January 26, 2012

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."  Matthew 6:9-13

Several months ago a friend asked me a sincere question, "What is the purpose of prayer if God already knows how it will turn out?"

That was when I decided I would study a put together a sermon series on prayer. My study led me to the Lord's Prayer where I find four purposes for prayer in those several verses. Those purposes will be the basis of a four week series "Why Should I Care About Prayer?"

Before I talk about these purposes of prayer I want to say that The Lord's Prayer is not just a prayer to be repeated in a rote fashion. In fact, two verses earlier in verse seven, Jesus had cautioned against vainly repeating memorized prayers,

The Lord's Prayer is a pattern for how to think about God and how to think about ourselves in relationship to God. And the way to think about yourself in relationship to God is - well - in relationship to God! Praying is one of the primary ways to develop and deepen a relationship with God!

As I study the Prayer I see three goals for prayer: to know God, to grow in God and to show God through living a holy life.

What are those four purposes for praying?

You should pray to worship - “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name......"

You should pray to know His will - “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven......"

You should pray for your wants - "Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors......"

You should pray for spirital warfare - "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

Let me ask you this, "Which of those is not important to your spiritual life? Which one of those can you afford to not pray for?" Because if none of these are significant to you then you don't have to be concerned about prayer.

However, if those things are important to your spiritual relationship and growth, prayer is priority one!

January 25, 2012

Well known pastor, speaker and author, Francis Chan, speculates on what could be facing believers and the Church in the coming years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOZi0hNJ2vA

The Church of Jesus Christ was launched just a few months after His crucifixion. When the Holy Spirit fell upon the 120 in the upper Room, they were locked away uncertain of their future. It wasn’t as if they were playing defense, they were actually stalling because God had told them to “tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power by the Holy Spirit”. So, they did!“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread

and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:42-47

I want to point to the Early Church as the example of how we should play when it is under pressure and the game is on the line. They went on offense and played to win!

1) They leaned on God – “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” Acts 2:1-4

2) They learned of God - “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” – Acts 2:42

3) They lifted up God – “and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles” Acts 2:43

4) They loved like God – “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” Acts 2:44-45

5) They lived godly – “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” Acts 2:45-46

6) They led others to God – “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:47

These 120 believers, though they were under heavy opposition and attack by the religious establishment AND the Roman government, refused to play defense. Instead they launched an offensive of Spirit-filled love, obedience, fellowship and sacrifice.

How did it work?

Some historians speculate that as many as half of the city of Jerusalem became followers of Jesus Christ!

Because these emboldened believers were “clutch” under pressure, we are still in the game! But now the ball is in our court. It is up to you and me and our churches to decide how we are going to respond down the stretch as the pressure and opposition rises against us.

Are you game?

January 24, 2012

Hanging around with Jesus was never boring! The disciples had barely cleaned up the crumbs after the miraculous feeding of thousands of people from one humble lunch, than they received a lesson on the lake. Here's the story:

"When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified. But he said to them, "It is I; don't be afraid." Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading." John 6:16-21

Jesus became an instant favorite of 5,000+ people who had just received a free lunch. They wanted another. He knew they intended to make Him into their king, so He disappeared into the mountains after He sent the disciples off in their boat.

When they were halfway across the lake a ferocious storm blew in. Even though they were experienced with handling a boat, and even though they rowed hard against the storm, they were at the mercy of the waves and about to sink. I am sure they were praying and crying out to God, but I don't think they expected what happened - Jesus walking to them across the waves! Walking on calm water is a miracle. Walking on the waves during a storm is uber-miraculous!

In addition to having their lives saved, here are some significant things they learned:

1) Jesus always knows where we are - even when we aren't sure where He is!

2) Jesus will never let us go to a place where He can't reach us. That is because He loves us and because there is no place He can't reach! Even in the middle of a storm!

3) Jesus doesn't always save us FROM the storm but He will always save us IN the storm.

4) Jesus doesn't deliver us until we welcome Him into our boat.

5) Jesus brought them safely to their detination on the other side.

If you have ever suffered through a storm, you can appreciate the lessons on the lake. What Jesus did for them He will do for you!

Have you welcomed Him into your boat?

January 23, 2012

"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth." I Corinthians 13:6

The problem with sin is that it complicates life. It complicates life because it confuses your understanding of truth. When the line gets blurred between truth and lies, life gets tough in a hurry.

