Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Rev 3:3
The instant my daughter had the virtual reality game visor on I knew we were in trouble. Her face lit in astonishment as digital events pounded her senses. She was melding into a dream-like world of temples, tunnels, and treasures. Would she be so entranced with the realism or terrorized by the assaults she would forget the mission? Lives had to be rescued. I called out, “Remember the mission.” There was no indication my voice reached her over the din of the headphones and the excitement of the game. She winced and shrank from fictional images until I could almost make out which battles the program was throwing at her. She squealed in delight and I knew she had reached the garden of pleasure. I pleaded once again, “Remember the mission.” The game clock was racing - not much time left. Her hands franticly swept something from her shoulders. In disgust she spit out the word, “Bugs!” I recollected the vaulted chamber dripping with filthy insects. “Remember the mission,” I enjoined.
Jesus is on the other side of our visor. We don’t see Him, and only wisps of His voice reach us. Inside the helmet is pandemonium and diversion. We have to remember tests and perils can only reach us if we forget ourselves in the game. When creepy-crawlies fall all around, strain after the Savior’s reminder, “Remember the mission.” Move right through virtual threats. Set your determination on the mission. Find perishing souls and bring them out. Have you discovered the garden of pleasure? Do not tarry. Remember the mission. Don’t eat up fleeting seconds with that which is not permanent or real. Suddenly the game will end, the visor will go up, the monsters will vanish, and we will stare into the true garden. Jesus will clap and laugh as He congratulates us on a score achieved from lives rescued during the game.
Prayer: Lord, Help me remember my mission every moment.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Sermon – Attitude of Gratitude
Sermon – May 1, 2005
Intro
For the past several weeks we have been exploring what it means to no longer be spiritual orphans but to act as adopted children of our Heavenly Father. We have said God wants children who are like Him; who imitate their Abba Father. Ephesians 5 leaps into the air about imitating Abba and then lands on our subject for today. Listen:
Eph 5:1-4
5:1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
“Rather thanksgiving.” That is our topic for this week: living with an attitude of gratitude. Notice the three “I” words in verse 3: immorality, impurity, and improper. According to this passage, God wants His children to exchange immorality, impurity, and whatever is improper for gratitude. This is amazing. I would guess we are to exchange them for piety, service, or learning. What He said was thanksgiving. What is cool about this is everyone can be grateful. Living with gratitude is not beyond the reach of any. In fact, the simpler we live, the easier it is to be grateful. God wants His adopted children to live with thanksgiving in our hearts and praise on our lips.
Col 3:15-16
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Let me give you three great reasons God wants gratitude to replace the three I’s.
1) Grabs Goodness
The first reason is gratitude grabs hold of goodness to pull us out of the downward spiral of self-pity. The Bible says we are created in God’s image. God is good, therefore good is stamped into us. It is true that, since the fall of man, our good is mixed up with evil. But the basic foundation for our existence is a need for good. When we dwell on the bad in our lives it is contrary to our basic need. There is a pathological sickness caused by the fall that draws us to wallow in our problems. This unnatural lust for self-pity leads to destruction. We must pull out of it. We must grab hold of the good around us knowing it comes from God. Let me show you this equation from:
Rom 1:21
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Paul is speaking of those who reject God. Notice it says they did not give thanks to Him. And notice how the refusal to live with gratitude leads to a dark and futile place. There is a swirling vortex which begins with rejecting God. It sucks humans further down to thanklessness, further and further away from our need for goodness and into dark foolishness where it is futile to try to get out.
There is an old song that says,
When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,Count your many blessings, name them one by one,And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
Refrain
Count your blessings, name them one by one,Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
The best way out of the doldrums of self-pity is to begin praising God for all the good in my life. When I really try, the list gets quite long and my whole aspect improves.
1 Thess 5:16-18
16 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
2) Gives Purpose
The second reason we are told to live with gratitude is that it reveals the purpose in daily living. A grateful person lives for here and now. So often I am preoccupied with a brighter, better tomorrow. When I was younger, I thought my life would begin when I got out of school. Then I thought it would begin when I landed the perfect job. Then when my kids were successful. Then when they moved out. Then when I had a new house or car. Then when I was a missionary in Africa. A grateful person is satisfied with the meaning God gives to the present rather than always lamenting how the good old days are gone or how today is not yet perfect.
Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 7. Here Paul speaks to three life situations. First, he speaks to those questioning marriage. He concludes his advice in:
1 Cor. 7:17
Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him.
Next Paul speaks to those considering circumcision. He concludes in:
1 Cor. 7:20
Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him.
Next he speaks to slaves. He concludes in:
1 Cor. 7:24
Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to.
Do you see the pattern? Changing our situation, getting past what troubles us, is not what brings meaning to life. Living in gratitude and recognizing the Lord’s presence in our current circumstance is what gives meaning. Are you happy with where you are right now? If not, the answer is to seek a change of heart attitude not a change of circumstance.
Living with an attitude of gratitude gets our focus on the purpose in life, today.
