We have a tree in the back yard of the parsonage that needs to be taken down so I called Doyle to tell him that we need to get some bids on it. When he answered the phone I got completely serious and said “Doyle, I need you to call Steve Mcallister. I need to know how much insurance we have on the parsonage. That tree we need to take out fell over on the parsonage” Oh no he says. “Oh yeah. The largest branch went thru the roof, landed on the bathtub, and pushed it down thru the floor.” Oh you’re joking, he says. “Yeah I am”. It was really funny until Brandy told me “You’re going to get a call tonight that Doyle is in the hospital with heart failure.”
Our scripture today is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians. So many people don’t like the apostle Paul. Especially women when they read the scripture that says women should sit down and be quiet in church.
Instead of searching the scriptures and finding out what he is talking about and why he said that, many just dismiss Paul as a sexist pig who is the product of a patriarch system. We will get to that scripture another day. Actually…why did the Israelites wonder in the desert for 40 years? Because even then men would not ask for directions. :o)
Today though we are on Ephesians 3. Paul shows himself as the humble obedient follower of Jesus Christ who will do whatever it takes to spread the Good News and build the Kingdom of God. Paul understands what is important, and what his priority must be.
In verses 8-10 he says that his goal is to preach and write to the people about the riches and generosity of Christ. He must make known what God has been doing all this time. It’s that mystery thing we talked about a couple weeks ago. Remember the sugar cookies. Of course you do. I’ve been told that I cannot submit a recipe for the next church cookbook. That’s too bad.
Paul’s job is to preach Jesus Christ and to write letters of encouragement. If he were here today, he would pick up the phone and call us or send us email.
Then he encourages this congregation. He tells them “It’s because of churches like yours that the message is getting out. You are following Christ and his teachings.” The last thing Jesus said to do before he went up into heaven was to “GO OUT”. Go preach the good news. Tell them about your life in Christ.
There’s a great scene at the end of the film, “The Big Kahuna” where Danny DeVito’s character counsels a young co-worker about his overt mode of evangelism. He says, “It doesn't matter whether you're selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or 'How to Make Money in Real Estate With No Money Down.' That doesn't make you a human being; it makes you a marketing rep.
If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are - just to find out, for no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it's not a conversation anymore; it's a pitch. And you're not a human being; you're a marketing rep.”
It pretty much sums it up huh. If you don’t agree, think of this. What do you do when a Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon comes to your door? I know some of you will sit down with them and go thru scripture. But most of us will shut them out. Take the literature, shut the door, and throw it away.
Paul tells this church that they are doing so good, even the angels are talking about them. Don’t be discouraged by my hardships, he says. Don’t sulk or pity yourself when things are going bad.
REJOICE! God is with you. He will never leave you. You can come to God with freedom and confidence that he is there for you. Keep doing what you are doing. Make me proud. Make him proud.
Then Paul says what every good pastor says to his congregation. I’m praying for you. It’s been shown that prayer in the early church was not head bowed reverently, eyes closed, hands clasped together. No.
Prayer was standing up proud to be a Christian, arms open wide with eyes wide open. Anticipating the power of God to come down to invade your life. Boldly the Spirit comes and takes over as you concede more and more of your life.
That’s what prayer was and where the power comes from. But here Paul gets down on his knees.
I think it’s because it’s such a special prayer to him for others. He says “I’m praying that the Spirit of God will strengthen you.” This is not brute strength, but an inner strength.
In Isaiah 41 God says, “I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”. I was talking to a father the other day. He said they were talking in the car one day about God and how he could be there for everyone and his four year old said “yeah God has really big hands.” Profound truth from a young boy.
I told you the other day that I plan to transform the world. I can’t do it alone. But I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me. Think of this strength that Christ brings as “caffeine for the soul.”
The next part of Paul’s prayer for his congregation and for ours is that Christ would dwell in their hearts thru faith. Well what does that mean? We can look at John 14 starting at vs 23…Jesus says “whoever loves me will obey my teaching and we will go to the father and make a home with him in heaven.”
SO Paul says I pray that you will be so close to Christ that you will have no other desire than to do what he has commanded. When he died on the cross, our sins were forgiven because we are Christians. But this forgiveness does not give us a license to sin.
The response of this love you have now should be Lord God I want to lay my life down a living sacrifice which is holy and acceptable to you. There will be times that you fail, but he wants you to go and transform the world.
The third part of Paul’s prayer is (and I love this verse) that you are established in love…that’s the love of Christ…and you may have power…strength, transforming power.
Together with all the saints….did you hear that. There are no Lone Ranger Christians. We are here in all this together. We are here together to make a difference and go out as Christ told us to.
The church is like manure. If you pile it up behind the door, it stinks up the whole neighborhood, but if you spread it out, it enriches the entire world.
As we walk out those doors we will transform the world with the truth. So established in love, together with the saints, to grasp the wideness and vastness of God. My God is a big God.
I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that said “God is bigger than any one religion”. The creator of that sticker is exactly right, but not the way he is thinking. All roads don’t lead to the same God, but kernels of the Truth can be found in those other religions.
In Acts 17, Paul is in Athens. He stood up and said You are very religious. I even found an inscription here “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”. Now what you worship as unknown, I will make known to you.
My God is a big God.
The last part of Paul’s prayer is that you will be filled with God overflowing. Think of a sponge. You dip it in the water and it soaks up the water until it’s overflowing. Be filled with the fullness and the transforming power of God.
God can do anything, far more than you could ever imagine in your wildest dreams. He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
So Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians and my prayer for you ………goes like this.
I pray that the Spirit of God will strengthen you and Christ will dwell in your hearts.
I pray that you can comprehend the wideness and vastness of God and see that he is a big God.
And I pray that you know the love of God. He will never leave you. He is always there.
People will fail you. You might come to church one day and see that everyone in this church is a broken vessel but they are being healed by the love of Jesus.
We all come from different stories, but the one thing that brings us together today is that we are all one church and there is one Lord, one Savior and that is Jesus Christ.
You can’t save anyone. You can’t convert anyone. You can show them the way to Christ and the Holy Spirit can convict and convert them.
If you’re here today and the path you are on has brought you to a place where you’re ready to give your life over to Christ, now is the time. Then this prayer we talked about today will be said for you also.
That power can be a part of you. I know it may sound weird, but you have to say “so long self” and hello Christ.
There is only room for one to be in control. If your ready to give control over to Christ and receive the power promised to all believers, come to the prayer rail during this last song. This is an open invitation. I’m ready to pray with you and God is waiting anxiously to take the next step with you.
Just a warning though. This is not the end of the journey, but the beginning of a new route on your sea of faith. If it’s your time, come forward as we sing this hymn………
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Saturday, July 29, 2006
July 23 sermon Mark 6 FEED ME
forgot to post last weeks sermon.....
The Pope, Billy Graham and Oral Roberts were in a plane crash together. Tragically, they all died and went to the Pearly Gates.
"Oh, this is terrible," exclaimed St. Peter, "I know you guys think we summoned you here, but this is just one of those coincidences that happen. St. Peter was fretting, "Since we weren't expecting you, your quarters just aren't ready. We can't take you in just yet and we can't send you back."
Then he got an idea. He picked up the phone, "Lucifer, this is Pete. Hey, I got these three guys up here. They're ours, but we weren't expecting them and we gotta fix the place up for 'em. I was hoping you could put them up for a while. It'll only be a couple of days. I'll owe you one."
Reluctantly, the Devil agreed. But ... two days later ...
