Gardendale Nazarene Sermons

The First Family

Genesis 2:4b-25

"It's Him again, the Creator of the universe. It's Him again."

Genesis 2:4-25

Genesis 2:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.”

Genesis 2:20 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found corresponding to him.

ezer (ayzer)- helper, ally

Psalm 33:20 We wait for the Lord;he is our help and shield.

Psalm 115:9-11

9 Israel, trust in the Lord!He is their help and shield.

10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord!He is their help and shield.

11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!He is their help and shield.

Psalm 121:1-2

1 I lift my eyes toward the mountains.Where will my help come from?

2 My help comes from the Lord,the Maker of heaven and earth.

ezer (ayzer)- helper, ally

"someone who drops everything and comes running when a cry of distress goes out."

Genesis 2:22 Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.

Genesis 2:7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

This creature is fundamentally like me in a way that nothing else is.

Genesis 2:15-17

15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

vs. 15- We are given a vocation.

vs. 16- We are given permission.

vs. 17- We are given prohibition/constraint.

Vocation

Freedom

God's Prohibition

Genesis 3:2-5

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

How do I live in the balance of vocation, freedom, and God's prohibition?

2 Corinthians 5:18-20

18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

Galatians 5:13-14

13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.

1 John 4:18-19

18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.

Learning as We Go

John 15:9-17

John 15:9-17

9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.

Matthew 7:13-14

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Matthew 7:15-23

15 “Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. 16 You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.

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 in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’

Matthew 7:24-27

24 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.”

Summary:

•vs 14- How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

•vs 21b- …only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

•vs 24- everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Axiom 8: God transforms us through embodied participation.

Acts 1:4 While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “Which,” he said, “you have heard me speak about;

The first command given to the church was to wait.

Putting the teaching of Jesus into practice is more like learning an instrument than studying for a multiple-choice test.

Love is a capacity we mature into. Love is rooted in action and relationship.

Being a disciple is understanding that failure is part of the journey.

Power Redefined

Isaiah 2:1-4

Axiom 7: God's love always reckons with power.

Exodus 23:1-9

1 “You must not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked to be a malicious witness.

2 “You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice. 3 Do not show favoritism to a poor person in his lawsuit.

4 “If you come across your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.

5 “If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying helpless under its load, and you want to refrain from helping it, you must help with it.

6 “You must not deny justice to a poor person among you in his lawsuit. 7 Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent and the just, because I will not justify the guilty. 8 You must not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and corrupts the words of the righteous. 9 You must not oppress a resident alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be a resident alien because you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.

Psalm 103:6 The Lord executes acts of righteousnessand justice for all the oppressed.

Psalm 140:12 I know that the Lord upholds the just cause of the poor,justice for the needy.

Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do what is good.Pursue justice.Correct the oppressor.Defend the rights of the fatherless.Plead the widow’s cause.

Justice is not something that God does. It is who God is. God is just.

God is Just:

• God loves everyone.

• God sees those who society overlooks.

• God comes to the aid of those mistreated.

• God's power is not the power to control, but the power to love.

Mark 9:35-37

35 Sitting down, he called the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.” 36 He took a child, had him stand among them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one little child such as this in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but him who sent me.”

Mark 10:35-37

35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him and said, “Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask you.”

36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked them.

37 They answered him, “Allow us to sit at your right and at your left in your glory.”

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 2:1-6

1 When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. 3 They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them. 4 Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.

5 Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven. 6 When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.

Acts 2:6 NRSV And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.

"Native language"

"Mother tongue"

What do we learn about God's power in these passages?

• God's power aligns itself with the last, the servant.

• God's power is seen in valuing people.

• God's power is seen in the intimacy of the relationship.

What is a disciple?

• A disciple is one who follows Jesus

• A disciple is someone who has been changed by an interaction with Jesus

• A disciple is someone committed to the mission of Christ

You are invited to be a disciple, but it is not something we are left to accomplish on our own strength. 

We have an inner-life and an outer-life.

Isaiah 5:1-5

1I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one’s vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

2 He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes.

3 So now, residents of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What more could I have done for my vineyard than I did? Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes?

John 15:1-17

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.

Axiom 6- God does the same work in us and through us.

Here is the heart of deepest spiritual struggles– we want people to see the outward fruit of our spiritual life but don’t want to allow God into the recesses of our hearts. 

Abiding is the only means for fruitful living.

• Abide in me and I in you (vs. 4).

• Abide in my love (vs. 9). 

• Jesus appointed you–to go, produce fruit, and your fruit should abide.

How do we abide in Jesus as He abides in us?

• As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love (vs. 9).

• If you keep my commands you will remain in my love...(vs. 10)

• This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you (vs. 12).

• This is what I command you: Love one another (vs. 17).

As a disciple, how do I give my entire self to God?

• The goal of abiding is to bring together through and in.

• Sin (or separation from God) begins in the heart.

• Love reorients our life away from ourselves and towards God and others.

• "If you seek holiness, you will not find it. If you seek Jesus, you will find holiness." –Rich Villodas

• You reproduce who you are.

John 11:17-27

"...when we open the Bible–we enter the totally unfamiliar world of God, a world of creation and salvation stretching endlessly above and beyond us. Life in the warehouse never prepared us for anything like this. 

Typically, adults in the warehouse scoff at the tales the children bring back. After all, they are completely in control of the warehouse world in ways they could never be outside. And they want to keep it that way.” 

Eugene Peterson, Eat this Book

Matthew 4:18-22

18 As he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter), and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 19 “Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for[a] people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father, preparing their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Matthew 4:19 “Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.” 

What is a disciple?

• A disciple is one who follows Jesus

• A disciple is someone who has been changed by an interaction with Jesus

• A disciple is someone committed to the mission of Christ

If the God who is love , who is always present and at work, who looks just like Jesus, is meeting us right in the middle of our messy reality, then it follows that God cares about all of it more than we do (Axiom 5).

You are invited to be a disciple, but it is not something we are left to accomplish on our own strength. 

Ephesians 1:3-14

3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.[a]5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding.[b]9 He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ 10 as a plan for the right time[c]—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.

11 In him we have also received an inheritance,[d] because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, 12 so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory.

13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.

You are invited to see a new way to live. 

If God cares about all of it more than we do, that means the stuff that’s most important to you, your family and friends, your church community, your job and vocation, your neighborhood and world—all of it—is of keen and specific concern to God. Every good thing that’s worth caring about, everything that you care about, God cares about more.

In the Middle of Our Mess

(Romans 8:5-11)

Axiom 4: God meets us in our messy reality.

God doesn't despise the sinner. He desires to be with the sinner, to heal and forgive and save the sinner.

The God who is love, who is always present and at work, who looks just like Jesus, always meets us right where we really are, in the middle of whatever mess we find ourselves in.