3) Grows Humility
An attitude of gratitude always walks hand in hand with humility. They are inseparable sisters. Listen to these scriptural couplets and see if you can find the sisters of gratitude and humility:
Ps 147:6-7
6 The LORD sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
make music to our God on the harp.
Isa 29:19
19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD;
the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
Ps 149:4-5
4 For the LORD takes delight in his people;
he crowns the humble with salvation.
5 Let the saints rejoice in this honor
and sing for joy on their beds.
The reason gratitude always walks with humility is gratitude says, “I am grateful because I am getting more than I deserve.” It is pride who says, “I deserve this gift or that. It is my due.” Gratitude would never lift her head to demand anything. She is always grateful for whatever gifts come her way.
Review – Gratitude:
Grabs Good
Gives Purpose
Grows Humility
Reason For Gratitude
As I researched this message I found that many secular resources endorse living with gratitude. They acknowledge that gratitude stimulates peace and satisfaction in life. But I also found they promote gratitude for gratitude’s sake. Their reasons for living gratefully are hollow. Listen to an example from Buddha:
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.
In other words, if you’re not dead shut up and be thankful. Thank you Buddha. Actually, Buddha has a point. Every form of life, no matter how dismal, is worth celebrating. But to talk about life in earthly terms alone would be like me describing you, beginning at your feet and working upward. If I never got past your feet, I could hardly claim to have described you. To describe earthly life only is to stop short after the feet. We have so much more for which to be thankful.
I thank God I have a wonderful wife; but she is not the reason I rejoice every morning. I thank God I have a great family; but that is not my source of satisfaction. I thank God for the privilege of being a servant in His kingdom; but I don’t say yippee everyday because of it. I love flowers, blue sky, oceans, mountains, trees, music, and friends; but that is not why I rejoice. My gratitude comes from just one reason. I could lose all the other blessings and still be supremely content. The reason for my gratitude is Abba has adopted me. I am His child, reconciled to Him by Jesus. Nothing outside of me, not even death, can take that away and it changes everything. This is the rest of the body of life; it is what is above the feet of mere earthly life.
If the unsaved can be filled with gratitude for the gift of life, then we can be filled tenfold. Because of Jesus, our cup is not only full, it runs over and sloshes everywhere around us. We are truly and forever blessed. With complete and yet inadequate praise, every fiber of our being joins with the psalmist to say:
Ps 23:5-6
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
Ps 16:5-6
5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
Ps 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.
Ps 69:30
I will praise God's name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.
Conclusion
And so I close with the injunction of:
Heb 12:28
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably…
Prayer
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Sermon –Forgive Like Your Father
Sermon –Forgive Like Your Father April 24, 2005
Intro
A man lay dying on his bed as his wife sat beside him to bring comfort. She was compassionately listening to him moan in a semi-conscious state, lovingly wiping the sweat off his brow. Just before expiring the man woke and saw his dear wife looking sadly into his eyes. He gathered his little remaining strength to speak to her. It seemed he wanted to make a deathbed confession. He said, “Dear, I have not been faithful to you.”
She was not moved and only replied, “Yes dear, I know.”
He went on, “But wife, I have cheated on you many times. I have been a sorry, pathetic excuse of a husband. I never deserved you.”
The wife replied, “Honey, don’t trouble yourself about it. I know all about your unfaithfulness; all those other women. Why do you think I poisoned you?”
Lifestyle Forgiveness
We are talking today about lifestyle forgiveness. It is a critical subject because the alternative, un-forgiveness, acts like a poison. However, unlike this little story, the poison of un-forgiveness does not act on the one who made the original mistake. Instead, it poisons the one who keeps account of the wrong.
What do I mean by poison? There are several portals into the human soul by which demonic activity can enter and create havoc. An example of such a portal is dabbling in the occult. Once we play with witchcraft, demons can enter and are only driven out by much prayer and fasting (Mat 17:20) and intervention of prayer warriors. According to 1 Cor. 6, sex outside marriage is another of these portals. Our topic today, un-forgiveness, is also a portal. Lives are turned sour, joy is stolen, and health is ruined when a demon of un-forgiveness has been granted entrance.
We are going to cover two aspects of forgiveness: Forgiving the past and avoiding new offenses.
Forgiving the Past
Here is the theme passage for forgiving the past. To help explain this I am going to give names to these characters.
Matt 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. (We’ll call him Ebenezer.) 25 Since he (Ebenezer) was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 "The servant (Ebenezer) fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' 27 The servant's (Ebenezer’s) master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 "But when that servant (Ebenezer) went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. (We call him Sorry Sam.) He (Ebenezer) grabbed him (Sorry Sam) and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.
29 "His fellow servant (Sorry Sam) fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
30 "But he (Ebenezer) refused. Instead, he went off and had the man (Sorry Sam) thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 "Then the master called the servant (Ebenezer) in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant (Sorry Sam) just as I had on you?' 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he (Ebenezer) should pay back all he owed.
