April 28, 2013

Ezra 3:10-13

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

¹⁰ Now when the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord according to the directions of King David of Israel. ¹¹ They sang, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His loving kindness is upon Israel forever.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. ¹² Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy, ¹³ so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away.

A farmer walks into a hardware store and asks for a chain saw that will cut 6 trees in one hour. The salesman recommends the top of the line model. The farmer is suitably impressed, and buys it. The next day he brings it back, complaining that it would only cut down 1 tree and it took ALL DAY! The salesman takes the chain saw, starts it up to see what’s wrong, and the farmer says: “What’s that noise?”

That noise was the sound of the chainsaw working! It was working like it was intended, and it made quite a racket! The remnant of the faithful had been delivered as God had promised and now they needed to get to work. God had delivered them, but their job was just beginning and they set about doing it with a new vigor and vitality. They had seen the power of God at work and it got them excited.

They got so noisy that people were wondering what all the commotion was about, and the sound was heard far away. Today, church, we need to make some noise. It’s time for our community to know we are hear. It’s time for us to raise the roof!

Just like that chainsaw the church makes a lot of noise when it is working properly. It’s time for us to get noisy! LET’S MAKE SOME NOISE TODAY!

Happy (V 10-11)

Make no mistake about it; these folks were celebrating. They were rejoicing in the victory that God had given them and they were excited. The spiritual leaders were all dressed in the vestments of their office (read that “they put on their uniforms”), and they grabbed up their trumpets and began to blow them. Then some of them grabbed some cymbals and cut loose with those. What they had going there was not some soft instrumental chamber music—what they had going was the equivalent of today’s heavy metal music! You know the kind—the stuff that no one under 25 even wants to hear!!!

It was the kind of celebration that folks had to take the ear horns out of their ears and maybe even cover them up! They sang, and gave praise to the Lord because of HIS goodness! They had been in exile for decades, in a strange land with strange customs, and regulations that went against what they knew to be right. Now God had delivered them and they were happy! They were beyond happy, and it showed in their celebration.

They had been preparing and planning for this moment for a long time and when that moment was reached they had no option other than to celebrate! They didn’t just break out the praise songs, they brought the whole band along.

Today the church is in a sort of self-imposed exile much like the children of Israel were so long ago. We have wandered so far away from the teachings of God and have become compromised with the world to such a degree that when we repent and God moves among us it is cause for celebration.

It’s time for the church to come out of the wilderness and stand up for what we know to be right. It’s time for us to celebrate the goodness of God, it’s time for us to make some noise and let the people hear us.

Hesitant (V12)

¹² Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy, 

I’ve heard it said many times, indeed it has been said to me in this church many times since I’ve been here, “The older people don’t want to change.” The idea behind this statement is that somehow it is the senior saints who are resistant to change in the church and hold back the workings of the Holy Spirit. I want to say to you this morning that this statement is simply FALSE. It is absolutely wrong in its assumption. It is not that older people are resistant to change, it is more correct to say that PEOPLE are resistant to change.

We all like things the way they are, and to a great extent the way they used to be. We are comfortable with things that are familiar. We are comfortable singing the songs that we have always sung, at the tempos we have always sung them, without any alteration. It makes us feel good.

It’s sort of like that favorite food from our childhood and the next generation decides to “improve” it. They add a little bit of cayenne pepper, or put an unfamiliar spice in it and it looks the same, but it’s just not “quite right”. It’s not as good as it used to be for us, but the grandkids seem to love it and will clean the bowl out and we scratch our heads and wonder how they can eat that stuff.

I want you to look at it from a different perspective for a moment. The older folks in our church remember a different time in church life. They remember when the church was a vibrant force in the community. They remember the baptisms, communions, family dedications, and joyous occasion of years gone by. They remember when it was easy to fill the church. They remember when it was as easy as going down to the corner and bringing people in. They remember the Glory of God and they yearn for that again!

The senior saints in our midst want to see this church regain the glory it once had! It’s not that they are opposed to the changes of time, they just don’t like where they have seen society go!

The old men in our passage of scripture were not weeping because a new temple was being built, instead they were weeping because they remembered the old one! They were weeping because they recalled the Glory that God had brought to the community and they long to see the House of God be vibrant again.

Perhaps they also saw that the celebration was premature. There was still a lot of work to be done. The job was not complete. They, like many of us today, had a sense of “Been there, done that” and were hesitant to jump in when for the last 70 years they had only known heartache and defeat.

Well fall victim to that even today. We look at the so-called new ideas and point out that we’ve tried it before and it didn’t work so why do we think it will work now. Maybe that’s part of the problem, and it’s not just a problem with the older folks in our churches it permeates the whole church culture. Maybe it’s time to get a fresh vision from God and look at how we are doing church.

Jesus died to set us free and we have voluntarily gone back to the religious trappings that had a chokehold on the people of God when Jesus walked the earth.

To look at something as though we had never seen it requires great courage — Henri Matisse

When God is at work in the church there is a blending of the voices of those that are exuberantly happy, and those that find a little bit of sadness that things aren’t as they used to be, but all that combines to bring harmony.

Harmony (V. 13)

¹³ so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away.

We don’t have to do things the new-fangled way, and we don’t have to do things the old-fashioned way. We have to do things GOD’s WAY! God’s way brings all us into harmony.

In his early years, American landscape photographer Ansel Adams studied piano and showed some talent. At one party, however, as Adams played Chopin’s F Major Nocturne he recalled that “In some strange way my right had started off in F-sharp major while my left had behaved well in F-major. I could not bring them together. I went through the entire nocturne with the hands separated by a half-step.”

The next day a fellow guest gave Adams a no-nonsense review of his performance: “You never missed a wrong note!” 

Church, it is time that we get our hands together, place them in the right place and get about the work of God. Our differences strengthen us and bring glory to God.

In our text this morning we find on the one hand the young whippersnappers who were jumping the gun and celebrating too early, and on the other hand we have the wise elderly men who were being cautious. Together they made a great noise that was heard from far way!

Together, their voices were strong and impacted the community. That’s what we are looking for this morning. We aren’t looking to make some ultra-contemporary performance for man, and we are not looking to go back to the old ways that might not be as relevant to today’s technologically advanced population. We aren’t looking to take away tradition, and the comforts of our upbringing, and we aren’t looking to tickle the ears of a wicked and sinful people.

We are looking to move forward, and grow God’s Kingdom! We are looking to impact our community for Christ. We are looking to reach people burdened with the trials of life and provide them the rest that can come in Christ.

Let stop looking at each other and saying you must worship like me. Let us not try to remake everything in our image and start living like we are the image of God! Let’s put our hands together and pull in harmony!

Let’s make a noise! Let’s make a noise that this community cannot mistake for anything other than the army of God on the move! Starting right now, let us raise the roof!

April 21, 2013

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 “When I have learned to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now.”

We often look at this passage we just read and dismiss it casually by saying we are to love God with all our being; to love Him with all that we have. While this is certainly a truth, and an appropriate teaching, this morning I want for us to dig a little bit deeper.

Jesus broke our life down into heart, mind, and soul. Now Jesus never said anything recorded in scripture that didn’t have a reason. In other words there were no “slips of the tongue” everything that Jesus said was to teach or instruct us in a principle that was important.

So with that in mind, we see that He instructed us to love God with our HEART, with our SOUL, and with our MIND. Could it be that he viewed these as three separate areas that make up our being?

Love God With All Your Heart

Jesus said to love God with all your heart. We use this word to describe many things in our culture. We could be talking about the biological heart, which as you are surely aware is simply a muscle. It has no capacity for thought, or conscious action. It simply beats to the electrical impulses provided to it. Obviously Jesus means something more than this. Let’s look at how we use this one single word.

