Wise Men, Still Seek Him, Today!

Summary: What God wants most of all, above everything else is you and me, all of you & me, all of the time! 

Today’s sermon is called Wise Men Still Seek Him Today

Matthew 2:1-12 NKJ

1. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,

2. saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”

3. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

4. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

5. So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:

6. ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;

For out of you shall come a Ruler

Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

7. Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared.

8. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”

9. When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.

10. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.

11. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

12. Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

The story of the wise men is a fabulous story, a story of adventure, a story of intrigue, a story with a villain and an alternative plot in it,

Which involved the most sought out subject of all time, and it is one that is shrouded in somewhat of mystery.

They seemed to just show up mysteriously –and just as mysteriously they are gone, never to be heard of again.

Not even a future reference of someone claiming to be related, or a long lost relative, trying to claim their fifteen minutes of fame.

But one thing we can be certain about is that, the number of wise men and women grows, and are still being found today, as people continue to seek the Christ.

Let’s look at three things, that we can learn from the story of the wise men.

1.  A wise man’s journey is one of FAITH.

"Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East.”

What would prompt someone to leave the comfort of their homes to go on a dangerous journey?

Romance? Yes Love, has inspired many great journeys.

Wealth? Most definitely wealth has caused many men and women, to cross the great divide in search of fame and fortune.

What about faith? Yes –faith in God, has inspired the impossible to become possible many times,

In Hebrews chapter 11, the bible tells us over and over what faith is capable of.

The Wise men said; “Where is He who has been born the King of the Jews?”

What a probing, confident question – there is no doubt by the authority in their question, they knew that He had been born,

They had seen the star, the evidence was real, they were ready to worship Him!

They had faith that He had been born, that He existed, their purpose, their quest, was to find Him.

And so they were willing to risk everything to find Him.

They were willing to leave everything they knew, to risk it all, to seek a King.

Can you imagine what their friends and neighbors thought?

So, your going on a journey huh? “Yes.”

“Where are you going?” “We don’t know for sure.”

“How far is it?” “Well we don’t know that either.”

How long are you going to be gone and who is financing this adventure?”

We don’t know for sure and we are paying our own way, "well, if you ask me, it Sounds more like mission impossible,"

there are always going to be naysayers,

Not everybody can go on the journey, to where God calls you to go,

The same type of crowd, probably said the same things about Abraham when he parted ways with Lot, his nephew,

And took the less attractive real estate that his nephew wasn’t interested in, and prospered greatly, in spite of his surroundings! Praise God!

They must have said the same things to Noah who was busy, building an ark, the size of a football field,

even though it had never rained in the history of the earth up till that point.

God’s journeys always involve FAITH.

Hebrews 11:6  6. It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. 

And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

People of faith, have always been willing to respond to what God calls them to, over and over again down throughout history.

2.  A wise man’s journey is one of WORSHIP.

When the wise men came on their journey it was for the purpose of worship, it was the very first thing they did, the moment they saw Him!

They brought with them gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

These were not just any gifts, they have a lot of symbolism associated with them.

Gold represents wealth. It is a gift fit for a king. Jesus was and is, the King of Kings

Frankincense is the sap of a tree that was dried and hardened and used as incense to worship God.

Thus we see a gift for his deity. Jesus was the Son of God

Myrrh is a fragrant perfume that was used to anoint the dead – to embalm and preserve them. Remember that Jesus was The Sacrificial Lamb

But there is more to worship then gold, frankincense, or myrrh isn’t there.

Worship always involves SACRIFICE.

Was there a price to be paid for the wise men’s worship? Yes there was.

They had given themselves to a long hard journey.

We know what its like to drive straight thru somewhere, say 15, 16 hrs., but can you imagine the trip, the wise men took?

Travel in those days was not very comfortable, no Starbucks on the way, no Garmin to help you navigate, no rest parks with restrooms along the way, no convenient stores with snacks and drinks, no nothing, nada!

The wise men had sacrificed their own comfort and resources, to find the king and worship Him.

I like what David said about sacrifice:

Samuel 24:24 

“I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost [me] nothing.”

Romans 12:1 NKJ says it this way;

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

To truly worship requires sacrifice.

your worship, sometimes it involves a sacrifice of praise, that’s part of your faith,

Its when you praise Him for what He’s going to do in your body, even when your body doesn’t feel like praising

The greatest gift,– the greatest sacrifice, you can give to God is 100% of you!

What God wants most of all, above every thing else is you and me, all of you & me, all of the time!

He wants your heart, He wants your attention, He wants your everything, He wants the whole kit and cabootal, the question is:

*What are we willing to give Him?

*Are we willing to give Him our best?

*Would we be willing to go on a lengthy journey, without knowing where we were going or when we would arrive, to worship Him?

*Are we willing to give up our comfort zone to follow Christ?

The wise men were, are you?

The third point I want to make:

3. A wise man’s journey is always one, that is willing to change.

Look at vs. 12 with me:

"Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way."

Isn’t it interesting that after they worshiped Jesus that they could not go back the same way that they had come?

Its still the same today, once you have met Jesus, you will never be the same again.

An encounter with God changes things, It’s always been that way, one moment in His presence, is a life changing experience.

Jacob wrestled with God and never walked the same the rest of his life.

He was never the same again.

Paul had an encounter on the road to Damascus, that was a life changing event,

That not only changed him, but also untold millions upon millions, who have read his writings of Christ and His Grace and Favor, Life Changing Message!

That’s what happens when we walk into the presence of God, we become changed never to be the same again.

That’s what happened to the wise men when they encountered Christ – they were changed forever.

And that same power that changed them, is still alive and well, still changing hearts and lives today!

It’s Christmas time and we hear the story of the wisemen, but now we have a better understanding, as to why the bible calls them wise.

They were wise because they had faith, they were wise because they worshiped and they were changed forever – all because of a child.

Conclusion

Ill. There was once a certain King, who needed a faithful servant and had to choose between two candidates for the office.

He took both at fixed wages and told them to fill a basket with water from a nearby well, saying that he would come in the evening to inspect their work.

After dumping one or two buckets of water into the basket, one of the men said,

"What is the good of doing this useless work? As soon as we pour the water in, it runs out the sides of the basket."

The other answered, "But we have our wages, haven’t we? The use is the master’s business, not ours.

He is a wise King, and must have his own purpose that we do not understand."

"I’m not going to do such fool’s work," replied the complainer. Throwing down his bucket, he went away.

The other man continued until he had drained the well. Looking down into it, he saw something shining at the bottom - it was a diamond ring.

"Now I see the use of pouring water into the basket!" he exclaimed.

"If the bucket had brought up the ring before the well was dry, it would have been filtered out in the basket.

The King was looking for his diamond and our work was not in vain."

The King found his most faithful servant!

God is looking for faithful men and women, just like the wise men were, still today.

Who will not only seek Him, but who are willing to help others find Him also.

Tell someone about the true meaning of Christmas and the change He has made in your life,

And you will be amazed, by not only the continual change He makes in you, but also the change in others as well, when you do!

Now Shout out Amen! Amen!! And Merry Christmas

Verse List

• Matthew 2:1-12 NKJ

• Hebrews chapter 11

• Hebrews 11:6

• Samuel 24:24 

• Romans 12:1 NKJ

Christmas - If It Comes

Sermon Summary 

The purpose of this Ministry is to Spread the word of God to any and all that will listen.  I will try very hard to plant the seed of God in your hearts, provide you with the knowledge to nurture that seed thru prayer, Bible Study and fellowship so that it can grow, so that in time that seed will mature and you will be saved and re-born so that you can have the greatest gift of God’s Love, Everlasting Life.

Let Us Pray

Lord, Each and every day is a struggle against sin and temptation.

Give us the strength to overcome cruelty with grace and hatred with love.

God remind us that our actions matter.

We do not fight a physical battle, but a spiritual one and with each act of compassion

We build your kingdom.

Help us be kingdom builders today.

Thru Jesus Christ we pray

AMEN

Now Let’s Turn to the Person on Your Left and Right and Introduce Yourself

and thank them for coming and sharing Gods Word with You here Today.

Now for today’s sermon.  I am very excited about this sermon.  

Scripture for today’s sermon is : Galatians 4:19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,

Summary: For millions of people Christmas never really comes. Oh, I'm not saying that Dec. 25th doesn't come. It comes, but Christmas doesn't really come into their hearts & their lives. 

Well, the calendar says that Christmas will soon be here.

I get a little uptight this time of the year because I realize the responsibility that is mine in presenting the Christmas message, in trying to get people to think about God loving us so much that He would come into our world, become a part of our lives, & die on the cross for us.

I've titled my sermon today, "If Christmas Comes." That naturally prompts the question, "Do you mean that it is possible for Christmas not to come?"

Yes, it is possible, for even with all the activities of the season, too often & for too many, when Christmas is over we're not any different than we were before. Because, you see, when Christmas really comes, it changes us - it makes a difference in our life.

So every year, for millions of people, Christmas never really comes. Oh, I'm not saying that Dec. 25th doesn't come. It comes, but Christmas doesn't really come into their hearts & their lives.

So my prayer is that somehow, this Christmas, God's Spirit will come upon us & change us, & Christmas will really happen. With that in mind, I have noted some things I want to share with you as we celebrate this Christmas season together.

I. THE CHRISTMAS SEASON HAS COME

A.  "The Christmas season has come." 

Christmas decorations went up well before Thanksgiving, Santa Claus started making his appearance at the malls, & newspapers nearly doubled in size because of all the advertisements they contained.

In fact, it seems that more attention is being given to the shopping habits of Americans on the day after Thanksgiving - we now call it "Black Friday" - than ever before. Both on TV & in our newspapers there were pictures of crowded malls, & people shopping.

And during this season, we're encouraged to buy things we can't afford, with money we don't have, to give to people we're not even sure we like. The commercial side of Christmas has really arrived.

B.  The social side of Christmas has begun, too. 

It's a festive time, a time for dressing up, going to parties, & enjoying ourselves with family & friends.

And as the Day approaches, many will travel, finding a way to get over the river & through the woods to grandmother's house. And for those who can't get there physically, we'll be there in our dreams.

Did you hear about the man in Salt Lake City who decided to send out 600 Christmas cards to total strangers?

He looked up random names and addresses from several cities, addressed 600 cards to people he had never met, put his return address on the envelopes, & mailed them.

Amazingly, he received 117 responses from total strangers. One lady wrote, "It was so good to hear from you. Your card arrived the day I got home from the hospital, & I can't tell you what an encouragement it was to hear from an old friend."

Another wrote, "I have to admit that when we received your card we couldn't really picture you. We had to think hard for a long time before we remembered. By the way, please give our regards to your father. He is such a wonderful man!"

But I think this one took the cake. One guy wrote, "It was so good to hear from you after all these years. By the way, we're going to be in Salt Lake City next summer. Would it be all right if we came & spent a few days with you?"

You need to be careful who you send Christmas cards to, don't you?

C.  The Christmas season has arrived in the church, too. 

We see the beautiful decorations, & lift our voices in song. Stockings will be filled, food baskets prepared, carolers singing, & special services celebrating the "Reason for the Season."

II. BUT WILL CHRISTMAS REALLY COME?

1.  But will Christmas really come? 

Oh, the earth will make its 359th revolution of the year & Dec. 25th will come right on schedule. But will Christmas really come? That's the question, for there are several things that have to happen before Christmas really does come in our hearts & in our lives.

My scripture text this morning is Galatians 4:19. Now I realize this verse is not usually considered a Christmas text, but listen to what Paul says, "My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,"

We often talk about being "born again" when we become a Christian. But may I suggest that Christmas is also a good time to remind us of our need for Jesus to be born again in our lives, our families, & our relationships.

That is what Paul is praying for, that somehow in a wonderful way Christ will be formed inside the hearts & lives of each of us.

We sing about it in our songs.

"O holy child of Bethlehem, descend on us, we pray.

Cast out our sins & enter in. Be born in us today."

And another beautiful song mentions some of the names of Jesus:

"His name is Master, Savior, Lion of Judah, Blessed Prince of Peace.

Shepherd, Fortress, Rock of Salvation, Lamb of God is He.

Son of David, King of the Ages, Eternal Life, Holy Lord of Glory, His name is Life."

And lest we forget - He is also called "Emmanuel, God with us!"

B.  Folks, we have adapted fairly well to our environment. 

We have learned how to clean the air we breathe, purify the water we drink, & enrich the food we eat.

We've adapted ourselves to technology, too. We've learned how to program our computers, operate our smart phones, & figure out the GPS system. Over all, we have adapted pretty well to our modern world.

But we have not learned how to get along with each other. Even though more than 2000 years have passed by since that first Christmas, & even though we are reminded every year of the angel's message, "Peace on earth..." we still haven't learned to live in peace with each other.

So our greatest need this Christmas is to have Jesus formed in us, to live with us, to show us how to accept & forgive each other, how to get rid of the tensions that divide us, & how to overcome our fear & prejudice.

III. HOW WILL CHRISTMAS COME?

1. Let me raise another question, "How will Christmas come?" 

When you read the Christmas accounts in Matthew & Luke, you read about Mary & Joseph making their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem. You read about crowds, & people who have come to pay their taxes.

Luke takes us through the whole story of shepherds & angels, of Jesus being born, & then being wrapped in swaddling clothes & placed in a manger.

Then he adds something we could easily miss. And I think he adds it because he knows someone will ask, "Why was he born in a stable?" Almost as an afterthought, Luke says, "Because there was no room in the inn."

There it is, & it bothers us. Luke doesn't condemn the innkeeper. He doesn't even comment about him. He doesn't say, "He was bad," or "He was good." He doesn't say, "He was right," or "He was wrong."

But forever this crowded inn that shut out Jesus stands as a symbol of crowded, cluttered lives that still have no room for Him. It's not that we're bad people, it's just that we're busy people, & our schedules are so full.

But if you don't have time for Him, then your schedules are just too cluttered. You need to allot some quiet time to be still & to acknowledge that He is God.

B.  Then I think something else must happen before Christmas really comes, & that is that we must desire Him to come - to come into our lives.

There is a part of me that wants Him to come. I want His blessings, but I'm not sure I want His cross. I want His forgiveness, but not His judgment.

I want His salvation, but I'm not sure I want to serve. I want a Savior, but I'm not sure I want a Lord to direct what I do.

Yet, as I read the Bible, I'm convinced that the one thing Jesus teaches over & over again is that we must make His kingdom our top priority.

Let me say that again:  Jesus teaches over & over again that we must make His kingdom our top priority.

There are a couple of short parables that Jesus tells that teach us that. These two parables take up just a little portion of the New Testament. But they speak volumes.

Jesus tells about a pearl merchant  Matt 13:45-46 who has looked all his life for the perfect pearl. He has gone from marketplace to marketplace, from city to city.

He has accumulated some wealth in the process. He has a bag of precious pearls, & other valuables that he has collected. But he keeps looking for the perfect pearl.

Finally one day there it is right before his eyes, & within his reach this wonderful, fabulous, perfect pearl. So he approaches the merchant, trying to act uninterested & asks, "How much?"

The merchant says, "It will cost everything you have." Well, he tries to bargain with the merchant. "How about this much?" or "How about that much?"

But the merchant never comes off his price. "It will take everything you have." Finally, all his other precious pearls, & all his wealth, are placed on the counter, & he walks away with this one wonderful pearl.

People, I think Christmas will never really be Christmas for us as long as we have just a casual desire for entering the kingdom of God.

Jesus said, "Everything! Everything you are. Even your life must focus on this one great treasure, the kingdom of God."

IV. COME TO CHRISTMAS WITH A FEELING OF HUMILITY

A. Finally, if Christmas is really going to be Christmas for us, then I think we must approach Christmas with a feeling of humility.

Example: as a boy I did grow up on a farm and the other relatives had farms also and I would get to spend a few days on my uncle's farm. Visiting him in the wintertime was an experience because during the coldest months he kept his animals inside the barn.

Early in the morning he would go out to the barn & milk the cows. If you went with him, you would have to wear galoshes or boots because of the manure. I can still remember smelling the stench & seeing the steam rising off the floor.

And when I think about him & his farm, I remember that old barn, & I smell the smells & see the sights once again.

Then I think of Bethlehem & that stable, & those animals. That stable must have smelled a whole lot like my uncle's barn. I see Mary & Joseph entering that stable, & inside her womb is God in the flesh. And I marvel that God would come down that far, & sacrifice that much to enter our world in that place.

Yet, it was for a reason. God was stripping everything away & saying, "Now there is nothing that stands between us. There's no place for arrogance or pride. You can't come here if you're looking down your nose at someone else."

B. And through the doors of that stable come cows & sheep & livestock, & Mary & Joseph, & each of us. We come to worship Him, God born in the flesh.

Without anything to brag about we come humbly before Him & say, "Here am I Lord, use me."

I think that is what it will take for Christmas really to come. It will take some broken hearts & broken wills for Christ to be born again in us.

Conclusion. 

This morning if you're not a Christian, please realize that there is nothing that stands between you & God except yourself.

God has done everything to make it possible for you to be freed from your sin. God has done everything to make it possible for you to spend eternity with Him. And right now we extend His invitation, & pray that you will respond to the invitation.

If you have not yet repented, confessed your sins, and trust in Christ to save you from God’s wrath, then you don’t know the full extent of Gods’ love yet.  John 3:36 says that “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” because 

 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” . 

John 3:18

I pray that is not you and you let Christmas truely come into your heart.

I encourage you to pray this prayer with me, but I caution you that saying words alone will not save you. Prayer alone doesn’t save. Only Christ can save. But prayer can be a means of reaching out to the Lord in true saving faith. If you pray these words in faith, Christ will save you. You can be sure of that.

Let us Pray:  Lord Jesus, for too long I’ve kept you out of my life. I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. No longer will I close the door of my heart when I hear you knocking. By faith I gratefully receive your gift of salvation. I am ready to trust you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth. I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Thank you for bearing my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life. I believe your word and desire the Holy Spirit to come into my heart and give me guidance to walk your path to salvation and everlasting life. In Jesus Name I Pray Amen.

God Bless You All and May God Protect You In all Your Travels

Verse List

• Galatians 4:19 

• Matt 13:45-46

• John 3:36

• John 3:18

Becoming A More Spiritual Person

Sermon Summary 

Norma and I are currently in Key West Florida.