35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
Scales of Sin
I have here a scale used for measuring. We will demonstrate God’s message to us with this scale. On this side we will put the sin against us of whomever hurt us. Let’s assume that sin is large, they did something terrible to us. Whatever the offense was it was huge so we are going to use a large spike to represent that sin. (Place spike on scale.) In Verse 26 it said the servant owed his fellow servant a hundred denarii. That would be equal to about 100 days wages, so by my estimate this should be at least an $8,000 spike.
On the other side of the scale we are going to place all our sins. Notice in His parable Jesus is not comparing sins between Ebenezer and Sorry Sam. Rather, Jesus compares the debt Sorry Sam owed Ebenezer to the debt Ebenezer owed the master. So on this other side of our scale belongs, not our sins against the person we injured, but our sins against God.
Let’s put on the scale that first act of defiance we made as a child after we were aware of God’s accountability of sin. (Small nail on scale.) Here is that first little lie, and the second lie, in fact, every lie, mistruth or exaggeration we ever made. (Handful of nails.) Then here is the first time we were unkind (one nail) and every other unkindness (Handful, and cont.). We need to put in taking what belonged to others, and every word spoken behind a back, and in fact every thought that was impure or selfish. And of course there is over-eating, laziness, pride, greed, lust, worrying, etc. Verse 24 says the man owed the master ten thousand talents. That would equal between 10 and 12 million US dollars. On one side we have an $8,000 sin, on the other a 12 million dollar pile of sins against God. I think we begin to see Jesus’ point. Now, what happens to the person who will not forgive one who sinned against them when all their sins against God have been erased? Let’s re-read the summary of these verses:
MT 18:34-35 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
According to the Bible (Mat 5:23, 24) un-forgiveness results in blocked prayers and as we just read, un-forgiveness from God himself. We begin to see why un-forgiveness is such a major portal for letting eternal havoc into our souls.
George Herbert
He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven.
Remember from last week that God has adopted us into His family. He wants us to look like His sons and daughters—to look like Him. God forgives and he wants us to have a lifestyle of forgiveness. Lifestyle forgiveness means looking closely at our hearts and forgiving anyone for which we get that “I-want-to-get-away” feeling when we see them come into a room or when we think about them. This includes those who injured us but have since passed away or moved out of our lives. We must go into deep prayer about those we hold grudges against and be cleansed of the poison of the memory. Often it is healthy to write a letter of forgiveness to the person. It is not usually wise to actually send the letter because our motive may be to remind them of how they hurt us and not to forgive. So write the forgiveness letter, pray over it, then destroy it.
Neither Judge Nor Accountant
Forgiveness is more for the forgiver than the forgiven. When we hold on to a record of someone else’s wrong it hurts us more then it hurts them. That is why the Bible tells us we are not to be the judge or accountant, keeping track of who did what against us.
1 Cor 13:4-5
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
It is an effort of futility to keep track of what is owed us because it cannot be repaid anyway. The offender does not have the resources as we saw in the parable. Remember in verse 25 it said:
MT 18:25 Since he was not able to pay…
Since he was unable to pay, the master forgave him. It is important to acknowledge we are forgiving that which the perpetrator could never pay and so it makes no sense to wait for them to make us whole again.
Jesus is able to make us whole again. Jesus is also qualified and able to act as judge and he will do just that at the end of time. No wrong is ever thrown at a child of God that is not recorded for judgment. If the perpetrator has not been cleansed by the blood of Christ, they will be held accountable.
2 Thess 1:6-10
6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
RO 12:19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
Rev 20:12-15
12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
A Conscious Choice
This is Christ’s court, not ours. Judgment is His jurisdiction, not ours. We have to make a conscious choice: are we willing to accept the fact that we have been wronged and the offender will never make us whole, but we are going to bless them anyway by forgiving and transferring the case to Christ’s jurisdiction, or, do we want to keep the offense in our mind where the poison can eat at us? That is the bottom line choice. Forgive or suffer.
Before we move on I want to add one more Biblical teaching on forgiving past debts. There is a difference between how we treat a repentant offender and a non-repentant offender. There is no difference in how we forgive them, but there is a difference in our future actions. We are responsible to God to avoid an environment where they can sin against us by the same offense. We forgive them, we turn them over to Christ’s jurisdiction, we love them, but we may have to pull away or take precautions so they cannot continue to sin against us. If your situation falls into this category, look up and follow Matthew 18:15-17 and come get counsel from the elders.
Avoiding New Offenses
First let’s define offense. Offense is from the Greek root meaning the string that led from a trap to the bait. You pull on the string, which is the offense, and slam! (Use mouse trap as an analogy and trip the “offense”.) We all experience many opportunities to be offended every day. Offense is unavoidable in minor issues like in traffic, and in major issues, like abuse or a cheating spouse. Whether the offense is intentional or not, the question is whether we will choose to immediately drop the offense, or hold on until the Devil’s trap closes and lets in the poison of un-forgiveness.
PR 17:14 Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.