"Pete, this is Lucifer. Hey you gotta come get these three clowns. This Pope guy is forgiving everybody, the Graham fellow is saving everybody, and Oral Roberts has raised enough money to buy air conditioning."
Isn’t it great to be able to sit back and take it all in?? Time to get some food. Physical food as well as spiritual food. Jesus had sent out the 12 disciples to preach repentance.
In vs 13 they drove out many demons and healed many people. They were on the top of the mountain. Can you imagine the scene when they got back? “Peter, you should have seen it. I called a demon out of this kid who was doing everything he could to hurt himself. He would run into walls, cut his arms and legs, and gorge himself on food or poisonous roots. It was terrible. But I called out the demon In The Name Of Jesus and the demon obeyed. It was amazing.”
“I know,” Peter says, “I walked into town on the third day away and all I had was my staff. The old lady I stayed with had a small bottle of oil and she was a nurse at the local hospital. I went with her to work and we went room to room with that bottle anointing each person there and praying for their healing. They got right up and walked along with me just as good as any healthy person.
I could hardly believe it.” There would be a lot of stories like this. It’s like when some people get back from their Emmaus Walk. Their eyes were opened to Jesus and it transformed them. Or I heard the commercial for Promise Keepers yesterday.
It was a couple kids talking about their dad that before PK he was never around and not interested in them, but after PK his life was transformed and his priorities have been changed. Now he is the one who cheers the loudest at the games and tries to help with homework every night.
If you’re interested in knowing more about the Walk to Emmaus there are 3 more men’s and 3 more women’s walks this year. Just come ask. I can’t guarantee your journey with Jesus will be brought to its closest point ever, but I can show you many people here in this congregation and many others where their life was transformed on their Emmaus weekend.
Well all the disciples are together with Jesus and he finally gets them calmed down. “You guys look excited but exhausted. Let’s go across the lake and get some rest.” Do you ever want to do that?? Just get away from it all??
You leave church on Sunday. Monday rolls around. Some of you go to work, some to a ministry you’re working with. But Monday goes by, then Tuesday, then Wednesday and you wake up Thursday wondering where the week went.
You think back and have not prayed much during the week. It’s easy to justify. I do it to. “I was so busy Lord. Monday Brandy had a migraine and Julia was feeling sick like they did last week during Sunday School. I got to work and there was an unhappy surprise waiting for me.
I got home late and just went to bed. Tuesday was about the same. Wednesday I made it to work and narrowly missed being hit 3 times on Interstate 35. We prayed before choir practice. That preacher is really good, but he is stretching us. It’s the end of the week now. What am I supposed to do?”
Jesus knew what the disciples needed before they did. You need some rest. Your going to come off this mountain high you’re on and without rest, you will go down hard.
Why would they choose not to rest? What in us drives us to keep going???
I’m sure you have experienced that mountain high. You get back from a mission trip where you fed 116000 Ethiopians and you are on cloud nine. The gospel was spread.
The doctors healed. You fed many. Now you come back to your regular life and it won’t really compare. The disciples were talking over each other. What next? Who can we heal? What demon can we destroy? What does Jesus say???? Come with me. It’s time to rest.
But they get to the other side of the lake, and people are there waiting with more coming. Some need to be healed. Mostly they need to be led. Jesus sees them as sheep without a shepherd.
Sheep are stubborn creatures. Without a leader they are confused and disorganized. They don’t know what to do. It’s like the diet fads that come and go. Have your heard of any of these or been on any of these??
The backwards diet. Adkins diet. South Beach diet. Vegan diet. All chocolate all the time diet? Sounds good huh. How about this one? Exercise at least 45 minutes a day, cut back on your calorie intake, no fast food, cut out the soda. Interesting how that one always comes back in as working.
Jesus sat all the people down. Your fat, he said. You’ve been on this diet of high calorie laws and traditions that don’t get you to the goal you are seeking. Sit down and let me teach you.
But it was late. The disciples urged Jesus to say a benediction and let the people go home and eat. But Jesus had other plans. You feed them he says. There are 5000 people here and you want us to feed them with just a few loaves of bread and 2 fish??
The disciples had just gotten back from healing and preaching when Jesus was not with them. Now Jesus shows them something very important.
The disciples didn’t want to feed those people. They were getting tired. They wanted that rest now. They were ready to be fed, but Jesus is telling them to feed. He wraps up the bread and fish in some baskets and prays.
The disciples go and feed everyone until they are full. No one goes hungry. Did you notice something? Even though the disciples were ready to stop ministry for the night, it still went on. The power of God can work thru them, or it can work without them. The people wanted to be fed.
They were looking for physical nourishment and spiritual nourishment. They wanted to hear Jesus, but he knew they were not ready. Homeless shelters are the same way. What happens first??
Take food to the people. Then when they have eaten, they will be receptive to the gospel and you bring them spiritual nourishment.
But there is more. I talked to a guy the other day. He had just gotten married. They are both in their late 40s early 50s.
He said, “We are looking for a church, but right now we don’t want to get to work. Right now, we really just want to be spiritually fed on Sunday morning to last us the week.” I can’t fault him for that.
That’s how many people see Sunday worship. Get the good word, your spiritual gas tank is filled up, you’re ready to tackle the secular world for another week.
Is that a bad thing? We all have this spiritual lake. There are many rivers flowing into it. Here is a list of what the rivers may be…Sunday worship, Emmaus group, prayer group, bible study, singing in the choir, 5th Sunday.
Then you have rivers going out. Work, kids, spouse, ministries your involved in, pastor calls and asks you to be on another committee. You have all this water going in and also all this water going out. If you go dry, you go down hard.
When your lake gets low, you need to sit back and take it in. you need to recharge. You need extra prayers at the prayer time on Sunday night. So no, it’s not a bad thing.
It can’t last though, unless you’re on the fad Christian diet. I read a book the other day about one guy while he was in school would go from one church youth group to another. He would attend whichever one entertained him the most.
Adult Christians can be the same. It could be entertainment. It could be something else. But if all the rivers are flowing in and none are flowing out, the lake overflows it banks.
You see, those disciples that want to go farther on the journey to discover more of Jesus are not satisfied by constant passive intake of Christ. They will get filled up.
They can tell when their lake is getting low and need to be filled. They also want to be ready.
When Jesus says Feed My Sheep, they want to go. Fresh water in, fresh water out. If you need to be fed, we can do that. Get your hunger satisfied. Then go and open the flood gates and let the river flow. The rivers need to have a steady flow both
The Pope, Billy Graham and Oral Roberts were in a plane crash together. Tragically, they all died and went to the Pearly Gates.
"Oh, this is terrible," exclaimed St. Peter, "I know you guys think we summoned you here, but this is just one of those coincidences that happen. St. Peter was fretting, "Since we weren't expecting you, your quarters just aren't ready. We can't take you in just yet and we can't send you back."
Then he got an idea. He picked up the phone, "Lucifer, this is Pete. Hey, I got these three guys up here. They're ours, but we weren't expecting them and we gotta fix the place up for 'em. I was hoping you could put them up for a while. It'll only be a couple of days. I'll owe you one."
Reluctantly, the Devil agreed. But ... two days later ...
"Pete, this is Lucifer. Hey you gotta come get these three clowns. This Pope guy is forgiving everybody, the Graham fellow is saving everybody, and Oral Roberts has raised enough money to buy air conditioning."
Isn’t it great to be able to sit back and take it all in?? Time to get some food. Physical food as well as spiritual food. Jesus had sent out the 12 disciples to preach repentance.