We had to spend a full week in a boatyard for some repairs and while there we meet some people from Texas who were part of Mission of Hope International.  They ran a boat called the North Star.  They would deliver food, provide a place to stay for up to 28 people and would also be a classroom for schooling young children after hurricanes have hit in the Caribbean Islands.  This boat would also deliver much needed supplies and transport doctors and nurses to these storm ravaged islands.  They also have a school Pre-K thru 12 school in Haiti that they run and fund.  This seems like a very worthwhile organization.  I will continue to look into them and let you know what I find out.  So far this seems to be a great organization.

Let Us Pray

Lord, in Heaven, the creator of all.  Each and every day is a struggle against sin and temptation.

Give us the strength to overcome cruelty with grace and hatred with love.

God remind us that our actions matter.

We do not fight a physical battle, but a spiritual one and with each act of compassion

We build your kingdom.

Help us be kingdom builders today.

Thru Jesus Christ we pray

AMEN

Becoming A More Spiritual Person 

Sixty years ago social scientists were predicting the demise of religion in western culture. The reasoning went something like this: The more discoveries science makes, the higher the level of education among people, and the more secularized our society becomes, the less people will be concerned about things like God, salvation, and spirituality. Well sixty years later sociologists and cultural anthropologists have had to eat crow and admit that couldn’t have been more wrong.

People today are more into spiritual topics than ever before in our nation’s history. In 1991, Newsweek did a cover story on the popularity of talk about spirituality. How else can we explain the phenomenal success of the Psychic Friends Network? Books on spirituality make the third largest market among book sellers.

People turn to a variety of sources to nurture their souls these days. Some opt for more traditional approaches, like reading the Bible, prayer, and worship in a church. But many opt for less traditional options, like yoga, past life regression therapy, hallucinogenic drugs, and so forth. For a whole segment of our nation Oprah Winfrey was and to some is the spiritual mentor.

How can we become more spiritual people? Are all these bewildering approaches equal options, kind of like all the ice cream flavors at Baskin Robbins? Is choosing prayer or past life regression therapy no more different than choosing chocolate or butter pecan ice cream?

We’ve been in a series through the New Testament book of 1 Timothy called Deepening Your Life With God. Today we’re going to look at how to become a more spiritual person. In 1 Timothy today we’re going to see two warnings and two prescriptions for becoming more spiritual people.

1. The Warnings 1 Timothy 4:1-5

We begin with the first warning in vv. 1-2. 

1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 

2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, 

Here we find a contrast between what God’s Spirit says and what "deceiving spirits" are saying.

The "later times" here isn’t referring to something in the distant future, but for the apostle Paul who wrote this letter, it describes the time he was living in when he wrote these words to his young protégé Timothy. In the Bible, the "end times" or "last days" refers to the final phase in God’s plan of salvation. This final phase began with the first coming of Jesus at Christmas and it will conclude at the end of the age when Jesus Christ comes again. So Paul lived in the last days and so do we, because we both live during this final phase in God’s plan.

For Paul, the existence of people abandoning the true Christian faith and following "deceiving spirits" and the teachings of demons was proof that he was living in these later times. Here we learn that some ideas about becoming more spiritual come from diabolical sources.

This implies that there are right ways to become spiritual and wrong ways to become spiritual. That’s not a very popular idea these days, but when you think about it, it makes sense. The terrorists behind the September 11 attacks believed they were becoming more spiritual by sacrificing their lives to further their cause. I don’t think anyone can doubt their sincerity or the depth of their commitment, yet we look at what they did and say, "That’s an evil way to try to become a spiritual person." Many of the people back in the 1960s who used LSD to become more spiritual found their lives destroyed by the chemicals they thought would unlock the spiritual life.

Paul would agree; in fact, he would go further and tell us that some ideas about the spiritual life actually come from an unseen evil realm. The Bible teaches that there are demonic spirits in our world.. These beings are called "deceiving spirits" and "demons" here in this text.

But Paul also points to the people who teach dangerous ideas about becoming more spiritual. He calls these teachers "hypocritical liars." The word for "hypocritical" means "to give a false impression," and it was a word that came from the world of theatre. The word was used of actors who played a part on a stage, which is okay in a stage performance, but in real life, we call that kind of person a phony.

Their conscience has been branded as with a hot iron. These are people who’s moral compass no longer functions. Their sense of right and wrong had been deadened. These are people who taught ideas about the spiritual life that were false and dangerous.

So here we find the first warning if you want to become a more spiritual person. If you want to become more spiritual, don’t ingest spiritual poison.

Not every idea about the spiritual life is a good one. In fact, some ideas are downright poisonous. Several years ago an Illinois scientist named William Walsh studied strands of hair from the body of famous classical composer Beethoven. By studying those strands of hair, Dr. Walsh discovered that Beethoven’s body had one hundred times the normal amount of lead. He concluded that Beethoven’s untimely death at the age of 57 was due to lead poisoning. Beethoven’s lead poisoning can be traced to the mineral spa that he went to in order to relax. Think about that: the very thing he thought was bringing him relief and relaxation was actually slowly poisoning him to death.

That’s what spiritual poison is like, that as people engage in practices and embrace ideas that are spiritually poisonous, they think it is making them more spiritual, when in reality it’s gradually killing them spiritually.

But we also find a second warning here in vv. 3-5. 

3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 

4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving;

5 for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

After reading that these ideas about becoming more spiritual are "things taught by demons," we’re expecting something really, really bad. When we find out that these false teachers are telling people to become more spiritual by forbidding marriage and abstaining from certain kinds of food, it seems a little anti-climactic. We’re expecting people who practice human sacrifice or cannibalism, something horrible and awful. Celibacy and vegetarianism may not be our cup of tea, but at first it hardly seems to merit the dangerous warning Paul gives.

But let’s think deeper about this. These people were teaching that sexual intimacy between husbands and wives and certain kinds of food were inherently evil and a hindrance to becoming more spiritual. You see, food and marriage relate to two of the most basic human appetites: hunger and sex. By forbidding people to get married, these teachers were saying that sexual intimacy in marriage prevents you from becoming more spiritual. And by forbidding certain kinds of food they were claiming that some foods are inherently unclean.

Throughout history, religious people have had a kind of love-hate relationship with sexuality. On the one hand, some people worshipped sex in the name of religion. The temple to the Greek god Aphrodite in Ephesus employed hundreds of temple prostitutes. Men would regularly visit this temple and be with a prostitute as an act of their religious devotion to Aphrodite, and no one would have a second thought about it, not even their wives. So some people turned sex into a religion itself.

But on the other hand, a lot of religious people believed that sexuality was inherently evil. Following the ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato, these people believed the physical world was evil. The physical body was thought to be a prison for the soul, and so long as the physical body existed, the soul couldn’t become spiritual and free. So the physical drives of the body (the appetite for food, sexual intimacy, sleep and so forth) were thought of as inherently unspiritual. Gradually this idea developed into a whole new religion called Gnosticism.

Unfortunately, many Christians have often sounded more Gnostic than Christian in their view of sexuality. Within a hundred years after the New Testament was completed, Christian leaders started idolizing the single, celibate life, implying that a married people were less spiritual than single people. Pastors were required to live single, celibate lives, because it was thought to be more spiritual. This is still the case in Roman Catholic churches. Many of these Christians believed that sexual intimacy was always wrong, even between a husband and a wife. One theologian went so far as to say that God’s Holy Spirit departed the bedroom when a husband and wife consummated their marriage.

Apparently some of the people in the church in Ephesus had been captivated by this same kind of thinking.

We also learn here that some people at the church in Ephesus were forbidding the eating of certain kinds of foods. Now this teaching probably goes back to the Jewish dietary food laws found in the Old Testament. God had given the nation of Israel very precise laws about what they could and could not eat. Since the Christian faith grew out of Judaism, the early Christians struggled with whether they should obey these food laws. The apostles who wrote the New Testament taught that the coming of Jesus had overturned these food laws, and that for the follower of Jesus, no food was unclean in itself. But still many people struggled with this question.

Paul reminds us here that physical intimacy within marriage and food both were created by God. Because God made them, we ought to receive these gifts with gratitude. Instead of viewing the physical relationship between a husband and wife as unspiritual and certain foods as unclean, we should rejoice in these good gifts God has created. Everything created by God is good so long as it’s enjoyed within the parameters God has set up.

You see, according to the Bible, human sexuality is a gift of God to be enjoyed in marriage. Although sex outside of marriage is wrong and immoral, it’s not the act itself that’s inherently evil, but it’s the fact that the act is performed outside of the confines God set up. And food is a gift of God, and although the Bible warns us about overeating and becoming slaves to our appetites, we should enjoy the culinary gifts God has given us.

When Paul says these gifts are consecrated by the word of God, it’s likely that he’s alluding to Genesis 1:31, where the Bible says, " Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day." 

That verse from the Bible consecrates all of God’s creation gifts.

And when Paul says marriage and food are also consecrated by prayer, he’s talking about the common practice of praying before meals. When we begin a meal by thanking God for providing that meal, we’re receiving God’s gift with gratitude. But this also applies to the marriage relationship, that husbands and wives should pray this same prayer in the bedroom as they enjoy intimacy with each other.

I got your attention there didn’t I.  Think about this, the relationship between a Husband and a Wife are the same as eating the food God has given to us.

So here we find a second warning about becoming a more spiritual person. If you want to become more spiritual, don’t reject God’s good gifts.

This is where the Christian faith is different than many other religions. Many of the world’s religions treat certain parts of God’s creation as inherently evil or unspiritual. This is why Buddhist monks take a vow of celibacy, because in certain branches of Buddhism the sexual drive is viewed as inherently unspiritual. This is why the Hindu leader Gandhi took a vow of celibacy at the age of thirty-seven, even though he was married.

It’s unfortunate that so many Christians throughout history have rejected God’s good gifts, thinking that this would make them more spiritual. I think of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, who wrote the book War and Peace. Tolstoy married a beautiful young woman named Sonya. Yet Tolstoy came to see his desire for intimacy with his wife was unspiritual, so he took several public vows of celibacy. However, each time he was unable to keep his vow. Tolstoy walked under a huge burden of guilt because he kept going back to his wife, failing to understand that the husband-wife relationship is a good gift from God, to be enjoyed not rejected.

Rejecting God’s good gifts is not the pathway to becoming a more spiritual person.

2. The Positive Prescriptions 1 Timothy 4:6-10

This brings us to two positive prescriptions for how we can become more spiritual . Look at v. 6 and the first half of v. 7. 6 If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. 

7 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. 

Timothy has a tough assignment, to point out these false approaches to the spiritual life to the people in the church. Yet here Paul reminds Timothy that his ability to do this will reflect how he’s been brought up in his own faith.

Now look at v. 8  “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come”. 

v. 8 refers to how Timothy has been brought up to maturity in the truths of the Christian faith and good teaching. This refers to the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. These good teachings are the spiritual food that nurtured Timothy to become the spiritual young man he had become.

The contrast with the truths of the faith and good teaching is the godless myths and old wives’ tales in the first half of v. 7. A myth is a legendary tale that can’t be confirmed or verified. Greek philosophers used the phrase "old wives’ tales" to describe ideas that were irrational and bizarre. We saw in the first chapter of 1 Timothy that many of the people in the church in Ephesus were devoting themselves to these myths instead of the clear truths of the Christian faith. Paul wants Timothy to entirely avoid these myths and irrational, bizarre ideas.

So here we find in the example of Timothy the first prescription for becoming a more spiritual person. If you want to become more spiritual, look for nourishment in God’s truth.

Be nourished in the truths of the faith and good teaching. I heard about a letter to the editor of a British newspaper several years ago that went like this:

"Dear Sir: It seems ministers feel their sermons are very important and spend a great deal of time preparing them. I have been attending church for 30 years and I have probably heard 3,000 sermons. I can’t remember a single sermon. I wonder if a minister’s job might be spent more profitably on something else."

One of the replies that came went like this:

"Dear Sir: I have been married for 30 years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals-mostly my wife’s cooking. Suddenly I have discovered that I can’t remember the menu of a single meal. And yet I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to death long ago."

Yet it’s not only here that we look for nourishment in God’s truth. As we participate in small groups, home Bible studies, and personal Bible reading our souls are strengthened. Every Christian ought to spend time each day reading the Bible devotionally, to find spiritual nourishment in God’s truth.

Yet many Christians are drawn to speculative ideas that have nothing to do with the truths of the Christian faith. We see it in excessive speculation about Bible prophecy and with the quest to uncover secret Bible codes. We saw it with the y2k speculation that some Christians engaged in before the year 2000. We see it when Christians get so enamored with a theological system that they start building excessive speculation about things the Bible only hints at.

These things will stunt our growth spiritually, and cause us to become less and less spiritual people. Instead, we need to follow Timothy’s example and look for nourishment in God’s truth.

We find another prescription in vv. 7-10. 

7 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.

8 For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come

9 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. 

10 For to this end [a]we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

Instead of jumping on the speculation bandwagon, Paul wants Timothy to train himself to be godly.

Now the word "train" here is the Greek verb gumnazo, where we get the word gymnasium. It’s a word that described the physical training an athlete went through to compete. So the training of a professional athlete provides a word picture for us of spirituality.

Notice he tells Timothy to train himself. He doesn’t say, "Hire a personal trainer" or "take a seminar" but "train yourself." This is something no one else can do for you, not your spouse, not your parents, not your pastor, not your friends.

The focus of this training is godliness. Godliness is simply a God centered life, and this word emphasizes a continuity between what we believe and how we behave. A God centered life is a life that has accurate beliefs about God that are expressed in consistent and appropriate ways in our behavior. Our culture trains us in "self-liness," a self centered life, so we need to engage in training to shift into godliness, a God centered life.

Paul uses physical training as a metaphor for spiritual growth. Physical training has some limited value. However, spiritual training in a God centered life is even more valuable, because it not only has value now, but it also has value for eternity.

This verse is implying something that only now scientists are beginning to discover. This verse implies that people who have a God centered life are more healthy, more happy, less depressed, and have more satisfying personal relationships. Only in the last few years have scientists begun to confirm what this verse is saying.

But a God centered life also has value for eternality because it prepares us for living in heaven. The "trustworthy saying" in v. 9 looks back at the command to train ourselves to live God centered lives.

So here we find the final prescription to become more spiritual. If you want to be more spiritual, engage in a lifestyle of spiritual training.

If you think becoming a more spiritual person is a passive lifestyle where God simply zaps us with spiritual depth, you’re mistaken. For an athlete to compete, he or she must live a different kind of lifestyle than other people. Olympic marathon runners train between 80 and 150 hours per week. Olympic cyclists ride between 400 and 600 miles during a typical training week. Many athletes train in high altitude areas to build greater stamina and endurance. Often an athlete will focus on strengthening a specific muscle or muscle group to increase thier performance. This lifestyle of training enables athletes to compete at their maximum potential.

Paul tells us to look at how an athlete trains, and then to learn from that how to train ourselves to become more God centered. Spiritual training involves participating in spiritual exercises, sometimes called disciplines or habits. These spiritual disciplines are similar to the various exercises an athlete uses to train.

Some spiritual disciplines are things we withdraw from. These are called disciplines of withdrawal, whether it’s fasting from food for a period of time, withdrawing from people for a day of solitude, or whatever. We don’t fast because certain foods are inherently unspiritual or bad, but to take a time out to focus on our souls. These disciplines of withdrawal are temporary times to get our bearings.

Other spiritual disciplines are disciplines of engagement. These are spiritual disciplines where we engage in some activity, whether it’s prayer, Bible study, service, worship, confession of our sins, whatever.

Another way to think of spiritual disciplines are individual disciplines and corporate disciplines. Individual disciplines are things we do alone, like solitude, personal Bible reading, meditation on Scripture, study and so forth. Corporate disciplines are disciplines we do with other people, like worship, group prayer, celebration, and so forth.

Now it’s important to remember, these disciplines aren’t an end in themselves. They’re not just a checklist we can mark off, and then say, "Well I guess I’m godly because I prayed, studied my Bible, worshiped" and so forth. These are exercises that strengthen us to live a God centered life in the ordinary details of our lives. These are the calisthenics that help us respond to our boss with patience, forgive our spouse, and face difficulties with faith, and share our faith in Christ confidently. In other words, engaging in this lifestyle of spiritual training enables us to do in life what we wouldn’t be able to do had we not engaged in the training.

Despite our culture’s fascination with spirituality, there are a lot of dangerous ideas out there. Many people are drawing from wells that are nothing but poison, like Beethoven in his mineral spa. Here we find a warning against ingesting spiritual poison and a warning against rejecting God’s good gifts. But we also find two positive prescriptions: To look for nourishment in God’s truth and to engage in a lifestyle of spiritual training.

Our problem in our culture is that for all our talk about spirituality, we devote very little actual time and energy to cultivate our souls. We’re obsessed with how we look, with having the right clothes, the perfect body, a beautiful face, and so forth. Many people spend hours and hours in the gym, running, or doing aerobic exercise to look fit and trim. We have fit bodies but flabby souls in our culture today because we neglect that which we can’t see. And then we find ourselves frustrated because we want to live God centered lives, but no matter how hard we try, we find ourselves failing again and again. We’re like the little leaguer who buys a Barry Bonds batting glove, thinking that using that batting glove will somehow make him a home run hitter. The little leaguer mimics Barry Bond’s mannerisms, his batting glove, his shoes, perhaps even his earring, but neglects to mimic Barry Bonds’ rigorous lifestyle of training.

May God help us become men and women who train ourselves to be godly.

The first step in becoming a Godly person is to realize that you cannot do it on your own.  We all need Gods help.  If you have not yet repented, confessed your sins, and trusted in Christ to save you from God’s wrath, then you don’t know the full extent of Gods’ love yet.  John 3:36 says that “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” because “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18). I pray that is not you.

I encourage you to pray this prayer with me, but I caution you that saying words alone will not save you. Prayer alone doesn’t save. Only Christ can save. But prayer can be a means of reaching out to the Lord in true saving faith. If you pray these words in faith, Christ will save you. You can be sure of that.

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, for too long I’ve kept you out of my life. I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. No longer will I close the door of my heart when I hear you knocking. By faith I gratefully receive your gift of salvation. I am ready to trust you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth. I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Thank you for bearing my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life. I believe your word and desire the Holy Spirit to come into my heart and give me guidance to walk your path to salvation and everlasting life. In Jesus Name I Pray Amen.

Now go out and exercise daily

Verse List

•  1 Timothy 4:1-5

•  Genesis 1:31

• 1 Timothy 4:6-10

• John 3:36

• John 3:18

Character Still Does Count 

Sermon Summary

Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:1-13

Summary: Character among our church leaders and those who serve in ministry gives the church credibility to share the good news of Christ with others. 