Lifestyle forgiveness means that dropping an offense becomes our natural first reaction. We must let go of it, release it from our minds before the trap swings closed.
Lk 6:27 Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
A great way to accomplish this is every time the offense comes back into your mind, use it as a reminder to immediately begin praying for specific blessings to come to the offender. This is not praying, “Oh Lord, help them see how they have hurt me,” but, “Lord, bring blessing and healing into their life.”
So there you have it, forgive past sins against you and avoid taking up new offenses. The greatest gift Jesus gave us is forgiveness. The second greatest gift is the power to live with forgiveness toward others.
Some of us need to forgive God something we are subconsciously holding Him responsible for. Some of us need to forgive ourselves. As we move into our communion time let’s use it to examine our hearts and see where we need to live out the forgiveness we are called to.
Prayer
Intro
A man lay dying on his bed as his wife sat beside him to bring comfort. She was compassionately listening to him moan in a semi-conscious state, lovingly wiping the sweat off his brow. Just before expiring the man woke and saw his dear wife looking sadly into his eyes. He gathered his little remaining strength to speak to her. It seemed he wanted to make a deathbed confession. He said, “Dear, I have not been faithful to you.”
She was not moved and only replied, “Yes dear, I know.”
He went on, “But wife, I have cheated on you many times. I have been a sorry, pathetic excuse of a husband. I never deserved you.”
The wife replied, “Honey, don’t trouble yourself about it. I know all about your unfaithfulness; all those other women. Why do you think I poisoned you?”
Lifestyle Forgiveness
We are talking today about lifestyle forgiveness. It is a critical subject because the alternative, un-forgiveness, acts like a poison. However, unlike this little story, the poison of un-forgiveness does not act on the one who made the original mistake. Instead, it poisons the one who keeps account of the wrong.
What do I mean by poison? There are several portals into the human soul by which demonic activity can enter and create havoc. An example of such a portal is dabbling in the occult. Once we play with witchcraft, demons can enter and are only driven out by much prayer and fasting (Mat 17:20) and intervention of prayer warriors. According to 1 Cor. 6, sex outside marriage is another of these portals. Our topic today, un-forgiveness, is also a portal. Lives are turned sour, joy is stolen, and health is ruined when a demon of un-forgiveness has been granted entrance.
We are going to cover two aspects of forgiveness: Forgiving the past and avoiding new offenses.
Forgiving the Past
Here is the theme passage for forgiving the past. To help explain this I am going to give names to these characters.
Matt 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. (We’ll call him Ebenezer.) 25 Since he (Ebenezer) was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 "The servant (Ebenezer) fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' 27 The servant's (Ebenezer’s) master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 "But when that servant (Ebenezer) went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. (We call him Sorry Sam.) He (Ebenezer) grabbed him (Sorry Sam) and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.
29 "His fellow servant (Sorry Sam) fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
30 "But he (Ebenezer) refused. Instead, he went off and had the man (Sorry Sam) thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 "Then the master called the servant (Ebenezer) in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant (Sorry Sam) just as I had on you?' 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he (Ebenezer) should pay back all he owed.
35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
Scales of Sin
I have here a scale used for measuring. We will demonstrate God’s message to us with this scale. On this side we will put the sin against us of whomever hurt us. Let’s assume that sin is large, they did something terrible to us. Whatever the offense was it was huge so we are going to use a large spike to represent that sin. (Place spike on scale.) In Verse 26 it said the servant owed his fellow servant a hundred denarii. That would be equal to about 100 days wages, so by my estimate this should be at least an $8,000 spike.
On the other side of the scale we are going to place all our sins. Notice in His parable Jesus is not comparing sins between Ebenezer and Sorry Sam. Rather, Jesus compares the debt Sorry Sam owed Ebenezer to the debt Ebenezer owed the master. So on this other side of our scale belongs, not our sins against the person we injured, but our sins against God.
Let’s put on the scale that first act of defiance we made as a child after we were aware of God’s accountability of sin. (Small nail on scale.) Here is that first little lie, and the second lie, in fact, every lie, mistruth or exaggeration we ever made. (Handful of nails.) Then here is the first time we were unkind (one nail) and every other unkindness (Handful, and cont.). We need to put in taking what belonged to others, and every word spoken behind a back, and in fact every thought that was impure or selfish. And of course there is over-eating, laziness, pride, greed, lust, worrying, etc. Verse 24 says the man owed the master ten thousand talents. That would equal between 10 and 12 million US dollars. On one side we have an $8,000 sin, on the other a 12 million dollar pile of sins against God. I think we begin to see Jesus’ point. Now, what happens to the person who will not forgive one who sinned against them when all their sins against God have been erased? Let’s re-read the summary of these verses:
MT 18:34-35 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
According to the Bible (Mat 5:23, 24) un-forgiveness results in blocked prayers and as we just read, un-forgiveness from God himself. We begin to see why un-forgiveness is such a major portal for letting eternal havoc into our souls.
George Herbert
He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven.
