and there were no longer snacks for the pelicans. When the change came the pelicans made no effort to fish for themselves. They waited around and grew gaunt and thin. Many starved to death. They had forgotten how to fish for themselves
The problem was solved by importing new pelicans from the south, birds accustomed to foraging for themselves. They were placed among their starving cousins, and the newcomers immediately started catching fish. Before long, the hungry pelicans followed suit, and the famine was ended.
We are just like Pelicans. We can’t help but watch others around us and naturally follow their example.
We need to set an example for believers in speech, life, love, faith and purity.”
You’re not only being watched by unbelievers, You are being watched by believers. Make sure you are living as a light.
But most importantly, do you know who’s watching you?
You are being watched by God.
This is the most important reason why we should live holy lives at all times… because God sees you.
God knows everything we do, all the good things and all the bad things.
The bible tells us so over and over again. Jesus says it all the time.
In one sermon, he says it over and over and over.
Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
When you fast in secret, The Father will see you and reward you.
When you pray in secret, the Father will see you and reward you.
When you give in secret, the Father will see you and reward.
God sees all things! But it’s amazing how sometimes we play him for a fool.
EX: Jung’s dogs. He had these dogs that were really cute, but they smelled like Shitzus! And our roommates would get annoyed because they would be all over our furniture and on the rug.
He would put them in the kitchen, but if they got out, he would get all Korean on them!
Well these dogs were smart, they would know when Jung was coming. And they would run back into the kitchen and put on their innocent puppy dog face. But Jung of course knew, and would get Korean on them.
These dogs have no idea the intelligence level of Jung, a human. They can’t comprehend how much understanding and knowledge he has.
Well sometime we humans play God down and try to find relief when we do wrong.
But we forget that God is on a whole different level than us. He has knowledge and understanding beyond what we can comprehend. He knows everything and sees everything at once.
God is watching you, you cannot hide your sin from him.
But here’s the thing. I wanted to talk about how God sees everything we do, and how the Bible teaches that we will be judged for everything we do. Whether good or bad, God will bring it all to light and judge us according to the what we’ve done.
As I was preparing this, I realized that I can try to scare you guys into Holy Living, by telling you that God is a wrathful God who sees all things and will judge you when you stand before the throne.
But I think there is a greater motivation for living a holy life, and letting our light shine.
Because God is a Good God, and He’s worth it! God is worth our life and all that we do should be because he deserves it.
QUESTION: How is your heart? In your heart, do you love God? What goes on in here regarding your view of God?
EX: Water in a bottle. What happens when I shake this? Water comes out
Jesus teaches us that whatever is stored up in the heart, that’s what’s going to come out in the way we walk, the way we talk, the way we live.
If you truly love God, and see Him as a Holy and Worthy God, when we are shaken by temptation, what we believe about God will come out in the way we live.
If you see God as a God who sees all things, but also a Holy God, and one who is worthy of our obedience, it will show in the decisions we make. It’ll show in the way we live.
You guys can try as hard as you want to try to live a good life, but if our inside is not changed and transformed, good will not come out.
If we are not holy from within, and we don’t believe God as a Holy God, Holiness will not come out.
POSER: You’ll try for a while to live holy, and you may pull off a few good deeds, but you will burn out. Why, because there isn’t at the root of us a reverence and love for an All-seeing, all-knowing God.
If we see God for who He is, the Holy and Awesome God that he is, we will start living like he is an Holy and Awesome God.
So our view of God has to change. How do you view God? Our heart has to change, who do you believe God is? Our Mind has to change, Who do you know God is?
Is God the Most important thing to you in your life? Is he your greatest priority?
John Feng: I was deeply impressed by a prayer of one of the brothers from my church. He was praying one night, “God, help us to prefer you over everything else in life.”
IF it comes down to sin, or God, I prefer God!
If it comes down to money or God, I prefer God!
If it comes down to popularity or God, I prefer God!
If it’s between finding love from another person and God, I prefer God!
If it’s between pornography and God, I prefer God.
EX: FIREPROOF. I was blessed when I watched the movie Fireproof. In the movie, there’s this couple who’s marriage is about to break up.
One of the reasons was because of his addiction to Internet pornography. In one scene, he’s struggling with temptation, but knowing that that stuff hurts his wife and kills her inside, he rips out his computer, takes it outside, and in a godly way, destroys it with a baseball bat.
But the best part is that when she comes home, she sees on the desk where the computer used to be a vase of Roses, and a note that says “I Love You More”.
So here’s this thing that he loves in his life, something that had taken great priority. And yet, he made a choice, and said, “NO, I love my Wife more. I prefer my wife.”
Would you be able to place a note in place of the temptations and sin that you face, and say, “God, I love you more.”
I’m willing to give this up, I’m willing to not to gossip/look at pornography/ use foul language/ watch these movies/ talk about that girl/ , because I love you more. I prefer YOU over sin.
Guys, God is SO good, and He’s so Worth it. He deserves the first and greatest place in our lives.
And he says, there should Be NO other gods before me. There should be nothing else in this life that takes greater place than Me. No the things we love. Not the bad sinful things. Not even things that are good. Nothing is to take greater place than God.
24:14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
See, God could force you to love him, and force you to do things that please him, but he chooses to give us the freedom to choose Him.
Instead, He sits back and Watches you. God is watching you.
And he watches to see what you will choose. Sin? Or Him?
EX: When I was young, I used to fear my dad a lot. He used to lay it down, and he has a short temper, and so he hit me whenever I acted up, which was quite often.
He would always say “Don’t be so hyper!” No matter what it was, “Don’t be so hyper!” And then he’d hit me and make me cry.
Well, one day, I was playing kickball against our house. And I kicked it, and the ball went straight through my sisters window, and I knew I was dead meat.
My dad heard it, and he runs outside, and he stares at the shattered window, he looks at me, and then walks back into his room where he continued reading.
I was like, “Eh? Oookay.” Then I was like, “Phew! I’m off the hook! He didn’t get mad!”
So that night, after dinner, I got all hyper and I was acting up and being a bad kid, my dad comes to me, and spanks me!
I start crying like a baby. And after I get a hold of myself, he says:
“When you broke the window today, I was furious! But I didn’t say anything and I didn’t spank you. I wanted to see if you were sorry for what you did, so I kept my mouth shut and just watched you all night.
If you were truly sorry, your behavior and your actions should have changed, and I would have let you go.
But he says, “Nothing you done tonight shows me that you are truly sorry.” So I beat you down.
What my dad wanted to see was if there was something really going on inside my heart, and if there was, it would have showed in my actions. I would have responded accordingly and changed my behavior.
But my dad, who does love me, that day chose to watch to see how I would act. Unfortunately, a day was enough for him and he was ready to take action.
Our heavenly Father is SOOOOO patient with us.
He could wipe us out each time we sin, he has every right to.
But 2 Pet 3:9 says “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”.
And so for now, he just watches. He watches you to see what’s going on in your heart. Because what is truly in your heart, will show in the way you live and the things you do.
Do you love God? Do you prefer God? Do you see him as holy? Is he your greatest priority?
Let your light shine bright, because unbelievers are watching you.
Let your light shine bright, because believers are watching you.
Let your light shine bright, because God is watching you.
Do you ever feel like you’re being watched? Do you ever feel like someone’s watching you?
I’m not paranoid or anything, but with all these shows with hidden cameras and stuff, sometimes I can’t help but to think someone is watching me.
When I was growing up, I used to wonder if I was the only one in this world, and everybody was set up to be a player or actor in my life. Silly idea. But then the Truman show came out and I was like, whoa! It’s true!
(chuckle) Well, today I want to make it clear to you… YOU ARE BEING WATCHED. Really, I can prove it to you in the bible.
Who are we being watched by?
You are being watched by Unbelievers.
We are being watched by non-Christians.
Seriously, they are all around you! Think about it… in your class, at your school, in the mall… what do you do every time you find out someone is a Christian? You go “Whoa! That’s so cool! I’m a Christian too!”
Why is it so exciting? Because I think we assume and acknowledge that there are so many people around us who aren’t Christians. It’s just an accepted fact.
So when you discover someone is a Christian like you, you get excited as if it’s rare.
Jesus even says so in Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden”
Jesus was talking to the people of Jerusalem. See because Jerusalem was this big city that sat right on top of the Mountain, and many people can see the city. But not just that, they were the People of God. They were always noticed by those surrounding them…There was no way they could go without being unnoticed.
In the same way, we as Christians, as the people of God, are always being watched. There is no way that we can go without being watched.
Unbelievers are watching, whether they are seeking truth and wanting to observe how we live, or if they’re just looking for reasons to accuse of doing wrong or being hypocrites.
Remember in Acts 20:8, Paul and the Christians would always keep the rooms where they met well lit, so that all the people outside knew what they were doing. There were unbelievers who were accusing Christians of doing immoral things at night during their meetings, but Paul didn’t want anyone to have anything to say against them. He knew they were being watched by unbelievers.
Everyday I read the news and often times there will be an article involving Christians.
And often times it’s to pick on something wrong that a famous Christian or a group of Christians did. I really feel that we are being watched more than ever.
But Jesus continues in Matthew 5:16 to say that since you are the Light of the World, you need to “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in Heaven.”
Because we know we are being watched, we ought to do good at all times so that when people see us, they can’t help but to praise God in Heaven.
In Titus 2:7-8, Paul tells a young Christian named Titus, “In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
EX: Hudson Taylor…Years ago the communist government in China commissioned an author to write a biography of Hudson Taylor with the purpose of distorting the facts and presenting him in a bad light. They wanted to discredit the name of this consecrated missionary of the gospel. As the author was doing his research, he was increasingly impressed by Taylor's saintly character and godly life, and he found it extremely difficult to carry out his assigned task with a clear conscience. Eventually, at the risk of losing his life, he laid aside his pen, renounced his atheism, and received Jesus as his personal Savior.
Whether we realize it or not, our example leaves an impression on others.
Unbelievers are watching you.
You are being watched by Believers.
You might be surrounded by unbelievers when you go out and go to school, but you also got to realize that you are also surrounded by Christians. Just look around. Christians everywhere.
Just as we need to be in good behavior, living a righteous life in front of non-believers, we to need to live in good behavior among the Believers, because they too are watching you.
Paul encourages Christians to learn from each other. He told the Christians in Corinth to “follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.”
We are to be setting examples for each other. As your leaders follow Christ, you follow them. And as you follow their example, you can be sure other Christians will be watching you and following your example.
But it goes the other way too!
In 1 Timothy 4:12, Paul tells them, “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for believers in speech, life, love, faith and purity.”
Even you, though you are in your youth, are to set examples for other believers. Examples aren’t only for the leaders to set.
EX: My Brother read the bible entirely in 6th grade! The college people at my church saw this, and started doing it themselves!
But what happens when we sin and other Christians are watching? They stumble! Meaning it may cause them to sin or lose faith. It might discourage another Christian.
Biggest Complaint: Christians. I think it’s sad that one of the biggest reasons people who used to call themselves Christians, or people who used to go to church, are no longer, is Christians.
They say Christians are all hypocrites. They blame the way Christians say one thing and do another, and say that don’t want to be like that.
EX: College…When I was in College, I was praying about whether or not I should commit to going to this fellowship. One day I was going to the Library to study, and I saw the Worship leader and his thug friends smoking outside of the library.
I was so shocked an upset. Guess what, I never went back to that fellowship again. I left because I was stumbled by another Christian.
I’m SO holy right? I won’t attend a fellowship where people smoke.
EX: Smoking New Life Leader: I was reminded of when I was in High School, and did the same thing. I would take cigarettes from my friends.
We had a mtg at my house one day, and I pretended to take out a cigarette and smoke. One of the leaders was so upset, that she went and told all my friends at school, and she never came back to the club.
Matthew 5:16 “You are the Light of the World, you need to “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in Heaven”.
EX: Pelicans…For many years Monterey, a California coast town, was a pelican's paradise. As the fishermen cleaned their fish, they flung the offal to the pelicans. The birds grew fat, lazy, and contented. Eventually, however the offal was utilized, and there were no longer snacks for the pelicans. When the change came the pelicans made no effort to fish for themselves. They waited around and grew gaunt and thin. Many starved to death. They had forgotten how to fish for themselves
The problem was solved by importing new pelicans from the south, birds accustomed to foraging for themselves. They were placed among their starving cousins, and the newcomers immediately started catching fish. Before long, the hungry pelicans followed suit, and the famine was ended.
We are just like Pelicans. We can’t help but watch others around us and naturally follow their example.
We need to set an example for believers in speech, life, love, faith and purity.”
You’re not only being watched by unbelievers, You are being watched by believers. Make sure you are living as a light.
But most importantly, do you know who’s watching you?
You are being watched by God.
This is the most important reason why we should live holy lives at all times… because God sees you.
God knows everything we do, all the good things and all the bad things.
The bible tells us so over and over again. Jesus says it all the time.
In one sermon, he says it over and over and over.
Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
When you fast in secret, The Father will see you and reward you.
When you pray in secret, the Father will see you and reward you.
When you give in secret, the Father will see you and reward.
God sees all things! But it’s amazing how sometimes we play him for a fool.
EX: Jung’s dogs. He had these dogs that were really cute, but they smelled like Shitzus! And our roommates would get annoyed because they would be all over our furniture and on the rug.
He would put them in the kitchen, but if they got out, he would get all Korean on them!
Well these dogs were smart, they would know when Jung was coming. And they would run back into the kitchen and put on their innocent puppy dog face. But Jung of course knew, and would get Korean on them.
These dogs have no idea the intelligence level of Jung, a human. They can’t comprehend how much understanding and knowledge he has.
Well sometime we humans play God down and try to find relief when we do wrong.
But we forget that God is on a whole different level than us. He has knowledge and understanding beyond what we can comprehend. He knows everything and sees everything at once.
God is watching you, you cannot hide your sin from him.
But here’s the thing. I wanted to talk about how God sees everything we do, and how the Bible teaches that we will be judged for everything we do. Whether good or bad, God will bring it all to light and judge us according to the what we’ve done.
As I was preparing this, I realized that I can try to scare you guys into Holy Living, by telling you that God is a wrathful God who sees all things and will judge you when you stand before the throne.
But I think there is a greater motivation for living a holy life, and letting our light shine.
Because God is a Good God, and He’s worth it! God is worth our life and all that we do should be because he deserves it.
QUESTION: How is your heart? In your heart, do you love God? What goes on in here regarding your view of God?
EX: Water in a bottle. What happens when I shake this? Water comes out
Jesus teaches us that whatever is stored up in the heart, that’s what’s going to come out in the way we walk, the way we talk, the way we live.
If you truly love God, and see Him as a Holy and Worthy God, when we are shaken by temptation, what we believe about God will come out in the way we live.
If you see God as a God who sees all things, but also a Holy God, and one who is worthy of our obedience, it will show in the decisions we make. It’ll show in the way we live.
You guys can try as hard as you want to try to live a good life, but if our inside is not changed and transformed, good will not come out.
If we are not holy from within, and we don’t believe God as a Holy God, Holiness will not come out.
POSER: You’ll try for a while to live holy, and you may pull off a few good deeds, but you will burn out. Why, because there isn’t at the root of us a reverence and love for an All-seeing, all-knowing God.
If we see God for who He is, the Holy and Awesome God that he is, we will start living like he is an Holy and Awesome God.
So our view of God has to change. How do you view God? Our heart has to change, who do you believe God is? Our Mind has to change, Who do you know God is?
