Monday Morning 6/3/2013

There are people who struggle with trust and faith. The Bible says faith can move mountains. But the reality is that we must trust the ones doing the moving.

Simply, trust is a decision we make. Trust means there is room for failure. If we are honest we say that we trust a friend, a spouse, our pastors, and we say that we trust God. But then something bad happens and all trust is gone out the window.

Faith says there is no failure. Did you ever wonder why, in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, Paul writes that three things will remain: “Faith, Hope, and Love?” Why didn’t Paul write “Trust” instead of “Faith?” Why not, “Three things remain: TRUST, Hope, and Love?”

Many people think trust and faith is the same thing. Trust is a step toward faith. Faith is the completion of trust. In John 14 Jesus said, “Trust God but also trust me.” That is the presence of trust. Jesus said, “In my father’s house are many mansions. If it’s not true, I would not tell you.” Jesus said, “I’m going ahead of you to unlock the door, then I’ll be back to get you and bring you with me.” That is the promise of trust. Finally Jesus said, “Trust in me.” Jesus is saying he is not only going to show us the way, or tell us the way, or write out the instructions on how to get there. He is saying He will come and take us by the hand to His Father’s house. Then we will be home. Faith demands action. Faith does not stay silent.

We trust Jesus when we read His words. We trust Jesus that He speaks absolute truth. And we trust Jesus will do what he says he will do. These are all parts of faith. Putting all these separate things together, truth, dependable, and action, we know with no doubt Jesus will do what He says He will do. That is faith.

Jesus says to not only have an “intellectual” faith as the result of trust, but to have an “active” faith. The book of James says to be “doers” of the Word not just “listeners.” What we learn about Jesus needs to be shown in our relationship with Him and others. Faith is trust in action. Trust is something that belongs to us. I can ask you to trust me, but until faith is established, there will always be that little piece of doubt, waiting to let us down.

Trust can be weak or solid. Trust can be gained or lost. Faith says no matter what is weak or solid, whatever is gained or lost, faith is what will stand clear being what will bring us through the best and the worst times of our life.

The book of James also says we will have troubles. He doesn’t say “if” troubles happen but “when” they happen, give thanks. Huh? The Book of 1 Peter follows up on this: “So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” (1 Peter 1 6-7)

In other words, we have trusted and been disappointed, but this has only built and strengthened our faith. Peter says it will bring praise, glory and honor to us. But it’s not for what we have done but what faith in Jesus has done.

But check this out. Peter goes on: “You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for this trust will be the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9) The reward of trust is faith. The reward of faith in Jesus Christ is eternal life.

Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”Confidence and assurance only happen with one thing: trust. Without trust there is no faith. Without faith there cannot be trust.

Let me end with this:

Character without faith is fake.
Knowledge without faith is useless information.
Self-control without faith is dangerous.

Endurance without faith is empty at the end.
Godliness without faith is mere religion.
Brotherly kindness without faith is self-serving.
Love without faith is not true love.

Monday Morning 5/20/2013

Believe it or not, God did not create us to think small things. Limiting our thinking usually means that we think exactly the same as other people. If something is good enough for someone else, it’s good enough for me.

On the other hand, God also has not called us to do just little things. He hasn’t called us to do something that is moving backwards, getting smaller, getting easier, or is something that we even want to do. God has called each of us in our own God-given way to be a world shaker, a world changer. He has called us to do what could be called impossible. God wants us to be changers in an impossible world!

Well, how can we do that? How can we make disciples who go and make more disciples? How do we build God’s kingdom and not our own?  Those are all the same old questions that everyone expects to hear. As we think of what God wants us to do, the assignment God has given us, what we may be really thinking is, “How can we avoid the failure of not being able to do what is impossible?”

It’s called Holy Spirit Power. Most times we associate the word “power” with the strength, muscle, or ability to “do” something. But think this way. Think “outside the box.” We may not have the strength change the world. But we have the power to influence where we live.

Paul said in Ephesians 5:18: “Don’t be drunk with wine, which will ruin your life, but be filled with the Spirit.” When I was younger I felt the effect alcohol had on me. I would drink beer or wine or something harder until the alcohol would take over and influence how I acted and how I thought.

But let’s unpack this picture a bit. Paul’s point is that if you drink too much wine you become drunk. When you become drunk you lose your common sense and you can do some pretty stupid things that will ruin your life. It will ruin your relationships. It will ruin everything for which you have worked. So the common sense thing would be to don’t drink at all. In Genesis chapter 4 God says to Cain, “Sin lies right outside your door.” Why open your life to something to which you can lose control and risk everything for nothing.