1. I could feel my heart pounding.
2. He has a bad heart.
3. He put his hand on his heart.
4. When she heard the news, her heart filled with joy.
5. She just couldn’t find it in her heart to forgive them.
6. I felt in my heart that our relationship was never meant to be.
7. a ruler without a heart
8. Have a heart! Can’t you see he needs help?

We also use it to say that someone cares: As in “He is all heart”. This definition of the word could be a little closer to the principle that Jesus is teaching us. We are to love God with that part of us that shows and gives compassion.

Another clue is in the definition of heart that calls it the center of moral activity for an individual. It is safe to conclude that the Christian should indeed love God from the moral principles that He has provided for us in His word, and by the guidance of His Spirit.

One of the religious movements in the contemporary church relies heavily on this sort of worship experience. In this movement the totality of worship is based on how it feels. Our feelings and emotions are what guides and directs worship.

The teaching, which is not in and of itself wrong, leads us to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance and places an emphasis on what is happening right now. It’s sort of an instant gratification style of worship that considers theology and doctrine to be for someone else.

There is something to be said for a worship that is spontaneous and spirit filled. In fact, that sort of worship is certainly something we should want to be a part of, however it is incomplete. We run into a danger when we let our hearts guide us.

Galatians 6:9

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

⁹ Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

The danger is that we “lose heart”. Sometimes our heart is just not in it. Maybe we have a cold, maybe our back hurts, maybe our children are driving us crazy, whatever the reason we come to worship and our heart is weary.

Love God With All Your Soul

Another trend in ministry is the idea that ministry is about action.

James 1:22

King James Version (KJV)

²² But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

We can listen to God’s word and achieve an emotional response but what good does that really do us? What have we profited from an emotional high, and how have we helped those around us with that emotional release?

This style of worship demands that we bout our whole being into action in order to worship. Like the “heart” Christians, there is nothing inherently wrong with this approach. Indeed, it is Biblical in nature as we have seen in the passage from James a moment ago.

It is good for us to put action to our talk, but the risk in this is that our work become more important to God. It is in our nature to get caught up in the importance of what we are doing and feeding the ego becomes paramount.

Love God With All Your Mind

There is an opposing movement in Christian circles that totally rejects emotional worship and places a strong emphasis on intellectual pursuits. Theology and doctrine become the entire basis for worship.

The mind of man is a very powerful force indeed. Winston Churchill said “The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.” We have not even scratched the surface of the capacity of the human mind to adapt and to grow. God created us with an innate curiosity and desire to learn.

This word, too, is a word that we toss around in so many ways it’s hard to keep track. Here are some examples:

1. He read great literature to develop his mind.
2. It’s important to keep your mind active as you grow older.
3. He went for a walk to help clear his mind.
4. the mysteries of the human mind
5. My mind is always open to new ideas.
6. You can’t argue with him. His mind is closed.
7. I can’t concentrate: my mind is always wandering and I can’t keep it focused on anything.
8. The smell of pine sends my mind back to childhood.

The idea behind using the mind in worship is a valid point: “If I learn more about God I will be closer to Him”. There is nothing at all wrong with this motivation in our worship. Indeed God’s word tells us to study to show ourselves approved.

Paul tells us in Romans to renew our mind:

Romans 12:2

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

The danger in this form of worship is that it can become cold, legalistic, and even lifeless. Without emotion the coldness of logic can be suffocating and can stifle growth.

WORSHIP God With All Three

In any given church, on any given Sunday we will find Christians that are more comfortable loving God with any of these three elements that make up who we are. Some people are comfortable with their emotions while others see emotionalism as a weakness. One person may have an ordered logical mind while another may be better at being given a task and just being told to go do it.

There is no accident that Jesus touched on all three. I submit to you this morning that Jesus intended for His followers to actually use ALL three in our worship. He expects us to use our minds, and listen to our heart, and He absolutely expects us actively participate in ministry on all levels.

We are all different: PRAISE GOD! Let us accept our differences and love God through those differences.

In closing, Jesus laid out this principle of loving God with three keywords.

1. Love God with ALL—whether you are using your heart, your soul, or your mind, love God completely. Love HIM with all that you are.
2. Love God with all YOUR—We are to love God with what He has given to US! Our experiences and makeup are completely different from our brothers and sisters. We are created uniquely and we are supposed to be unique in our love of God.
3. Love God with all three (AND)—Jesus could have said to love God with all your heart, soul, mind. But instead He connected each word with that important word AND.

Let’s love God with all that we are, and let our worship show it!

Good Friday March 29, 2013

John 19:30

It Is Finished!

• A man’s last words tell us a whole lot about who he is, and the kind of person he was. For a moment let’s look at some famous last words of some well-known people.
• John Barrymore, actor, died May 29, 1942 reportedly said “”Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.”
• Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) “To the strongest.”
• Humphrey Bogart, actor, d. January 14, 1957 “I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.”
• Karl Marx, died in 1883 with these last words… “Go on, get out – last words are for fools who haven’t said enough.”
• Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, d.1170 “I am ready to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace.
• Then of course there are the famous last words of every redneck in the United States: Hey y’all, watch this!

What about the last words of the most influential man to have ever walked the planet? What about the last words of the Son of God as he was executed on the lonely hill of Golgotha? What do Jesus’ words reveal about His character?

Let’s turn to God’s word this evening as we take a journey through Christ’s last hours on earth, and how he reacted to those that were torturing Him.

Jesus Was a Man of Forgiveness

Luke 23:33-34

King James Version (KJV)

³³And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.

³⁴Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

A Sunday School teacher had just concluded her lesson and wanted to make sure she had made her point. She said, “Can anyone tell me what you must do before you can obtain forgiveness of sin?” There was a short pause and then, from the back of the room, a small boy spoke up. “Sin,” he said.

Well friends, you and I have probably already met that requirement! Sin is most likely something that you and I are well acquainted with, probably more acquainted with than we need to be. Jesus lived forgiveness, and He died forgiveness.

Throughout His ministry we see instances of His divine forgiveness as He taught His disciples a better way to live. Jesus taught radical concepts like “love your enemy”, and “do good to those that would harm you”. He even taught that when someone struck you on the cheek, to turn the other one to them to strike as well.

This was a sea-change departure from the attitude and practices of the religious elite of Jesus’ time. Yet for Christ it was part of His nature, it was who He was. In life Christ practiced forgiveness, and in death He did no less. If those last words are an indicator of who you are, then Jesus was a man of forgiveness.

Jesus was a Man with a Mission

Luke 23:39-43

King James Version (KJV)

³⁹And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

⁴⁰But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?

⁴¹And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.

⁴²And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

⁴³And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Have you ever said “I have a right” to do or say this or that? Well if anyone had a right to be a little bit self-centered it was Jesus as He hung on that cross. Who among us wouldn’t at least given thought to the concept that here we are, hanging from the crossbeams and are not guilty of the charges against us. Yet on either side of us are two guilty thieves. Most of us would at least entertain the notion that the deserved what they got.

Not Jesus. Through all the pain, through all the torture, through all the mocking, Christ never forgot what He was all about. Luke 19:10 describes the mission of Christ when it says “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost”. Christ didn’t forget that. In spite of all that He was going through he took the time to share God’s love with those around Him.

Tonight I want us to think about how many opportunities we let pass us by to continue Jesus’ mission because it might not be convenient. Jesus’ words on the cross show Him to be a man on a mission.

Jesus was a Man of Compassion

John 19:25-27

King James Version (KJV)

²⁵Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.

²⁶When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!