Is God the Most important thing to you in your life? Is he your greatest priority?
John Feng: I was deeply impressed by a prayer of one of the brothers from my church. He was praying one night, “God, help us to prefer you over everything else in life.”
IF it comes down to sin, or God, I prefer God!
If it comes down to money or God, I prefer God!
If it comes down to popularity or God, I prefer God!
If it’s between finding love from another person and God, I prefer God!
If it’s between pornography and God, I prefer God.
EX: FIREPROOF. I was blessed when I watched the movie Fireproof. In the movie, there’s this couple who’s marriage is about to break up.
One of the reasons was because of his addiction to Internet pornography. In one scene, he’s struggling with temptation, but knowing that that stuff hurts his wife and kills her inside, he rips out his computer, takes it outside, and in a godly way, destroys it with a baseball bat.
But the best part is that when she comes home, she sees on the desk where the computer used to be a vase of Roses, and a note that says “I Love You More”.
So here’s this thing that he loves in his life, something that had taken great priority. And yet, he made a choice, and said, “NO, I love my Wife more. I prefer my wife.”
Would you be able to place a note in place of the temptations and sin that you face, and say, “God, I love you more.”
I’m willing to give this up, I’m willing to not to gossip/look at pornography/ use foul language/ watch these movies/ talk about that girl/ , because I love you more. I prefer YOU over sin.
Guys, God is SO good, and He’s so Worth it. He deserves the first and greatest place in our lives.
And he says, there should Be NO other gods before me. There should be nothing else in this life that takes greater place than Me. No the things we love. Not the bad sinful things. Not even things that are good. Nothing is to take greater place than God.
24:14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
See, God could force you to love him, and force you to do things that please him, but he chooses to give us the freedom to choose Him.
Instead, He sits back and Watches you. God is watching you.
And he watches to see what you will choose. Sin? Or Him?
EX: When I was young, I used to fear my dad a lot. He used to lay it down, and he has a short temper, and so he hit me whenever I acted up, which was quite often.
He would always say “Don’t be so hyper!” No matter what it was, “Don’t be so hyper!” And then he’d hit me and make me cry.
Well, one day, I was playing kickball against our house. And I kicked it, and the ball went straight through my sisters window, and I knew I was dead meat.
My dad heard it, and he runs outside, and he stares at the shattered window, he looks at me, and then walks back into his room where he continued reading.
I was like, “Eh? Oookay.” Then I was like, “Phew! I’m off the hook! He didn’t get mad!”
So that night, after dinner, I got all hyper and I was acting up and being a bad kid, my dad comes to me, and spanks me!
I start crying like a baby. And after I get a hold of myself, he says:
“When you broke the window today, I was furious! But I didn’t say anything and I didn’t spank you. I wanted to see if you were sorry for what you did, so I kept my mouth shut and just watched you all night.
If you were truly sorry, your behavior and your actions should have changed, and I would have let you go.
But he says, “Nothing you done tonight shows me that you are truly sorry.” So I beat you down.
What my dad wanted to see was if there was something really going on inside my heart, and if there was, it would have showed in my actions. I would have responded accordingly and changed my behavior.
But my dad, who does love me, that day chose to watch to see how I would act. Unfortunately, a day was enough for him and he was ready to take action.
Our heavenly Father is SOOOOO patient with us.
He could wipe us out each time we sin, he has every right to.
But 2 Pet 3:9 says “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”.
And so for now, he just watches. He watches you to see what’s going on in your heart. Because what is truly in your heart, will show in the way you live and the things you do.
Do you love God? Do you prefer God? Do you see him as holy? Is he your greatest priority?
Let your light shine bright, because unbelievers are watching you.
Let your light shine bright, because believers are watching you.
Let your light shine bright, because God is watching you.
For The Cross- PVPHS and SHS New Life Rally
Introduction
I have a confession. My name is Greg, and I’m a pyromaniac.
A pyro is someone who loves fire, who loves to start fires, and watch them burn. When it’s safe, that is.
My friends and I love the outdoors, and we try to go camping at least a couple times each year.
For those of you who have gone camping, what’s the BEST part about camp? The camp FIRE.
And every time we go camping, guess who’s eager to start up the campfire? Yeah baby, that’s me.
And over the years, not to brag, I’ve developed my own little technique on building campfires.
So tonight, let me start off by showing you how to build a nice, cute, little campfire in 5 easy steps.
1. Gather the wood. This might be a little too big, but you want something nice and dry.
2. Form the wood into a teepee around a core. The core should be made of pieces of wood and pine.
3. Take your lighter which you DON’T have and Light the core on fire.
4. Wait… Or Since we’re Asian, Pose.
5. Step back Watch that Fire ignite into Flames!
6. Optional- Save your brows! Move the log back about 25 feet unless you don’t carry about them.
This past trip to Sequoia, when I lit our campfire up, people from surrounding campgrounds were oohing and ah-ing at fire. Some people even came over to watch our fire burn and to share in it’s warmth!
I Love fires!
But you know what I love more than seeing campfires go up in flames? Seeing youth like you set on fire…totally on fire for Christ.
What I mean is that you have a heart that’s totally and madly in love with Jesus Christ and a life passionately devoted to him, youth who live their lives FTC: FOR THE CROSS.
And in this way I want to see you burn so bright that everyone around will be able to see the light of Christ from within you and experience it’s warmth and power.
Jesus says in Matt 5: 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp(fire) and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
See according to Master, we are to be like a flame that gives off light that other’s experience, so that the result is that people notice, and give their own praise and worship and glory to God.
Our fire should not be to draw people to ourselves so that they admire us and we get the glory.
But our fire for God should cause them to ultimately see how Great God is and cause them to One day turn their own praise to God.
Tonight I want to take you through a progression of 3 steps in which we can build a fire for Christ, one that has the potential to sweep through our lives, our churches, and hopefully across our schools.
WE can’t start this fire, but we can take steps to be available for the Great Fire Starter, the Holy Spirit of God, to come and light a fire within us.
Step one: t - Carry the Cross
EX: When we go camping, the campfire comes at night. But before that, during the day, we usually do some intense hike where we climb for miles and hours to explore the wilderness.
And so by the time we get back to the campground, everyone wants to just sit and chill and chew on some munchies since you’re starving from the day’s activities.
But I ain’t got time for that, cuz’ guess what I gotta do? I have to go out and gather all the firewood.
It’s not all just lying there for me in a bundle, I actually have to go and find it all.
It requires some sacrifice, As pleasurable as it is relaxing and eating with everyone, I’ll be going out and looking for wood.
And my hands get all dirty, covered with soil and bugs from the ground. The wood will be all thorny and heavy. But I am committed, and I would have to carry all the wood back to the campground.
It takes sacrifice, cuz sometimes you can’t be doing what everyone else is doing.
But it’s SO worth it. Because I know that the fire is going to be so amazing and everyone in that place will be able to experience it’s power and warmth all night long.
In the same way, if we want to light a fire for Christ in our lives, well it starts with Sacrifice. Commitment.
Here’s what I’m talking about:
Just as I was Committed and had to sacrifice and go and carry the wood, well you’re gonna have to go and carry some sort of “wood” as well.
JESUS CHRIST: What do I mean? Well think about the New Testament.
Do you guys remember anyone who had to carry some form of wood from one place to another?
Christ, right? Christ had to carry his own wooden cross on which he was killed.
The wooden cross is the greatest symbol of commitment and sacrifice that we know, because it was the wooden cross that Christ gave up his life for us.
Do you realize that in Glorifying the Father, Jesus made us his #1 Priority? He had everything he could want, in the heavenly places, but he stepped down from Majesty because he saw YOU as a priority.
He was totally committed to you. It was all about YOU and a relationship with YOU.
EX: 2 way thing. What if I told you I’m in a relationship with a Manequin? You say “Greg, it’s a dummy!” Don’t call her a dummy! When I talk, she listens. We never fight. She never talks back.
With all relationships, it’s gotta be a two-way thing.
Jesus sacrificed for us, He was committed to us. Look what he expects in return:
I struggled a bit. I hesitate in reading this verse to you. This is not an easy teaching of Jesus to hear.
Luke 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Crowds were following Jesus, but Jesus wasn’t concerned about being the most popular kid in school.
Jesus is going to the extreme in saying that the highest priority and the greatest love in your life has to be Jesus.
Carrying the Cross means that you are committed to him and willing to sacrifice for Jesus because He sacrificed for you.
When you are being tugged at by the things you love, when you’re torn by the sinful desires of your heart, will you be able to sacrifice it all FTC? For the sake of the Cross, to carry it and follow Jesus?
Jesus Christ is so worth it! I could talk all night about what happens if we don’t commit to Christ.
But we should be willing to carry the cross because he deserves it. He is so worthy!
QUESTION: How is your heart? In your heart, do you love Jesus Christ more than anything in this world?
Is Jesus the Most important thing to you in your life? Is he your greatest priority?
John Feng: I was deeply impacted by a prayer of one of the brothers from my church. He was praying one night, “God, help us to prefer you over everything else in life.”
IF it comes down to sin, or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
If it comes down to money or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!!
If it comes down to popularity or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
If it’s between finding love from another person and Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
If it’s between pornography, sexual pleasures, or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
EX: FIREPROOF. I was blessed when I watched the movie Fireproof. In the movie, there’s this couple who’s marriage is about to break up.
One of the reasons was because of his addiction to Internet pornography. In one scene, he’s struggling with temptation, but knowing that that stuff hurts his wife and kills her inside, he rips out his computer, takes it outside, and in a godly way, destroys it with a baseball bat.
But the best part is that when she comes home, she sees on the desk where the computer used to be a vase of Roses, and a note that says “I Love You More”.
So here’s this thing that he loves in his life, something that had taken great priority. And yet, he made a choice, and said, “NO, I love my Wife more. I prefer my wife.”
HOW ABOUT YOU? Would you be able to place a note in place of the temptations and everything that you face, and say, “Jesus, I love you more.”
I’m willing to give this up, I’m willing to not to gossip/look at pornography/ use foul language/ watch these movies/ talk about that girl, because I love you more. I prefer YOU over everything in my life.
Guys, God is SO good, Carrying the Cross is worth it! He deserves our commitment and sacrifice.
Will you Choose Christ? Will you carry the cross out of your love for Jesus?
Will you be willing to sacrifice in order to make Jesus #1? Because He is SO Worth it.
When we are committed to this first step in carrying the cross, it will lead into step
2.
Step 2: Become People of Passion
When we truly carry our cross, we will naturally be people of passion.
You can’t make yourself passionate. Passion is something that just comes out. It’s natural.
When we are passionate for Christ in our hearts, we will be passionate people in our lives.
EX: Water in a bottle. What happens when I shake this? Water comes out
Jesus teaches us that whatever is stored up in the heart, that’s what’s going to come out in the way we walk, the way we talk, the way we live.
If you truly love Christ, and committed to carry the Cross, when we are shaken by temptation and the things of this world, our commitment to Christ in here will come out in the way we live.
If we are passionate for the Cross of Christ on the inside, we will naturally be passionate on the outside.
POSER: You guys can try as hard as you want to try to live a good “Christian” life, but if our inside is not changed and transformed, committed to the Cross, a life FTC will not come out.
You’ll try for a while to live out a Christian life, and you may pull off a few good deeds, but you will burn out. Why, because there isn’t at the core of us a commitment and love for Christ and the cross.
BASIC CAMPFIRE SCIENCE: If you want a lasting fire, you have to burn from the core. Many people who start a fire for the first time will pour a lot of fuel and have a lot a wood to get a huge fire burning, only to find out w/n minutes that there really is no fire. It’s gone.
If we are committed to Christ and carry the cross and making him our greatest preference, it will come out in our lives and people will see the passion within.
I know many of you probably don’t think of yourself as a passionate person, especially since we’re Asian.
What do you think of when you hear the word Passion?
EX: Enthusiasm. Do you know where the word comes from? Back in the day, when people were converting to Christianity, people saw in them a radical change in their lives. They saw them begin to live different with a newfound joy for Jesus. People didn’t know how to describe what they saw. All they can say was that those new Christians are in God. In God, in Greek is en theos. That description is where we get the word enthusiasm.
When we TRULY commit to carrying the cross, and live like Jesus is our #1, then the bible says that God comes to live in us. Not only is God in us, it’s a 2-way thing, and we are now In God. En theos.
People should see by the way we walk and talk that there is something different about you… en theos.
God is in you, you are in God, and it shows.
Here’s the biggest misconception. When we think of Passion, We also often think of people who cry and scream and jump and dance for Jesus.
Is that passion? Could be. But I think it goes deeper than that.
But a passion is an evidence of an inward commitment. It’s when people can look at you and your actions and know you are seriously committed to something. SO committed you’re willing to suffer for it.
EX: Telephone
People believed her. Why? Not because she was crying and screaming, but because her actions and her words showed that she was committed to what she believed was true.
I don’t care how I look, I don’t care what people think. This is what I believe, and I’ll stand for it.
EX: Passion Of Christ. It’s not because he was crying and screaming and dancing for Joy that he got to be the only one to carry a heavy wooden cross and then be nailed to it.
NO, it’s called the Passion of Christ because it was something He truly believed in, so much that he was willing to suffer for it. He was committed to it.
So if you have taken that first step, Step 1, to carry your cross,
then Step 2, it will come out that you are a person who is passionate for Jesus in that you are very serious about living for Christ. FTC. We will then become People of Passion.
If step one, leads to step two. What happens when you put step one and two together? You get step 3.
What happens when you take the cross that you carry, and you combine it with Passion that’s in you? You Passiton.
3. Passiton
Growing up, there’s a song our youth group used to always sing called “Pass it On”. The song starts like this:
It Only takes a spark, to get a fire going.
And soon all those around, can warm up in it’s glowing.
That’s how it is with God’s love,
Once you’ve experienced it,
You spread His Love, to everyone, You want to Pass it On.
Ex: We went to Sequoia when it was time to go to sleep, I went to put out the fire. I made sure that everything was completely put out. Mike was even like “Dude, that’s enough.”
We tucked into our sleeping bags. But 20 minutes into my sleep, Mike wakes me up! The fire ignited! Not just the fire in the pit, but it lit up a 10 foot tree trunk that was next to it!
What happened? What happened was it only takes a spark to get a fire going. There were apparently embers that were still warm, and when a little spark lights up, those embers heat up, and when a few embers heat up together, they pass it on to other embers around them, or to other pieces of wood. Once they’re hot enough, they heat up the wood around them, until everyone around catches on fire!
Just the song says, it only takes a spark, to get a fire going. It only takes a spark to get a fire going.
Imagine what it will be like if each of us is a light for Christ, on fire for Christ, and we go out to our different schools?
And not just by ourselves, but Christians around us catch on to the vision and they too are committed to Christ.
Imagine how powerful the light of Christ shines. Imagine the attention Jesus will get.
Remember what Jesus said?
Matt 5: 14"You are the light of the world… let your light (plural) shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
You are a fire for Christ. When your fire for Christ is seen, you will see it get passed on to others. Jesus says so. He says that our light will draw others and many will turn to the Father in Heaven just like you!
EX: When I went to college, people told me that you can go 1 of 2 ways. You either get involved in parties and drinking and the ways of the world, or you can go the way of Christ and grow in faith.
That scared me, so I prayed that God would help me go the way of Christ.
