Chardon church of Christ

The Danger of Drifting

The Danger Of Drifting
Hebrews 2:1-4

When you hear the word “drift,” what comes to your mind? If you grew up in the Snowbelt, you may think about snowdrifts. If you’re into motorsports you might think about racecars intentionally skidding to navigate a tight turn, that’s called drifting. If you’re a pilot you might be thinking about wind drift, the effect the wind direction has on your intended heading. And if you didn’t sleep much last night in a few minutes you might be drifting off to sleep. The word drift can mean many things—if you catch my drift.

Drifting away can be a good thing. In 1973 Dobie Gray sang, “Give me the beat boys and free my soul, I wanna’ get lost in your rock and roll and drift away. “If you’ve ever been at one of those nice resorts that has a lazy river, it’s nice to lay back and just drift along with the current.

But there is a kind of drifting that is dangerous. There are all kinds of warning signs on the Niagara River warning boaters of the danger of drifting too close to the falls. There is a dangerous kind of spiritual drifting that this passage addresses as well.
Hebrews 2:1-4. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

The American Standard version says in verse 2 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them.
The writer is addressing this letter to believers. There is the real possibility that a believer can drift away from God and His word.

I’ve always enjoyed Tom Hanks’ acting. One of my favorite movies was “Cast Away. “Tom plays a FedEx employee named Chuck who is stranded on a deserted island. Chuck is so lonely he makes friends with a volleyball he names Wilson. Wilson is his constant companion. When he is on a raft a huge wave crashed over the raft and washes Wilson off. Chuck sees Wilson bobbing in the waves and the current is taking him away. Without thinking Chuck dives into the shark-infested waters to rescue Wilson, but the current causes him to drift away. Chuck is constantly screaming “Wilson! Wilson! I’m sorry, Wilson. “And he breaks down weeping. Tom Hanks is a pretty good actor when he can make grownups cry over a volleyball drifting away.

But there are thousands of Christians who are like Wilson. They have been slowly drifting away from a place of great joy, peace, and service for the Lord. We all know people who at one time were faithful servants of the Lord who have just drifted away from the Lord.

Drifting is something that happens slowly and gradually. But here’s the truth about spiritual drifting: You never drift toward holiness, you drift toward ungodliness. You never drift into faithfulness, you drift toward faithlessness; you never drift toward goodness, you drift toward wickedness.

It has been said that: “Most of us are not in danger of plunging into the sea of carnality. This week or next week most of us are not going to be murderers or drug addicts. The danger is not plunging into the ocean of perversity, but rather drifting away from goodness almost imperceptibly. “
Are you drifting away from God? Do you know someone who is drifting away? Let me give you four danger signs of drifting away.

1. I drift away when I listen to God’s Word but my life doesn’t change
Spiritual drift occurs when we stop paying attention to what we hear. Verse one says, “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”

This letter was written to Jewish believers who had heard the Gospel and had turned from all the rules and rituals of Judaism to place their faith in Jesus. But they were slipping back into their old comfortable religious rituals and rules. The first time they heard the Gospel, it was revolutionary. But the more they heard it, the less amazing it seemed. It became old hat.

That can happen to Christians today. It’s like the first time you fly on an airline the flight attendants go through the pre-flight briefing, and you are listening to every word. But after you’ve flown hundreds of times, you no longer pay attention to their briefing.

James warns about the danger of being hearers of the Word, but not doers of the Word. And Jesus asked, And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46 )

When you stop obeying God’s Word, you face the danger of drifting away. Any one of us can drift away.

You probably recognize the hymn “Come Thou Fount,” but there’s an interesting story behind it. The words say: “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing; Tune my heart to sing thy grace; Streams of mercy never ceasing; call for songs of loudest praise...” The third verse says, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. “

When someone asks, “How many members does the Church of Christ have?
“A standard answer could be, “We have thousands of members, but the FBI couldn’t find half of them. “That usually gets a laugh, but it’s really not true. We know where those non-attending members are. They are sitting at home right now, or hanging out at the lake or shopping right now.
We need to lovingly remind them that there’s an eternity of different between having your name written on a church directory and having your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life in heaven.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25)

It has been said that going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a car. If you love the Lord, you will want to gather with God’s people on a regular basis.