When someone is filled with wine and becomes drunk, what controls them? The wine takes over and influences their thoughts and actions.

But notice this:

-          When someone is filled with anger and negative attitudes, what controls them? Negative attitudes and anger take over and influence thoughts and actions.

-          When someone is filled with jealous feelings toward someone else, what controls them? The desire to do whatever it takes to have something someone else has without concern for the other person takes over and influence thoughts and actions.

-          When someone is self-centered and their attitude is “Me First,” what controls them? A hard heart and selfish attitude take over and influence thoughts and actions.

In other words, the things we let into our hearts, whether it is anger, jealousy, or selfishness will influence how much we are able to do what is impossible.

Take a moment to think differently. If we were to stop and pray, not for the power to do something, but the power to UNDERSTAND, the attitude is changed. Just like we did before look at it this way: If someone is filled with knowledge and understanding of God’s grace and love what controls them? The Holy Spirit controls them.

This was Paul’s point. Fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit, and everything God has will be given to us to do what God wants us to do. What is it God wants us to do?

-          Be an earthly image of Jesus Christ.

-          Learn how much Jesus loves us, and died for us.

-          Bring Jesus to our communities.

-          Teach others about how much Jesus loves us and died for us.

When we are filled with Holy Spirit power, these things don’t seem so impossible do they?

Friday night I had the opportunity to hear a missionary speak. He and his family are going to a city in Ecuador in South America. The city has 600,000 men, women, and children living there. That is a hard number to understand. It is a big number. In preparing for the work he is doing, the missionary learned that less than 1% of the people there have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That means out of 600,000 people less than 6,000 have heard the Gospel. That means that there are 594,000 people in that city who are lost and do not know Jesus as Savior. This missionary goes with Holy Spirit power to do something that seems impossible to you and me.

My friends, God has given us a great mission, an impossible mission, to make disciples of every nation. He has given us an impossible task, to be Christ-followers, living like Jesus. He has called us to a great task. He has called us to be fellow laborers and builders with Him in the Kingdom of God. He has given us a great vision. He has also given us a great Helper, His Holy Spirit living in and through us, controlling us. Whether or not you allow Him to do so is your decision.

God has big things planned for ordinary people. We can be used in a great way. We can be movers and shakers, life-savers, kingdom builders, and world changers, if we allow the Holy Spirit to direct us. Do not settle for “good enough” or worse, don’t settle for leaving no mark on this world.

God has called us to do impossible things in an impossible world with impossible people. Pray for the power to understand the true power of the Holy Spirit, do what calls God wants us to do, and let God handle the impossible things.

Monday Morning 5/6/2013

Most days I am burdened. Some days are worse than others. Some days I feel troubled and some days I feel not-so-troubled. Am I burdened with the normal things of life? Yeah, I am: Things like money, relationships, kids, family, the government; and things that affect day to day life. Yes those things are burdens, and yes I think about them, and yes sometimes I become obsessed about them, and yes sometimes I worry. Does that make me a bad person? Does that make me self-centered?

No. We all go through things like that. I have a different kind of burden too. One that is more important than those. The Bible says that all those things will pass away and come to an end. Okay, so what is my burden? My burden is how I can share something I have learned that is so “WOW” and help you to understand.

Someone told me recently, “John, you cannot save the world.” That struck me. And here is the "WOW" I want to share.

Jesus said from the cross, “It is finished.” The Bible goes on to say that Jesus “gave up His Spirit, bowed His head, and died.” Jesus is saying there is nothing more that could be done. God came to earth to become flesh and live among us. God HIMSELF came! God HIMSELF came to earth to become sin for us. Jesus was created to die. Have you ever thought about that?

Then at His moment of death, when there was nothing more He could give, what did Jesus do? He released His Holy Spirit. He set His Spirit free. He turned His Spirit loose. Jesus had already told the Apostles that He would pray for God to send a comforter to come along side them to give them power to teach all people the things Jesus had taught them. And there it is. At the moment of His death, Jesus gave the world HIMSELF.

Jesus did not forgive our sin. God forgave our sins. Jesus made it possible for that to happen. We don’t sin against Jesus. We sin against GOD. When Jesus gave Himself in exchange for us, God’s anger was satisfied. WE ARE FORGIVEN. IT IS FINISHED. OUR SINS ARE TO GOD “AS FAR AS THE EAST IS FROM THE WEST.”