In vs 13 they drove out many demons and healed many people. They were on the top of the mountain. Can you imagine the scene when they got back? “Peter, you should have seen it. I called a demon out of this kid who was doing everything he could to hurt himself. He would run into walls, cut his arms and legs, and gorge himself on food or poisonous roots. It was terrible. But I called out the demon In The Name Of Jesus and the demon obeyed. It was amazing.”
“I know,” Peter says, “I walked into town on the third day away and all I had was my staff. The old lady I stayed with had a small bottle of oil and she was a nurse at the local hospital. I went with her to work and we went room to room with that bottle anointing each person there and praying for their healing. They got right up and walked along with me just as good as any healthy person.
I could hardly believe it.” There would be a lot of stories like this. It’s like when some people get back from their Emmaus Walk. Their eyes were opened to Jesus and it transformed them. Or I heard the commercial for Promise Keepers yesterday.
It was a couple kids talking about their dad that before PK he was never around and not interested in them, but after PK his life was transformed and his priorities have been changed. Now he is the one who cheers the loudest at the games and tries to help with homework every night.
If you’re interested in knowing more about the Walk to Emmaus there are 3 more men’s and 3 more women’s walks this year. Just come ask. I can’t guarantee your journey with Jesus will be brought to its closest point ever, but I can show you many people here in this congregation and many others where their life was transformed on their Emmaus weekend.
Well all the disciples are together with Jesus and he finally gets them calmed down. “You guys look excited but exhausted. Let’s go across the lake and get some rest.” Do you ever want to do that?? Just get away from it all??
You leave church on Sunday. Monday rolls around. Some of you go to work, some to a ministry you’re working with. But Monday goes by, then Tuesday, then Wednesday and you wake up Thursday wondering where the week went.
You think back and have not prayed much during the week. It’s easy to justify. I do it to. “I was so busy Lord. Monday Brandy had a migraine and Julia was feeling sick like they did last week during Sunday School. I got to work and there was an unhappy surprise waiting for me.
I got home late and just went to bed. Tuesday was about the same. Wednesday I made it to work and narrowly missed being hit 3 times on Interstate 35. We prayed before choir practice. That preacher is really good, but he is stretching us. It’s the end of the week now. What am I supposed to do?”
Jesus knew what the disciples needed before they did. You need some rest. Your going to come off this mountain high you’re on and without rest, you will go down hard.
Why would they choose not to rest? What in us drives us to keep going???
I’m sure you have experienced that mountain high. You get back from a mission trip where you fed 116000 Ethiopians and you are on cloud nine. The gospel was spread.
The doctors healed. You fed many. Now you come back to your regular life and it won’t really compare. The disciples were talking over each other. What next? Who can we heal? What demon can we destroy? What does Jesus say???? Come with me. It’s time to rest.
But they get to the other side of the lake, and people are there waiting with more coming. Some need to be healed. Mostly they need to be led. Jesus sees them as sheep without a shepherd.
Sheep are stubborn creatures. Without a leader they are confused and disorganized. They don’t know what to do. It’s like the diet fads that come and go. Have your heard of any of these or been on any of these??
The backwards diet. Adkins diet. South Beach diet. Vegan diet. All chocolate all the time diet? Sounds good huh. How about this one? Exercise at least 45 minutes a day, cut back on your calorie intake, no fast food, cut out the soda. Interesting how that one always comes back in as working.
Jesus sat all the people down. Your fat, he said. You’ve been on this diet of high calorie laws and traditions that don’t get you to the goal you are seeking. Sit down and let me teach you.
But it was late. The disciples urged Jesus to say a benediction and let the people go home and eat. But Jesus had other plans. You feed them he says. There are 5000 people here and you want us to feed them with just a few loaves of bread and 2 fish??
The disciples had just gotten back from healing and preaching when Jesus was not with them. Now Jesus shows them something very important.
The disciples didn’t want to feed those people. They were getting tired. They wanted that rest now. They were ready to be fed, but Jesus is telling them to feed. He wraps up the bread and fish in some baskets and prays.
The disciples go and feed everyone until they are full. No one goes hungry. Did you notice something? Even though the disciples were ready to stop ministry for the night, it still went on. The power of God can work thru them, or it can work without them. The people wanted to be fed.
They were looking for physical nourishment and spiritual nourishment. They wanted to hear Jesus, but he knew they were not ready. Homeless shelters are the same way. What happens first??
Take food to the people. Then when they have eaten, they will be receptive to the gospel and you bring them spiritual nourishment.
But there is more. I talked to a guy the other day. He had just gotten married. They are both in their late 40s early 50s.
He said, “We are looking for a church, but right now we don’t want to get to work. Right now, we really just want to be spiritually fed on Sunday morning to last us the week.” I can’t fault him for that.
That’s how many people see Sunday worship. Get the good word, your spiritual gas tank is filled up, you’re ready to tackle the secular world for another week.
Is that a bad thing? We all have this spiritual lake. There are many rivers flowing into it. Here is a list of what the rivers may be…Sunday worship, Emmaus group, prayer group, bible study, singing in the choir, 5th Sunday.
Then you have rivers going out. Work, kids, spouse, ministries your involved in, pastor calls and asks you to be on another committee. You have all this water going in and also all this water going out. If you go dry, you go down hard.
When your lake gets low, you need to sit back and take it in. you need to recharge. You need extra prayers at the prayer time on Sunday night. So no, it’s not a bad thing.
It can’t last though, unless you’re on the fad Christian diet. I read a book the other day about one guy while he was in school would go from one church youth group to another. He would attend whichever one entertained him the most.
Adult Christians can be the same. It could be entertainment. It could be something else. But if all the rivers are flowing in and none are flowing out, the lake overflows it banks.
You see, those disciples that want to go farther on the journey to discover more of Jesus are not satisfied by constant passive intake of Christ. They will get filled up.
They can tell when their lake is getting low and need to be filled. They also want to be ready.
When Jesus says Feed My Sheep, they want to go. Fresh water in, fresh water out. If you need to be fed, we can do that. Get your hunger satisfied. Then go and open the flood gates and let the river flow. The rivers need to have a steady flow both
Friday, July 28, 2006
Tough Love
does tough love work? Is it real? We are about to find out. It sucks, but unfortunately it has to happen.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Get to know me
How do you get to know other people? How do they get to know you? The Methodist church moves pastors around every 3-6 years. There are good and bad consequences to this. Our church is right now a student pastor appointment. Basically, they are not big enough to pay for a full time pastor. Completely seriously one person told me yesterday they thought pastors should be making six figures. Well I don't think most should make that. More would always be better :o).
Some congregation members will open right up and become friends right away. That's nice. It doesn't seem like I'm on an island. There are others that have not opened up. It's only been a month so I can't be critical. I like me and totally trust me, but they don't know yet. Plus when you have poured out your heart to one pastor and then they leave, I think you might start to second guess about barring your soul to another that will be gone in a few years. I can't fault them for that. I can only do my 3 Ps of ministry....prayer, preaching, pastoral nurturing.
My goal is to see this church grow to support a full time pastor and I am here for 8 years. Stability for the church, stability for my family. What does that growth look like?? I'm working on that.
