John 3:16, Acts 4:12 7/28/15

John 3: ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

The danger of living in the bible belt is that we hear the truth so much we become callused to it.  

Most of us have heard John 3:16 since we were children, but when was the last time you felt the power of what it says...The most Holy, powerful, intelligent, beautiful, Being that ever existed....loves you, and gave the ultimate sacrifice so you could have an eternal relationship with Him.

... I wish we could read that verse for the first time, again. 

In our culture there is a danger of being "vaccinated" against Christianity.  We run the risk of getting a small, ineffective dose of the gospel so we develop an immunity to the real disease.  When that happens we never really know God's life changing power. The symptoms of the real disease are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control...and it's extremely contagious.  These  symptoms are "fruit" from a relationship with Jesus.

 Be intentional about getting completely infected by His Grace.  

Make sure by faith, you have accepted the gift God offers through Christ so that you...shall not perish but have eternal life.

Use this week to spend time with Jesus, and catch  the real disease.  Once you get it,  the symptoms will take care of themselves....all you need to do is spread it to others.

Acts 4: ¹²....for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

Matthew 18: 21-35 7/21/15

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 

Earlier in this chapter Jesus talked about how to deal with those who sin against you. Most at that time, believed you should forgive someone 3 times.  So Peter doubled it, added one to get to the number of completeness and proposed the number 7 to Christ.   He and the other disciples were probably surprised by the answer.

²² Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Christ was not telling us to count out 77 times and stop at 78...but instead, limitless forgiveness.
He then follows with a parable to illustrate how ridiculous  it is for us to withhold forgiveness from anyone. (Mathew 18:23-35)

We can take allot from these verses but the point this morning is that we must learn to TRULY forgive.  For those who offend you, and for yourself.   Un-forgiveness does far more  harm to the "un-forgiver" than the "un-forgiven". "Being bitter toward others is like eating rat poison and hoping the rats die".

As Christians we rely on grace that God has shown toward our sin against Him .  In light of this, our holding a grudge against someone else would be laughable, if it was not so damaging.

We should take the same caution as I  am sure his disciples did when Jesus ended the parable like this:

³² “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³ Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ ³⁴ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. ³⁵ “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

 We all have people who have hurt us...take this week to inventory that list and unload your burden of bitterness, make sure you have forgiven them from your heart.

Bernard Meltzer once said "When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future."

 Because of  your past you owe forgiveness to others.....because of your future you owe it to yourself.

Mathew 7: 1, 3, 5, 14, 21, 23 7/14/15

Mathew 7: 1, 3, 5, 21, 23

1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 

If we point out another's  sin we often hear these verses in response.  But we seldom hear what Jesus says immediately after these comments. Here is the continuation of the discussion:

5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven......²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

All the above verses were spoken by Jesus in the same conversation

This is why it is so important to read scripture in context.

Many people toss Mathew 7:1 around  using "judge not" as a way to silence those who would condemn sin.  Many quote verse 3, about not pointing out your brothers sin,  as a way to reprimand those who do.

But they ignore the rest of the "sermon"

Verse 5  Actually instructs us to help our brother remove the speck (sin).

Verses 21-23 (some of the scariest verses in the bible)  point out that not everyone who calls Jesus Lord will be saved, and refers to  those who are not as "evil doers".  Jesus then lays out the requirement for salvation, which is a relationship with Him -  And apparently this relationship impacts who we are, and what we do.

Jesus' words recorded in Mathew 7, were never intended to say that we shouldn't call sin, sin.

Instead Christ says we must speak the truth about sin -  and live lives that legitimize our words.

When Jesus granted forgiveness he said -  "go your way and sin no more."

Tolerance of sinners is a good thing..... Tolerance of sin is intolerable.

We must be loving, we must be humble, we must remember that we have been saved by amazing grace..... But at the same time, in a dark world, we must shine light, even when the world prefers the dark.

Psalms 46:10 Philippians 4:8 7/7/15

Psalms 46:10  “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

Back in the 80's personal computers arrived with the promise of giving us all more leisure time by making us more productive.  Of course that didn't happen, and then their evil spawn, the  "smart phone" was created and we acquired an electronic leash, and "down time" became a thing of the past.   Our stress level went through the roof, and we ended up with less leisure time than before.

According to God's word, we NEED to be still.  Not just slow down, but completely stop our activities, and be still. 

Like the computer there will be times when we need to reboot spiritually.  We need to power down, and clean out our memory, and re-calibrate.  Get a fresh start.  

Truly being Still is a lost art in our fast paced world.  How long has it been since you turned off all electronics, sat down by yourself somewhere quiet, and meditated on the fact that  HE. IS. GOD. 

 The days you don't have time to do that... are the days you NEED to do that. 

Philippians 4:8   Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Before you hit the door this morning take a few minutes, find a quiet place, sit down
and BE STILL, AND KNOW 

.....have a great week.