When I moved into the dorms at UCI, He put me in a room next to a Caucasian Atheist on my left named Jesus, an Agnostic Chinese guy on my right, and a Roman Catholic Pilipino across the way.
That year, I was committed to being a light for Christ, and not being afraid to show it.
I would worship in my room, I would read the Bible openly in the living area, I would go to fellowship every Wednesday.
Everyone knew of my commitment to Christ. Not just because they saw it, but I also talked about Him. I looked for opportunities to share with these three guys my faith, and who Jesus is to me. That year, none of them received Christ. Through my efforts, no one caught on.
But that doesn’t mean the fire wasn’t burning.
I moved out with Rhian, but I didn’t see the other guys for the next three years!
My final quarter at UCI, I’m on campus…
I graduated college, and I never got to see Rhian saved. I wanted to see him saved the most.
Two years later, I get an email from Rhian saying that he’s given his life to Christ. And He tells me that it was me showing Him Christ’s love all those years that brought him to Christ, along with his aunt who prayed for him, his cousin who challenged him, and Dr. Vaca who mentored him.
When we let our lights shine bright, together as Christians, we will pass it on.
This is something that God is in charge of. He will start the fire, He will make us people of passion, and He will cause that fire to be passed on.
But it starts when we start committing ourselves to Jesus Christ, and carrying our cross, sacrificing whatever it takes to make him our greatest priority, our first love.
And we pray that God will cause a fire in our hearts, in our churches and in our schools through us, a fire that can’t be contained.
I want to pray for you right now, and so I’m going to ask everyone to join me right now. I’m gonna give you some time to just sit before the Lord and talk to Him. Is this a challenge that you want to take up? Will you make that commitment? I’m giving you time so that you can actually think it through, no forced decisions, no pressure. Just a commitment to make between you and God.
I have a confession. My name is Greg, and I’m a pyromaniac.
A pyro is someone who loves fire, who loves to start fires, and watch them burn. When it’s safe, that is.
My friends and I love the outdoors, and we try to go camping at least a couple times each year.
For those of you who have gone camping, what’s the BEST part about camp? The camp FIRE.
And every time we go camping, guess who’s eager to start up the campfire? Yeah baby, that’s me.
And over the years, not to brag, I’ve developed my own little technique on building campfires.
So tonight, let me start off by showing you how to build a nice, cute, little campfire in 5 easy steps.
1. Gather the wood. This might be a little too big, but you want something nice and dry.
2. Form the wood into a teepee around a core. The core should be made of pieces of wood and pine.
3. Take your lighter which you DON’T have and Light the core on fire.
4. Wait… Or Since we’re Asian, Pose.
5. Step back Watch that Fire ignite into Flames!
6. Optional- Save your brows! Move the log back about 25 feet unless you don’t carry about them.
This past trip to Sequoia, when I lit our campfire up, people from surrounding campgrounds were oohing and ah-ing at fire. Some people even came over to watch our fire burn and to share in it’s warmth!
I Love fires!
But you know what I love more than seeing campfires go up in flames? Seeing youth like you set on fire…totally on fire for Christ.
What I mean is that you have a heart that’s totally and madly in love with Jesus Christ and a life passionately devoted to him, youth who live their lives FTC: FOR THE CROSS.
And in this way I want to see you burn so bright that everyone around will be able to see the light of Christ from within you and experience it’s warmth and power.
Jesus says in Matt 5: 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp(fire) and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
See according to Master, we are to be like a flame that gives off light that other’s experience, so that the result is that people notice, and give their own praise and worship and glory to God.
Our fire should not be to draw people to ourselves so that they admire us and we get the glory.
But our fire for God should cause them to ultimately see how Great God is and cause them to One day turn their own praise to God.
Tonight I want to take you through a progression of 3 steps in which we can build a fire for Christ, one that has the potential to sweep through our lives, our churches, and hopefully across our schools.
WE can’t start this fire, but we can take steps to be available for the Great Fire Starter, the Holy Spirit of God, to come and light a fire within us.
Step one: t - Carry the Cross
EX: When we go camping, the campfire comes at night. But before that, during the day, we usually do some intense hike where we climb for miles and hours to explore the wilderness.
And so by the time we get back to the campground, everyone wants to just sit and chill and chew on some munchies since you’re starving from the day’s activities.
But I ain’t got time for that, cuz’ guess what I gotta do? I have to go out and gather all the firewood.
It’s not all just lying there for me in a bundle, I actually have to go and find it all.
It requires some sacrifice, As pleasurable as it is relaxing and eating with everyone, I’ll be going out and looking for wood.
And my hands get all dirty, covered with soil and bugs from the ground. The wood will be all thorny and heavy. But I am committed, and I would have to carry all the wood back to the campground.
It takes sacrifice, cuz sometimes you can’t be doing what everyone else is doing.
But it’s SO worth it. Because I know that the fire is going to be so amazing and everyone in that place will be able to experience it’s power and warmth all night long.
In the same way, if we want to light a fire for Christ in our lives, well it starts with Sacrifice. Commitment.
Here’s what I’m talking about:
Just as I was Committed and had to sacrifice and go and carry the wood, well you’re gonna have to go and carry some sort of “wood” as well.
JESUS CHRIST: What do I mean? Well think about the New Testament.
Do you guys remember anyone who had to carry some form of wood from one place to another?
Christ, right? Christ had to carry his own wooden cross on which he was killed.
The wooden cross is the greatest symbol of commitment and sacrifice that we know, because it was the wooden cross that Christ gave up his life for us.
Do you realize that in Glorifying the Father, Jesus made us his #1 Priority? He had everything he could want, in the heavenly places, but he stepped down from Majesty because he saw YOU as a priority.
He was totally committed to you. It was all about YOU and a relationship with YOU.
EX: 2 way thing. What if I told you I’m in a relationship with a Manequin? You say “Greg, it’s a dummy!” Don’t call her a dummy! When I talk, she listens. We never fight. She never talks back.
With all relationships, it’s gotta be a two-way thing.
Jesus sacrificed for us, He was committed to us. Look what he expects in return:
I struggled a bit. I hesitate in reading this verse to you. This is not an easy teaching of Jesus to hear.
Luke 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Crowds were following Jesus, but Jesus wasn’t concerned about being the most popular kid in school.
Jesus is going to the extreme in saying that the highest priority and the greatest love in your life has to be Jesus.
Carrying the Cross means that you are committed to him and willing to sacrifice for Jesus because He sacrificed for you.
When you are being tugged at by the things you love, when you’re torn by the sinful desires of your heart, will you be able to sacrifice it all FTC? For the sake of the Cross, to carry it and follow Jesus?
Jesus Christ is so worth it! I could talk all night about what happens if we don’t commit to Christ.
But we should be willing to carry the cross because he deserves it. He is so worthy!
QUESTION: How is your heart? In your heart, do you love Jesus Christ more than anything in this world?
Is Jesus the Most important thing to you in your life? Is he your greatest priority?
John Feng: I was deeply impacted by a prayer of one of the brothers from my church. He was praying one night, “God, help us to prefer you over everything else in life.”
IF it comes down to sin, or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
If it comes down to money or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!!
If it comes down to popularity or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
If it’s between finding love from another person and Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
If it’s between pornography, sexual pleasures, or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
EX: FIREPROOF. I was blessed when I watched the movie Fireproof. In the movie, there’s this couple who’s marriage is about to break up.
One of the reasons was because of his addiction to Internet pornography. In one scene, he’s struggling with temptation, but knowing that that stuff hurts his wife and kills her inside, he rips out his computer, takes it outside, and in a godly way, destroys it with a baseball bat.
But the best part is that when she comes home, she sees on the desk where the computer used to be a vase of Roses, and a note that says “I Love You More”.
So here’s this thing that he loves in his life, something that had taken great priority. And yet, he made a choice, and said, “NO, I love my Wife more. I prefer my wife.”
HOW ABOUT YOU? Would you be able to place a note in place of the temptations and everything that you face, and say, “Jesus, I love you more.”
I’m willing to give this up, I’m willing to not to gossip/look at pornography/ use foul language/ watch these movies/ talk about that girl, because I love you more. I prefer YOU over everything in my life.
Guys, God is SO good, Carrying the Cross is worth it! He deserves our commitment and sacrifice.
Will you Choose Christ? Will you carry the cross out of your love for Jesus?
Will you be willing to sacrifice in order to make Jesus #1? Because He is SO Worth it.
When we are committed to this first step in carrying the cross, it will lead into step
2.
Step 2: Become People of Passion
When we truly carry our cross, we will naturally be people of passion.
You can’t make yourself passionate. Passion is something that just comes out. It’s natural.
When we are passionate for Christ in our hearts, we will be passionate people in our lives.
EX: Water in a bottle. What happens when I shake this? Water comes out
Jesus teaches us that whatever is stored up in the heart, that’s what’s going to come out in the way we walk, the way we talk, the way we live.
If you truly love Christ, and committed to carry the Cross, when we are shaken by temptation and the things of this world, our commitment to Christ in here will come out in the way we live.
If we are passionate for the Cross of Christ on the inside, we will naturally be passionate on the outside.
POSER: You guys can try as hard as you want to try to live a good “Christian” life, but if our inside is not changed and transformed, committed to the Cross, a life FTC will not come out.
You’ll try for a while to live out a Christian life, and you may pull off a few good deeds, but you will burn out. Why, because there isn’t at the core of us a commitment and love for Christ and the cross.
BASIC CAMPFIRE SCIENCE: If you want a lasting fire, you have to burn from the core. Many people who start a fire for the first time will pour a lot of fuel and have a lot a wood to get a huge fire burning, only to find out w/n minutes that there really is no fire. It’s gone.
If we are committed to Christ and carry the cross and making him our greatest preference, it will come out in our lives and people will see the passion within.
I know many of you probably don’t think of yourself as a passionate person, especially since we’re Asian.
What do you think of when you hear the word Passion?
EX: Enthusiasm. Do you know where the word comes from? Back in the day, when people were converting to Christianity, people saw in them a radical change in their lives. They saw them begin to live different with a newfound joy for Jesus. People didn’t know how to describe what they saw. All they can say was that those new Christians are in God. In God, in Greek is en theos. That description is where we get the word enthusiasm.
When we TRULY commit to carrying the cross, and live like Jesus is our #1, then the bible says that God comes to live in us. Not only is God in us, it’s a 2-way thing, and we are now In God. En theos.
People should see by the way we walk and talk that there is something different about you… en theos.
God is in you, you are in God, and it shows.
Here’s the biggest misconception. When we think of Passion, We also often think of people who cry and scream and jump and dance for Jesus.
Is that passion? Could be. But I think it goes deeper than that.
But a passion is an evidence of an inward commitment. It’s when people can look at you and your actions and know you are seriously committed to something. SO committed you’re willing to suffer for it.
EX: Telephone
People believed her. Why? Not because she was crying and screaming, but because her actions and her words showed that she was committed to what she believed was true.
I don’t care how I look, I don’t care what people think. This is what I believe, and I’ll stand for it.
EX: Passion Of Christ. It’s not because he was crying and screaming and dancing for Joy that he got to be the only one to carry a heavy wooden cross and then be nailed to it.
NO, it’s called the Passion of Christ because it was something He truly believed in, so much that he was willing to suffer for it. He was committed to it.
So if you have taken that first step, Step 1, to carry your cross,
then Step 2, it will come out that you are a person who is passionate for Jesus in that you are very serious about living for Christ. FTC. We will then become People of Passion.
If step one, leads to step two. What happens when you put step one and two together? You get step 3.
What happens when you take the cross that you carry, and you combine it with Passion that’s in you? You Passiton.
3. Passiton
Growing up, there’s a song our youth group used to always sing called “Pass it On”. The song starts like this:
It Only takes a spark, to get a fire going.
And soon all those around, can warm up in it’s glowing.
That’s how it is with God’s love,
Once you’ve experienced it,
You spread His Love, to everyone, You want to Pass it On.
Ex: We went to Sequoia when it was time to go to sleep, I went to put out the fire. I made sure that everything was completely put out. Mike was even like “Dude, that’s enough.”
We tucked into our sleeping bags. But 20 minutes into my sleep, Mike wakes me up! The fire ignited! Not just the fire in the pit, but it lit up a 10 foot tree trunk that was next to it!
What happened? What happened was it only takes a spark to get a fire going. There were apparently embers that were still warm, and when a little spark lights up, those embers heat up, and when a few embers heat up together, they pass it on to other embers around them, or to other pieces of wood. Once they’re hot enough, they heat up the wood around them, until everyone around catches on fire!
Just the song says, it only takes a spark, to get a fire going. It only takes a spark to get a fire going.
Imagine what it will be like if each of us is a light for Christ, on fire for Christ, and we go out to our different schools?
And not just by ourselves, but Christians around us catch on to the vision and they too are committed to Christ.
Imagine how powerful the light of Christ shines. Imagine the attention Jesus will get.
Remember what Jesus said?
Matt 5: 14"You are the light of the world… let your light (plural) shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
You are a fire for Christ. When your fire for Christ is seen, you will see it get passed on to others. Jesus says so. He says that our light will draw others and many will turn to the Father in Heaven just like you!
EX: When I went to college, people told me that you can go 1 of 2 ways. You either get involved in parties and drinking and the ways of the world, or you can go the way of Christ and grow in faith.
That scared me, so I prayed that God would help me go the way of Christ.
When I moved into the dorms at UCI, He put me in a room next to a Caucasian Atheist on my left named Jesus, an Agnostic Chinese guy on my right, and a Roman Catholic Pilipino across the way.
That year, I was committed to being a light for Christ, and not being afraid to show it.
I would worship in my room, I would read the Bible openly in the living area, I would go to fellowship every Wednesday.
Everyone knew of my commitment to Christ. Not just because they saw it, but I also talked about Him. I looked for opportunities to share with these three guys my faith, and who Jesus is to me. That year, none of them received Christ. Through my efforts, no one caught on.
But that doesn’t mean the fire wasn’t burning.
I moved out with Rhian, but I didn’t see the other guys for the next three years!
My final quarter at UCI, I’m on campus…
I graduated college, and I never got to see Rhian saved. I wanted to see him saved the most.
Two years later, I get an email from Rhian saying that he’s given his life to Christ. And He tells me that it was me showing Him Christ’s love all those years that brought him to Christ, along with his aunt who prayed for him, his cousin who challenged him, and Dr. Vaca who mentored him.
When we let our lights shine bright, together as Christians, we will pass it on.
This is something that God is in charge of. He will start the fire, He will make us people of passion, and He will cause that fire to be passed on.
But it starts when we start committing ourselves to Jesus Christ, and carrying our cross, sacrificing whatever it takes to make him our greatest priority, our first love.
And we pray that God will cause a fire in our hearts, in our churches and in our schools through us, a fire that can’t be contained.
I want to pray for you right now, and so I’m going to ask everyone to join me right now. I’m gonna give you some time to just sit before the Lord and talk to Him. Is this a challenge that you want to take up? Will you make that commitment? I’m giving you time so that you can actually think it through, no forced decisions, no pressure. Just a commitment to make between you and God.
Don’t Doubt Thomas! - John 20:24-31- Rowland Heights Community Christian Church
Don’t Doubt Thomas!
John 20:24-31
Intro
Story: In College, I remember clearly one night when I was distraught over something stupid I said to one of my good friends, and I just could not get over it. I felt that my friend could never forgive me.