Remember from last week that God has adopted us into His family. He wants us to look like His sons and daughters—to look like Him. God forgives and he wants us to have a lifestyle of forgiveness. Lifestyle forgiveness means looking closely at our hearts and forgiving anyone for which we get that “I-want-to-get-away” feeling when we see them come into a room or when we think about them. This includes those who injured us but have since passed away or moved out of our lives. We must go into deep prayer about those we hold grudges against and be cleansed of the poison of the memory. Often it is healthy to write a letter of forgiveness to the person. It is not usually wise to actually send the letter because our motive may be to remind them of how they hurt us and not to forgive. So write the forgiveness letter, pray over it, then destroy it.
Neither Judge Nor Accountant
Forgiveness is more for the forgiver than the forgiven. When we hold on to a record of someone else’s wrong it hurts us more then it hurts them. That is why the Bible tells us we are not to be the judge or accountant, keeping track of who did what against us.
1 Cor 13:4-5
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
It is an effort of futility to keep track of what is owed us because it cannot be repaid anyway. The offender does not have the resources as we saw in the parable. Remember in verse 25 it said:
MT 18:25 Since he was not able to pay…
Since he was unable to pay, the master forgave him. It is important to acknowledge we are forgiving that which the perpetrator could never pay and so it makes no sense to wait for them to make us whole again.
Jesus is able to make us whole again. Jesus is also qualified and able to act as judge and he will do just that at the end of time. No wrong is ever thrown at a child of God that is not recorded for judgment. If the perpetrator has not been cleansed by the blood of Christ, they will be held accountable.
2 Thess 1:6-10
6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
RO 12:19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
Rev 20:12-15
12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
A Conscious Choice
This is Christ’s court, not ours. Judgment is His jurisdiction, not ours. We have to make a conscious choice: are we willing to accept the fact that we have been wronged and the offender will never make us whole, but we are going to bless them anyway by forgiving and transferring the case to Christ’s jurisdiction, or, do we want to keep the offense in our mind where the poison can eat at us? That is the bottom line choice. Forgive or suffer.
Before we move on I want to add one more Biblical teaching on forgiving past debts. There is a difference between how we treat a repentant offender and a non-repentant offender. There is no difference in how we forgive them, but there is a difference in our future actions. We are responsible to God to avoid an environment where they can sin against us by the same offense. We forgive them, we turn them over to Christ’s jurisdiction, we love them, but we may have to pull away or take precautions so they cannot continue to sin against us. If your situation falls into this category, look up and follow Matthew 18:15-17 and come get counsel from the elders.
Avoiding New Offenses
First let’s define offense. Offense is from the Greek root meaning the string that led from a trap to the bait. You pull on the string, which is the offense, and slam! (Use mouse trap as an analogy and trip the “offense”.) We all experience many opportunities to be offended every day. Offense is unavoidable in minor issues like in traffic, and in major issues, like abuse or a cheating spouse. Whether the offense is intentional or not, the question is whether we will choose to immediately drop the offense, or hold on until the Devil’s trap closes and lets in the poison of un-forgiveness.
PR 17:14 Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.
Lifestyle forgiveness means that dropping an offense becomes our natural first reaction. We must let go of it, release it from our minds before the trap swings closed.
Lk 6:27 Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
A great way to accomplish this is every time the offense comes back into your mind, use it as a reminder to immediately begin praying for specific blessings to come to the offender. This is not praying, “Oh Lord, help them see how they have hurt me,” but, “Lord, bring blessing and healing into their life.”
So there you have it, forgive past sins against you and avoid taking up new offenses. The greatest gift Jesus gave us is forgiveness. The second greatest gift is the power to live with forgiveness toward others.
Some of us need to forgive God something we are subconsciously holding Him responsible for. Some of us need to forgive ourselves. As we move into our communion time let’s use it to examine our hearts and see where we need to live out the forgiveness we are called to.
Prayer
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Thirsty For Life
You give them drink from your river of delights.
For with you is the fountain of life. Ps 36:8-9
Poor thirsty creature, her tongue dangled to the dirt. My golden retriever stayed at my heel, but what she wanted was to slide down the bank into the creek. “Just a bit more,” I crooned. We were headed home. It would be better if she’d hold her thirst. Our pool, brimming with sweet rain-water, waited. I know my dog. She can’t just lap up some creek and be on her way. No, she has to wade into it, become one with the mud, then drink befouled water. That would necessitate a soapy bath back home and general unhappiness. So I kept her close. Yet, all along the trail, the bubbling creek called to her.
My life story is in that paragraph. In the Bible water represents life: joyous, throbbing, satiating life. The books of Ezekiel and Revelation let us peek at the River of Life flowing from the throne of God. I want in that river. I have craved it all my days. Even the miniscule deposit now residing in my soul is my world. It defines the secret me. In God’s gifts I hear bubbling hints of true life calling along the trail. But the cleanness of those mouthfuls has been muddied by a fallen world and by my own slopping around in sin. They are no longer pure for drinking. Still, so powerful is my thirst that I twitch with desire. I am tempted to jump into the polluted trickle and get at some life NOW.
