Jesus is in the middle of his Famous Sermon on the Mount. If you notice, many pastors give 3 pt sermons. Jesus is the man. This sermon is like a 15 pt sermon! He talked about murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, revenge, giving, prayer, etc.
Here in Ch. 7, he wraps it up and give two last points, one on Judging, and one on Praying. Then he concludes with final challenges.
Judging Others (v. 1-6)
1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
6"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
Paul says in 1 Cor. 5 that we should judge other Christians, and here Jesus says “Do not judge.” Who’s right here? Should we listen to Paul, who’s pretty godly, or should we listen to Jesus, who’s pretty GOD? The answer is: YES.
There’s different kinds of judgment in the Bible.
Judging to correct- making known their wrong so you can help them be right. If you have a bad habit of murdering people, I would bring that up and make it an issue, so you would stop!
Judging to condemn- making known a person’s wrong and looking down on them for it. Before I knew Monica, we always went to this church, and she tells me she always thought I was dumb. Like literally dumb. So she was shocked when she found out that I actually study!
I judged a classmate of mine for missing a week of school. I started giving her a hard time, only to find out her mom died.
So which one is Jesus talking about in this passage? Judging to Condemn or Judging to Restore? Answer: YES!
He’s don’t judge people to condemn them, because you’re guilty too!
If you’re always judging people and looking down on them and pointing out their wrong just to point them out, people will tend to treat you the same.
First, They’re never going to listen to you,
And then they’ll point out your wrong and look down on you. Yeah, they’re a sinner, but so are you!
Jesus doesn’t say don’t judge at all. “Don’t take the speck out of your brothers eye at all”. Jesus says before you take that speck, that little piece of wood from you brothers eye, take that huge plank of wood from yours first.
Jesus says don’t judge a brother and look down on him, but we should care to judge a brother in order to help correct a his wrong,
But we must first correct ourselves before expecting to help him with his problem.
Perhaps this way people will be willing to listen to us, because we’ve gone through it.
Plus, when you struggle to turn from your sin, then you might understand why it’s so hard for them. You’ll start to have more compassion for them because you know that it’s not an easy thing.
Here’s the thing… when something someone does really bothers us, and then we stop to examine ourselves before we go to bring up other people’s wrongs, we’ll find that we are guilty ourselves, and often times it’s the very same things!
EX: David and Nathan.
Do you remember when King David sinned? He sinned by taking Bathsheba, who was married to another man named Uriah. David was the king, he had concubines and could have had any wife he wanted. But he takes Uriahs! And then he gets Uriah killed in battle to cover it up and so that he could marry her.
So his friend Nathan comes to him, and tells him a story:
David was furious! “As surely as the LORD lives! This knuckle head deserves to die! He needs to pay four times over!
And Nathan says, David, you are the man. “Not YOU are the man!”
He didn’t realize that the sin that made him so angry was the sin that he himself was guilty of.
EX: Internet in Class. You know what I hate? When I’m in class, and I see other people checking websites like espn.com, myspace, email. I get so angry. And I would totally raise my hand and tell on them, but I can’t, cuz I need to finish updating my facebook.
A lot of times we are hypocrites, because we see flaws in other people, when we often have the flaws ourselves. We want to get rid of it in others, but fail to recognize our own need.
When someone does something that really bothers us, let’s stop first to let God search us to see if there’s anything we need to correct.
Sometimes God shows us another person’s flaws to get our attention regarding our own.
And when our sin is taken care of and realize the battle involved, then go and help your friend take care of his.
Ask, Seek, Knock (v. 7-12)
7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Did I just read what I think I read? That God will give us whatever we ask? That we just have to ask, and it will be given to us?
EX: When I was in college we were going on our Mexico trip.
We need our DL to go, but the day before as I was going home, I couldn’t find it. It was gone!
Wouldn’t it be great if I open my wallet and BAM! It’s there?
I was praying, God I know you can make it appear. Up to the last minute, after checking everywhere, I got on the freeway and that was it. I went home without it.
Jesus says 7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Meaning that you just have to ask God, and he’ll answer you.
Is that really true? This is a bold statement by Jesus. If you ask, you will receive?
What’s the catch? Well, did you catch the phrase in this promise?
(V. 11) the “Father in heaven will give good things to those who ask him.
That means if we ask for things that are good in God’s eyes, he’ll give it to you, if not, something better! He won’t give you something bad if you ask for something good!
He won’t give you stone instead of bread, or a snake instead of fish.
Ex: Bible and the Sports Car. The son who wanted a sports car, but got a Bible instead.
His father wanted to give him something good, but not just “good” in his sons eyes, but even greater.
In James 4, he says that we fight and quarrel because we don’t have what we want. He says we don’t have what we want because we don’t ask God!
But then he says, “Sometimes you ask, but you don’t receive. That’s because you asked with the wrong motives.
But Jesus says that when we ask for things that are good, The father loves to give good things to his children!
How do we know what things are good according to God?
The more we spend time with God, and read his word, and talk to him in prayer, the more we know him and the things He likes and dislikes, and the things that please him.
EX: If we pray like ‘God, please provide for us so that we can go on missions this summer to help the needy. We need $5000 so please help me to somehow find a bag of crack so I can sell it on the streets and raise enough money.
Now that’s way out of line. Way out of line of God’s idea of good.
I know it’s kind of silly, but I think we’d be surprised if we play a tape recording of some of our prayers
EX: when I was a Freshmen in high school, this is how mature and profound I was. I used to pray “God, please help all the girls to like me.” He’s still waiting to get back to me on that one.
So how can we know what things are good? The more we study God’s word and the teachings of Christ, the deeper we will understand the heart of God and what is good.
15 years later, I no longer pray prayers like “Please help the girls to like me.”
Come to God and ask, and if it’s good, you will receive, seek and find, knock and it will open.
It might not be in the way you imagined, or even the way you thought was best, but if it’s good according to God, He is faithful and good to give you what you ask for!
EX:
That night I went to church kind of bummed. I Couldn’t help think about it during church worship and BS.
He didn’t make my DL appear. I mean, isn’t missions good? Why wouldn’t he answer my prayer?
After church, about 10:30, I went down to get some food, and my dad was there!
He said, you got a letter in the mail. That’s weird, cuz Dad never checks mail.
I open it, and it’s my DL! Someone found it and mail it to my home address!
Ask, seek, knock. It might not be in the way we expect, but his will be done!
Conclusion
Jesus just finished his famous sermon, which we call the sermon on the mount. He’s talked about the beatitudes, the law, oaths to murder, adultery, divorce, revenge, giving, prayer, fasting, treasures, worrying, judging, asking. And now he’s coming to a close.
And of course every good sermon ends with an invitation. Kind of like “What are you going to do now? How will you respond?
Jesus closes with a series of 2’s: 2 Paths, 2 Prophets, 2 Practices. You gotta choose one.
Two Paths- The Narrow and the Wide (v. 13-14)
13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Ex: Disneyland door. When you go to Disneyland, this is crazy, but I walked through the castle door before. Everyone walks through that big door, and they think they’re going to enjoy everything in there. But there’s a small door that if you look for it, you will find it. If you find it, which few do, you can walk through the beautifully decorated and illustrated tour of the castle, the inside of the Kingdom.
The door to eternal life isn’t the default path that everyone is headed toward. Everyone is headed toward hell, the path of death and destruction. But if there is a door, a path to life. But if you look for the path to life, and you really seek it, you will find it. How?
Ask, it will be given.
Seek and you will find.
Knock, and the door will be opened.
Christ says I am the way. I am the gate. If you ask, you won’t be rejected. You can choose to go the way most people seem to be going, where it seems fun and entertaining.
Or you can go the less popular way, in the way of Christ, and find out there’s much more there than the world can ask for.
Which path will you choose?
Two Prophets- The Good and the Bad (v. 15- -23)
15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
Jesus just finished giving a long sermon, with all kinds of teachings from the law. And people are mesmerized by his teaching.
And as he closes, he says, be careful who you listen to. Many people will come dressed as nice people who want to lead you, but some are really out to devour you.
They want to control you, or take from you, or cause you to do things according to their selfish motives.
Jesus says that not everyone who seems good and seems like they do great things for God are truly known by God. Although they may lead great churches and seem like super Christians, some have never really come to know God.
“But Jesus, wouldn’t that put you on the spot, and make them doubt you? How do they know you’re of God?”
Christ says, by their fruit. By the way that they live. If they bear good fruit and the things they do and say are according to God, then you know that they are a good tree.
A bad teacher cannot live a good Christian life. If he can, he’s probably a good Christian.
But a good Christian isn’t just what you see on Sundays at Church or Friday nights. A good Christian is what you see Monday through Friday, behind the scenes and in front of the scenes.
Be careful who you follow. Watch their life closely, and choose whom you will follow.
Two Practices- The Hearer and the Doer (v. 24-29)
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
28When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
EX: When I was little, I used to love to build sand castles. What’s like the given rule to sand castles? When you build it, it will come, meaning the waves always come and wash it away. Even when you think you’re far enough away, there’s this one way that seems to find you.
I was at a retreat last week, and we stayed in a Beach house. But Beach house is an understatement, because this house was so close to the ocean. When it’s lowtide, the water level is low and you can see the sand and it’s like a beach. But when it’s high tide, the waves are literally crashing against the concrete wall that the house is built on. There’s pictures of massive waves crashing against the house, even reaching to the second story of the house.
But for some reason, we weren’t huddling together and praying that the walls wouldn’t come tumbling down. No, we just worshipped, studied God’s word, played games and hung out. We were on solid ground.
Many of you guys come every Sunday and hear different people teach. Some even come every Friday. Well, I know the other leaders would never say this, but I’d ike to say “BIG WHOOP”.
And I know many of you guys during the small group time after this probably know all the answers to all the questions and know every thing about the bible passage. “BIG WHOOP!”
Jesus says so what if you hear what I teach. If you don’t obey them and put them into practice, you are a foolish little man who builds his house on the sand. It has no foundation. When the tough stuff comes, like rain and wind, that house will fall apart.
Our life, when tough times come, like when you’re not doing well in school, or when you’re not getting along with your parents, or your friends are mad at you, you will come falling apart.
Why? Cuz you haven’t been living out the words of God.
God wants you to hear them, and he wants you to come to church every week.
Don’t just hear, and think that you’re an amazing Christian because you have perfect attendance at church and answer all the questions right.
Do what it says. Live it out, and you’ll be like the strong house.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Why You Shouldn’t Go on Short Term Missions- SBECC CM Worship
As you know, our church has started sending a short term Missions team to Taiwan for the past two years.
I am certain that there may be some of you who hesitate to support short term trips overseas.
I’m sure there are many good reasons in your mind.
And so this morning, I want to affirm you in your reasons for why you oppose short term missions.
I’ve called this message “Why You should Not Go on Short Term Missions”.
“It is a burden to the Long Term Missionaries.”
Before we started going to Taiwan, we were told that short term teams overseas can be a heavy burden to the Full time missionaries:
They have to break from the work they are doing in order to take us around,
They have to have to baby sit us and make sure we’re taken care of,
They have to make sure there’s enough for everyone to do.
These things happen all the time.
Instead of advancing the work of God, STM’s hinder the work of God.
When we first decided to go to Taiwan with OMF, it was on the condition that we would help carry the burden of the missionaries.
(picture of all of JOME)
Our missionary host, David Ullstrom, cannot teach English to 50 different kids, ranging from 4 years old to 20 years old!
The church staff does not have enough English speakers to hold an English camp by themselves.
We, as Chinese Americans, can provide that resource.
We have the youthfulness. We have the energy. We have the motivation. We have the sense of call. And we speak English.
By the end of our first trip in Taiwan two years ago, and after a successful English camp, the OMF Missionary and the Pastor were requesting that we come again the following summer.
They insisted that I schedule the dates with them before we returned back to the US.
Can short term mission trips be a burden to the Missionaries? YES.
Do our short term trips to Taiwan burden the missionaries?
Apparently Not if THEY are asking us to come back year after year to help them.
“You can’t have too much impact in just one month!”
We are told that one month in another country is too short of a time to make any long-term impact.
You’re in an then you’re out. I agree!
But when David and Cindy asked us to schedule a time to come back the next year, it’s exactly what we had in mind!
We went on the first short-term trip with a long-term strategy in mind.
Our strategy and intention was to build a long-term relationship with a church in Taiwan, so that we can continually pray for them and support them, even when we returned to the US.
WE didn’t want to just go for one month and that’s it.
Since we can’t stay in Taiwan forever, we wanted to work with a church in Taiwan that is!
Through this relationship we can continually go back to help them and support what God is doing through that Taiwanese Church in particular.
By holding annual English camps in the Church, we have been able to bring in many non-Christian families into the church.
By coming into the church, they have been able to hear and learn what the Gospel is about.
They have been able to learn of the Church’s presence in the city.
We have seen so much fruit from this English camp that Parents are booking their children for next years camp.
We also wanted to build relationships with individuals that would be long-term.
PICTURE: During the first trip in 2007, these were three non-Christian friends that we met: Alice, Charlene, and Mona.
They came from a local university in Taiwan to help us teach English.
We spent nearly every day with them.
They helped us translate our lessons. They helped us translated Bible stories. Several times they helped us translate the very gospel.
They would spend many nights at our apartment, as if they were part of our team.
When we came back after the first year, we brought them with us.
Not physically, but in friendship, and also in prayer.
Part of our mission is to build long-term relationships. Not just with the church, but with people.
We came and asked the church to pray for them, and for the next year, we remembered them in our prayers.
We asked the Lord to save these Taiwanese friends of ours.
Today, almost 3 years later, members from our team still keep in touch and build the relationship with them.
So how much can you really do in 1 month? You’re right, not much.
But you can do a lot, with the help of God, over the course of many years. That takes a long-term strategy.
“It really only benefits the Short term Missionaries who go.”
People say that STM’s only benefit the Short term missionaries who go, and so they argue that it’s not worth supporting.
Does it really benefit the short term missionaries?
Absolutely!
PICTURE:
Looking over the past two years, 12 of the 12 team members who have gone have grown significantly in missions mindedness.
Julian: He's convicted that he wants to use his life more than working a secular Job, and particularly wants to become a missionary, Taiwan a big place on his heart. However, his dad blew up on him recently when Julian mentioned this and threatened to cut off his support for Julian's schooling. Right now, Julian wants to honor his dad and show him that he wants to love and care for him, with the hope of missions still as his future goal.
Mike: Wants to become a missionary in China. God really put that in his heart this summer. However, he's struggling to finish is studies.
Cindy: She is not only considering full time missions, but expects to be on the field in the future. She's pretty certain of it.
Christine Lam: VERY open to longterm missions after this past trip. She'll be going to Taiwan this year with us, though her dad insists she raise her own money. She says the trip has broadened her perspective on missions in general. Since she's at USC, she really has a heart to invest in inner cities missions now.
Jamie: Jamie says she's definitely open to full time missions if GOd calls her to. She has a huge heart for Taiwan, and will be going with us for the 3rd time this summer.
Debra: She REALLLY REALLY wants to go with us this summer, but she's having surgery on her knee, and her parents don't want her to do anything but rest. She is joining a "Harvard Taiwan Leadership Conference", a ministry reaching out and teaching students who are in the US from Taiwan. She has a huge heart.