Summer is coming to an end and ministry will start back up. Men's ministry is coming together, Youth is slow - but coming. Building committee will be interesting. Only those supportive of building a FLC are being picked. I just have to keep the focus on the goal....Building disciples for Jesus Christ. Everything we do must be for that goal. Nothing else matters. Someone would say, "Pastor Sean, how is having a team of men adopt a single mom or widow to do all the "honey do's" accomplish that goal??" Men don't like church much. Traditional church is kind of boring and some contemporary church is a little to lovey dovey. But being able to do true ministry and help someone in need will get a man fired up. Christianity is not about sitting in the pews Sunday after Sunday. Christianity is taking care of the poor, widow, incarcerated, etc. Hands and Feet of Christ.
I know God thru Christ Jesus. I want to know how your soul is. Not so I have an illustration for my sermon, but so we can relate-communicate-know each other. I'm never too busy to talk or listen. Condemnation is not in grace. Get to know me.
Some congregation members will open right up and become friends right away. That's nice. It doesn't seem like I'm on an island. There are others that have not opened up. It's only been a month so I can't be critical. I like me and totally trust me, but they don't know yet. Plus when you have poured out your heart to one pastor and then they leave, I think you might start to second guess about barring your soul to another that will be gone in a few years. I can't fault them for that. I can only do my 3 Ps of ministry....prayer, preaching, pastoral nurturing.
My goal is to see this church grow to support a full time pastor and I am here for 8 years. Stability for the church, stability for my family. What does that growth look like?? I'm working on that.
Summer is coming to an end and ministry will start back up. Men's ministry is coming together, Youth is slow - but coming. Building committee will be interesting. Only those supportive of building a FLC are being picked. I just have to keep the focus on the goal....Building disciples for Jesus Christ. Everything we do must be for that goal. Nothing else matters. Someone would say, "Pastor Sean, how is having a team of men adopt a single mom or widow to do all the "honey do's" accomplish that goal??" Men don't like church much. Traditional church is kind of boring and some contemporary church is a little to lovey dovey. But being able to do true ministry and help someone in need will get a man fired up. Christianity is not about sitting in the pews Sunday after Sunday. Christianity is taking care of the poor, widow, incarcerated, etc. Hands and Feet of Christ.
I know God thru Christ Jesus. I want to know how your soul is. Not so I have an illustration for my sermon, but so we can relate-communicate-know each other. I'm never too busy to talk or listen. Condemnation is not in grace. Get to know me.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Support
Picture of "hollywood". One of the kids in the church we need to pray for.
It's nice to know when you have support. I do have support here at the church. It's unfortunate that there are some that don't support me for whatever reason. Maybe they will find a way to communicate with me about the problem. changing pastors is always a problem. The best i can do is pray and love and visit. That's what I will do.
Praying more is where I fall down and unfortunately that's probably the most important. I need to make a specific time to pray. Maybe in the mornings after getting ready I can go over to the sanctuary and sit down with God. I don't have to be over there, but it helps to get away from it all.
The girl we met at Paul's house asked if our church was abandoned. She thought that it was because of how it looked and no one was ever there. Not sure how long ago that was and if she had the right church. She was blonde thru and thru (but the sweetest girl ever and I loved the conversations).
This church has done a lot to get better looking. Now we need to bring them in. Hopefully the new ministries we are building will do that. Velma says her class is doing great in conversation. We will start a new youth program soon and our men's ministry will be started next month.
Keep praying for the church and me. I need all God's guidance and wisdom he will give.
Blessings....Pastor Sean
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
July 15 Ephesians 1: 3-14 Predestined, free will, grace
The old pastor of a congregation up north had his last teeth pulled and got dentures. Well the first week back in the pulpit he preached for 10 minutes. The second week he preached for 20 minutes and the third week he preached for an hour and 15 minutes. On congregation leader took him aside and asked what had happened. “Well” the preacher said “the first week, the dentures hurt my gums so bad I could hardly talk for 10 minutes. The second week was not much better and they still hurt a lot limiting me to 20 minutes. The third week I accidentally put my wife’s dentures in and I couldn’t stop talking.
Well, I have good news and I need your help. Oh great. Here it comes. The preacher is going to start another project for us.
I was asked the other day by Mike, “what happens with all these plans when you go to school in the fall?” I just looked at him and smiled. “Isn’t it great being a leader, Mike?” So here it is. My project, my plan, what I want to do.
I want to transform the world!!
Well. What do you think? Why aren’t you running up to the alter rail now? … I know we can do it!! I have no doubts about it. Oh it might take a couple weeks or maybe a few months to do, but we can do it.
I HAVE A BIG GOD. A really smart woman once said “Big Hopes, But Why Hope With Little Dreams”. Isn’t that insightful?? We are talking about building a Family Life Center of some sort in the future.
Why? For more classrooms. Yes that’s a start. But what else. A new Praise and Worship service. That’s great.
What else? Church and community dinner where we can feed 250-350 people. Hurricane victim’s campout. Retreat center, Walk to Emmaus weekend, artist venue.
I HAVE A BIG GOD. What can we do? The bible says Philippians 4:13 “We can do ANYTHING thru Christ.”
In our Ephesians scripture, the trinity works in perfect harmony and agreement. They perform distinct roles, but work together.
We are going to be talking about subjects that have been discussed for thousands of years. Predestination, free will, and grace. When it comes to salvation, John Calvin would say that you are predestined to either be saved or not. God decides and he will choose whom he wants to choose. Every one of us deserves death and hell and there is nothing WE can do to go to heaven.
Others would say God knows which people will choose Christ as savior and saves those people. Then others would say that God put this world into motion and does not interfere so if you chose God you chose God and if you don’t you don’t. So what is the correct answer, and where does grace fit into all this??
So what is grace?? Christians throw around that word a lot. What does it mean though? By grace we mean the undeserved, unmerited and loving action of God towards us.
Starting in verse 5, our scripture says “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-to the praise of His glorious grace, which he has given us thru Jesus.”
So when referring to Salvation (another big word we will talk about), grace is all the good stuff God has done for us. But what about this unmerited and undeserved stuff??
Well here is an example……Meagann, can I use you as an example?? OK thanks. Now I don’t know if Meagann has done this, but let’s say she started using curse words around mom and dad. You know what words I’m talking about so I won’t say them here.
Mom gets upset and tells her to stop. Meagann says “Why? It’s just a few words and not that big of deal.” What do you think people? It’s just a few words, right?
Now mom goes into the house and makes some chocolate chip cookies. Oh she is the best chocolate chip cookie maker and the girls love them. Meagann runs into the kitchen and asks for a cookie. “Of course you can have one,” mom says,
“I made them just the way you like them and then added some dog poop to the batter before cooking them.” What?? Did you just say you added dog turds to the cookies? “Oh yeah, but just a little. Nothing major.”
Well heck. That just ruined the cookies didn’t it?
That’s what sin is to God and its grace that fixes it. You see, God is that perfect hot gooey chocolate chip cookie.
To fold us into part of God’s world, you have to take all the junk out of us. We don’t deserve it because we are selfish and greedy.
Jesus said “have you ever looked at another person with lust, well you committed adultery.
Have you ever been angry with another person, well you committed murder.
Have you every lied, stolen something, broken a promise? If you have done just one (and I have done many myself) then you are not worthy of being in the kingdom of God.
That’s where Grace comes in.
Even though you have done all these things you have done in your past, God still wants you. Isn’t that great. Men scratch, burp, and stare, but God still wants to lead them. Women change their hair color 5 times a year, buy more shoes and purses than anyone ever would need, and have an emotional range longer than the interstate highway, but God still loves them. Even though all this is true about both sexes, God still wants you.