Church attendance on the Sunday after the September 11 attacks rose by 6% nationwide. However, seven weeks later, pollsters tell us that church attendance has settled back to the same level it was before the terrorist attacks. Just by way of contrast, the Sunday after President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, church attendance went up by 20%. So it seems odd that our nation would be facing our biggest crisis since World War II, and we’d only see a 6% increase and that it would only last a few weeks.

It’s tempting for us as the Christian community to point our finger at the unchurched in our community. We might be tempted to say, "People in our culture today are anti-Christian, so no wonder they aren’t in church during this time of crisis”.  Here’s another example of western individualism, where people don’t see their need for community." However I wonder if people’s lack of church attendance during this time of national crisis says more about the church than it does about the people who don’t attend.

Most non-Christians I know aren’t anti-Christian, but they are anti-church. I was a prime example of that.  In fact, most of my non-Christian friends believe in God and some even try to nurture some kind of personal spirituality, but they’re skittish of organized religion, the kind of thing they see in our churches. I saw this very attitude in the TV show CSI recently, when the main character was invited by a catholic priest to attend mass. The character replied, "I believe in God, but I don’t believe in religion." Translated that seems to mean, "I nurture my life with God in places other than the church."

And it’s also simply not true that most unchurched people are rugged individualists who avoid community at all costs. Many unchurched people nurture their spiritual lives in other community settings, whether it’s a yoga class or an AA meeting, a martial arts course or a book discussion group at a Book store. The reality is that it’s not that unchurched people avoid community, but it’s that they avoid church. I suspect the lack of church attendance reveals something about the church in our culture.

We’ve been in a series through the New Testament books of 1 and 2 Timothy. We’ve been calling our series Deepening Your Life With God. We’ve seen so far that a deepened life with God comes as a result of three factors in our lives: Accurate beliefs, spiritual practices, and authentic Christian community.

It’s this authentic Christian community we’re talking about now. You see, attending worship services each week is no guarantee that we’re experiencing authentic community. Many people in our culture "play church" the way children play dress up. They dress in their Sunday best, put on a phony happy face, pretend to be excited about God and want to learn about how to follow Jesus. This is a kind of superficial "churchianity," and it smells fake and phony. Playing church, or even going to church, can never be a substitute for authentic Christian community.

Today we’re going to see that character is an indispensable quality to experience authentic Christian community. Today we’re going to see two specific areas character is especially important and then the reason why character is so important for us to have authentic Christian community.

1. Leaders With Character 1 Timothy 3:1-7

Let me just give you the first area character counts: To experience authentic Christian community, those who lead us must lead with integrity.

Look at 1 Timothy 3:1.  This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a [a]bishop, he desires a good work.

This is the second "trustworthy statement" we’ve encountered in 1 Timothy. Bible scholars tell us that these "trustworthy statements" were slogans that were well known in the Ephesian church Timothy was ministering in when the apostle Paul wrote Timothy this letter. So the "trustworthy statements" were like some of our church slogans, like, "Helping people love God and others," and "Every member a Kingdom builder." This slogan was, "If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task." That tells me that perhaps they were having difficulty finding people who wanted to serve as church overseers.

Now the word "overseer" simply means leader, a person who’s in charge of guiding a church forward in the advancement of its mission. Later on in church history this word would come to describe a bishop. But at this point it simply refers to a church leader, the equivalent of an elder in the church.

Paul’s point seems to be that it’s good and right to want to become an overseer in the church, but he’s going to list some very specific criteria church leaders must meet to qualify. In other words, it’s good to want to serve this way, but the church must make sure those who serve in this way qualify. You might remember the context of 1 Timothy, that some of the former elders in the church in Ephesus have abandoned the Christian, so Timothy is trying to appoint new elders and to make sure the current elders are qualified for their position.

Now in vv. 2-7 we find several qualifications for overseers who serve as elders in the church. As we read these qualifications, you’ll find that the great majority of them have to do with character, not with leadership ability. This is because no amount of leadership ability can compensate for a lack of character.

Look at the qualities with me. The phrase "above reproach" is a catch all phrase for everything that follows. "Above reproach" does not mean morally perfect because if it did, Jesus would be the only person to qualify to lead. In fact, "above reproach" doesn’t even mean, "Nearly morally perfect." Instead the word refers to integrity, and what this integrity looks like is spelled out in detail in the following character qualities.

We find here the need for martial faithfulness in v. 2  A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach;.

 The Greek text literally reads "a one woman man." Being a "one woman man" refers to a man who keeps his marriage vows, a person who, if he is married, is completely committed to his spouse. Marriage can be really difficult at times, and how a married person perseveres during those really difficult seasons of marriage reveals that person’s character. This is not to say this person has never been tempted to break his vows, but this is the person who makes the choice to stay faithful to his vows even when times are difficult and he’s tempted to do otherwise. Martial faithfulness is a window into a person’s character.

We also see the need for self-restraint in v. 2. The words temperate, self-controlled, and respectable all refer to the leader’s self restraint. A leader who can’t control his own drives and urges won’t be able to effectively lead other people. A leader in the church must have a sense of self-mastery and accountability, lest his passions overwhelm him and disqualify him from leadership.

We also see the need for hospitality here. Now hospitality was especially important back in the first century, because all the hotels were known to be crime infested, so the only way for traveling Christian teachers and preachers to serve was for church leaders to open their homes to them. But I think hospitality is also important today as well. The Greek word here literally means "love of strangers," and I think it describes an openness to new people, to people we don’t know, even people who might even be different than we are. Far too often we as leaders are tempted to only hang out with our friends or with other leaders, and this qualification reminds us that we need to be open to people we don’t know. To be honest, this is an area I struggle with, because it doesn’t come naturally. I struggle to grow in this area as I seek to see my character more closely shaped into the character of Jesus.

Finally we get to an area of leadership skill when we read about teaching ability at the end of v. 2. Now this isn’t simply the ability to follow a lesson plan, but it’s knowing enough about the Christian faith and the Bible to accurately communicate it to other people. The qualifications for overseers we find in 

Titus 1:9  holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

This verse helps us understand what "able to teach means." Paul writes Titus that overseers must "hold firmly to the message" which refers to understanding the Christian faith, they must be able to encourage other people with sound doctrine which refers to communicating the Christian faith to others and they must be able to refute those who oppose sound doctrine which refers to the ability to use the Bible to expose false ideas about God. This is an essential skill for Kingdom Builder. 

We also find the need for moderation with alcohol here. For those who have a problem with alcohol don’t drink.  In AA they say one drink is to many.  If you don’t have that kind of a problem, that means moderation when they drink socially.  Don’t get DRUNK

Paul also mentions relationship integrity. 3 not [b]given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 

The word "violent" in v. 3 refers to someone who’s a bully in their relationships with others. The words "gentle" and "not quarrelsome" also refer to relationship integrity. Sometimes I can be a bit quarrelsome, so this is an area I’m constantly trying to grow in. Paul’s point seems to be that church leaders must know how to have good, healthy relationships with other people.

Then he mentions financial integrity. Greed has no place in church leadership, especially when you’re making financial decisions and handling people’s hard earned giving. But part of financial integrity is generosity, 

In addition to financial integrity, Paul mentions family integrity in vv. 4-5 

4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence 

5 for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?; 

Notice the emphasis here is both on the potential elder’s leadership skill in his own home and on his integrity in his relationship with his kids. Although the English translation uses the word "manage" here the Greek word is "lead" and it refers to giving direction to a group. Paul’s point seems to be that if a person can’t provide leadership for his own family or if a person has minor children who are in rebellion, that demonstrates something’s not right in the home. This is not talking about rebellion of adult children or typical child behavior, but it’s speaking of full rebellion. Kids will be kids, and there’s a whole host of normal kid behavior that this text is not talking about. This seems to point to an elder’s minor child who’s completely rejected his or her parent’s authority and is spinning out of control.

Then Paul mentions spiritual maturity in v 6-7. 

6 not a [e]novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. 

7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

The Greek word here is the word neophyte, and it originally described a seedling that’s just been recently planted but that doesn’t yet have deep roots. So the seedling is easily uprooted. A lack of spiritual depth leads to conceit on the part of the leader, which causes his downfall.

Finally, Paul mentions a good community reputation in the non-Christian world. I think about this every time I’m tempted to loose my temper in public.  Again, this doesn’t mean perfect, but it refers a person who doesn’t have a reputation for being dishonest or immoral in the community.

A big reason why the unchurched world avoids the church is because often our leaders lack this kind of integrity. We can point to the obvious examples, the Jimmy Swaggarts and the Jim Bakkers. But we can also point to more subtle examples.

Frankly, I think the key to having integrity is not pretending to be perfect, but it’s simply having high moral standards and being honest with our shortcomings. I struggle to live by some of these qualifications. Some come easily, but others are a real struggle, and I hope I’m making progress.

A good way to acknowledge our shortcomings is through giving testimony to others

You see, the reality is that all genuine leadership requires integrity. Our culture has bought into the idea that leadership performance isn’t at all related to a leader’s personal character. I think the biggest tragedy of the Clinton scandal wasn’t so much what our former president did--as bad as that was--but how the American public responded to what he did. There seemed to be no awareness that an inability to keep one’s marriage vows might affect a person’s ability to keep one’s leadership vows.

According to the Bible there is a clear and direct connection between authentic leadership and integrity. This is true in every area of life. It’s true of our lives as parents, as we seek to lead our children to become healthy, responsible, and God loving people. It’s true of those who seek to lead their business, those who are bosses, those who serve in public office. One of the myths of our generation is that character and leadership performance are unrelated.

But before we point the finger at those people out there, the point of this text is to make sure we in the Christian community have leaders who lead us with integrity.

2. Servants With Character 1 Timothy 3:8-12

Now let me give you the second area where character is essential: To experience authentic Christian community, those who serve in ministry must serve with integrity.

Look at v. 8. 

8 Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, 

Paul mentions "deacons." Now later on in church history the word "deacon" came to be a leadership term, but here it simply means "servant." The Greek word Paul uses here is diakonos, which simply means "servant" or "minister." A diakonos referred to a person who did menial service to a master, and in the context of the church it refers to people who are involved in ministry. In v. 11 the Greek text literally reads, "Women likewise." The New International Version of the Bible takes the word "women" to refer to the wives of these servants, but I think it makes better sense to take it as referring to female deacons. So both men and women served as deacons or servants in the church.

Now what kind of character is Paul talking about for those who serve in ministry? Look again at vv. 8-12.

8 Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, 

9 holding the [a]mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. 

10 But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. 

11 Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not [b]slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. 

12 Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

Like those who lead, those who serve in ministry must have good character. The phrase "worthy of respect" is a catch all phrase that refers to good character. Again, this isn’t perfection or even near perfection, but high moral standards combined with honesty about one’s shortcomings. As part of this character, Paul mentions several of the same things he mentioned with elders, things like moderation with alcohol and financial integrity.

Paul also mentions doctrinal integrity. This is one clear difference in qualifications between those who lead and those who serve. Those who lead must not only know the Christian faith, but they also have to be able to instruct others in it and bring correction to those teaching false doctrine. But those who serve are simply required to hold to the Christian faith with a clear conscience. In other words, these people don’t have any reservations about our doctrinal statement and mission as a church. They aren’t necessarily able to defend the Christian faith against false claims or even to teach, but the hold to it with a clear conscience.

In connection with female deacons, Paul makes special mention of controlling their tongue. Perhaps Paul knows the women in Ephesus were especially tempted with malicious talk, so he wants to be sure that those women who serve in ministry can control their tongues. But this is also important for the men who serve in ministry as well. This is the person who resists the urge to pass on a tidbit of information about another person, the person who refuses to gossip and slander other people.

Paul makes special mention of being trustworthy. To serve in ministry, you’ve got to be trustworthy enough to be counted on, because people’s lives are at stake. Now our leadership community amazes me with their trustworthiness. I stand in amazement at most of our people’s willingness to help, and their level of commitment.

Then Paul again mentions marital faithfulness, just as he did with leaders.

Finally, Paul mentions family integrity.

Not only is it important for those who lead us in the Christian community to lead with integrity, but those who serve must also serve with integrity. This is just as much a part of authentic Christian community as character in leadership is. When the non-Christian community sees people who serve in their church but who willfully disregard the teachings of Jesus in their jobs or in their marriages, that smells like hypocrisy.

3. What Character Does 1 Timothy 3:13

Why is this all such a big deal? Look at v. 13. 

13 For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Those who serve with integrity as leaders and as servants in the church will gain "an excellent standing." Now this isn’t talking about personal status in the church, as if those who lead well and those who serve well get a special parking place. The excellent standing is the church’s standing in the community. This refers to the Christian community’s reputation among those who don’t attend the church. How our leaders lead and how our servants serve either builds or tears down our congregation’s reputation in the community.

Now why is Paul concerned with the church’s reputation? We find that out when Paul says those who lead and serve with integrity also gain "great assurance" in their faith. The word "assurance" is literally "boldness," and it refers to "a state of boldness and confidence, even in the face of intimidating circumstances". So the assurance here isn’t just an inward sense of assurance, but it’s talking about our confidence and boldness in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with our community.

So here we find why integrity is so important, why character still counts. When our Christian community has integrity, our message has credibility.

The credibility of our message is directly connected to the integrity of our leaders and the integrity of our servants. So when our nation faces a national crisis, and the next Sunday our nation’s churches experience only a 6% increase in attendance, I believe that says far more about the credibility of American churches than it says about the people who don’t come to church. For unchurched people in the twenty-first century, the church lacks credibility. Could it be that this is the backlash of years and years of pastors getting busted for prostitution, of church leaders driving Rolls Royces, owning private planes, lavish houses, people who serve in ministry cheating their employees and flirting with their secretaries?

But there’s also a promise contained in these words: A church with leaders who have integrity and servants who have integrity has credibility to share the good news with its community.

Character still really does count. And the kind of character that still counts isn’t perfection or even near perfection, but it’s integrity. In fact, when we try to look perfect, we don’t fool anyone, because everyone knows we’re all just strugglers in this journey. We all struggle with things in our lives that are self-destructive, things that hurt those around us, things that displease God. When we pretend to be anything other than fellow strugglers, all we succeed in doing is confirming our culture’s belief that Christians are hypocrites. The kind of character that still counts is integrity. Integrity is high moral standards combined with brutal honesty about where WE EACH fall short. We should be the absolutely first ones to admit where we’re still struggling, where we continue to need help. A dose of integrity in the church today will give us great credibility for this amazing and crucial time we are living in today.

Verse List 

• 1 Timothy 3:1-13

• 1 Timothy 3:1-7

• Titus 1:9 

• 1 Timothy 3:8-12

• 1 Timothy 3:13

 Loving Your Neighbor

Sermon Summary 

Text: Luke 10:25-37 (The parable of the Good Samaritan)

Introduction (v25-29)

“On one occasion an expert in the Law stood up to test Jesus. 

“Teacher,” “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

Jesus ask “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 

He answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’, and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Jesus Said “You have answered correctly,” “Do this and you will live.” 

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

1. The law of God commands us to love our neighbor.

A.See Lev. 19:18  You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against people, against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord

2. There is more to “Loving your neighbor” than we might think. What can we do to really show our neighbor we love them?

I want to share a 3 step process on how to really love our neighbors.

Step 1. Prayer (v30)

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and left him half dead.”

Four terrible things happened to this man;

1.He fell into the hands of robbers

2.He was stripped of his clothes

3.He was beaten

4.He was left half dead

Jesus is telling a parable here: He is telling an earthy story that has a spiritual application

The spiritual application here is clear;

1. When sin entered the world all of humanity fell into the hands of the Devil. The devil is the thief who comes only to steal, kill and destroy.

2. They first stole his clothes.

Back in Jesus’ time a person’s clothes had a lot to do with a person’s identity. When they stripped him of his clothes they also stripped him of his identity. Take a person’s clothes away and there is no way of telling if he is a rich man or a poor man.

Application:

The Devil loves to strip people of their true identity.

The Bible says “We were all created by God and for God.”

The Devil’s favorite passage of scripture

“After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the people around them.” They provoked the Lord to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. (Judges 2:10-13)

They next beat him up

The simple fact is this. Sin beats us up. It never builds us up!

Sin will take us further than we want to go

Keep us longer than we want to stay

Cost us more than we want to pay

Finally they left him half dead.

The Bible tells us because of sin we are physically alive but spiritually dead.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.” (Eph. 2:1-3)

In light of verse 30 Step 1 to loving our neighbor has to be Prayer.

Here’s why: v29 “but he wanted to justify himself…”

The 6 most dangerous words in the Bible: “but he wanted to justify himself…”

Translation: How dare you say I’m a sinner; I’m not a sinner I’m a saint!

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor. 4:4)

This is our prayer: that the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of those who are blinded so that they might see their need for a savior.

It’s hard to not like someone if you pray for them.

2.If Step 1 is prayer then step 2 has to be Care

“A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.” (v31-34)

A.God has called us to follow up our prayers with care for our neighbors

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2)

Question: Does God want us to personally care about everyone?

Answer: He wants me to really care about more than just myself and my family.

If you are a person who really cares about more than just yourself and your family you are in the minority.

A. “A sign of the times” – A priest and a Levite both passing by on the other side.

And notice there is no mention of a reason from Jesus why neither the Priest nor the Levite stopped to help.

Why: Because in Jesus’ view no reason was acceptable.

But what about those who need more care than we can give?

The Good Samaritan only did what he could. When it was clear that more help was needed he shared the need with someone else.

Does God really notice whenever we care for those who are hurting?

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take the inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go and visit you? The king will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matt.25:34-40)

3. The third step in loving your neighbor is to share (Jesus)

This 3rd step is only going to be effective if we have successfully being doing the first two. We first love our neighbor in prayer and care.

People don’t care about how much we know until they first know how much we care.

Where does it say anywhere in our passage that we should not only have prayer and care for our neighbor but also share Jesus?

“What is written in the Law? He replied. “How do you read it? He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and, love your neighbor as yourself.” (v26-27)

How do you read it?

The goal of Loving our neighbor is not just so that our neighbor loves us back. The goal of loving our neighbor is so that they will come to love God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind!

The danger is that we can be very caring but never go on to sharing.

This is why prayer is so important. Because if we are fearful about sharing we can start praying for God to help us.