Emily: SHe's really convicted to go on missions, and will be going to Nicaragua with her Church, Living Water, in Berkely over the spring break.
I know that as a parent, that may cause many of you to hesitate in ever letting your child go on a short term trip, in case they get this crazy idea to become a missionary!
But this is the truth about the impact of short term missionary trips!
It really can change our lives!
So do STM’s really radically impact and benefit the Short term missionaries who go.
YES! But are they really the only ones who benefit?
The greatest benefit that we see and that we pray for is the salvation of dying souls who don’t know Jesus Christ.
God is working to save the nations in order to Glorify Himself in all the earth.
Our work as Christians is to be willing and obedient to be used in God’s purposes.
We trust that God can use anyone or anything to use as a link in a chain to save a sinner.
Each link is like an event that’s part of a greater process that God uses to sovereignly draw people to Him.
In Acts 9, God is on a mission to save a sinner, the wicked Pharisee named Saul.
In this story we see that God uses different events and people to bring a person into a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
God encountered him.
In v. 3, God encounters Saul directly as he’s traveling on a road to Damascus.
God reveals himself to Saul through a powerful flash of light and a voice from heaven.
This encounter blinded Saul and prepared Him to later receive the Holy Spirit by faith later on in Damascus.
I believe God is also encountering people in Taiwan in order to prepare them for the Gospel.
It may not be a blinding light from heaven, but Jn. 14 says the HS will convict the world of their sins.
PICTURE 2: In this picture, I am talking with a guy named Foster. He is not a Christian, but came into the church on the last Sunday before we left for the US.
Here, he was telling me that he was getting ready to move to Australia.
He said he was sick of the kind of person he was, and he wanted to get out of his environment so that he could “change his personality.”
I said, “what do you mean?”
He said, “I’m not a very good person. I am a bad person.”
I was shocked! I believe that before we ever met, the Lord himself was convicting Foster of his own sinfulness!
In Taiwan, we saw God encounter people to prepare them for salvation.
His Friends walked with him.
In Acts 9:7-9, Paul was blinded by his encounter with the Lord, so it says that his companions “led him by the hand into Damascus.”
If it were not for his companions, Paul could not have made it to Damascus where he would later receive his sight, as well as the Holy Spirit.
God can use companions to lead you where God wants to meet you.
PICTURE 3: This is Mona, one of the non-Christian helpers that you saw earlier.
Not long before we met her, Mona’s found her mom at home. She had committed suicide and she was extremely depressed.
Her friend/companion Roting brought her to church to help with the English Camp because she felt like it might be good for Mona to be near Christians, even though she wasn’t a Christian herself.
Roting did not attend, but was the friend who “led her by the hand” to the church.
Our STM team was able to befriend her and build a very meaningful friendship with Mona.
When we came back, we asked the church to pray for her. And so we prayed for her throughout the year and continue building our friendship til this day.
Sometimes God will use companions as instruments to take an unbeliever to a place where they can meet God and receive His Holy Spirit.
For Mona, God used Roting to take Mona to the church.
As her new friends, our team also led her by the hand and walked with her.
physically, in bringing her daily to the Church to be with us.
But also Spiritually, in comforting her and introducing her to Jesus Christ.
Stranger spoke to him.
In Acts 9:10-19, God used a stranger named Ananias to speak to him and Pray for him.
They had never met face to face or talked with one another.
But Ananias knew of who he was, and was afraid of Saul.
But in faithfulness and obedience to God’s call, Ananias trusted God and he went and spoke to Saul.
When this stranger prayed for Saul, his eyes were finally opened, both physically, and spiritually.
He was once blind, but now he could see. In more ways than one.
Acts 9:17 says that because of ANnanias, Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit, and was baptized.
Sometimes God will use strangers who are faithful and willing to be used.
PICTURE 2: The day we met Foster, we were supposed to leave for Kenting in the South of Taiwan.
But God provided a typhoon, so we were stook at the apt.
We were happy because it meant more time with our Taiwanese friends before we left for the U.S.
Mona joined us, as well as Foster, even though we only met him that day.
That night, we continued our conversation with Foster about the Gospel. He kept asking us to tell him stories of how God worked in our lives.
By God’s sovereignty, part of our training before leaving for Taiwan was to prepare testimonies
We each prepared our stories of how God has worked in our lives, “just in case” the opportunity comes up.
Foster kept insisting that he needed evidence of God in his life, of a God who cared about his situation and who’s existence was real.
We went around the circle, and a few of us sitting and talking with him got to share out stories. The rest of the team quietly gathered in the hallway to pray as we shared the gospel.
We prayed, and Foster began to cry.
He said that this was a “wonderful day”. He kept saying in Chinese that he was so touched.
Soon after, another conversation started in the hallway of our apartment.
Throughout our trip, many of our team members talked and prayed with Mona about her pain.
That night, Emily Yang and another friend began to talk with Mona about the difficulty she was experiencing in her life.
After a long conversation, and much prayer, Mona finally gave her life to Christ as her personal Lord and Savior!
Foster was so touched to see the joy in that apartment over one soul saved!
VIDEO: Foster.
Foster stayed the night with us. And the next morning, there was a powerful typhoon, but something even more powerful than that was going on.
VIDEO: Foster
PICTURE 2: In this picture, I was virtually a stranger to Foster. This was our first real conversation I ever had with him. Me and the team were strangers.
What we didn’t know until later was that three years ago he had a girlfriend who was a Christian in Taipei.
that week she had been praying everyday at church for people in her life to be saved, including Foster.
Somehow God worked it out that 9 missionaries would come to Taiwan and be there at the right place at the right time.
That night we read her blog, and she wrote “I never would have imagined that something like this could ever happen.”
Who would have known that 9 strangers from America would be the final link that God would use to reveal Himself to Foster?
As a stranger spoke to Saul, God used strangers to speak to Foster.
God encountered him, friends walked with him, and a stranger spoke to him.
God is the sovereign one who brings different links together and forms the chain.
God can use a STM to save souls if we are faithful and willing to be used as links in his purposes.
I don’t think that an STM will be able to turn an entire nation around.
But I do think native Taiwanese who live in Taiwan can.
I also think that missionaries who are committed to the Taiwanese can.
And I do Believe that God can use a STM team willing to commit a month of our lives, to be an important links in the long-term process.
The story of Foster and Mona are just two stories out of many that God is doing through our trips.
When we left Taiwan, we challenged the missionary, Foster and Mona to start a small group since they didn’t really have a group for young people.
Here is one of the many updates we received from the Church:
PICTURE 4:
“Our 1st meeting: August 7th Our 1st meeting: August 7th
Attendance: Foster, Mona, me
Our 5th meeting: September 6th
Attendance: Foster, Mona, Alice, Carmen, Pastor Cindy, Bruce, David, Jenny, Flora, Wendy, me”
Closing
So back to the question at hand. Should we go and support STM’s?
If you are going to be a burden to the Full Time Missionaries there, then don’t go.
But if we can help be a useful resource and carry the burden for the Missionaries, then let’s go!
If your work is really limited to just the one month we are there, then don’t go.
But if we can be part of a longterm strategy and build longterm relationships, then let’s go!
And if your trip is only going to benefit yourself, then save your money and don’t go.
But if we experience growth, and the church in Taiwan experiences growth, and sinners are saved, then let’s go!
And let’s do all that we can as a church to prayerfully and financially support those who are able to go.
Amen.
I am certain that there may be some of you who hesitate to support short term trips overseas.
I’m sure there are many good reasons in your mind.
And so this morning, I want to affirm you in your reasons for why you oppose short term missions.
I’ve called this message “Why You should Not Go on Short Term Missions”.
“It is a burden to the Long Term Missionaries.”
Before we started going to Taiwan, we were told that short term teams overseas can be a heavy burden to the Full time missionaries:
They have to break from the work they are doing in order to take us around,
They have to have to baby sit us and make sure we’re taken care of,
They have to make sure there’s enough for everyone to do.
These things happen all the time.
Instead of advancing the work of God, STM’s hinder the work of God.
When we first decided to go to Taiwan with OMF, it was on the condition that we would help carry the burden of the missionaries.
(picture of all of JOME)
Our missionary host, David Ullstrom, cannot teach English to 50 different kids, ranging from 4 years old to 20 years old!
The church staff does not have enough English speakers to hold an English camp by themselves.
We, as Chinese Americans, can provide that resource.
We have the youthfulness. We have the energy. We have the motivation. We have the sense of call. And we speak English.
By the end of our first trip in Taiwan two years ago, and after a successful English camp, the OMF Missionary and the Pastor were requesting that we come again the following summer.
They insisted that I schedule the dates with them before we returned back to the US.
Can short term mission trips be a burden to the Missionaries? YES.
Do our short term trips to Taiwan burden the missionaries?
Apparently Not if THEY are asking us to come back year after year to help them.
“You can’t have too much impact in just one month!”
We are told that one month in another country is too short of a time to make any long-term impact.
You’re in an then you’re out. I agree!
But when David and Cindy asked us to schedule a time to come back the next year, it’s exactly what we had in mind!
We went on the first short-term trip with a long-term strategy in mind.
Our strategy and intention was to build a long-term relationship with a church in Taiwan, so that we can continually pray for them and support them, even when we returned to the US.
WE didn’t want to just go for one month and that’s it.
Since we can’t stay in Taiwan forever, we wanted to work with a church in Taiwan that is!
Through this relationship we can continually go back to help them and support what God is doing through that Taiwanese Church in particular.
By holding annual English camps in the Church, we have been able to bring in many non-Christian families into the church.
By coming into the church, they have been able to hear and learn what the Gospel is about.
They have been able to learn of the Church’s presence in the city.
We have seen so much fruit from this English camp that Parents are booking their children for next years camp.
We also wanted to build relationships with individuals that would be long-term.
PICTURE: During the first trip in 2007, these were three non-Christian friends that we met: Alice, Charlene, and Mona.
They came from a local university in Taiwan to help us teach English.
We spent nearly every day with them.
They helped us translate our lessons. They helped us translated Bible stories. Several times they helped us translate the very gospel.
They would spend many nights at our apartment, as if they were part of our team.
When we came back after the first year, we brought them with us.
Not physically, but in friendship, and also in prayer.
Part of our mission is to build long-term relationships. Not just with the church, but with people.
We came and asked the church to pray for them, and for the next year, we remembered them in our prayers.
We asked the Lord to save these Taiwanese friends of ours.
Today, almost 3 years later, members from our team still keep in touch and build the relationship with them.
So how much can you really do in 1 month? You’re right, not much.
But you can do a lot, with the help of God, over the course of many years. That takes a long-term strategy.
“It really only benefits the Short term Missionaries who go.”
People say that STM’s only benefit the Short term missionaries who go, and so they argue that it’s not worth supporting.
Does it really benefit the short term missionaries?
Absolutely!
PICTURE:
Looking over the past two years, 12 of the 12 team members who have gone have grown significantly in missions mindedness.
Julian: He's convicted that he wants to use his life more than working a secular Job, and particularly wants to become a missionary, Taiwan a big place on his heart. However, his dad blew up on him recently when Julian mentioned this and threatened to cut off his support for Julian's schooling. Right now, Julian wants to honor his dad and show him that he wants to love and care for him, with the hope of missions still as his future goal.
Mike: Wants to become a missionary in China. God really put that in his heart this summer. However, he's struggling to finish is studies.
Cindy: She is not only considering full time missions, but expects to be on the field in the future. She's pretty certain of it.
Christine Lam: VERY open to longterm missions after this past trip. She'll be going to Taiwan this year with us, though her dad insists she raise her own money. She says the trip has broadened her perspective on missions in general. Since she's at USC, she really has a heart to invest in inner cities missions now.
Jamie: Jamie says she's definitely open to full time missions if GOd calls her to. She has a huge heart for Taiwan, and will be going with us for the 3rd time this summer.
Debra: She REALLLY REALLY wants to go with us this summer, but she's having surgery on her knee, and her parents don't want her to do anything but rest. She is joining a "Harvard Taiwan Leadership Conference", a ministry reaching out and teaching students who are in the US from Taiwan. She has a huge heart.
Emily: SHe's really convicted to go on missions, and will be going to Nicaragua with her Church, Living Water, in Berkely over the spring break.
I know that as a parent, that may cause many of you to hesitate in ever letting your child go on a short term trip, in case they get this crazy idea to become a missionary!
But this is the truth about the impact of short term missionary trips!
It really can change our lives!
So do STM’s really radically impact and benefit the Short term missionaries who go.
YES! But are they really the only ones who benefit?
The greatest benefit that we see and that we pray for is the salvation of dying souls who don’t know Jesus Christ.
God is working to save the nations in order to Glorify Himself in all the earth.
Our work as Christians is to be willing and obedient to be used in God’s purposes.
We trust that God can use anyone or anything to use as a link in a chain to save a sinner.
Each link is like an event that’s part of a greater process that God uses to sovereignly draw people to Him.
In Acts 9, God is on a mission to save a sinner, the wicked Pharisee named Saul.
In this story we see that God uses different events and people to bring a person into a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
God encountered him.
In v. 3, God encounters Saul directly as he’s traveling on a road to Damascus.
God reveals himself to Saul through a powerful flash of light and a voice from heaven.
This encounter blinded Saul and prepared Him to later receive the Holy Spirit by faith later on in Damascus.
I believe God is also encountering people in Taiwan in order to prepare them for the Gospel.
It may not be a blinding light from heaven, but Jn. 14 says the HS will convict the world of their sins.
PICTURE 2: In this picture, I am talking with a guy named Foster. He is not a Christian, but came into the church on the last Sunday before we left for the US.
Here, he was telling me that he was getting ready to move to Australia.
He said he was sick of the kind of person he was, and he wanted to get out of his environment so that he could “change his personality.”
I said, “what do you mean?”
He said, “I’m not a very good person. I am a bad person.”
I was shocked! I believe that before we ever met, the Lord himself was convicting Foster of his own sinfulness!
In Taiwan, we saw God encounter people to prepare them for salvation.
His Friends walked with him.
In Acts 9:7-9, Paul was blinded by his encounter with the Lord, so it says that his companions “led him by the hand into Damascus.”
If it were not for his companions, Paul could not have made it to Damascus where he would later receive his sight, as well as the Holy Spirit.
God can use companions to lead you where God wants to meet you.
PICTURE 3: This is Mona, one of the non-Christian helpers that you saw earlier.
Not long before we met her, Mona’s found her mom at home. She had committed suicide and she was extremely depressed.
Her friend/companion Roting brought her to church to help with the English Camp because she felt like it might be good for Mona to be near Christians, even though she wasn’t a Christian herself.
Roting did not attend, but was the friend who “led her by the hand” to the church.
Our STM team was able to befriend her and build a very meaningful friendship with Mona.
When we came back, we asked the church to pray for her. And so we prayed for her throughout the year and continue building our friendship til this day.
Sometimes God will use companions as instruments to take an unbeliever to a place where they can meet God and receive His Holy Spirit.
For Mona, God used Roting to take Mona to the church.
As her new friends, our team also led her by the hand and walked with her.
physically, in bringing her daily to the Church to be with us.
But also Spiritually, in comforting her and introducing her to Jesus Christ.
Stranger spoke to him.
In Acts 9:10-19, God used a stranger named Ananias to speak to him and Pray for him.
They had never met face to face or talked with one another.