That is exactly what happened with Adam and Eve and it has become the story of humanity. It is essentially the story of history.

So, fast forward to your marriage and our truth for the day reminds us that love is directly and intricately connected with truth. The question then becomes, "What is truth?"

Truth is a Person!

Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by me." When Jesus made that statement He was not saying He is a concept or a system of beliefs, He IS TRUTH! Truth starts and ends in HIM! If you want to know truth you must know Him! Nothing is true apart from Him! So, when this verse says that love rejoices in truth it makes a lot of sense when you understand that truth is not a thing it is a Person! Isn't it much easier to love a person? Especially when that Person is Jesus! Want love in your marriage? Get Jesus! Want truth in your marriage? Get Jesus!

Truth is Purity!

Because truth is a Person and that Person is Jesus, you need to get Jesus. In order to get Jesus you must repent of sin and renounce it in your life. You must cleanse your heart and mind of moral impurity. I John 1:8-9 affirms this: "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." That's what I am talking about! Get rid of the impurity of sin and receive the purity of His righteousness. And righteousness is "rightness". Also, back up a couple of verses to I John 1:7 and it sheds more truth on truth: "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." "Walk in the light". What is light but truth? As you walk in truth you walk in purity!

Truth Is Power!

When you have Jesus you have purity. When you have Jesus and purity you will have power. The power of truth! The power of holiness! The power of rightness!

Love rejoices in truth! Make that "truth" with a capital "T"!

January 22, 2012

http://youtu.be/bflkoEfp4tM

 

That is one reason I am passionately, proudly and unapologetically pro-life. You should be, too. Over the few minutes i will be sharing several biblical reasons why I am pro-life and why you should be!

I am pro-life because:

I. Because God Is the Source Of Life, Genesis 2:7

“the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

I love the story of the boy sitting on his father's lap as they were looking into a mirror. The boy said to his dad, "Dad, who made me?"

He said, "God made you, son." He said, "Dad, who made you?"

He said, "God made me, son." He said, "Dad, who made granddad?"

He said, "God made him, son." He said, "Dad, who made great-granddad?" He said, "God made him, son. Why do you ask?"

The boy took one look back in the mirror and said, "Well, it just seems to me He's been doing a better job in recent years!"

If life were some random occurrence that crawled out of some prehistoric swamp somewhere there would be no particular reason to respect life. But if life came from the very breath of God – that is a game-changer!

I believe when He created life He infused His image into it and since He is sacred life is sacred. Life was created BY Him and FOR His pleasure because love like His needs to be expressed.

As a Christian, I believe that life begins and ends with God and that He IS life. There are those people who would say, “No one really knows when life begins.”

We are people of the Word and Psalms 139:13 & 16 makes clear that life begins at conception. Modern technology such as sonograms confirm that.

Further, to those who don’t know when life begins then why are they messing with it?

I am pro-life because God is the Source of life and I am committed to love Him and serve Him.

II. Because God Is the Sustainer Of Life, Genesis 1:29-30: 2:8-9

A college professor once asked his class to imagine making a decision in regards to an unborn child. He described the child that he would be born blind, deaf, and possessing other physical infirmities. Asked what they would do, and the entire class responded--to abort the baby. The professor replied, ’Congratulations you just aborted the life of Ludwid Von Beethoven’. Life must have a chance

God put Adam and Eve in a climate-controlled, fully supplied, perfectly secured paradise designed for people who were intended to live forever! God breathed life into them and then provided what they needed to sustain that life!

Not only did God put everything in Eden to sustain Adam’s life BUT He put Adam in charge of making sure the lives of all the creatures would be sustained.

Similarly, God designed your mother’s womb so that it would sustain your life from the moment of conception until birth!

God proves that He loves life by the extravagant lengths He went to sustain those lives!

I am pro-life because I believe God’s will is to sustain human life!

III. Because God Is the Substance Of Life, Acts 17:24-31

Our kids Every day: 1,000 unwed teenage girls become mothers - 1,106 teenage girls get abortions - 4,219 teenagers contract sexually transmitted diseases - 500 adolescents begin using drugs - 1,000 adolescents begin drinking alcohol - 135,000 kids bring guns or other weapons to school - 3,610 teens are assaulted; - 2,200 teens drop out of high school - 6 teens commit suicide every day.

What is their life missing? SUBSTANCE! They lack purpose, they lack a sense of significance, they have been taught they are a “cosmic accident” and life is about being happy until you die.

