CrossLife

This Sunday we start a new series called, Fight for my Marriage, and I believe that it is a fight that we are in as Satan tries to destroy our marriages and our homes.  Ephesians 6:11 says, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can fight against the devil’s evil tricks.”  My prayer is that this series will help to equip and train us for the fight as we seek out God’s plan for marriage straight from the Bible.  This Sunday I will be talking to the men as we discuss how to be a Godly husband.  Make sure you’re there and bring someone with you.

We often don’t tell people how we feel about them, which is sometimes good if we don’t really like them, but when we really appreciate someone or love someone we should more willingly tell them how we feel.  So, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about how much I love our church family at CrossLife.

I love…

the friendships that we have.

watching us grow in our love for God.

the love we have for others.

all the volunteers and the hard work that each of you put into doing what you do.

the passion to spread the message of Jesus Christ.

the Bible studies and the conversations and discussions we get into.

just hanging out at a restaurant, each others house, or on a disc golf course.

setting up and tearing down each week, even though this is a pain sometimes I enjoy our time together.

our unity.

that I, as the pastor, can miss a week for vacation and everything still goes well.

where we are headed as a church and the direction that God is leading us, and the fact that I get to be a part of it and experience it with each one of you.

What do you love about our church?

There was once a carpenter that built great houses that people would come from miles around to see.  This carpenter had a special hammer that he used to build these houses the hammer fit well in the carpenter’s hand and made the job so much easier, but eventually the hammer became prideful and began taking credit for the work that was done.  He began bragging to all the other tools about how he was the reason that all those houses were built so well.  He believed that if he wasn’t such an amazing hammer that the carpenter would not have been able to do such great work.  As the hammer grew more and more prideful his handle began to swell up and become deformed to the point that the carpenter could no longer use him to build houses anymore and the hammer just spent the rest of his days hanging out in the shed remembering the glory days of how the carpenter used to use him to build such great houses.

The moral of the story is that we are God’s tools that he not only made but redeemed and then gifted and now chooses to use.  We can not nor will we ever be able to do anything on our own and therefore can not take credit for the work that is done but must give God all the credit and all the glory.  When we allow pride to consume us we become unuseful to God and he must humble us so that we can be used by him again.  If you are dealing with pride repent and ask God to humble you so that you can be the tool that God uses to build his kingdom.

I Corinthians 1:30 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

“But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.”  2 Peter 2:16

So, I ran across this verse the other day and found it pretty interesting.  Mainly because it sounds like the Bible is cussing.  But then I got to thinking about the meaning and the application.

You see Peter is referring back to a story that happened earlier in the Bible in which a messenger of God, Balaam, became crooked and decided to take money for proclaiming “God’s” message.  It wasn’t really God’s message it was simply whatever the buyer wanted Balaam to say, which didn’t glorify God but satisfied the agenda of the guy with the money.  While Balaam was going to tell God’s people this false message, God caused Balaam’s donkey or ass to speak to him.  This got Balaam’s attention long enough that he could see God and hear from him.

The Bible also says “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”  (I Corinthians 1:27)  So, before I get too high and mighty on myself and think that I’m God’s gift to the world I should remember that I simply need to be a dumb ass in the hands of Almighty God.

Prayer:  God, open my mouth and let me speak only the things that bring you glory and helps others to see you more clearly.  Let me be your dumb ass today.  In Christ’s name.  Amen.

I don’t understand God’s timing.  What I do understand is that I am very impatient and I want things done my way, right away.  But I have to remember that God’s timing is always perfect and always right on time.  Which may mean that I have to wait months, years, or even an entire lifetime to see prayers answered.  Quite possibly if it’s not what God wants it may not happen or there’s also the possibility it may happen after I am dead and gone, check out the life of Abraham or Moses (honestly that kind of sucks).  So, I guess to quote the famous theologian Kid Rock, “Only God knows why”, and to answer the title of this post, God is waiting for just the right time, which is the best time.  I don’t have to understand it I must simply seek God and obey him.  I think I can do that.

Proverbs 19:3 “People’s own foolishness ruins their lives, but in their minds they blame the Lord.”