You and I don’t deserve it, but by his grace and the cleansing blood of Jesus’ death we are made spiritually perfect. Then and only then can we be folded into the batter which is the Kingdom of God.
In verse 9, Paul says “God has made known to us the mystery (remember that word) of his will which he planned thru Christ to be put into effect.”
Mystery.
Now John Grisham is a great author and sometimes it does take to the end of the book to find out ‘who done it’. Ocean’s Eleven with Julia Roberts was a great movie, and at the end you say “How did they get the money out of vault” but the movie goes back and shows you.
Another mystery…(pause)… is what is this mystery that Paul is talking about. He mentions Christ. It has something to do with Jesus.
If we jump over to Colossians 1 we see starting at vs. 25 that “To the apostles, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles (that’s us), the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you.”
The mystery is “Christ in you”. What does that mean? Salvation (There’s that word again) comes thru Christ. Salvation is getting folded into the Kingdom of God.
We jump to Chapter 2 of Colossians and it says “you have received Christ as your savior. Continue to follow his leadership. Be strengthened in all that you do. See to it that no one tries to deceive you by telling you that you can only get salvation by traditions or doing other things. Christ is the only way to heaven and God.”
Works will get you to heaven. Oh…did you catch that. Works will get you to heaven. But pastor, you say, doesn’t the bible say faith alone? Yes. And here it is.
YOUR works will not get you to heaven. They won’t even get you close. However, the works of Jesus WILL get you heaven. That is the mystery Paul is talking about. Nothing you can do will get you salvation, but everything Jesus did, guarantees you salvation.
Now to verse 11 of our Ephesians text. In him we were chosen in order that we, who were the first to know Christ, might bring praise to his Glory. Paul is talking about the disciples.
The 12 were chosen by Christ personally. They were the first to start transforming the world. And in this, they brought praises to Jesus and God to their glory.
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the truth and mystery, and you made the decision to let Christ be your leader. Having believed, you were marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. You were tattooed by God. God has written on your forehead.
Bill Fuller was talking to a guy outside the church one day when the guy’s wife walked up. She is glowing, they both said. You could see the radiance of God on her face.
She has been sealed. The seal is just a deposit, though. You won the lottery and you get yearly installments, but on the last day of the installment, you get a lump sum payment greater than anything expected.
This seal, the Holy Spirit, is just the installment. Wait until you see the final payout.
I plan on transforming the world. We can do it together. If you have been branded and tattooed by God and given the Holy Spirit, you can do this with me. WE HAVE A BIG GOD. With him we can do anything he wants us to.
If you don’t have the mark of Christ, if you have not decided to let Jesus be your coach, be your leader, be your life…then you can’t change the world. And when you see the transformation occurring, you will want to be a part of it, but you can’t.
The cookies have to be perfect.
If all this time you have been going along doing different projects, kind of skating thru life, but have not asked Jesus to be your life leader, you can do that now. It’s time to be transformed by Christ so you can transform the world.
While we are singing this last song, come down to the alter rail if you want to be transformed. We will pray together. Don’t worry about the music ending too soon or people looking at you. It’s not about them.
It’s about you and God. Let’s stand and sing together……
The old pastor of a congregation up north had his last teeth pulled and got dentures. Well the first week back in the pulpit he preached for 10 minutes. The second week he preached for 20 minutes and the third week he preached for an hour and 15 minutes. On congregation leader took him aside and asked what had happened. “Well” the preacher said “the first week, the dentures hurt my gums so bad I could hardly talk for 10 minutes. The second week was not much better and they still hurt a lot limiting me to 20 minutes. The third week I accidentally put my wife’s dentures in and I couldn’t stop talking.
Well, I have good news and I need your help. Oh great. Here it comes. The preacher is going to start another project for us.
I was asked the other day by Mike, “what happens with all these plans when you go to school in the fall?” I just looked at him and smiled. “Isn’t it great being a leader, Mike?” So here it is. My project, my plan, what I want to do.
I want to transform the world!!
Well. What do you think? Why aren’t you running up to the alter rail now? … I know we can do it!! I have no doubts about it. Oh it might take a couple weeks or maybe a few months to do, but we can do it.
I HAVE A BIG GOD. A really smart woman once said “Big Hopes, But Why Hope With Little Dreams”. Isn’t that insightful?? We are talking about building a Family Life Center of some sort in the future.
Why? For more classrooms. Yes that’s a start. But what else. A new Praise and Worship service. That’s great.
What else? Church and community dinner where we can feed 250-350 people. Hurricane victim’s campout. Retreat center, Walk to Emmaus weekend, artist venue.
I HAVE A BIG GOD. What can we do? The bible says Philippians 4:13 “We can do ANYTHING thru Christ.”
In our Ephesians scripture, the trinity works in perfect harmony and agreement. They perform distinct roles, but work together.
We are going to be talking about subjects that have been discussed for thousands of years. Predestination, free will, and grace. When it comes to salvation, John Calvin would say that you are predestined to either be saved or not. God decides and he will choose whom he wants to choose. Every one of us deserves death and hell and there is nothing WE can do to go to heaven.
Others would say God knows which people will choose Christ as savior and saves those people. Then others would say that God put this world into motion and does not interfere so if you chose God you chose God and if you don’t you don’t. So what is the correct answer, and where does grace fit into all this??
So what is grace?? Christians throw around that word a lot. What does it mean though? By grace we mean the undeserved, unmerited and loving action of God towards us.
Starting in verse 5, our scripture says “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-to the praise of His glorious grace, which he has given us thru Jesus.”
So when referring to Salvation (another big word we will talk about), grace is all the good stuff God has done for us. But what about this unmerited and undeserved stuff??
Well here is an example……Meagann, can I use you as an example?? OK thanks. Now I don’t know if Meagann has done this, but let’s say she started using curse words around mom and dad. You know what words I’m talking about so I won’t say them here.
Mom gets upset and tells her to stop. Meagann says “Why? It’s just a few words and not that big of deal.” What do you think people? It’s just a few words, right?
Now mom goes into the house and makes some chocolate chip cookies. Oh she is the best chocolate chip cookie maker and the girls love them. Meagann runs into the kitchen and asks for a cookie. “Of course you can have one,” mom says,
“I made them just the way you like them and then added some dog poop to the batter before cooking them.” What?? Did you just say you added dog turds to the cookies? “Oh yeah, but just a little. Nothing major.”
Well heck. That just ruined the cookies didn’t it?
That’s what sin is to God and its grace that fixes it. You see, God is that perfect hot gooey chocolate chip cookie.
To fold us into part of God’s world, you have to take all the junk out of us. We don’t deserve it because we are selfish and greedy.
Jesus said “have you ever looked at another person with lust, well you committed adultery.
Have you ever been angry with another person, well you committed murder.
Have you every lied, stolen something, broken a promise? If you have done just one (and I have done many myself) then you are not worthy of being in the kingdom of God.
That’s where Grace comes in.
Even though you have done all these things you have done in your past, God still wants you. Isn’t that great. Men scratch, burp, and stare, but God still wants to lead them. Women change their hair color 5 times a year, buy more shoes and purses than anyone ever would need, and have an emotional range longer than the interstate highway, but God still loves them. Even though all this is true about both sexes, God still wants you.
You and I don’t deserve it, but by his grace and the cleansing blood of Jesus’ death we are made spiritually perfect. Then and only then can we be folded into the batter which is the Kingdom of God.
In verse 9, Paul says “God has made known to us the mystery (remember that word) of his will which he planned thru Christ to be put into effect.”