Three Questions dealing with Axiom 4:

1. What do we mean by 'messy?'

2. Why don't I allow God into my messy reality?

3. How do I allow/invite God into my messy reality?

1. What do we mean by 'messy?'

2. Why don't I allow God into my messy reality?

• We hide our brokenness. 

• We conceal our mess with hypocrisy.

• We overlook our mess with spiritual bypassing.

3. How do I allow/invite God into my messy reality?

• Attune to reality.

• Accept God meeting you right here in the mess.

• God loves the actual you, mess included.

Romans 8:5-11

5 For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. 6 Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. 10 Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.

• God delights in meeting you where you are–even in your messy life.

What if my reality is really messy?

• Acknowledge the truth.

• Name the bad stuff.

• Face the bad stuff.

Romans 8:26-27

26 In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Romans 8:27 (The Kingdom New Testament)

And the Searcher of Hearts knows what the spirit is thinking, because the spirit pleads for God’s people according to God’s will. 

Axiom 1- God is love, so it is all about love. Axiom 2- God is always present and at work. The bottom line of this second axiom is that God is present, actively working among us right now and always. This is not a nice idea to make us feel better; it is the bedrock reality of the universe. It is the truest thing about the world. We have all built a custom god who lives in our imaginations. These gods must be confronted with the light of the truth of who God is. My goal is to present the clearest picture of who God is, because, I believe that if you see who God really is, you can't help but fall in love with Him. The Distant Deity The Demanding Judge The Deterministic Micromanager Axiom 3- God is just like Jesus. Jesus perfectly reveals the true nature of God (Hebrews 1:3). In Jesus, the fullness of God dwells (Colossians 2:9) If you know Jesus, you will also know God (John 14:7-11). Jesus makes God known in a final, definitive way (John 1:18). The Distant Deity John 14:16-18 The Demanding Judge God doesn't despise the sinner. He desires to be with the sinner, to heal and forgive and save the sinner. The Deterministic Micromanager Exercise If we all have custom gods in our imagination, in what ways have you replaced the one true God for these lesser gods? Pay attention over the next few days whenever you are aware of your limitations, weaknesses, sin, flaws, or anything else you consider undesirable. Notice the moments when you weren’t at your best, or when you felt shame about something. Keep a list of these moments. This might be hard. You may need to do this as you go (keeping a journal or making notes on your phone), or you could do it at the end of each day, but make sure you write these moments down, rather than just try to remember them. When you get a few moments for reflection, perhaps at the end of each day, reflect on your list of “moments of badness” and ask yourself this question: How do I imagine and experience God responding to me right now? Not what you know about God, but how you actually experience God in your body, in your emotions, in your thoughts. Use your imagination and discern how you feel when you become aware of your badness. Whatever picture or feeling comes up in these moments (not on your best day) is likely who you think God really is. As you reflect on how you experience God relating to you in your badness, think about which false image of God it’s most like: Are you experiencing the Distant Deity? Are you experiencing the Demanding Judge? Are you experiencing the Deterministic Micromanager? Perhaps you’d characterize your false image of God in some other way (like the Doting Grandparent? The Disappointed Teacher? The Naive Idealist?). What image or words would you use to describe the God who shows up when you’re not at your best? Take some time to describe this God. Notice the God Jesus reveals. After spending a few days on noticing God in your imagination, set aside thirty minutes when you can be alone and quiet, without interruptions. Slowly read and meditate on the passages below in which Jesus gives us a picture of how God interacts with people in their badness. For each passage, see what you notice as you imagine the scene, and write down the good news Jesus decWhat lares in each passage. What does he say to people in their badness? What does he do for people in their badness? How does Jesus communicate God’s goodness to people in the midst of their badness? John 8:1-11 Luke 5:1-11 John 21:1-19 Luke 19:1-10 Think about other Gospel passages you know of. What do you notice about how Jesus regularly treats people he loves in their badness? How is this the same or different from how you experience God in your badness? Now go back to your list of “moments of badness,” and imagine a God who is just like Jesus meeting you in those moments. What changes about the way God relates to you in your badness? Take some time to describe this, and rest in it.

God is Present

Psalm 139

In our story, God creates the world on purpose and in love, providing for it, caring for it, and calling it all very good. This is God's own temple where He dwells with humanity. It is where we meet God because it is where God resides.

John 1:1-5

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

John 1:10-14

10 He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Revelation 21:1-7

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

5 Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” 6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life. 7 The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

Revelation 21:22-25

22 I did not see a temple in it, because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never close by day because it will never be night there.

Axiom 1: God is love, so it's all above love.

Axiom 2: God is always present and at work.

1. Stop. Sit down.

2. Start with a reminder of God's presence in your life.

3. Remind yourself of the times when you didn't feel God's presence, only to see Him in hindsight.

4. Know that God is present. God is working, and it is more beautiful than you can imagine.

John 19:5 ESV

5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”

The bottom line of this second axiom is that God is present, actively working among us right now and always. This is not a nice idea to make us feel better; it is the bedrock reality of the universe. It is the truest thing about the world.

God is Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Axiom- a statement that is regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true.

Eight Axioms to Cultivate a Robust Faith

• God is love, so it is all about love.

• God is always present and at work.

• God is just like Jesus.

• God meets us in our messy reality.

• God cares about all of it more than we do.

• God does the same work in us and through us.

• God's love always reckons with power.

• God transforms us through embodied participation.

1 John 4:7-19

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.

God is love and love is the greatest power in the world.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

What are we without love? 

I am a noisy gong.

I am nothing.

I gain nothing.

It seems like this has always been a temptation for Christians: to privilege knowledge and power at the expense of love.

Salvation cannot be separated from God's love.

It is hard for us to trust love to get the job done. 

• Living with clinched fists is exhausting.

• How often do you walk around with clinched fists and not realize it?

• What are you holding on to that hinders your ability to love?•Living with clinched fists is exhausting.

• How often do you walk around with clinched fists and not realize it?

• What are you holding on to that hinders your ability to love?

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• Living with hands open enables us to live out love.

This morning we are joined by Rev. Kristofer Labenske.

The Opportunity for Freedom

Galatians 5:13-18

"God has given us a wonderful exercise for training in truthfulness. That exercise is called prayer. To learn to pray is to have our bodies formed by the truth and love that move the sun and the stars.ul exercise for training in truthfulness."

–Stanley Hauerwas, The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godchild

John 8:30-38

30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33 “We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. 37 I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you. 38 I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father; so then, you do what you have heard from your father.”

There is an important relationship between TRUTH and freedom.

Galatians 5:1-7

1 For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Take note! I, Paul, am telling you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all. 3 Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to do the entire law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we eagerly await through the Spirit, by faith, the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

7 You were running well. Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth?

Two Types of Freedom:

• Negative Freedom- freedom 'from'

• Positive Freedom- freedom 'for'

• For Jesus and Paul, freedom is about choosing, choosing the good.

"Freedom isn't about autonomy from authority but about liberating loving relationshps from sin."