In conclusion

Who might God want you and I to begin praying for? And in what ways can we also show our care for that person? And finally let us pray that God will give us the boldness to also share the good news of Jesus to any and all that will listen.  By spreading the good news of God you will be a kingdom builder.

Verse List

• Luke 10:25-37

• Lev. 19:18

• Judges 2:10-13

• Eph. 2:1-3

• 2 Cor. 4:4

• Gal. 6:2

• Matt.25:34-40

Men & Women: Different but Equal

Sermon Summary

Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:8-15

Summary: Two ways men and women are different in the church, and one way they are equal. 

Men and women really are different. So different one author says that it’s almost like men are from Mars and women are from Venus. The feminist movement in America has accomplished a lot of things--many of them good things--but they’ve failed to convince us that men and women are pretty much the same. We process things differently, we have different needs in our relationships, we see life differently.

But different doesn’t mean better. Feminists have a valid point when they complain that most of human history has been about men dominating women. Throughout most of history women have been oppressed and restricted. Many Americans were shocked to learn that a woman can be executed in Afghanistan for no more than learning how to read.

Unfortunately, the Christian Church has also been guilty of treating women unfairly. The second century theologian Tertullian called women "the Devil’s gateway". The Christian theologian Augustine called marriage a covenant of death.

In many ways the Christian community simply reflected the prevailing attitude of the entire ancient world. All of Greco-Roman society looked at women as inferior to men. The philosopher Socrates argued that being born a woman was a punishment because a woman is halfway between a man and an animal. Women weren’t allowed to vote in ancient Greece, they had little choice over who they married, and in Roman society they aren’t allowed to be seen outside the home. Women in Jewish society didn’t fare much better. The Jewish rabbis prayed, "Thank you God for not making a woman." Jewish women were forbidden from learning the Jewish Bible. In fact, one rabbi said, "It would be better to see the…scriptures burnt than to hear its words upon the lips of women". The sad reality is that much of human history has been about men oppressing women. That attitude prevailed until Jesus Christ came to our world. Jesus both taught and demonstrated an entirely new attitude toward women, an attitude that was radical and revolutionary. Jesus taught that men and women were equal but different.

We’ve been in a series through the New Testament books of 1 and 2 Timothy called Deepening Your Life With God. In this series we’ve been looking at the apostle Paul’s final letters before his death. He wrote these letters to his young protégé Timothy who was staying at the Christian church in Ephesus. We’ve seen so far that to have a deep life with God we need accurate beliefs, spiritual practices and authentic Christian community. Today we’re going to talk about the Christian community, and we’re going to see how men and women are different in the context of the Christian community.

1. Different Temptations 1 Timothy 2:8-10

We start by asking how men and women are different. Now I’m asking this question beyond the obvious, that men and women are different biologically. How are we different in the context of the Christian community? As we worship together, how are men and women different?

We’re going to see that men and women face different temptations in the Christian community.

Now just as a reminder, this entire chapter of 1 Timothy is about conducting prayer in the church’s worship services. We talked last week of teaching about public prayer in 1 Tim 1:1-7. This concern that we pray in our worship runs throughout this entire chapter, and we dare not forget it if we want to truly understand what Paul is saying here.

Paul starts by talking to the men in the church in v. 8. Lifting up your hands in prayer was the normal prayer posture among both Christians and Jews in the first century. This is one of several references to the lifting of our hands in worship. But here Paul seems less concerned with our posture and more concerned with our hearts. Apparently many of the men in the congregation were bickering and fighting among each other, and then putting on happy face at church and praying as if nothing were wrong. This was pure hypocrisy, because inwardly they were filled with anger at each other, but outwardly they were pretending that nothing was wrong. This was a clear violation of Jesus’ teaching in his Sermon on the Mount, that we should leave our offering at the altar and be reconciled with our Christian brother or sister before presenting an offering to God (Matt 5:23-24). Our uplifted hands aren’t holy in worship if our hearts are filled with seething anger and unresolved resentment.

But then Paul addresses the women in vv. 9 and 10. In the original Greek Paul wrote, v. 9 begins with the phrase, "Likewise also." This is important because the "likewise also" refers back to Paul’s statement in v. 8, "I want men to pray." By saying, "Likewise also," Paul is saying that he also wants the women to pray in worship, just as he wants the men to pray.

But the temptation the women were struggling with in the worship service was different than what the men were struggling with. Paul needs to remind the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety when they’re praying in worship. The word "modest" means "well ordered," and it refers to clothing that’s not showy, extravagant or sensually enticing. He calls the Ephesian women to "propriety," which means using "sensible judgment".

Now for the Ephesian women, the opposite of modesty was braided hair, gold, pearls and expensive clothing. Before you start looking around to see if anyone here has braids, gold or pearls, you need to know that the prostitutes in the ancient city of Ephesus wore braided hair and gold as part of their working clothes. You see, the city of Ephesus was home to the ancient temple of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, and this temple employed hundreds of temple prostitutes. These prostitutes were infamous throughout the Roman world for their elaborate hairstyles and ornate gold jewelry, so much so that you could identify a prostitute of Aphrodite from a distance just by the way she dressed. Some of the Ephesian women were mimicking the hairstyles and accessories of these prostitutes when they met for worship.

If the braided hair and gold was dressing seductively, the pearls and expensive clothing refer to dressing extravagantly. Pearls were the most expensive kind of jewelry you could buy in the Roman world, so they represented affluence and wealth. Pearls and expensive clothing pictures women coming to the worship service dressed in a way that called attention to their wealth and affluence. This was a way for them to flaunt their wealth in the faces of those who were less wealthy.

As I studied this verse, I immediately thought about the kinds of fashions we see every year at the Academy Awards. Each year we see women dressed in gowns that cost more money than you or I make in a year. And some of the dresses are so revealing that they seem to defy the laws of gravity just by staying on. I think Paul would say, "Don’t be surprised when they do that at the Academy Awards. But beware when you start dressing like that for worship."

Instead, says Paul, Christian women should adorn themselves with good works that are consistent with their claim to worship God. Now it’s very important that we understand the Bible’s principle here and not confuse the principle with how this principle applied in first century Ephesus. The principle is for Christian women to dress modestly when they participate in public worship. This verse says nothing about how a woman dresses for her husband privately. Really it’s not even talking about how a woman dresses in the workplace or the community, although we might apply the principle to those other circumstances. But the emphasis here is on Christian women dressing modestly for public worship.

Now the application of this principle for Christian women living in first century Ephesus was to avoid braided hair, gold, pearls and expensive clothing. What we need to apply in our own day is the principle, not necessarily the first century application of the principle. I knew a college student who didn’t understand this distinction between the principle and the first century application of the principle. Because of this verse, this student refused to allow his wife to wear her gold wedding band outside of the house. Now if I met a woman who I knew was married and I noticed that she wasn’t wearing her wedding band, I’d think, "This woman is trying to pretend to be unmarried." This student’s application actually had the opposite effect, because in our culture today a married woman not wearing her wedding band is an immodest act. So we want to emphasize the principle, not necessarily how the principle applied back to a different culture 2,000 years ago.

What we have here are men and women facing two very different kinds of temptations. Both temptations are similar because they deal with the alignment of what’s inside with what’s outside. THE MEN WERE TEMPTED TO MASK INNER SIN WITH OUTWARD VIRTUE. They were being hypocritical, pretending to be outwardly pious, while seething with inner anger. And men have a tendency to keep things deeply buried in their hearts, don’t they? Under stress, we guys have a tendency to internalize our feelings and bury them. We can be experts at pretending that everything’s okay when it’s really not. We can be tempted to mask inward sin with outward virtue.

THE WOMEN WERE TEMPTED TO MASK INNER VIRTUE WITH OUTWARD SIN. Now this is not to say that the women were more inwardly virtuous than the men in the church were, but it’s merely to point out that their temptation was slightly different than the men’s temptation. Instead of allowing their inner devotion to Jesus to be sufficient, they felt the need to mimic the fashions of the temple prostitutes to call attention to themselves. Or instead of letting their service of Jesus speak for itself, they wore clothing and accessories that flaunted their wealth. The women in Ephesus were dressing seductively and extravagantly to call attention to themselves.

I don’t think this passage is forbidding women from adorning themselves to enhance their beauty. Many Bible teachers agree when they say, "Paul recognizes both that women are beautiful and that they should increase and exhibit their beauty. There is no biblical warrant in these verses for women to neglect their appearance, or conceal their beauty or become drab…The question is how they should adorn themselves". The principle here for women is modesty, for women to enhance their beauty in modest ways. Modesty is simply not dressing in a way that calls attention to yourself, whether seductively or extravagantly.

It’s interesting that even non-Christians in our culture are starting to recognize the need for modesty. Wendy Shalit, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, has recently written a fascinating book called A Return to Modesty. Wendy Shalit believes our loss of a sense of modesty has led to women being victimized and brutalized in our society. Listen to what Wendy Shalit says, "Specific rules about modesty change with the styles. Our Victorian ancestors…would judge us utterly depraved for wearing the modern bathing suit. Real modesty, however, is a constant and desirable quality. It is based not on fashion, but appropriateness…A well mannered and self-respecting woman avoids clothes or behavior that are inappropriate and conspicuous". Shalit isn’t a Christian, but clearly she and many other women of her 20-something generation are yearning for a return to balance in this area. Men and women face different temptations, even in the Christian community.

2. Different Roles 1 Timothy 2:11-14

Let me give you the second difference between men and women in the church: God has given men and women DIFFERENT ROLES TO FULFILL in the Christian community.

Look at v. 11-14. Now this is one of the Bible’s most controversial passages. Some people think that this passage proves that the Bible is a patriarchal, woman-hating document. The author of one of the commentaries on 1 Timothy I studied this verse said, "This is a passage I have always disliked, resisted, and until now avoided at all costs".

Yet it’s essential that we hear exactly what Paul is and is not saying before we pass judgment on him. The text begins with, "A woman should learn." Now we quickly pass over that part, but it’s vitally important statement, because in the Greek this is a command, an imperative. It literally commands the church, "Let a woman learn." Back then both people believed it was wrong to teach women, so what Paul is saying here would be revolutionary to first century ears. This command opened a door that allowed women to learn about God for themselves, not having to rely on their husbands or a priest or prophet.

But this learning must take place in an atmosphere of quietness and full submission. In other words, the woman learning the Bible must be teachable and submissive to what the Bible says. So Paul wants the women to learn in an attitude of submission to the Bible, which is really a good attitude for all of us to have when we learn about the Bible.

Then Paul says he doesn’t allow women to teach or exercise authority over men. Now Paul uses a literary device here called hendiadys, where two ideas are coordinated but they really refer to the same action or thing. The two ideas are "teach" and "exercise authority over a man." Paul does not mean that he forbids women from all teaching on the one hand, and, by the way, he also forbids women from exercising authority over men. That would go against what Paul says elsewhere about older women teaching the younger women. So it’s not a blanket prohibition against women teaching, but it’s the kind of teaching that involves exercising authority over men that Paul’s concerned about. We might paraphrase Paul’s point as, "I do not allow a woman to give authoritative teaching to men, but when it comes to authoritative teaching, I want women to remain silent."

Now the reason for this prohibition relates to the story of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis. Paul says that there’s significance to the fact that Adam was created before Eve. That doesn’t mean Adam is better than Eve; after all, all the animals were created before Adam. But Paul does see that this order of creation illustrates a distinction in roles. Paul also points to the fact that it was the woman who was deceived. Now this does not mean that women are more easily deceived than men are. It always cracks me up when people think that this means women are more easily deceived and then they put women in charge of teaching all the children, the must vulnerable group. Remember, the responsibility for the fall of the human race is not shouldered by Eve, but the Bible says that its in Adam that the entire human race sinned. But there is significance to the fact that Eve was deceived.

All of this points to a distinction in roles for men and women in the Christian community. We can’t apply this to the workplace or to the community. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a woman being a supervisor in the workplace over men, or holding high political office, or whatever else. The context here is church leadership, not leadership outside of the Christian community.

Now how does this all apply to us? We understand the role of authoritative teaching to be limited to our elders. In fact, I find it very interesting that in the very next chapter Paul writes down the qualifications for church elders, because it’s up to the elder board to maintain a church’s doctrinal integrity. The elder board guards doctrinal integrity, and every person in any teaching role--male or female--is expected to teach within these doctrinal parameters.  So we don’t take this to be a blanket prohibition of any women teaching men, but we take it to be a prohibition of female elders, because it’s the elder board that provides authoritative teaching in the church.

We do have female pastors because we make a distinction between elders and pastors. In the Bible, a pastor is someone who is spiritually gifted by God to help equip other people for ministry. 

There are women who minister wherever God might lead them to. There are female Bible study leaders, female volunteer staff, female care group leaders, female communion servers, and so forth. 

So God has given men and women different roles in the Christian community.

3. Different But Equal 1 Timothy 2:15

Now if this is where the text ended, we might be tempted to think that God values the contributions of men more than he values the contributions of women. In fact, many Christians down through the ages have concluded just that, and the church has a bad history of refusing to allow women to use their spiritual gifts in meaningful ministry. In many churches, if it doesn’t involve cooking food, working with kids, or making crafts, women can’t serve.

So Paul tries to even things out with the last verse of the chapter, v. 15. Verse 15 literally says, "She shall be saved through childbirth." The "she" grammatically refers back to Eve in vv. 13 and 14. Remember what God said in Genesis after Adam and Eve both rebelled against God? God said to the serpent, "I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; the offspring of the woman will crush the serpent’s head, and the serpent will strike at his heel" (Gen 3:15). In that verse God promised that the remedy to sin would be provided by the woman’s offspring. The fulfillment of this promise came through the birth of Jesus Christ to Mary. Paul’s reminding us here that God’s gift of salvation would came through women, and this gift of salvation would be for all people. Every time a woman gives birth to a child it’s a reminder that women played a vital role in bringing God’s plan to fulfillment.

Then v. 15 broadens to include all women, that they too will experience this salvation if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with propriety. That’s Paul’s way of saying, "All women will be saved from sin provided that they are Christians."

So here we find how men and women are equal in the Christian community. Both men and women are invited to equally share in salvation through Jesus Christ.

Jesus came into the world by being born of a woman. But Jesus came into the world as a man. Which was more important to the process: Manhood or womanhood? That’s like asking which hand is more important when you clap, your right hand or your left hand? Both are equally important, because without one the other can’t do what it needs to do.

Paul writes these words to help us men view women as equals. After all, according to the Bible both men and women bear the image of God. Paul wrote in Galatians, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus" (3:28). The gift of God’s Spirit was poured out on both the men and the women, both sons and daughters, both slave and free, both young and old.

So even though men and women are different, they are definitely equal in God’s eyes.

Men and women are equal but different. In the Christian community they’re different because they face different temptations and have different roles to fulfill. There are probably other differences too, but these are the ones Paul focuses on because that’s where the problems were in the church in Ephesus. But men and women are also equal because they are both equally invited to share in God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Always remember that Christ Died for all, both men and women both young and old, both Jew and Gentile so that we could all be saved thru Jesus Christ and have ever lasting life.

Now go out and spread Gods word to any and all that will listen.  Continue to approach those who refuse to listen.  One day they will start asking questions and want to hear more about God and how to receive everlasting life thru Jesus Christ.

If you can lead one person to confess their sins and be saved you are a Kingdom Builder

Versus

• 1 Timothy 2:8-15

• 1 Timothy 2:8-10

• 1 Tim 1:1-7

• Matt 5:23-24

• 1 Timothy 2:11-14

• 1 Timothy 2:15

• Gen 3:15

“It's Not Just How You Start, It's Also How You Finish ”

Sermon Summary

Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:12-20

Summary: Whether our story of starting our life with God is dramatic or ordinary, what truly counts is finishing. 

Well I’m here today to tell you that it’s not just how you start out in the Christian life, but it’s also about how you finish. Last weekend we started a new series through the books of 1 and 2 Timothy in the Bible called Deepening Your Life With God. Today we talk about how people start out in this life with God. Every journey has to begin somewhere, and the spiritual journey begins with conversion, with a decision to turn to God and trust in Jesus Christ. Although everyone’s story of conversion is unique, there are three basic kinds of stories we hear about conversion. There are dramatic stories, there are "ordinary stories," and there are tragic stories. We’re going to look at each kind of story today, and we’re going to see that it’s not just how you start, but it’s also how you finish.

1. Dramatic Stories (1 Timothy 1:12-17) 

We start by looking at one of the most dramatic conversion stories of all in vv. 12-17. The apostle Paul who wrote this letter to Timothy had experienced a dramatic conversion. As he looks back on his story, Paul marvels in this section at how God could have confidence in Paul in light of his former way of life. His life before Jesus was characterized by blasphemy of Jesus, by persecution of Christians, and by violence. We know from the book of Acts that Paul participated in the execution of the first Christian to die for his faith. This led Paul on a rampage of hatred and violence, as he went from town to town stalking Christians. He used whatever means possible to imprison and hurt as many Christians as possible.

Yet despite all this, God got a hold of Paul’s life. While Paul was on his way to the city of Damascus to hunt down more Christians, suddenly Jesus Christ himself appeared to Paul. Paul was knocked off his horse and struck blind, as he heard those unforgettable words from Jesus, "Why are you persecuting me?" Paul’s life was never the same, as he came to trust in Jesus as his own Savior that day and also received his calling to become an apostle of Jesus Christ.

In v. 15 Paul quotes a trustworthy saying. Paul mentions these trustworthy statements four times in 1 and 2 Timothy, and each time it refers to a saying that was common knowledge to the church in Ephesus. These trustworthy sayings were like proverbs or slogans that everyone in the church knew, perhaps a bit like our slogans "helping people love God and others" or "Every member a minister." Well one of the slogans at the church in Ephesus was, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Some Bible teachers believe this slogan might be based on a saying of Jesus himself, perhaps Luke 19:10, where Jesus said, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

After quoting this, Paul adds the words "of whom I am the worst." Paul viewed himself as the worst of sinners, or as some translations put it, "the chief of sinners." One paraphrase of the Bible puts it, "Public sinner number one" Now I don’t think this means that Paul was the most wicked, immoral, hateful person who existed on the face of the earth at this time. I think Paul is speaking from the perspective of his own experience. Some Bible teachers suggests, "Paul was so vividly aware of his own sins that he could not conceive that anybody could be worse". I think Paul was also struck by the fact that his sins had been committed in God’s name, which made his sins even worse.