James told me something that hit me hard. He said, “Don’t worry, She knows your character.”
What James was saying was that people know us for the character that’s displayed through our lives. And even though sometimes we make mistakes or do and say things that are out of character, it’s our true character that will shine through. Not individual instances.
The Disciple Thomas often gets a bad rap for being a “doubter”. The disciple Thomas is where we get the term “doubting Thomas”, why? Because we read of a story when he was caught in doubt. After Jesus had died, he wouldn’t believe that Christ had risen until he saw it with his own eyes.
Yet, I don’t think it’s fair to characterize him by that. All the disciples found it hard to believe until they saw Jesus face to face in the flesh after he had risen. We don’t call them the Doubting Disciples
But if we look at the character of Thomas throughout his life, I think we see admirable things that we can take after Thomas.
So If I could, I’d like to suggest another possible name for Thomas.
How about instead of Doubting Thomas, how about “Fearless Thomas”?
Fearless Thomas
Let me show you that Thomas was probably more Fearless than he was doubtful. Perhaps one of the most fearless of the Disciples.
The first story we learn about him comes in John 11. Turn there with me.
Jesus has a call to go to Judea where his friend, Lazarus, is lying sick and on the verge of death.
Here, Jesus plans to actually wait for Lazarus to die. Why? So that he could display God’s mighty power by raising a man who had been rotting in a grave for four days.
His purpose was to Glorify the Father, and instead of healing a man who is sick, he’s going to raising a man who is dead. Not just dead, but rotting. This would be the ultimate demonstration of God’s power.
Read John 11:7-16 with me.
So here are these disciples who think Jesus is out of his mind, for they’ve already experienced their lives threatened when the Jews chased after them to stone them because of Jesus.
“You want to go back there? They’ll KILL you!”
But Jesus had a mission to accomplish, and Jesus will accomplish his purposes.
Out of all the disciples who feared for Jesus’ life, probably driven more so by a fear for their own lives, Thomas the lone ranger speaks up.
“Let’s also go, so that we may die with him.” THAT’s Fearless Thomas.
I don’t know why, but all the commentaries I’ve read like to look at Thomas in this story and call him a Pessimist. Why? I guess cuz he’s sees no good that can come out, no hope of coming out alive.
Pessimistic?! What shouts out to me is the fact that Thomas is incredibly fearless.
He says, “Where Christ goes, I will go too. And I’m ready to die with him.”
Maybe he was pessimistic. Maybe Thomas didn’t see any hope in going with Jesus and coming out alive.
But that only highlights to me his fearless devotion to the Lord. I will die with him.
How many of us here are willing to die for Christ? I’m sure most of us would say we would.
Now it’s one thing to talk the talk. But when it comes to walking the walk into the face danger for the sake of Christ, how many of us would you make that walk?
Many of us STILL would probably say Yes, I would, but it’s still only talk until we’re actually making that walk. You just don’t know until you get there.
My prayer is that we would have the fearlessness of Thomas the Apostle.
Would you go to a place for the sake God’s glory and purposes, knowing that you’re probably going to die?
EX: John Piper said in a sermon that he’s sick and tired of people coming to look for a staff position at his church, which is in the inner city of Minneapolis. He’s sick of the ones who always ask, “Will my Children be safe here?”
He thinks to himself, “Would you please make that question your tenth, and not the first?” American Christian priorities have it all twisted. Whoever said that your children will be safe in the call of God?”
Whoever said you’ll be safe in the call of God?
How are we going to go to the ends of the earth for Jesus’ sake, if we aren’t willing to go into our own land?
God does not command us to go where it is safe. Nor does he guarantee each of us that we will be unharmed.
He does promise that those who will be persecuted for his name will be blessed, and that their reward in heaven is great.
Are we willing to accept the reality that God wants us to speak for him, and that suffering is a very likely path that many of us will take?
EX: These past three years, I’ve been able to go to Taiwan with my church to share the gospel. Over the years, I’ve grown to love Taiwan and the task of sharing the Gospel to those in need. This past year, I was ready to go. Had my tickets purchased, plans made. And I get a phone call from Daniel.
“Greg are you ok?! I had a crazy dream last night. I dreamt that you went to Taiwan, and you were murdered for sharing the gospel.”
I was like, “OMG. I’m going to Taiwan in a couple weeks… to share the gospel!”
He had no idea.
I went, and people prayed for me, and I’m back safely.
But I realize, that if that dream is from God, there’s no time limit to when those events might occur.
I’m going back to Taiwan this summer, and this time it’s probably for good. God knows when we’ll return, if we’ll return.
But in light of Daniel’s dream, I want to have a spirit of fearlessness, and say, “Let’s go, even if it means dying with Him.”
Fearless Thomas. He didn’t just talk the talk, we learn from History that when it came down to it, he walked the walk. He really was fearless Thomas.
According to strong historical testimony, Fearless Thomas lived in light of Jesus’ commission to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth.
After Jesus has ascended, Thomas travels to Ancient Babylon, which is present day Iraq, and preaches the Gospel. From there, he continues to the ends of the earth and brings it to Persia, which is present day Iran.
After preaching there, he hops on a ship and sails to the West coast of India, preaches and sets up churches there, converting High Caste Brahmins to the faith among many.
Til this day, there are churches in India that are traced back to the ministry under Thomas’ preaching.
Finally, when Thomas refused to be quiet and stop preaching the gospel, history tell us that he was thrown into a pit and speared to death. Thomas was fearless for the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, Ask the Lord for fearlessness.
For fearless courage to share the gospel, even if it means death, just like our Lord.
Even Paul, while persecuted in Chains, writes in Eph. 6:19, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel… Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”
Faithless Thomas
Now I want to take a look at the incident where Thomas was caught in doubt.
There was a time when Fearless Thomas was temporarily Faithless Thomas, or as many call “Doubting”
I emphasize temporarily because the Lord delivered him from his period of faithlessness, but he lived until his death in his fearlessness.
That title doubting Thomas comes from John 20:19-31.
Here in John 20, Jesus had already been taken away by the Romans and crucified on the Cross.
According to v. 19, it says that “the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews.”
(v. 19) “Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”
Once again, these disciples who were afraid to go into Judea with Jesus because of the Jews, all fled when Christ was taken away, and are now huddled together in a secret hiding place
John emphasizes the doors being locked, because of Fear.
They were all there, except one. Who wasn’t huddled with them behind locked doors in fear?
(v. 24) “Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with the Disciples when Jesus came.”
But going on in the story, the disciples are overjoyed when they saw Jesus, risen from the dead. HE turned their mourning into dancing!
And they say to Thomas, “We’ve seen the Lord!”
But Thomas wouldn’t believe it. “How can you tell me that a man who was once dead, is now alive?”
He says to them (v.25) “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
He says unless I see the miracle my self, I will not put my faith in what you say.
At this difficult time in Thomas’ life, Thomas was faithless. He did not believe.
Brothers and Sisters, do you ever find yourself questioning the existence or the reality of God, and like Thomas insist, unless I see, unless He shows me something, I WILL NOT Believe?
Whether you are an unbeliever, or whether you’ve been going to Church your whole life.
We often put ourselves in the disciple’s sandals and say, “Man, if I saw Jesus walk on water, or feed the 5000, I’d believe. My faith would be so strong.”
Or if we were like the Israelites, “If I saw the Red Sea part”, then man, my faith would be so strong, how can I not believe?
Well, you might think that this is weird for a Preacher to say… but hey, why don’t you ask God?
Ask God for a sign?
Why not? Is he not able to show his wonder and his power?
It seems so Taboo in the Christian Church to straight out pray and ask God to reveal himself in some supernatural way. “It lacks faith”.
Well, sometimes we’re faithless, like Thomas, and we do lack faith.
There was a time in my life when I first graduated from College. I was working, serving at Church in many ways.
But it came to a point in my life where God just felt so distant. I was desperate to know that he was real, and that he really did exist in my life.
One night, I literally fell on my knees by my bedside and began to pray, asking the Lord to show himself to me.
Sometimes, our faith is lacking. Sometimes, we struggle with doubt. Why not ask God for help?
EX: Throw up Story.
A few years ago, I was working full time in Irvine. And as I was driving early in the morning to work when my stomach felt seriously upset. I started to barf all over the place.
I heard the words “Get up”, three times. I fell on my knees and started Praising God. I had heard his voice in such an undeniable way, there was no way in my mind that God was not speaking to me.
That day was the very next day after I had pleaded with the Lord, on my knees, to make himself known to me.
In a time where my faith was weak, and lacking, I asked the Lord, and he revealed himself to me.
IN the same way, Faithless Thomas here is so distraught, he needs a sign.
“Unless Jesus appears to me and shows me his nail marks and the wound in his side, I will not have faith.”
Does Jesus honor these kind of foolish requests?
Well, I think God knows what we need. He knows how to meet us where were at.
V. 26 says, a week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Thoughtthe doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them.” He goes straight to Thomas and says “Put your finger here, see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side.”
Jesus, knows Thomas’ state of faith, knows his need, and appears to meet him where he is. Without even asking Thomas a question, he offers exactly what Thomas needed.
Thomas, seeing what he demanded, the nail marks in Christ’s hands and the wound in his side.
Christ says to Thomas, “Stop doubting, and believe.” Literally translated, “Stop being faithless, and have faith!”
And at this point Faithless Thomas cries out with faith, the most truthful and truth-filled confession from anyone in the Bible: “My Lord and My God.”
At this point, he’s not only convinced that Jesus has died, like he said, he would. That he raised, like he said he would. To Thomas, Jesus is more than just a human Master, he is GOD.
Thomas, who was faithless for a moment in his life, became faith-filled.
God knows our needs. He knows how to meet us where we are.
Is it wrong to seek God and ask him to Reveal himself, or even ask for a sign?
I don’t think so necessarily.
Thomas needed affirmation. Gideon needed affirmation. I’ve even needed affirmation.
But God knows exactly what we need. Perhaps he’ll choose to reveal Himself to you in the way that you ask.
Or maybe he won’t.
But like he told the Israelites, “ If you seek, you will find me when you seek with all your heart.”
But here’s the greatest lesson we can learn from Thomas’ interaction with Jesus.
After Faithless Thomas sees Christ for himself, and becomes faith-filled, look what Jesus says.
(v. 29) Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
If we ask God to reveal himself to you, I really am convinced that that’s a prayer that God is able to answer. It may not be exactly in the way you ask, but He’ll show you the truth of who he is.
But according to Jesus, there seems to be a greater way. A more happy and blessed way.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe, yet put their faith in me.
Sure God can assist our lack of faith. Will he hold it against us if we ask for assistance? Absolutely not.
But there is something about not insisting on “miracles and wonders” that brings a blessedness to our relationship with him..
Hebrews 11:1 says that true faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Many heroes of the faith did it this way, and God blessed them for it.
Why? Well, perhaps those who insist on signs… will always be looking for signs?
I have to tell you the truth, that even though I believe God spoke his distinct still small voice to me that day, I am often tempted to ask for more. Along my journey, I’ve found myself in times of affirmation, and wanting more signs.
Even the Fearless and at times Faithless Thomas was a Forgetful Thomas when it came to receiving signs form Christ.
He needed proof that Jesus was did indeed raise from the dead when he already received a sign that Jesus is able to!
Remember when we first met Thomas? It was when he was with Jesus, raising Lazarus from the dead!
Thomas had already seen with his two eyes, Jesus raising a man from the dead. He already heard with his two ears Jesus say, “I am the Resurrection and the Life”.
And yet, here Thomas was still needing more.
Blessed are those who do not see, and yet believe.
John 20:24-31
Intro
Story: In College, I remember clearly one night when I was distraught over something stupid I said to one of my good friends, and I just could not get over it. I felt that my friend could never forgive me.
James told me something that hit me hard. He said, “Don’t worry, She knows your character.”
What James was saying was that people know us for the character that’s displayed through our lives. And even though sometimes we make mistakes or do and say things that are out of character, it’s our true character that will shine through. Not individual instances.
The Disciple Thomas often gets a bad rap for being a “doubter”. The disciple Thomas is where we get the term “doubting Thomas”, why? Because we read of a story when he was caught in doubt. After Jesus had died, he wouldn’t believe that Christ had risen until he saw it with his own eyes.
Yet, I don’t think it’s fair to characterize him by that. All the disciples found it hard to believe until they saw Jesus face to face in the flesh after he had risen. We don’t call them the Doubting Disciples
But if we look at the character of Thomas throughout his life, I think we see admirable things that we can take after Thomas.
So If I could, I’d like to suggest another possible name for Thomas.
How about instead of Doubting Thomas, how about “Fearless Thomas”?
Fearless Thomas
Let me show you that Thomas was probably more Fearless than he was doubtful. Perhaps one of the most fearless of the Disciples.
The first story we learn about him comes in John 11. Turn there with me.
Jesus has a call to go to Judea where his friend, Lazarus, is lying sick and on the verge of death.
Here, Jesus plans to actually wait for Lazarus to die. Why? So that he could display God’s mighty power by raising a man who had been rotting in a grave for four days.
His purpose was to Glorify the Father, and instead of healing a man who is sick, he’s going to raising a man who is dead. Not just dead, but rotting. This would be the ultimate demonstration of God’s power.
Read John 11:7-16 with me.
So here are these disciples who think Jesus is out of his mind, for they’ve already experienced their lives threatened when the Jews chased after them to stone them because of Jesus.
“You want to go back there? They’ll KILL you!”
But Jesus had a mission to accomplish, and Jesus will accomplish his purposes.
Out of all the disciples who feared for Jesus’ life, probably driven more so by a fear for their own lives, Thomas the lone ranger speaks up.
“Let’s also go, so that we may die with him.” THAT’s Fearless Thomas.
I don’t know why, but all the commentaries I’ve read like to look at Thomas in this story and call him a Pessimist. Why? I guess cuz he’s sees no good that can come out, no hope of coming out alive.
Pessimistic?! What shouts out to me is the fact that Thomas is incredibly fearless.
He says, “Where Christ goes, I will go too. And I’m ready to die with him.”
Maybe he was pessimistic. Maybe Thomas didn’t see any hope in going with Jesus and coming out alive.
But that only highlights to me his fearless devotion to the Lord. I will die with him.
How many of us here are willing to die for Christ? I’m sure most of us would say we would.
Now it’s one thing to talk the talk. But when it comes to walking the walk into the face danger for the sake of Christ, how many of us would you make that walk?
Many of us STILL would probably say Yes, I would, but it’s still only talk until we’re actually making that walk. You just don’t know until you get there.
My prayer is that we would have the fearlessness of Thomas the Apostle.
Would you go to a place for the sake God’s glory and purposes, knowing that you’re probably going to die?
EX: John Piper said in a sermon that he’s sick and tired of people coming to look for a staff position at his church, which is in the inner city of Minneapolis. He’s sick of the ones who always ask, “Will my Children be safe here?”
He thinks to himself, “Would you please make that question your tenth, and not the first?” American Christian priorities have it all twisted. Whoever said that your children will be safe in the call of God?”
Whoever said you’ll be safe in the call of God?
How are we going to go to the ends of the earth for Jesus’ sake, if we aren’t willing to go into our own land?
God does not command us to go where it is safe. Nor does he guarantee each of us that we will be unharmed.
He does promise that those who will be persecuted for his name will be blessed, and that their reward in heaven is great.
Are we willing to accept the reality that God wants us to speak for him, and that suffering is a very likely path that many of us will take?