But Ananias knew of who he was, and was afraid of Saul.
But in faithfulness and obedience to God’s call, Ananias trusted God and he went and spoke to Saul.
When this stranger prayed for Saul, his eyes were finally opened, both physically, and spiritually.
He was once blind, but now he could see. In more ways than one.
Acts 9:17 says that because of ANnanias, Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit, and was baptized.
Sometimes God will use strangers who are faithful and willing to be used.
PICTURE 2: The day we met Foster, we were supposed to leave for Kenting in the South of Taiwan.
But God provided a typhoon, so we were stook at the apt.
We were happy because it meant more time with our Taiwanese friends before we left for the U.S.
Mona joined us, as well as Foster, even though we only met him that day.
That night, we continued our conversation with Foster about the Gospel. He kept asking us to tell him stories of how God worked in our lives.
By God’s sovereignty, part of our training before leaving for Taiwan was to prepare testimonies
We each prepared our stories of how God has worked in our lives, “just in case” the opportunity comes up.
Foster kept insisting that he needed evidence of God in his life, of a God who cared about his situation and who’s existence was real.
We went around the circle, and a few of us sitting and talking with him got to share out stories. The rest of the team quietly gathered in the hallway to pray as we shared the gospel.
We prayed, and Foster began to cry.
He said that this was a “wonderful day”. He kept saying in Chinese that he was so touched.
Soon after, another conversation started in the hallway of our apartment.
Throughout our trip, many of our team members talked and prayed with Mona about her pain.
That night, Emily Yang and another friend began to talk with Mona about the difficulty she was experiencing in her life.
After a long conversation, and much prayer, Mona finally gave her life to Christ as her personal Lord and Savior!
Foster was so touched to see the joy in that apartment over one soul saved!
VIDEO: Foster.
Foster stayed the night with us. And the next morning, there was a powerful typhoon, but something even more powerful than that was going on.
VIDEO: Foster
PICTURE 2: In this picture, I was virtually a stranger to Foster. This was our first real conversation I ever had with him. Me and the team were strangers.
What we didn’t know until later was that three years ago he had a girlfriend who was a Christian in Taipei.
that week she had been praying everyday at church for people in her life to be saved, including Foster.
Somehow God worked it out that 9 missionaries would come to Taiwan and be there at the right place at the right time.
That night we read her blog, and she wrote “I never would have imagined that something like this could ever happen.”
Who would have known that 9 strangers from America would be the final link that God would use to reveal Himself to Foster?
As a stranger spoke to Saul, God used strangers to speak to Foster.
God encountered him, friends walked with him, and a stranger spoke to him.
God is the sovereign one who brings different links together and forms the chain.
God can use a STM to save souls if we are faithful and willing to be used as links in his purposes.
I don’t think that an STM will be able to turn an entire nation around.
But I do think native Taiwanese who live in Taiwan can.
I also think that missionaries who are committed to the Taiwanese can.
And I do Believe that God can use a STM team willing to commit a month of our lives, to be an important links in the long-term process.
The story of Foster and Mona are just two stories out of many that God is doing through our trips.
When we left Taiwan, we challenged the missionary, Foster and Mona to start a small group since they didn’t really have a group for young people.
Here is one of the many updates we received from the Church:
PICTURE 4:
“Our 1st meeting: August 7th Our 1st meeting: August 7th
Attendance: Foster, Mona, me
Our 5th meeting: September 6th
Attendance: Foster, Mona, Alice, Carmen, Pastor Cindy, Bruce, David, Jenny, Flora, Wendy, me”
Closing
So back to the question at hand. Should we go and support STM’s?
If you are going to be a burden to the Full Time Missionaries there, then don’t go.
But if we can help be a useful resource and carry the burden for the Missionaries, then let’s go!
If your work is really limited to just the one month we are there, then don’t go.
But if we can be part of a longterm strategy and build longterm relationships, then let’s go!
And if your trip is only going to benefit yourself, then save your money and don’t go.
But if we experience growth, and the church in Taiwan experiences growth, and sinners are saved, then let’s go!
And let’s do all that we can as a church to prayerfully and financially support those who are able to go.
Amen.
Let’s Get This Fire Started- Evergreen Baptsist Church SGV praise rally
Introduction
Let me introduce myself. 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.
This past year, we went on our annual trip to Sequoia.
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 gets to start up the campfire? Yeah baby, that’s me.
And my fires are never these cute little, warm little, Kumbaya fires. My fires are massive “you better move our sitting logs back” kinda fires.
So tonight, let me show you how to build the sweetest campfire EVER.
(Kids, do not try this at home…. Try this when you’re camping and there’s lots of fire wood)
1. Gather as many sticks and pieces of wood as you can
2. Form them like a teepee in the fire pit. Fill the inside with little pieces of wood and pine.
3. Light the pieces of wood on the inside on fire.
4. Wait.
5. Watch that Fire ignite into Flames!
6. Optional- Move the sitting logs back 25 feet!
I kid you not, when I lit our campfire up, people from surrounding campgrounds were oohing and ahing at fire. Some people even came over to watch our fire burn and to share in it’s warmth.
I Love starting 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 God and a life passionately devoted to him.
And in this way we want to see you burn so bright that everyone around will be able to see the light of Christ from within you and feel 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 prepare ourselves to get a massive fire going, 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 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 since I want to start a fire, guess what I gotta do? I can’t just sit there and chill and feed my stomach, because 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, while everyone’s relaxing and eating, 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 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 all the time.
But it’s SO worth it. Because I know that the fire that I’m about to create will be so awesome and everyone in that place will be able to enjoy it’s warmth all night long. And while everyone enjoys it and loves it, guess who enjoys it the most? The one who prepared it.
In the same way, if we want to be a light, to be a fire with hearts ablaze in our schools so that it would spread to all those around us, well it’s gonna have to start with sacrifice.
Here’s what I’m talking about: Just like I had to sacrifice and go and carry the wood, well you’re gonna have to go and carry some sort of wood as well.
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 crucified on
The wooden cross is the greatest symbol of sacrifice that we know, because it was the wooden cross that Christ gave up his life for us.
Do you realize that 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. It was all about YOU and a relationship with YOU.
EX: What if I told you I’m in a relationship with a Manequin? You say “Of course not, it’s a dummy!” Don’t call it a dummy! When I talk, she listens. We never fight. She never talks back.
With all relationships, this is a two-way thing. Jesus sacrificed for 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. Do you think you can handle this?
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.
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 willing to sacrifice for Jesus because He sacrificed for you.
It means that Jesus is your king, your #1. He is the one you live for.
Who is the most important person in you life? Your mom, dad, sister, your friend bf, gf, dog… yourself?
Will you Love Jesus more?
And Jesus isn’t saying to go home and flip your parents off, and disobey them and disrespect them. In fact, if you truly follow after Jesus, you’ll learn that he teaches us to honor them and obey them.
If it comes down to it, Will you carry your cross and love Jesus more than the things in life:
More than popularity?
More than computer games?
More than internet and facebook?
More than shopping or basketball?
So I challenge you this year, I dare you, that as you start off the school year to make Jesus your #1 priority.
Will you Carry your cross, and sacrifice whatever it takes to make Jesus your #1?
Carrying the cross isn’t easy, because it means sacrifice. It means denying yourself. It means dying to yourself. And dying is never easy, is it?
But listen, Jesus isn’t even asking here that you physically die for him… But he did:
He died for you, would you be willing to talk to him a little bit each day?
He died for you, would you be willing to give up going to that party if it means being at Church?
He died for you, would you be willing to read some of the love letters He’s left for you?
EX: Baseball. Growing up, I loved to play baseball. It was my passion. I played in the summer league, which everyone plays in. The real good players, like the all-stars also play in a spring league. One time I was on television. They videotaped our game. I couldn’t watch it because it was on cable and I didn’t have cable. But one day I get a phone call. And I was like Whoa! I don’t get phone calls when I was 10. But I pick it up and it was a man who said he was the coach of the Spring League Dodgers. And he says he saw me playing on TV. He asked if I wanted to play for his team. Well, the games were on Sunday. And I was so sad. Because I knew that I could not play. I had church, and it was my time to worship Jesus. And so I had to turn it down.
We all love different things in our lives. What are you willing to lay down in order to pick up the cross?
Will you carry the cross? Will you be willing to sacrifice in order to make Jesus #1?
When we are committed 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 force yourself to be passionate. Passion is something that you just are. It’s natural.
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?
I think Enthusiasm.
EX: Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is when we display joy in our lives. 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 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, but 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.
Here’s the thing. When we think of Passion, We also often think of people who cry and scream and jump and dance for Jesus.
But a passionate person can be when people can look at you and your actions and know you are serious about something.
EX: Telephone
People saw that what she believed was the truth? Why? Not because she was crying and screaming, but because her actions and her words showed that she was serious about what she believed was true.
When we are willing to stand for that thing, even to be humiliated, or to suffer for it.
EX: Have you see the 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.
So if you have taken that first step to carry your cross, you will be seen by the world as a person who is passionate for Jesus in that you are very serious about living for Christ.
We will then be regarded as 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: Last week at 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 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 Philipino 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 churches and in our schools through us, a fire that can’t be contained.
Earlier I challenged you guys, that as this school year starts, that you would make Jesus your number one priority and first love as you carry the cross.
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.
Let me introduce myself. 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.
This past year, we went on our annual trip to Sequoia.
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 gets to start up the campfire? Yeah baby, that’s me.
And my fires are never these cute little, warm little, Kumbaya fires. My fires are massive “you better move our sitting logs back” kinda fires.
So tonight, let me show you how to build the sweetest campfire EVER.
(Kids, do not try this at home…. Try this when you’re camping and there’s lots of fire wood)
1. Gather as many sticks and pieces of wood as you can
2. Form them like a teepee in the fire pit. Fill the inside with little pieces of wood and pine.
3. Light the pieces of wood on the inside on fire.
4. Wait.
5. Watch that Fire ignite into Flames!
6. Optional- Move the sitting logs back 25 feet!
I kid you not, when I lit our campfire up, people from surrounding campgrounds were oohing and ahing at fire. Some people even came over to watch our fire burn and to share in it’s warmth.
I Love starting 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 God and a life passionately devoted to him.
And in this way we want to see you burn so bright that everyone around will be able to see the light of Christ from within you and feel 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 prepare ourselves to get a massive fire going, 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 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 since I want to start a fire, guess what I gotta do? I can’t just sit there and chill and feed my stomach, because 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, while everyone’s relaxing and eating, 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 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 all the time.
But it’s SO worth it. Because I know that the fire that I’m about to create will be so awesome and everyone in that place will be able to enjoy it’s warmth all night long. And while everyone enjoys it and loves it, guess who enjoys it the most? The one who prepared it.
In the same way, if we want to be a light, to be a fire with hearts ablaze in our schools so that it would spread to all those around us, well it’s gonna have to start with sacrifice.
Here’s what I’m talking about: Just like I had to sacrifice and go and carry the wood, well you’re gonna have to go and carry some sort of wood as well.
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 crucified on
The wooden cross is the greatest symbol of sacrifice that we know, because it was the wooden cross that Christ gave up his life for us.
Do you realize that 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. It was all about YOU and a relationship with YOU.
EX: What if I told you I’m in a relationship with a Manequin? You say “Of course not, it’s a dummy!” Don’t call it a dummy! When I talk, she listens. We never fight. She never talks back.
With all relationships, this is a two-way thing. Jesus sacrificed for 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. Do you think you can handle this?
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.
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 willing to sacrifice for Jesus because He sacrificed for you.
It means that Jesus is your king, your #1. He is the one you live for.
Who is the most important person in you life? Your mom, dad, sister, your friend bf, gf, dog… yourself?
Will you Love Jesus more?
And Jesus isn’t saying to go home and flip your parents off, and disobey them and disrespect them. In fact, if you truly follow after Jesus, you’ll learn that he teaches us to honor them and obey them.
If it comes down to it, Will you carry your cross and love Jesus more than the things in life:
More than popularity?
More than computer games?
More than internet and facebook?
More than shopping or basketball?
So I challenge you this year, I dare you, that as you start off the school year to make Jesus your #1 priority.
Will you Carry your cross, and sacrifice whatever it takes to make Jesus your #1?
Carrying the cross isn’t easy, because it means sacrifice. It means denying yourself. It means dying to yourself. And dying is never easy, is it?
But listen, Jesus isn’t even asking here that you physically die for him… But he did:
He died for you, would you be willing to talk to him a little bit each day?
He died for you, would you be willing to give up going to that party if it means being at Church?
He died for you, would you be willing to read some of the love letters He’s left for you?
EX: Baseball. Growing up, I loved to play baseball. It was my passion. I played in the summer league, which everyone plays in. The real good players, like the all-stars also play in a spring league. One time I was on television. They videotaped our game. I couldn’t watch it because it was on cable and I didn’t have cable. But one day I get a phone call. And I was like Whoa! I don’t get phone calls when I was 10. But I pick it up and it was a man who said he was the coach of the Spring League Dodgers. And he says he saw me playing on TV. He asked if I wanted to play for his team. Well, the games were on Sunday. And I was so sad. Because I knew that I could not play. I had church, and it was my time to worship Jesus. And so I had to turn it down.
We all love different things in our lives. What are you willing to lay down in order to pick up the cross?
Will you carry the cross? Will you be willing to sacrifice in order to make Jesus #1?
When we are committed 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 force yourself to be passionate. Passion is something that you just are. It’s natural.
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?
I think Enthusiasm.
EX: Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is when we display joy in our lives. 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 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, but 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.
Here’s the thing. When we think of Passion, We also often think of people who cry and scream and jump and dance for Jesus.
But a passionate person can be when people can look at you and your actions and know you are serious about something.
EX: Telephone
People saw that what she believed was the truth? Why? Not because she was crying and screaming, but because her actions and her words showed that she was serious about what she believed was true.
When we are willing to stand for that thing, even to be humiliated, or to suffer for it.
EX: Have you see the 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.
So if you have taken that first step to carry your cross, you will be seen by the world as a person who is passionate for Jesus in that you are very serious about living for Christ.
We will then be regarded as 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: Last week at 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 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 Philipino 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 churches and in our schools through us, a fire that can’t be contained.
Earlier I challenged you guys, that as this school year starts, that you would make Jesus your number one priority and first love as you carry the cross.
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.
Theology of Suffering- 1 Cor 1:3-11- Kairo EM Worship
What is your view of God when you suffer?
I had a friend who broke up with his girlfriend and had a bad breakup. He no longer walks with God.
I had a roommate who was rejected by people at church and felt like he was never accepted. He no longer walks with God.
I have a friend who was drugged with the date rape drug, date raped, aquired an std, was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and told she could never have kids. She no longer walks with the Lord.
Today we are going to talk theology. When we talk about theology, it refers to our understanding of God. Who is God to you. What do you know and believe about him. What is your view and perspective of who he is according to Scripture. This is theology.
Today the message is “Theology of Suffering”, looking at 1 Cor 1:3-11. And so today I want to ask 2 questions: 1. Who Is God in our suffering? 2. Why does God allow us to suffer?
Who is God?
God is a Father of Compassion and Comfort
Paul typically opens up his letters by giving thanks regarding his audience. He finds something to be thankful for regarding them.
But this letter is different. Paul opens in a way that’s not normal of him.