–John Mark Comer

Galatians 5:13-14

13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Paul's use of slavery leads us to a question, "What owns you?"

What Jesus and Paul call slavery, we call addiction.

Galatians 5:13-18

13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

16 I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Galatians 5:7 You were running well. Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth?

The Law of Returns 

• Every cause has an effect.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over—will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Matthew 7:2 For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use.

Galatians 6:7 Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap,

• The effect is often disproportionate to the cause.

Galatians 6:7-10

At Home in the Truth

Colossians 1:9-14

Here's my advice–

"Do not lie."

"A Christian is someone who is unable to lie."

–Stanley Hauerwas

“...the truth can be spoken only by someone who is already at home in it, not by someone who still lives in untruthfulness..." 

–Wittgenstein 

What does it mean to be at home in the truth? 

Colossians 1:9-14

9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. 14 In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

...that you may...

be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding

walk worthy of the Lord

bear fruit in every good work and 

grow in the knowledge of God, 

being strengthened with all power... 

great endurance and patience

joyfully giving thanks to the Father...

share in the saints’ inheritance in the light...

Why would we ever lie? 

• Our lives are constructed of stories.

• We are often tempted to lie because of pride and power

"This distance between how we live and what we know to be true is painful and tempts us to change the truth rather than change our lives."

–Stanley Hauerwas, The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godchild

• We often lie because we don't want our limits exposed. We fear our foolishness will be on display.

Ephesians 4:15-16

15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. 16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

Two of the richest fruits of truthfulness are trust and peace.

• Speaking the truth means we must be what we seem to be.

Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another.

• A life of isolation and lies deforms us into the image of the devil.

• The exemplary life of Christ is a life that is at home in the truth. It is a life that has undergone training to keep pride in check.

"God has given us a wonderful exercise for training in truthfulness. That exercise is called prayer. To learn to pray is to have our bodies formed by the truth and love that move the sun and the stars.ul exercise for training in truthfulness."

–Stanley Hauerwas, The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godchild

Prowling Like a Lion

1 Peter 5:8-9

Two Truths Concerning the Devil:

• I believe in the devil because Jesus believed in the devil.

• The devil's end goal is to spread death.

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

There is a devil.

diabolos- to slander, to accuse, "The Accuser"

Genesis 3:1-7

1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

"Did God really say...?"

"...you will be like God..."

Two statements that delve into the very core of the devil's deception:

1) to remove God's rule over your life

2) to redfine good and evil based on ourselves over trusting the will of God

These statements lead us to three questions:

Who is God? (or the gods? or is there a God or gods?)

Who are we?

How do we live?

Or to say in another way:

What role does God play in my purpose?

What does it mean to be human?

What is a life of meaning?

John 6:32-51

John 8:30-41

John 6:37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.

John 8:42-45

How are we transformed into the image of the Son?

We are transformed by the Holy Spirit and living in the truth.

A life of isolation and lies deform us into the image of the devil.

The Role of Virtue

Romans 1:20

Romans 1:18-25

18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. 21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

Points: 

• God's truth is evident (vs. 19).

• God's attributes have been clearly seen since the beginning (vs. 20).

• God's truth and life (attributes) were exchanged for idols (vs. 22).

• The truth of God was exchanged for a lie (vs. 25) and worshipped the created.

Bearing witness to Jesus as Lord is the central calling of the Church.

John 13:34-35

34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 17:20-23

20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

What would my life be like if I fully embraced God's divine attributes and allowed His truth to shine through me?

The Transcendentals:

• Goodness

• Beauty

• Truth

Goodness

• Goodness is that which works for the benefit of another.

• Human goodness has one important characteristic: love.

• To love is to will the good of another.

• Sin is the failure to love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Beauty 

• "Beauty is goodness made manifest to the senses." –Dallas Willard

• Beauty, when seen, pleases. Goodness, when experienced, benefits.

To love is to will the good of another, but it is also an act of beauty.

All good things are also beautiful.

Beauty, goodness, and truth point to something else–God. God is the creator of all things, so when we experience beauty, we need to thank God.

1 Corinthians 13:8-13

What would my life be like if I fully embraced God's goodness and beauty and allowed His truth to shine through me?

Three Theories for the Nature of Truth

1) The Correspondence Theory- A statement is true if it corresponds to the way the world is

2) The Coherence Theory- A statement is true if it is consistent with other statements we take to be true.

• The coherence theory is put under pressure when other truths are questioned.

3) The Pragmatic Theory- A statement is true if it works.

• The pragmatic theory values power over principle.

John 18:33-38

33 Then Pilate went back into the headquarters, summoned Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

34 Jesus answered, “Are you asking this on your own, or have others told you about me?”

35 “I’m not a Jew, am I?” Pilate replied. “Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?”

36 “My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

37 “You are a king then?” Pilate asked.

“You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

38 “What is truth?” said Pilate.

After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no grounds for charging him.

John 14:1-7

1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. 4 You know the way to where I am going.”

5 “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”

6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

The Church is the people of God.

If you know Jesus, you know the Father.

Bearing witness to Jesus as Lord is the central calling of the Church.

Central to our call is proclaiming Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life.

John 18:37 

Beth Moore Story:

Years ago at an event during a Q&A, a woman asked, Beth, what’s the knot in your rope? I thought it was the best question. In other words, what do I hold onto when I’m sliding down a rope, palms burning & blistering & all my formulas failing? I didn’t even have to think about it.

The words of Jesus in John 15:9. “As the Father has loved me, so I love you. Now abide in my love.” Jesus follower, try to grasp the magnitude of what he is saying about you. In the same way God loves Jesus, Jesus loves you. Then he says, LIVE IN THIS TRUTH. IT’S HOME TO YOU.

This is how I think of it: no matter what is happening in my life, this truth must be firmly rooted and grounded, as Paul said in Eph 3, as the deepest belief and reality in my entire existence. In the whole of my day in and day out living.

This way, come what may, in all the losses & gains & tears & doubts & bewilderments & betrayals, & when my body aches with the pain of aging or I’m sick or depressed or worse yet, one of my loved ones is, I know this with all my being, none of this is because I’m unloved by God.

Jesus loves me like God loves him. And, man oh man, does God love Jesus. Let that sink down into the deepest part of you. Let that root deep into the soil of your consciousness and unconsciousness. Jesus loves you like God loves him. Live in it. Don’t leave it for a minute.

What's the knot in your rope?

In a world that says there is no truth, what do we hold on to?

John 18:38

What is truth?

We believe that Truth has a name, a face, a mother, a birthdate, a death date, and a resurrection date.

This morning, we are joined by our youth pastor, Rev. James Dolinger.

Freedom from Sin

Romans 6:1-14

Romans 6:1-14

1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. 13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. 14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

Romans 5:20 The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more

Three Misunderstandings Dealt with in Romans 6:

1) We don't understand sin.

2) We don't understand grace.

3) We don't understand the work of the cross concerning transformation.

1) We don't understand sin.