²⁷Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out.
A subjective person came along and said, “I feel for you down there.”
An objective person walked by and said, “It’s logical that someone would fall down there.”
A Pharisee said, “Only bad people fall into pits.”
A mathematician calculated how deep the pit was.
A news reporter wanted the exclusive story on the pit.
An IRS agent asked if he was paying taxes on the pit.
A self-pitying person said, “You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen my pit.”
A fire-and-brimstone preacher said, “You deserve your pit.”
A Christian Scientist observed, “The pit is just in your mind.”
A psychologist noted, “Your mother and father are to blame for your being in that pit.”
A self-esteem therapist said, “Believe in yourself and you can get out of that pit.”
An optimist said, “Things could be worse.”
A pessimist claimed, “Things will get worse.”
“Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.”

Jesus, seeing the end of His life near, raised His eyes and looked upon His mother and had compassion for her. He knew that she would have needs when He was gone. He knew that she would need consoling when He was gone. He knew that someone would need to take care of her, and He knew that John was the most tenderhearted of His followers.

Jesus also knew that John needed a job to do, as much as His mother needed someone to lean on. Jesus knew all of this and acted on it while nearing the end of His own life.

These words showed the Lord to be a man of compassion.

Jesus was a Man of Humanity

John 19:28

King James Version (KJV)

²⁸After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

During Holy Week we often focus on the deity of Christ, and for good reason. The deity of Christ is what made salvation possible through regeneration. Let us never forget that Christ was man. He was a human male who thought like we do, ate like we do, and thirsted like we do. He had the same basic needs of survival that you and I have. It is this humanity that makes the sacrifice possible.

This one little phrase: “I thirst” reminds us that Jesus was indeed human.

Long ago, there ruled in Persia a wise and good king. He loved his people. He wanted to know how they lived. He wanted to know about their hardships. Often he dressed in the clothes of a working man or a beggar, and went to the homes of the poor. No one whom he visited thought that he was their ruler. One time he visited a very poor man who lived in a cellar. He ate the coarse food the poor man ate. He spoke cheerful, kind words to him. Then he left. Later he visited the poor man again and disclosed his identity by saying, “I am your king!” The king thought the man would surely ask for some gift or favor, but he didn’t. Instead he said, “You left your palace and your glory to visit me in this dark, dreary place. You ate the course food I ate. You brought gladness to my heart! To others you have given your rich gifts. To me you have given yourself!”

God is willing to make most any accommodation to have fellowship with us. Even becoming human.

Christ was a man of humanity!

Jesus was a Man of Destiny

John 19:30

King James Version (KJV)

³⁰When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

In a British cemetery: 
Pause my friend, as you walk by 
As you are now, so once was I 
As I am now so you will be 
Prepare my friend, to follow me. 
A visitor added, 
To follow you is not my intent 
Until I know which way you went!

Destiny is determined not by chances but by choices.

Jesus made choices. He had the same capability to sin that we have, yet He chose not to. He would have rather not gone to the cross, yet He chose to do God’s will. As the song says “He could have called ten thousand angels” yet He chose to die alone for you and me.

Jesus understood what His destiny was, and he chose. He chose to give His life that we might live. When it was done, when it was complete, Jesus declared it finished.

These were not His last words; His last words were an act of submission commending His own spirit into the hands of the father. These were not even all of the seven phrases that Christ uttered from the cross. They were, however, phrases that showed the kind of man that Christ was.

From the cross of Calvary, we are taught a lesson in how to carry on our lives. It is finished.

February 17, 2013

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.

One of the reasons that we come to God’s house is to fellowship with Him. Yes, it is true that God is everywhere. Yes it is true that we can have “church” anywhere we gather together. It is also true that when we come to a place, any place, with the express intention to meet with God we find our thoughts more focused on Him, and our emotions more in tune with Him, and our actions more closely resembling the actions He desires. In short, when we come to church looking for God we FIND HIM!

Isaiah was in the temple (the “Official” dwelling place of God at that time) when he encountered God. King Uzziah was a bit of a mixed bag. He was perhaps one of the strongest, and most effectual kings they had. Jerusalem was secure and her people well equipped so despite his shortcomings Uzziah was mourned when he died.

It was during this period of mourning that Isaiah came to the temple. The scripture doesn’t say exactly why he was in the temple that day just that it was in the year that the king had died. Perhaps he was there for some spiritual consolation, or perhaps he was there to encounter God.

Whatever his purpose for being in that place at that time was originally, the end result was that God’s purposes were what happened. When one comes to God’s house, one must expect to encounter God!

Come to Worship and See God’s Majesty (v. 1-4)

Isaiah 6:1-4

New King James Version (NKJV)

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. ² Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one cried to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

The whole earth is full of His glory!”

⁴ And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

In these four verses a lot happens. There is a whole lot of activity both of a physical nature, and within the heart of Isaiah culminating in the foundations of the building (both the physical temple and the spiritual temple of Isaiah’s soul) being shaken by the power of the being—whom we know to be God.

The very first thing we see in this set of verses is that God is HIGH AND LIFTED UP! God is in an exalted position above everyone else. This is the proper place for God. He deserves to be lifted up above everything mundane on earth and in the universe.

We also see that not only is God set on high, He is Holy. In verse 3, the heavenly creatures declared God to be Holy three times. This repetition is significant in Hebrew literature. Whereas we might provide an emphatic context by punctuation marks or printing conventions it was the practice of the people at the time to repeat something that was important.

Thrice the seraphim declared God to be holy. Not only did they repeat it three times, three is a number that is significant to the Hebrews signifying perfection or completeness. Therefore we can understand that God is perfectly (or completely) holy.

“When we understand the character of God, when we grasp something of His holiness, then we begin to understand the radical character of our sin and hopelessness. Helpless sinners can survive only by grace. Our strength is futile in itself; we are spiritually impotent without the assistance of a merciful God. We may dislike giving our attention to God’s wrath and justice, but until we incline ourselves to these aspects of God’s nature, we will never appreciate what has been wrought for us by grace. Even Edwards’s sermon on sinners in God’s hands was not designed to stress the flames of hell. The resounding accent falls not on the fiery pit but on the hands of the God who holds us and rescues us from it. The hands of God are gracious hands. They alone have the power to rescue us from certain destruction.” 
― R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God

Man cannot understand God apart from His holiness. There is no competent conversation that can explore the depths of God’s grace without first having a discussion of His holiness. Holiness is as much a character trait of God as is His love.

Finally we see the power of God in His Holiness.

Zephaniah 3:17

The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.

The Lord was in the house! When the Lord is in the house the place rocks! Literally! God’s power is so great that the foundations of the temple began to shake! That’s power!

Imagine what might happen at FBC HO if we prayed for the power of God to be unleashed in this place? What might happen if we acknowledged the supreme Holiness of God and just let Him be God? If we want to see revival we must come to worship and see the majesty of God!

Come to Worship and Bow Before God (v 5-7)

Isaiah 6:5-7

New King James Version (NKJV)

⁵ So I said:

“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The Lord of hosts.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he touched my mouth with it, and said:

“Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged.”

Isaiah’s response to the overwhelming nature of God’s holiness was a realization that he himself was not adequate. Isaiah realized that he had no business standing before a being as holy as the Lord God. If we are to experience revival we must recognize where we have fallen short and bow down before a holy God.

Isaiah knew what a wretched soul he was, and he realized that all that he had done, all that he had said, all that he was became insignificant in the presence of God.

John Calvin once said, "Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance until they have confronted themselves with the majesty of God."

We must stand before God and allow His power and majesty to reshape us in His will not ours. We must allow God to change us and make us into vessels of His grace.

As the prophet Habakkuk cried out in prayer to God he expressed his confidence in God’s triumph in Habakkuk 3:16:

Habakkuk 3:16

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Habakkuk’s Confidence in God Expressed

¹⁶ I heard, and I trembled within;
my lips quivered at the sound.
Rottenness entered my bones;
I trembled where I stood.
Now I must quietly wait for the day of distress
to come against the people invading us.