3. I drift away when complacency about sin replaces confession
Let me ask a question. What are the three areas of sin in your life that you struggle with the most? Can you answer that question? How aware are you of the presence of sin in your life? Are you daily going before the Lord and asking Him to reveal any wicked thought, attitude, or deed in your life? And then are you regularly seeking ways to overcome these temptations and weaknesses?

Once you become a Christian, sin is still present in your life. It doesn’t reign over you, but the potential to sin is still there. The Apostle John was writing to Christians when he addressed this subject: 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
(1 John 1:8-10)

I heard a dairy farmer say once that the hardest thing about milking cows is they don’t stay milked. One of the hardest things about walking with the Lord is that we must continually come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and confess our sin before the Lord.

4. I drift away when I forget that ending well is more important than a good start
The spiritual landscape is littered with the remains of men and women who started well, but somewhere along the track, they gave up. They left the race. They have drifted away.

The Apostle Paul had a laser focus toward finishing strong for the Lord. He wrote, However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me— to testify the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24)
Paul wanted to keep his eyes on the prize of finishing well for the Lord.

A great story is told about an event that took place in the 2016 Rio Olympics. The race was the women’s 5000 meter run (3.1 miles). As the runners were bunched up in the turn, New Zealand runner, Nikki Hamblin, lost her balance and fell to the track. American runner Abby D’Agostino tripped over her and fell to the track, injuring her knee. Hamblin was devastated, and momentarily thought about quitting. But she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Abby saying, “Get up! Get up! We have to finish this race. It is the Olympics!” Then leaning on each other, they limped their way to the finish line. Neither won a medal, but they are winners in other ways because they realized the importance of finishing the race.

Here’s the reality: none of us have finished yet. But if you finished your race today or tomorrow would you be finishing well? Those followers of Jesus Christ who pace themselves in the race of life and still have enough gas in the tank to sprint across the finish line will have their eyes on Jesus and will hear the Master say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

ILL.- In the course of their conversation at a dinner party, Albert Einstein’s young neighbor asked the white-haired scientist, "What are you actually by profession?" "I devote myself to the study of physics," Einstein replied. The girl looked at him in astonishment. "You mean to say you study physics at your age?" she exclaimed. "I finished mine a year ago."

Einstein never stopped working at what he did. The same must be true of us in the spiritual realm. We all must continue to work at our salvation, maintaining, keeping at it, etc.
Ps. 139:13-14 “For you (God) created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

The human body is a wonderful creation of God.
- The average human heart pumps over 1,000 gallons a day, over 55 million gallons in a lifetime. This is enough to fill 13 super tankers. The heart never sleeps, beating 2.5 billion times in a lifetime.
- The human body contains enough DNA that if it were stretched out, it would circle the sun 260 times.
- The human body uses energy very efficiently. If an average adult rides a bike for 1 hour at 10 mph, the body uses the amount of energy contained in 3 ounces of carbohydrate. If a car were this efficient with gasoline, guess what kind of gas mileage it would get? 900 MILES TO THE GALLON. Amazing body! No, awesome Creator!

I Cor. 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

ILL.- Many dads have their names on the title of the car that their child drives. The child may be 16 or 18 or even 20, but dad’s name is on the title. And I’ve known of some dads to say to their child, “If you don’t take care of that car. Or if I find you doing something that you shouldn’t be doing, I’m going to take your car away from you, like it or not. And there is nothing you can do about it.”

Right on, Dads! Sometimes that’s the only way to get some kids to straighten up. THREATEN TO TAKE THEIR WHEELS AWAY FROM THEM. Most teens today would die without their wheels.
Brothers and sisters, whether you realize it or not, God has the legal title to your body! He paid the price for your body on Calvary! And you have no legal right to do with it whatever you want!

God wants us to enjoy our bodies and at the same time He wants us to use them to honor Him and serve Him. We need to take care of our bodies as best we can!

James 2:26 “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.”

II Pet. 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....”

