Paul writing to the Romans simply opens his letter like this…
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God”
Paul considered himself a servant first…which is interesting. Humility is the where it has to start for all of us. We humble ourselves and acknowledge we are all sinners in need of grace. From this position you further humble yourself to become a servant. On of the biggest problems facing our churches today is a lack of humility. The church today has catered to the consumer mentality and as a result we have “consumer church goers’. These are the people who show up at your church service wanting to know what you can offer them. From the point the conversation starts, it’s all about them. There is not an ounce of ‘Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus’ in their hearts.
The other thing is Paul considered himself called. I believe we are all called by Christ. It’s a call to ‘follow me’. He calls for different task, but he does call. Not everyone’s call is the same job, but we are all called to one body…the church. Each one of us has a unique mission that we where created to fulfill. God has a plan for each and every person on earth. It’s important to remember we didn’t call God…but that Jesus called us. We answer the call, but we don’t place the call. God places the call on our lives early; your response to him is something he inspired inside your heart….from the beginning. Why…
To be “set apart for the gospel”. The gospel is—the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the good news for all people. We were once lost in our sin with now way out…but through Christ…we die to the old way of life, we bury it forever more…and we rise to walk in the new life. He changes us from the inside out. Christ is awesome! I cannot help but get excited. He changes lives forever…he drives out the darkness in our lives and gives us a new light to guide our steps.
All of this starts with becoming a servant. So does your life story open the same ways as Paul’s…
Does it say, “Steve, a servant of Christ Jesus…”
(insert name), a servant of Christ Jesus, called by him and set apart for the Gospel of God….Does your life speak this verse to the world around you? Let is start today and watch what happens around you!
-ps
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Struggles…
Life seems to have many struggles…we live through life and some suffer more than others. But we have all seem to struggle with something. Lately I have encountered my own struggles. I have struggled to trust God. I know for many readying this, the idea of a pastor struggling to trust God seems strange. It’s strange for me also…I find myself in a position where I have never been in before. It’s nothing special, I just find myself in a position where I have to trust others and especially God Himself. As a pastor I think God takes delight when his children are in total dependence on Him.
So here you are facing the impossible…it looks like there is no way out…it feels like God has abandoned you…King Jehoshaphat was in s similar situation (2 Chronicles 20). The Moabites, Ammonites and some of the Meunites banded together to make war on Jehoshaphat. Upon hearing the news Jehoshaphat called for the nation to pray and fast.
After praying the prophet Zechariah tells Jehoshaphat ‘do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.’ (2 Chronicles 20:15) The next day the armies where destroyed by others factions. The battle was already won and Jehoshaphat’s people gathered the plunder.
I love this story because you see how Jehoshaphat’s heart worked…when faced with the situation he prayed. When given the answer from the prophet, he worshiped. Before facing the battle he gave thanks…he never wavered in his faith. So I hope your like me and draw strength from such stories. I have to put my faith in God and trust he has already fought the battle…the battle has been won. We can sing praises to the King “give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever.”
So give thank to the Lord…
-ps
So here you are facing the impossible…it looks like there is no way out…it feels like God has abandoned you…King Jehoshaphat was in s similar situation (2 Chronicles 20). The Moabites, Ammonites and some of the Meunites banded together to make war on Jehoshaphat. Upon hearing the news Jehoshaphat called for the nation to pray and fast.
After praying the prophet Zechariah tells Jehoshaphat ‘do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.’ (2 Chronicles 20:15) The next day the armies where destroyed by others factions. The battle was already won and Jehoshaphat’s people gathered the plunder.
I love this story because you see how Jehoshaphat’s heart worked…when faced with the situation he prayed. When given the answer from the prophet, he worshiped. Before facing the battle he gave thanks…he never wavered in his faith. So I hope your like me and draw strength from such stories. I have to put my faith in God and trust he has already fought the battle…the battle has been won. We can sing praises to the King “give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever.”
So give thank to the Lord…
-ps
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Great Expectations
Go get your Bible I’ll wait….