SO why are so many people taught to pray for God to forgive them every day? God forgave each one of us at the cross. Everything past, present, and future is forgiven. This is a truth that releases us, sets us free, and turns us loose. Do you believe this? Do you trust this?

What are we free to do that we cannot do now? We say we teach, share, preach, witness and things like that. All of those are good. The Bible, however, says, we are to PROCLAIM the Gospel to the entire world. Proclaim means to make known in every way possible, to shout, to scream, and to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord! It means that above the noise of the world and the weight of our burdens one thing stands clear: JESUS CHRIST DIED, WAS BURIED, AND ROSE FROM THE DEAD!

Jesus made this point in John 12:32, “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” The Prophet Isaiah said long before Jesus was born that He saw “The Lord” high and lifted up, on his throne, and with His glory filling the temple.

Only when Jesus had done everything He could do, being lifted up on the cross, as King of Kings on His throne, and His glory filling HIS temple (That is you and me by the way), that we could be drawn to Him.

But we hang onto guilt and sin and worrying if we are forgiven or not. IT IS FINISHED. YOU ARE FORGIVEN. Nothing stands between you and OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.

But Pastor John, you don’t seem to understand,

I still sin. – Yup got it.

I still make mistakes. – Yup got it.

There are problems in my marriage. – Yup got it.

There are money problems. – Yup got it.

I’ve done things in the past I’m not proud of. – Yup got it.

There are things I’ve done I wish I had not done. – Yup got it.

I say, “That’s exactly right.” God's knows and  God has forgiven each and every mistake we have made, are making today, and will make tomorrow. Every single one of them “is as far from God as the east is from the west.”

So we don’t pray forgiveness. We pray thanksgiving. Thank you Lord for saving me. I know I will make mistakes. Thank you for forgiving me. Now let your Holy Spirit live in me to show forgiveness to others. Let your Holy Spirit lead me to YOUR TRUTH so I will not make the mistake again. Give me your power to help others not make mistakes also.

Now the view changes not from what I am doing wrong in guilt but what God has done with Jesus in grace.

That person I was recently talking with was right. I cannot change the world. You cannot either. Only God can change the world through the blood of Jesus Christ and His love and grace that was exchanged at the cross for our sin and guilt.

Monday Morning 4/29/2013

How great is God’s total forgiveness in Jesus Christ!

What do those words mean to you? Do you believe and trust what they say?

Maybe for some that is a question: “How great is God’s total forgiveness in Jesus Christ?”

Would you be able to answer? Does it cause you to doubt? Does it make you want to do something to earn that forgiveness? Does it make you to think that you are stuck in your sin forever?

“How great is” – It’s awesome; it’s overwhelming; it’s breathtaking; it’s tremendous, amazing, and cool!

“God’s” – It’s not mine; not yours; not your Pastor’s; not your mom’s or dad’s.

“Total forgiveness” – It’s finished, complete, and perfect.

“In Jesus Christ” – Jesus is the ONE whom we trust and the one who completes our faith, hope and love.

As much as we want to make it into a question, it should be a statement of how awesome is God’s acceptance of you and me no matter of our past or where we are. We should be declaring, “God is so awesome that He is willing to accept us and love us because Jesus is Lord and Savior.

Hebrews is the book of faith: “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” (Hebrews 11:1) But not everyone thinks faith is enough. Faith pleases God because it shows God His Son Jesus has a priority in our lives. “So faith comes from hearing the Good News; and people hear the Good News when someone tells them about Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

Hope shows up in the book of 1 Peter: “Praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has great mercy, and because of his mercy he gave us a new life. This new life brings us a living hope through Jesus Christ’s resurrection from death. Now we wait to receive the blessings God has for his children. These blessings are kept for you in heaven. They cannot be ruined or be destroyed or lose their beauty.” (1 Peter 1:3-4)

Faith is something we have. Hope is something given by God. Faith and hope are often separate things but they do come together. The place where faith and hope come together is at the cross. It is at the cross that faith and hope are exchanged for love.

God’s love came down in the form of Jesus Christ to become sin for us not so we become righteous. We cannot “become” righteousness on our own. We are “made” righteous when the exchange happens.

When we accept Jesus as Savior and exchange our sin for God’s righteousness “love” happens.

Love is an exchange. In 1 Corinthians 13, Love exchanges patience for no patience. Love exchanges kindness for hostility. It exchanges a humble attitude for pride, and it exchanges trust for jealousy. It leads Paul to say that without love being the result of faith and hope coming together, Jesus’ sacrifice was pointless.