Mystery.
Now John Grisham is a great author and sometimes it does take to the end of the book to find out ‘who done it’. Ocean’s Eleven with Julia Roberts was a great movie, and at the end you say “How did they get the money out of vault” but the movie goes back and shows you.
Another mystery…(pause)… is what is this mystery that Paul is talking about. He mentions Christ. It has something to do with Jesus.
If we jump over to Colossians 1 we see starting at vs. 25 that “To the apostles, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles (that’s us), the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you.”
The mystery is “Christ in you”. What does that mean? Salvation (There’s that word again) comes thru Christ. Salvation is getting folded into the Kingdom of God.
We jump to Chapter 2 of Colossians and it says “you have received Christ as your savior. Continue to follow his leadership. Be strengthened in all that you do. See to it that no one tries to deceive you by telling you that you can only get salvation by traditions or doing other things. Christ is the only way to heaven and God.”
Works will get you to heaven. Oh…did you catch that. Works will get you to heaven. But pastor, you say, doesn’t the bible say faith alone? Yes. And here it is.
YOUR works will not get you to heaven. They won’t even get you close. However, the works of Jesus WILL get you heaven. That is the mystery Paul is talking about. Nothing you can do will get you salvation, but everything Jesus did, guarantees you salvation.
Now to verse 11 of our Ephesians text. In him we were chosen in order that we, who were the first to know Christ, might bring praise to his Glory. Paul is talking about the disciples.
The 12 were chosen by Christ personally. They were the first to start transforming the world. And in this, they brought praises to Jesus and God to their glory.
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the truth and mystery, and you made the decision to let Christ be your leader. Having believed, you were marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. You were tattooed by God. God has written on your forehead.
Bill Fuller was talking to a guy outside the church one day when the guy’s wife walked up. She is glowing, they both said. You could see the radiance of God on her face.
She has been sealed. The seal is just a deposit, though. You won the lottery and you get yearly installments, but on the last day of the installment, you get a lump sum payment greater than anything expected.
This seal, the Holy Spirit, is just the installment. Wait until you see the final payout.
I plan on transforming the world. We can do it together. If you have been branded and tattooed by God and given the Holy Spirit, you can do this with me. WE HAVE A BIG GOD. With him we can do anything he wants us to.
If you don’t have the mark of Christ, if you have not decided to let Jesus be your coach, be your leader, be your life…then you can’t change the world. And when you see the transformation occurring, you will want to be a part of it, but you can’t.
The cookies have to be perfect.
If all this time you have been going along doing different projects, kind of skating thru life, but have not asked Jesus to be your life leader, you can do that now. It’s time to be transformed by Christ so you can transform the world.
While we are singing this last song, come down to the alter rail if you want to be transformed. We will pray together. Don’t worry about the music ending too soon or people looking at you. It’s not about them.
It’s about you and God. Let’s stand and sing together……
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Interesting scripture this week
This week's scripture is Ephesians 1:3-14. I say interesting because it says first you are predestined and then near the end you made the decision. I can't wait to flesh this out. Predestination-the elect-SAVED! Are you saved. Have you surrendered your life to Christ? The most manly men don't like to surrender to anything, even if it's God. But in the surrender there is freedom that was unimaginable before. I've never really thought about it before, it was unfathomable (if that is a word) before Christ what I was free to do now that Christ is in my life. I'm not talking about sex, drugs, all night parties, etc. Freedom to dance, freedom to sing without condemnation, freedom to run. Assurance of my final destination.
Pray for Doyle Fitzgerald and his wife Cindy. Doyle is in the hospital in Dallas and will probably go to surgery. He has an incarcerated hernia. Pain yes. I'll probably go see him tonight or tomorrow.
Blessings,
Pastor Sean
Pray for Doyle Fitzgerald and his wife Cindy. Doyle is in the hospital in Dallas and will probably go to surgery. He has an incarcerated hernia. Pain yes. I'll probably go see him tonight or tomorrow.
Blessings,
Pastor Sean
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
changes
the sister of a good friend of ours died yesterday. They live in Austin. they were up here to hear me preach and pick up some stuff. It was a nice day. the same day her sister died. She has had cancer so it was not a total surprise, but not an easy thing to handle either. Jesus said the harvest is ready but the workers are few. It really puts an exclaimation point on the fact that life is short.
There is a commercial on the radio right now from one of the electric companies. It says there are three certainties in life. Death-taxes-saving money on electricity. it's cute. I think the third should be the afterlife. It's not as cute but more important. We all die once and then it's heaven or hell. We have a short time on earth to share the truth of Christianity with everyone we see. I think too often I take the road of "well I wear a cross so they know I'm a christian and I live a good life, so that should be good." Unfortunately that's not enough. I've been in churches in the past where I didn't want to invite other people to because there was nothing happening. That's not the case here. We are going to spread the word. We are going to make changes and additions. We are going to invite, we are going to pray, we are going to make a difference in this world.
I've always wanted to do something "big". I can't define big, but "bigger than me" would be the best try. Maybe "big" is suppose to be big in someone's life. maybe "big" is suppose to be big in the church-community, county, state. I'm not sure. it feels like it's coming together. Keep praying for my church and it's ministry. I want to make a difference for Christ.
-pastor sean
There is a commercial on the radio right now from one of the electric companies. It says there are three certainties in life. Death-taxes-saving money on electricity. it's cute. I think the third should be the afterlife. It's not as cute but more important. We all die once and then it's heaven or hell. We have a short time on earth to share the truth of Christianity with everyone we see. I think too often I take the road of "well I wear a cross so they know I'm a christian and I live a good life, so that should be good." Unfortunately that's not enough. I've been in churches in the past where I didn't want to invite other people to because there was nothing happening. That's not the case here. We are going to spread the word. We are going to make changes and additions. We are going to invite, we are going to pray, we are going to make a difference in this world.
I've always wanted to do something "big". I can't define big, but "bigger than me" would be the best try. Maybe "big" is suppose to be big in someone's life. maybe "big" is suppose to be big in the church-community, county, state. I'm not sure. it feels like it's coming together. Keep praying for my church and it's ministry. I want to make a difference for Christ.
-pastor sean
Friday, July 07, 2006
The Essentials of Christianity
this is one of my favorite pictures I took many years ago. I met with a man this week. He was a Christian years ago.
I'm hoping he will come back and talk some more. We talked for an hour and half. He needs more. He is searching which is good. But as he was leaving, I showed him my Ministry Triangle. In it are the essentials of Christianity. The attonement of Christ. Justification by faith alone. the trinity. Jesus is 100% God and 100% man (1+1=1). he could not believe that I believed all that. The "simpleness" of Christianity is not all right. We are too advanced of society to believe all that mythology. Basically that's what he believes. I asked him if he believed the resurrection. He said no. I think you have to believe in the ressurection to be a true Christian.
Without the ressurection, there is no salvation. Actually one more thing he told me was that when he dies he will just cease to exist. Heaven is here on earth. Pray for my ministry and the people I come in contact with. I believe the Holy Spirit led him to me after our introduction. I hope I poked enough holes in his wall of disbelief to keep him searching.
-Pastor Sean
More updates on broadband
Well....I went round and round with ATT yesterday. My neighbor across the creek has DSL and is getting 3MB download. unbelievable. We could run a line from his house and set up another DSL line, but I would lose control and don't want to do that. I get up one day and say "hey the internet is out" but Bob the neighbor is on a 3 month vacation and his pit bull will not let me in the yard to check out the DSL line. No thanks.