Max Lucado tells in his book “The Applause of Heaven” about a sweater that hangs in his closet. He says he seldom wears it – it’s too small, the sleeves are too short, the shoulders too tight, some of the buttons are missing, the thread is worn. Logically, he says, he should throw out that sweater since he has no use for it and never will wear it again and it is just taking up space in an already crowded closet.

That’s what logic says. But love, he reports, won’t let him. Why not? What is so unusual about this sweater? The begin with, it has no label, no tag telling you to “Wash In Cold Water.” That’s because it wasn’t made in a factory, produced on an assembly line as the product of a nameless employee who is just trying to earn a living. Rather, it was knit stitch by stitch by a loving mother – his mother. Therefore, it has great significance to him because of who made it!

I have significance and you have significance because each of us were hand-made can carefully crafted by a Loving God!

We are significant NOT JUST BECAUSE OF WHO HE MADE US TO BE but because of what He created us to DO – To Know Him – To Worship Him – To Serve Him – To Proclaim Him To The World!

I am pro-life because life has God-given substance!

IV. Because God Is the Savior of Life, Genesis 3:15

Adam and Eve made a pro-choice decision and that is where the world went wrong!

PRO-CHOICE REALLY SHOULD BE “ANTI-CONSEQUENCES” – The Root of Sin!

Pastor Lee Strobel shares this account:

We were doing a baptism service. We told people before they came up to the platform to be baptized to take a piece of paper, write down a few of the sins they’ve committed, and fold the paper. When they come up to the platform, there was a large wooden cross on the stage. Take that piece of paper, take a pin, and pin it to the cross, because the Bible says our sins are nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ, and fully paid for by his death. Then turn and come to the pastor to be baptized.

I want to read you a letter a woman wrote who was baptized in one of those services. She said:

I remember my fear. In fact, it was the most fear I remember in my life. I wrote as tiny as I could on that piece of paper the word abortion. I was so scared someone would open the paper and read it and find out it was me. I wanted to get up and walk out of the auditorium during the service, the guilt and fear were that strong.

When my turn came, I walked toward the cross, and I pinned the paper there. I was directed to a pastor to be baptized. He looked me straight in the eyes, and I thought for sure that he was going to read this terrible secret I kept from everybody for so long. But instead, I felt like God was telling me, I love you. It’s okay. You’ve been forgiven. I felt so much love for me, a terrible sinner. It’s the first time I ever really felt forgiveness and unconditional love. It was unbelievable, indescribable.

Do you have inside of you a secret sin that you wouldn’t even want to write down on a piece of paper out of fear somebody might open it up and find out? Let me tell you something about the Jesus I know. Not only does he want to adopt you as his child, he wants to lift the weight of guilt off your shoulders.

V. Because God Is the Sovereign Of Life, Genesis 2:15-17; Psalm 139

God called Adam & Eve to account for their choice………….

EVERY ONE OF US WILL GIVE AN ACCOUNT TO HIM AS WELL – EVERY KNEE WILL BOW……..

(READ PSALM 139)

Here’s What Pro-Life People Should Do:

DO NOT RESPOND IN HATRED OR VIOLENCE – WE ARE PRO-LIFE BECAUSE WE ARE PRO-LOVE! We love God and love people and want God’s best for them.

a. Study this message and strengthen your pro-life position

b. Stay informed on abortion legislation lobby for life laws

c. Teach sexual abstinence in the home and church

d. Support your local crisis pregnancy center and unwed moms with time, talents and money

e. Offer grace and compassion to women who have chosen abortion

f. Don’t be intimidated by loud liberals who try to shout you down and shut you up because their position is so weak and illogical

g. NEVER EVER vote for a political candidate who is not boldly pro-life

h. Pray and cry out to God for mercy on our nation for this evil we have brought on ourselves

Imagine the national outrage that would rise if a terrorist cell swept into Spotsylvania County and wiped out every resident over a two-day period. This would be an unimaginable act of violence against innocent citizens. There would be an immediate response by military and law enforcement to kill or capture those terrorists.

But that is about the number of innocent, defenseless unborn babies destroyed over that same period in the sanctity of their mother’s wombs before they ever get to draw a breath. 115,000 human hearts are stopped each day worldwide through abortions and no one comes to their defense because very few even know about it. Many don’t even care.