Paul views his own conversion as a kind of prototype, an example of how God can get a hold of a person who seems far beyond the reach of God’s love. This leads Paul to break into praise in v. 17, as he gives the credit to God alone for his conversion. He recognizes that it’s the one true God, the creator of the universe, who has laid hold of his life and put him into service of Jesus Christ.

So Paul’s story is a dramatic story, perhaps the most dramatic story of all. Here we learn that THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST CAN TRANSFORM PEOPLE WHO ARE HOSTILE TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.

Think about some of the more notorious conversions in our generation. Alice Cooper, the 1970s rock star who was the inspiration of Marilyn Manson has come to faith in Jesus Christ the last few years. And then there’s Norma McCorvey, perhaps best known as Jane Roe in the famous Roe vs. Wade court decision that legalized abortion on demand. Norma McCorvey was led to Christ by Christian pro-life activists, if you can believe that.

The good news of Jesus can transform people who are enemies of the faith.

2. "Ordinary Stories" (1 Timothy 1:18-19a)

That brings us to what we think of as "ordinary" stories. I put the word "ordinary" in quotes because from God’s perspective every single conversion is a miracle and cause for rejoicing in heaven. However, these are conversions that seem less dramatic to us.

Timothy’s story was an ordinary story, as we see in v. 18 and the first part of v. 19. Now we don’t know nearly as much about Timothy as we know about Paul, but what we do know about Timothy is interesting. We know from the book of Acts Timothy was raised in an interfaith home, with a Jewish mother and a Roman pagan soldier for a father. We know from 2 Timothy 1:5 that Timothy learned about God and Jesus from his mother Lois and his grandmother Eunice. We also know from 2 Timothy 3:16 that Timothy was taught about the Bible as a very young child, that his mother and grandmother had taught him from the Bible as far back as he could remember.

So Timothy grew up in the equivalent of a Christian home, as a third generation believer. If Timothy was like a lot of people who grow up in that kind of home, he probably struggled to identify exactly when his conversion occurred. To Timothy it probably seemed like he’d always believed because his faith had always been an important part of his life.

So Paul doesn’t remind Timothy of Timothy’s conversion experience, but instead he reminds Timothy of a time when some prophecies were made about him. Now the spiritual gift of prophecy was an important gift in the New Testament church, and it still functions even today. God gifts some Christians with the gift of prophecy, not so much to predict the future, but more to help the church discern what God’s will is when the church is facing a crossroads. We don’t know when these prophecies were made about Timothy or who made them, though 1 Tim 4:14 links it to a time when the church elders laid their hands on Timothy to commission him to ministry. Most likely, this is referring to Timothy’s calling to serve in ministry, perhaps when he first decided to join Paul’s ministry team. For Timothy, this event was his milestone, not so much his conversion but his calling to ministry.

Following Paul’s instructions will enable Timothy to live consistently with these prophecies, so he can fight the good fight. This "fight the good fight," phrase pictures Timothy as a soldier, and it pictures the spiritual life as a fight that requires faithfulness and perseverance. Isn’t that what the spiritual life seems like at times, a fight?

For Timothy the key to fighting this good fight will be "holding on to faith" and keeping "a good conscience." Holding on to faith is literally holding on to the Christian faith. This isn’t talking about Timothy’s personal faith, but it’s talking about Timothy’s commitment to the Christian faith. In this context, Timothy’s faith refers to his doctrinal integrity. This is why later in the letter Paul will tell Timothy to watch his doctrine closely (1 Tim 4:16). Doctrinal integrity is critical to Timothy if he wants to fight the good fight in his life with God.

If "holding on to the faith" refers to doctrinal integrity, keeping a good conscience refers to Timothy’s moral integrity. As important as doctrinal integrity is, it’s no substitute for moral integrity. Even if we believe all the right things about God, we won’t fight the good fight unless we maintain a life of moral purity that pleases God. Moral integrity is not perfection, but it’s a life that strives to stay within the moral boundaries God has given for us to live in. It’s a life that refuses to abandon itself to behavior that’s displeasing to God, whether it’s a lifestyle of dishonesty or to sexual excess or whatever. Doctrinal and moral integrity are both essential to fighting the good fight.

Timothy’s story is an ordinary story. We learn here that THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST CAN TRANSFORM PEOPLE WHO WERE RAISED IN A CHRISTIAN HOME.

There are thousands and thousands of "ordinary" stories all around us. I think of Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham. Anne never rebelled like her brother Franklin did, but instead she came to faith in Jesus Christ at a young age and has continued to grow and develop in her faith ever since. God is using her greatly, and some people think Anne is a more effective public speaker than her dad and brother are. I also think of Dr. James Dobson, who was the son of a Nazarene pastor. Dr. Dobson came to faith in Christ at an early age and has never deviated from the faith he learned from his parents and grandparents.

For people with ordinary stories, their benchmark events are likely to be events other than their conversion story. For Paul, his conversion was his turning point, but for Timothy his turning point came when was when he was called to ministry. If you were raised in a Christian home, you might have trouble remembering exactly when you came to faith in Jesus. Your benchmark events are likely to come later in your life, perhaps as a teenager or a young adult. Perhaps an experience with God at a summer camp or a time when you started serving in ministry as a high school student. Perhaps a summer mission trip or a crisis of faith that you worked through during your college years.

The biggest danger for people who were raised in a Christian home is becoming a nominal Christian, a Christina "in name only." A nominal Christian is someone who simply has the title Christian but lacks a genuine, authentic faith in Jesus. These are people who identify themselves as Christians because their parents were, they perhaps still go to church, they read the Bible, they even try to talk to others about the Christian faith, but inside they lack a genuine, vibrant relationship with God. This is why every person raised in a Christian home must come to a point of embracing the Christian faith for him or herself, no longer relying on their parents’ faith, their youth pastor’s faith, or anyone else’s faith.

Once a person comes to this point, then their life with God can be just as deep and just as exciting as a person with a dramatic conversion. 

To be honest, this is the kind of story every Christian parent wishes for his or her kids. A life like Timothy, where our children are nurtured in the Christian faith from infancy, where they came to faith at a young age, and where they confirmed that faith as an adult. We pray, "God help our kids be more like Timothy than like Paul."

It’s not just how you start, but it’s how you finish, and both those with dramatic stories and those with ordinary stories can finish well.

3. Tragic Stories (1 Timothy 1:19a-20)

But then there are tragic stories. These are stories about people who started out strong in the Christian faith. But for these people, something tragic happened, and they seem to have lost their faith in some way. For Paul, these people are represented by the false teachers in the church in Ephesus who once seemed to have faith but who have lost their way.

Paul gives us two examples of a tragic story in vv. 19-20. These are people who have pushed aside doctrinal integrity and moral integrity, and as a result they’ve have shipwrecked their faith. A shipwreck is a vivid word picture of total disaster, of being crushed and broken by the waves. A person shipwrecked is stuck, perhaps injured, and certainly has lost their way.

Paul identifies two individuals named Hymenaeus and Alexander who are examples of a shipwrecked faith. It’s likely that both of these guys had at one time been church leaders in Ephesus, but they’ve abandoned their doctrinal integrity and moral integrity. As a result they’ve shipwrecked their faith.

Now Paul says he has handed these two people over to Satan. That phrase "hand over to Satan" is a technical term in the New Testament for excommunicating people from the Christian community. The idea is that the church is the domain of Jesus Christ, but outside the church in the world is the domain of Satan. If a person rejects true beliefs about Jesus and embraces a lifestyle of moral rebellion, that person chooses to put themselves in the domain of Satan instead of the domain of Jesus. So if the person refuses to change after repeated warnings, they are given over to the domain they’ve chosen and put out of the church. This doesn’t mean the church stops loving them or praying for them, but it means that the church treats them as if they are an unbeliever because they are living like unbelievers.

Now Paul here never asks the question all of us are asking by now. Our question is, "Were Hymenaeus and Alexander still Christians?" Are they true Christians who lost their way or were they never true Christians in the first place? Paul refuses to speculate. He simply says to treat them as if they are unbelievers, but he stops short of making a judgment as to whether they’re genuine believers or not.

Hymenaeus and Alexander represent tragic stories. We learn that THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST CAN EVEN TRANSFORM PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOST THEIR WAY IN THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.

The reason why Paul told his own dramatic story first was to give hope to people like Hymenaeus and Alexander. If Christ can reach Paul, he can also reach Hymenaeus and Alexander, and anyone else shipwrecked in the faith. Tragic stories don’t have to have a tragic ending.

Now many of us know people who have lost their way in the faith. At one time they seemed to have faith in Jesus, but at some point they lost their way. Perhaps they lost their way doctrinally, abandoning their doctrinal integrity. Or perhaps they lost their way morally, abandoning their moral integrity. Our culture is filled with people who’ve shipwrecked their faith for whatever reason.

Verse List 

• 1 Timothy 1:12-20

• 1 Timothy 1:12-17

• Luke 19:10

• 1 Timothy 1:18-19a

• 1 Timothy 1:19a-20

Sailing Vessel Redemption (Update Nov 16, 2021)

"Norma and I are doing good.  We are leaving Panama City today headed to Clear Water Fl with a one night stop at Dog Island near Apalachacola Fl.  We will probally be out of cell service for the next couple of days but will continue to send out a weekly sermon for you all to read and promote Bible Study.  Norma and I will keep you all in our prayers and hope you do the same for us"

How Deep Are Your Roots

Sermon Summary 

Good Morning I am Pastor Bobby of Bare Foot Ministries and I want to thank you all for coming today and giving me the opportunity to spread the word of God with you.

The purpose of this Ministry is to Spread the word of God to any and all that will listen.  I will try very hard to plant the seed of God in your hearts, provide you with the knowledge to nurture that seed thru prayer, Bible Study and fellowship so that it can grow, so that in time that seed will mature and you will be saved and re-born so that you can have the greatest gift of God’s Love, Everlasting Life.

Bare Foot Ministries will also organize acts of kindness for individuals, families and groups and encourage you to participate.  These acts of kindness will be done in an effort to demonstrate God’s Love for everyone.

Let Us Pray

Lord, in Heaven, the creator of all Each and every day is a struggle against sin and temptation.

Give us the strength to overcome cruelty with grace and hatred with love.

God remind us that our actions matter.

We do not fight a physical battle, but a spiritual one and with each act of compassion

We build your kingdom.

Help us be kingdom builders today.

Thru Jesus Christ we pray

AMEN

Now for today’s sermon  

“How Deep Are Your Roots”? 

People are now calling September 11, 2001 "Black Tuesday." For many people that day was a wakeup call. Attendance in churches across the nation spiked sharply the Sunday after September 11, as people poured into churches to try to find answers. But not only did attendance go up, but people were also seeking spiritual answers to the deep questions they were experiencing. Bible sales went up 28%. Lots of ordinarily non-religious people became active seekers after God. They were asking spiritual questions they had not ask before. They were looking to find God, perhaps the God they learned about as a child in church, or perhaps the God they never knew.

Yet as we have all seen this seeking process turned out to be short lived. Events like what we experienced on September 11 create a momentary sense of urgency. But when the moment passes and our illusion of safety and routine is restored, our sense of urgency fades into the background. Soon we’re back to work, back to PTA meetings, soccer matches, carpooling, and yard work. Although we were sincere at the time about seeking God, slowly our motivation dissipates.

Do you know what makes a tumbleweed so susceptible to the wind? Tumbleweeds only put down one root, and that root is very shallow. So tumbleweeds are easily uprooted when the wind blows. Soon the tumbleweed is blowing wherever the wind pushes it, without any sense of direction or stability.

Contrast a tumbleweed with a tree, like an Oak tree, that puts down lots of roots and these roots go deep. Even in the midst of strong winds, Oak trees stand firm, because their root structure is strong and deep.

Is your spiritual life more like a tumbleweed or a mighty Oak tree? If you only have one or two roots in your spiritual life and these roots don’t go very deep, you’re more like a tumbleweed. And when the winds of life come, the winds of suffering and tragedy, or the breeze of business and routine, you’ll be easily uprooted. But if you have deep spiritual roots, you’ll find yourself standing firm no matter what comes into your life. Even though life doesn’t hurt any less for you and even though you still struggle with the same questions and issues everyone asks, your faith keeps you strong. You face uncertainty with courage, suffering with hope, and tragedy with confidence because your roots go deep.

How deep are your roots? Are you more like a tumbleweed or a mighty Oak?

Today we start looking at the books of 1 and 2 Timothy in the Bible. These two books from the Bible were written by the apostle Paul, the guy who wrote 13 of the 27 books found within the New Testament. Paul had once been a fanatical religious zealot whose passion in life was to exterminate Christians. But one day on the road to the city of Damascus, Paul’s life changed forever. That day Jesus Christ himself appeared to Paul and Jesus called Paul to become an apostle of Jesus. Paul was never the same, as he became a leader in the first century Christian church, traveling around to start churches and share the good news of Jesus Christ with whoever would listen.

Paul writes these two letters of 1 and 2 Timothy to a coworker named Timothy. Timothy was raised in an interfaith home, with a mom who was Jewish and a dad who was a pagan Roman soldier. Timothy grew up in the city of Lystra, a kind of backwater village in the outskirts of the Roman empire. Paul first met Timothy when Timothy was in his late teens or early 20s on one of Paul’s church planting trip. Later Paul invited Timothy to join his team, and gradually Paul entrusted several important tasks to Timothy. Now as Paul approaches the end of his life as he writes these final two letters before his death, Timothy is the heir apparent to Paul’s ministry.

Now Paul writes Timothy while Timothy is acting as a kind of temporary pastor in the church in the city of Ephesus. As we’ll see, Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to deal with some major problems that was destroying the church in the city of Ephesus. Paul started the church in Ephesus on one of his church planting trips. Ephesus was a large city in Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey. It was a major city, with its primary claim to fame being the temple to the Greek fertility god Artimus. This massive temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and tourists traveled from all over the Roman empire to see the temple and buy souvenirs. Paul wrote a letter to the Ephesians that we have in the Bible as the book of Ephesians. But these two letters Paul writes to Timothy are also letters to the Ephesian church. As we’ll see, Paul expects the church to read these letters as well as Timothy.

Now these two letters are going to show us how to deepen our life with God. They’re going to help us move away from having a tumbleweed spiritual life to an Oak Tree spiritual life. These two letters are going to present us with three roots we need to grow deep for a deeper life with God. One root we’ll see again and again in these two letters is the root of accurate beliefs. Accurate beliefs about God, about our world, and about ourselves are essential to putting down deep spiritual roots. If we have inaccurate beliefs about God, we’ll find ourselves like that tumbleweed.

As a church we try to focus on this area in our worship services, like we’re doing right now. That’s why each sermon is out of the Bible in our services, to try to help us all develop accurate beliefs about God. This is a big part of what we hope to accomplish each week in our services. Accurate beliefs are essential to a deepened life with God.

But in addition to accurate beliefs, according to 1 and 2 Timothy we also need spiritual practices. Spiritual practices are those activities we engage in to nurture our relationship with God. They’re practices like prayer, Bible study, confession of our sins and sharing our faith. If we’re not engaging in spiritual practices, we’ll be like tumbleweeds.

Finally, in addition to accurate beliefs and spiritual practices, we also need Christian community to deepen our life with God. By Christian community, I don’t mean merely attending church.  It’s hard to have Christian community when you look at the back of another person’s head for an hour. I’m talking about authentic relationships, the kind of friendships that happen in our home with other believers. This is why group bible study is vital for fellowship, because it’s a place to develop an authentic Christian community. The more involved we are with fellow believers, the deeper our roots will go.

These two letters of Paul to Timothy present us with these three roots to deepen our life with God. But today we’re going to look at why accurate beliefs are so important to a deepened life with God. We’re going to find three reasons why accurate beliefs are important to putting down spiritual roots.

Involving Us 1 Timothy 1:1-4  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,

2 To Timothy, a true son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may [a]charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 

4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.

Let me just give you the first reason: Accurate beliefs deepen our life with God by involving us with God’s plan.

This letter begins in a typical fashion, with Paul naming himself as the sender and naming Timothy as the addressee. However, even though Paul only names Timothy in these letters, but Paul assumed that the Ephesian church members would also read this letter, so he writes to bolster Timothy’s spiritual authority as Paul’s official representative to try to make Timothy’s job a little easier.

Paul reminds his reader that he’s an apostle of Jesus, chosen directly by God himself. Here we also learn why Paul has his young protégé Timothy staying in Ephesus. Apparently, some people in the Ephesian church are teaching false ideas about God.  Some five years earlier, Paul had a special meeting with all the elders of the church in Ephesus, and he warned them at that time that he feared some of the elders would fall away and become false teachers Apparently Paul’s fear had come to pass.

We don’t know much about what these false teachers were saying, but we learn here that it has something to do with devotion to myths and genealogies. Now have you ever tried read the Bible and come to those parts of the Old Testament that are nothing but long genealogies? "So and so begat so and so, so and so begat so and so," and so on and so forth. If all parts of the Bible are useful, those parts of the Bible are useful for treating insomnia! Well back when Paul wrote this letter, several Jewish writings had been produced that tried to read between the lines of these genealogies found in the Old Testament. Entire books had been written that speculated about what happened to the people mentioned in these genealogies. These books consisted of legends and tales of these people, and they were pure fiction. Apparently, these false teachers were either obsessed with reading these kinds of novels or they were making up their own myths and legends based on Old Testament family trees.

Paul says this excessive devotion to myths and genealogies leads to nothing but controversy. It hinders rather than promotes God’s work. Now the Greek word translated "work" in v. 4 is the key word to this section, and it’s not the usual Greek word for "work" in the New Testament. The word Paul uses here refers to "a plan which involves a set of arrangements". The Greek word Paul uses here is related to our English word economy. It refers to a "master plan" or "strategic plan." Here it refers to God’s master plan.

Accurate beliefs involve us in this master plan of God, while inaccurate beliefs distract us from it.

Now what exactly is God’s master plan for our world? "I believe God has called each of us to reach non-believers and unchurched people with Christ’s love and to help these people grow into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ who wholeheartedly love God and others"

God’s strategic plan involves reaching people who don’t yet know Jesus Christ. These are the unchurched people in our own communities, those who haven’t yet discovered a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. When we live as Kingdom Builders in our own community it causes Gods Kingdom to grow larger, as more and more people discover this relationship with Jesus through your sharing of Gods word in this community. This is what God is doing in our world, using you and other Christians worldwide to invite people into a relationship with Jesus.