I talked to ATT for over 30 minutes. I got a DSL tech and we went over options and why there is no way to get it at the house or church. Then I went to a fiber tech. SBC started Project Lightspeed 2 years ago. It should have been completed by now. well it's not.
I have a fiber line running straight to my backyard. But I can't get fiber. Go figure. So I called ClearBlue back. One guy in my congregation used to work for Starband doing installs. He called a friend of his there, and they guy said that Clear Blue was the best one to go with. I don't mind having satellite internet. It's just that $300 upfront cost that's killing me. They are suppose to be here on Monday to install it. Pray that it all works. Brandy needs it to work. I need it to stay sane :o).
-Pastor Sean
I talked to ATT for over 30 minutes. I got a DSL tech and we went over options and why there is no way to get it at the house or church. Then I went to a fiber tech. SBC started Project Lightspeed 2 years ago. It should have been completed by now. well it's not.
I have a fiber line running straight to my backyard. But I can't get fiber. Go figure. So I called ClearBlue back. One guy in my congregation used to work for Starband doing installs. He called a friend of his there, and they guy said that Clear Blue was the best one to go with. I don't mind having satellite internet. It's just that $300 upfront cost that's killing me. They are suppose to be here on Monday to install it. Pray that it all works. Brandy needs it to work. I need it to stay sane :o).
-Pastor Sean
July 1 sermon Excel in Grace - 2 Corinthians 8:1-15
July 1 Sermon 2 Corinthians 8: 1-15
Politicians have a constant need to be diplomatic. Witness this candidate for the Senate who traveled to a small town community to address the single church there. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to ask which denomination so that when it was time for his speech, he began in this way:
"My brethren, all. I must tell you that my great Grandfather was Presbyterian." (absolute silence);
"But my Grandmother was an Episcopalian." (more silence);
"I must tell you that my other Grandfather was a Christian Scientist." (deep silence);
"While my other Grandmother was Methodist." (even more silence).
"But I must tell you that I had an aunt who was a Baptist through and through." (loud cheers!)"
"And I have always considered my aunt's path to be the right one!"
What do you think? Was Paul a manipulator?? I mean listen to how he writes this letter to the Corinthians. “We want you to know about the grace from the Macedonian churches. Out of their most severe trauma, they gave as much as they were able and even more.”
It’s like your parents telling you about school when they were kids. “We walked bare foot in the snow up hill…both ways.” Or “Eat your vegetables. Remember the starving kids in Ethiopia”. The guilt. The competition.
It would be like the Bishop coming to us and saying “hey, this little church in Bethany has given their full apportionments already and they have another check for 25% more on the way…and it’s only July. What are you doing?”
So Paul lays it on thick about the other church and all they have given to the ministry and all the money that is going back to Jerusalem. Then he focuses on the Corinthians.
“Just as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and love for us….Just as you have done a great job in everything else you have been doing, now it’s time to pay up. Excel in this grace of giving. “
Have you seen some of those television evangelists? Some of them are false teachers. Some are ok. But I can hear them now.
“What?…your life isn’t going perfect just the way you planned it. Well brother you just don’t have enough faith. You need to step up and step out. You need to extend beyond what you think is your limit and let God show you what HE is capable of. If you give now everything you have in your savings account,
it will be pressed down and multiplied 10 fold, 100 fold, 1000 fold back to you. You only have to have more faith.”
Now I don’t like to preach on money. I’m not going to come to your house tomorrow and say
“now brother Mike, I was looking at the treasury report today and your giving has really slacked off since last year. Now you know I don’t like to have these talks even though I was here last quarter, but I need you to get it in gear.” No I’m not going to do that.
2 Corinthians 9:7 says “each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver.” The Greek word for cheerful is hilaros where we get the English word hilarious. So after you give money to the church, God does not want to see you moping or angry leaving the church because of what you gave. He wants you giving what is on your heart to give.
Right after we got married we started going to church on a regular basis. When it came time to for the offering plate to be passed, I would look in my wallet and see what cash I had. I would decide what I needed to do that day and the next, and then give based on that.
I have a friend in Nashville though who gives 10% regularly, no matter what. He says there have been many times when they are scraping the bottom of the barrel to give that 10%, but after they do something miraculous will happen like a check will arrive in the mail or they will find money in the pocket of a jacket.
I have another friend who used to buy food for a kitchen ministry at a Christian music coffee house some years ago. He would take the tip money from the tables to the store and buy what he needed and time after time he had exactly enough money to pay for everything needed. Then just to test God he would throw something extra in the basket and sure enough he would still have just enough to cover the cost.
An unbeliever would say that’s just shear coincidence. The believer would say that’s God providing when needed.
Those who say miracles don’t happen have not really thought it through. Carl Sagan says miracles can’t be real because they don’t happen enough. That’s really just arguing in a circle. Miracles by definition are things that don’t happen regularly in nature. Therefore if they happened more often, they would not be miracles.
Well what is Paul trying to say here. Yes he is telling them they need to give generously. That does make sense. You see, the Corinthian church had both poor and rich believers in it. That’s why he said starting in verse 13 that it’s “not our desire that others might be relieved while you are hurting, but that you give as you are able.”
He does not want you to give everything you have, but to give first fruits, that is give to God first. We took a class a couple years ago called Financial Peace University. It’s taught by Dave Ramsey who is a radio personality. It was a great class.
He said to give to God first, then pay yourself with savings, and then pay your bills. If you don’t give to God first, you won’t give to God what God deserves. That’s how I was when we started going to church. I looked in my wallet and give out of what was there in cash.
Paul told the Corinthians that “you have a willingness to give, now do it. Don’t just sit on the pews, get busy.” There was actually more to Paul’s letter than just money. I like what he says at the end of ch 9.
You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. You will be rich in love. You will be rich in prayers. You will be rich in sharing. In that spiritual richness, your generosity will result in praises to God from those you bless.
I have a challenge for you the month of July. There are four things I want to see you do.
First is to pray every day. Well that’s easy enough pastor. Not for everyone. Sometimes you have to make a definite decision to do it and if you miss one day, it’s easy to miss the next and the next.
If you wonder what to pray for, I can give you some quick examples.
Pray for me.
Pray for the church to reach lost souls. That’s what we are here for.
There is a list in your bulletin. Pray by name for those people. In fact, I’ll be here tonight for prayer time. We can pray together.
Take a walk down your street and pray for each house.
Psalm 32 says Let everyone who is Godly pray.
Ephesians says to pray on all occasions.
James says to pray for each other.
Jesus said to Go into the closet and pray. Why the closet?? Well in the dark closet, there are no distractions. Any other place will have distractions.
So pray every day.
The second thing I want you to do is fast one day a week. Woe that got some attention. Food is sacred I know. You will hear some people say that in fasting you can give up one thing you like and that’s fasting.
No…fasting is giving it up and focusing on God. When the hunger comes you focus on God, talk to God, meditation on scripture. Is it possible to fast for 40 days? Yes.
Am I going to do it? Not right now. Start small. Fast all morning one day. Next week fast all afternoon. Work up to fasting for one whole day.
Third, tithe. I’m sure you have read the bumper stickers that say “give to God what is right, not what is left.” There are lots like that. Like I said before, God likes a cheerful giver.
Pray for what God is leading you to give. Then pray some more on that amount and see if it’s right. He will give you that cheerful feeling when you’re on the money (no pun intended).
