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Master of Any Storm
Mark 4:35-41
The Holy Bible, King James Version
Mark 4:35 through Mark 4:41
35And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. 36And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. 37And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. 38And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? 39And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? 41And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
What is that you say? Yet another report of a storm? Gert? Hortense? Henry? Or even Matthew! I don't know about you, but I think that I have had enough storms to last me for quite some time. Just a couple of weeks ago we finally had the roof replaced at FBC South Daytona. (Just in time for another storm...) We have still got about $50,000 worth of work to do to correct the damage that Matthew had done. Tropical storms, hurricanes, and thunderstorms are just part of living in the “Sunshine State’
Friends, I can relate to those men in the boat as they shook the Lord awake and asked him to do something about their own storm. I can understand their fear, and their anxiety. I can even understand their worry, and perhaps you can as well. I've been through many storms over the years. Some of them major storms with great damaging potential, and others nothing more than a normal summer shower.
The storms we are going to talk about today are not only the storms that ravage our coasts like hurricanes, but the storms that ravage our everyday lives. The stormy circumstances that wreak havoc on our personal lives and often cause us to despair are some of the storms that we will talk about.
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Realizing Revival: I Think, Therefore I Am
Matthew 15:17-19
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
17 Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? 18 But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
revival [rɪˈvaɪvəl]
n
1. the act or an instance of reviving or the state of being revived
2. an instance of returning to life or consciousness; restoration of vigour or vitality
3. a renewed use, acceptance of, or interest in (past customs, styles,beliefs etc.)
Each of these definitions of revival are applicable to our church today. We’ve been praying for revival, preaching for revival, studying for revival, and expecting revival. We are looking for a moving of God’s Spirit that brings a vitality to our body that spurs a renewed interest in the things of God.
For weeks we have been saying that it begins in us as individuals. Last week we looked at the first step in our journey toward Realizing Revival when we recognized that God is Holy and worthy to be praised, along with the necessity to bow down before Him as Isaiah did.
Isaiah said ” 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
We, like Isaiah, can cry out in the same fashion. According to scripture, sin begins in the heart and mind. Our lips are unclean because our hearts are unclean. We think impure thoughts, therefore we become impure. We are uncharitable in our mind, and we become uncharitable in deed.
To realize revival we must renew our hearts.
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Worship Is Loving God
Matthew 22:37
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
We don’t normally stop with reading just this verse, in fact usually when we use this passage it is a lesson on loving everyone. Since our emphasis this month is on worship, I want us to focus on the part of this teaching that deal with God.
If our worship is to be centered around God, then loving God is an act of worship. But how can we show the love that we feel towards God? It’s easy to say we love Him, but it is harder to show it.
Some ago, the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, MO made public 1,300 recently discovered letters that the late President wrote to his wife, Bess, over the course of a half-century. Mr. Truman had a lifelong rule of writing to his wife every day they were apart. He followed this rule whenever he was away on official business or whenever Bess left Washington to visit her beloved Independence. Scholars are examining the letters for any new light they may throw on political and diplomatic history. For our part, we were most impressed by the simple fact that every day he was away, the President of the United States took time out from his dealing with the world’s most powerful leaders to sit down and write a letter to his wife.
Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, pp. 15-16.
Loving God is not quite as easy as sitting down and penning a letter, or writing a poem. It’s more than singing a song or giving a tithe. Loving God is a totally encompassing way of life. Loving God was listed as the greatest of all the commandments by no less an authority than Jesus Himself!
Jesus said that if we love God first, then our love for others will grow because God is love. C. S. Lewis said
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A Building Project
Hebrews 3:4
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
4 Now every house is built by someone, but the One who built everything is God.
Two workers drive into a lumberyard. One gets out, goes inside, and says to the clerk, “We need some 4×2′s”.The clerk says, “Do you mean 2×4′s?” The worker says, “Just a minute,” goes outside, comes back in, and says, “Yes, 2×4′s.”The clerk asks, “How long do you need them?” The worker says, “Just a minute,” goes outside, comes back in, and says, “We’ll need them a long time because we’re building a house.”
I don’ t know about you, but I’m not sure I’d want to live in the house these two fellows built! Now I’m not about to make too much fun of them, because I’m not that great of a carpenter myself, but I do – like you—build things every day.
We all build things each day. We build relationships, we build our businesses, we build our families, and hopefully we build our faith. Building, one stone on top of another is basic to the pattern of life that we live.
You could probably tell me story after story of the people that your life is built upon. Those are the people that laid a foundation that will endure through the ages. You could tell me about parents and grandparents, Sunday School teachers, coaches, and youth leaders. You could probably even tell me about that crotchety old widow lady that lived in the decrepit house on the corner. Each one of these stories would build on each other, growing you into the person you’ve become today.
God is the builder of it all! He builds us from the very ground up, and He is in the business of building things that are marked by quality!
In the 1985 movie, Weird Science, Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and his nerdy friend Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) are two dateless teens stuck in Wyatt’s rather posh suburban family home on a Friday night. On a whim, Gary suggests that they use Wyatt’s powerful computer to “make a woman” (or at least a somewhat realistic simulation that they can interact with). They begin to feed various images and other data into the computer, but are unsuccessful at first. After hacking into a powerful Air Force computer system, a weird electrical storm develops. The two teens try to unplug the computer and stop the rather supernatural events, but to no avail. Finally, a real woman (Kelly LeBrock) whom Wyatt names “Lisa” emerges from the bathroom, much to their shock and delight.
They had built them a woman! This morning I want to talk to you about building a person also, though maybe not one as stunning as Kelly LeBrock, but one certainly more important. I want us to talk about building a father.
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Realizing Revival: Holy Holy Holy
Isaiah 6:1-7
New International Version (NIV)
Isaiah’s Commission
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips;your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Three pastors got together for coffee one day and found all their churches had bat-infestation problems. "I got so mad," said one, "I took a shotgun and fired at them. It made holes in the ceiling, but did nothing to the bats." "I tried trapping them alive," said the second. "Then I drove 50 miles before releasing them, but they beat me back to the church." "I haven’t had any more problems," said the third. "What did you do?" asked the others, amazed. "I simply baptized and confirmed them," he replied. "I haven’t seen them since."
Reader’s Digest, July, 1994, p. 64.
While we might chuckle at that, and sometimes it seems to be an accurate description it is a sad commentary on our experience in the church. There are a lot of reasons people give for not going to church, and most of them are barely better than mediocre excuses to justify our own desire to be anywhere else except in the house of God.