But this master plan also involves growth into spiritual maturity. We’re also concerned with helping people who are already Christians grow in their devotion to Jesus. This is what causes our faith to grow deeper, as we develop accurate beliefs, spiritual practices, and an authentic Christian fellowship (community).

Accurate beliefs involve us in this process of reaching out to lost people and helping each other grow into full devotion to Jesus. Inaccurate beliefs distract us from this master plan. 

2. Empowering Us  1 Timothy 1:5  Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from [a]sincere faith,

Let me give you the second reason: Accurate beliefs deepen our life with God by empowering us to love people.

Verse 5. Paul states his purpose for giving Timothy this command to silence false teachers. Although this command to silence false teachers is going to be a difficult one to accomplish Paul’s aim is to produce love rather than controversy, reconciliation rather than strife. By extension we can conclude that this is really the goal of all Christian instruction. The goal of all Christian instruction is to empower us as followers of Jesus Christ to truly love other people, to truly love our neighbor

Where does this kind of love come from? It comes from "a pure heart." In the Bible, your heart is your inner person, who you are on the inside. A "pure heart" describes a heart that’s being continually cleansed and transformed by God. It’s not talking about a heart that’s never been dirty, but it’s a dirty heart that’s being cleansed by God through Jesus Christ. All of our hearts need continual and ongoing cleansing from sin, and Christ’s death on the cross provides for this cleansing. Hearts that aren’t cleansed by Jesus Christ can’t love with the kind of love Paul is speaking of here.

This kind of love also comes from "a good conscience." This isn’t talking about feeling good about our past actions, but it’s talking about a conscience that leads us to do good today. A good conscience is a moral sensitivity that shows us what’s right and wrong today. It’s a moral compass that’s aligned with the true north of God’s own standards for right and wrong. If we don’t have an accurate moral compass, we can’t love people the way God wants us to.

This kind of love also comes from "a sincere true faith." This refers to an authentic trust in God, a trust in God that’s not just religious showboating. It’s a trust in God that comes from the heart, a trust that’s willing to trust the results of our love to God. If we can’t trust God from our hearts, we’ll have great difficulty loving people.

Apparently, the false teachings circulating in the Ephesian church weren’t leading to love. These destructive doctrines were causing pure hearts to become defiled, good consciences to become confused, and sincere faith to erode. But accurate beliefs will empower us to love others.

Sometimes people say, "The Christian faith isn’t so much about believing certain things as much as it’s about loving people." Many people in our world today think it doesn’t matter what you believe, so long as you’re loving. And if you’re loving, you’re a Christian, regardless of what you believe. But the teaching of the Bible is that because of human sin, we’re incapable of loving the way we should. So God demonstrates his own incredible love by sending his own Son Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection, we see real love in action. And when we trust in what Jesus accomplished on the cross, this belief empowers us to love others the way God loves. So there’s a direct connection between our beliefs and our capacity to truly love our neighbor.

3. Focusing Us 1 Timothy 1:6-11   from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.

But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 

knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,  for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.

Accurate beliefs deepen our life with God by focusing us on the message about Jesus Christ.

Look at verses 1 Timothy 6-11. Apparently, in addition to speculating about the genealogies in the Bible, these false teachers desperately wanted to be "teachers of the law." This phrase refers to Jewish rabbis who were especially skilled at applying Jewish law to contemporary life situations. And the heart of the Jewish Law was the ten commandments. Yet apparently, as dogmatic as these false teachers were, they really didn’t understand God’s law.

Paul reminds us that the Old Testament law of Moses found in the ten commandments is only valuable if it’s used properly. If we don’t use the law in accordance with God’s purpose for the law, we’ll find ourselves using it wrongly. When we use God’s law wrongly, it’s no longer a force of good in our lives.

God’s law is like a medicine prescribed by our doctor. If we use the medicine the way its prescribed, it will make us feel better. But if we abuse the medication or use it in ways not prescribed, it will make us even more sick. Paul tells us that God’s law is very good at pointing out what sin is, but God never intended the ten commandments to be a way to set us free from sin.

Paul lists all kinds of sins here, and the sins he lists roughly correspond to the ten commandments. The first four of the ten commandments deal with our love for God: No other gods, no idols, not taking God’s name in vain, and keeping the Sabbath holy. All of these commands deal with the vertical dimension of our spiritual life, they all have to do with our attitude and actions toward God. The words "ungodly and sinful, unholy and irreligious" all deal with sin directed toward God.

Then the last half of verse 1 Timothy 9:10 deal with sins against other people, and these sins correspond to the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth commandments. This is the horizontal dimension of our spiritual life, how we treat each other as a reflection of our devotion to God.

God’s law is God’s prescription to show us that these kinds of activities are morally wrong. But God’s law is powerless to bring about the spiritual and moral transformation we need to be delivered from these kinds of sins. For that we need what verses 1 Timothy 10-11 call the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel. The phrase "sound doctrine" here uses a medical word to convey the idea of beliefs and teaching that promote spiritual health. While wrong beliefs and false doctrine produces spiritual sickness, true beliefs and sound doctrine produces spiritual health in our lives.

And the criteria for what counts as sound doctrine is the gospel. That word "gospel" simply refers to the message about Jesus Christ, the good news that Jesus came to live a perfect life, die on the cross for our sins, and rise from the grave to conquer death. Throughout the New Testament, God’s gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ and what Jesus accomplished for us.

You see, for the Christian, the gospel ought to be the criteria for evaluating every belief we have. We look at life through the lens of the gospel to come to beliefs that are sound and produce spiritual health in our lives. While many of the religious people back when Paul wrote these words looked at the ten commandments in this way, Paul tells young Timothy that this presses the law into a role God never intended for the law. Instead of looking at life through the lens of the ten commandments, God wants us to look through the lens of the gospel.

This emphasis on the gospel is what makes Church an evangelical church. We’re a church that focuses on this good news, this message about Jesus’ death and resurrection. We want to share this message with others, we celebrate daily. We listen to stories about how this message has changed people’s lives. We’re a gospel focused congregation of believers.

Conclusion

We learn here that accurate beliefs are powerful indeed. Accurate beliefs are essential to a deepened life with God because they involve us in God’s work, they empower us to love people, and they focus on the message of Jesus Christ. Inaccurate beliefs distract us from God’s work, hinder our ability to love people, and focus on things other than the gospel.

My hope and prayer is that as you come Sunday you’re on a journey of developing accurate beliefs about God, about yourself, and about our world. It’s my prayer that as we journey together in this process of developing accurate beliefs, God will use us in amazing ways. Then we’ll put down deep roots, roots that can withstand the winds of change and fear, roots that are strong enough to sustain us even in times of war, roots that go deep into the heart of God himself.

If you have not yet repented, confessed your sins, and trusted in Christ to save you from God’s wrath, then you don’t know the full extent of Gods’ love yet.  John 3:36 says that “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” because “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18). I pray that is not you.

I encourage you to pray this prayer with me, but I caution you that saying words alone will not save you. Prayer alone doesn’t save. Only Christ can save. But prayer can be a means of reaching out to the Lord in true saving faith. If you pray these words in faith, Christ will save you. You can be sure of that.

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, for too long I’ve kept you out of my life. I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. No longer will I close the door of my heart when I hear you knocking. By faith I gratefully receive your gift of salvation. I am ready to trust you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth. I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Thank you for bearing my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life. I believe your word and desire the Holy Spirit to come into my heart and give me guidance to walk your path to salvation and everlasting life. In Jesus Name I Pray Amen.

Now go out and be a Kingdom Builders For God.  Share the word with any and all that will listen.

Verse List

• 1 and 2 Timothy

• 1 Tim 1:1-4 

• 1 Timothy 1:5

• 1 Timothy 6:10

• 1 Timothy 9:10

• 1 Timothy 10:11

Notes:  This week we continue to study 1 & 2 Timothy.

Please read this one carefully.  If you take offense please read this sermon again and look up each verse referenced.  Both 1 & 2 Timothy are bypassed by alot of preachers because without careful study can cause controversy within their church and between men and women.  That controversy is caused because of the misinterpretation of several of the verses..  Men and Women are equal in the eyes of God but each have their different role in serving the Lord.  Don't stop studying The Books of Timothy after this series of sermons.  Continue to look deeper.  There is so much that Paul says in these 2 books of the Bible.  Thank you all for allowing me to continue to plant the seed of God in your hearts.

“What I Want Or What I Need?”

Sermon Summary

This is our fourth week of looking at this prayer and this is the first time that Jesus finally gets to the part where we get to ask for something, He gives us Matthew 6:11. “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Now, we’ve all probably said that verse many times. But that verse tells us HOW we’re supposed to ask God for things. It tells us what our attitude is supposed to be when we approach the creator with a request.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”  

This short verse gives us four attitude checks when asking for things in prayer. 

Your first attitude check is to seek the supplier of your needs.

Lets change this verse to say Lord you Give us this day our daily bread. If you remember who it really is you’re talking to, it will affect your attitude. It will affect the way you ask for things.

And not only does Jesus tell us to greet the Lord in prayer the right way in verse 9… in verse 10, He tells us to recognize and understand that He is the One who is in charge of everything. He is the One who rules and reigns over you personally, over this world, and over eternity. That is the “you” that you are talking to. That is the “you” that you are asking things from. That is the “you” that you are saying, “You give me.” That is the “you” Who is your supplier of your needs.

Your second attitude check is to understand the urgency of your needs.  We have a problem with understanding the urgency of our needs. We have a problem understanding that we have to pray for our needs “this day.” Understanding our urgency seems to disappear when we have a pantry full of food. It seems to disappear when we have a little nest egg account in the bank. It seems to disappear when we have a steady check that comes in once a month. Do you have any idea how quickly that could all change?  

You need to have the attitude check that says, “Lord, provide for me what I need this day.” “Lord, sustain me this day.” When you quit trusting in the economy for provision… When you quit trusting in the government for provision… when you quit trusting in yourself for provision… when you understand that everything you have could all be gone by the time you get home today… when you understand the urgency of your needs… that’s when you’ve made your second attitude check.

3.Your third attitude check is to figure the frequency of your needs.

What a strange thing for Jesus to tell us to pray “this day” for “daily bread”. If you look at it, it almost seems redundant, doesn’t it? Why does Jesus tell us to pray “this day” for “daily bread”? Because as we’ve just talked about, “this day” speaks of the urgency of the moment. It speaks of the things that we need right now. It recognizes that we won’t survive, even this moment, without the sustaining power of the Lord. That’s what “this day” speaks of. But “daily” speaks of something different. “Daily” speaks of frequency. It speaks of how often we need to present our needs to God. You see, it’s not just that we need God’s provision right this instant. Yes, we need God right this instant. But we also need God just as much an instant from now. And an instant from then. We need God’s provision just as much tomorrow as we need it today. There is not a moment of your life where you can exist without God’s provision. That is what you’re praying when you pray for your “daily” bread.

Finally, your fourth attitude check is to know the nature of your needs.  Jesus tells us to pray that God would give us this day our daily bread.

The question is, what are those needs? Food, family, shelter—of course we should pray about those things. But are those our deepest needs?  Our most needed needs? 

No.

Family isn’t our biggest need. Shelter isn’t our biggest need. Food isn’t even our biggest need. Yes, you are to pray for those things because they are needs. But they aren’t your BIGGEST needs. Your BIGGEST need is the Bread of life. Your biggest need is the food Jesus told the disciples about about in John 4:31-34 

Your biggest need is Jesus. He is the nature of your need. You need Him every single day. He is the frequency of your need. You can’t live even one moment without His sustaining grace and power. He is the urgency of your need. And Jesus is the only One who can fill your every need. Food can’t, shelter can’t, family can’t, money can’t, prosperity can’t. The only One who can fill your every need is Jesus. He is the supplier of your needs. Have you asked Him? Jesus, give me this day and every day to follow, the only bread I truly need. Jesus, give me you. 

Have you prayed that?   Ask Jesus to give Jesus to You this day, this hour, This minute, this very second.

Verse List 

• Matthew 6:11

• John 4:31-34

• Matthew 7:7-11

• Matthew 6:11

• Matthew 6:9

• Matthew 6:10

• Matthew 6:11

• Matthew 8:20

• Luke 18:29-30

• John 4:31-34

• John 3:36

• John 3:18

Forgiveness

Sermon Summary 

Jesus has once and for all paid the price for our sin. But we daily continue to commit sin. Jesus’ once and for all forgiveness is applied daily—just like our forgiveness many times has to be applied daily.

When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself. ” Is there a more difficult thing that Jesus tells us to do? Is there a more difficult thing to do than forgive those who have wronged us? That’s why Jesus tells us to pray about it.

We’ve been looking at the Lord’s Prayer over the past several weeks. And now we get to a part that most of us just want to skip over. The part where we praise God for who He is—we’re OK with that. The part where we recognize that Jesus is in charge and we pray for His will—that’s OK too. We really like the part where we get to ask for stuff. The part where we get to ask for our daily bread. But this part… can’t we just skip over this part? I mean it would be great if it just stopped with the first part of verse 12. It would be great if it just stopped with us asking God to forgive our sins. As a matter of fact, that’s where we stop most of the time, isn’t it? “Lord, here are all the areas that I have failed you today.” “Forgive me for those things.” Let’s just stop there. But we can’t. Because Jesus said, “after this manner therefore pray.” “Pray like this.” “This is the way you’re supposed to pray—forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

That’s why Jesus has to go on to unpack it in a couple of places. The first place was immediately in Matthew 6:14-15.

Did you notice something? This subject of forgiveness is the only part of the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus gives a commentary on when He finished.

But do you suppose it points out how much of a struggle we will always have with forgiveness? Do you suppose it points out how much we will always want to skip the second part? How much we want to get God’s forgiveness, but how much we are unwilling to give it out? Jesus knows our tendency. He knows our weakness. He knows we are but dust. So He tells us in no uncertain terms how important forgiveness is. He draws a parallel between the way we forgive other people and the way God forgives us. If you forgive others—God will forgive you. If you don’t forgive others—God will not forgive you. Wow—that’s tough. Does that mean that if someone has done me a terrible wrong and I don’t forgive them… does that mean I’m lost? Here’s the scary part Wake up and listen Close—it just might mean that.

When you’re dead, the body decomposes and nothing fights against it. When you’re alive, your body wars against the things that try to destroy it. In the same way, when you’re alive in Christ, your life is completely incompatible with sin. It doesn’t mean you won’t sin any more than it doesn’t mean that your physical body won’t get a cold. What it does mean is that when you do sin, your new life in Christ will war against that sin. If that war against sin isn’t happening in your life, it might mean that you aren’t alive. It might mean that you have never experienced a new life in Christ. 

• It might mean that the reason you can’t forgive is because you haven’t been forgiven. 

• A complete and total lack of forgiveness in your life shows that you are lost and in need of a savior 

If you find yourself in that condition today, you don’t have to stay that way. Jesus has paid the price so that you can be forgiven. If you are living in a perpetual state of bitterness and unforgiveness… ask Jesus to save you right now.

Don’t wait a moment longer!

Verse List

• Matthew 6:12

• Matthew 6:14-15

• Matthew 18:21-35

• 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

• Ephesains 2:1-9

• Isaish 53:10

Lord's Prayer

Sermon Summary 

God is in control, therefore we can pray for Him to not lead us into temptation and deliver us from evil.

Today we come to the end of our study in the Lord’s Prayer. And we end right back where we started. We end with recognizing God for who He is. We end with praising Him for His kingdom. For His power. And for His glory. But before Jesus takes us there, He takes us to a much more difficult place. As a matter of fact, it can be a disturbing place. You see, it’s fairly easy to say that God has all the power. It’s fairly easy to say that everything is for His glory. It’s fairly easy to tell God that He’s King over all. But what does that mean? How does that play out in day-to-day living? When you get the promotion you were praying about, it’s easy to see God as in control. When you see a miraculous healing take place, it’s easy to see God as in control. When you see things work out just the way you think they should, it’s easy to see God as in control. But what about all the other things that make up life? What about all the things that we see as bad? What about the difficulties? What about sickness that doesn’t get healed? What about hurricanes, tornado's, fires and floods? What about those things? It’s called the question of evil. It’s a question that has caused many people to stumble throughout history.

The question is “How could a loving and omnipotent God create such horrors as we have been contemplating.” The sad thing is, he’s not alone. When you talk to people about God, it won’t be very long before someone confronts you with THE question: “How can a good God allow bad things to happen.” People try to skirt the question. They try to dance around it. The worst thing is when people try to make excuses for God.

Several years ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a best-seller that basically said that evil happens because God is powerless to do anything about it. Poor God. Do you see what happens when the Bible isn’t your source of truth? Do you see what happens when you begin to undermine the truth of Scripture? When you remove Scripture as the source of all truth and meaning, you end up with a pitiful, man-made god. You end up with a god who is powerless against evil. Or you end up with a god that many of our TV preachers peddle today. You end up with a god who isn’t sovereign. Instead, they peddle the idea that Satan is sovereign. Of course they don’t say that. What they say is, “you lost your job because Satan made it happen.” “you are sick because Satan made it happen.” “you lost your loved one because Satan made it happen.” Guess what? Satan doesn’t make anything happen. Because Satan is not in control. Satan’s main power is in his extraordinary ability to deceive. And I can think of no bigger deception than that. To convince people that he is in control of anything is the biggest lie going.

Because that is God’s territory. God is in control. God is sovereign. He is not helpless. He is not powerless against evil. Nothing surprises Him. Nothing is outside of His sovereign control or power. Nothing. Not even evil. Not even sickness. Not even disease. Not even hurricanes or tornado's or the Holocaust. Nothing. Whether death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things yet to come, height, depth, or any other creature. God is sovereign over all.

And it takes the mind of an all-knowing God to understand how something that we see as evil will work together for good.

So the question is, why does God allow sin to exist? He allows sin to exist for the same reason that He planted a tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden and then told Adam that he couldn’t eat of it. He planted that tree and made the rule as a test.

But we know that Adam failed that test. So the test wasn’t really there for Adam to prove his love for God, was it? The test was really there so God could prove His love for Adam. It was there for God to prove His love to all mankind through the atoning work of Christ on the cross.

Does God lead us into temptation? Yes, He does. When we see the word temptation, it has very negative connotations. In our language, temptation leads to sin. But the meaning of the original word carries no such connotation. The original word simply means test. A temptation is a test.