It is obvious that we are challenged in Scripture to maintain our faith
Robertson McQuilkin wrote a poem about finishing well. It’s entitled “Let Me Get Home Before Dark.”
I fear the Dark Spectre may come too soon— Or do I mean, too late?
That I should end before I finish; or finish, but not well.
That I should, stain your honor, shame your name, Grieve your loving heart.
Few, they tell me, finish well... Lord, let me get home before dark.

The pages of the Bible are full of great servants who didn’t finish well. Samson provides a sad example of how you can drift away from God’s power and blessing without ever realizing it. He made a sacred vow to the Lord to stay pure, and God gave him great strength. His strength was not in his hair, but in his faith in God.

But Samson was a he-man with a she-problem. He gradually turned from God’s people and got involved with a Philistine woman named Delilah. He ended up getting his hair cut in the devil’s barbershop. When the Philistine soldiers attacked him Samson jumped up to repel them as he always had. Then we see a really sad verse in Judges 16:20 Samson said, “‘I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the Lord had left him.”

CONCLUSION
So, what is the solution for spiritual drifting? You need to link your life to something and someone strong and secure. You need a solid anchor. I’ve been told that the heaviest anchors ever made are the ones used on U.S. Aircraft Carriers. Each carrier has two and each one weighs. 60,000 pounds. When the navy drops those two anchors, that huge ship won’t drift in the harshest seas. We have an anchor even more powerful than that. His name is Jesus. The best way to prevent spiritual drift to stay firmly anchored to the hope we have in Jesus. The Bible says, “Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.” (Hebrews 6:18-19)

Be aware of the danger of drifting away from God. There is a powerful question posed in this passage that you can’t ignore. You could call it the big question, or the unavoidable question, or the million dollar question. But it is a personal question that everyone who drifts away must answer seriously:
how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; (Hebrews 2:3)

So how can you escape if you ignore it? You can’t. No way. It’s hopeless without Jesus. So bind your life to the solid anchor of hope in Jesus Christ and keep from drifting away.
OUTLINE
I DRIFT AWAY WHEN:
1. I listen to God’s Word but my life doesn’t change
2. Indifference replaces a desire to gather with believers
3. Complacency about sin replaces confession
4. I forget that ending well is more important than a good start