Friends, if we truly desire revival then it is time we stopped playing church. It’s time we treated the Assembly of God’s people as something more than a social gathering. It is time for us to refuse to bow down to no one, or nothing else that The Lord God. It is time that we stop disobeying God.

To realize revival we must recognize God’s majesty (holiness) and bow down before HIM!

February 3, 2013

2 Chronicles 7:14

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Traditional American society is at a crossroads. We have spent decades scouring all vestiges of that “old time religion” from our public discourse. We have actively been hostile to God and all things that were once considered “respectable in our public dealings. We have declared prayer to be offensive, and God to be verboten in our schools, and in our government halls. We have tried to sanitize the clear ties to Christianity that were found in the earliest writings and pronouncements of our founding fathers, and attempted to paint them with a brush labeling them as agnostic secularists.

Bill Bennett says: Today, much of society ridicules and mocks those who are serious about their faith. America’s only respectable form of bigotry is bigotry against religious people. “

We have gotten what we wanted. We have gotten a society where God is not welcome. We have gotten a society where good is bad and bad is worshipped. We have gotten a land where innocent children are gunned down in an elementary school; not because guns are easy to obtain, but because evil pervades our society.

We have created, and fostered, a society that is rotting at its core, because its core is founded on secularism and selfishness. The United States leads the world in murder and violent crime. Our students rank lower and lower on aptitude tests. 60 years ago the most important problems in our classrooms were chewing gum, talking out of turn and running in the hall. Today the problems confronting our teachers are teenage pregnancy, drugs in the classroom, alcohol abuse, rape, and suicide.

Friends, these conditions are not acceptable!

Friends, these conditions must not be allowed to continue!

Friends, WE NEED REVIVAL!

We sing the great hymn of faith Revive Us Again all the time. Today it is time for us to mean them!

We praise Thee, O God!
For the Son of Thy love,
For Jesus Who died,
And is now gone above.

Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Hallelujah! Amen.
Hallelujah! Thine the glory.
Revive us again.

If My People . . .

if my people, who are called by my name

It’s easy to cast the blame somewhere (ANYWHERE) else. It’s easy for us to lay the ills of society on the drugs, the music videos, the rock bands, and the permissiveness of parents. It’s easy to say things would be different if the TV had never been invented. It’s easy to bemoan the evils of the internet and MTV. All of this is easy, but God’s word lays the blame in a different direction.

God says “If MY people, who are called by my name. . .” We cannot point fingers, because God Himself is pointing the finger at us. If anyone has failed it is we who call ourselves by the name of Christ. We have not fulfilled the obligations given to us by Christ, and we are at fault. We cannot, and should not shift the blame. Society is messed up because we allowed it to be so.

God is talking to His people, and judgment always begins in the house of the Lord.

For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? – 1 Peter 4:17

For too long the Christian community has pointed fingers at this political party or another, demonizing one while holding up the other, and we have missed the point. God is neither Republican nor Democrat. God is neither conservative nor liberal. God is GOD! It is not the fault of the political system that we are in the mess that we are in, for in America, WE are the government.

Nay, it is the fault of the church! We are to blame for the moral laxity in our nation. The church is to blame for the deplorable state of affairs that we find ourselves in because we have joined the world in this game of sin. If the church were fulfilling her destiny of prophetic zeal, then we wouldn’t have the godless government that we do. We will be called to judgment!

Today God is calling His church to repent!

If My People Will Humble Themselves

The first step toward the revival that we must have begins with humility.

George Washington Carver, the scientist who developed hundreds of useful products from the peanut: "When I was young, I said to God, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the universe.’ But God answered, ‘That knowledge is reserved for me alone.’ So I said, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.’ Then God said, ‘Well, George, that’s more nearly your size.’ And he told me."

Wakefield tells the story of the famous inventor Samuel Morse who was once asked if he ever encountered situations where he didn’t know what to do. Morse responded, "More than once, and whenever I could not see my way clearly, I knelt down and prayed to God for light and understanding."

Morse received many honors from his invention of the telegraph but felt undeserving: "I have made a valuable application of electricity not because I was superior to other men but solely because God, who meant it for mankind, must reveal it to someone and He was pleased to reveal it to me."

Tim Hansel, Eating Problems for Breakfast, Word Publishing, 1988, pp. 33-34.

In order to bring revival, God’s people must become humble. It’s time for God’s church to remove the pride and arrogance and allow their hearts to be broken for the gospel.

James 4:6

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”

The church has become spiritually arrogant and filled with pride. Like the Pharisees we scream to the world look at me and how religious I am. Our religiosity has no meaning to God!

Jeremiah 7:8-11

Good News Translation (GNT)

⁸ “Look, you put your trust in deceitful words. ⁹ You steal, murder, commit adultery, tell lies under oath, offer sacrifices to Baal, and worship gods that you had not known before. ¹⁰ You do these things I hate, and then you come and stand in my presence, in my own Temple, and say, ‘We are safe!’ ¹¹ Do you think that my Temple is a hiding place for robbers? I have seen what you are doing.

If we are to see revival, we must get down on bended knee. We must humble ourselves, admit our arrogance and come before the throne of God in a position of supplication. We MUST BOW BEFORE A HOLY GOD!

If My People . . . Will Pray

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face . . .

"Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure."
D. L. Moody

Revival will not come until we get on our knees! Every great awakening for God in history began with someone, or several people who took it to God in prayer.

"Prayer is not getting man’s will done in heaven, but getting God’s will done on earth. It is not overcoming God’s reluctance but laying hold of God’s willingness."
Richard C. Trench

We must begin to pray for a fresh anointing of God’s Spirit, and His hand of grace upon our community. We must begin to pray for our church. We must begin to pray for our community. We must begin to pray for our state, and we must begin to pray for our nation.

It cannot be the kind of prayer we say in a hurry before we eat our meal either. Our text this morning tells us we must seek God’s face. This is more than just a hurried prayer, careless of thought. This is a prayer from the depths of our soul, seeking the very presence of God.

The sort of prayer that we need for revival is a disciplined, fervent conversation with our creator. We need to be faithful to following God’s guidance, and the only way that we can determine His will is to seek His face.

If My People. . .Will Turn From Their Wicked Ways

1 Thessalonians 2:14-16

The Message (MSG)

^14-16 Friends, do you realize that you followed in the exact footsteps of the churches of God in Judea, those who were the first to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ? You got the same bad treatment from your countrymen as they did from theirs, the Jews who killed the Master Jesus (to say nothing of the prophets) and followed it up by running us out of town. They make themselves offensive to God and everyone else by trying to keep us from telling people who’ve never heard of our God how to be saved. They’ve made a career of opposing God, and have gotten mighty good at it. But God is fed up, ready to put an end to it.

As I said on Wednesday night in our prayer service: There is a finite amount of sin that God will tolerate, and we have no idea what that limit is. We don’t know where the cut-off point is, and we are continually in danger of crossing that line because of our actions. We keep filling up the bowl with sin, sin and more sin without a thought in the world to how we can empty that bowl.

The only remedy is to repent in prayer! The only solution is to turn from our wicked ways and go in a different direction. The only remedy for the lawlessness and callousness of our society in America is to fall down on our knees and REPENT!

We need to specifically, and with intent, ask God to change our lives. We need turn away from the wickedness that has invaded all facets of our lives and live a life that is holy.

Paul said in Romans 12:2:

And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

We must get our hearts right with God.

Then I will Heal Their Land

When God’s people turn back to God, then God will bless His people. When God’s people join together in a time of cleansing, and in the unity of prayer then the Spirit of God is going to move! God is all powerful, and He is waiting for us! He wants our commitment, and He wants our devotion. God wants us to return to Him.