• Original Sin

• Personal Sin- the sin of commission and the sin of omission

The Sin of Commission

Galatians 5:19-21

19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The Sin of Omission

James 4:17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.

Nazarene Articles of Faith, Article 5.1

• corruption of the nature of all the offspring of Adam

• averse (opposition) to God

• without spiritual life

• inclined to evil

"It is impossible to be 'in Christ' and remain 'in Sin.' ...there is absolutley no place for cheap grace in the Christian life. In baptism believers have relocated. They have died to the power called Sin; they have terminated their bondage and alligence to it. Therefore, now we present our bodies to God, not to Sin."

–Michael J. Gorman

2) We don't understand grace.

2) We don't understand the continuing role of grace in our lives.

Romans 6:11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Grace makes me a part of a new movement in the world– "walking in the newness of life."

3) We don't understand the work of the cross concerning transformation.

Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come.Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Romans 6:8-11

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

God Sought Life

Romans 3:28-30, 5:1-11

Romans 3:9-10

9 What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, 10 as it is written:

There is no one righteous, not even one.

Romans 3:23-24

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 

Romans 3:28-30

28 For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

Both Jews and Gentiles are in need of God's saving grace because we all suffer from the same condition- SIN

How do we define "justify"?

Definition 1- "Can I find a good excuse for my situation?"

Definition 2- to straighten out

How does God straighten out relationships with humanity?

• Through a gospel that evokes faith

• If sin is a relationship with God gone wrong, then faith is the relationship with God set right.

• This 'setting right' is done through the power of the gospel

• The gospel brings about a trusting relationship with God and we are justified.

Romans 5:1-3

1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance,

"We boast in what God does. Even when we suffer, because God's action is not limited because of my suffering."

Romans 5:4-11

4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. 5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.

Don't miss the repetition of 6-10:

vs. 6- ...while we were still helpless...Christ died for the ungodly. 

vs. 8- ...while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

vs. 10- ...while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son...will we be saved by his life.

God sought life.

Called to be Saints 

Romans 1:1-17

Romans 16:19-20

19 The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet innocent about what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Romans 1:1-7

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures— 3 concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh 4 and was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. 5 Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles, 6 including you who are also called by Jesus Christ.

7 To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul, a servant (slave, doulos) of Christ (Messiah) Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God...

"Ultimately the source of each aspect of his identity is God, who has called him to set him apart to be an apostle, one sent with the authority of the sender as the sender's representative and agent."

–Michael Gorman

Romans 1:8-17

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world. 9 God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son—that I constantly mention you, 10 always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, 12 that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

13 Now I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

Paul uses the phrase, "obedience of faith" to bookend the letter to the Romans (1:5, 16:26).

Romans 1:16-17

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

In the culture of the New Testament, what was the most shameful thing?

Why would one not want to be publicly identified as a Christian? 

Who is the God you believe in?

• God is working to set things right (reconciliation).

• God is bringing life.

• God's new life starts with divine grace and leads to faith.

Stand on Your Feet!

Acts 13:1-3, 14:8-18

Acts Outline from Acts 1:8

A. ...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you (chp. 2)

B. ...you will be my witnesses...

1) in Jerusalem and Judea (chp. 2-7)

2) in Samaria (chp 8-12)

3) the ends of the earth (13-20)

Acts 13:1-3

1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

2 As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off.

Acts 14:8-18

8 In Lystra a man was sitting who was without strength in his feet, had never walked, and had been lame from birth. 9 He listened as Paul spoke. After looking directly at him and seeing that he had faith to be healed, 10 Paul said in a loud voice, “Stand up on your feet!” And he jumped up and began to walk around.

11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the town, brought bulls and wreaths to the gates because he intended, with the crowds, to offer sacrifice.

14 The apostles Barnabas and Paul tore their robes when they heard this and rushed into the crowd, shouting, 15 “People! Why are you doing these things? We are people also, just like you, and we are proclaiming good news to you, that you turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own way, 17 although he did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.” 18 Even though they said these things, they barely stopped the crowds from sacrificing to them.

Acts 14:15 “People! Why are you doing these things? We are people also, just like you, and we are proclaiming good news to you, that you turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.

What are the worthless things that you look to bring you value? 

Acts 14:8-10

8 In Lystra a man was sitting who was without strength in his feet, had never walked, and had been lame from birth. 9 He listened as Paul spoke. After looking directly at him and seeing that he had faith to be healed, 10 Paul said in a loud voice, “Stand up on your feet!” And he jumped up and began to walk around.

What have you held on to for your entire life as "just the way it is," yet God wants to do something new? 

Acts 14:10 Paul said in a loud voice, “Stand up on your feet!” And he jumped up and began to walk around.

• Do you have the faith that God can create a new future? 

• Do you have faith that God can change your future despite your past? 

A New Vision

Acts 10:1-17, 34-48

Acts 1:8 as an outline for the book of Acts:

A. ...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you (chp. 2)

B. ...you will be my witnesses...

1) in Jerusalem and Judea (chp. 2-7)

2) in Samaria (chp 8-12)

3) the ends of the earth (13-20)

Three Beginnings in Acts:

• A Room (Pentecost)

• A Road (Saul's Conversion)

• A Roof (Peter's Dream)

Acts 10:1-17

1 There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment. 2 He was a devout man and feared God along with his whole household. He did many charitable deeds for the Jewish people and always prayed to God. 3 About three in the afternoon he distinctly saw in a vision an angel of God who came in and said to him, “Cornelius.”

4 Staring at him in awe, he said, “What is it, Lord?”

The angel told him, “Your prayers and your acts of charity have ascended as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa and call for Simon, who is also named Peter. 6 He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.”

7 When the angel who spoke to him had gone, he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, who was one of those who attended him. 8 After explaining everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

9 The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the roof about noon. 10 He became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth. 12 In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky. 13 A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.”

14 “No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean.”

15 Again, a second time, the voice said to him, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.” 16 This happened three times, and suddenly the object was taken up into heaven.

17 While Peter was deeply perplexed about what the vision he had seen might mean, right away the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions to Simon’s house, stood at the gate.

Acts 10:34-48

Acts 10:15 Again, a second time, the voice said to him, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.”16 This happened three times, and suddenly the object was taken up into heaven.

If the point of the vision was people, why were there animals in the vision instead of people?

Acts 10:9-10

9 The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the roof about noon. 10 He became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he fell into a trance.

Acts 10:15 Again, a second time, the voice said to him, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.”

• Do we believe God has the power to make clean what was formally unclean?

• Do we pray and hunger to see God's transformative power in the lives of others?

• Does God have the power to transform someone who is loving the wrong things?

Acts 10:19-20

19 While Peter was thinking about the vision, the Spirit told him, “Three men are here looking for you. 20 Get up, go downstairs, and go with them with no doubts at all, because I have sent them.”