Open it to Acts chapter 12. King Herod has just arrested some of the early Christians including James, the Apostle John’s brother. King Herod has James killed and arrest Peter with the same intent. Now it get very interesting…Peter is put into prison guarded by four squads of guards…four soldiers for each watch. So Peter is guard by four soldiers at all times. Herod is going to use Peter as the after Passover ‘entertainment’, by putting him on public trial.
Key verse….verse 5: “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”
I would think praying for him would involve praying for Peters release, that nothing would happen to him.
Here is the thought I have about all this…many times we pray in church without ‘expectations’…we pray for something and don’t expect it to happen…we lack faith. No don’t take that line of thought out to the fringe…the idea being through faith we can wield some kind of holy ‘force’ aka Star Wars. But I think many times we don’t expect God to hear us or answer us. Some with argue with me, but from my experience we don’t have ‘great expectations’ when it come to answered prayer.
So back to Peter….
v.6 he is sound to sleep the night before his trial and execution. He is sleeping so well the angel has to ‘strike’ him to wake him up. In that just woke fog, Peter stumbles out of the prison thinking he was dreaming…
v.11 Peter finally wakes up and realizes God had rescued him and he runs to place the church is praying. Here is where it is gets good…
v.13 Peter knocks on the door and the young lady named Rhoda comes to the door. She recognizes Peters voice and is so overwhelmed she forgets to open the door….and runs yelling “Peter is at the door”.
The group tells her, “You’re out of your mind”…
They didn’t believe Rhoda because they never expected Peter to be released. It wasn’t possible, James died and we prayed for him…Peter is going to die also. So they prayed with no expectations…
How many of us have a set back, God doesn’t answer our prayer about something and we lose all expectations.
Peters release by the angel would greatly encourage peter and the early church; it spurred them on to greater faith.
So the next time you have a set back in prayer…remember all the times God has answered your prayers and them pray with “Great Expectations”…God is Good!
-ps
Open it to Acts chapter 12. King Herod has just arrested some of the early Christians including James, the Apostle John’s brother. King Herod has James killed and arrest Peter with the same intent. Now it get very interesting…Peter is put into prison guarded by four squads of guards…four soldiers for each watch. So Peter is guard by four soldiers at all times. Herod is going to use Peter as the after Passover ‘entertainment’, by putting him on public trial.
Key verse….verse 5: “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”
I would think praying for him would involve praying for Peters release, that nothing would happen to him.
Here is the thought I have about all this…many times we pray in church without ‘expectations’…we pray for something and don’t expect it to happen…we lack faith. No don’t take that line of thought out to the fringe…the idea being through faith we can wield some kind of holy ‘force’ aka Star Wars. But I think many times we don’t expect God to hear us or answer us. Some with argue with me, but from my experience we don’t have ‘great expectations’ when it come to answered prayer.
So back to Peter….
v.6 he is sound to sleep the night before his trial and execution. He is sleeping so well the angel has to ‘strike’ him to wake him up. In that just woke fog, Peter stumbles out of the prison thinking he was dreaming…
v.11 Peter finally wakes up and realizes God had rescued him and he runs to place the church is praying. Here is where it is gets good…
v.13 Peter knocks on the door and the young lady named Rhoda comes to the door. She recognizes Peters voice and is so overwhelmed she forgets to open the door….and runs yelling “Peter is at the door”.
The group tells her, “You’re out of your mind”…
They didn’t believe Rhoda because they never expected Peter to be released. It wasn’t possible, James died and we prayed for him…Peter is going to die also. So they prayed with no expectations…
How many of us have a set back, God doesn’t answer our prayer about something and we lose all expectations.
Peters release by the angel would greatly encourage peter and the early church; it spurred them on to greater faith.
So the next time you have a set back in prayer…remember all the times God has answered your prayers and them pray with “Great Expectations”…God is Good!
-ps
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Sermon: The Supremacy of Christ
We are in Colossians again continuing our conversation…this time we are looking at the Supremacy of Christ….