Then I hear Jesus reminding me, “We are almost home. Deep, turquoise pools of the living water you thirst after are waiting.” He soothes, “Bolting will get you muddy and miserable. I know your thirst, and I know the teasing in your ear is a torment, but wait because you have no idea of what I have for you if you’ll stay at my heel a little longer.”
Prayer: Lord, I am so ready for the plunge. Help me concentrate on Your path and voice.
For with you is the fountain of life. Ps 36:8-9
Poor thirsty creature, her tongue dangled to the dirt. My golden retriever stayed at my heel, but what she wanted was to slide down the bank into the creek. “Just a bit more,” I crooned. We were headed home. It would be better if she’d hold her thirst. Our pool, brimming with sweet rain-water, waited. I know my dog. She can’t just lap up some creek and be on her way. No, she has to wade into it, become one with the mud, then drink befouled water. That would necessitate a soapy bath back home and general unhappiness. So I kept her close. Yet, all along the trail, the bubbling creek called to her.
My life story is in that paragraph. In the Bible water represents life: joyous, throbbing, satiating life. The books of Ezekiel and Revelation let us peek at the River of Life flowing from the throne of God. I want in that river. I have craved it all my days. Even the miniscule deposit now residing in my soul is my world. It defines the secret me. In God’s gifts I hear bubbling hints of true life calling along the trail. But the cleanness of those mouthfuls has been muddied by a fallen world and by my own slopping around in sin. They are no longer pure for drinking. Still, so powerful is my thirst that I twitch with desire. I am tempted to jump into the polluted trickle and get at some life NOW.
Then I hear Jesus reminding me, “We are almost home. Deep, turquoise pools of the living water you thirst after are waiting.” He soothes, “Bolting will get you muddy and miserable. I know your thirst, and I know the teasing in your ear is a torment, but wait because you have no idea of what I have for you if you’ll stay at my heel a little longer.”
Prayer: Lord, I am so ready for the plunge. Help me concentrate on Your path and voice.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Sermon- Adopted by Abba Father
Sermon – April 17, 2005
Intro
In a few weeks the Bol’s will be heading to Zimbabwe with Dani and me. Each of us will have assignments at the orphanage. Dani will work on the medical team, Denise with the teen girls on sewing, Lindsey with the children, Steve will install telecommunications equipment, and I will be researching a novel. It is a true story about a little girl named Alexandra. She was abused from age four. She grew up with no one to look out for her; the mother took advantage and made money on her. She was adopted into the orphanage at about seven. When Alex first arrived, she could not grasp the love and compassion she received. For a long time she remained hard, closed, and bitter. Alex eventually responded to persistent love and accepted Christ as Savior before dying of AIDS at about nine years of age.
Spiritual Orphans
Many of us have much in common with Alexandra. The World was a cold, hard place with no one watching out for us. Others hurt us. We learned to trust no one and spent our energy guarding our own hearts. Then we came to Jesus. We were adopted into His family. But, like Alex, we still carry around hardness and mistrust. It takes a long while to let go of worry, and self-centeredness and fully trust the Lord. This is called a spiritual orphan mentality. I have a chart that demonstrates this attitude.
You can read this on your own later. For now let’s look at the key characteristic of a Christian suffering from spiritual orphan mentality. Paul identified it in:
Gal 3:1-3
3:1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
Spiritual orphans do not fully trust Christ’s completed work on the cross. They are always busy attempting to establish their own goodness. They want to follow rules so they can say they have met the mark on their own. They want others to think highly of them so they are good enough for God. They tend to worry, gossip, and brag to leverage themselves higher, all the while, feeling inadequate inside. Not trusting Christ drives the orphan traits.
Sanctified By Christ
The Galatian church had accepted Christ for salvation but they were trying to accomplish sanctification by their own efforts. Sanctification is simply the process of becoming Christ-like in this life. The truth is, we are not only saved by Christ, we are also sanctified by Him. It is His Spirit living and working in us that changes us. Listen to this verse for the source of sanctification:
Rom 15:16
…so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
This may sound mysterious and complex, but really it is very simple. Example: We are convicted by love to help the poor. That is the Spirit of Jesus working in us. It is Jesus who pays for our sin; it is Jesus who works in our hearts to sanctify us—straightforward and simple. The problem comes when we block His work because we haven’t learned to trust Him—the spiritual orphan mentality.
Words of Comfort
There is still a touch of spiritual orphan in each of us. So let me speak the words our orphans need to hear. These are the same truths that changed Alexandra. Listen:
You are loved by God. If you are in Christ, you are accepted by the Father. He forgave your sin; past present and future. Listen:
Ps 103:11-12
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
You are forgiven. Now you can do nothing wrong in His sight. You have come home, no one can harm you. There is no reason to fear, no reason to doubt. You are safe. You are protected by Christ’s blood. Nothing can reach you. Hear the promise of God:
Rom 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So orphan, you are henceforth adopted. Listen again:
Gal 4:6-7
6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
You are an eternal heir. So Relax and stop hoarding, defending, and running. Have fun learning to eat, speak, and act like an adopted child of the King. The first change is to learn to act out of love instead of fear and guilt. You are not guilty. Jesus erases all the past and makes everything new. Move forward in love.