Henry Blackaby wrote: When Holy God draws near in true revival, people come under terrible conviction of sin. The outstanding feature of spiritual awakening has been the profound consciousness of the Presence and holiness of God.

Lord send a revival
Lord send a revival
Lord send a revival
And let it begin in me

Solemn Assembly

Worship Notes

February 3, 2013

H—Hear God and His Heart

Psalm 46:10

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”

1. Be Still and Listen. Really listen to God.
   

2 Kings 3:15

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ But now bring me a harpist.”

While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came on Elisha

1. Set your mind to worship. Worship may take many forms, and have many styles, but it is always ALWAYS ALWAYS focused on God. It must never be about us, or about what we want or perceive that we need. If worship is about anything else tonight we will not hear God’s voice.
2. Fix Your Heart on God. Place Him first and listen for His guidance tonight.
3. Wait for God’s Spirit.

Acts 2:1-4

The Message (MSG)

A Sound Like a Strong Wind

2 ^1-4 When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.

1. Even Jesus had to wait on God.

John 5:19

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹⁹ Then Jesus replied, ”I assure you: The Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father^[a] does, the Son also does these things in the same way.

GUIDED PRAYER—Prayer emphasis on asking God to open our hearts, and pour out His spirit on us. Ask God to speak to us corporately as a body of Christ, and individually as believers.

E—Empty our Hearts and Minds of Self-Will and Sin

Psalm 141:4

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

⁴ Do not let my heart turn to any evil thing
or perform wicked acts
with men who commit sin.
Do not let me feast on their delicacies.

I am a strange creature with two opposing minds in one body.

Two distinct life forces in me keep trying to control my actions.

There are things about myself that scare me. Things like a great inner need that can’t be explained. Like the constant need for love and fulfillment. Also, those subtle desires that surface on occasion, making me lust for experiences that are contrary to my better nature.

I can’t explain why I am such a dual person when it comes to right and wrong. The evil that I hate is always present in me. The good and moral desires are there too, keeping my mind in constant turmoil. It is not an every day, all day long battle, but the evil, at times, tries to overpower me.

Just when I think I’ve got my act together, things fall apart, and once again I am doing things I really don’t want to do. (SOURCE: David Wilkerson http://www.ldolphin.org/twoofme.html)

In order to prepare for revival we must ask God to remove from us that which is unholy and impure.

Psalm 51:10

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

This season of prayer will be individual and silent. You are not confessing to me, or to the church—you are confessing to God.

I want you to draw an imaginary bubble (or circle) around your whole body. Make sure that this imaginary circle contains every part of your from the top of your head to the soles of your feet.

Now imagine that God is physically present with you inside of the circle. There is no one else in the circle but you and God. Now just talk to Him.Talk to Him just as you would a friend or a trusted family member. Pour your heart out to Him.

During this time of prayer I want you to ask God to reveal to you any unconfessed sin in your heart. Then listen to Him as to how He wants you to deal with it. You may find during this time that there is someone here that you have wronged, or you have ill will in your heart toward. If this is so, and God is leading you to do not wait. DO NOT WAIT. Get up from where you sit, and make things right. This is the time to do that. If you needto step outside and make a phone call to make things right with someone not here, do it!

Do not leave this season of prayer with sin still in your heart. If you do, then it will be you that is quenching the Holy Spirit and stifling revival.

Thank God for cleansing and renewing your mind and heart. The goal of this segment of our service is a CLEAN HEART.

A—Ask

Now that we have a clean heart we can more clearly hear what it is that God wants from us. We spend so much time and energy articulating what it is that we want from God, and when we have that mindset we are completely and totally backward. We need to be asking God what He wants.

John 5:17-20

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

¹⁷ Jesus replied to them, “My Father is working right now, and so am I.”

¹⁸ His reply made the Jews more intent on killing him. Not only did he break the laws about the day of worship, but also he made himself equal to God when he said repeatedly that God was his Father.

¹⁹ Jesus said to the Jews, “I can guarantee this truth: The Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing. Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does. ²⁰ The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. The Father will show him even greater things to do than these things so that you will be amazed.

As we seek revival we need to understand what God’s plan is for our life. Once we know God’s will, then we are able to adjust our plans, goals, and activities to join Him where He is working.

With a cleansed heart we can ask God to burden us with the needs of our church and our community. We can ask God to direct us to the ministry He would have for us.

For this season of prayer we are going to divide into smaller groups of 4 or 5 people. Simply get together with several people near you. Turn around, move to the next seat, however you need to do it to get with some other people. Maybe to make it interesting, you might consider getting with a group of people you don’t normally pray with!

Pray for:

• Your Family
  
• Those in your family circle that are lost
  
• Lost Friends
  
• The churches and the leadership in the churches in our community. (Remember, all Christian churches have the same mission)
  
• Pray for our city, our state, and our national government
  
• Pray for spiritual awakening in our nation
  
• Pray for First Baptist Harbor Oaks
  
  • Pray that we will have a fresh vision
    
  • Pray that we will reach our community
    
  • Pray that we will evangelize
    

R—Restoration

Once we have confessed our sin, and made things right with God it is time to be restored to His fellowship. Sin breaks our relationship with both God and man, and when we get things right, then we can be restored.

You may have already answered the call earlier to make things right with another, and if you have PRAISE THE LORD! If not, maybe God has spoken to you through the process we have been following.

Restoration is the goal of a Solemn Assembly. The purpose of us gathering tonight is for God to convict us and give us the opportunity to be fully restored to fellowship with Him.

1 Peter 5:10

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹⁰ Now the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will personally^[a]restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little.^[b]

John 20:31

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

³¹ But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,^[a] and by believing you may have life in His name.

Psalm 71:20

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

²⁰ You caused me to experience
many troubles and misfortunes,
but You will revive me again.
You will bring me up again,
even from the depths of the earth.

It is through this restoration that the previous verse is talking about that revival will begin. When we get right with God, He restores us and revives us.

As we go to prayer I want you to ask God if there is anything He wants you to do or say (notice I said anything GOD wants you to say) before we leave this assembly. Ask God to reveal to you any actions left untaken to allow Him to freely bless you. Ask God to show you right now who in your circle of friends needs to receive the life changing salvation of Christ. Ask God who needs your involvement in their life, and who needs you to lift them up in prayer. Ask God to show you what actions you need to take tonight to start revival in your church.

In our season of prayer I want you focus specifically on DOING what God has revealed to you. Just as before, if it means getting up and doing some sort of action do it. Get up from where you sit and do it. Go hug a neck if you need to, or join someone in prayer. Don’t be timid, don’t be afraid. Get up and do what you need to do.

T—Take Home What God Has Said

In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer penned the words, “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate” (1959:47). Cheap grace means living as though God ignores or condones our sins. But forgiveness means that sin is real, and must be dealt with. We cannot ignore it, because God does not ignore it. The denial of sin is not grace: it is a lie. Cheap grace means living without the demand of obedience upon us.

If you leave here tonight and don’t take home with you what God has spoken to you about, then you have wasted your evening. This night of Solemn Assembly is the starting point of our journey for revival here at FBC HO. It is a journey that each of you must take seriously and be obedient.

Sin is a serious problem, and God will not tolerate it. We have spent the evening learning how to identify and repent of the sin in our life, and if we have been honest in our quest this evening then we are starting with a clean heart. It is up to us to keep it that way.

Let us close in prayer, then sing a song together and leave this place with revival in our H. E. A. R. T.

Adapted from the Guidelines for A Solemn Assembly distributed by the Florida Baptist Convention for the 2013 Day of Prayer. (Source: http://www.flbaptist.org/Portals/0/PSA/PDF/2011-11-18A-PSA-SolemnAssembly-HEART-Guidelines.pdf)

Ring The Bells!