God Wants Us to Be Sure

God Wants Us to Be Sure
John 10: 14-28

What do we know for sure?
ILL. A great preacher once said, “When I was young I was sure of everything. But after a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before.
"And at present, I am hardly sure of anything except what God has revealed to me.”
ILL. We seem to live in a world filled with unclear messages. And the undisputed champion of muddled messages was Yogi Berra, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame & former manager of the NY Yankees. Here are a few of his better-known “Yogi-isms.”
“Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.”
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it!"
"You better cut the pizza in 4 pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat 6."
"Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."
“You got to be careful - if you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up someplace else.”
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise they won't come to yours."
And there’s the time a lady said to him, “Good afternoon, Mr. Berra. You look mighty cool today.” “Thank you, ma’am,” Yogi replied. “You don’t look so hot yourself.”
Sometimes things are rather confusing. But our confusion doesn’t always stem from muddled messages. Sometimes the words are clear, but the message is simply untrue or has been twisted to fit the speaker's agenda.
We're seeing plenty of evidence of this today in reporters & celebrities who rush to judgment without first determining the facts, & in politicians who are quick to speak but evidently slow to listen.
PROP. As a result, sometimes it is difficult to know what is true & what is false. But surely, there are some things we can count on, some things we can know for sure. Just what do we know for sure?
I. THE BIBLE SPEAKS WITH CERTAINTY
First of all, we can be sure when God has spoken. The Bible never speaks with timidity.
The Bible never says, "It could be this or "It could be that." In His Word, God speaks with certainty. Just think how the Bible answers these basic questions:
A. "How did life begin?" The world says, "Well, maybe there was a big bang 200 million years or so ago, & somehow that started an evolutionary chain. And they go on to add, “Of course, we haven't found the missing links yet, but we're sure we'll find them some day." Now that's a rather uncertain answer.
But the Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) God created all forms of life ? in the sea, in the sky, & on the earth.
Then when He reached down & fashioned man, God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, & the man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)
You see, that answer is a certain one. God’s Word simply says, "This is the way it happened."
B. Another question, "How did we get into all the mess in which we find ourselves today?"
"Why has mankind become so violent? How did we become so immoral? Why is there so much poverty? Why are there wars? Why can't we live in peace?"
The world gives all kinds of answers. But the Bible gives only one answer. The Bible says that we got where we are because of sin.
Go back to the Garden of Eden & to the fall of Adam & Eve, & you'll realize that is the reason we have weeds in our gardens. That's the reason there is pain in childbirth. That's the reason there is disease & sickness & death in our world - all because of sin.
C. "And how can we get out of our mess?" "What can we do to solve these problems?" The world has many suggestions but no solutions.
But the Bible says, "Nothing is going to change for the better until we have been changed inside ? not until our hearts & minds are changed, not until our wills & emotions are changed & refashioned into the image of Christ."
D. Again, "What is going to happen to us after this life is over?” The world has many answers, all the way from reincarnation to "Nirvana" - eternal nothingness.
ILL. A preacher tells about conducting a rap session with high school teenagers. In it one girl asked, “The Bible says that God loves everybody. Then we're told that God sends people to Hell. How can a loving God do that?”
The preacher said, “I gave her my answer, & she came back at me with arguments. I answered her arguments, & she responded to my answers. I did not convince her, nor did she convince me. Soon the session was over.
“Afterwards I approached her & said, ‘I owe you an apology. I really should not have allowed our discussion to become so argumentative.’
”Then I asked, ‘May I share something with you?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ So I took her through a basic presentation of the gospel.
“When I got to Romans 3:23 & suggested that all of us were sinners she began to cry. It was then that this high school senior told me she was having an affair with a married man.
“The reason she refused to believe in hell was because in her heart she knew she was sinning. Her conscience condemned her, but rather than face her guilt, she simply denied any future judgment or future hell.”
Despite what the world says, the Bible says that when we finish this life, if we have but our faith in Jesus, we have the promise of heaven & life with Him for all eternity.
But if you refuse Him, if you turn your back upon Jesus & go your own way, then there is no promise of heaven, but a certainty of hell, of an eternity without God & His presence.
SUM. There is no middle ground in the Bible - no multiple choices. The Bible speaks with absolute certainty & says, "This is the way it is."
II. THE WORLD SPEAKS WITH UNCERTAINTY
And yet we look at our world & find uncertainty with many voices clamoring for our attention.
A. There is the voice of doubt that says, "If there is a God, how could He permit all these things that happen? It seems to me that God's people ought to have preferential treatment. God's people ought to have a better life than anyone else."
Yet, some of God's people find themselves victims of disease, poverty, & loss of their jobs. So those speaking words of doubt say, "If there really is a God, surely He would not permit this to happen." So they decide that there is no God.
B. There are also voices of knowledge. We have computer banks full of information. All we have to do is just push the right buttons to get all the information we want. But you go through the maze of all that knowledge & ask, "What is the truth?” And there is no answer.
ILL. As someone has said, "If you educate your children without God, all you do is make clever devils of them."
C. There are even some uncertain voices of religion. The Bible says the church is to be the pillar & support of truth.
Yet, go to some churches & you'll hear uncertain sounds – messages denying the basics of our faith: the virgin birth, the resurrection, whether Jesus Christ is really God's Son, & whether He did die on the cross for our sins. And at the same time you see others using religion to rip people off.
Too many people prefer religious leaders who say, "I don't want to lay a guilt trip on you. Just do it your own way, as long as you're sincere. It is all up to you."
III. GOD WANTS US TO BE SURE
A. And yet, God wants us to be confident, to be sure, & that's the reason His Word speaks with such certainty. Uncertainty leads to destruction, but certainty leads to confidence & courage.
Go back & study the martyrs who died for their Christian faith. Why did they die? Because they believed with all their heart that the message was true. There was no uncertainty there. They were ready to stand up for God & even face death rather than deny Him.
B. Let me read some of the confident messages in God’s Word.
1. In the Gospel of John 10:14. Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep & my sheep know me...”
Here is something we can know for sure. Jesus said, "You can know that I am your shepherd. I know every thought you're thinking. I know every worry, every concern of your life."
And then in vs’s 27-28 He says, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, & they follow me. I give them eternal life, & they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand."
2. In Romans 8:31-32, Paul says, "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
“He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?"
Paul is saying, "If God was willing to give His only begotten Son for us, then He will surely give us everything we really need."
3. Vs. 35 says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?"
Vs’s 38-39 say, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Do you hear the confidence there? Paul is saying, "Here is something you can know ? nothing in this world, nothing in heaven or on earth will ever be able to separate you from the love of God.”
4. Then, in 1 John 5:11-13, we read these wonderful words of assurance, "God has given us eternal life, & this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."
SUM. Here is something more we can know for sure. If you have the Son, you have eternal life. If you don't have the Son, you don't have life. And you make the decision!
Is Jesus Christ your Lord & Savior? Do you have the promise of everlasting life?
ILL. Tony Campolo recalls a deeply moving incident that happened during Jr. High week at a Christian camp.
Even though this was a Christian camp, many of the campers were not Christians, & they treated one of the other campers, a boy with spastic palsy, with heartless ridicule. Whenever he had to say anything, the boys would mock him, making fun of the difficulty he had in speaking.
One night some of these boys managed to have him chosen to lead the devotions for the camp. It was one more attempt on their part to have some “fun” at his expense.
Unashamedly the spastic boy slowly stood, & in his strained, slurred manner - each word coming with enormous effort - he said simply, “Jesus loves me - & I love Jesus!”
That was all he was able to say, but no one laughed. There was absolute silence, broken only by the sound of some of the boys beginning to cry.
Something wonderful happened in the hearts of the campers that week, & it was all because of his simple testimony, “Jesus loves me - & I love Jesus!”
Are you obedient to God’s word and what he expects from us? Can you say with assurance, “Jesus loves me - & I love Jesus”?
If that’s not yet true for you this evening, then we offer the invitation of Jesus Himself. He stands ready to receive you, to welcome you, to hold you in His arms as a shepherd would his sheep & to forgive you of all your sins.
INVITATION: So if that is your need we invite you to come & make your profession of faith, & to follow His example & command in Christian baptism.
Or maybe you have already taken that step & are looking for a church home, a place where you can fellowship & serve. We invite you to come & join with us here, to share in the ministry that God has laid before us. Will you come as we stand & as we sing?