Free to Admit
Our spiritual adoption frees us to confront our orphan ways. How does it free us? Because all our sins are forgiven, we are free from any need to hide or defend broken ways. We can now afford to be honest about our sin.
As an example, if you confront a four-year-old with shaving the kitty and he says, “I’ll tell you only if you promise not to get mad”, as soon as you laugh and promise him, he feels free to recognize he did a bad thing. You and I are freed by Christ from any punishment for sin. It can no longer hurt us to be honest and admit weakness and enter into the joy of letting Him change us.
When I pastored in Concord I fell in with an interdenominational group of pastors. We met over several years and prayed once a week and loved each other. We supported one another and held combined events. When I moved away, they gave me this shirt. The best lesson I learned from them was to pastor out of weakness. I recall one day when they all agreed that a major reason they stayed in the pastorate was it kept them accountable from drinking and carousing. These guys were honest enough with their weaknesses to confront them and let Christ heal. God works through weakness because it demonstrates His power over our own.
A boy came to his Indian chief and said, “Chief, I feel like there are two dogs living inside me. One is good and one is bad and they always fight.” The chief asked him which one usually wins and the boy said, “The one I regularly feed”.
Pastors are just like you. We have a bad dog inside us. We must feed our good dog to stay focused on Jesus. We need church on Sundays and the Bible everyday or we go sideways. I am so grateful I have been adopted and I’m free to admit I’m no better then others.
One of the things that first attracted me about Harvest CC is that no one puts on pretense. I don’t have to clean myself up for Sundays to look good to you. I’m a big fat, horrible sinner and you are too. My business card says, James d Christian-pastor, missionary, freelance writer, forgiven scumball. That is what I am. Until we admit sin is more than smoking, cussing, crewing, or going with girls who do, that it is also thinking jealous thoughts, or dreaming of retribution, or imagining ourselves famous—until we admit the level of our sinfulness, we have no hope of sanctification. Praise God as adoptees we are free to examine our hearts.
How do we examine our hearts? Here are some ideas:
Ask God to reveal where you are acting like an orphan.
Get your spouse or Bible study group to write down the one thing about you they would change. It will require a bit of coaxing. Promise you won’t defend.
Ask the Lord to show you from scripture.
Be challenged by the B-attitudes from Mat 5, the description of love in 1 Cor 13, or the fruits of the Spirit in Gal 5.
Whatever the method, remind yourself you are doing this out of love and gratitude not guilt and shame. You are the adopted child of Abba. Be warned, in love Jesus will eventually sanctify the whole being. He wants us to have the joy of celebrating our earthly reforms for eternity. Listen to the words of CS Lewis:
When I was a child, I often had a toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother, she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother--at least not till the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this: I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist the next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from my pain; but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists; I knew they would start fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. Our Lord is like the dentists. Dozens of people go to him to be cured of some particular sin. Well, he will cure it all right, but he will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if you once call him in, he will give you the full treatment.
It is a joy to let Jesus sanctify layer after layer of the old self.
Conclusion
To close, I’d like to read part of a story called, “My Heart, Christ’s Home.” It captures so well this concept of being adopted into Christ’s family and working from the position of an accepted son or daughter toward sanctification. Follow the link below to read "My Heart, Christ's Home."
Intro
In a few weeks the Bol’s will be heading to Zimbabwe with Dani and me. Each of us will have assignments at the orphanage. Dani will work on the medical team, Denise with the teen girls on sewing, Lindsey with the children, Steve will install telecommunications equipment, and I will be researching a novel. It is a true story about a little girl named Alexandra. She was abused from age four. She grew up with no one to look out for her; the mother took advantage and made money on her. She was adopted into the orphanage at about seven. When Alex first arrived, she could not grasp the love and compassion she received. For a long time she remained hard, closed, and bitter. Alex eventually responded to persistent love and accepted Christ as Savior before dying of AIDS at about nine years of age.
Spiritual Orphans
Many of us have much in common with Alexandra. The World was a cold, hard place with no one watching out for us. Others hurt us. We learned to trust no one and spent our energy guarding our own hearts. Then we came to Jesus. We were adopted into His family. But, like Alex, we still carry around hardness and mistrust. It takes a long while to let go of worry, and self-centeredness and fully trust the Lord. This is called a spiritual orphan mentality. I have a chart that demonstrates this attitude.
You can read this on your own later. For now let’s look at the key characteristic of a Christian suffering from spiritual orphan mentality. Paul identified it in:
Gal 3:1-3
3:1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
Spiritual orphans do not fully trust Christ’s completed work on the cross. They are always busy attempting to establish their own goodness. They want to follow rules so they can say they have met the mark on their own. They want others to think highly of them so they are good enough for God. They tend to worry, gossip, and brag to leverage themselves higher, all the while, feeling inadequate inside. Not trusting Christ drives the orphan traits.