Added together, the top ten catastrophic natural events in recorded history (some might call them “acts of God”) took about 8,000,000 souls from the earth. That is the population of a major city! Sad indeed!

6,000,000 Jews died during the WW II holocaust in what would be considered a man-made tragedy. Those poor persecuted people where part of the 100,000,000 who perished in WWI and WWII.

Plagues have taken hundreds of millions of people over the centuries, 300,000,000 from smallpox alone.

Why am I throwing around such grim and foreboding numbers?

I want to give some perspective to the terrible social and moral evil of abortion. Since it became legal by a dubious legal ruling that by any objective legal standard is clearly unconstitutional – some 52,000,000 innocent infants in the United States alone have been swept form their mothers without ever drawing a breath. That is in the relatively short span of 39 years.

Worldwide that number is 42,000,000 per year of which 1.2 millions are Americans.

How long will God continue to allow this vicious assault on the most defenseless beings on our planet to go unjudged? How many innocent lives will perish before He rains down judgment in their behalf? Sodom and Gomorrah were wiped out for less evil than this.

January 21, 2012

"I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would not be comforted. I remembered you, God, and I groaned; I meditated, and my spirit grew faint. You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak.I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; I remembered my songs in the night. My heart meditated and my spirit asked: “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time. Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?” Then I thought, “To this I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand. I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.” Your ways, God, are holy. What god is as great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. The waters saw you, God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. The clouds poured down water, the heavens resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth. Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." Psalm 77

It seems that a young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what do you see?" "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they got soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked. "What’s the point, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity--boiling water--but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water. "Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

One reason I have chosen to spend this Summer in the Psalms is because the Psalms deal with the gamut of emotions that you and I face in everyday life! This Psalm, for instance tackles discouragement in a very true and transparent manner.

In the dangerous and difficult world where we live, you can easily become discouraged. You may be discouraged by someone else, you may be discouraged by yourself or you could be discouraged by God - or even all three!

So, how can you deal with discouragement in a way that changes the water?

I have given you five ways of dealing with discouragement when it shows up uninvited at your door. Let me remind you of those:

1) Devotion Not Emotion, vv, 1-7

2) Perspective Not Panic, vv. 7-13

3) Certainty Not Speculation, vv. 13-14

4) Recommit Don't Quit, vv. 11-12

5) Declare Don't Despair, 14-20

Discouragement is a big tool in the enemy's arsenal and he will attack you with it early and often. He intends to use it to cause you to feel like giving up. If you don't handle it it can lead to depression. But, if you learned to handle discouragement and learn to use it to draw closer to God, the enemy will be less likely use it against you! So, if he tries to use that one weapon against you I have given you five to defend yourself with!

January 20, 2012

Concept #5 - DECLARE DON’T DESPAIR

“You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. The waters saw you, God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. The clouds poured down water, the heavens resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth. Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” Psalms 77:14-20

The world says, “Seeing is believing!” Christians say, “Believing is seeing!”

Faith is seeing before you see! Hebrews 11:1-2 says, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen."

If you are looking at something and talking about it that is not faith! That is a description because you are telling what you see! If you are talking about something that has already happened that is not faith! That is a report because you are sharing what you have seen. But if you are declaring it and it hasn't happened yet - that is faith because your are verbalizing what you believe you will see!

There is tremendous power in your words! Positive words have power for good and negative words can destroy.

I have an idea that if you go back and trace how you became discouraged it had something to do with a negative declaration or two that came from your lips to your ears to your mind and into your spirit. Perhaps it was negative hurtful words spoken to you by someone else that caused you to become discouraged.

God spoke the world into existence by His words! He declared it and it happened! I am not saying that we are God, but I am saying that we can declare His Word and when we do there is power! That is exactly what Aseph the worship leader was doing right here in these verses. And guess what! It worked!

President John F. Kennedy made this challenge just five months after being inaugurated as President, "First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

At the time he issued this bold declaration the technology did not exist to make this a reality. But because he spoke it and because Americans heard it and embraced it and believed it and just eight years and two months later Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar landscape! As amazing as it was it would not have happened if JFK wouldn't have declared it!

If you struggle with discouragement or even despression, be careful what you declare with your lips and what you hear with your ears. Make faith declarations. Read the word and read it aloud so you can hear it. Make sure you get to worship service where you can hear God's truth read, and sang and preached.

Don't be discouraged! Declare don't despair!