We are in Chapter 1:15-23
In these verses you will see four things about Christ….
1. His relationship with God (v.15)
2. His relationship with creation (v.16,17)
3. His relationship with the church (v.18)
4. His relationship with us (v.19-23)
His Relationship with God
“He is the image of the invisible God” (v.15)
Image carries two ideas, the first being reflection…
-Jesus allows us to see what God is like….
-God is spirit and therefore invisible—but in the person of Jesus—God became visible.
“Thus He is the image of the invisible God”
Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the father” (John 14:9)
But the word can also mean “representative”
-God put Adam on the earth to represent Him but Adam failed…So God would send his Only Son into the world to show his love to all of mankind.
-So the image is both a reflection of God to us and a representation of God’s love towards us—both are embodied in the person of Jesus Christ.
“He is the ‘firstborn’ over all of creation” (v.15)
-What does this mean?
-Through the years false teachers have used this verse to suggest Jesus was created, that he was the first person created by God. J.W. used this on me once….
-But nothing could be further from the truth!
-Firstborn has three different meanings in the Bible…
1. The literal sense—in that Jesus was born to Mary, her firstborn…
2. Exodus 4:22 says, “Then say to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn Son….
-God isn’t talking about a literal birth, but he is describing Israel’s place in God’s plans…
3. Psalm 89:27 says, “I will also appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth”…
-This is a place of ‘superiority’ of supremacy—the idea being there isn’t a higher position…
-God was talking about King David, he would raise David higher than any other king…God decided to give David a “unique position’
-Isn’t this the very thought in this verse…’the firstborn over all creation’
Jesus the unique Son—He existed before all of creation and supremacy over everything!
-So this verse has nothing to do with actual birth—but shows Jesus eternal relationship with the God the Father—It’s a title of position.
His Relationship to Creation
v.16 “For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or power or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him”
We see Paul further stating “Jesus as the creator”
-We learn in this verse “all things” the whole universe—were created—by Him—through Him and for Him.
-He was the architect—creation took place because of him and everything was created for him…He is the one goal of creation….creation was for the glory of Christ.
-We also we Paul closing all the loopholes…he closes out all other possibilities…Jesus wasn’t the created—He was the creator.
v.17 “He is before all things and in him all things hold together”.
Jesus is before all things but also is the ‘sustainer’ of the universe…He controls the stars, the sun and moon…everything that exist is sustained by Christ…
His Relationship with the Church
Jesus dominion covers the natural universe—but also extends to the spiritual realm…
v.18 “He is the head of the body: the church”
-All believers in Jesus make up the body of Christ—the church.
-It is the way God has chosen to express himself in the world—Jesus is the head, the director…He controls the church!
“He is the beginning”
-Everything spiritual starts with him…he is the source of all spiritual life.
He is “The first born from among the dead”
-Some will say Jesus wasn’t the first in the Bible to be resurrected, which is true…but Jesus is the first to rise and never die again!
-He rose with a glorified body, He is the head of the ‘new creation’—and everyone who puts their trust in Him will also rise!
Jesus is first in everything…nothing is second to Christ…
So the question we have to ask ourselves—is Jesus first in my life?
His Relationship with Us
v.19,20 We see God is pleased to see all his fullness dwell in Christ.
Through the blood shed on the cross we see Jesus reconciling ‘all things’…
-to reconcile means to restore to a right relationship or standard—or to make peace with an enemy.
- when sin entered the world…we became separated from God…man became hostile towards God…and this needed to be reconciled
-everything has been affected by sin…
-the spiritual realms…
-creation itself…animals suffer sickness and pain…
-the ground is cursed…
-we can only be ‘reconciled’ by putting our trust in Christ—by believing in Jesus Christ and entering into a relationship with Him
v.22 “But now he has reconciled you by Christ physical body through death—to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation”
How…
v.23 “If you continue in the faith, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel”…
The gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ…if you put your faith in him you can have a central relationship with him…
Maybe your sitting here this morning and a thought has ran across your mind…Jesus isn’t first in my life….