Prayer Notes Leading Up To A Solemn Assembly

January 30, 2013

A church bell is a bell which is rung in a church either to signify the hour or the time for worshippers to go to church, perhaps to attend a wedding, funeral, or other service. In Christianity, many Anglican, Catholic, and Lutheran churches ring their church bells from belltowers three times a day, at 6:00 A.M., 12:00 P.M. and 6:00 P.M., summoning the Christian faithful to recite the Lord’s Prayer, or the Angelus, a prayer recited in honour of the Incarnation of God. . .

. . . Many Protestant Churches ring church bells during the congregational recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, after the sermon, in order to alert those who are unable to be present to “unite themselves in spirit with the congregation.” . . (SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_bell)

The ringing of church bells has also been used in history to alert the community to a deep and abiding danger. It was a call to alarm, and often a call to arms to defend the community from those that would harm it.

Today, friends, it is time to ring the bells. We are at a place in our nation where it is easy to imagine God releasing His judgment upon us. We have turned our back on Him, and made a complete mockery of His precepts and teachings. We have sinned and the payment due date is fast approaching.

It is time to ring the bells and call the faithful to action! It is time for us get down on our knees before a Holy God and beg His forgiveness, and repent of our sinful wicked ways.

There Will Come A Time When God Will Tolerate Our Sin No More

There will come a time when God has had enough. There will be a time when we have pushed the boundaries just one time too many. The idea that there is a limit to the amount of sin God will tolerate from us is found in multiple places in scripture.

1 Thessalonians 2:14-16

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

¹⁴ For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, ¹⁵ who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and ^[a]drove us out. ^[b]They are not pleasing to God, ^[c]but hostile to all men, ¹⁶ hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them ^[d]to the utmost.

1 Thessalonians 2:14-16

The Message (MSG)

^14-16 Friends, do you realize that you followed in the exact footsteps of the churches of God in Judea, those who were the first to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ? You got the same bad treatment from your countrymen as they did from theirs, the Jews who killed the Master Jesus (to say nothing of the prophets) and followed it up by running us out of town. They make themselves offensive to God and everyone else by trying to keep us from telling people who’ve never heard of our God how to be saved. They’ve made a career of opposing God, and have gotten mighty good at it. But God is fed up, ready to put an end to it.

Take a look at the Message version there at the end. God is fed up and ready to put an end to it! What a damning turn of phrase. The God of the Universe, the mighty creator is FED UP and not going to take it anymore! That should cause chills to run up our back.

Genesis 15:16

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

¹⁶ Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

In this passage in Genesis God is saying that they have a little bit more sin to go….

Matthew 23:32

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

³² Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ sins!

Matthew 23:32

The Message (MSG)

^29-32 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You’re cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count.

In other words, “Go ahead and finish what you started!”

There is a finite amount of sin that God will tolerate, and we have no idea what that limit is. We don’t know where the cut-off point is, and we are continually in danger of crossing that line because of our actions. We keep filling up the bowl with sin, sin and more sin without a thought in the world to how we can empty that bowl.

The only remedy is to repent in prayer! The only solution is to turn from our wicked ways and go in a different direction. The only remedy for the lawlessness and callousness of our society in America is to fall down on our knees and REPENT!

2 Chronicles 7:14

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁴ If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

We Will Be Judged as We Judge

Jesus took the religious leaders to task many times over their hypocritical judgmental ways.

Matthew 7:1-5

King James Version (KJV)

7 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

² For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

³ And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

⁴ Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

⁵ Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

Notice what Jesus is saying though. He’s not saying not to judge, or not to call wrong wrong or sin sin. Rather He is telling us if we are going to judge others, then we better get right ourselves first!

If we are going to judge the evil of others, then we must stand up to the scrutiny of a perfect and holy God ourselves.

If we are not right with the Lord, then we are not prepared for His judgment. We have passed the time when we can use our religiosity as a cover and hide behind the cloak of the church. It is no longer good enough (as if it ever were) to claim our membership in the local body. We must live the life we teach. Until we live the life we teach we will continue to be at the risk of feeling God’s wrath.

Jeremiah 7:8-11

Good News Translation (GNT)

⁸ “Look, you put your trust in deceitful words. ⁹ You steal, murder, commit adultery, tell lies under oath, offer sacrifices to Baal, and worship gods that you had not known before. ¹⁰ You do these things I hate, and then you come and stand in my presence, in my own Temple, and say, ‘We are safe!’ ¹¹ Do you think that my Temple is a hiding place for robbers? I have seen what you are doing.

It’s Our Choice: Turn Or Burn

We have a choice to make today. We can either see the danger and ring those bells, or we can celebrate together as we feel the might weight of God’s judgment come crashing down around our shoulders, burying us under the debris of our sin ravaged lives.

It is time for us to enter into a covenant with God and turn from our wickedness before it is too late. It’s time to sound the alarm, and gather together to get ourselves in the right before God.

Joel 2:1

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

2 Blow the horn in Zion;
sound the alarm on My holy mountain!
Let all the residents of the land tremble,
for the Day of the Lord is coming;
in fact, it is near—

Joel 2:13-17

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹³ Tear your hearts,
not just your clothes,
and return to the Lord your God.
For He is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger, rich in faithful love,
and He relents from sending disaster.
¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave a blessing behind Him,
so you can offer grain and wine
to the Lord your God.

¹⁵ Blow the horn in Zion!
Announce a sacred fast;
proclaim an assembly.
¹⁶ Gather the people;
sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;^[a]
gather the children,
even those nursing at the breast.
Let the groom leave his bedroom,
and the bride her honeymoon chamber.
¹⁷ Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers,
weep between the portico and the altar.
Let them say:
“Have pity on Your people, Lord,
and do not make Your inheritance a disgrace,
an object of scorn among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”

Let us together begin to return to God while there is still time! Where is God? God is among us.

Claim God’s Blessings

Notes for Prayer Meeting

January 23, 2013

Jeremiah 33:1-9

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Restoration Promised

33 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still ^[a]confined in the court of the guard, saying, ² “Thus says the Lord who made ^[b]the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it, the Lord is His name, ³ ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ ⁴ For thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah which are broken down to make a defense against the siege ramps and against the sword, ⁵ ‘While they are coming to fight with the Chaldeans and to fill them with the corpses of men whom I have slain in My anger and in My wrath, and I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness: ⁶ Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth. ⁷ I will restore the ^[c]fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and will rebuild them as they were at first. ⁸ I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me. ^9 [d]It will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.’

Let me read verse three to you once again:

³ ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

What a wonderful, fantastic promise from God! This is a promise born out of difficult circumstances. Jerusalem was being attacked, Jeremiah was in prison, the people were being oppressed, and God promises them that if they call to Him then He will answer them. Not only will He answer them, He will reveal to them great and mighty things that they do not know yet.

Think about that when you are having a bad day! The God that we worship has told us to call on His name and He will take care of things! What greater invitation could you have?

This passage of scripture reveals God’s promise for a wondrous restoration of His people. God is promising a war ravaged people relief and an abundance of peace and truth. God promises to restore the fortunes of Judah and Israel and return them to greatness. God, the creator promises forgiveness for their transgressions.

God the Father is an unchanging God, and these things that He offered His people through Jeremiah are things that are offered to us today as well.

So why don’t we see His blessings? Why is our crime rate so high, why is life so devalued, why do people suffer, and why does it seem that evil is winning? Could it be because we are not faithful to claim His blessings? Could it be that we are not faithful in prayer?

Prayer is the Entrance to the Promises of God

We, as a church, must understand that receiving the blessings of God begins (and ends) with prayer! We are not praying enough. We are not praying with conviction, and we are not praying with the power that we should.

³ ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

What an exciting prospect! The scientist is always on the lookout for that new discovery. The adventurer is always looking for a place he hasn’t seen. The scholar craves knowledge he may not know. The musician is always looking for that new melody, and the artist is longing for new inspiration.

Why then is it so odd to think that the believer is always on the lookout for new revelations from our God? Wouldn’t you like God to show you something new? Wouldn’t you enjoy God turning your relationships around and setting you on a different path? Wouldn’t it be great to see people coming in the doors of this church with a fresh desire to worship? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see people coming to a saving knowledge or our Lord because of the ministry of this church?

Wouldn’t these things be great?

God says:

³ ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

Could it be that we are not calling? Prayer is the beginning!

James 4:2

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

² You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

Matthew 7:7

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Prayer and the Golden Rule

⁷ “^[a]Ask, and it will be given to you; ^[b]seek, and you will find; ^[c]knock, and it will be opened to you.

Scripture seems clear. The burden on us is to ASK! The responsibility falls to us to be faithful in obedience and start the process with prayer. Before we do something we should pray. While we are doing it we should pray, and when God gives us blessings we should pray!

Did you know that some surveys have indicated that the average committed Christian’s prayers seldom last longer than five minutes?

Think about that! If prayer is supposed to be the foundation of all that we do for God, then why do we spend so little time in prayer?

Let’s look for a minute at the prayer life of the one that is supposed to be our model.

Mark 1:35

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

³⁵ In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.

Luke 5:16

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

¹⁶ But Jesus Himself would often slip away ^[a]to the ^[b]wilderness and pray.

Luke 6:12-13

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Choosing the Twelve

¹² It was ^[a]at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. ¹³ And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles:

Luke 23:34

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

^34 [a]But Jesus was saying, ”Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.

We could look at verse after verse and see where Jesus—The Son of God—He who WAS God—took time, no not just time, but A LOT of time, to pray.

³ ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

God told Jeremiah, and the people of Israel and Judah, to call out to Him. He is telling the people of FBC Harbor Oaks the same thing.

Jeremiah 33:6-8

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

⁶ Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth. ⁷ I will restore the ^[a]fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and will rebuild them as they were at first. ⁸ I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.

Let me leave you with this same passage in a paraphrase translation:

Jeremiah 33:6-9

The Message (MSG)

^6-9 “But now take another look. I’m going to give this city a thorough renovation, working a true healing inside and out. I’m going to show them life whole, life brimming with blessings. I’ll restore everything that was lost to Judah and Jerusalem. I’ll build everything back as good as new. I’ll scrub them clean from the dirt they’ve done against me. I’ll forgive everything they’ve done wrong, forgive all their rebellions. And Jerusalem will be a center of joy and praise and glory for all the countries on earth. They’ll get reports on all the good I’m doing for her. They’ll be in awe of the blessings I am pouring on her.

Thanks and credit go to Pastor Brian Atwood for his outline on this subject.

God Speaks: His Will Is Made Known

Sermon 4 of 4

January 20, 2013

Exodus 20:1-17

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Ten Commandments

20 Then God spoke all these words, saying,

² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[a]slavery.

³ “You shall have no other gods ^[b]before Me.

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself ^[c]an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁵ You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶ but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

⁷ “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not ^[d]leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

⁸ “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who ^[e]stays with you. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

¹² “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

¹³ “You shall not murder.

¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵ “You shall not steal.

¹⁶ “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

There are some surprising statistics regarding the Ten Commandments. A Gallup poll was given several years ago, and its results revealed 85% of Americans believe the Ten Commandments are still binding today. However, only 15% could name five of them. This is not terribly surprising considering the secular slide our country has had in the past 50 or so years. But what is surprising is what Newsweek once reported about supposed religious folks. Newsweek reported that of people who go to church, only 49% of all Protestants and 44% of all Roman Catholics could name FOUR of the Ten Commandments.

It is no surprise so many people do not know how to respond to God today! We don’t know what He is saying! God spoke through His law to reveal His holiness, and to make His will made known.

God’s commandments are much more than a list of Thou Shalt Not’s. They are far greater than a set of boundaries to keep God’s creation penned in. Instead, they are about relationships. God, the Father, desires a relationship with His people, and the list of ten lays out a framework to have successful relationships both with God, and with other people.

The entire revelation of God, from Genesis through Revelation, is about a series of relationships and interactions. God’s word focuses on how we can have an intimate relationship with the Father, as well as healthy nurturing relationships with those people here on earth that we must interact with on a daily basis.

The Ten Commandments reflect that same sort of instruction. The first four of the commandments teach us how to relate to a God who is holy and pure, and the final six give understanding to ways to live in harmony with one another.

The Ten Commandments act as a compass, guiding us in the correct direction.

Isaiah 30:21

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

²¹ and whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”

In order to please God we must know what His will is, and the way to understand His will is through His word, specifically His law. If we want to please God, then the Ten Commandments are a great place to start.

Psalm 19:10-11

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹⁰ They are more desirable than gold—
than an abundance of pure gold;
and sweeter than honey,
which comes from the honeycomb.
¹¹ In addition, Your servant is warned by them;
there is great reward in keeping them.

Romans 3:20

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

²⁰ because by the works ^[a]of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for ^[b]through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

We are not saved, or redeemed by the law, but rather the law points out where we have sinned. Through the law we are made conscious of God’s will, and what we must do in order to meet the demands of God’s commands.

God’s Will is For Us To Be Rightly Related To Him (Vv 1-11)

We can certainly look at these first few commandments as thou shalt not’s. In fact most popular renditions of the commandments list them as such:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain

That’s a lot of thou shalts. In fact, it is not until we get to the fourth one that the wording is positive, and it is a reminder that we need to remember God’s Sabbath. This fourth commandment is the transitional commandment between our relationship with God, and our relationships with mankind.

We live in a culture that doesn’t like to be told “No”, and if we make an honest assessment of ourselves we understand that feeling because we agree with it. There is something about being told “No” that makes us want to do the opposite. While these commandments are indeed expressed in the negative, the principles of life that they teach us are actually positives.

Taken together we are taught to put God first, and to make Him a priority. This is a positive expression of our belief and a foundation of our system of faith. To live our lives as God has designed means for us to put God in first place. If God is placed first, then the rest of the order of life will fall into place where it belongs.

We might not consider ourselves idolaters. In fact if I were to ask for a show of hands I bet not a one of you would raise your hand and say you worshipped an idol. Yet in its purest form an idol is anything that comes before you and God. The ways that you spend your time or your money are good indications of what is first in your life. If we allow anything except for God to be a priority in our life we are allowing something else to become an idol and the first four commandments reveal God’s will and make known His wishes for us.

God’s Will Is For Us to Relate Rightly to Others (vv 12-17)

When we are obedient to the first four commandments the remaining six are natural by-products of our obedience. When God is our priority we don’t need to be told not to kill, or not to lie and cheat. We have no need to be told not desire more than we have, or be reminded to love our parents. These things become part of our lives when we put God first.

Rather than being told not commit adultery we just walk in God’s design and we are faithful. We are not just faithful to that covenant relationship with our spouse, but we are faithful in all of our dealings with other people. It’s not because we have to, it’s not out of obligation, but rather it is because we follow a different path. It’s because we follow the path that God has laid out for us, and part of that journey includes treating those around us right.

Treating people well is not just something of years gone by, or at least it shouldn’t be. It’s not an outdated set of morality customs, but instead it is an ongoing part of our life, unchangeable by time and place. The Ten Commandments reflect the character of God which is unchanging, therefore these laws should remain unchanging for us as well.