Paul’s opening is the popular type of Jewish prayer following a “Berakah” formula, which means “blessing”. It’s a prayer of blessing to God for the benefits in which the speaker himself has experienced.
Instead of giving thanks for what God has done for the Corinthians, he gives thanks to God for the things God has done for himself .
See, Paul has just come out of a trying situation that he describes as “beyond the ability to endure. I was despairing of life. It was like a death sentence.”
This is coming from a man who has been stoned, beaten with rods 3x, whipped with the 39 lashes that Jesus receieved 5x, shipwrecked 3x, stranded at sea, imprisoned multimple times, flogged, and on and on.
And he says this past time in Asia, I was ready for death. I was unable to endure.
On top of that, he is being criticized and accused by people in Corinth.
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
So in this Berakah prayer, Paul’s theology comes out. His view of who God is, who he believes God to be, is exposed
EX: At our Marriage conference that we went to, Tripp gave an illustration that when you shake someone, whatever is inside comes out. Coke/coffee/candy doesn’t come out, water does, because water was in it.
8:03=8:13
In times of distress and trial, when we are shaken from the core, what’s inside comes out.
What we believe about God tends to come out. Our theology and our view of God comes out.
EX: Jesus Remember when Jesus was in the Garden, and he was in his most distressed moment of his entire human life, he was about to be crucified. What comes out?
“Abba, Father, daddy… please take this away from me”. The only time in the Bible that Jesus appeals to God as Abba, daddy, as a son cries out to his dad.
Here, Paul was shaken up by this traumatic experience that he just went through in Asia, where he said he felt like he was on a death sentence, despairing of life.
And so his theology starts coming out. How does he see God? As “God the Father”, who naturally is “The father of all Compassion” and the “God of all Comfort”.
Paul’s pointing out something here about God that he finds so essential to the character of God: his loving compassion as a father and the ability to comfort as a father. That’s what Father’s do.
EX: I was at Subway last week, and in line there was a cute little girl, blond hair, about 5 or 6 years old. She was adorable. She was with her dad, who was this big, guy with all black clothing and a black hat, scaring looking dude.
For all you sisters, here’s a look into a guys mind. I started to imagine what would happen if I pushed the girl over, or if I tripped her out of nowhere. Not because I have this dark desire to push little girls, but I wanted to imagine what such a big, buff father would do and how he would respond.
It’s kinda of dumb because I know the answer. I just needed to create a scenario. And naturally I concluded that he would destroy me. This guy would tear me to pieces.
Why? Because he’s her father, and that’s his child.
That’s what father’s do. They are compassionate toward their own.
They will do whatever it takes to protect their child. It is innate in the father.
Paul praises and blesses our Father in Heaven, who is relentlessly compassionate toward his children, and because of it, he brings comfort in our suffering.
Let’s understand this better. Let’s talk about Compassion and comfort.
EX: Compassion
I don’t know if you guys remember, but the Ancient Jewish and Greek understanding of compassion is a “movement in your bowels” toward another.
You know how sometimes your stomach turns for someone, or you get like butterflies in your stomach for certain people you really care about?
The bowels were believed to be the place of warm emotions and compassionate love toward another.
It’s like when we use our heart to describe our love, we say my “my heart goes out to you”, or “I love you with all my heart”.
It’s not weird to us, but if you think about it, it’s REALLY weird.
They would say, “my bowels move for you”. You think I’m kidding, but read the King James Bible.
God’s bowels move for you.
In a time where people look down on emotions, realize that God is described as being emotional toward you.
HE is compassionate toward you. You are His Compassion child.
The other word that Paul uses is Comfort. Not only is he a Father of Compassion, but he’s a God of all comfort.
EX: Comfort
The word for comfort used here is “parakaleo”. It’s the same word translated as encourage. It literally means to “call at one’s side”. To come alongside in order to help encourage or to comfort.
EX: It’s a term used for a person on trial in a courtroom. A paraklete was the lawyer who came to the side of a person on trial, not just to defend him, but to comfort and encourage him.
In your times of trial, of suffering, We have a Father who is so deeply in love with you, that he is filled with compassion and will come to your side, proactively reaching out to comfort you.
How does he comfort us in our trial?
I don’t have a blanket answer for you, and I think that really is the compassionate love of God. He knows each one of us, and what each of you is going specifically. Instead of a blanket answer to everyone’s problems, I believe that God divinely demonstrates his compassion and comfort in a way that reaches you and your need.
EX: When I buy a card for my mom, it takes me forever to find one. Why? Cuz I don’t want just a generic card that says “Thank you”. I want one that gets specific and will speak to her heart. I want one that says “Thank you mom for always asking if I have dinner and making sure I have my orange juice before I go back to UCI.” That’s why handmade cards are better. They are personal and speaks to her specifically.
Our Father may not have one blanket solution for our suffering, but is able to meet each one of us in a way that is specific to our situation.
Who is God to you? What is your theology of God when things get difficult?
The Bibles says that God is a relentlessly compassionate and comforting Father.
Why does a Compassionate Father allow us to Suffer?
So that we would be prepared for ministry (5-7)
5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
When we suffer, we always ask “Why God? Why me? Why is this happening to me?”
What if our trials and suffering, weren’t really about you?
What if the things that really kill us and make us want to kill ourselves, were given to us so that we could be greater ministers, greater servants, to others?
James Denney writes, "We are selfish and instinctively regard ourselves as the center of all providences; we naturally seek to explain everything by its bearing on ourselves alone."
Consider Joni Erickson Tada, a famous Christian quadriplegic who reaches out to other disabled: “This calls into question the individualism of modern Christianity and the sense of remoteness within … many contemporary churches" (Barnett, 73).
Sometimes we make Christianity so individualized. We always think it’s about us. How does this affect me.
But if you had never suffered, of what good would you be to others who do?
It’s clear in this passage that Paul explains that the degree to which we can comfort others is the degree which we have been comforted ourselves.
It is only when we have experienced God’s comfort firsthand that we can assure others that God will comfort them.
EX: In counseling class, they teach us never to listen to someone going through a trial, and then say “I know how you must feel”, or “I understand your pain.”
Because you don’t! You’ve never gone through what they’ve gone through. You haven’t been put through their situation.
But what if you have? Like what if you really have gone through what they’re going through, and you actually have a good idea of what it’s like to be in their shoe?
Ok, maybe you don’t want to say “I know what you’re going through,” but don’t you have the credibility and right to assure them that God is able to supernaturally and divinely comfort them?
Why? Because you’ve experienced it!
Paul says here that his suffering and his comfort from God is SO THAT he would be able to comfort the Corinthians when they go through the suffering he’s gone through.
Paul sees the flow of suffering and comfort flowing down a one way stream.
Just as Christ suffered, so does Paul suffer as Christ suffered, and the believers too will suffer.
But it’s clear to Paul that just as often as he experiences suffering, he experiences the divine comfort from God. God NEVER leaves him hanging. He has raised him up every time.
And so along the same stream where suffering flows, Paul receives comfort from the Father in his darkest hours, and his comfort overflows onto others so that they too may be comforted in their suffering.
Paul has this TOTALLY UNSELFISH view of his own suffering. It’s not just about him, it’s for the good of others. For the ministry of others.
(V. 6) If I suffer, it’s So that you would be comforted; And if I am comforted, it’s So that you would comforted.
EX: How deep is your love for others in the family of Christ? We’re called to love one another as ourselves. Would you be willing to suffer with the body of Christ?
When we think of being there for others, we think of sacrificing ourselves for them. When a brother mourns, would you mourn with him? If a sister is hurting, would you hurt with her. If one is lonely, will you comfort them. If one is depressed, will you be there for them?
I believe you would! But what if what you had to offer those who are hurting, wasn’t’ received until later? Much later? A year, 5 years? 10 years?
Like you know that your willingness to hurt and suffer is good for a friend, that it really will help them through their time of need. But what if their time was to come later, and your suffering were to come now?
Would you still go through it?
See, what if God was preparing you now and allowing you to suffer, just so that you could comfort someone else later on with the comfort your received from God?
God is showing you how hard trial is, and what it looks like to be comforted by a deeply compassionate God? And once you get it, then you’ll be ready to share it when someone else goes through it?
(v. 6) Paul says his comfort, comforts them because it gives them hope to endure patiently because it is the same suffering that Paul went through before.
Since God’s comfort brought him through the worst of the worst of trials in the past, it gives them the strength to know that they too will experience his comfort in the future..
God allows us to go through Suffering to prepare us for ministry.
Why else would God allow us to suffer?
So that we would believe in him.
8 “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our[a] behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”
How many of you rely on God and trust him to carry you?
EX: This week, I finally had one of those weeks where I felt utterly stressed out and helpless.
And by TUESDAY night, I’m stressed out and I sat back, and said “God, I NEED you.”
But only after I tried to work it out myself.
It seems to me that our natural instinct in trials and difficult situations is to try to figure it out ourselves and make it through on our own.
And THEN when we’ve come to the end of ourselves, we turn to outside help, namely God.
EX: When we’ve lost our keys. What do we do? We search all over the house and ransack our rooms, and when we’ve come to the end of ourselves, THEN we say “God, please help me.”
Sometimes God, as he did with Paul, will bring us to the end of ourselves.
He may bring us to the point where we feel “pressed beyond measure, even wanting “to be with Jesus” already, despairing of life, in order that we have no other choice but to call on the Lord for help.
We’re so proud and self confident that we love to say, “I need me.”
It is a great day when we come to the end of ourselves and say, “Ok God, I need you.”
It is when we are in the weakest and most broken place when the comfort and compassion of God can be most clearly seen and most powerfully demonstrated.
When we rely on God, we put our confidence in Him. We believe in Him.
(V 9) Paul says that his death sentence situation in Asia “happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”
You do believe in Jesus, Amen?
You do believe he died for us?
You do believe he raised from the dead for us?
And if we believe that God can raise Christ from the dead, do we believe that he can raise us out of our trial? Our suffering? Our brokenness?
EX: In a time of trial, My friend prayed was having a difficult and stressful time with his business, and so he aske me to pray for him. We pray, and he prays “Help us to trust you Lord, for how can we call ourselves believers if we don’t even trust in you.”
It was the most profound prayer I’ve heard. He the words trust and believe are synonymous in the Greek. They are the same word, pistos. Faith, trust, and believe.
Essentially he was saying “Help us to believe, for how can we call ourselves believers if don’t even believe?”
And that is what we are. We are believers. It is our identity. It is foundational to our faith. It is everything we stand on.
WE believe Christ died, and we believe that he was raised on the third day.
Why is it that we are can so boldly proclaim that we believe in something that the whole world finds so hard to believe. That a man died, and he died for all your sins, and then was buried in the tomb, and by the power of God, the logically and physically impossible is accomplished. Jesus was raised from the dead.
And then we find it so hard sometimes to believe in practice? In the times when we are being tried? In the lowest times of our life? In the most stressful times that we experience.
EX: Mike cooked a wonderful 9 course meal for us. It would not make any sense for me to doubt and deny that he could make me a piece of toast. Of course he could!
If God can raise Jesus from the Dead, and has taken you from being spiritually dead and has raised you to eternal life, don’t you know that God can raise us up out our temporary suffering?
We have a relentlessly compassionate Father who is able to comfort us as often as we suffer.
As often as suffering flows into our lives, Paul says, the comfort of God will overflow.
EX: In Eph 1 Paul says that the very same power that God exerted in Christ to raise him from the dead and exalted him over all things, is the same POWER that is at work in you today!`
Paul prays, “I hope that your eyes will be open to see this!”
Are you a believer? Do we believe that God is powerful to comfort us out of his compassion?
Perhaps God allows us to suffer so that we would believe that. We would believe him.
What is your theology? Many of us are not suffering. Let’s develop it now, so when you are shaken, it’ll come out.
Who Is God? He is a relentlessly Compassionate father who’s comfort overflows.
Why does a Compassionate God let us suffer? To prepare us for ministry, and to cause us to believe.
I had a friend who broke up with his girlfriend and had a bad breakup. He no longer walks with God.
I had a roommate who was rejected by people at church and felt like he was never accepted. He no longer walks with God.
I have a friend who was drugged with the date rape drug, date raped, aquired an std, was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and told she could never have kids. She no longer walks with the Lord.
Today we are going to talk theology. When we talk about theology, it refers to our understanding of God. Who is God to you. What do you know and believe about him. What is your view and perspective of who he is according to Scripture. This is theology.
Today the message is “Theology of Suffering”, looking at 1 Cor 1:3-11. And so today I want to ask 2 questions: 1. Who Is God in our suffering? 2. Why does God allow us to suffer?
Who is God?
God is a Father of Compassion and Comfort
Paul typically opens up his letters by giving thanks regarding his audience. He finds something to be thankful for regarding them.
But this letter is different. Paul opens in a way that’s not normal of him.
Paul’s opening is the popular type of Jewish prayer following a “Berakah” formula, which means “blessing”. It’s a prayer of blessing to God for the benefits in which the speaker himself has experienced.
Instead of giving thanks for what God has done for the Corinthians, he gives thanks to God for the things God has done for himself .
See, Paul has just come out of a trying situation that he describes as “beyond the ability to endure. I was despairing of life. It was like a death sentence.”
This is coming from a man who has been stoned, beaten with rods 3x, whipped with the 39 lashes that Jesus receieved 5x, shipwrecked 3x, stranded at sea, imprisoned multimple times, flogged, and on and on.
And he says this past time in Asia, I was ready for death. I was unable to endure.
On top of that, he is being criticized and accused by people in Corinth.
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
So in this Berakah prayer, Paul’s theology comes out. His view of who God is, who he believes God to be, is exposed
EX: At our Marriage conference that we went to, Tripp gave an illustration that when you shake someone, whatever is inside comes out. Coke/coffee/candy doesn’t come out, water does, because water was in it.
8:03=8:13
In times of distress and trial, when we are shaken from the core, what’s inside comes out.
What we believe about God tends to come out. Our theology and our view of God comes out.
EX: Jesus Remember when Jesus was in the Garden, and he was in his most distressed moment of his entire human life, he was about to be crucified. What comes out?
“Abba, Father, daddy… please take this away from me”. The only time in the Bible that Jesus appeals to God as Abba, daddy, as a son cries out to his dad.
Here, Paul was shaken up by this traumatic experience that he just went through in Asia, where he said he felt like he was on a death sentence, despairing of life.
And so his theology starts coming out. How does he see God? As “God the Father”, who naturally is “The father of all Compassion” and the “God of all Comfort”.
Paul’s pointing out something here about God that he finds so essential to the character of God: his loving compassion as a father and the ability to comfort as a father. That’s what Father’s do.
EX: I was at Subway last week, and in line there was a cute little girl, blond hair, about 5 or 6 years old. She was adorable. She was with her dad, who was this big, guy with all black clothing and a black hat, scaring looking dude.
For all you sisters, here’s a look into a guys mind. I started to imagine what would happen if I pushed the girl over, or if I tripped her out of nowhere. Not because I have this dark desire to push little girls, but I wanted to imagine what such a big, buff father would do and how he would respond.
It’s kinda of dumb because I know the answer. I just needed to create a scenario. And naturally I concluded that he would destroy me. This guy would tear me to pieces.
Why? Because he’s her father, and that’s his child.
That’s what father’s do. They are compassionate toward their own.