EX: These past three years, I’ve been able to go to Taiwan with my church to share the gospel. Over the years, I’ve grown to love Taiwan and the task of sharing the Gospel to those in need. This past year, I was ready to go. Had my tickets purchased, plans made. And I get a phone call from Daniel.
“Greg are you ok?! I had a crazy dream last night. I dreamt that you went to Taiwan, and you were murdered for sharing the gospel.”
I was like, “OMG. I’m going to Taiwan in a couple weeks… to share the gospel!”
He had no idea.
I went, and people prayed for me, and I’m back safely.
But I realize, that if that dream is from God, there’s no time limit to when those events might occur.
I’m going back to Taiwan this summer, and this time it’s probably for good. God knows when we’ll return, if we’ll return.
But in light of Daniel’s dream, I want to have a spirit of fearlessness, and say, “Let’s go, even if it means dying with Him.”
Fearless Thomas. He didn’t just talk the talk, we learn from History that when it came down to it, he walked the walk. He really was fearless Thomas.
According to strong historical testimony, Fearless Thomas lived in light of Jesus’ commission to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth.
After Jesus has ascended, Thomas travels to Ancient Babylon, which is present day Iraq, and preaches the Gospel. From there, he continues to the ends of the earth and brings it to Persia, which is present day Iran.
After preaching there, he hops on a ship and sails to the West coast of India, preaches and sets up churches there, converting High Caste Brahmins to the faith among many.
Til this day, there are churches in India that are traced back to the ministry under Thomas’ preaching.
Finally, when Thomas refused to be quiet and stop preaching the gospel, history tell us that he was thrown into a pit and speared to death. Thomas was fearless for the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, Ask the Lord for fearlessness.
For fearless courage to share the gospel, even if it means death, just like our Lord.
Even Paul, while persecuted in Chains, writes in Eph. 6:19, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel… Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”
Faithless Thomas
Now I want to take a look at the incident where Thomas was caught in doubt.
There was a time when Fearless Thomas was temporarily Faithless Thomas, or as many call “Doubting”
I emphasize temporarily because the Lord delivered him from his period of faithlessness, but he lived until his death in his fearlessness.
That title doubting Thomas comes from John 20:19-31.
Here in John 20, Jesus had already been taken away by the Romans and crucified on the Cross.
According to v. 19, it says that “the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews.”
(v. 19) “Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”
Once again, these disciples who were afraid to go into Judea with Jesus because of the Jews, all fled when Christ was taken away, and are now huddled together in a secret hiding place
John emphasizes the doors being locked, because of Fear.
They were all there, except one. Who wasn’t huddled with them behind locked doors in fear?
(v. 24) “Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with the Disciples when Jesus came.”
But going on in the story, the disciples are overjoyed when they saw Jesus, risen from the dead. HE turned their mourning into dancing!
And they say to Thomas, “We’ve seen the Lord!”
But Thomas wouldn’t believe it. “How can you tell me that a man who was once dead, is now alive?”
He says to them (v.25) “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
He says unless I see the miracle my self, I will not put my faith in what you say.
At this difficult time in Thomas’ life, Thomas was faithless. He did not believe.
Brothers and Sisters, do you ever find yourself questioning the existence or the reality of God, and like Thomas insist, unless I see, unless He shows me something, I WILL NOT Believe?
Whether you are an unbeliever, or whether you’ve been going to Church your whole life.
We often put ourselves in the disciple’s sandals and say, “Man, if I saw Jesus walk on water, or feed the 5000, I’d believe. My faith would be so strong.”
Or if we were like the Israelites, “If I saw the Red Sea part”, then man, my faith would be so strong, how can I not believe?
Well, you might think that this is weird for a Preacher to say… but hey, why don’t you ask God?
Ask God for a sign?
Why not? Is he not able to show his wonder and his power?
It seems so Taboo in the Christian Church to straight out pray and ask God to reveal himself in some supernatural way. “It lacks faith”.
Well, sometimes we’re faithless, like Thomas, and we do lack faith.
There was a time in my life when I first graduated from College. I was working, serving at Church in many ways.
But it came to a point in my life where God just felt so distant. I was desperate to know that he was real, and that he really did exist in my life.
One night, I literally fell on my knees by my bedside and began to pray, asking the Lord to show himself to me.
Sometimes, our faith is lacking. Sometimes, we struggle with doubt. Why not ask God for help?
EX: Throw up Story.
A few years ago, I was working full time in Irvine. And as I was driving early in the morning to work when my stomach felt seriously upset. I started to barf all over the place.
I heard the words “Get up”, three times. I fell on my knees and started Praising God. I had heard his voice in such an undeniable way, there was no way in my mind that God was not speaking to me.
That day was the very next day after I had pleaded with the Lord, on my knees, to make himself known to me.
In a time where my faith was weak, and lacking, I asked the Lord, and he revealed himself to me.
IN the same way, Faithless Thomas here is so distraught, he needs a sign.
“Unless Jesus appears to me and shows me his nail marks and the wound in his side, I will not have faith.”
Does Jesus honor these kind of foolish requests?
Well, I think God knows what we need. He knows how to meet us where were at.
V. 26 says, a week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Thoughtthe doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them.” He goes straight to Thomas and says “Put your finger here, see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side.”
Jesus, knows Thomas’ state of faith, knows his need, and appears to meet him where he is. Without even asking Thomas a question, he offers exactly what Thomas needed.
Thomas, seeing what he demanded, the nail marks in Christ’s hands and the wound in his side.
Christ says to Thomas, “Stop doubting, and believe.” Literally translated, “Stop being faithless, and have faith!”
And at this point Faithless Thomas cries out with faith, the most truthful and truth-filled confession from anyone in the Bible: “My Lord and My God.”
At this point, he’s not only convinced that Jesus has died, like he said, he would. That he raised, like he said he would. To Thomas, Jesus is more than just a human Master, he is GOD.
Thomas, who was faithless for a moment in his life, became faith-filled.
God knows our needs. He knows how to meet us where we are.
Is it wrong to seek God and ask him to Reveal himself, or even ask for a sign?
I don’t think so necessarily.
Thomas needed affirmation. Gideon needed affirmation. I’ve even needed affirmation.
But God knows exactly what we need. Perhaps he’ll choose to reveal Himself to you in the way that you ask.
Or maybe he won’t.
But like he told the Israelites, “ If you seek, you will find me when you seek with all your heart.”
But here’s the greatest lesson we can learn from Thomas’ interaction with Jesus.
After Faithless Thomas sees Christ for himself, and becomes faith-filled, look what Jesus says.
(v. 29) Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
If we ask God to reveal himself to you, I really am convinced that that’s a prayer that God is able to answer. It may not be exactly in the way you ask, but He’ll show you the truth of who he is.
But according to Jesus, there seems to be a greater way. A more happy and blessed way.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe, yet put their faith in me.
Sure God can assist our lack of faith. Will he hold it against us if we ask for assistance? Absolutely not.
But there is something about not insisting on “miracles and wonders” that brings a blessedness to our relationship with him..
Hebrews 11:1 says that true faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Many heroes of the faith did it this way, and God blessed them for it.
Why? Well, perhaps those who insist on signs… will always be looking for signs?
I have to tell you the truth, that even though I believe God spoke his distinct still small voice to me that day, I am often tempted to ask for more. Along my journey, I’ve found myself in times of affirmation, and wanting more signs.
Even the Fearless and at times Faithless Thomas was a Forgetful Thomas when it came to receiving signs form Christ.
He needed proof that Jesus was did indeed raise from the dead when he already received a sign that Jesus is able to!
Remember when we first met Thomas? It was when he was with Jesus, raising Lazarus from the dead!
Thomas had already seen with his two eyes, Jesus raising a man from the dead. He already heard with his two ears Jesus say, “I am the Resurrection and the Life”.
And yet, here Thomas was still needing more.
Blessed are those who do not see, and yet believe.
Dealing with Your Brother- Matt 18:15-35
This passage is about what you’re supposed to do when another Christian friend sins against you.
What would you do?
SCENARIO: Noel goes into my locker and steals my skateboard. I know that he took it because he always asks to play with it, and plus, Monica told me she saw him riding it. What should I do? What is the best way of dealing with this matter as a Christian?
Step 1: Show him his fault, but just between to two of you (v. 15)
“Noel, I know you like my skateboard a lot, but I’m missing it. I’ve heard that someone has seen you with it. Noel, did you take it?
Jesus says that if he listens, and confesses then I’ve won him over. Everyone is at peace, and it’s all good.
But what if he doesn’t listen?
Step 2: Take one or two others with you, and let them be witnesses to see if he confesses, or refuses to come clean.
“Noel, we know that you have it. Monica saw you take it. So did Dustin. Can I have it back?
And if he listens, and confesses then I’ve won him over. Everyone is at peace, and it’s all good.
But what if he doesn’t listen?
Step 3: Take him to the church. (v. 17) This time it’s not just 2 or 3 of us. But I’m going to ask you in front of everyone!
“Noel, before the whole church, I’m going to ask you one more time. Did you take my skateboard?
And if he listens, and confesses then I’ve won him over. Everyone is at peace, and it’s all good.
But what if he doesn’t listen?
Then Jesus says, that’s it. You’ve tried. He’s hardened. He’s not humble. So treat him like you would with the Pagans and tax collectors.
Pagans and tax collectors were the evil people of their day. Basically, you have the right to kick them out of the church.
Really? Did Jesus really say that? Kick them out of the church?
Yeah, he did. But Jesus teaches us to do so not because we have the right to hate them and be enemies with them.
When we kick them out of the church, we hope that they’ll miss it so much that they can’t wait to come back!
Maybe then, the sinner will be softer and more humble, and maybe then Noel will confess to stealing my skateboard!
So what do we learn from Jesus?
Well, for one, we learn how to deal with a person who sins against you.
But another important thing Jesus shows here is that there is something sweet about when Christians come together in the name of Jesus.
There is something powerful when Christians can come together, pray to God, and agree on something.
What does v. 19 say? 19"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
He says that when a group of Christians come together, God blesses that fellowship, and he says that he is with them.
Does that mean that God isn’t with us when we’re alone? No, but there’s something powerful and pleasing to God when we decide to do things together as a church. That’s what church is!
Let’s go on. Now Jesus talks about forgiveness.
Forgive Unceasingly
Someone read Matt 18:21-22
This passage actually starts in v. 21 when Peter comes up to Jesus and asks “how many times should a brother sin against me, and I forgive him. Seven times?”
Can you imagine, forgiving the same person 7 times! He’s not talking about forgiving 7 different people seven times. He’s talking about the same brother!
EX: Thomas A. Edison. That's true forgiveness. Aphieimi means “to let go”.
But what if the boy were to drop it again? Would he forgive him again?
Have you ever had a friend lie to you, or break something you lent him, or break your trust. And out of the goodness of your heart, found it in you to forgive him? You say “I’ll give him another chance.”
But what if he does it again?
I imagine few of us will have the patience to give him a third try. But say he does it again. And again, and again, and again. 7 times he’s wronged you. Will you STILL forgive him?
7 times to forgive someone is pretty crazy.
But Peter thought this should have been a reasonable answer, one that impressed Jesus.
7 was a symbolic number to the Jews. They understood certain numbers to carry special meaning.
Who Knows what 7 represents in the Jewish mind?
7 was the number for completeness or wholeness, Perfection. Not lack anything.
So in regards to how often we should forgive our brother, Peter’s thinking, 7 is the complete number.
“Should I forgive Completely, Jesus?”
In v. 22, Jesus says not seven times, but seventy times seven times. Which actually comes out to be 490.
But Jesus isn’t trying to put a number on this, as if on the 491st time, you’re clear.
But Jesus is using hyperbole, exaggeration to emphasize important truth.
He needs to forgive completely, and then some!
“Not only should you forgive completely, Peter, but you should never stop forgiving him.”
Jesus says to the Christian, keep forgiving. Don’t stop.
Why? Because God never stops forgiving us.
Ex: When I became a Christian way back in 1989, when I was 9 years old. I don’t know what got into me, but the next day, I sinned! But I know God forgave me. But then the next day, same thing.
I sin everyday! If I were to sin just once per day since I became a Christian, that’s 7,085 times I’ve committed an offense against my God. And he KEEPS on forgiving. 3x7000= 21,000 times!
Will you forgive without limit? Will you forgive unceasingly?
Will you follow Jesus by obeying the teaching to forgive? 7 times? How about 70 x 7 times?
Forgive Unconditionally
Read v. 23-25, Jesus starts telling this story where a King was owed 10,000 talents.
How much is 10,000 talents? Let’s do an exercise.
1 denarii= 1 day’s wage
1 day’s wage= $64.00/day
1 talent= 6000 denarii
But what most of us don’t understand is that 10,000 talents is equivalent today to 8.4 billion dollars.
Who can pay off such a debt? You can’t. That’s Jesus’ point.
Jesus was making a very clear point in this story: The debt he owed was unpayable. There was no way that he could pay off what he owed.
And yet in mercy, the king lets him go! The King forgave him.
Then the story goes on.
V. 28 says that the servant who was just let go, just forgiven of an incredible amount, goes about and sees a fellow servant who owes him 100 denarii.
How much is 100 Denarii? Let’s do another exercise.
1 denarii= day’s wage ($64)
100 denarii= about 3 months wages
100 denarii= $6400.
If we calculate that in our terms, considering a minimum wage job, that’s still a few thousand dollars. For someone working full time, that’s easily 10,000 dollars right there.
We’re not talking about a small debt here!
I don’t think Jesus necessarily has in mind the small things that we need to forgive. Like when someone calls me names, or if someone cuts in front of you in the lunch line.
Of course Jesus would want us to “let it go” and forgive them.
But what I think Jesus is teaching in this parable is those serious, more impactful offenses against you.
Like when a friend backstabs you and talks behind your back. When that friend of mine steals my skateboard.
I think that Jesus would say that EVEN these need forgiveness. Even the things that really hurt need to be forgiven.
Why?
Because he first forgave us. But what he let us go of is of much greater significance then what we may experience here on earth in our earthly relationships.
When did our King forgive us of a HUGE debt?
When our King, God, gave us his son Jesus to die on the cross for us.
When we recognize what Jesus has done for us, that he has forgiven us of crimes we cannot repay. He has saved us from hell so that we could go to Heaven!
This is huge!
As deep as the offense that a brother or sister has committed against you, will you forgive? Will you let it go?
So I believe God wants us to forgiven frequently. As often as a brother sins against you, forgive him completely. Keep forgiving him because God keeps forgiving you. He has covered all your sins, so every time we sin, we know it’s been paid for.
And I believe God also wants us to forgive deeply. As painful as the crime against you, as impactful as it may be, will you forgive? God has let us go of a debt we cannot pay and has saved us from eternal death. Will you let the things on earth go?
What would you do?
SCENARIO: Noel goes into my locker and steals my skateboard. I know that he took it because he always asks to play with it, and plus, Monica told me she saw him riding it. What should I do? What is the best way of dealing with this matter as a Christian?
Step 1: Show him his fault, but just between to two of you (v. 15)
“Noel, I know you like my skateboard a lot, but I’m missing it. I’ve heard that someone has seen you with it. Noel, did you take it?
Jesus says that if he listens, and confesses then I’ve won him over. Everyone is at peace, and it’s all good.
But what if he doesn’t listen?
Step 2: Take one or two others with you, and let them be witnesses to see if he confesses, or refuses to come clean.