Jesus is the firstborn of all creation…nothing is ahead of Jesus, no position is higher than Jesus…but for some reason Jesus has dropped form your top five…
This morning take the opportunity to make Jesus first…
-ps
NOTE: This is written in the form I use it to preach from...it's an extended outline. If you see the ... in the sermon...are places I can add my own words...explain it in detail based off of the reaction of the congregation.
We are in Chapter 1:15-23
In these verses you will see four things about Christ….
1. His relationship with God (v.15)
2. His relationship with creation (v.16,17)
3. His relationship with the church (v.18)
4. His relationship with us (v.19-23)
His Relationship with God
“He is the image of the invisible God” (v.15)
Image carries two ideas, the first being reflection…
-Jesus allows us to see what God is like….
-God is spirit and therefore invisible—but in the person of Jesus—God became visible.
“Thus He is the image of the invisible God”
Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the father” (John 14:9)
But the word can also mean “representative”
-God put Adam on the earth to represent Him but Adam failed…So God would send his Only Son into the world to show his love to all of mankind.
-So the image is both a reflection of God to us and a representation of God’s love towards us—both are embodied in the person of Jesus Christ.
“He is the ‘firstborn’ over all of creation” (v.15)
-What does this mean?
-Through the years false teachers have used this verse to suggest Jesus was created, that he was the first person created by God. J.W. used this on me once….
-But nothing could be further from the truth!
-Firstborn has three different meanings in the Bible…
1. The literal sense—in that Jesus was born to Mary, her firstborn…
2. Exodus 4:22 says, “Then say to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn Son….
-God isn’t talking about a literal birth, but he is describing Israel’s place in God’s plans…
3. Psalm 89:27 says, “I will also appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth”…
-This is a place of ‘superiority’ of supremacy—the idea being there isn’t a higher position…
-God was talking about King David, he would raise David higher than any other king…God decided to give David a “unique position’
-Isn’t this the very thought in this verse…’the firstborn over all creation’
Jesus the unique Son—He existed before all of creation and supremacy over everything!
-So this verse has nothing to do with actual birth—but shows Jesus eternal relationship with the God the Father—It’s a title of position.
His Relationship to Creation
v.16 “For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or power or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him”
We see Paul further stating “Jesus as the creator”
-We learn in this verse “all things” the whole universe—were created—by Him—through Him and for Him.
-He was the architect—creation took place because of him and everything was created for him…He is the one goal of creation….creation was for the glory of Christ.
-We also we Paul closing all the loopholes…he closes out all other possibilities…Jesus wasn’t the created—He was the creator.
v.17 “He is before all things and in him all things hold together”.
Jesus is before all things but also is the ‘sustainer’ of the universe…He controls the stars, the sun and moon…everything that exist is sustained by Christ…
His Relationship with the Church
Jesus dominion covers the natural universe—but also extends to the spiritual realm…
v.18 “He is the head of the body: the church”
-All believers in Jesus make up the body of Christ—the church.
-It is the way God has chosen to express himself in the world—Jesus is the head, the director…He controls the church!
“He is the beginning”
-Everything spiritual starts with him…he is the source of all spiritual life.
He is “The first born from among the dead”
-Some will say Jesus wasn’t the first in the Bible to be resurrected, which is true…but Jesus is the first to rise and never die again!
-He rose with a glorified body, He is the head of the ‘new creation’—and everyone who puts their trust in Him will also rise!
Jesus is first in everything…nothing is second to Christ…
So the question we have to ask ourselves—is Jesus first in my life?
His Relationship with Us
v.19,20 We see God is pleased to see all his fullness dwell in Christ.
Through the blood shed on the cross we see Jesus reconciling ‘all things’…
-to reconcile means to restore to a right relationship or standard—or to make peace with an enemy.