They will do whatever it takes to protect their child. It is innate in the father.
Paul praises and blesses our Father in Heaven, who is relentlessly compassionate toward his children, and because of it, he brings comfort in our suffering.
Let’s understand this better. Let’s talk about Compassion and comfort.
EX: Compassion
I don’t know if you guys remember, but the Ancient Jewish and Greek understanding of compassion is a “movement in your bowels” toward another.
You know how sometimes your stomach turns for someone, or you get like butterflies in your stomach for certain people you really care about?
The bowels were believed to be the place of warm emotions and compassionate love toward another.
It’s like when we use our heart to describe our love, we say my “my heart goes out to you”, or “I love you with all my heart”.
It’s not weird to us, but if you think about it, it’s REALLY weird.
They would say, “my bowels move for you”. You think I’m kidding, but read the King James Bible.
God’s bowels move for you.
In a time where people look down on emotions, realize that God is described as being emotional toward you.
HE is compassionate toward you. You are His Compassion child.
The other word that Paul uses is Comfort. Not only is he a Father of Compassion, but he’s a God of all comfort.
EX: Comfort
The word for comfort used here is “parakaleo”. It’s the same word translated as encourage. It literally means to “call at one’s side”. To come alongside in order to help encourage or to comfort.
EX: It’s a term used for a person on trial in a courtroom. A paraklete was the lawyer who came to the side of a person on trial, not just to defend him, but to comfort and encourage him.
In your times of trial, of suffering, We have a Father who is so deeply in love with you, that he is filled with compassion and will come to your side, proactively reaching out to comfort you.
How does he comfort us in our trial?
I don’t have a blanket answer for you, and I think that really is the compassionate love of God. He knows each one of us, and what each of you is going specifically. Instead of a blanket answer to everyone’s problems, I believe that God divinely demonstrates his compassion and comfort in a way that reaches you and your need.
EX: When I buy a card for my mom, it takes me forever to find one. Why? Cuz I don’t want just a generic card that says “Thank you”. I want one that gets specific and will speak to her heart. I want one that says “Thank you mom for always asking if I have dinner and making sure I have my orange juice before I go back to UCI.” That’s why handmade cards are better. They are personal and speaks to her specifically.
Our Father may not have one blanket solution for our suffering, but is able to meet each one of us in a way that is specific to our situation.
Who is God to you? What is your theology of God when things get difficult?
The Bibles says that God is a relentlessly compassionate and comforting Father.
Why does a Compassionate Father allow us to Suffer?
So that we would be prepared for ministry (5-7)
5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
When we suffer, we always ask “Why God? Why me? Why is this happening to me?”
What if our trials and suffering, weren’t really about you?
What if the things that really kill us and make us want to kill ourselves, were given to us so that we could be greater ministers, greater servants, to others?
James Denney writes, "We are selfish and instinctively regard ourselves as the center of all providences; we naturally seek to explain everything by its bearing on ourselves alone."
Consider Joni Erickson Tada, a famous Christian quadriplegic who reaches out to other disabled: “This calls into question the individualism of modern Christianity and the sense of remoteness within … many contemporary churches" (Barnett, 73).
Sometimes we make Christianity so individualized. We always think it’s about us. How does this affect me.
But if you had never suffered, of what good would you be to others who do?
It’s clear in this passage that Paul explains that the degree to which we can comfort others is the degree which we have been comforted ourselves.
It is only when we have experienced God’s comfort firsthand that we can assure others that God will comfort them.
EX: In counseling class, they teach us never to listen to someone going through a trial, and then say “I know how you must feel”, or “I understand your pain.”
Because you don’t! You’ve never gone through what they’ve gone through. You haven’t been put through their situation.
But what if you have? Like what if you really have gone through what they’re going through, and you actually have a good idea of what it’s like to be in their shoe?
Ok, maybe you don’t want to say “I know what you’re going through,” but don’t you have the credibility and right to assure them that God is able to supernaturally and divinely comfort them?
Why? Because you’ve experienced it!
Paul says here that his suffering and his comfort from God is SO THAT he would be able to comfort the Corinthians when they go through the suffering he’s gone through.
Paul sees the flow of suffering and comfort flowing down a one way stream.
Just as Christ suffered, so does Paul suffer as Christ suffered, and the believers too will suffer.
But it’s clear to Paul that just as often as he experiences suffering, he experiences the divine comfort from God. God NEVER leaves him hanging. He has raised him up every time.
And so along the same stream where suffering flows, Paul receives comfort from the Father in his darkest hours, and his comfort overflows onto others so that they too may be comforted in their suffering.
Paul has this TOTALLY UNSELFISH view of his own suffering. It’s not just about him, it’s for the good of others. For the ministry of others.
(V. 6) If I suffer, it’s So that you would be comforted; And if I am comforted, it’s So that you would comforted.
EX: How deep is your love for others in the family of Christ? We’re called to love one another as ourselves. Would you be willing to suffer with the body of Christ?
When we think of being there for others, we think of sacrificing ourselves for them. When a brother mourns, would you mourn with him? If a sister is hurting, would you hurt with her. If one is lonely, will you comfort them. If one is depressed, will you be there for them?
I believe you would! But what if what you had to offer those who are hurting, wasn’t’ received until later? Much later? A year, 5 years? 10 years?
Like you know that your willingness to hurt and suffer is good for a friend, that it really will help them through their time of need. But what if their time was to come later, and your suffering were to come now?
Would you still go through it?
See, what if God was preparing you now and allowing you to suffer, just so that you could comfort someone else later on with the comfort your received from God?
God is showing you how hard trial is, and what it looks like to be comforted by a deeply compassionate God? And once you get it, then you’ll be ready to share it when someone else goes through it?
(v. 6) Paul says his comfort, comforts them because it gives them hope to endure patiently because it is the same suffering that Paul went through before.
Since God’s comfort brought him through the worst of the worst of trials in the past, it gives them the strength to know that they too will experience his comfort in the future..
God allows us to go through Suffering to prepare us for ministry.
Why else would God allow us to suffer?
So that we would believe in him.
8 “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our[a] behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”
How many of you rely on God and trust him to carry you?
EX: This week, I finally had one of those weeks where I felt utterly stressed out and helpless.
And by TUESDAY night, I’m stressed out and I sat back, and said “God, I NEED you.”
But only after I tried to work it out myself.
It seems to me that our natural instinct in trials and difficult situations is to try to figure it out ourselves and make it through on our own.
And THEN when we’ve come to the end of ourselves, we turn to outside help, namely God.
EX: When we’ve lost our keys. What do we do? We search all over the house and ransack our rooms, and when we’ve come to the end of ourselves, THEN we say “God, please help me.”
Sometimes God, as he did with Paul, will bring us to the end of ourselves.
He may bring us to the point where we feel “pressed beyond measure, even wanting “to be with Jesus” already, despairing of life, in order that we have no other choice but to call on the Lord for help.
We’re so proud and self confident that we love to say, “I need me.”
It is a great day when we come to the end of ourselves and say, “Ok God, I need you.”
It is when we are in the weakest and most broken place when the comfort and compassion of God can be most clearly seen and most powerfully demonstrated.
When we rely on God, we put our confidence in Him. We believe in Him.
(V 9) Paul says that his death sentence situation in Asia “happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”
You do believe in Jesus, Amen?
You do believe he died for us?
You do believe he raised from the dead for us?
And if we believe that God can raise Christ from the dead, do we believe that he can raise us out of our trial? Our suffering? Our brokenness?
EX: In a time of trial, My friend prayed was having a difficult and stressful time with his business, and so he aske me to pray for him. We pray, and he prays “Help us to trust you Lord, for how can we call ourselves believers if we don’t even trust in you.”
It was the most profound prayer I’ve heard. He the words trust and believe are synonymous in the Greek. They are the same word, pistos. Faith, trust, and believe.
Essentially he was saying “Help us to believe, for how can we call ourselves believers if don’t even believe?”
And that is what we are. We are believers. It is our identity. It is foundational to our faith. It is everything we stand on.
WE believe Christ died, and we believe that he was raised on the third day.
Why is it that we are can so boldly proclaim that we believe in something that the whole world finds so hard to believe. That a man died, and he died for all your sins, and then was buried in the tomb, and by the power of God, the logically and physically impossible is accomplished. Jesus was raised from the dead.
And then we find it so hard sometimes to believe in practice? In the times when we are being tried? In the lowest times of our life? In the most stressful times that we experience.
EX: Mike cooked a wonderful 9 course meal for us. It would not make any sense for me to doubt and deny that he could make me a piece of toast. Of course he could!
If God can raise Jesus from the Dead, and has taken you from being spiritually dead and has raised you to eternal life, don’t you know that God can raise us up out our temporary suffering?
We have a relentlessly compassionate Father who is able to comfort us as often as we suffer.
As often as suffering flows into our lives, Paul says, the comfort of God will overflow.
EX: In Eph 1 Paul says that the very same power that God exerted in Christ to raise him from the dead and exalted him over all things, is the same POWER that is at work in you today!`
Paul prays, “I hope that your eyes will be open to see this!”
Are you a believer? Do we believe that God is powerful to comfort us out of his compassion?
Perhaps God allows us to suffer so that we would believe that. We would believe him.
What is your theology? Many of us are not suffering. Let’s develop it now, so when you are shaken, it’ll come out.
Who Is God? He is a relentlessly Compassionate father who’s comfort overflows.
Why does a Compassionate God let us suffer? To prepare us for ministry, and to cause us to believe.
Living By the Sword- UCR AACF
INTRO
Chronicles of Narnia.
Some of you have been Christians for a while. Some of you more recent. The moment you became, a Christian, realize that you have stepped into a warzone.
There is a war going on. It is a spiritual battle between the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light. It’s war between Satan and the evil forces of sin, and God, his Holy Spirit who deeply desires that we have Freedom in Christ.
EX: Capture the flag.
Satan has strategy. He has some tricks up his sleeve. Don’t underestimate the ability of Satan when it comes to war. He is no rookie.
He’s not this guy who wears red and carries a pitchfork around. The bible says he has evil schemes.
In Ephesians 6, it talks about this War that is going, this spiritual War. For Paul says:
In v10 “Put on your armor of God so that you may take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.”
There is a war going on. And realize that this isn’t a fight against another human being. It’s not a war against one demonic spirit. Realize that when you joined the Kingdom of Heaven, suddenly you have the entire forces of Hell against you.
And we need to equip ourselves with a full armor of God. And today I want to focus on part of the armor that we must never try to fight without.
EX: Alliance “Bad Words”
Well, I might have used to teach them the F Word, but today I want to teach you the S-word.
What is the S Word? … it stands for the Spirit’s WORD. The word of God.
Not that the words originate in the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit of God is He who communicates the word of God by expressing to the spiritual truths in spiritual words, according to 1 Cor 2.
It is he who teaches me the word of God
it is He who helps me understand the word of God
it is He who convicts me of the word of God
it is he who reminds of the word of God.
But you know, I get lazy, and you know me. So instead of saying “S-Word”, I just slur it together and say SWORD.
Brothers and sisters, in order to stand and fight in this spiritual war against Satan, we need to equip ourselves with the S-Word. We need to equip ourselves with the Sword.
Paul backs me up in this, in V. 17 he says take the helmet of salvation and the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH IS THE WORD OF TRUTH. God’s word!
As we enter into battle, and we go up against the forces of the devil, we need to make sure our SWORDs are ready. We need to make sure we have the Spirit’s word.
The Message
Today, there is one point, but you MUST learn this… in order to fight against the schemes of the devil, against spiritual warfare, we need to Live by the SWORD.
See, because I have seen spiritual warfare in many different forms and fashions. I have been in the presence of people demon possessed. I have seen loved ones demonized. I have seen a small girl possessed and given incredible power to fight off 5 grown adults.
I have also seen spiritual warfare in more subtle forms. I have seen Christians accused, deceived, filled with doubt. I have seen Christians struggle with temptations and insecurity.
I originally wanted to come and talk about some of the crazy spiritual warfare that I have seen, such as demonic possessions and demonizations.
But I realize that those things don’t happen everyday here at UCR.
I think it is more appropriate for me to address how the Sword of the Spirit can help us fight against the more subtle, common ways that Satan attacks here and now.
I think one of the most common ways Satan attacks us here in So. Cal is by making us captive to our own Flesh.
The devil gets us to fall by tempting you and getting you to give into your sinful, fleshly desires.
EX: Eskimos
Eskimos are wise and shrewd hunters. They are patient, because they know if they let their prey seek what it desires, it will allow itself to be killed.
Again in Galatians 5, a chapter dealing specifically with freedom, says in v 16 “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”
And though the main point of this message is to live by the Spirit’s word, I want to give you three practices of how we can sharpen our swords.
Read the Word
EX: Two brothers eating from the fruit tree.
The first brother is like those of us who only take in the word at church on Sundays or from the speaker you heard at AACF.
You might have enough food from the encounter and even some when you come home for a while, but in the long run it doesn’t compare with having your own tree.
Having your own tree is like the one who takes home the word to read it in the secret place, during his quiet times.
Let’s be real. You’re probably going to forget much of what I and others who teach here at AACF say.
But if you take the word home and read It everyday, it’s blessings are endless!
I want to challenge you, as you begin this new quarter, to commit every single day to reading God’s word. If you do this, your sword will be sharp and ready for battle.
Why do we need to read the word? Otherwise how will we know the what weapons are available to us in times of battle?
It’s when we commit our time daily to read God’s word that we come to really know and understand the truths and promises of God that are made available to us. The more we read, the more exposure we have to the vast resource of God’s word.
EX: Let’s say you’re talking to a friend, and they start to question their salvation. Like they have these accusative thoughts in their head saying that they aren’t really saved, and continuous feelings of guilt because of their sin.
What promises of Scripture would you be able to offer them to fight against Satan’s deception?
This actually happened recently when my fiancé started to have all these doubts. This is the girl I want to marry because I saw godliness in her.
Recently I noticed that she’d been having difficulty reading the Bible or even uttering out prayers.
She was sharing with me one night that she has this reoccurring thought that God was going to give up on her and take his Spirit away from her.
Immediately flags went off in my mind and I knew this was clearly spiritual attack from the evil one. It was the Father of all lies.
And in that moment, I didn’t go online to Google scripture passages or I didn’t run to grab my concordance to see what the Bible says.
I already knew what it said, for I had been exposed to the much of the truths of the Bible before through my reading of it.
I turned to passages like 1 Cor 1:8 that says that God will keep us strong until the end, and Eph 1:14 that says the Holy Spirit is in us as a deposit of our inheritance of eternal life and John 5:13 that said that those who believe in the Son can know that they are saved.
That night we prayed over her, and had her verbally proclaim these truths of Scripture by reading the passage aloud, and she experienced deliverance and freedom.
The Sword gave us victory that night, but because we knew what was in there from earlier commitment to reading it.
Joshua was Chosen by God to lead the Israelites into battle, into war. The Lord himself instructs Joshua and tells him how he is to prosper
Josh 1:7-8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
If living by spiritual words will bring physical prosperity for the Israelites in physical battle, how much more will living by spiritual words bring spiritual prosperity in spiritual battles?
EX: Kansas city man who learned to read bible with his tongue.
How committed are you to reading the word?