Sanctified By Christ
The Galatian church had accepted Christ for salvation but they were trying to accomplish sanctification by their own efforts. Sanctification is simply the process of becoming Christ-like in this life. The truth is, we are not only saved by Christ, we are also sanctified by Him. It is His Spirit living and working in us that changes us. Listen to this verse for the source of sanctification:
Rom 15:16
…so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
This may sound mysterious and complex, but really it is very simple. Example: We are convicted by love to help the poor. That is the Spirit of Jesus working in us. It is Jesus who pays for our sin; it is Jesus who works in our hearts to sanctify us—straightforward and simple. The problem comes when we block His work because we haven’t learned to trust Him—the spiritual orphan mentality.
Words of Comfort
There is still a touch of spiritual orphan in each of us. So let me speak the words our orphans need to hear. These are the same truths that changed Alexandra. Listen:
You are loved by God. If you are in Christ, you are accepted by the Father. He forgave your sin; past present and future. Listen:
Ps 103:11-12
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
You are forgiven. Now you can do nothing wrong in His sight. You have come home, no one can harm you. There is no reason to fear, no reason to doubt. You are safe. You are protected by Christ’s blood. Nothing can reach you. Hear the promise of God:
Rom 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So orphan, you are henceforth adopted. Listen again:
Gal 4:6-7
6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
You are an eternal heir. So Relax and stop hoarding, defending, and running. Have fun learning to eat, speak, and act like an adopted child of the King. The first change is to learn to act out of love instead of fear and guilt. You are not guilty. Jesus erases all the past and makes everything new. Move forward in love.
Free to Admit
Our spiritual adoption frees us to confront our orphan ways. How does it free us? Because all our sins are forgiven, we are free from any need to hide or defend broken ways. We can now afford to be honest about our sin.
As an example, if you confront a four-year-old with shaving the kitty and he says, “I’ll tell you only if you promise not to get mad”, as soon as you laugh and promise him, he feels free to recognize he did a bad thing. You and I are freed by Christ from any punishment for sin. It can no longer hurt us to be honest and admit weakness and enter into the joy of letting Him change us.
When I pastored in Concord I fell in with an interdenominational group of pastors. We met over several years and prayed once a week and loved each other. We supported one another and held combined events. When I moved away, they gave me this shirt. The best lesson I learned from them was to pastor out of weakness. I recall one day when they all agreed that a major reason they stayed in the pastorate was it kept them accountable from drinking and carousing. These guys were honest enough with their weaknesses to confront them and let Christ heal. God works through weakness because it demonstrates His power over our own.
A boy came to his Indian chief and said, “Chief, I feel like there are two dogs living inside me. One is good and one is bad and they always fight.” The chief asked him which one usually wins and the boy said, “The one I regularly feed”.
Pastors are just like you. We have a bad dog inside us. We must feed our good dog to stay focused on Jesus. We need church on Sundays and the Bible everyday or we go sideways. I am so grateful I have been adopted and I’m free to admit I’m no better then others.
One of the things that first attracted me about Harvest CC is that no one puts on pretense. I don’t have to clean myself up for Sundays to look good to you. I’m a big fat, horrible sinner and you are too. My business card says, James d Christian-pastor, missionary, freelance writer, forgiven scumball. That is what I am. Until we admit sin is more than smoking, cussing, crewing, or going with girls who do, that it is also thinking jealous thoughts, or dreaming of retribution, or imagining ourselves famous—until we admit the level of our sinfulness, we have no hope of sanctification. Praise God as adoptees we are free to examine our hearts.
How do we examine our hearts? Here are some ideas:
Ask God to reveal where you are acting like an orphan.
Get your spouse or Bible study group to write down the one thing about you they would change. It will require a bit of coaxing. Promise you won’t defend.
Ask the Lord to show you from scripture.
Be challenged by the B-attitudes from Mat 5, the description of love in 1 Cor 13, or the fruits of the Spirit in Gal 5.
Whatever the method, remind yourself you are doing this out of love and gratitude not guilt and shame. You are the adopted child of Abba. Be warned, in love Jesus will eventually sanctify the whole being. He wants us to have the joy of celebrating our earthly reforms for eternity. Listen to the words of CS Lewis:
When I was a child, I often had a toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother, she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother--at least not till the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this: I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist the next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from my pain; but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists; I knew they would start fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. Our Lord is like the dentists. Dozens of people go to him to be cured of some particular sin. Well, he will cure it all right, but he will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if you once call him in, he will give you the full treatment.
It is a joy to let Jesus sanctify layer after layer of the old self.
Conclusion
To close, I’d like to read part of a story called, “My Heart, Christ’s Home.” It captures so well this concept of being adopted into Christ’s family and working from the position of an accepted son or daughter toward sanctification. Follow the link below to read "My Heart, Christ's Home."
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