- when sin entered the world…we became separated from God…man became hostile towards God…and this needed to be reconciled
-everything has been affected by sin…
-the spiritual realms…
-creation itself…animals suffer sickness and pain…
-the ground is cursed…
-we can only be ‘reconciled’ by putting our trust in Christ—by believing in Jesus Christ and entering into a relationship with Him
v.22 “But now he has reconciled you by Christ physical body through death—to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation”
How…
v.23 “If you continue in the faith, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel”…
The gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ…if you put your faith in him you can have a central relationship with him…
Maybe your sitting here this morning and a thought has ran across your mind…Jesus isn’t first in my life….
Jesus is the firstborn of all creation…nothing is ahead of Jesus, no position is higher than Jesus…but for some reason Jesus has dropped form your top five…
This morning take the opportunity to make Jesus first…
-ps
NOTE: This is written in the form I use it to preach from...it's an extended outline. If you see the ... in the sermon...are places I can add my own words...explain it in detail based off of the reaction of the congregation.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Where O Where…
Have you ever lost track of time…its amazing thing to lose a week? One day it is Saturday and like that its Saturday again and you ask yourself, “What happened”. This is what happened to me this week, I didn’t have class because of Memorial Day and my routine changed. Because of the routine changing I lost track of ‘every day normal stuff’…like watering my flowers, reading, studying, praying and blogging. I’m still baffled by the idea I haven’t posted in over a week and in the blog world that is an eternity. This has put a great thought in my head…what if we go through life so busy doing little things…good things…not important things…and then we die. What if we just do enough busy things to keep you busy so you forget about making a difference? Which puts another thought into my head…are we to make a difference?
So two questions are posed “are we to busy to make a difference” and “are we meant to make a difference”? To answer the first question we need to tackle the second question. Are we here to make a difference? As a Christian I am to make a difference. I think there can be little doubt from the teachings of Jesus, we are meant to make a difference…”Go therefore and make disciples of all the nation….he goes further…but you get the idea. Make someone a disciple of Christ is a ‘life changing’ event, it make a huge difference in somebody’s life. So if we are in the world making disciples for Christ…would the world we a different place…of course it would.
So the last question left to be answered is “are we too busy to make a difference”? From my point of view I have to say yes. I am amazed at how busy we have become. We run around doing stuff, but have very little to show for it. Most of us can name a list of stuff we did and it looks ‘good’…but did it further the kingdom of Christ. Did we help some grow, did we build into someone else’s life. I worry about this, because I look around and see division, division that is growing on a huge scale. Everywhere I turn I see the ‘you are either with me or against me attitude’. The lines are being draw everywhere around us and I fear we are losing our opportunity to make a difference.
I am challenging you to make a difference in someone else’s life…take the time to share Christ love with someone you know. Don’t think about being rewarded, just do it because Christ is in you. Work to be a ‘uniter’ and a not a ‘divider’…But most of all slow down…remove the ‘busy’ from your life and make a difference.
-ps
So two questions are posed “are we to busy to make a difference” and “are we meant to make a difference”? To answer the first question we need to tackle the second question. Are we here to make a difference? As a Christian I am to make a difference. I think there can be little doubt from the teachings of Jesus, we are meant to make a difference…”Go therefore and make disciples of all the nation….he goes further…but you get the idea. Make someone a disciple of Christ is a ‘life changing’ event, it make a huge difference in somebody’s life. So if we are in the world making disciples for Christ…would the world we a different place…of course it would.
So the last question left to be answered is “are we too busy to make a difference”? From my point of view I have to say yes. I am amazed at how busy we have become. We run around doing stuff, but have very little to show for it. Most of us can name a list of stuff we did and it looks ‘good’…but did it further the kingdom of Christ. Did we help some grow, did we build into someone else’s life. I worry about this, because I look around and see division, division that is growing on a huge scale. Everywhere I turn I see the ‘you are either with me or against me attitude’. The lines are being draw everywhere around us and I fear we are losing our opportunity to make a difference.
I am challenging you to make a difference in someone else’s life…take the time to share Christ love with someone you know. Don’t think about being rewarded, just do it because Christ is in you. Work to be a ‘uniter’ and a not a ‘divider’…But most of all slow down…remove the ‘busy’ from your life and make a difference.
-ps
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