“Noel, we know that you have it. Monica saw you take it. So did Dustin. Can I have it back?
And if he listens, and confesses then I’ve won him over. Everyone is at peace, and it’s all good.
But what if he doesn’t listen?
Step 3: Take him to the church. (v. 17) This time it’s not just 2 or 3 of us. But I’m going to ask you in front of everyone!
“Noel, before the whole church, I’m going to ask you one more time. Did you take my skateboard?
And if he listens, and confesses then I’ve won him over. Everyone is at peace, and it’s all good.
But what if he doesn’t listen?
Then Jesus says, that’s it. You’ve tried. He’s hardened. He’s not humble. So treat him like you would with the Pagans and tax collectors.
Pagans and tax collectors were the evil people of their day. Basically, you have the right to kick them out of the church.
Really? Did Jesus really say that? Kick them out of the church?
Yeah, he did. But Jesus teaches us to do so not because we have the right to hate them and be enemies with them.
When we kick them out of the church, we hope that they’ll miss it so much that they can’t wait to come back!
Maybe then, the sinner will be softer and more humble, and maybe then Noel will confess to stealing my skateboard!
So what do we learn from Jesus?
Well, for one, we learn how to deal with a person who sins against you.
But another important thing Jesus shows here is that there is something sweet about when Christians come together in the name of Jesus.
There is something powerful when Christians can come together, pray to God, and agree on something.
What does v. 19 say? 19"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
He says that when a group of Christians come together, God blesses that fellowship, and he says that he is with them.
Does that mean that God isn’t with us when we’re alone? No, but there’s something powerful and pleasing to God when we decide to do things together as a church. That’s what church is!
Let’s go on. Now Jesus talks about forgiveness.
Forgive Unceasingly
Someone read Matt 18:21-22
This passage actually starts in v. 21 when Peter comes up to Jesus and asks “how many times should a brother sin against me, and I forgive him. Seven times?”
Can you imagine, forgiving the same person 7 times! He’s not talking about forgiving 7 different people seven times. He’s talking about the same brother!
EX: Thomas A. Edison. That's true forgiveness. Aphieimi means “to let go”.
But what if the boy were to drop it again? Would he forgive him again?
Have you ever had a friend lie to you, or break something you lent him, or break your trust. And out of the goodness of your heart, found it in you to forgive him? You say “I’ll give him another chance.”
But what if he does it again?
I imagine few of us will have the patience to give him a third try. But say he does it again. And again, and again, and again. 7 times he’s wronged you. Will you STILL forgive him?
7 times to forgive someone is pretty crazy.
But Peter thought this should have been a reasonable answer, one that impressed Jesus.
7 was a symbolic number to the Jews. They understood certain numbers to carry special meaning.
Who Knows what 7 represents in the Jewish mind?
7 was the number for completeness or wholeness, Perfection. Not lack anything.
So in regards to how often we should forgive our brother, Peter’s thinking, 7 is the complete number.
“Should I forgive Completely, Jesus?”
In v. 22, Jesus says not seven times, but seventy times seven times. Which actually comes out to be 490.
But Jesus isn’t trying to put a number on this, as if on the 491st time, you’re clear.
But Jesus is using hyperbole, exaggeration to emphasize important truth.
He needs to forgive completely, and then some!
“Not only should you forgive completely, Peter, but you should never stop forgiving him.”
Jesus says to the Christian, keep forgiving. Don’t stop.
Why? Because God never stops forgiving us.
Ex: When I became a Christian way back in 1989, when I was 9 years old. I don’t know what got into me, but the next day, I sinned! But I know God forgave me. But then the next day, same thing.
I sin everyday! If I were to sin just once per day since I became a Christian, that’s 7,085 times I’ve committed an offense against my God. And he KEEPS on forgiving. 3x7000= 21,000 times!
Will you forgive without limit? Will you forgive unceasingly?
Will you follow Jesus by obeying the teaching to forgive? 7 times? How about 70 x 7 times?
Forgive Unconditionally
Read v. 23-25, Jesus starts telling this story where a King was owed 10,000 talents.
How much is 10,000 talents? Let’s do an exercise.
1 denarii= 1 day’s wage
1 day’s wage= $64.00/day
1 talent= 6000 denarii
But what most of us don’t understand is that 10,000 talents is equivalent today to 8.4 billion dollars.
Who can pay off such a debt? You can’t. That’s Jesus’ point.
Jesus was making a very clear point in this story: The debt he owed was unpayable. There was no way that he could pay off what he owed.
And yet in mercy, the king lets him go! The King forgave him.
Then the story goes on.
V. 28 says that the servant who was just let go, just forgiven of an incredible amount, goes about and sees a fellow servant who owes him 100 denarii.
How much is 100 Denarii? Let’s do another exercise.
1 denarii= day’s wage ($64)
100 denarii= about 3 months wages
100 denarii= $6400.
If we calculate that in our terms, considering a minimum wage job, that’s still a few thousand dollars. For someone working full time, that’s easily 10,000 dollars right there.
We’re not talking about a small debt here!
I don’t think Jesus necessarily has in mind the small things that we need to forgive. Like when someone calls me names, or if someone cuts in front of you in the lunch line.
Of course Jesus would want us to “let it go” and forgive them.
But what I think Jesus is teaching in this parable is those serious, more impactful offenses against you.
Like when a friend backstabs you and talks behind your back. When that friend of mine steals my skateboard.
I think that Jesus would say that EVEN these need forgiveness. Even the things that really hurt need to be forgiven.
Why?
Because he first forgave us. But what he let us go of is of much greater significance then what we may experience here on earth in our earthly relationships.
When did our King forgive us of a HUGE debt?
When our King, God, gave us his son Jesus to die on the cross for us.
When we recognize what Jesus has done for us, that he has forgiven us of crimes we cannot repay. He has saved us from hell so that we could go to Heaven!
This is huge!
As deep as the offense that a brother or sister has committed against you, will you forgive? Will you let it go?
So I believe God wants us to forgiven frequently. As often as a brother sins against you, forgive him completely. Keep forgiving him because God keeps forgiving you. He has covered all your sins, so every time we sin, we know it’s been paid for.
And I believe God also wants us to forgive deeply. As painful as the crime against you, as impactful as it may be, will you forgive? God has let us go of a debt we cannot pay and has saved us from eternal death. Will you let the things on earth go?
Mary at the feet of Jesus- PVPHS New Life Club
I was asked today to speak about Mary and Martha.
There aren’t too many stories in the Bible about these two sisters, but there are two that I want to share with you today.
The first story comes in Luke 10.
Jesus is coming through town as he’s traveling, and he comes to stay in the town of Bethany with Mary and Martha.
Martha is all over the place, making sure things are all taken care of. She’s cooking and cleaning, and making preparations for their special guest.
And guess where Mary was?
Sitting there, at the feet of Jesus. Just there learning from Jesus. Hearing from Jesus.
Well Martha comes and complains to Jesus.
Jesus! Tell my sister Mary to do something! She’s just sitting there while I’m here doing all the work!
What does Jesus say? He says “Martha, Mary has chosen to the better thing.”
I want to point something out. I think Martha gets a bad wrap in this story from most people.
We often read this story and give Martha beef for being so caught up in unimportant things, and we praise Mary for loving Jesus so much because she was at the feet of Jesus.
But do you guys realize that what Martha was doing wasn’t bad? Martha was actually ministering to Jesus. She was pouring herself out so that she could serve him. IS that so bad? Shouldn’t we serve God?
No, it’s not wrong. It’s just that Jesus says what Mary chose to do in that moment is “better”. It implies in it that Martha’s desire to serve Christ is a good thing, but Mary’s priority to be served by Christ was gooder. More good.
We should serve the Lord. In fact, we’re commanded to.
But remember when Jesus came to earth, he told his disciples that he didn’t come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life for us.
And of course ultimately he’s talking about serving us by dying for us on the Cross.
But as much as we are expected to serve Christ, and as much as we are Commanded to serve him, we must first be ministered unto by him.
It is the better thing. For we can’t serve him unless we are first served.
Here’s what I mean:
I know many of you guys are caught up right now in busyness. I’m sure there’s so many things that consume you.
You have SAT’s to take.
You have college applications
You have projects to work on
You’ve got piano. You’ve got homework.
And I know for many of you, this is honestly your service to God. You really have good intentions of wanting to serve God with your life, to please him with your grades and academics. To go to a good school so that you can please him with your career.
And that’s a GOOD thing. We should make it a priority to serve God with our lives.
But listen to what the Master said, “Mary has chosen to do what is better.” To allow Christ to pour into her first. To Mary, this was a GREATER priority.
Guys, we could keep pouring ourselves out, trying to serve God. Giving everything we have.
We can give and give and give, in our school work, in our youth group, in our new life club, in our community service.
But I’m telling you, you’ll pour yourself out so much, you’ll eventually RUN DRY. You’ll burn out.
It happens to the greatest servants all the time. You don’t know how many stories I hear about Pastors and Youth leaders running dry and burning out. Because all they do is pour themselves out.
Ex: Spiritual dryness. And as I speak, I’m learning from Mary’s example too. These past months for me have been relatively dry for me spiritually. Why? Cuz I’ve gotten caught up trying to serve the Lord. I’ve been busy preparing sermons, and messages, and teaching at church and getting ready for retreats, and studying for my seminary classes, all so that I can live for the Lord.
But recently I’ve hit a wall and realized that man, I haven’t been spending time with the Master.
My quiet times have never suffered so severely in my entire life as a Christian than these past three months.
Why? Because I’ve never had to serve the Lord so intensely.
But Let us learn from Mary, who was found sitting at the feet of Jesus.
If we want to continually be able to pour ourselves out for Jesus and for others, then we have to be willing to be poured into. We have to be willing to be refilled and replenished if we want to excel in our service to God.
And this happens when a priority in our lives is a constant devotion to Jesus, so that He can be the everlasting Water that pours into our lives.
Where can we go to find this everlasting source of living water?
Well, how about at the feet of Jesus? In the quiet times of devotion?
Where we can learn from him.
Where we can hear from him.
Where we can experience his love.
Where we can be filled with faith?
EX: Post it notes. Look, even I had to recommit myself to spend time at the feet of Jesus. Less than two weeks ago, I started the Bible reading plan because I realized how out of touch I was with a regular reading of His word.
As important as all these activities going on in our life are, we must make the greatest priority in our schedules to be a time to sit and sulk at the feet of Jesus.
And I’m telling you, it’s in the quiet place where our faith will grow strong, where we can be nurtured and nourish, so that we can keep going in our service to Christ.
Some of you are thinking. “Nah, that won’t happen to me. I won’t run dry. i don’t burn out. I’m super man, I’m wonder woman. No, my faith is strong. As long as I keep serving and giving all that I can for Jesus, then he’ll take care of me.”
EX: Losing faith. Well, there was few years ago, when I was serving the Lord, probably like I’ve never served him up to that point in my life.
I was in Seminary getting my Masters of Divinity degree. I was regularly preaching for the youth at my church and teaching Bible study for the college students. I was on core leadership for my church.
And even still there came a point when I began to struggle in my faith.
EX: Hearing God. I started to question God’s existence. God, are you really there?
I remember one night, I was literally on my knees praying for God to reveal himself to me.
EX: Elijah. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah, a servant of God, is running for his life. Many of the other prophets of God had been killed, and so Elijah, tired of being zealous for the Lord and pouring himself out all the time, ran away to the mountain of God and hid in a cave.
11 Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.
And after the fire came a gentle whisper (still small voice, sound of sheer silence). 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
It was the Lord. The Lord wasn’t there speaking to him in the noise of the powerful wind, or the quaking of the earth, or the great fire.
The Lord was there in the silent, where he spoke his still, small voice to Elijah.
EX: Follow Up. One day I was driving to work at 7am, and for some reason, my stomach started to feel very sick. I got to work and I just hurled all over the place.
I hear “Get UP”. And it was God’s still small voice.
I realized that day was the day after asking the Lord to reveal himself to me.
And though sometimes that’s how he may choose to speak, sometimes it’s in the silent, where he uses his still small voice.
And unless we are willing to free ourselves form noise and distraction to just sit in the presence of Jesus, we might miss what God wants to say to us in the silence.
I hope God never has to be forceful in trying to get your attention or to get you to listen to him.
Instead, let’s do the better thing, and spend time at the feet of Jesus.
I want to share with you one more story that the Bible gives about Mary and Martha.
This comes in John 12. And here there is dinner party held in honor of Jesus. It’s in Bethany, where Mary and Martha lived, perhaps at their house.
It says in v. 2 that Martha was there, once again serving everybody like she always does. Running around, making sure everyone is taken care of.
But where is Mary?
At the feet of Jesus. Once again, the story makes it clear that Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus.
But check it out, this time, she wasn’t there just to listen to him and be poured into by Jesus.
Now this time, she’s at the feet of Jesus pouring back out to Jesus.
Pouring what? Just about all that she had. It was an expensive perfume called nard, and she just anoints Jesus’ feet as an act of worship.
Even one of the disciples was freaking out because this stuff was worth a years wages! Can you imagine that?
For people at my church, that’s probably an average of about $50,000.
Now I have this is bottle of perfume, about $50.00. Can you imagine if I were to pour it out just for an occasion to honor you and wash your feet with?
Some of you guys are freaking out, cuz that’s $50 going to waste!
But can you imagine what people thought when $50,000 was going to waste?
But it wasn’t to Mary. Because it was her act of worship. It was worth it for her to pour out all that she owned as her worship to Jesus.
See, Mary was a person who had a priority of being at the feet of Jesus, and learning from him.
And I bet that she was so accustomed to receiving from Jesus, and being poured into by Jesus,
That this act of worship was something that came easily for her.
And I suspect that for any of us who are willing to make it a priority to be at the feet of Jesus, to receive and to be poured into by Jesus, that giving all that we have and pouring it out for Jesus in loving sacrifice will be something that we love to do.
Will you pause, and take time each day, to be at the Master’s feet?
There aren’t too many stories in the Bible about these two sisters, but there are two that I want to share with you today.
The first story comes in Luke 10.
Jesus is coming through town as he’s traveling, and he comes to stay in the town of Bethany with Mary and Martha.
Martha is all over the place, making sure things are all taken care of. She’s cooking and cleaning, and making preparations for their special guest.
And guess where Mary was?
Sitting there, at the feet of Jesus. Just there learning from Jesus. Hearing from Jesus.
Well Martha comes and complains to Jesus.
Jesus! Tell my sister Mary to do something! She’s just sitting there while I’m here doing all the work!
What does Jesus say? He says “Martha, Mary has chosen to the better thing.”
I want to point something out. I think Martha gets a bad wrap in this story from most people.
We often read this story and give Martha beef for being so caught up in unimportant things, and we praise Mary for loving Jesus so much because she was at the feet of Jesus.
But do you guys realize that what Martha was doing wasn’t bad? Martha was actually ministering to Jesus. She was pouring herself out so that she could serve him. IS that so bad? Shouldn’t we serve God?
No, it’s not wrong. It’s just that Jesus says what Mary chose to do in that moment is “better”. It implies in it that Martha’s desire to serve Christ is a good thing, but Mary’s priority to be served by Christ was gooder. More good.
We should serve the Lord. In fact, we’re commanded to.
But remember when Jesus came to earth, he told his disciples that he didn’t come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life for us.
And of course ultimately he’s talking about serving us by dying for us on the Cross.