Meditate on the Word
EX: Tea Bag. Have you ever taken a tea bag and dabbed it in a cup of hot water? Some of the water absorbs the tea. Each time we read the word, it’s like dabbing a tea bag. The tea bag is the word, and our mind and heart is the water.
But what happens when you let it sit and soak? All the flavor of the tea is allowed to seep and spread throughout the water until its full or flavor and color. Meditation is the letting the bag sit in the hot water, it’s letting the word soak up into your heart and mind.
Meditation is deep thinking of what we have read from God’s word.
Many people don’t like the idea of meditation because it reminds them of yoga or other religions like Buddhism.
However, other forms of meditation often have you empty your mind. You’re supposed to try to empty yourself and not think about anything.
However, Christian meditation is a filling of your mind. You are filling your mind with the truths of God’s word, and actively thinking about His word and applying it to our lives.
But many of us do read the word of God during our quiet times, but sometimes it’s just read a section or a chapter, and then pray, and then go off and do whatever.
EX: Hiking Yosemite. Me and my friends love to go camping and hiking.. We were doing this hike along this stream. One time and we were all just amazed at some of the trees we saw. They were big and strong looking, but what amazed me were they were busting through the rocks! It would be like granite, and then trees shooting through. And I knew they were strong because they were fed by the stream of water that ran along it.
You know what those trees reminded me of?
Ps 1. “Blessed is the man… (whose) delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water (Strong), which yields its fruit in season (Fruitful), and whose leaf does not wither (Persevere). Whatever he does prospers (prosperous).”
These trees have strength, fruitfulness, perseverance, and prosperity. That is like the man who meditates on God’s word.
How can we meditate on God’s word, rather than just read it?
Pray over it.
Have a journal or notebook, and then rewriting the passage in your own words, just to see if you understand it.
Write down what the passage means to me and how I can apply it in my life.
These are just a few ideas, but the point is to take time to actively think about the passage rather than just read it and close in prayer, and call that a QT.
_______________________________________________
Let’s do an exercise:
What goes up…
What goes around…
Oops I ….
Hit me baby….
Shorty got low, low
“In the beginning, God created _______________ and the _____________.”
“For God so loved the world…”
“Do not be anxious about anything…”
Memorize the Word
I understand why most of us know so well these slogans. They’re drilled into us by our culture. We are exposed to these things all the time, on the TV, in the movies, around our friends, all around us.
But what if we exposed ourselves to the Word of God just as much? What if we decided to surround ourselves with the Word of God? What if we decided to read it daily? What if we decided to memorize it and were able to respond with it so quick, just like we did with the worldly stuff?
Many of us hate memorize scripture because it’s like school. It takes work
Why is memorization so important? Because it is stored in our mind and ready for use.
The truth is most of us don’t carry the word of God in our back pockets. It’s not like we can just whip out a bible whenever Satan tries to tempt us.
And especially as we’re talking about battling against Satan and his evil schemes, it is crucial that we have God’s word hidden in our hearts at all times.
Psalm 119:9,11 writes that addressing our battle against sin, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word…I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
The Holy Spirit can use what we’ve memorized to bring to mind what we’ve kept in our hearts in times of need.
EX: Teds Eph 4:29.
I don’t know if it’s God’s setting up, or coincidence, but the Holy Spirit took something that he memorized and used it in a time of battle where Satan would have otherwise caused him to fall.
I can actually go on about the benefits of scripture memorization but I want to stop here and tie it in with reading, meditating, and memorizing.
The point of the message today is that we are in a spiritual battle. Satan wants to trap us…We must live by the Sword.
And in order to live by it, we must equip ourselves with it
John 14:26 says that the Holy Spirit teaches us all things and reminds us of all things
He will reach into the stored armory of our heart, and bring to mind in opportune times appropriate Scripture that we have read, meditated on, or memorized.
EX: Military armory. In every war, armies have an armory where they store their weapons.
Imagine if you only stored up hand knives…or bazookas…
In the same way, we need to store up the armory of our hearts with different swords.
EX: Heart Armory. Imagine you’re sin is materialism and you find Gen 1:1…
So the idea today is that we need to continually fill our arsenal with a supply of swords that the Holy Spirit can use in all sorts of battles.
A huge way in which the Spirit fights is by bringing to mind what we’ve heard, read, memorized.
But we need to give the Holy Spirit something to work with! It’s not very often that the Holy Spirit will bring to mind a scripture that I’ve never seen or heard before!
He can’t RE-mind us of what’s never been brought to mind in the first place!
EX: Do you remember the time of when I sanded off my toe?
That is how the Sword of the Spirit works. We need store up our armories.
CLOSING
The following is from the US Government Peace Corps Manual for its volunteers who work in the Amazon Jungle. It tells what to do in case you are attacked by an anaconda. Now an anaconda is the largest snake in the world. It is a relative of the boa constrictor, it grows to thirty-five feet in length and weighs between three and four hundred pounds at the maximum. This is what the manual said:
If you are attacked by an anaconda, do not run. The snake is faster than you are.
Lie flat on the ground. Put your arms tight against your sides, your legs tight against one another.
Tuck your chin in.
The snake will come and begin to nudge and climb over your body.
Do not panic.
After the snake has examined you, it will begin to swallow you from the feet first. Permit the snake to swallow your feet and ankles. Do not panic.
The snake will now begin to suck your legs into its body. You must lie perfectly still. This will take a long time.
When the snake has reached your knees slowly and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife and very gently slide it into the side of the snake’s mouth between the edge of its mouth and your leg, then suddenly rip upwards, severing the snake’s head.
Be sure you have your knife.
Be sure your knife is sharp.
6-week commitment
In closing, I want to challenge you today to be still. To find that time to be quiet before the Lord.
We talked about meeting God, seeking, hearing, praying, and the word in our quiet times.
I want to challenge you to a 6-week commitment.
You’ll pick a:
Partner
Place/ Time
Plan
Prize
Punishment
Chronicles of Narnia.
Some of you have been Christians for a while. Some of you more recent. The moment you became, a Christian, realize that you have stepped into a warzone.
There is a war going on. It is a spiritual battle between the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light. It’s war between Satan and the evil forces of sin, and God, his Holy Spirit who deeply desires that we have Freedom in Christ.
EX: Capture the flag.
Satan has strategy. He has some tricks up his sleeve. Don’t underestimate the ability of Satan when it comes to war. He is no rookie.
He’s not this guy who wears red and carries a pitchfork around. The bible says he has evil schemes.
In Ephesians 6, it talks about this War that is going, this spiritual War. For Paul says:
In v10 “Put on your armor of God so that you may take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.”
There is a war going on. And realize that this isn’t a fight against another human being. It’s not a war against one demonic spirit. Realize that when you joined the Kingdom of Heaven, suddenly you have the entire forces of Hell against you.
And we need to equip ourselves with a full armor of God. And today I want to focus on part of the armor that we must never try to fight without.
EX: Alliance “Bad Words”
Well, I might have used to teach them the F Word, but today I want to teach you the S-word.
What is the S Word? … it stands for the Spirit’s WORD. The word of God.
Not that the words originate in the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit of God is He who communicates the word of God by expressing to the spiritual truths in spiritual words, according to 1 Cor 2.
It is he who teaches me the word of God
it is He who helps me understand the word of God
it is He who convicts me of the word of God
it is he who reminds of the word of God.
But you know, I get lazy, and you know me. So instead of saying “S-Word”, I just slur it together and say SWORD.
Brothers and sisters, in order to stand and fight in this spiritual war against Satan, we need to equip ourselves with the S-Word. We need to equip ourselves with the Sword.
Paul backs me up in this, in V. 17 he says take the helmet of salvation and the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH IS THE WORD OF TRUTH. God’s word!
As we enter into battle, and we go up against the forces of the devil, we need to make sure our SWORDs are ready. We need to make sure we have the Spirit’s word.
The Message
Today, there is one point, but you MUST learn this… in order to fight against the schemes of the devil, against spiritual warfare, we need to Live by the SWORD.
See, because I have seen spiritual warfare in many different forms and fashions. I have been in the presence of people demon possessed. I have seen loved ones demonized. I have seen a small girl possessed and given incredible power to fight off 5 grown adults.
I have also seen spiritual warfare in more subtle forms. I have seen Christians accused, deceived, filled with doubt. I have seen Christians struggle with temptations and insecurity.
I originally wanted to come and talk about some of the crazy spiritual warfare that I have seen, such as demonic possessions and demonizations.
But I realize that those things don’t happen everyday here at UCR.
I think it is more appropriate for me to address how the Sword of the Spirit can help us fight against the more subtle, common ways that Satan attacks here and now.
I think one of the most common ways Satan attacks us here in So. Cal is by making us captive to our own Flesh.
The devil gets us to fall by tempting you and getting you to give into your sinful, fleshly desires.
EX: Eskimos
Eskimos are wise and shrewd hunters. They are patient, because they know if they let their prey seek what it desires, it will allow itself to be killed.
Again in Galatians 5, a chapter dealing specifically with freedom, says in v 16 “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”
And though the main point of this message is to live by the Spirit’s word, I want to give you three practices of how we can sharpen our swords.
Read the Word
EX: Two brothers eating from the fruit tree.
The first brother is like those of us who only take in the word at church on Sundays or from the speaker you heard at AACF.
You might have enough food from the encounter and even some when you come home for a while, but in the long run it doesn’t compare with having your own tree.
Having your own tree is like the one who takes home the word to read it in the secret place, during his quiet times.
Let’s be real. You’re probably going to forget much of what I and others who teach here at AACF say.
But if you take the word home and read It everyday, it’s blessings are endless!
I want to challenge you, as you begin this new quarter, to commit every single day to reading God’s word. If you do this, your sword will be sharp and ready for battle.
Why do we need to read the word? Otherwise how will we know the what weapons are available to us in times of battle?
It’s when we commit our time daily to read God’s word that we come to really know and understand the truths and promises of God that are made available to us. The more we read, the more exposure we have to the vast resource of God’s word.
EX: Let’s say you’re talking to a friend, and they start to question their salvation. Like they have these accusative thoughts in their head saying that they aren’t really saved, and continuous feelings of guilt because of their sin.
What promises of Scripture would you be able to offer them to fight against Satan’s deception?
This actually happened recently when my fiancé started to have all these doubts. This is the girl I want to marry because I saw godliness in her.
Recently I noticed that she’d been having difficulty reading the Bible or even uttering out prayers.
She was sharing with me one night that she has this reoccurring thought that God was going to give up on her and take his Spirit away from her.
Immediately flags went off in my mind and I knew this was clearly spiritual attack from the evil one. It was the Father of all lies.
And in that moment, I didn’t go online to Google scripture passages or I didn’t run to grab my concordance to see what the Bible says.
I already knew what it said, for I had been exposed to the much of the truths of the Bible before through my reading of it.
I turned to passages like 1 Cor 1:8 that says that God will keep us strong until the end, and Eph 1:14 that says the Holy Spirit is in us as a deposit of our inheritance of eternal life and John 5:13 that said that those who believe in the Son can know that they are saved.
That night we prayed over her, and had her verbally proclaim these truths of Scripture by reading the passage aloud, and she experienced deliverance and freedom.
The Sword gave us victory that night, but because we knew what was in there from earlier commitment to reading it.
Joshua was Chosen by God to lead the Israelites into battle, into war. The Lord himself instructs Joshua and tells him how he is to prosper
Josh 1:7-8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
If living by spiritual words will bring physical prosperity for the Israelites in physical battle, how much more will living by spiritual words bring spiritual prosperity in spiritual battles?
EX: Kansas city man who learned to read bible with his tongue.
How committed are you to reading the word?
Meditate on the Word
EX: Tea Bag. Have you ever taken a tea bag and dabbed it in a cup of hot water? Some of the water absorbs the tea. Each time we read the word, it’s like dabbing a tea bag. The tea bag is the word, and our mind and heart is the water.
But what happens when you let it sit and soak? All the flavor of the tea is allowed to seep and spread throughout the water until its full or flavor and color. Meditation is the letting the bag sit in the hot water, it’s letting the word soak up into your heart and mind.
Meditation is deep thinking of what we have read from God’s word.
Many people don’t like the idea of meditation because it reminds them of yoga or other religions like Buddhism.
However, other forms of meditation often have you empty your mind. You’re supposed to try to empty yourself and not think about anything.
However, Christian meditation is a filling of your mind. You are filling your mind with the truths of God’s word, and actively thinking about His word and applying it to our lives.
But many of us do read the word of God during our quiet times, but sometimes it’s just read a section or a chapter, and then pray, and then go off and do whatever.
EX: Hiking Yosemite. Me and my friends love to go camping and hiking.. We were doing this hike along this stream. One time and we were all just amazed at some of the trees we saw. They were big and strong looking, but what amazed me were they were busting through the rocks! It would be like granite, and then trees shooting through. And I knew they were strong because they were fed by the stream of water that ran along it.
You know what those trees reminded me of?
Ps 1. “Blessed is the man… (whose) delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water (Strong), which yields its fruit in season (Fruitful), and whose leaf does not wither (Persevere). Whatever he does prospers (prosperous).”
These trees have strength, fruitfulness, perseverance, and prosperity. That is like the man who meditates on God’s word.
How can we meditate on God’s word, rather than just read it?
Pray over it.
Have a journal or notebook, and then rewriting the passage in your own words, just to see if you understand it.
Write down what the passage means to me and how I can apply it in my life.
These are just a few ideas, but the point is to take time to actively think about the passage rather than just read it and close in prayer, and call that a QT.
_______________________________________________
Let’s do an exercise:
What goes up…
What goes around…
Oops I ….
Hit me baby….
Shorty got low, low
“In the beginning, God created _______________ and the _____________.”
“For God so loved the world…”
“Do not be anxious about anything…”
Memorize the Word
I understand why most of us know so well these slogans. They’re drilled into us by our culture. We are exposed to these things all the time, on the TV, in the movies, around our friends, all around us.
But what if we exposed ourselves to the Word of God just as much? What if we decided to surround ourselves with the Word of God? What if we decided to read it daily? What if we decided to memorize it and were able to respond with it so quick, just like we did with the worldly stuff?
Many of us hate memorize scripture because it’s like school. It takes work
Why is memorization so important? Because it is stored in our mind and ready for use.
The truth is most of us don’t carry the word of God in our back pockets. It’s not like we can just whip out a bible whenever Satan tries to tempt us.
And especially as we’re talking about battling against Satan and his evil schemes, it is crucial that we have God’s word hidden in our hearts at all times.
Psalm 119:9,11 writes that addressing our battle against sin, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word…I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
The Holy Spirit can use what we’ve memorized to bring to mind what we’ve kept in our hearts in times of need.
EX: Teds Eph 4:29.
I don’t know if it’s God’s setting up, or coincidence, but the Holy Spirit took something that he memorized and used it in a time of battle where Satan would have otherwise caused him to fall.
I can actually go on about the benefits of scripture memorization but I want to stop here and tie it in with reading, meditating, and memorizing.
The point of the message today is that we are in a spiritual battle. Satan wants to trap us…We must live by the Sword.
And in order to live by it, we must equip ourselves with it
John 14:26 says that the Holy Spirit teaches us all things and reminds us of all things
He will reach into the stored armory of our heart, and bring to mind in opportune times appropriate Scripture that we have read, meditated on, or memorized.
EX: Military armory. In every war, armies have an armory where they store their weapons.