Resurrection Mission

Matthew 28:16-20

Genesis 12:1-3

1 The Lord said to Abram:

Go from your land,

 your relatives,

 and your father’s house

 to the land that I will show you.

2 I will make you into a great nation,

 I will bless you,

 I will make your name great,

 and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,

 I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,

 and all the peoples on earth

 will be blessed through you.

Exodus 19:5-6

5 Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, 6 and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”

Isaiah 42:5-9

5 This is what God, the Lord, says—

 who created the heavens and stretched them out,

 who spread out the earth and what comes from it,

 who gives breath to the people on it

 and spirit to those who walk on it—

6 “I am the Lord. I have called you

 for a righteous purpose,

 and I will hold you by your hand.

 I will watch over you, and I will appoint you

 to be a covenant for the people

 and a light to the nations,

7 in order to open blind eyes,

 to bring out prisoners from the dungeon,

 and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.

8 I am the Lord. That is my name,

 and I will not give my glory to another

 or my praise to idols.

9 The past events have indeed happened.

 Now I declare new events;

 I announce them to you before they occur.”

Matthew 2:1-3

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”

3 When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

There is a deep calling in Scripture that God's calling and blessing are to flow out of His people into "all the people of the earth."

Matthew 4:8-10

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

Matthew 28:16-20

18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Why is it difficult to live out the Great Commission?

We must begin by realizing SIN is an actual/real problem.

Sin is a problem that required the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God.

The Great Commission reminds us that the presence of the risen Christ is active in the world.  

Scripture References and Notes:

Resurrection Faith

Matthew 28:1-10

Matthew 27:62-66

62 The next day, which followed the preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember that while this deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give orders that the tomb be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come, steal him, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.”

65 “Take guards,” Pilate told them. “Go and make it as secure as you know how.” 66 They went and secured the tomb by setting a seal on the stone and placing the guards.

Matthew 28:1-10

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb. 2 There was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4 The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men.

5 The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here. For he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there.’ Listen, I have told you.”

8 So, departing quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to tell his disciples the news. 9 Just then Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus told them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

Matthew 28:4 The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men.

Matthew 28:5-6 

5 The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here. For he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Matthew 28:7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there.’ Listen, I have told you.”

Matthew 17:7 Jesus came up, touched them, and said, “Get up; don’t be afraid.”

Matthew 28:5 The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

Matthew 28:8 So, departing quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to tell his disciples the news.

Matthew 28:9-10 

9 Just then Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus told them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

"Don't be afraid. Go and tell...and they will see me there.

When Did We See You?

Matthew 25:31-46

Focused Assignment (Matthew 24)

• Enduring Love (vs. 12-14)

• Discernment for the Things of God (vs. 33)

• Alertness & Mindfulness to God's Work (vs. 42 & 46)

Matthew 22:9 Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’

What does it mean to wear the wedding garments of the Kingdom of God?

Colossians 3:12-14

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Colossians 3:10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.

Matthew 25:31-46

Matthew 25:40 & 45

40 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

45 “Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

The Gospel of Matthew cares about the way you live your life.

The actions are simple.

The consistency of that life is hard.

For all of history, humans have desired a liturgical solution.

Micah 6:7-8

7 Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of ramsor with ten thousand streams of oil?Should I give my firstborn for my transgression,the offspring of my body for my own sin?

8 Mankind, he has told each of you what is goodand what it is the Lord requires of you:to act justly,to love faithfulness,and to walk humbly with your God.

Amos 5:22-24

22 Even if you offer meyour burnt offerings and grain offerings,I will not accept them;I will have no regardfor your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.

23 Take away from me the noise of your songs!I will not listen to the music of your harps.

24 But let justice flow like water,and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.

For all of history, humans have desired a liturgical solution.

I want to put on the wedding garment. I want to live a life where I know I have been set free by Jesus Christ to serve my neighbor.

Bridesmaids

Matthew 25:1-13

Matthew 24:36 “Now concerning that day and hour no one knows—neither the angels of heaven nor the Son —except the Father alone.

Matthew 25:1-13

1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the groom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they didn’t take oil with them; 4 but the wise ones took oil in their flasks with their lamps. 5 When the groom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

6 “In the middle of the night there was a shout: ‘Here’s the groom! Come out to meet him.’

7 “Then all the virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise ones, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’

9 “The wise ones answered, ‘No, there won’t be enough for us and for you. Go instead to those who sell oil, and buy some for yourselves.’

10 “When they had gone to buy some, the groom arrived, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. 11 Later the rest of the virgins also came and said, ‘Master, master, open up for us!’

12 “He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you!’

13 “Therefore be alert, because you don’t know either the day or the hour.

Matthew 24:3 While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Matthew 24 can be read as a three-act play about the end times.

Matthew 24:12-14

12 Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Matthew 24:33 In the same way, when you see all these things, recognize that he is near—at the door.

Matthew 24:42 Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day your Lord is coming.

Matthew 24:46 Blessed is that servant whom the master finds doing his job when he comes.

Focused Assignment

Act 1- Enduring Love

Act 2- Discernment for the Things of God

Act 3- Alertness & Mindfulness to God's Work

Matthew 25:13 “Therefore be alert, because you don’t know either the day or the hour.

This is a parable about discipleship, waiting, patience, and preparedness.

What is the character of our waiting?

Enduring Love

Discernment

Alertness/Mindfulness

2 Timothy 1:6-7

6 Therefore, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.

The Wedding Banquet

Matthew 22:1-14

During Lent, we are answering this question– What does it mean to be a disciple?

Matthew 22:1-14

1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come. 4 Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

5 “But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city.

8 “Then he told his servants, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ 10 So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests. 11 When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Outline of this Parable:

• The king has a banquet for his son (Revelation 19:9)

• Sends out servants (#1)

• Those invited didn't want to come.

• Sends out servants (#2)

• Those invited paid no attention– mistreated and killed the servants.

• The king is enraged and burns down the city.

• Sends out servants (#3)

• Invite everyone- good and evil

• Now the banquet was filled with guests

• Odd guest- "...was not dressed for a wedding."

Theme of Matthew:

God enters through the brokenness–always surprising, always transforming grace of God.

Matthew 22:10 So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests.

"...gathered everybody they found, both evil and good."

Col 3:8-9

8 But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices

Col 3:12-15

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.

"Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet."

Matthew 22:14

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

This morning we are joined by Rev. Randy Jasper.

The Unforgiving Servant

Matthew 18:15-35

Matthew 7:1-5

1 “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. 3 Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.

Matthew 18:15-35

15 “If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimonyof two or three witnesses every fact may be established.17 If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church. If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”

21 Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?”

22 “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven.

23 “For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle accounts, one who owed ten thousand talents was brought before him. 25 Since he did not have the money to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt.

26 “At this, the servant fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 Then the master of that servant had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan.

28 “That servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe!’

29 “At this, his fellow servant fell down and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ 30 But he wasn’t willing. Instead, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. 31 When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened. 32 Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart.”