But as much as we are expected to serve Christ, and as much as we are Commanded to serve him, we must first be ministered unto by him.
It is the better thing. For we can’t serve him unless we are first served.
Here’s what I mean:
I know many of you guys are caught up right now in busyness. I’m sure there’s so many things that consume you.
You have SAT’s to take.
You have college applications
You have projects to work on
You’ve got piano. You’ve got homework.
And I know for many of you, this is honestly your service to God. You really have good intentions of wanting to serve God with your life, to please him with your grades and academics. To go to a good school so that you can please him with your career.
And that’s a GOOD thing. We should make it a priority to serve God with our lives.
But listen to what the Master said, “Mary has chosen to do what is better.” To allow Christ to pour into her first. To Mary, this was a GREATER priority.
Guys, we could keep pouring ourselves out, trying to serve God. Giving everything we have.
We can give and give and give, in our school work, in our youth group, in our new life club, in our community service.
But I’m telling you, you’ll pour yourself out so much, you’ll eventually RUN DRY. You’ll burn out.
It happens to the greatest servants all the time. You don’t know how many stories I hear about Pastors and Youth leaders running dry and burning out. Because all they do is pour themselves out.
Ex: Spiritual dryness. And as I speak, I’m learning from Mary’s example too. These past months for me have been relatively dry for me spiritually. Why? Cuz I’ve gotten caught up trying to serve the Lord. I’ve been busy preparing sermons, and messages, and teaching at church and getting ready for retreats, and studying for my seminary classes, all so that I can live for the Lord.
But recently I’ve hit a wall and realized that man, I haven’t been spending time with the Master.
My quiet times have never suffered so severely in my entire life as a Christian than these past three months.
Why? Because I’ve never had to serve the Lord so intensely.
But Let us learn from Mary, who was found sitting at the feet of Jesus.
If we want to continually be able to pour ourselves out for Jesus and for others, then we have to be willing to be poured into. We have to be willing to be refilled and replenished if we want to excel in our service to God.
And this happens when a priority in our lives is a constant devotion to Jesus, so that He can be the everlasting Water that pours into our lives.
Where can we go to find this everlasting source of living water?
Well, how about at the feet of Jesus? In the quiet times of devotion?
Where we can learn from him.
Where we can hear from him.
Where we can experience his love.
Where we can be filled with faith?
EX: Post it notes. Look, even I had to recommit myself to spend time at the feet of Jesus. Less than two weeks ago, I started the Bible reading plan because I realized how out of touch I was with a regular reading of His word.
As important as all these activities going on in our life are, we must make the greatest priority in our schedules to be a time to sit and sulk at the feet of Jesus.
And I’m telling you, it’s in the quiet place where our faith will grow strong, where we can be nurtured and nourish, so that we can keep going in our service to Christ.
Some of you are thinking. “Nah, that won’t happen to me. I won’t run dry. i don’t burn out. I’m super man, I’m wonder woman. No, my faith is strong. As long as I keep serving and giving all that I can for Jesus, then he’ll take care of me.”
EX: Losing faith. Well, there was few years ago, when I was serving the Lord, probably like I’ve never served him up to that point in my life.
I was in Seminary getting my Masters of Divinity degree. I was regularly preaching for the youth at my church and teaching Bible study for the college students. I was on core leadership for my church.
And even still there came a point when I began to struggle in my faith.
EX: Hearing God. I started to question God’s existence. God, are you really there?
I remember one night, I was literally on my knees praying for God to reveal himself to me.
EX: Elijah. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah, a servant of God, is running for his life. Many of the other prophets of God had been killed, and so Elijah, tired of being zealous for the Lord and pouring himself out all the time, ran away to the mountain of God and hid in a cave.
11 Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.
And after the fire came a gentle whisper (still small voice, sound of sheer silence). 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
It was the Lord. The Lord wasn’t there speaking to him in the noise of the powerful wind, or the quaking of the earth, or the great fire.
The Lord was there in the silent, where he spoke his still, small voice to Elijah.
EX: Follow Up. One day I was driving to work at 7am, and for some reason, my stomach started to feel very sick. I got to work and I just hurled all over the place.
I hear “Get UP”. And it was God’s still small voice.
I realized that day was the day after asking the Lord to reveal himself to me.
And though sometimes that’s how he may choose to speak, sometimes it’s in the silent, where he uses his still small voice.
And unless we are willing to free ourselves form noise and distraction to just sit in the presence of Jesus, we might miss what God wants to say to us in the silence.
I hope God never has to be forceful in trying to get your attention or to get you to listen to him.
Instead, let’s do the better thing, and spend time at the feet of Jesus.
I want to share with you one more story that the Bible gives about Mary and Martha.
This comes in John 12. And here there is dinner party held in honor of Jesus. It’s in Bethany, where Mary and Martha lived, perhaps at their house.
It says in v. 2 that Martha was there, once again serving everybody like she always does. Running around, making sure everyone is taken care of.
But where is Mary?
At the feet of Jesus. Once again, the story makes it clear that Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus.
But check it out, this time, she wasn’t there just to listen to him and be poured into by Jesus.
Now this time, she’s at the feet of Jesus pouring back out to Jesus.
Pouring what? Just about all that she had. It was an expensive perfume called nard, and she just anoints Jesus’ feet as an act of worship.
Even one of the disciples was freaking out because this stuff was worth a years wages! Can you imagine that?
For people at my church, that’s probably an average of about $50,000.
Now I have this is bottle of perfume, about $50.00. Can you imagine if I were to pour it out just for an occasion to honor you and wash your feet with?
Some of you guys are freaking out, cuz that’s $50 going to waste!
But can you imagine what people thought when $50,000 was going to waste?
But it wasn’t to Mary. Because it was her act of worship. It was worth it for her to pour out all that she owned as her worship to Jesus.
See, Mary was a person who had a priority of being at the feet of Jesus, and learning from him.
And I bet that she was so accustomed to receiving from Jesus, and being poured into by Jesus,
That this act of worship was something that came easily for her.
And I suspect that for any of us who are willing to make it a priority to be at the feet of Jesus, to receive and to be poured into by Jesus, that giving all that we have and pouring it out for Jesus in loving sacrifice will be something that we love to do.
Will you pause, and take time each day, to be at the Master’s feet?
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
“Choose This Day”- Joshua 24- Rowland Heights Community Christian Church
Ted Ewing introduced my church to a place way up North called JH Ranch.
JH Ranch has become for many of us our most favorite place to be in the world. It’s beautiful retreat place up in the mountains of Northern California.
One year, I remember our whole group was so excited to get up there to spend a whole week.
When we got there, after a 12 hour drive, we step out, and I wanted to get right back in and go home.
It was the dead of summer, and it felt like 100 degrees of dry heat. I’m the type of guy who’s generally out going and excited to be around people, but when it’s that hot, I shut off and I don’t want to be around anyone. Don’t even talk to me.
I pull some guys over to pray for me, because I’m seriously lacking the energy to want to be there.
So as we’re praying, these bulls come charging us from behind the brushes! We get up and start taking off for our lives. Our hearts are beating and adrenaline is rushing!
We said, “God you’re quick!” But we were half joking and decided to keep praying.
As we were praying, I feel a drop of water hit my face. And I think the dude is spitting on me.
But I feel it again, and we look up and it starts pouring down rain! We all run for cover because the clouds had come and the rain was pouring down.
That day was a powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness to answer prayer.
At the end of JH Ranch, Ted gave each of us a slice of a tree trunk. We were to write down what God showed us at JH Ranch as a memorial to what God has done.
Every time we see these pieces of wood, we were to be reminded of what God had done.
Commemorate the Past (v. 1-13)
Here’s Joshua, in the last of his days.
He has literally fought the good fight, he has served the LORD faithfully.
And as one of his last acts of leadership, he draws all the Israelite leaders, elders, judges, and officials together at a place called Shechem.
Now Shechem was a landmark in Israelite history.
And now, with all the praise that Joshua deserves, for a life well-lived, he gathers them not in his name or in his presence, but it says that they gather before the presence of God (v. 1)
He gathers them at the end of his life, not to remember his life, but to remember the LORD. To commemorate Yahweh and his mighty works.
And the LORD takes this generation of Israel down memory lane to remember how Yahweh has saved them time and time again.
And not only does he save them from harm, but he blesses them in the process.
Do you Remember when God saved you?
When he saved your Father Abraham, your most celebrated Patriarch, and he delivered him out of the Idolatry of your fathers?
And not only did God save him, but God Blessed him by giving him many descendants?
Do you Remember when God Saved you?
When he saved you from slavery out of the hand of the Egyptians and brought you out.
When he saved you from the Egyptian army who trapped them up against the Red Sea, But God causes the sea to split for you and to crash on them?
Do you Remember when God Saved you?
When God saved you from the hand of the Amorites.
When the attacked you, God put them at your mercy.
And not only did God save you, he Blessed you by giving you their land!
Do you Remember when God Saved you?
When God saved you from Balak, who wanted to fight against you, and he sent Balaam to curse you.
And not only did God save you, He blessed you by causing him to bless you again, and again and again.
Do you Remember when God Saved you?
When God brought you across the Jordan and into Jericho, and saved you when the people there tried to fight you, along with the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites?
And not only did God save you, but he blessed you over and over by giving you the land and abundance that you didn’t even labor for? They made the land abundant, and God gave it into your hands!
God just delivers them over and over and over.
And not only does he merely save them, just Blesses them over and over and over.
Joshua calls the people to commemorate the past and remember what the Lord has done.
Church, do you remember? it is good to remember what the Lord has done.
We were discussing in Sunday school at my church, and one person asked, sometimes it’s so easy to forget how faithful and good God has been in our lives. How do we not forget it when things get hard?
I raised my hand, and said “That’s easy. Just remember.”
Brilliant, right?
No but really, God has been so good to us, and his goodness and faithfulness is all around us, how do we keep from forgetting what God has done? Remember it.
Be intentional and find ways to commemorate what God has done.
God is good, amen? Has God been good to you? Amen?
And he’s been good to me! But why is it that whenever I face my next struggle or trial in life, I forget all that the Lord has done for me and I weep and pout and feel so hopeless in this current situation?
Why is it that when it gets miserably hot and nasty and I’m hating the world, do I forget about the times when God sent the rain and brought refreshing?
The Israelites were gathered together to commemorate and remember the LORD, how time and time again he Saved them, and blessed them, Saved them, and Blessed them….
What has the Lord done in your life? How will you remember? How has he saved you? How has he blessed you?
We have to be intentional in our ways to stop occasionally and remember, to go back and be reminded of how faithful God has already been.
PSALM 13: David cries out to the Lord in his distress. He’s on the brink of death, hanging on for his life, and he cries out “How long, oh Lord, How long?!”
And after a whole prayer for venting and expressing his sorrow, he ends the Psalm with a song of Praise….
He says “I will rejoice in his salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.”
God had delivered David from death time and time again…. From men, from armies, from sickness, from lions and giants and bears!
He decides to intentionally remind himself by singing to the Lord for how he has been good to him.
Some of you are musical… write a song
Some of you are journalist. Keep a journal, or maybe an online blog. I’ve started a blog to record things the Lord shows me or teaches me in my life. On there I have sections where I record answered prayers as God answers them to remind me of how he’s working in my life.
Build a monument, collect a souvenir, write a poem, paint a picture.
God has been so good, but it’s so easy to be blinded and stricken with a case of amnesia every time temptation or difficulty or suffering confronts us.
Do you remember what God has done for you?
How has he save you?
What has he done to bring you into the faith?
What did he bring you out of? How has he changed you?
How has he answered a prayer in the past? How has he provided for you?
What victory has he given you?
Joshua saw that it was important to gather the people together to remember the LORD in their life.
Do you remember the Lord in your life?
Choose This day (v. 14-15)
Joshua says in v. 14-15 “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
At this point, Joshua, begins to exhort the people.
In the past, Jacob called his household together there at Shechem, and together they got rid of their idols and objects of worship of foreign gods, Joshua calls this generation of his to do the very same thing, right there at Shechem.
He says “Throw away the gods of your forefathers, and serve the LORD. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the religion and gods of your ancestors, or the religion and the gods of this culture you live, the Amorites.
Because everyone will worship someone.
But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
You have a choice today whom you will serve. You will serve someone, it’s in your nature.
But you can’t serve everyone. You either serve God, or you serve the gods.
You can serve the gods of your ancestors, or the gods of the culture around you.
But for Joshua and his household, they’ve already made up their mind whom they will serve.
Brothers and sisters, the LORD has been so good to us. Remember?
Remember all the ways he has been faithful to you, and so gracious to you, and so powerful to work in your lives.
We all have a different story in here, but for those of us who have by faith, believe in Jesus as the Son of God and savior of our souls, remember that he has saved us from the grips of sin and death.
He has blessed us with everlasting life with our Creator and the lover of our souls.
Not just a blessing for future events, but he has been blessing us since we made that commitment, time and time again.
Some of us are temporarily blinded by temptation or suffering you are experiencing right now.
But if we open our eyes and remember, we will see the faithfulness and graciousness of God in our lives.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
Is God worth it to you? Is he greater than anything else in your life?
John Feng: I was deeply impressed by a prayer of one of the brothers from my church. He was praying one night, “God, help us to prefer you over everything else in life.”
IF it comes down to sin, or God, I prefer God!
If it comes down to money or God, I prefer God!
If it comes down to popularity or God, I prefer God!
If it’s between finding love from another person and God, I prefer God!
If it’s between pornography and God, I prefer God.
EX: FIREPROOF. I was blessed when I watched the movie Fireproof. In the movie, there’s this couple who’s marriage is about to break up.
One of the reasons was because of his addiction to Internet pornography. In one scene, he’s struggling with temptation, but knowing that that stuff hurts his wife and kills her inside, he rips out his computer, takes it outside, and in a godly way, destroys it with a baseball bat.
But the best part is that when she comes home, she sees on the desk where the computer used to be a vase of Roses, and a note that says “I Love You More”.
So here’s this thing that he loves in his life, something that had taken great priority. And yet, he made a choice, and said, “NO, I love my Wife more. I prefer my wife.”
Would you be able to place a note in place of the temptations and sin that you face, and say, “God, I love you more.”
I’m willing to give this up, I’m willing to not to gossip/look at pornography/ use foul language/ watch these movies/ talk about that girl/ , because I love you more. I prefer YOU over sin.
Guys, God is SO good, and He’s so Worth it. He deserves the first and greatest place in our lives.
And he says, there should Be NO other gods before me. There should be nothing else in this life that takes greater place than Me.
Not the things we love. Not the bad sinful things. Not even things that are good. Nothing is to take greater place than God.
Joshua says in v. 14-15 “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua is about to depart. He’s fought the good fight. He’s going on to be with Yahweh.
And he lays it out before the people.
“I’m not going to be with you much longer… make a choice this day. Who will you serve?
Choose God.
Commit for Tomorrow
EX: Albert’s Step Dad: I have a friend named Albert who tells me an amazing story of how his step dad gave his life to Christ.
One day in high school he felt the tremendous weight of his sin, and feeling guilty, left the dinner table and went to his room weeping.
That night, a pastor in the city felt compelled to get a hold of this kid and get a hold of him. He finds him, and calls him, and tells him to come down to the church to meet him.
Albert’s stepdad ran, not walked, ran to the church.
That night, Albert’s stepdad learned about the forgiveness of God and gave his life to Christ.