The three temptations of Jesus—we’ve read them many times. But there’s something we tend to skip over. We skip over how the passage starts in “Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Who led Jesus to the wilderness? God the Holy Spirit did. For what purpose? So that He would be tested. Satan intended evil for the tests. Satan intended for the tests to result in failure. But Jesus didn’t fail the tests. God the Spirit led Him to be tested and He passed. At the end of His life, Jesus was tested again in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

And He wrestled with that test in prayer to the point that He was so emotionally stressed that He actually sweat blood. And what was He asking in that prayer? Father, let this cup pass from me. He was asking that the Father not lead Him into the ultimate test of the cross. But at the same time, He knew that was why He was sent. He was sent to give God ultimate glory by passing that test. And in order to pass it, He had to take it. So He followed up His request that the Father lead Him not into temptation. He followed it up with, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to be tested. I don’t like it when my flesh is tested with a lustful thought or my motivation is tested or my selflessness is tested. I don’t like those things any more than I like it when I’m tested with sickness or grief or loss. But what about other kinds of tests? What about success? I know how many times I’ve failed the success test in the past. I’ve failed it by taking credit for it. Tests come in all shapes and sizes. And we don’t have to like them. That’s why Jesus tells us to pray about them. He tells us that it’s OK to ask God not to test you so much.

So Lord, what I ask is, if you won’t take the test away… deliver me from evil. Don’t let me do anything that will dishonor the name of Jesus.

I don’t know what kinds of tests the Lord is placing in your life right now. Know one thing today. God places the tests there in order that you will bring Him glory by passing them. Not in your strength, but in His. The only way you will be delivered from evil and pass the tests placed before you is with the power of the One who holds all power. Because it’s His kingdom. He’s in control of it all. It’s His power. He holds all power in His hands. And it’s for His glory. You didn’t choose your tests. But you can pass them. And the first place to start is prayer. Do you need to remind yourself that God’s in control today and every day?

The Lord is placing another test before you today. He’s placing a test of response to His Word. Are you going to pass it? Will you respond in the way He’s calling you to respond?

Verse List

• • Matthew 6:9-13

  • Genesis 50:20

  • Matthew 4:1

  • Luke 22:44

  • John 3:36

  • John 3:18

We’ll Leave the Light On 

Sermon Summary 

The light that a Christian shines is so that others might see good works and give God the glory.

Our Christianity is of no value if it is not shining out in our daily lives.

Matthew 5:16  Let’s break down this seemingly simple verse

1.Leave a light on. “Let your light so shine before men”. That means that you personally have a light to shine. 

That Light is YOUR INFLUENCE.

2.Leave a light on “that they may see your good works”. That means that you have a task to do. 

That Light is YOUR ACTIONS.

3. Leave a light on as men are to see your “good works” and “glorify your Father in heaven”. That means that what you do has eternal consequences. That Light is YOUR MOTIVE.

YOUR INFLUENCE. We will let our light shine. “Let your light so shine before men”

Your light represents the presence of God within you and among those with whom you come in contact. You have something to offer, something that the world cannot offer, the Gospel. You have light to shine in the darkness of their sin. “Let your light so shine”.

YOUR ACTIONS. We are going to do the right thing. “That they may see your good works.“

When Jesus spoke of the light that was to shine He was talking about our good works. Doing good works is not an option. Doing what is right is not an option. You have work to do. It is to do good works. This is the way to make your light shine. This is how you make the light real in the lives of others. You are to do what is right, visibly, before others. In this way you carry Jesus into the lives of others so that they might listen.

Never hide your faith. It is to be visible for all to see. It is to work itself out in everyday life in a thousand ways. You are to walk the walk.

YOUR MOTIVE. So that people will glorify our Father. “That they may see your good works, and glorify (PRAISE) your Father which is in heaven.”

When Jesus was talking about our light that was to shine he was referring to our motives. There are eternal consequences to doing good works. When you do things that are good and right people will praise your Father, which is in heaven. God gets the glory. There are eternal consequences to bringing Christ to people and people to Christ.

You want others to “glorify your Father, which is in heaven”. This is important. This is the motive for good works. This is what makes the Christian different from the secular world in doing good works. The glory goes to God the Father.

Before you take this sermon and run with it let me give you some suggestions. Some tough questions that we should ask ourselves before we go out. This is not to get us to stay home, but rather to get us to prepare.

I.  How is your prayer life? We will never be able to reach people seeking God or just Flat out Unbelievers unless we are a people of prayer.

II.  Whom did you tell about Jesus yesterday or today? The question is not how do you share, but, did you share your faith. The best way to share your faith is to just do it!

III.  How is your family life? Satan’s most effective tactic is to attack the Christian in his/her family life. Is your faith evident in and to your family life?

IV.  Do you need to reconcile with someone? We are called to a ministry of reconciliation. 2 Cor 5:18 “ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

” Jesus said in Matthew 6:12, And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors.  We cannot worship until reconciliation Forgiveness) is made.

V.  Are you committed to GOD? It is not “what can Jesus Christ do for me” but rather “what can I do for my Lord Jesus Christ?” He is the Head of the Church. 

VI.  Do you love others unconditionally? It is easy to write off people who are not like us. Love the unlovable.

VII.  Do you have an attitude of gratitude? God was gracious and extended his mercy to us. We should do the same by showing our  graciousness and extend mercy to others.

Will you invite and bring someone to God?

ARE YOU A KINGDOM BUILDER

Verse List

• Matthew 5:16

• Eph 2:10 

• Titus 3:8 

• Titus 2:14

• Matthew 5:14-15

• Matthew 6:33

• 2 Cor 5:18 

• Matthew 6:12

• Luke 14:23

• James 5:19-20

The Way You Pray Reminds You Who is in Charge

Sermon Summary 

The way you pray reminds you who is in charge.

God is not there to grant our every wish and desire. He meets our needs in order that we might bring Him glory and honor and praise.   Not that we might have all the things we want or desire.

We’re looking specifically at Matthew 6:10 but we must remember verse 9 and verse 11  So starting with verse 9  9 In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

verse 10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done , On earth as it is in heaven.

verse 11 Give us this day our daily bread.

It’s pretty understandable why verse 9 comes before verse 11. Because, as we talked about last time, verse 9 is our greeting to God. It’s the opening line. It’s how we are addressing the One we’re talking to. That’s pretty easy to understand. But why does verse 10 come before verse 11? Why does Jesus tell us to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven” before He tells us to ask for anything for ourselves?

Jesus knows that we have to constantly remind ourselves that the Lord is not our personal Santa Claus. He’s not our genie in a bottle.         He is God and we’re not.

Jesus teaches us to pray recognizing and understanding who is in charge. The way you pray reminds you that God rules and reigns His kingdom.

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,”

Jesus rules and reigns over three Kingdoms we are to remember this in prayer in order to keep our asking in perspective.

The three Kingdoms are:

1.  The Kingdom that is yet to come.

Before you ask for anything in prayer, recognize the One who reigns by remembering the kingdom that is yet before you. But you also need to remember

2. The Kingdom that is around you

Sometimes this is the difficult part. When we see things like the hurricane Harvey we see things like war, poverty, sickness, disease, death, sin, hurt, pain, abuse. When we see those things, it’s hard to see the Kingdom around us, isn’t it? That’s why you have to remind yourself that God only wants good for us, good for others and good for his Kingdom. That’s where faith comes in. That’s why Jesus tells us to constantly remind ourselves that He is in control. He is God and you’re not. 

3. The Kingdom that is in you

This is where it all comes to a point. Because unless you get this one right, the other ones will never be right. See, you will never have a stake in the kingdom that is before you unless Jesus’ kingdom is in you.  You will have no way to reconcile all the bad things that happen in the world. You will have no peace in difficult circumstances. You will have no one to turn to, to ease your burdens. You will have no relief or explanation for the trials of life. You might be able to find temporary distractions from those things. But you will never find true peace and relief from them.

Entry into the kingdom has already been bought. It has already been provided. Access has been granted through the blood of the King Himself. By that blood, you can be a part of the kingdom of Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. From before the time He laid the foundations of the universe, Jesus is King. 

In your prayers, when you remember these three parts of the kingdom of Christ, it gives you a complete new perspective on the things you ask for. It reminds you of the One who reigns as King. The One who reigns as King of all creation. The One who reigns as Head of His church. And the One who reigns as Master of His children. 

Are you in His kingdom? Is Jesus your King today and everyday? The price has been paid. Have you bowed your knee in submission to Him?

Verse List

• Matthew 6:10-11

• Ecclesiastes 2:10-11

• Hebrews 1:8-12

• Revelations 21:22-27

• Hebrews 2:8

• Colossians 1:15-20

• Hebrews 12:28

• Colossians 1:13-14

Sermon Summary 

The way you pray reminds you who is in charge.

God is not there to grant our every wish and desire. He meets our needs in order that we might bring Him glory and honor and praise.   Not that we might have all the things we want or desire.

We’re looking specifically at Matthew 6:10 but we must remember verse 9 and verse 11  So starting with verse 9  9 In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

verse 10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done , On earth as it is in heaven.

verse 11 Give us this day our daily bread.

It’s pretty understandable why verse 9 comes before verse 11. Because, as we talked about last time, verse 9 is our greeting to God. It’s the opening line. It’s how we are addressing the One we’re talking to. That’s pretty easy to understand. But why does verse 10 come before verse 11? Why does Jesus tell us to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven” before He tells us to ask for anything for ourselves?

Jesus knows that we have to constantly remind ourselves that the Lord is not our personal Santa Claus. He’s not our genie in a bottle.         He is God and we’re not.

Jesus teaches us to pray recognizing and understanding who is in charge. The way you pray reminds you that God rules and reigns His kingdom.

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,”

Jesus rules and reigns over three Kingdoms we are to remember this in prayer in order to keep our asking in perspective.

The three Kingdoms are:

1.  The Kingdom that is yet to come.

Before you ask for anything in prayer, recognize the One who reigns by remembering the kingdom that is yet before you. But you also need to remember

2. The Kingdom that is around you

Sometimes this is the difficult part. When we see things like the hurricane Harvey we see things like war, poverty, sickness, disease, death, sin, hurt, pain, abuse. When we see those things, it’s hard to see the Kingdom around us, isn’t it? That’s why you have to remind yourself that God only wants good for us, good for others and good for his Kingdom. That’s where faith comes in. That’s why Jesus tells us to constantly remind ourselves that He is in control. He is God and you’re not. 

3. The Kingdom that is in you

This is where it all comes to a point. Because unless you get this one right, the other ones will never be right. See, you will never have a stake in the kingdom that is before you unless Jesus’ kingdom is in you.  You will have no way to reconcile all the bad things that happen in the world. You will have no peace in difficult circumstances. You will have no one to turn to, to ease your burdens. You will have no relief or explanation for the trials of life. You might be able to find temporary distractions from those things. But you will never find true peace and relief from them.

Entry into the kingdom has already been bought. It has already been provided. Access has been granted through the blood of the King Himself. By that blood, you can be a part of the kingdom of Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. From before the time He laid the foundations of the universe, Jesus is King. 

In your prayers, when you remember these three parts of the kingdom of Christ, it gives you a complete new perspective on the things you ask for. It reminds you of the One who reigns as King. The One who reigns as King of all creation. The One who reigns as Head of His church. And the One who reigns as Master of His children. 

Are you in His kingdom? Is Jesus your King today and everyday? The price has been paid. Have you bowed your knee in submission to Him?

Verse List

• Matthew 6:10-11

• Ecclesiastes 2:10-11

• Hebrews 1:8-12

• Revelations 21:22-27

• Hebrews 2:8

• Colossians 1:15-20

• Hebrews 12:28

• Colossians 1:13-14

How do we greet the Lord in prayer?

Sermon Summary 

We greet our children, we greet our spouse, we even greet strangers we meet on the street. But How do we greet the Lord in prayer?

I Just want to remind us all of the model prayer Jesus taught to his Disciples when they ask him to teach them how to pray:

Matthew 6:9-13

We’ve gotten out of the greeting business. And, unfortunately, many times we carry that over to our prayer life. At best, we might start off, “Lord, comma.” But that’s not how Jesus told us to pray

Matthew 6: 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

How do you greet the Lord in prayer? Do you greet Him formally like an 18th century letter? Do you greet Him casually like we greet each other? Or do you completely leave out a greeting to the Lord like we do in emails & text messages today?

As a matter of fact, the way you greet the Lord in prayer speaks loudly and clearly of three things. First, it speaks of your relationship.

Jesus said that when you pray, you are to call on your Father.

whatever picture you have in your mind of your earthly father… if Jesus has saved you, God is your heavenly Father. He is intimately involved in every aspect of your life. He knows you better than you know yourself and will never reject you. He will never abandon you, leave you or forsake you. He will lovingly supply all your needs. And He will chastise you and discipline you when you need it. When Jesus saves you, you are adopted into the family of God.

That’s the kind of relationship your greeting in prayer speaks of. It speaks of God as your Father. But not only does the way you greet the Lord in prayer speak of your relationship, it speaks of your reference point.

Yes, God is our Father. He loves to hear us cry out to Him as our Father. When Jesus saves us, we have an intimate relationship with God that is closer than you can ever imagine or describe. But the fact remains that He is God. He is the only truly Holy One.

Yes, we are to have such an intimate relationship with God that we see Him as our loving and caring Daddy. But at the same time, we must always remember that He is God and we’re not. You always need to keep a heavenly reference point. Remember that God is everywhere at all times, but His throne is in heaven. That is the center of His rule and reign. That was the place where He spoke the universe into existence.

The way you greet the Lord in prayer speaks of your resource. What an awesome resource we have in God. When the Bible speaks of someone’s name, it speaks of their character. It speaks of their nature. It speaks of who they really are. So when Jesus says that God’s name is hallowed, He’s not just talking about what to call God. He’s speaking of God’s essence. Who He really is in His being. Hallowed is an old King James word that just means to be holy. In plain English, what you are saying is, “our Father who is in Heaven, your name is Holy.” When God is holy, it means that He is set apart. He is categorically different than anything else. He is to be praised and magnified and exalted above all others. He is worthy of all honor and glory and praise because of who He is. Because of the name that He holds. God reveals His nature to us in His names. In the Old Testament, God reveals His nature using eight different compound names. He reveals Himself as 

1. Jehovah Tsidkenu . That is “The Lord our Righteousness.” 

2. Jehovah Mekoddishkem . That is “The Lord who Sanctifies.”

3. Jehovah Shalom. That is “The Lord our Peace.” 

4. Jehovah Shammah. That is “The Lord who is here.” 

5. Jehovah Rapha. That is “The Lord who Heals.” 

6. Jehovah Jirah. That is “The Lord who Provides.” 

7. Jehovah Nissi. That is “The Lord my Banner.” 

8. Jehovah Rohi. That is “The Lord who is my Shepherd.”
   
   

I want you to think about how it would change your prayer life if you were to hallow each of those names for God. Think about the times when you are struggling with a sin problem.

Think about the times when you really see how far you fall short of what God expects of you. Think about the times when you are stressed out and full of worry and anxiety. Think about the times in your life when you are lonely and hurting emotionally. Think about the times when you are sick and physically hurting. Think about the times when you can’t seem to figure out how to make both ends meet. Think about the times when you don’t know which way to turn. Or the times when you just feel like you have no meaning or purpose in life. 

And think about that time when you will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Those eight names are wonderful and hallowed. They are an ever present help in times of trouble. 

But there is one Name that is above all names.

Jesus is the name above all names. His name is to be hallowed above all names. It is only at the name of Jesus that every knee will bow and every tongue confess.

Is Jesus your resource? Is His name hallowed in your prayers? Is His name hallowed in your life?

Verse List

• Matthew 6:9-13

• Matthew 6:9

• Galatians 4:4-7

• 1 John 3:1

• Ezekiel 1:26-28

• Revelations 1:13-16

• 2Peter 3:10

• Hebrews 1:1-3

How to Pray

Sermon Summary 

Even the disciples had to be taught to pray. Luke 11:1

“For Christians prayer is like breathing. You don’t have to think to breathe because the atmosphere exerts pressure on your lungs and forces you to breathe. That’s why it is more difficult to hold your breath than it is to breathe.” I don’t know whether not praying is more difficult than praying is. But I do know that not praying is as hazardous to your spiritual life as not breathing is to your physical life. Not praying will spiritually kill you. But the fact is that sometimes—praying will spiritually kill you.

Our enemy Satan is clever. He’s been at this a long time. And he wants nothing more than for you to have a completely ineffective prayer life. Oh, he won’t ever make you stop praying. But, if you’re not careful, he’ll trick you into praying with the wrong attitude.

Jesus teaches us two ways not to pray. The first way is, don’t pray like a hypocrite. Look back at:

MATTHEW 6:5-6   “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

The word (Hypocrite) itself originally referred to Greek stage actors.  When you pray, your audience isn’t other people. Your audience is with the King of Kings.

The first way not to pray is like a hypocrite. The second way is like a heathen.

Matthew 6:7-8: 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Heathen here refers to people who prayed more out of superstition or ritual than anything

There are two things you need to avoid to keep your prayers from being like heathen prayers. First, you need to make sure you’re not using your words to try and manipulate God.

Also make sure your words are not used out of superstition.

Did Jesus say we’re supposed to pray in His name? Of course He did. Was He talking about using those specific words like some magic formula? Are we supposed to say, “In Jesus’ name” almost like a magician uses the word, “Abracadabra”? Of course not. Praying in Jesus’ name means that we pray in line with the will of Jesus. It means that we submit our will and desires to Him. It means that as we wear His name as Christians, we pray in His name as well. Not out of superstition—BUT out of submission. Keep your prayers from being like heathen prayers by not trying to manipulate God. And keep your prayers from being like heathen prayers by not using words superstitiously.

How is your prayer life? Are you just praying out of habit? Are you just praying out of obligation? Are you just praying to get your needs met? Or are you praying out of a desperate longing to communicate with the One you love? With the One who loves you? With the One who gave His life to have a relationship with you? With the One who by His grace provided a way for you to boldly approach the throne of God? 

If there was ever a time when God’s people needed to pray—it’s now. Right Now Daily, Several times Daily, In all Matters of Your Life Talk to God , Confide in God, God What’s A Relationship With You.  So Are you Praying?

When you pray, you’re in private, close quarters with the Creator of the universe. You are in a one-on-one conversation with Him. Below is a contemporary Christian song that captures this idea perfectly. 