Garden–Egypt–Exodus–New Life (provided by God)

Perfection–Sin–Salvation–Mercy

Freedom–Oppression–Restoration–Forgiveness

God's forgiveness in my life flows out of the restoration of the relationship.

The goal is to hold one accountable for bad behavior and to restore the relationship.

Garden–Egypt–Exodus–New Life provided by God

Perfection–Sin–Salvation–Mercy

Freedom–Oppression–Restoration–Forgiveness

What is our proper response to God's action in the world?

This morning, we are joined by Kristofer Labenske

Sermon Passages and Notes: 

Faith Like a Mustard Seed

Matthew 13:24-43

Summary of the Sermon on the Mount in Two Points:

• Dependence on God.

• God's people assume a different stance/posture towards one another.

Matthew 13:24-43

Three Parables in this Passage:

The Wheat & Weeds

The Mustard Seed

The Leaven

Dependence on God.

God's people assume a different stance/posture towards one another.

1 Corinthians 3:4-9

4 For whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not acting like mere humans?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

"You are God's field..."

What am I allowing to take root in my life?

God's people assume a different stance/posture towards one another.

Matthew 5:43-44

43 “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Mathew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

Matthew 7:1-4

1 “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. 3 Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye?

Matthew 7:12 12 Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

There are going to be weeds in life.

Sermon Passages and Notes:

Built on the Rock

Matthew 7:1-14, 24-29

Matthew 6:31-33

31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

Matthew 7:1-6

1 “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. 3 Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye. 6 Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.

How are we to use the Law in our lives?

The Law works best in the Christian life when you first apply it to yourself.

We begin by looking at ourselves.

Matthew 7:7-14

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him. 12 Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:12 Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

"Whatever is hateful and distasteful to you, do not do to your fellow man. This is the entire Torah, the rest is commentary. Go and learn."

Matthew 7:24-29

24 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.”

28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 because he was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like their scribes.

Where you build your house matters.

It is not about avoiding the storm. It's about withstanding the storm.

What does my life look like if it is built on rock?

Where are the places in my life where I have too much trust/value in the sand?

How to Pray

Matthew 6:7-21

http://bible.com/events/49020117

Matthew 6:5-21

The Lord's Prayer is a model of prayer in its claim of relationship and simplicity.  

God:

• Your name
• Your Kingdom
• You will

Petitions:

• Give us
• Forgive us
• not bring us
• rescue us

Exodus 20:1-8

1. Do not have other gods beside me.

2. Do not make an idol for yourself.

3. Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God.

4. Remember the Sabbath.

Exodus 20:7a- "Do not misuse the name of God."

Matthew 6:9b- "...your name because honored as holy."

God has a reputation and that reputation is largely dependent on what we do in the world in the name of God.

Ezekiel 36:22-23

Matthew 6:19-21

Sermon Passages and Notes:

"Blessed..." (Matthew 5:1-20)

http://bible.com/events/49019040

Beatitude (Latin)

Makarism (Greek)

Two Statements Concerning the Beatitudes:

1) God is the acting agent behind the blessing.

2) "Blessed" is in the indicative tense.

Matthew 4:23-25

Matthew 5:1-12

1) God is the acting agent behind the blessing.

2) "Blessed" is spoken by Jesus as TRUTH.

The Beatitudes are true based on the authority of the One who spoke.

Your present experience does not define the future.

The Beatitudes are unconditional performative language. They bring into being the truth they state.

CROSS

EMPTY TOMB

The community that hears itself pronounced "blessed" by its Lord does not remain idle but acts in accord with the reign of the Kingdom of God.

Sermon Passages and Notes:

Serve Only Him- Matthew 4:1-17

When we reduce temptation to issues, we miss the heart of temptation.

Matthew 4:1-17

Stones to Bread

• Matthew 4:4
• "Man must live on every word that comes from the mouth of God."
• John 4:31-34

The Pinnacle of the Temple

The High Mountain

Summary:

1. Bread- personal needs, nourishment
2. Temple- the need for love and a sign of that love
3. Mountain- power versus obedience

Temptation is not about the question, "Would you like to do something wrong?"

Genesis 3:2-5

"...you will be like God..."

Temptation is, "What am I going to do with my life?"

What is God's will for my life? What am I going to allow God to do with my life?

What is my life?

This is who I am, this is what I do

Sermon Passages and Notes:

Fruit, not Fathers

Matthew 3:1-17

Passage Outline:

1. John the Baptist's proclamation

a. Isaiah

b. Malachi

c. Fruit of repentance

d. Future Messiah

2. Jesus' baptism

a. Jesus' proclamation

b. The Father's proclamation

Matthew 3:1-6

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!” 3 For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said:

A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:Prepare the way for the Lord;make his paths straight!

4 Now John had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then people from Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the vicinity of the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

"Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!"

What is the difference between the "Kingdom of Heaven" and the "Kingdom of God"?

John the Baptist is calling for a turning towards a new way of life because there is a new sense of order in the world.

Matthew 3:7-17

7 When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. 9 And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove his sandals. He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”

15 Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.

16 When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”

Matthew 3:15 Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.

What is the minimum I have to do in order to count myself as a believer?

Through His baptism, Jesus is demonstrating to us what it means to follow the Father and we see a community formed.

"Remember your baptism." –Martin Luther

Sermon Passages and Notes:

The Genealogy of Jesus

Matthew 1:1-17

The Genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-17)

How do you introduce yourself?

What is my family story?

Where we come from matters, but we are not bound to that story.

Our bigger story helps us find our place in this world.

Matthew 1:1-17

How does knowing the bigger story of Jesus help us understand who He is?

Five Women:

Tamar

Rahab

Ruth

Bathsheba

Mary

How does knowing the bigger story of Jesus help us understand who He is?

The story of Jesus' family is a story of brokenness and 'un-usable' people being vessels of God's action.

God enters through the brokenness- always surprising, always transforming grace of God.

Sermon Passages and Notes:

In the Morning

Luke 2:8-20

Advent is the time between–between the first coming of Christ and the second coming, between darkness and dawn, between kingdoms of this world, and the fulfillment of the Kingdom of our Lord and His Son, Jesus the Messiah.

Luke 2:8-20

8 In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: 11 Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:

14  Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and peace on earth to people he favors!

15 When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

16 They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger. 17 After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told.

Main Points:

Travel

The Inn

The Shepherds

Jesus as Emmanuel

Matthew 1:18-25

Betrothal vs. Engagement

Ketubah- a Jewish marriage contract

Mary and Joseph are legally bound as they would be in marriage, but they have not joined households.

Matthew 1:18-25

18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.

20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 See, the virgin will become pregnant

and give birth to a son,

and they will name him Immanuel,

which is translated “God is with us.”

24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her 25 but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.

Jesus- "the One who saves"

Immanuel- "God with us."

In Jesus, these promises are fulfilled. Jesus is the One who saves and is the fulfillment of God's continuing promise to be with us (Matthew 28:20)

How many sticky/awkward situations do you deal with?