Imagine if you only stored up hand knives…or bazookas…
In the same way, we need to store up the armory of our hearts with different swords.
EX: Heart Armory. Imagine you’re sin is materialism and you find Gen 1:1…
So the idea today is that we need to continually fill our arsenal with a supply of swords that the Holy Spirit can use in all sorts of battles.
A huge way in which the Spirit fights is by bringing to mind what we’ve heard, read, memorized.
But we need to give the Holy Spirit something to work with! It’s not very often that the Holy Spirit will bring to mind a scripture that I’ve never seen or heard before!
He can’t RE-mind us of what’s never been brought to mind in the first place!
EX: Do you remember the time of when I sanded off my toe?
That is how the Sword of the Spirit works. We need store up our armories.
CLOSING
The following is from the US Government Peace Corps Manual for its volunteers who work in the Amazon Jungle. It tells what to do in case you are attacked by an anaconda. Now an anaconda is the largest snake in the world. It is a relative of the boa constrictor, it grows to thirty-five feet in length and weighs between three and four hundred pounds at the maximum. This is what the manual said:
If you are attacked by an anaconda, do not run. The snake is faster than you are.
Lie flat on the ground. Put your arms tight against your sides, your legs tight against one another.
Tuck your chin in.
The snake will come and begin to nudge and climb over your body.
Do not panic.
After the snake has examined you, it will begin to swallow you from the feet first. Permit the snake to swallow your feet and ankles. Do not panic.
The snake will now begin to suck your legs into its body. You must lie perfectly still. This will take a long time.
When the snake has reached your knees slowly and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife and very gently slide it into the side of the snake’s mouth between the edge of its mouth and your leg, then suddenly rip upwards, severing the snake’s head.
Be sure you have your knife.
Be sure your knife is sharp.
6-week commitment
In closing, I want to challenge you today to be still. To find that time to be quiet before the Lord.
We talked about meeting God, seeking, hearing, praying, and the word in our quiet times.
I want to challenge you to a 6-week commitment.
You’ll pick a:
Partner
Place/ Time
Plan
Prize
Punishment
Grace Vs. Satan- 2 Corinthians 2:5-11- Kairo EM Worship
Intro
A couple months ago, we talked about forgiveness, based on the story of the Merciful King.
This week we’re talking about forgiveness, and Madeline asked, are you going to give the same sermon again?
No, in fact, strangely, I think the sermon today is a logical continuation of the last sermon I gave.
I’d like to start off today by how I ended last time. Today’s intro will be last sermon’s outro.
VIDEO:
In that sermon, the idea of forgiveness comes from the Greek word Aphiemi, which means to let go.
We talked a lot about how God has been merciful to us. He has let us go of the sin and offense against him.
And because the merciful King let us go, we too ought to let our fellow man go when they sin against us. We’re not to hold it against them. We are to set them free.
But now what? Is that the end of forgiveness? Just to let it go and squash it? That’s it?
Well if the last sermon was about showing mercy, and not giving those who sin against us what they deserve,
Then this sermon is about grace. And giving them what they don’t deserve.
Mercy and Grace go hand in hand.
Prayer
Before we start, let me take you to a sweet passage in 1 John 5:16-18.
Let me ask you a question. What is love? How do we know what love is?
1 John 5:16 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers... 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
In 1 John 5:18, John teaches this Christian principle that love is a verb. It is not just something we verbalize with words or with our mouth, although that too is important.
But his point is that it’s not just something we say we do or that we say we are.
You will be able to tell what love is by it’s fruit, by it’s demonstration in actions and in truth.
In deep theological terms for all you theologians, you can’t just talk the talk, you got to walk the walk.
We’ve got to demonstrate our love by what we do.
Forgiveness is driven by love. And if love is to be in Action and in truth, then so must forgiveness.
Forgive in Action
Here in 2 Cor. 2:5-11, there’s a situation where one person is guilty of sin, and the majority of the Church is acting out against him, whether it’s some kind of punishment or agreed discipline that they’re putting him through.
There are different theories, but I don’t want to get caught up in the debate.
Remember that one guy in 1 Cor. that Paul wrote about. There was some guy in the church who was sleeping with his mother in law, his dad’s wife. And Paul tells the church to judge him and put him out of fellowship to hand him over to Satan. Not so that Satan can have him, but “that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
Others say that Paul’s not referring to that guy, but to someone else in the church who either personally insulted and criticized Paul, or headed some kind of opposition against him. Paul talks about how he has forgiven already, and you can only forgive someone who’s committed an offence against you, and so he must be talking about something personal between the sinner and Paul.
So some people believe that Paul is writing to them again saying, “ok, that’s enough. The discipline has served it’s purpose, and if you keep going, it is going to overwhelm him. He’s sorry, and he’s repentant, now welcome him back in to the church.
Realize that Church discipline always has the purpose of restoring and reforming the sinner. It is never the goal to condemn and cut off.
In v. 7 Paul says “Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”
So whoever it is and whatever he’s done, Paul begs the Church, “Please, I plead with you, reaffirm your love for him and make sure he knows that you love him.”
In other words, don’t just tell him you forgive him, but show him! Make sure you comfort him with action and show him that you indeed do love him.
How do you love the one needing forgiveness? Dear brothers, Let us not love in words or tongue, but in action. Let us not forgive in words or tongue, but in action. Talk is cheap.
EX: IF you’ve been keeping up with the news, one of the biggest stories the past couple weeks was the murder of an 8 yr. old girl named Sandra Cantu. She was last seen skipping and jumping down the street. Later she was found raped, murdered, and stuffed into a suitcase and thrown into a pond.
The news of her murder outraged people across the city, CA, and nation.
Hundreds and hundreds of people came to send flowers and light candles and give gifts in memory of Sandra.
As police were transporting all the flowers and gifts, they came across a letter that read “To My Killer”. Inside the letter wrote “Dear killer, I forgive you. But God will judge you. Sandra”
And I thought about it, and it sounds like there is a lot of anger in that letter. It sounds like “Don’t be afraid of me, but you better be afraid of GOD! God’s gonna git you”
TO me, it sounds like it’s just words. You say you forgive, but you haven’t really forgiven. It’s easy to say “I forgive you.”
The Bible calls us to not only say you forgive him, and not only relent on your punishment or discipline toward the offender, but now go and proactively comfort the sinner and love him. Show him that he is loved and accepted by you and the Church.
Welcome him into your house. Cook him a meal. Invite him over to stay with you. Write him an encouraging letter. Throw him a party.
Your comforting and loving actions will be fruit of true forgiveness. It will be evidence that you have forgiven.
What can we do to show them that we do forgive, but even more so, that we love them.
Application: Last time I spoke on forgiveness back in November, I realized from some of the response that many people in this place are in need of showing forgiveness.
Many of you in this room have been hurt, have been mistreated, have had trust broken.
The emphasis of that sermon was to forgive in the sense that we let it go. The greek word for forgiveness is aphieimi. We’re not going to hold it against them. We’re setting them free.
But I noticed something interesting here. Whenever Paul uses the word forgive, the Greek is a different word. It’s not aphieimi, but its “Charisomai.”
The root word is Charis. It means Grace. Charisomai is to show favorable grace. Meaning, you are giving them something they don’t deserve. You are showing them grace. You are forgiving them.
He says forgiveness isn’t just letting it go (aphieimi), he’s saying go and show them grace (charidzomai). You comfort them. Go and show them love and forgiveness by what you do to them.
You want me to go out of my way to comfort and love the one who wronged me?
Yeah, they don’t deserve it. But neither did you when Christ showed you his love and forgiveness and died for you on the cross.
Do you realize that you sin against God, and he didn’t only show forgiveness to you by being merciful in withholding wrath from you, from withholding eternal condemnation and damnation from you.
He showed you forgiveness by being gracioius to you. Showing you favor when you don’t deserve it.
There is something about his action toward you that demonstrates amazing grace.
You don’t deserve it, but he gave you his Son to Die for you!
You don’t deserve it, but he gave you his Spirit to live in you.
You don’t deserve it, but he gives you his Power to transform you.
You don’t deserve it but he gives you his joy to strengthen you.
You don’t deserve it but he gives you his comfort to encourage you.
You don’t deserve it, but He gives life and life abundantly.
I suppose God could have just declared from Heaven, “Ah, he believes, let him go.” “Don’t punish him”.
And in his love and forgiveness, he lavishes you with all this.
And for what? For sinning against him and spitting in his face?
For those of you in here who God is calling to forgive, will you show the repentant offender against you that you really do forgive him or her.
How can you practically comfort them in their sorrow? What things can you do to proactively love on them to demonstrate to them not just the mercy of God, but the grace of God?
This is how we know what love is. Christ showed it to us by what he did, not just by what he said.
In the same way, don’t tell your brother or sister you forgive him. Show them. Love on them.
So don’t only forgive in words but in Action,
But not only in action… but in Truth.
Forgive in Truth
10If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake.” (NIV)
Paul is asking them to forgive, and if you do, than so do I!
It reminds me of how Jesus taught in Matt. 18, when he’s talking about forgiving the brother who sins against you.
He says 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."
If two or more of you can agree on forgiving a brother, than you can be sure that the Father in heaven has forgiven him.
Not that God’s forgiveness is dependent on us, but when we decide as a body to forgive, you know that there is sense of sweet agreement. God is with us, and there is unity in our decision to forgive the brother.
So Paul says, Look. If you forgive this sinner, than so do I!
And then he says in v. 10, that what I have forgiven, I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake. “ (NIV)
“what I have forgiven… has been for your sake in the presence of Christ.” (ESV)
Now, where does Paul go to be in the sight, or in the presence of Christ to forgive?
HE doesn’t go anywhere! He is always in the sight of Christ, and always in the presence of God. God sees all things!
And so his point is that when he forgives, he has truly forgiven! IN TRUTH. Before Christ. “God as my witness”.
Paul is saying that we need to forgive with our actions, by comforting him and affirming him with our actions…
But how else can I prove that my forgiveness is genuine, I have forgiven him in the presence of Christ. Before God, in truth, I have REALLY forgiven him of what he’s done to me.
EX: Monica asking me for forgiveness, and needing to come before God to make sure it’s true.
See, it’s easy to forgive in words, but show no action.
But it can be just as easy to show action, but not truly forgive.
We can pretend like we’re cool, and we put on a smiley face when we’re around them, but deep down inside, you know, and even more so, GOD knows, that you haven’t truly set the person free.
Would you be able to say that before God, you have truly set the person free in forgiveness?
Ex: Dean. I wanted to show that clip again, because I realized something after that sermon. Some of you guys came to me and asked about Dean, and asked if we still talked.
What I shared with you in that story is true, his act of forgiveness caused me to worship. The experience of being forgiven when I knew I didn’t deserve it completely blew me away.
But here’s the thing. Two years later when I went off to college, I noticed something. When we hung out with our friends, Dean never showed up. When I wasn’t there, I would hear that he would be.
Turns out that two years after the incident, everything had resurrected. He had still harbored anger and bitterness inside. Apparently all my friends knew about it but didn’t want to tell me.
I called Dean to apologize once again and reconcile. He explained to me that every time he thinks about it, he gets a sick feeling in his stomach. He said he realizes he never really let it go.
Paul sets the example, and says that I have forgiven him in the presence of Christ, and from the depths of my heart, I have forgiven him.
When you forgive, have you come before God and forgive your brother or sister in the sight of Christ?
Don’t just forgive with words, but with loving action. Don’t just forgive in loving actions, but in action and in truth.
Why is this so important to Paul? Why does Paul urge them extend themselves to the brother and forgive him so sincerely?
11in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
So that Satan wouldn’t win. He refuses to let Satan have the advantage over us.
Beware the schemes of Satan
11 “in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.”
In Eph 4:26-27. “do not let the sun go down on while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
EX: My sister getting her foot in the door. When we were growing up, me and my sister had a special relationship- We Hated each other. We would physically fight all the time, and my mom would buy me toys, and the condition would always be, “Please don’t fight with Jess.” Then we’d get home, and it’d be on.
But see, she had these things that came out of her fingers called nails.. they were freak of nature. People wouldn’t believe they were real, they thought the were Press On nails.
And so she would chase me around the house, and I came to learn that the first place to run is the bathroom, the door with a lock. And I would run, but sometimes she would get there quick enough to at least get her foot in the door.
I knew, that if I let her keep her foothold, and I didn’t actively fight to get it out, I was doomed. Because once her foot was in, then she would get her thigh in. And once her thigh was in, It’s game over.
Paul says in Eph 4 that when we are angry at each other, the devil gets his foot in the door.
“Foothold” in the Greek literally translates “topos”, which means place or location. When you give him place in your relationship, you’ve given him access to set up shop where he can run his business.
We need to be aware of Satan’s schemes.
One of his schemes is to divide. Satan loves to bring division to the body of Christ.
Satan schemes to cause those in the Kingdom of God to divide against themselves.
Why do you think God speaks so adamantly against greed, selfishness, envy, pride, hatred, anger, murder, stealing, lying, etc? Because these things DIVIDE. They Break relationships.
It is the antithesis of “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Satan wants to divide us and cause us to rebel against the Greatest commandment given by God.
Even Jesus taught that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand (Mt. 12:25).
Realize that Satan has limited ability and authority in this battle against the Kingdom of God.
Remember in Job 1, Satan comes before God, and God goes, “Where have you come from?” And Satan says, “From Roaming throughout the earth and going back and forth in it.” 1 Peter 5:8 says that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
God says, you can do anything you want to the things around him, but on him you must not lay a finger.” God gives him limited access to what he can do to Job.
He doesn’t cry and complain “Ah God, that’s not fair.” but Satan takes it and runs with it.
See because Satan is creative. He’s clever. He’s witty. He can figure out ways to destroy the Body of Christ…or ways to have the Body of Christ to destroy itself
What a great way to destroy the Body of Christ by turning it’s members against each other, What a great way to destroy the kingdom of God by turning it’s subjects against each other in unforgiveness.
It’s great because it’s one of those devices where it’s so subtle, that we don’t realize that we’re being divided by unforgiveness.
Anger can’t be hidden. Hatred is obvious. Murder is the talk of the town.
But unforgiveness, no one has to know. It can be this deep rooted sin that hides itself deep in the heart of the offended one. You can keep it all to yourself.
As long as I just keep my distance
As long as I don’t have to be chummy with him.
As long as we don’t have to be too close.
We’ll just go to church on Fridays and Sundays and I’ll just make sure I sit on the other side.
Unforgiveness is so easy because it’s so easy to get away with.
And so Satan wittingly will scheme to root us in bitter unforgiveness.
But Paul says WE WILL NOT be outwitted by Satan, but we will expose darkness and be aware of his schemes.
We cannot tolerate unforgiveness, lest we let the DEVIL have his way in us.
EX: FCBC Retreat. I spent a lot of time with a guy named Kevin. He was obviously rejected, and spent time by himself a lot. No one talked to him. I spent a lot of time with him, because it was easy. I didn’t have to talk much. He had so much to say. SO much anger and bitterness because of all the rejection he’s received. Even the counselors have rejected him.
During the retreat, he kept telling me about this one retreat where he was uncontrollably angry. He kept coming back to this one time and just could not describe enough how much people pissed him off.
On the last night, he wanted to confess something to me, that was so shameful. He said that one time, he was so desperate, that he prayed to Satan to help him.