Audience of One

Big Daddy Weave

"I come on my knees

To lay down before you

Bringing all that I am

Longing only to know you

Seeking your face

And not only your hand

I find you embracing me

Just as I am

And I lift these songs

To you and you alone

As I sing to you

In my praises make your home

To my audience of one

You are Father, and you are Son

As your spirit flows free,

Let it find within me

A heart that beats to praise you.

And now just to know you more

Has become my great reward

To see your kingdom come

And your will be done

I only desire to be yours,

Lord

So what could I bring

To honor your majesty

What song could I sing

That would move the heart of royalty

And all that I have

Is the life that you€™ve given me

So Lord let me live for you

My song with humility

And Lord as the love song

Of my life is played

I have one desire

To bring glory to your name

To my audience of one

You are Father, and you are Son

As your spirit flows free,

Let it find within me

A heart that beats to praise you.

And now just to know you more

Has become my great reward

To see your kingdom come

And your will be done

I only desire to be yours,

Lord

And we lift these songs

To you and you alone

As we sing to you

In our praises make your home

To my audience of one

You are Father, and you are Son

As your spirit flows free,

Let it find within me

A heart that beats to praise you.

And now just to know you more

Has become my great reward

To see your kingdom come

And your will be done

I only desire to be yours,

Lord"

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Michael Weaver / Michael David Weaver

Audience of One lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Verse List

• Matthew 6:5-8

• Luke 11:1-4

• Matthew 6:7-8

• II Corinthians 12:8

• Matthew 6:9

Retaliation Versus Going The Extra Mile

When people wrong us, insult us or take our property, we want to see them pay for what they did to us. The question we all need to ask ourselves today is, “Are we willing to go the extra mile for Jesus?”

When people wrong us, insult us or take our property, we want to see them pay for what they did to us. The question we all need to ask ourselves today is, “Are we willing to go the extra mile for Jesus?”

Revenge happens when we feel that justice wasn’t served

The eye for an eye Verse was meant to be a guide to Judges as to the maximum sentence of justice handed out for a crime and was direct and meant to be carried out the court  (Justice).  When Individuals use the eye for an eye verse against someone it is called revenge.

We are not to take it upon ourselves to retaliate when insulted; we are to use that as an opportunity to witness to others. It takes a spiritually disciplined person to do that, doesn’t it? Are you willing to suffer insult for Christ, or do we have to get back at the person who insults us, an insult for an insult?

Verse List 

• Matthew 5:38 – 42

• Matthew 5:38   

• Exodus 21:24 

• Leviticus 24:

• Deuteronomy 19:21 

• Hebrews 10:30  

• Matthew 5:39 

• 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 

• John 18:22-23 

• Matthew 5:40   

• Exodus 22:26-27   

• 1 Corinthians 6: 

• Matthew 5:

• Philippians 1:12 

• Matthew 5:42

God’s Answer to the Stress (Fear) of the Future

Sermon Summary

Many PEOPLE SPEND their ENTIRE LIVES WORRYING ABOUT their FUTURE.  They NEVER seem to ENJOY TODAY because they are ALWAYS WORRIED about TOMORROW.  BECAUSE OUR GOD is a GOOD GOD we can EXPECT HIS PROVISION & HIS PROTECTION in OUR LIVES.

We can EXPECT those things NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS to us GOD will CAUSE GOOD to come out of it.  WHATEVER HAPPENS it WILL ALWAYS BE for OUR OWN GOOD or for the GOOD of OTHER PEOPLE or for the GOOD of GOD’S OWN KINGDOM.Lets Break Down this Verse Psalms 23:7

1st Half Says ‘Surely goodness shall follow me all the days of my life.’

OUR GOD is a GOOD GOD. HE is OUR SOURCE of GOODNESS.

We have NO IDEA of WHAT the FUTURE HOLDS but we DO KNOW WHO HOLDS the FUTURE. We also KNOW that GOD is IN CONTROL & that GOD LOVES US & WANTS to HELP US.  When we GIVE OURSELVES to GOD & we LIVE for GOD, KEEPING HIS WORD, we don’t WORRY about the FUTURE.

If we LIVE FAITHFULLY to CHRIST & we are BRINGING FORTH GOOD FRUIT then we’re going to HEAVEN when we die.

The 2nd Half of Psalms 23:7 “& I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.’

That is ONE of the MOST IMPORTANT CONNECTIONS we will FIND throughout the ENTIRE BIBLE.

It CONNECTS YESTERDAY & TODAY with TOMORROW.

GOD is saying, ‘I have this GREAT PLAN for your LIVES & surely GOODNESS & MERCY shall FOLLOW YOU throughout your lives, BUT that is NOT the END.

I have SOMETHING ELSE at the END & it is BETTER than ANYTHING BEFORE you have KNOWN.

The KEY is CONFESS & ASK GOD FOR FORGIVENESS.

Remember We have a 24hr  HOT LINE SERVICE with GOD and He is ALWAYS AVAILABLE.

So You Don’t Miss Out On God’s infinite Love of YOU

Don’t MISS OUT ON A LIFE OF ETERNITY IN HEAVEN for this very, very short life in the WORLD.

Ask Yourself This question:  HOW LONG IS FOREVER ?

Verse List for Gods Answer to the Stress of the Future

• Psalm 23:7  

• Psalm 145:20 

• Romans 8:28 

• Psalm 91:11 

• Daniel 6:22

• II Kings 

• Acts 27 

• Isaiah 60:10 

• Psalm 103: 2-11 

• Hebrews 4:16 

• Psalms 23:7 

• II Corinthians 5:1 

• II Corinthians 5:6-8 

• Matthew 7:17 

• Matthew 7:19 

• I John 1:6 

• John 10: 1-4 

• I John 2:1 

• I John 1:9 

• II Peter 3:9 

Thou Anointest my head with oil, my cup runs over

Sermon Summary

Psalm 23: 5

‘Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies, Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runs over..’

WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN WE GET HURT:

1st thing not to do DON’T IGNORE IT: BE HONEST with OURSELVES

2nd thing not to do: DON’T RUN FROM OUR HURT:  Don’t try to ESCAPE, RETREAT or RUNAWAY

3rd thing not to do: DON’T HIDE OUR HURT

So How Do We Fix or HEAL our Hurts

Psalm 23:5 ‘THOU preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, THOU anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.’

The answers to healing our hurts in in Psalm 23:5  Lets Break this verse down  

1st part of Psalm 23: 5  THOU preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies

#1: Thing to do to HEAL our Hurts LET JESUS SETTLE OUR SCORES:

When we are HURT DON’T TRY to GET EVEN with the ONE who HURT us.  TRUST in GOD to even the score.  GIVE your HURT to GOD to Fix, to HEAL.

The second part of Psalm 23: 5 ‘… THOU anointest my head with oil;….

#2: Thing to do to HEAL our Hurts LET JESUS SOOTH OUR WOUNDS:  

GOD wants to POUR INSIDE of our BROKENESS, INSIDE of our HEADS, INSIDE of our HEARTS & INSIDE of our MINDS an ANNOINTING of HIS HEALING SPIRIT.  THE HOLY SPIRIT

The third part Psalm 23:5 sayes‘….my cup runneth over….’

#3: Thing to do to HEAL our Hurts LET JESUS SATISFY OUR NEEDS:

GOD DOES NOT POUR just a SMALL AMOUNT or an AVERAGE AMOUNT or just FILL US with HIS HEALING.

GOD HEALS US with AN ABUNDANCE of OVERFLOWING HEALING GRACE.  GOD POURS SO MUCH of HIS HOLY SPIRIT, ANNOINTING OIL, until OUR CUP literally RUNS OVER.  That is HOW MUCH in ABUNDANCE GOD’S HEALING is!

God’s Answer to Hurts

• Psalm 23: 5

• Matthew 10:16  

• Psalm 124:6-8

• Psalm 39:2-

• Psalm 55: 3-7 

• James 5:16 

• Psalm 23:5 

• Psalm 118:6-7  

• Psalm 94: 22  

• Psalm 23: 5 

• Psalm 147: 3 

• Psalm 23:5 

• Isaiah 54: 17 

• John 3:36 

• John 3:18

God's Answer To The Stress Of Dark Valleys

• Psalm 23:4

• Psalm 84:6

• Hosea 2:15

• John 16:33 

• Job 14:1 

• Jeremiah 4:20 

• Matthew 5:45 

• Psalms 30:5 

• I Peter 1:6  

• I Peter 1:6-7 

•  II Corinthians 12:7-10

• Psalm 46:1 ‘

• 23rd PSALM 

• Psalm 34:7 

•  Romans 5:6-8,  

•  John 3:36 

• John 3:18

God’s Answer to the Stress Of Indecision

• Psalm 23:3  

• James 1:8

• Psalm 23:1

• Isaiah 53:6 

• Proverbs 14:12

• Proverbs 14:12 

• Psalm 25:4

• Psalm 25:9

• Matthew 7:7

• James 1:5

• Job 33:14 

• Proverbs 20:30 

• Romans 8:28

• Proverbs 3:5-6 

• Psalm 37:23-24  

• 2 Corinthians 12:9  

• Romans 5:6-8

• John 3:36

• John 3:18

God's Answer To Disturbed Emotions!

• Psalm 23:3 

• Psalm 38:4-8 

• Psalm 38:17

• Psalm 38:22

• Proverbs 20:7 

• Romans 3:23-24 

• Romans 5:20 

• Psalm 31:9-10 

• II Samuel 12: 21-23

• Isaiah 61:3 

• Job 5:2 

• Psalm 42-5 

• II Corinthians 4: 8-9

List for Gods Answer to Busyness

• Psalms 23:2

• Psalm 127:2 

• Psalm 23:2 

• James 1:18

• Luke 12:15 

• Matthew chapter 6:26  

• Isaiah 49:16 

• Ecclesiastes 3:13 

• Ecclesiastes 4:6

• Philippians 4:11 

• Genesis 2: 2-3

• Exodus 20:9-10

• Mark 2:27

• Ecclesiastes 10:15 

• Luke 12:16-21

• Deuteronomy 6:12 

• Mark 8:36 

• I Timothy 6:10 

• Psalms 23:2

• Matthew 11:28-30 

God's Answer to Worry

• Psalm 23:1-6

• Isaiah 40:11 

• Philippians 4:19  

• John 10: 14, 27 

• Philippians 4:6 

• I Peter 5: 7

• Matthew 6:34 

• Matthew 6:11 

• Psalm 144:1-2

Good News Sermon

• Romans 1

• Romans 1:1-7

• Romans 1:2-4

• Romans 1:5-7

• Acts 9

• Romans 1:14-17

• 1 Corinthians 1:18

• 1 Corinthians 1:23 

• Romans 1:16-17

• 2 Corinthians 5:21

• Romans 1:18-32

• Romans 1:21-24 

• Romans 1:25-27

• Romans 1:28-32

• Galatians 5:16-26

• Romans 5:6-8

• John 3:36

God’s Stamp on America

• Deuteronomy 11:13-25

• Isaiah 33:22  

• Jeremiah 17:9  

• Ezra 7:24

• John 17:3

Whose Eyes is God Watching You With?

Something to think about when we interact with other, "Whose Eyes is God Watching You With?"

Remember the two great commandments Jesus gave the disciples Matthew 22:36-40

• 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

• 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 

• 38 This is the first and great commandment. 

• 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

• 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

So with these commandments in mind it is so very important that we honor God with our love for him thru daily prayer and our actions.

We must also always treat others, both friends and strangers, the young and the old, men and women, red, yellow black brown and white with love, respect and kindness.  Always ready to offer a helping hand to all.

Whenever you think no one is watching, God is and We never know whose eyes God is looking at us thru.

It could be that rude driver on the road this morning, that checker at the local grocery store, a co-worker, a supervisor.  It could be any one you have contact with throughout the day.

So always be your best with everyone you come in contact with each and every day.

Get In Line to Fix Your Marriage!

• Ephesians 5:21-33

• Genesis 2

• Genesis 2:24

• Ephesians 5:21-33

• Ephesians 5: 22

• 1 Peter 3:7

• Ephesians 5: 21

• Acts 5:29 

• Ephesians 5: 29

• 1 Thessalonians 2:7

• Ephesians 5: 31

• Romans 8:16-17 

• Ephesians 5: 33

Three Words Men Hate To Say But Long To Hear

• 1 Corinthians 13;

• Eph.5:24

• Romans 5:5 

• 1 Corinthians 10:33 

• 1 Corinthians 8:1 

• 1 Corinthians 13:8-12

• 1John 4:8,

• 1John 4:16

Verses for the Thought of the Week

• Matthew 11:29

• James 1:19 

• Matthew 5:5

• Proverbs 15:4

• 1 Peter 3:15

• Galatians 6:1

• .2 Timothy 2:24-25

• Proverbs 25:15

• James 3:13

10+ Most Important Bible Verses on Love

• 1 Corinthians 13:13

• John 3:16

• John 15:13

• Mark 10:45

• 1 Timothy 2:6  

• Matthew 5:43-45

• 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

• 1 Corinthians chapter 13

• Mark 12:30-31

• John 14:15

• 1 Samuel 15:22

• 1 Peter 4:8

• 2 Corinthians 5:21

• Proverbs 17:9

• Proverbs 10:12

• Proverbs 17:17

• 1 Samuel 18:1

• 1 Samuel 20:17

• Genesis 29:20

• Ephesians 5:25-28 

• Romans 5:6-8

• John 3:36

• John 3:18

Finding Biblical Success

The world defines success mainly by measuring the amount of wealth, power, and popularity a person obtains in this world. Worldly definitions of success are deceptive and tragic because they focus on what is fleeting and passing and ignore what is lasting and eternal

Worldly definitions of success are notoriously short-sighted and, if followed, end in misery.  The Bible defines success in terms of what is spiritual and lasting and ends in eternal life and joy.  Whereas worldly success is centered on the promotion and gratification of ourselves, 

biblical success is centered on obedience to and glorification of God

Do you want to have real success in life? 

This week during my quiet time with the Lord I have been thinking on what it means to have success, not just success but Biblical success.

Early in my life I thought being successful equaled having money and things

As I get older I am coming to realize that true success,  Biblical success has nothing to do with fame, fortune, or money  It has to do with who you are becoming in Christ and whether or not you have found and are following God’s plan for your life. 

This time last year in my wildest dreams I have never ever imagined that I would be standing here in front of you all trying hard to plant the seed of God in your hearts.  

But here I am.  I do believe I have found where and what God wants me to be and do.

It had nothing to do with me becoming rich, or popular or one day preaching to a giant mega church, or anything else the world would consider successful. It has everything to do with what God has planned for me.

There is a verse in the book of Jeremiah that sums up for me the definition of Biblical success.  It is found in Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

To me, Biblical success is simply following the plan that God has for you. That plan includes both plans for your character and plans for your life.

If you allow God to mold you into the image of Jesus and you go about your daily life living out His plan for you then you are a success. It is when we get self-willed and put our hopes and desires on a pedestal that we get sidetracked and become less than successful.

I’m par phrasing here  Jesus put it this way. “What if you gain the world and lose your soul?”

So you ask “What is God’s plan for my life?

I can’t answer that question for you.  All I can tell you is that it has 2 components. It has the inward component that deals with your character and nature and it has the outward component that deals with His purpose for your life.

The inward component of biblical success

The inward component is revealed in the book of Romans 8: 29 “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

This means that God has planned for us to become and to be Christ Like.

I am talking about becoming like Jesus in His character and in His attitudes.  You Know Love your neighbor, Love your enemies, Do good works for your neighbor, Treat all like you want to be treated.  Love God with all your heart and soul.

If any of us are to be Biblically successful then part of that has to be the transformation of our character and nature into one that looks like Jesus character and nature.

The outward component of biblical success is following the plan that God has for your life in the world.

You have to discover God’s purpose for you and Where God wants you to be.

Isaiah 55:9 says “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

You have to discern what His plan is and many times, just like it was with Jesus, it takes laying down your life and sacrificing what you want for Gods greater good.

So bearing those two things in mind, two Bible verses about success and two Christian quotes by more learned Godly men than I may help you seek and discern what Biblical success God has in store for you.

Bible Verses On Biblical Success

Deuteronomy 8:18 “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Psalm 37:3 Trust in the Lord and do good.  Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

Christian Quotes About Success

Hudson Taylor (British Pastor and a Famous Missionary to China in the 1800’s)  Many Christians estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt. All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and presence with them. – 

John Wimber ( American Pastor from the late 1930’s thru the 1990’s)  Obedience deepens our intimacy with Jesus. If we want to know the Father, we must not only love Him, but also obey Him. Scripture is clear that it is important to know the Father through His Word, and if we want to be a part of what the Father is doing and to be able to see where He is moving then it is clear that we must obey His commands. It is important to be biblically literate, but we must also be biblically obedient! 

I hope that this will help you find Biblical success in your journey to finding what God has planned for you.

• Matthew 7:13-14

• Deuteronomy 28:1-2

• Mark 8:34 

• John 14:15 

• John 14:23

• Isaiah 43:18-19

• Proverbs 3:5-6

• Joshua 24:15

• John 3:36

• John 3:18

• Matthew 7:13-14

• Deuteronomy 28:1-2

• Mark 8:34 

• John 14:15 

• John 14:23

• Isaiah 43:18-19

• Proverbs 3:5-6

• Joshua 24:15

• John 3:36

• John 3:18

• Matthew 7:13-14

• Deuteronomy 28:1-2

• Mark 8:34

• John 14:15

• John 14:23

• Isaiah 43:18-19

• Proverbs 3:5-6

• Joshua 24:15

• John 3:36

• John 3:18

Jesus has a Mother Too

• Proverbs 22:6

• Mark 11:25-26

• Exodus 20:12

• Ephesians 6:1

• John 2:1-5

• Colossians 3:23

• Matthew 10:3

• Luke 6:16

• John 14:22

• Mark 3:18

• Mark 6: 7, 12 & 13

• Mark 3:13-15

• Colossians 3: 23-24

• Matthew 19: 27 & 20

• Matthew 6:19 & 20

• Mark 9:41

• 2 Corinthians 5:10

• 1 Corinthians 9: 25

• James 1: 12

• 1 Thessalonians 2: 19

• 2 TIMOTHY 4: 8

• 1 Peter 5: 4

• Romans 12:2 - Thought of the Week

• Luke 10:25-29

• Leviticus  19:18

• Luke 10:30

• Acts 17:26

• Judges 2:10-13

• Ephesians 2:1-3

• Luke 10:31-34

• Galatians 6:2

• Luke 10:35

• Matthew 25:34-40

• Luke 10:26-27

• Mark  12:30-31