God enters the human situation, even the situations and relationships that don't look so good.

Emmanuel, God with us, is a promise that God enters the messiness where we live.

God opens up a way to see the promise that calls us through it.

Sermon Passages and Notes:

Light to the Nations

Isaiah 42:1-9

Isaiah 42:1 “This is my servant; I strengthen him,

this is my chosen one; I delight in him.

I have put my Spirit on him;

he will bring justice to the nations.

The original audience in this passage was God's people, Israel.

Isaiah 42:1-9

Verse 1

1 “This is my servant; I strengthen him,

this is my chosen one; I delight in him.

I have put my Spirit on him;

he will bring justice to the nations.

Ezekiel 36:25-27

25 I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.

You have the God-given capacity to transform someone's life now that the Spirit is upon you.

Verses 2 & 3

2 He will not cry out or shout

or make his voice heard in the streets.

3 He will not break a bruised reed,

and he will not put out a smoldering wick;

he will faithfully bring justice.

Verse 4

4 He will not grow weak or be discouraged

until he has established justice on earth.

The coasts and islands will wait for his instruction.”

Verse 5

5 This is what God, the Lord, says—

who created the heavens and stretched them out,

who spread out the earth and what comes from it,

who gives breath to the people on it

and spirit to those who walk on it—

Verse 6

6 “I am the Lord. I have called you

for a righteous purpose,

and I will hold you by your hand.

I will watch over you, and I will appoint you

to be a covenant for the people

and a light to the nations,

Verses 7-9

7 in order to open blind eyes,

to bring out prisoners from the dungeon,

and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.

8 I am the Lord. That is my name,

and I will not give my glory to another

or my praise to idols.

9 The past events have indeed happened.

Now I declare new events;

I announce them to you before they occur.”

Three Disruptive Moments in the Old Testament

1. The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)

2. Slavery in Egypt (Exodus 1-13)

3. Exile

God's Response:

• Form a people

• Give the people a mission

God is not done with you or His people.

God will always have a people who are evidence of God's goodness, kindness, love, and justice.

Sermon Passages and Notes:

The Faith to Leave 'Safe'

Esther 4:1-17

Characters:

• King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I)- King of Persia, a drunk pushover

• Vashti- the queen

• Mordecai- the older cousin

• Esther- the beautiful cousin

• Haman- royal staff, the villain

Esther 3:5-6

5 When Haman saw that Mordecai was not bowing down or paying him homage, he was filled with rage. 6 And when he learned of Mordecai’s ethnic identity, it seemed repugnant to Haman to do away with Mordecai alone. He planned to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout Ahasuerus’s kingdom.

Chiasmus

"chi"

Esther 4:1-17

"If you keep silent at this time..."

"Who knows, perhaps you have been put in this place/position for such a time as this."

• Who are the people within arms reach of your life?

• What if you are exactly what is needed?

How would you respond differently to the world if you were exactly what is needed?

Esther 4:16 - “If I perish, I perish."

When you combine these two questions, doubt and excuses creep into our minds:

• Someone obviously could do better or has a better answer

• I am inadequate

• Someone else will go

• I'm comfortable with where I am

Do you have the faith to leave 'safe?'

What if you are the only one who can go?

Sermon Passages and Notes:

Faith as a Way of Life

Habakkuk 1:1-7, 2:1-4

Habakkuk 1:1-7

1 The pronouncement that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

2 How long, Lord, must I call for help

and you do not listen

or cry out to you about violence

and you do not save?

3 Why do you force me to look at injustice?

Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?

Oppression and violence are right in front of me.

Strife (lawsuits/court judgement) is ongoing, and conflict escalates.

4 This is why the law is ineffective

and justice (mishpat) never emerges.

For the wicked restrict the righteous;

therefore, justice (mishpat) comes out perverted.

5 Look at the nations and observe—

be utterly astounded!

For I am doing something in your days

that you will not believe

when you hear about it.

6 Look! I am raising up the Chaldeans,

that bitter, impetuous nation

that marches across the earth’s open spaces

to seize territories not its own.

7 They are fierce and terrifying;

their views of justice and sovereignty

stem from themselves.

"Why do you force me to look at injustice?

Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?"

The way the world currently is– is not the way God wants the world to be.

Habakkuk 2:1-4

2:1 I will stand at my guard post

and station myself on the lookout tower.

I will watch to see what he will say to me

and what I should reply about my complaint.

God’s Second Answer

2 The Lord answered me:

Write down this vision;

clearly inscribe it on tablets

so one may easily read it.

3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time;

it testifies about the end and will not lie.

Though it delays, wait for it,

since it will certainly come and not be late.

4 Look, his ego is inflated;

he is without integrity.

But the righteous one will live by his faith.

Habakkuk 2:2 (CEB)

2 Then the Lord answered me and said,

Write a vision, and make it plain upon a tablet so that a runner can read it.

Habakkuk 2:3

3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time;

it testifies about the end and will not lie.

Though it delays, wait for it,

since it will certainly come and not be late.

What would you write on your sign?

Maimonides

Ani Ma'amin- I believe

Thirteen Statements of Faith

12. I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah and though He may tarry, still I await Him every day.

• How do we insist upon hope in the face of this immediate violence and fear?
• In a world filled with injustice, violence, and impossibility, there is hope for the coming of the Messiah.
• The proclamation of the possibility for a new way of life when it seems the most impossible– that is what Habakkuk and Advent is after.
• What would you write on your sign?

Sermon Passages and Notes:

Swords into Plowshares- Isaiah 2:1-4

Isaiah 1:1- The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns[a] of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah.

Isaiah 2:1-4

1 The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

2 In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established

at the top of the mountains

and will be raised above the hills.

All nations will stream to it,

3 and many peoples will come and say,

“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us about his ways

so that we may walk in his paths.”

For instruction will go out of Zion

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 He will settle disputes among the nations

and provide arbitration for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plows

and their spears into pruning knives.

Nation will not take up the sword against nation,

and they will never again train for war.

Prophets struggle with verb tenses.

"It was all happening inside of Mary, and she was so sure of it that she was singing about it ahead of time--not in the future tense but in the past, as if the promise had already come true. Prophets almost never get their verb tenses straight, because part of their gift is being able to see the world as God sees it--not divided into things that are already over and things that have not happened yet, but as an eternally unfolding mystery that surprises everyone..."

–Barbara Brown Taylor (Singing Ahead of Time)

Luke 1:46-55

Luke 2:29-30

• Prophets struggle with verb tenses.

• Prophets desire to live-out life according to God's will for the world– in the present.

Isaiah 2:1-4

Are we willing to imagine a world where this is true?

2022 US Defense Budget: $1,640,000,000,000

• Take listening to the Spirit seriously.
• Tell our story faithfully. Open up yourself to the life of the story. We must learn to articulate a Christianity that is strange.
• “Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future; faith is having the courage to dance to it today."

“Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future; faith is having the courage to dance to it today." -- Peter Kuzmic

Sermon Passages and Notes:

Act, Love, Walk

Micah 6:1-8

Micah in Outline:

1:2- Addressed to all the people of the earth

3:1- Addressed to the leaders of Israel

6:1- Addressed to God's people

Psalm 15:1-2

Psalm 24:1-6

Structure of Micah 6:1-8

vss 1-2- Acolyte

vss 3-5- YHWH

vss 6-7- Worshipper

vs 8- Acolyte

Micah 6:1-7

1 Now listen to what the Lord is saying:

Rise, plead your case before the mountains,

and let the hills hear your complaint.

2 Listen to the Lord’s lawsuit,

you mountains and enduring foundations of the earth,

because the Lord has a case against his people,

and he will argue it against Israel.

3 My people, what have I done to you,

or how have I wearied you?

Testify against me!

4 Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt

and redeemed you from that place of slavery.

I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam ahead of you.

5 My people,

remember what King Balak of Moab proposed,

what Balaam son of Beor answered him,

and what happened from the Acacia Grove to Gilgal

so that you may acknowledge

the Lord’s righteous acts.

6 What should I bring before the Lord

when I come to bow before God on high?

Should I come before him with burnt offerings,

with year-old calves?

7 Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams

or with ten thousand streams of oil?

Should I give my firstborn for my transgression,

the offspring of my body for my own sin?

What would please the Lord?

• Burnt offerings with year-old calves

• Thousands of rams

• Ten thousand streams of oil

• My first-born

What would please the Lord?

What God wants is evidenced by three things:

• to act

• to love

• to walk

To act justly (mispat)

• Justice is what love looks like in public.

• Justice is setting up life following God's will for the world.

To love faithfulness (hesed)

mispat vs. hesed

mispat- concrete requirements of decency to other people

hesed- hesed is what is not required- being generous with acts of kindness, assuming the best, going out of your way to find ways to help the people you interact with, a movement towards other people, love of the fidelity of the relationship

To walk humbly

Matthew 4:19 “Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.”

Matthew 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him.

Psalm 23:3-4

3 He renews my life;

he leads me along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

4 Even when I go through the darkest valley,

I fear no danger,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

We are joined today by Dr. Michael Pasquarello.  Dr. Pasquarello is the Methodist Chair at Beeson Divinity School.  

Sermon Passages and Notes:

Wholehearted- Mark 12:41-44

41 And he sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came, and put in two copper coins, which make a penny. 43 And he called his disciples to him, and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.”

Solomon's Wisdom (1 Kings 3:4-28)

2 Samuel 12:10 Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hethite to be your own wife.’

1 Kings 3:4-15

"Ask. What should I give you?"

"...a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil."

Proverbs 1:20-22

20 Wisdom calls out in the street;

she makes her voice heard in the public squares.

21 She cries out above the commotion;

she speaks at the entrance of the city gates:

22 “How long, inexperienced ones, will you love ignorance?

How long will you mockers enjoy mocking

and you fools hate knowledge?

The simple- someone who doesn't know what they don't know, lacks experience

Mockers/Scoffers- someone who knows, doesn't care, and will ridicule you for trying to correct them

Proverbs 9:6-9

6 Leave inexperience behind, and you will live;

pursue the way of understanding.

7 The one who corrects a mocker

will bring abuse on himself;

the one who rebukes the wicked will get hurt.

8 Don’t rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you;

rebuke the wise, and he will love you.

9 Instruct the wise, and he will be wiser still;

teach the righteous, and he will learn more.

Fool- someone who knows and doesn't care

Wisdom- the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement

"The owl of Minerva begins its flight only with the onset of dusk." –Hegel

"Wisdom begins its flight only with the onset of dusk."

1 Kings 3:9 So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?”

Discernment is peering around the corner when it is getting dark.

1 Kings 3:5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask. What should I give you?”

"Ask. What should I give you?"

"What should I give you?"

• It is about gift, about what has been accomplished and what God is doing.
• We are to receive what God has given and use it in the service of others.
• It all comes back to God's loving kindness (hesed).
• As God's people, there is a need to constantly resubmit to the answer to this question–"What should I give you?"

"Create in me a clean heart..."

2 Samuel 11:1-5, 26-27; 12:1-9; Psalm 51:1-9

The first purpose of the Law is life.  Abiding by the Law allows for a flourishing of life.   

Exodus 20:2

Exodus 20:17

2 Samuel 7:8-11

2 Samuel 11:1-5

2 Samuel 11:4 ESV

2 Samuel 11:5 ESV

2 Samuel 11:15-17

2 Samuel 11:26-27

2 Samuel 12:1-9

1 Samuel 8:10-11

2 Samuel 11:4 ESV

2 Samuel 12:4

The first purpose of the Law is life.  Abiding by the Law allows for a flourishing of life.   

The flourishing of life is a gift.

The second purpose of the Law, as Nathan uses it, is to convict of sin.  

The conviction of sin is also part of the flourishing of life and it, too, is a gift.  

How is the conviction of sin a gift?  

Jeremiah 26:1-6

Jeremiah 26:12-15

The conviction of sin is also part of the flourishing of life and it, too, is a gift.  

Our good friend and brother, Pastor Nilo DeJesus, joins us from the Mesquita Church of the Nazarene in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  

Pastor James brings us our message for the morning.  

Rescue at Sea- Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14, 21-29

Exodus 1:6-7

6 Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation eventually died. 7 But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous so that the land was filled with them.

Exodus 2:23-25

23 After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, they cried out, and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God. 24 God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the Israelites, and God knew.

Exodus 6:6-7

Exodus 13:20-22

Exodus 14:5-14

Exodus 15:11-13

11 Lord, who is like you among the gods?

Who is like you, glorious in holiness,

revered with praises, performing wonders?

12 You stretched out your right hand,

and the earth swallowed them.

13 With your faithful love,

you will lead the people

you have redeemed;

you will guide them to your holy dwelling

with your strength.

Exodus 14:10-12

10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and there were the Egyptians coming after them! The Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord for help. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

Has there been a moment in your life when you thought there was no way out?

One of the ways we exist in survival mode is to not allow hope for the future, "I just need to get through today."

There is a survival mode and there is a hope for the future mode.

Exodus 14:13-14

13 But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and see the Lord’s salvation that he will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you must be quiet.”

Presence in Darkness

Genesis 39:1-23

Genesis 37:3-11

How is God going to keep the three promises He made to Abraham?

Genesis 39:1-23

Genesis 39:23

The question is never, “How could God let this happen?” If the Lord was with him, then how?

The question needs to be re-framed, “This happened, where can God go from here?”

Where can God go from here?

Three Truths Concerning Suffering:

1. God is always working to redeem.
2. When suffering happens, we can expect God to show up to bring new life.
3. When you are in a difficult circumstance, God is with you.