I don’t know about you but I do a pretty good job of screwing things up.  Well, actually I do know about you, you do it too.  Often when we do this we like to blame God for getting us into the situation or for not getting us out.  For example financially we can spend money and get into debt and then when we’re broke we want to blame God for not taking care of our needs.  It’s our fault and we’ve got to own it.  God’s provision is for us to live wisely to live obediently and trust him to take care of us.  If we make foolish decisions and expect God to bail us out of the tough consequences then we are simply putting God to the test.

So, don’t blame God for the hell you put yourself in blame your foolishness and choose to learn from it and live God’s way, in God’s wisdom.

Proverbs 17:28 says, “Even fools seem to be wise if they keep quiet; if they don’t speak, they appear to understand.”  Don’t really need to add much here but sometimes we say some pretty stupid things and in reality we would be much better off and seem much wiser if we just kept our mouths shut.  The world would be a much better place if we were all more selective in what we allowed to come out of our mouths.  So, let’s practice thinking and praying before we speak or else we may make fools of ourselves or worse yet of the people around us.

The Word. Jesus heals a man that had been sick for 38 years but the problem was that Jesus healed him on the Sabbath day.  The religious nuts of the day had a rule that you could not do any work or labor on the sabbath.  So, Jesus healing this man and the man carrying his mat were considered sins against the Law of Moses.  Jesus goes on to try to explain his authority and how he is equal with God.  He tells them how they are wrong for placing their faith in all the good things they were doing and how they needed to put their faith in Jesus, the Son of God.

The Application. We are all guilty of putting our trust in the things we do rather than in the things that Christ has done, dying on the cross.  When we do this we start making up rules and laws for ourselves and others to follow that don’t match up with the things taught in scripture.  This does not please God.  He is concerned about us doing good things because we are following Jesus not doing good things to earn the right to follow Jesus.  Following Jesus should not be a ritual for you to feel good about yourself or so others will see how wonderful you are it should be about God being praised and then He will be pleased with us and praise us for what we do with the correct motives.

The Challenge. Evaluate your life to see if you are doing anything in your walk with God that has simply become a ritual tradition and is not about loving God.  Check to see if you are adding rules and laws that are not biblical and result in not loving others but instead casting judgement on them.

The Word. Jesus goes against what is culturally acceptable and talks to a Samaritan woman.  Not only does he talk to her but he explains to her who he is and how he is the answer for life that she has been looking for and even seeking in relationships with other men.  Jesus didn’t wait for the woman to start the conversation or for her to turn the conversation spiritual he took the initiative himself.

The Application. It was pretty cool to see how he did this and I believe that these types of opportunities are presented to us everyday but we often ignore or don’t see them.  When we do see them the reason we don’t act is because we are afraid of what to say and of what the other person is going to think about us.  You could possibly say that you’re not a people person but a Christ follower has to learn to become more of a people person and become more open in taking up the initiative and talking to people and then finding a way to turn the conversation spiritual.

The Challenge. As you wake up in the morning ask God to give you an opportunity like Jesus had to talk to someone about becoming a follower of Jesus.  Also, ask God to give you courage and the words to say to this person.

The Word. Jesus is approached by Nicodemus who has to come to him at night because he doesn’t want anyone to know that he is talking to Jesus and genuinely seeking his counsel.  Many of Nicodemus’ friends were the religious leaders of the day known as Pharisees and if they found out that he was doing this he would have been in a lot of trouble.  Also John the Baptist is asked about all of his followers transitioning over to following Jesus and he lets them know that that is exactly what is supposed to happen.  “He must increase and I must decrease.”

The Application. We don’t know who might be open to hearing about Jesus.  Most of the time we assume that people have already become Jesus followers or are not interested.  This is a dangerous assumption and the only thing we should ever assume is that no one is a Jesus follower unless they have told us they are, even the people we go to church with and see every Sunday.  In this matter we must decrease and allow Jesus to increase in our lives and in our relationships with people.  Let him be the central focus for why we live.

The Challenge. Change the areas in your thoughts, attitudes, and actions that need to decrease and allow Jesus to increase in your life.  Pray and ask God to show you who your Nicodemus is.