Imagine the scene: It’s like a rally or a revival meeting. And so the Israelites choose God, or at least they say.
Joshua says choose this day whom you will serve, and they say “We choose God! We will serve the Lord!”
They repeat the things Joshua highlighted and acknowledge how God has been so good and faithful to save them and bless them.
Joshua tries to push back on them and says “You are not able to serve God! He is Holy and jealous for his glory. If you say that you will choose him and then forsake him, he will bring disaster upon you!”
But they insist, and they say, “No way! We will serve the LORD!”
So Joshua says “Fine, throw away all your gods right now and choose God.”
And so Joshua builds an altar right there at Shechem under the oak, the same place where Jacob built his altar for his people, and it was to be a reminder and a witness of their covenant made to God that day.
How many of us have made commitments to God before. How many of us have been quick to say “I choose this day to serve you! I give my life to you Lord!”
But then sooner than later it’s back to the normal, mediocre life, living for self and chasing after the desires of this world.
I have seen countless friends raise hands and a praise concert, commit their lives at a retreat, go down onto the field at a crusade, stand up at a revival meetings, and then quickly return to their old way of living.
It’s a sad thing when people think that Christianity is merely praying a prayer or raising your hand at a Gospel meeting to ask Jesus into your heart.
Coming to Christ is not a one time commitment, it’s a FULL TIME commitment.
We are saved by faith and faith alone… but faith isn’t demonstrated in an instance in time. It is demonstated in a lifetime of commitment.
Jesus says in Luke 9:23 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
We must daily choose God. Daily make the decision to follow him by faith and to follow hard after him.
ISRAEL: A generation later, after these Israelites raised their hands to the Lord, and committed themselves to throwing away false god’s to follow after Yahweh, they are back where they started.
In the next book, its stays that after Joshua died, “the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.” (Judges 2:13)
It would do you good to be faced with the challenge of Joshua each day, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”
In Heb 4:13 “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.”
What day is it today? It’s today.
When you wake up tomorrow, what day will it be to you? Today.
How about in a month? It’ll be today.
Just as we are encouraged to encourage each other as long as it is called today, I want to challenge you to plan for tomorrow.
You can plan for tomorrow, by committing to each new day.
As long as it is called today, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”
EX: Albert was chatting online, and his friend im’s him and says check out this website. It’s a website called Megan’s Law, where sex offenders and sexual molester’s are listed so that people may be aware and keep their family safe. So my friend, Albert, checks out the site and decides to check his city for any sex offenders. A few pop up. He clicks on one, and the information pops up. It’s his own address. Meaning that there is a registered sex offender living in his house. He clicks on other links, and finds out it’s his step-dad.
That’s right, the one who came to Jesus and for a while was going to church.
Turns out that he also cheated on his wife, Albert’s mom, multiple times.
Brothers and sisters… Remember the LORD.
Commemorate his faithfulness and goodness. Remember how he has saved you and blessed you over and over again.
Choose this day whom you will serve. Throw away your idols and the things that contend for the affection of your heart. Choose God.
And Plan for tomorrow. Plan for tomorrow by making a commitment to day, that each day, when you wake up, you will “Choose this day whom you will serve”.
Then take up your cross, and follow him at all cost.
JH Ranch has become for many of us our most favorite place to be in the world. It’s beautiful retreat place up in the mountains of Northern California.
One year, I remember our whole group was so excited to get up there to spend a whole week.
When we got there, after a 12 hour drive, we step out, and I wanted to get right back in and go home.
It was the dead of summer, and it felt like 100 degrees of dry heat. I’m the type of guy who’s generally out going and excited to be around people, but when it’s that hot, I shut off and I don’t want to be around anyone. Don’t even talk to me.
I pull some guys over to pray for me, because I’m seriously lacking the energy to want to be there.
So as we’re praying, these bulls come charging us from behind the brushes! We get up and start taking off for our lives. Our hearts are beating and adrenaline is rushing!
We said, “God you’re quick!” But we were half joking and decided to keep praying.
As we were praying, I feel a drop of water hit my face. And I think the dude is spitting on me.
But I feel it again, and we look up and it starts pouring down rain! We all run for cover because the clouds had come and the rain was pouring down.
That day was a powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness to answer prayer.
At the end of JH Ranch, Ted gave each of us a slice of a tree trunk. We were to write down what God showed us at JH Ranch as a memorial to what God has done.
Every time we see these pieces of wood, we were to be reminded of what God had done.
Commemorate the Past (v. 1-13)
Here’s Joshua, in the last of his days.
He has literally fought the good fight, he has served the LORD faithfully.
And as one of his last acts of leadership, he draws all the Israelite leaders, elders, judges, and officials together at a place called Shechem.
Now Shechem was a landmark in Israelite history.
And now, with all the praise that Joshua deserves, for a life well-lived, he gathers them not in his name or in his presence, but it says that they gather before the presence of God (v. 1)
He gathers them at the end of his life, not to remember his life, but to remember the LORD. To commemorate Yahweh and his mighty works.
And the LORD takes this generation of Israel down memory lane to remember how Yahweh has saved them time and time again.
And not only does he save them from harm, but he blesses them in the process.
Do you Remember when God saved you?
When he saved your Father Abraham, your most celebrated Patriarch, and he delivered him out of the Idolatry of your fathers?
And not only did God save him, but God Blessed him by giving him many descendants?
Do you Remember when God Saved you?
When he saved you from slavery out of the hand of the Egyptians and brought you out.
When he saved you from the Egyptian army who trapped them up against the Red Sea, But God causes the sea to split for you and to crash on them?
Do you Remember when God Saved you?
When God saved you from the hand of the Amorites.
When the attacked you, God put them at your mercy.
And not only did God save you, he Blessed you by giving you their land!
Do you Remember when God Saved you?
When God saved you from Balak, who wanted to fight against you, and he sent Balaam to curse you.
And not only did God save you, He blessed you by causing him to bless you again, and again and again.
Do you Remember when God Saved you?
When God brought you across the Jordan and into Jericho, and saved you when the people there tried to fight you, along with the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites?
And not only did God save you, but he blessed you over and over by giving you the land and abundance that you didn’t even labor for? They made the land abundant, and God gave it into your hands!
God just delivers them over and over and over.
And not only does he merely save them, just Blesses them over and over and over.
Joshua calls the people to commemorate the past and remember what the Lord has done.
Church, do you remember? it is good to remember what the Lord has done.
We were discussing in Sunday school at my church, and one person asked, sometimes it’s so easy to forget how faithful and good God has been in our lives. How do we not forget it when things get hard?
I raised my hand, and said “That’s easy. Just remember.”
Brilliant, right?
No but really, God has been so good to us, and his goodness and faithfulness is all around us, how do we keep from forgetting what God has done? Remember it.
Be intentional and find ways to commemorate what God has done.
God is good, amen? Has God been good to you? Amen?
And he’s been good to me! But why is it that whenever I face my next struggle or trial in life, I forget all that the Lord has done for me and I weep and pout and feel so hopeless in this current situation?
Why is it that when it gets miserably hot and nasty and I’m hating the world, do I forget about the times when God sent the rain and brought refreshing?
The Israelites were gathered together to commemorate and remember the LORD, how time and time again he Saved them, and blessed them, Saved them, and Blessed them….
What has the Lord done in your life? How will you remember? How has he saved you? How has he blessed you?
We have to be intentional in our ways to stop occasionally and remember, to go back and be reminded of how faithful God has already been.
PSALM 13: David cries out to the Lord in his distress. He’s on the brink of death, hanging on for his life, and he cries out “How long, oh Lord, How long?!”
And after a whole prayer for venting and expressing his sorrow, he ends the Psalm with a song of Praise….
He says “I will rejoice in his salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.”
God had delivered David from death time and time again…. From men, from armies, from sickness, from lions and giants and bears!
He decides to intentionally remind himself by singing to the Lord for how he has been good to him.
Some of you are musical… write a song
Some of you are journalist. Keep a journal, or maybe an online blog. I’ve started a blog to record things the Lord shows me or teaches me in my life. On there I have sections where I record answered prayers as God answers them to remind me of how he’s working in my life.
Build a monument, collect a souvenir, write a poem, paint a picture.
God has been so good, but it’s so easy to be blinded and stricken with a case of amnesia every time temptation or difficulty or suffering confronts us.
Do you remember what God has done for you?
How has he save you?
What has he done to bring you into the faith?
What did he bring you out of? How has he changed you?
How has he answered a prayer in the past? How has he provided for you?
What victory has he given you?
Joshua saw that it was important to gather the people together to remember the LORD in their life.
Do you remember the Lord in your life?
Choose This day (v. 14-15)
Joshua says in v. 14-15 “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
At this point, Joshua, begins to exhort the people.
In the past, Jacob called his household together there at Shechem, and together they got rid of their idols and objects of worship of foreign gods, Joshua calls this generation of his to do the very same thing, right there at Shechem.
He says “Throw away the gods of your forefathers, and serve the LORD. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the religion and gods of your ancestors, or the religion and the gods of this culture you live, the Amorites.
Because everyone will worship someone.
But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
You have a choice today whom you will serve. You will serve someone, it’s in your nature.
But you can’t serve everyone. You either serve God, or you serve the gods.
You can serve the gods of your ancestors, or the gods of the culture around you.
But for Joshua and his household, they’ve already made up their mind whom they will serve.
Brothers and sisters, the LORD has been so good to us. Remember?
Remember all the ways he has been faithful to you, and so gracious to you, and so powerful to work in your lives.
We all have a different story in here, but for those of us who have by faith, believe in Jesus as the Son of God and savior of our souls, remember that he has saved us from the grips of sin and death.
He has blessed us with everlasting life with our Creator and the lover of our souls.
Not just a blessing for future events, but he has been blessing us since we made that commitment, time and time again.
Some of us are temporarily blinded by temptation or suffering you are experiencing right now.
But if we open our eyes and remember, we will see the faithfulness and graciousness of God in our lives.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
Is God worth it to you? Is he greater than anything else in your life?
John Feng: I was deeply impressed by a prayer of one of the brothers from my church. He was praying one night, “God, help us to prefer you over everything else in life.”
IF it comes down to sin, or God, I prefer God!
If it comes down to money or God, I prefer God!
If it comes down to popularity or God, I prefer God!
If it’s between finding love from another person and God, I prefer God!
If it’s between pornography and God, I prefer God.
EX: FIREPROOF. I was blessed when I watched the movie Fireproof. In the movie, there’s this couple who’s marriage is about to break up.
One of the reasons was because of his addiction to Internet pornography. In one scene, he’s struggling with temptation, but knowing that that stuff hurts his wife and kills her inside, he rips out his computer, takes it outside, and in a godly way, destroys it with a baseball bat.
But the best part is that when she comes home, she sees on the desk where the computer used to be a vase of Roses, and a note that says “I Love You More”.
So here’s this thing that he loves in his life, something that had taken great priority. And yet, he made a choice, and said, “NO, I love my Wife more. I prefer my wife.”
Would you be able to place a note in place of the temptations and sin that you face, and say, “God, I love you more.”
I’m willing to give this up, I’m willing to not to gossip/look at pornography/ use foul language/ watch these movies/ talk about that girl/ , because I love you more. I prefer YOU over sin.
Guys, God is SO good, and He’s so Worth it. He deserves the first and greatest place in our lives.
And he says, there should Be NO other gods before me. There should be nothing else in this life that takes greater place than Me.
Not the things we love. Not the bad sinful things. Not even things that are good. Nothing is to take greater place than God.
Joshua says in v. 14-15 “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua is about to depart. He’s fought the good fight. He’s going on to be with Yahweh.
And he lays it out before the people.
“I’m not going to be with you much longer… make a choice this day. Who will you serve?
Choose God.
Commit for Tomorrow
EX: Albert’s Step Dad: I have a friend named Albert who tells me an amazing story of how his step dad gave his life to Christ.
One day in high school he felt the tremendous weight of his sin, and feeling guilty, left the dinner table and went to his room weeping.
That night, a pastor in the city felt compelled to get a hold of this kid and get a hold of him. He finds him, and calls him, and tells him to come down to the church to meet him.
Albert’s stepdad ran, not walked, ran to the church.
That night, Albert’s stepdad learned about the forgiveness of God and gave his life to Christ.
Imagine the scene: It’s like a rally or a revival meeting. And so the Israelites choose God, or at least they say.
Joshua says choose this day whom you will serve, and they say “We choose God! We will serve the Lord!”
They repeat the things Joshua highlighted and acknowledge how God has been so good and faithful to save them and bless them.
Joshua tries to push back on them and says “You are not able to serve God! He is Holy and jealous for his glory. If you say that you will choose him and then forsake him, he will bring disaster upon you!”
But they insist, and they say, “No way! We will serve the LORD!”
So Joshua says “Fine, throw away all your gods right now and choose God.”
And so Joshua builds an altar right there at Shechem under the oak, the same place where Jacob built his altar for his people, and it was to be a reminder and a witness of their covenant made to God that day.
How many of us have made commitments to God before. How many of us have been quick to say “I choose this day to serve you! I give my life to you Lord!”
But then sooner than later it’s back to the normal, mediocre life, living for self and chasing after the desires of this world.
I have seen countless friends raise hands and a praise concert, commit their lives at a retreat, go down onto the field at a crusade, stand up at a revival meetings, and then quickly return to their old way of living.
It’s a sad thing when people think that Christianity is merely praying a prayer or raising your hand at a Gospel meeting to ask Jesus into your heart.
Coming to Christ is not a one time commitment, it’s a FULL TIME commitment.
We are saved by faith and faith alone… but faith isn’t demonstrated in an instance in time. It is demonstated in a lifetime of commitment.
Jesus says in Luke 9:23 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
We must daily choose God. Daily make the decision to follow him by faith and to follow hard after him.
ISRAEL: A generation later, after these Israelites raised their hands to the Lord, and committed themselves to throwing away false god’s to follow after Yahweh, they are back where they started.
In the next book, its stays that after Joshua died, “the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.” (Judges 2:13)
It would do you good to be faced with the challenge of Joshua each day, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”
In Heb 4:13 “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.”
What day is it today? It’s today.
When you wake up tomorrow, what day will it be to you? Today.
How about in a month? It’ll be today.
Just as we are encouraged to encourage each other as long as it is called today, I want to challenge you to plan for tomorrow.
You can plan for tomorrow, by committing to each new day.
As long as it is called today, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”
EX: Albert was chatting online, and his friend im’s him and says check out this website. It’s a website called Megan’s Law, where sex offenders and sexual molester’s are listed so that people may be aware and keep their family safe. So my friend, Albert, checks out the site and decides to check his city for any sex offenders. A few pop up. He clicks on one, and the information pops up. It’s his own address. Meaning that there is a registered sex offender living in his house. He clicks on other links, and finds out it’s his step-dad.
That’s right, the one who came to Jesus and for a while was going to church.
Turns out that he also cheated on his wife, Albert’s mom, multiple times.
Brothers and sisters… Remember the LORD.
Commemorate his faithfulness and goodness. Remember how he has saved you and blessed you over and over again.
Choose this day whom you will serve. Throw away your idols and the things that contend for the affection of your heart. Choose God.
And Plan for tomorrow. Plan for tomorrow by making a commitment to day, that each day, when you wake up, you will “Choose this day whom you will serve”.
Then take up your cross, and follow him at all cost.
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