A wealthy businessman, who was well known for being ruthless and unethical, told Mark Twain that before he died, he wanted to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He said that when he got there he wanted to climb to the top of Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments, and there read the Ten Commandments aloud at the top. “I have a better idea,” replied Twain, in his typical wit, “You could stay in Boston and keep them.”

I believe that Jesus would have preferred that he stay in Boston and keep the commandments as well. But we always prefer some great religious experience to the routine of obedience. We would like some mountaintop emotion rather than actually showing the evidence of a changed life. I have known many people over the years who talked a lot about some spiritual encounter they have had, but never showed much evidence of it when it came to the way they lived, their ethics and the manner in which they treated other people. – Author Unknown

When we find ourselves having relationship problems, whether they be with a loved one, or a business client, or even our next door neighbor we should look inside and see if it is a sin problem. We need to judge within ourselves and see if we have a spiritual problem that is affecting our relationships with other people.

When we love God, and put God first, He enables us keep the rest of the relationships in their proper order.

Romans 3:10

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

¹⁰ as it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;

Romans 3:23

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

²³ for all ^[a]have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

God’s law, the 10 Commandments being part of that law, reminds us of these two facts. We are reminded just how far we have fallen from grace, and through the law we are shown a glimpse of how God provides His grace.

For the believer the law is a reminder of God’s character and of His love for us. It reminds us of what His will is for us.

Romans 12:16-18

16Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 18If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

Former pastor Eric Daniel Harris, 37, pled guilty to the November 1996 arson that burned down the Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church in Saline County, Arkansas. According to a federal prosecutor, Harris said he did it because “there was a division among church members, and they needed a project to unify them.” –News of the Weird, March 30, 2000

Working together, cooperation, striving in harmony; this is the idea that Pastor Harris was attempting to convey when he burned the church down. Now, I’m not suggesting that we need to go looking for some gasoline and a packet of matches. I am suggesting that we need to be unified in all that we do. I’m suggesting that a lack of unity will kill our church, and halt our mission.

A joke from stand-up Emo Phillips …
“Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!”
He said, “Nobody loves me.”
I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”
He said, “Yes.”
I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?”
He said, “A Christian.”
I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?”
He said, “Protestant.”
I said, “Me, too! What denomination?”
He said, “Baptist.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Baptist.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.”
I said, “Die, heretic scum!”, and pushed him off the bridge.”

This joke highlights how ridiculous we get sometimes. While it is certainly funny, it is extremely sad at the same time. This sort of infighting and bickering keeps us from being as effective as we can be for the Kingdom of God.

1. Unity is IMPORTANT!

Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, commanded us to practice unity. Verse 16 of our text says “16Be of the same mind toward one another….” Then in verse 18 he expands on this by saying “18If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”
Paul tells us twice in our text that we are to be unified. So why is unity so important? It is because rivalries and disagreements among brethren are destructive. Disunity damages goodwill, trust and peace, three of the foundational elements of good human relations. Disharmony hampers our progress toward important goals. When we are at odds with our brother we become self-centered rather than love-centered.

How we act is a reflection on our relationship with the Father.

“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.” – 1 Corinthians 14:33

Our behavior in our everyday actions tells the world what God is like. We are a sermon in shoes, sometimes the only sermon that people will ever hear. If we are not unified, we do a disservice to God by portraying a negative and erroneous picture of who He is.

Unity is necessary for the growth of our church. It is difficult for a church to survive the slings of the enemy, but impossible to survive when we mis-identify the enemy!

Before Andrew Jackson became the seventh president of the United States, he served as a major general in the Tennessee militia. During the War of 1812 his troops reached an all-time low level in morale. As a result, they began arguing, bickering, and fighting among themselves.

It is reported that Jackson called them together on one occasion when tensions were at their worst and said, “Gentlemen! Let’s remember, the enemy is over there.”

What an appropriate word for the church today. Some Christians behave as though their fellow brothers and sisters are “the enemy.” Let us remember who our Enemy really is. Let us stop infighting, and instead pull together, support one another, believe in one another, care for one another, and pray for one another.
Source: Charles Swindoll, Hope Again, Word 1996, p. 45.

2. What is Unity?

If unity is so important that Christ would talk about it, and Paul would make it a central theme of some of his letters to the churches, what is it? Let’s begin with what it is not. Unity doesn’t mean you will not have disagreements. It does not mean that everyone will always agree, because that is just not going to happen. Not in this church, not in any church.

“It is okay to disagree, but do it agreeably. We can agree to disagee–until the Lord shows you that I’m right!” –Harry Ramey

Unity is what occurs when we handle our disagreements with love. It means looking for compromise, or common ground. It means listening and seeking the will of God over and above our own will. It means looking for solutions to conflict rather than causing conflict. It means admitting that sometimes, just sometimes you might be wrong!

Verse 17 of our text reads: “. 17Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.” I’d say this is a good way to sum up what unity is. Unity is respect. It is respect for God, and for your fellow believer. It means acknowledging their worth in your eyes, as well as what they may be worth to God.
Legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, on what it takes to build a ‘winning team’:

“There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don’t win the game. Then you come to the third ingredient: If you’re going to play together as a team, you’ve got to care for one another. You’ve got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: ‘If I don’t block that man, Paul is going to get his legs broken. I have to do my job well in order that he can do this.’

“The difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling these guys have for each other.”– Source: Lee Iacocca, Iacocca, Bantam, 1986

3. How do we achieve Unity?

So we’ve talked about why unity is important, and we’ve identified what unity is, now how do we get it? How do we herd this bunch of cats and get them (US!!!) to cooperate and do things for the greater Kingdom?

Well we have to work on it. We have to work at it. We have to work, work, work. Achieving peace and unity is not easy! Harmony is not our natural state of affairs. We are more like this anonymous prayer:

Dear God,

So far today I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped. I haven’t lost my temper. I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or overindulgent. I’m very thankful for that!!

But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed. From then on, I’m probably going to need a lot more help.

Amen!!

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. – Romans 14:19

We also must guard our tongue. A sharp tongue does more to hurt the unity of the fellowship than almost any other thing we could think of. Diogenes said: “”We have two ears and only one tongue that we may hear more and speak less.” We should take that admonition to heart. It does us no good to say things that hurt our brother. EVEN IF THEY ARE TRUE! If they are true, we are to greet that brother in love, and gently show him the error of his ways.

Conclusion:
The church is called the body of Christ. Have you ever thought about what it would be like if the members of our physical bodies behaved like the members of the spiritual body sometimes do?
HEART – “You know, I’m just stuck in a rut. For the last 45 years all I do is beat and beat. Lub, dub… lub, dub… lub, dub… I’m tired of it. It’s time for someone else to step up and do this job. Okay, feet, it’s up to you. You pump the blood.

LUNGS: We are so under-appreciated around here. I don’t think the other organs realize that they couldn’t do their jobs without us. If we quit doing our job for a few minutes, everyone will finally see how valuable we are to this place. The brain thinks he’s big stuff. Humph! Let him do without some oxygen for a while and we’ll see how important he is!

LIVER: “Why do I get all the dirty work? You think it’s fun making bile? I’ve been in this body for 45 years now and do you think anyone has ever asked me to make any decisions, pump any blood, or perform any functions that are noticeable outside the body? Sometimes I wonder why I bother.”

APPENDIX – “Ha! Just watch the rest of those organs work. Day after day, hour after hour, they work themselves do death. I’m just along for the ride. Why contribute when I can just sit here and get the same nutrients and oxygen that they get? Why get involved?”

You get the idea. The point is that the individual parts that make up our bodies were created specifically for certain tasks within the body as a whole. The body works as a finely tuned machine when all the parts do what they were uniquely gifted to do. There are no unimportant parts — except the appendix. Don’t be an appendix in your church.