Last, bring one unsaved person to church each week. Well pastor you had me up until there. I don’t even know one unsaved person. I bet you do. I’ll make the first one easy for you and you can work up to it then. Bring one person to church that has not been for at least 5 months. You think, “Man I have not seen Rob and Becky in a while. I’m going to stop by their house. Invite them to supper. Tell them I will pick them up for church. Come listen to this crazy preacher kid we have.” I’ll tell them. I know your thinking of someone right now you can bring.
You have to pick them up. If you say I’ll meet you there, something will come up. Tell them you have a special lunch planned after. Butter them up.
So four things. This is your challenge.
Pray
Fast
Tithe
Bring
I won’t come over and ask you about them.
I know you have willingness and eagerness to follow Christ and be a deeper disciple.
Now it’s time to complete the work as Paul says.
Politicians have a constant need to be diplomatic. Witness this candidate for the Senate who traveled to a small town community to address the single church there. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to ask which denomination so that when it was time for his speech, he began in this way:
"My brethren, all. I must tell you that my great Grandfather was Presbyterian." (absolute silence);
"But my Grandmother was an Episcopalian." (more silence);
"I must tell you that my other Grandfather was a Christian Scientist." (deep silence);
"While my other Grandmother was Methodist." (even more silence).
"But I must tell you that I had an aunt who was a Baptist through and through." (loud cheers!)"
"And I have always considered my aunt's path to be the right one!"
What do you think? Was Paul a manipulator?? I mean listen to how he writes this letter to the Corinthians. “We want you to know about the grace from the Macedonian churches. Out of their most severe trauma, they gave as much as they were able and even more.”
It’s like your parents telling you about school when they were kids. “We walked bare foot in the snow up hill…both ways.” Or “Eat your vegetables. Remember the starving kids in Ethiopia”. The guilt. The competition.
It would be like the Bishop coming to us and saying “hey, this little church in Bethany has given their full apportionments already and they have another check for 25% more on the way…and it’s only July. What are you doing?”
So Paul lays it on thick about the other church and all they have given to the ministry and all the money that is going back to Jerusalem. Then he focuses on the Corinthians.
“Just as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and love for us….Just as you have done a great job in everything else you have been doing, now it’s time to pay up. Excel in this grace of giving. “
Have you seen some of those television evangelists? Some of them are false teachers. Some are ok. But I can hear them now.
“What?…your life isn’t going perfect just the way you planned it. Well brother you just don’t have enough faith. You need to step up and step out. You need to extend beyond what you think is your limit and let God show you what HE is capable of. If you give now everything you have in your savings account,
it will be pressed down and multiplied 10 fold, 100 fold, 1000 fold back to you. You only have to have more faith.”
Now I don’t like to preach on money. I’m not going to come to your house tomorrow and say
“now brother Mike, I was looking at the treasury report today and your giving has really slacked off since last year. Now you know I don’t like to have these talks even though I was here last quarter, but I need you to get it in gear.” No I’m not going to do that.
2 Corinthians 9:7 says “each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver.” The Greek word for cheerful is hilaros where we get the English word hilarious. So after you give money to the church, God does not want to see you moping or angry leaving the church because of what you gave. He wants you giving what is on your heart to give.
Right after we got married we started going to church on a regular basis. When it came time to for the offering plate to be passed, I would look in my wallet and see what cash I had. I would decide what I needed to do that day and the next, and then give based on that.
I have a friend in Nashville though who gives 10% regularly, no matter what. He says there have been many times when they are scraping the bottom of the barrel to give that 10%, but after they do something miraculous will happen like a check will arrive in the mail or they will find money in the pocket of a jacket.
I have another friend who used to buy food for a kitchen ministry at a Christian music coffee house some years ago. He would take the tip money from the tables to the store and buy what he needed and time after time he had exactly enough money to pay for everything needed. Then just to test God he would throw something extra in the basket and sure enough he would still have just enough to cover the cost.
An unbeliever would say that’s just shear coincidence. The believer would say that’s God providing when needed.
Those who say miracles don’t happen have not really thought it through. Carl Sagan says miracles can’t be real because they don’t happen enough. That’s really just arguing in a circle. Miracles by definition are things that don’t happen regularly in nature. Therefore if they happened more often, they would not be miracles.
Well what is Paul trying to say here. Yes he is telling them they need to give generously. That does make sense. You see, the Corinthian church had both poor and rich believers in it. That’s why he said starting in verse 13 that it’s “not our desire that others might be relieved while you are hurting, but that you give as you are able.”
He does not want you to give everything you have, but to give first fruits, that is give to God first. We took a class a couple years ago called Financial Peace University. It’s taught by Dave Ramsey who is a radio personality. It was a great class.
He said to give to God first, then pay yourself with savings, and then pay your bills. If you don’t give to God first, you won’t give to God what God deserves. That’s how I was when we started going to church. I looked in my wallet and give out of what was there in cash.
Paul told the Corinthians that “you have a willingness to give, now do it. Don’t just sit on the pews, get busy.” There was actually more to Paul’s letter than just money. I like what he says at the end of ch 9.
You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. You will be rich in love. You will be rich in prayers. You will be rich in sharing. In that spiritual richness, your generosity will result in praises to God from those you bless.
I have a challenge for you the month of July. There are four things I want to see you do.
First is to pray every day. Well that’s easy enough pastor. Not for everyone. Sometimes you have to make a definite decision to do it and if you miss one day, it’s easy to miss the next and the next.
If you wonder what to pray for, I can give you some quick examples.
Pray for me.
Pray for the church to reach lost souls. That’s what we are here for.
There is a list in your bulletin. Pray by name for those people. In fact, I’ll be here tonight for prayer time. We can pray together.
Take a walk down your street and pray for each house.
Psalm 32 says Let everyone who is Godly pray.
Ephesians says to pray on all occasions.
James says to pray for each other.
Jesus said to Go into the closet and pray. Why the closet?? Well in the dark closet, there are no distractions. Any other place will have distractions.
So pray every day.
The second thing I want you to do is fast one day a week. Woe that got some attention. Food is sacred I know. You will hear some people say that in fasting you can give up one thing you like and that’s fasting.
No…fasting is giving it up and focusing on God. When the hunger comes you focus on God, talk to God, meditation on scripture. Is it possible to fast for 40 days? Yes.
Am I going to do it? Not right now. Start small. Fast all morning one day. Next week fast all afternoon. Work up to fasting for one whole day.
Third, tithe. I’m sure you have read the bumper stickers that say “give to God what is right, not what is left.” There are lots like that. Like I said before, God likes a cheerful giver.
Pray for what God is leading you to give. Then pray some more on that amount and see if it’s right. He will give you that cheerful feeling when you’re on the money (no pun intended).
Last, bring one unsaved person to church each week. Well pastor you had me up until there. I don’t even know one unsaved person. I bet you do. I’ll make the first one easy for you and you can work up to it then. Bring one person to church that has not been for at least 5 months. You think, “Man I have not seen Rob and Becky in a while. I’m going to stop by their house. Invite them to supper. Tell them I will pick them up for church. Come listen to this crazy preacher kid we have.” I’ll tell them. I know your thinking of someone right now you can bring.
You have to pick them up. If you say I’ll meet you there, something will come up. Tell them you have a special lunch planned after. Butter them up.
So four things. This is your challenge.
Pray
Fast
Tithe
Bring
I won’t come over and ask you about them.
I know you have willingness and eagerness to follow Christ and be a deeper disciple.
Now it’s time to complete the work as Paul says.
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