I was like “WHAT?@!!” That is a NO NO. Anyone who knows anything about Spiritual warfare knows that we are never to invite Satan into our lives. By doing so, you give him permission to have influence over you, and he takes you up on it and acts like one of those unwanted visitors who make themselves at home and never wants to leave.
Even when you engage in activities like ouiji board, or fortune telling, or séances, you invited Satanic influence in. But Kevin straight up asked the Devil to help him.
I hope that disturbs you, because that is extremely disturbing.
But guys, please listen. We will not be outwitted by Satan, we will be aware of his schemes.
When we insist and persist in unforgiveness, we are unwittingly giving Satan access to our lives. We are giving him a place, a topos, a foothold to set up shop, and build his business.
Please be aware of Satan’s schemes. AS crazy as it is for someone to pray to Satan, let us be aware of ways we may give permission for outside influence
We cannot tolerate unforgiveness; but MUST forgive as Christ forgave us. Both in Mercy, and in Grace.
In action and in Truth.
IN obedience to our King, and in defiance to our enemy.
A couple months ago, we talked about forgiveness, based on the story of the Merciful King.
This week we’re talking about forgiveness, and Madeline asked, are you going to give the same sermon again?
No, in fact, strangely, I think the sermon today is a logical continuation of the last sermon I gave.
I’d like to start off today by how I ended last time. Today’s intro will be last sermon’s outro.
VIDEO:
In that sermon, the idea of forgiveness comes from the Greek word Aphiemi, which means to let go.
We talked a lot about how God has been merciful to us. He has let us go of the sin and offense against him.
And because the merciful King let us go, we too ought to let our fellow man go when they sin against us. We’re not to hold it against them. We are to set them free.
But now what? Is that the end of forgiveness? Just to let it go and squash it? That’s it?
Well if the last sermon was about showing mercy, and not giving those who sin against us what they deserve,
Then this sermon is about grace. And giving them what they don’t deserve.
Mercy and Grace go hand in hand.
Prayer
Before we start, let me take you to a sweet passage in 1 John 5:16-18.
Let me ask you a question. What is love? How do we know what love is?
1 John 5:16 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers... 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
In 1 John 5:18, John teaches this Christian principle that love is a verb. It is not just something we verbalize with words or with our mouth, although that too is important.
But his point is that it’s not just something we say we do or that we say we are.
You will be able to tell what love is by it’s fruit, by it’s demonstration in actions and in truth.
In deep theological terms for all you theologians, you can’t just talk the talk, you got to walk the walk.
We’ve got to demonstrate our love by what we do.
Forgiveness is driven by love. And if love is to be in Action and in truth, then so must forgiveness.
Forgive in Action
Here in 2 Cor. 2:5-11, there’s a situation where one person is guilty of sin, and the majority of the Church is acting out against him, whether it’s some kind of punishment or agreed discipline that they’re putting him through.
There are different theories, but I don’t want to get caught up in the debate.
Remember that one guy in 1 Cor. that Paul wrote about. There was some guy in the church who was sleeping with his mother in law, his dad’s wife. And Paul tells the church to judge him and put him out of fellowship to hand him over to Satan. Not so that Satan can have him, but “that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
Others say that Paul’s not referring to that guy, but to someone else in the church who either personally insulted and criticized Paul, or headed some kind of opposition against him. Paul talks about how he has forgiven already, and you can only forgive someone who’s committed an offence against you, and so he must be talking about something personal between the sinner and Paul.
So some people believe that Paul is writing to them again saying, “ok, that’s enough. The discipline has served it’s purpose, and if you keep going, it is going to overwhelm him. He’s sorry, and he’s repentant, now welcome him back in to the church.
Realize that Church discipline always has the purpose of restoring and reforming the sinner. It is never the goal to condemn and cut off.
In v. 7 Paul says “Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”
So whoever it is and whatever he’s done, Paul begs the Church, “Please, I plead with you, reaffirm your love for him and make sure he knows that you love him.”
In other words, don’t just tell him you forgive him, but show him! Make sure you comfort him with action and show him that you indeed do love him.
How do you love the one needing forgiveness? Dear brothers, Let us not love in words or tongue, but in action. Let us not forgive in words or tongue, but in action. Talk is cheap.
EX: IF you’ve been keeping up with the news, one of the biggest stories the past couple weeks was the murder of an 8 yr. old girl named Sandra Cantu. She was last seen skipping and jumping down the street. Later she was found raped, murdered, and stuffed into a suitcase and thrown into a pond.
The news of her murder outraged people across the city, CA, and nation.
Hundreds and hundreds of people came to send flowers and light candles and give gifts in memory of Sandra.
As police were transporting all the flowers and gifts, they came across a letter that read “To My Killer”. Inside the letter wrote “Dear killer, I forgive you. But God will judge you. Sandra”
And I thought about it, and it sounds like there is a lot of anger in that letter. It sounds like “Don’t be afraid of me, but you better be afraid of GOD! God’s gonna git you”
TO me, it sounds like it’s just words. You say you forgive, but you haven’t really forgiven. It’s easy to say “I forgive you.”
The Bible calls us to not only say you forgive him, and not only relent on your punishment or discipline toward the offender, but now go and proactively comfort the sinner and love him. Show him that he is loved and accepted by you and the Church.
Welcome him into your house. Cook him a meal. Invite him over to stay with you. Write him an encouraging letter. Throw him a party.
Your comforting and loving actions will be fruit of true forgiveness. It will be evidence that you have forgiven.
What can we do to show them that we do forgive, but even more so, that we love them.
Application: Last time I spoke on forgiveness back in November, I realized from some of the response that many people in this place are in need of showing forgiveness.
Many of you in this room have been hurt, have been mistreated, have had trust broken.
The emphasis of that sermon was to forgive in the sense that we let it go. The greek word for forgiveness is aphieimi. We’re not going to hold it against them. We’re setting them free.
But I noticed something interesting here. Whenever Paul uses the word forgive, the Greek is a different word. It’s not aphieimi, but its “Charisomai.”
The root word is Charis. It means Grace. Charisomai is to show favorable grace. Meaning, you are giving them something they don’t deserve. You are showing them grace. You are forgiving them.
He says forgiveness isn’t just letting it go (aphieimi), he’s saying go and show them grace (charidzomai). You comfort them. Go and show them love and forgiveness by what you do to them.
You want me to go out of my way to comfort and love the one who wronged me?
Yeah, they don’t deserve it. But neither did you when Christ showed you his love and forgiveness and died for you on the cross.
Do you realize that you sin against God, and he didn’t only show forgiveness to you by being merciful in withholding wrath from you, from withholding eternal condemnation and damnation from you.
He showed you forgiveness by being gracioius to you. Showing you favor when you don’t deserve it.
There is something about his action toward you that demonstrates amazing grace.
You don’t deserve it, but he gave you his Son to Die for you!
You don’t deserve it, but he gave you his Spirit to live in you.
You don’t deserve it, but he gives you his Power to transform you.
You don’t deserve it but he gives you his joy to strengthen you.
You don’t deserve it but he gives you his comfort to encourage you.
You don’t deserve it, but He gives life and life abundantly.
I suppose God could have just declared from Heaven, “Ah, he believes, let him go.” “Don’t punish him”.
And in his love and forgiveness, he lavishes you with all this.
And for what? For sinning against him and spitting in his face?
For those of you in here who God is calling to forgive, will you show the repentant offender against you that you really do forgive him or her.
How can you practically comfort them in their sorrow? What things can you do to proactively love on them to demonstrate to them not just the mercy of God, but the grace of God?
This is how we know what love is. Christ showed it to us by what he did, not just by what he said.
In the same way, don’t tell your brother or sister you forgive him. Show them. Love on them.
So don’t only forgive in words but in Action,
But not only in action… but in Truth.
Forgive in Truth
10If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake.” (NIV)
Paul is asking them to forgive, and if you do, than so do I!
It reminds me of how Jesus taught in Matt. 18, when he’s talking about forgiving the brother who sins against you.
He says 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."
If two or more of you can agree on forgiving a brother, than you can be sure that the Father in heaven has forgiven him.
Not that God’s forgiveness is dependent on us, but when we decide as a body to forgive, you know that there is sense of sweet agreement. God is with us, and there is unity in our decision to forgive the brother.
So Paul says, Look. If you forgive this sinner, than so do I!
And then he says in v. 10, that what I have forgiven, I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake. “ (NIV)
“what I have forgiven… has been for your sake in the presence of Christ.” (ESV)
Now, where does Paul go to be in the sight, or in the presence of Christ to forgive?
HE doesn’t go anywhere! He is always in the sight of Christ, and always in the presence of God. God sees all things!
And so his point is that when he forgives, he has truly forgiven! IN TRUTH. Before Christ. “God as my witness”.
Paul is saying that we need to forgive with our actions, by comforting him and affirming him with our actions…
But how else can I prove that my forgiveness is genuine, I have forgiven him in the presence of Christ. Before God, in truth, I have REALLY forgiven him of what he’s done to me.
EX: Monica asking me for forgiveness, and needing to come before God to make sure it’s true.
See, it’s easy to forgive in words, but show no action.
But it can be just as easy to show action, but not truly forgive.
We can pretend like we’re cool, and we put on a smiley face when we’re around them, but deep down inside, you know, and even more so, GOD knows, that you haven’t truly set the person free.
Would you be able to say that before God, you have truly set the person free in forgiveness?
Ex: Dean. I wanted to show that clip again, because I realized something after that sermon. Some of you guys came to me and asked about Dean, and asked if we still talked.
What I shared with you in that story is true, his act of forgiveness caused me to worship. The experience of being forgiven when I knew I didn’t deserve it completely blew me away.
But here’s the thing. Two years later when I went off to college, I noticed something. When we hung out with our friends, Dean never showed up. When I wasn’t there, I would hear that he would be.
Turns out that two years after the incident, everything had resurrected. He had still harbored anger and bitterness inside. Apparently all my friends knew about it but didn’t want to tell me.
I called Dean to apologize once again and reconcile. He explained to me that every time he thinks about it, he gets a sick feeling in his stomach. He said he realizes he never really let it go.
Paul sets the example, and says that I have forgiven him in the presence of Christ, and from the depths of my heart, I have forgiven him.
When you forgive, have you come before God and forgive your brother or sister in the sight of Christ?
Don’t just forgive with words, but with loving action. Don’t just forgive in loving actions, but in action and in truth.
Why is this so important to Paul? Why does Paul urge them extend themselves to the brother and forgive him so sincerely?
11in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
So that Satan wouldn’t win. He refuses to let Satan have the advantage over us.
Beware the schemes of Satan
11 “in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.”
In Eph 4:26-27. “do not let the sun go down on while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
EX: My sister getting her foot in the door. When we were growing up, me and my sister had a special relationship- We Hated each other. We would physically fight all the time, and my mom would buy me toys, and the condition would always be, “Please don’t fight with Jess.” Then we’d get home, and it’d be on.
But see, she had these things that came out of her fingers called nails.. they were freak of nature. People wouldn’t believe they were real, they thought the were Press On nails.
And so she would chase me around the house, and I came to learn that the first place to run is the bathroom, the door with a lock. And I would run, but sometimes she would get there quick enough to at least get her foot in the door.
I knew, that if I let her keep her foothold, and I didn’t actively fight to get it out, I was doomed. Because once her foot was in, then she would get her thigh in. And once her thigh was in, It’s game over.
Paul says in Eph 4 that when we are angry at each other, the devil gets his foot in the door.
“Foothold” in the Greek literally translates “topos”, which means place or location. When you give him place in your relationship, you’ve given him access to set up shop where he can run his business.
We need to be aware of Satan’s schemes.
One of his schemes is to divide. Satan loves to bring division to the body of Christ.
Satan schemes to cause those in the Kingdom of God to divide against themselves.
Why do you think God speaks so adamantly against greed, selfishness, envy, pride, hatred, anger, murder, stealing, lying, etc? Because these things DIVIDE. They Break relationships.
It is the antithesis of “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Satan wants to divide us and cause us to rebel against the Greatest commandment given by God.
Even Jesus taught that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand (Mt. 12:25).
Realize that Satan has limited ability and authority in this battle against the Kingdom of God.
Remember in Job 1, Satan comes before God, and God goes, “Where have you come from?” And Satan says, “From Roaming throughout the earth and going back and forth in it.” 1 Peter 5:8 says that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
God says, you can do anything you want to the things around him, but on him you must not lay a finger.” God gives him limited access to what he can do to Job.
He doesn’t cry and complain “Ah God, that’s not fair.” but Satan takes it and runs with it.
See because Satan is creative. He’s clever. He’s witty. He can figure out ways to destroy the Body of Christ…or ways to have the Body of Christ to destroy itself
What a great way to destroy the Body of Christ by turning it’s members against each other, What a great way to destroy the kingdom of God by turning it’s subjects against each other in unforgiveness.
It’s great because it’s one of those devices where it’s so subtle, that we don’t realize that we’re being divided by unforgiveness.
Anger can’t be hidden. Hatred is obvious. Murder is the talk of the town.
But unforgiveness, no one has to know. It can be this deep rooted sin that hides itself deep in the heart of the offended one. You can keep it all to yourself.
As long as I just keep my distance
As long as I don’t have to be chummy with him.
As long as we don’t have to be too close.
We’ll just go to church on Fridays and Sundays and I’ll just make sure I sit on the other side.
Unforgiveness is so easy because it’s so easy to get away with.
And so Satan wittingly will scheme to root us in bitter unforgiveness.
But Paul says WE WILL NOT be outwitted by Satan, but we will expose darkness and be aware of his schemes.
We cannot tolerate unforgiveness, lest we let the DEVIL have his way in us.
EX: FCBC Retreat. I spent a lot of time with a guy named Kevin. He was obviously rejected, and spent time by himself a lot. No one talked to him. I spent a lot of time with him, because it was easy. I didn’t have to talk much. He had so much to say. SO much anger and bitterness because of all the rejection he’s received. Even the counselors have rejected him.
During the retreat, he kept telling me about this one retreat where he was uncontrollably angry. He kept coming back to this one time and just could not describe enough how much people pissed him off.
On the last night, he wanted to confess something to me, that was so shameful. He said that one time, he was so desperate, that he prayed to Satan to help him.
I was like “WHAT?@!!” That is a NO NO. Anyone who knows anything about Spiritual warfare knows that we are never to invite Satan into our lives. By doing so, you give him permission to have influence over you, and he takes you up on it and acts like one of those unwanted visitors who make themselves at home and never wants to leave.
Even when you engage in activities like ouiji board, or fortune telling, or séances, you invited Satanic influence in. But Kevin straight up asked the Devil to help him.
I hope that disturbs you, because that is extremely disturbing.
But guys, please listen. We will not be outwitted by Satan, we will be aware of his schemes.
When we insist and persist in unforgiveness, we are unwittingly giving Satan access to our lives. We are giving him a place, a topos, a foothold to set up shop, and build his business.
Please be aware of Satan’s schemes. AS crazy as it is for someone to pray to Satan, let us be aware of ways we may give permission for outside influence
We cannot tolerate unforgiveness; but MUST forgive as Christ forgave us. Both in Mercy, and in Grace.
In action and in Truth.
IN obedience to our King, and in defiance to our enemy.
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