1 John says that there is no fear in love. There is an element of fear in faith and hope. Continued guilt and fear cause us to wonder if there is something we can do on our own. There is nothing. God created His son as a perfect and complete sacrifice to take on Himself the death of our sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Galatians 2:20 shows us the depth of this love exchange between God and us: “So I am not the one living now—it is Christ living in me. I still live in my body, but I live by faith in the Son of God. He is the one who loved me and gave himself to save me.” I live by faith … He is the One. Faith and hope died to give me God’s love. The exchange happened at the cross.

Hebrews 10:14 says, “With one sacrifice Christ made his people perfect forever.” Perfect here does not mean “without sin.” Only Jesus lived a sinless life. The word “perfect” here means everything is finished. There is nothing more God or Jesus can do. God created and gave up His own Son to die for our sin. Jesus said that no one has greater love than those who give up their life for their friends. It’s like an artist who is not satisfied until their masterpiece is totally complete and there is nothing more they can do to improve it, do they say, “It’s finished.” God in the flesh said from the cross, “It’s finished, paid off, complete, done, there is nothing more to do.”

So it’s not a question of our faith, God’s hope, and Jesus’ love. It’s a declaration of the exchange of faith, hope, and love: How great is God’s total forgiveness in Jesus Christ!

“… and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Monday Morning 4/22/2013

Stuff happens. Sometimes good things happen, and we call them blessings. Sometimes bad things happen, and we call them troubles. If we trust God we know everything happens for a reason. We all know that is easier said than done.

Everything comes together and God will take whatever situation we face and make it His own for those that love Him and are called by His plan. Nothing happens that God does not already know about.

What happens after the blessing? What happens after the trouble? That is what God wants to see. Sure He wants to see how we “react” when something happens. But He also wants to see how we “act” after He reveals what He has for us.

Blessings are easy. We feel special. We feel great. God is good! It’s just like Christmas morning when we realize we have received what we wanted most. It’s exactly what we expect.

Troubles are a little different. We always seem surprised when trouble happens. Notice I said “when” trouble happens not “if” trouble happens. Let’s be honest. Troubles WILL happen. It’s not what we wanted. It does not come up to our expectations. Somebody else got what they wanted. Why didn’t I?

Somebody said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.”

 When disappointments happen, the easy thing to do is to blame; blame ourselves or blame others, and sometimes both. Most times it’s hard to know what to say or do because we don’t know the “why” or the “how” of the letdown. When is the last time you “blamed” God for a blessing? It’s a good question.

Disappointment is often an emotional response to a failure of some kind. This can lead to losing faith in someone on whom we were depending, perhaps even a person we love.

The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus loved Martha, her sister Mary, and their brother Lazarus. Because of this, they didn’t sense the need to tell the Lord anything more than “Lord, your friend is sick.” (John 11:3) The way it is written seems to say, “Jesus your dear friend is sick, come and do something.” There is this feeling of “expectation.” And the expectation was that as soon as Jesus heard this, He would come and heal their brother. But Jesus didn’t leave for two more days. And we know the story: Lazarus dies.

When Jesus finally arrives, Martha comes out to meet Him and says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 3:21) She very clearly had the expectation that Jesus would drop whatever he was doing and come right away. Lazarus would be saved and all would be great, rainbows sprinkles and glitter. Wow what a blessing! God is good! But Mary missed the point. She didn’t see God’s real purpose, which was to perform a greater miracle.

God has reasons for permitting us to experience disappointments. He could prevent them, but He wants to show us something better. He wants to show us His purpose. His desire is that after the blessing or after the disappointment we will trust and believe and let our circumstance bring glory to Him.

Jesus did respond when He heard about Lazarus. He said, “The end of this sickness will not be death. No, this sickness is for the glory of God. This has happened to bring glory to the Son of God.” (John 4:4)

And when Mary told Jesus how disappointed she was, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection. I am life. Everyone who believes in me will have life, even if they die. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never really die. Martha, do you believe this?” (John 4:25-26)

We know the story. Jesus went to the tomb, and prayed loud enough that what he is doing is not for Himself, but for God’s glory. He then had the tomb opened, and called out, “Lazarus, come on out of there!”

Ten minutes before that everybody was disappointed hurt and upset. They thought Jesus did not love them enough to care. All they had to do was wait on Jesus.

When disappointments come, do we say God does not love us and back away from God’s plans for our life? Or do we see disappointment as an opportunity to open up and let God show us something, helping us to understand His purpose and lesson in every situation?

The right response is simply to trust Him.