Based on a Sermon Given
by Melvin Newland

Switching the Price Tags

Switching the Price Tags
James 3:13-4:13

Years ago, Tony Campolo wrote a book about Christianity called “Who Switched The Price Tags”
He told about the time he and his best friend decided to break into the basement of the local five-and-dime store. They didn’t plan to rob the place they viewed themselves as “Sunday School boys after all”; instead, they planned to do something that was far worse for the owner. Their plan was to break in and change the price tags on everything. I don’t think they actually got beyond the planning stages... but they imagined customers arriving and discovered that radios were selling for a quarter and bobby pins were priced at five dollars each.
Campolo wrote: “With diabolical glee, we wondered what it would be like when... nobody could figure out what the prices of things really should be.”
In a store the price tags tell us the value of what we want to buy. But if someone switches the price tags, it’s hard to know how valuable something is.
In the book of James, God rebukes Christians who seemingly can’t read the price tags. They’ve lost the understanding of how valuable things should be. But now... how does God know they’ve misread the price tags?
James writes: 1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not comefrom your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. James 4:1-2
You see, when Christians get into quarrels and fights, something is wrong! And God tells is that THIS is what’s wrong: “You adulterous people!
Do you not know that FRIENDSHIP WITH THE WORLD is enmity (“becoming an enemy”) with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:3-4
In other words, when Christians fight and quarrel it shows that they’ve put a higher value on the world THAN they have put on God. In fact, Christians who fight and quarrel are called “adulterous” because they’ve apparently abandoned their commitment to God... for a commitment to the world.
So... what’s going on here? Well, the root of the problem James is talking about here is that some Christians have fallen in love with worldly possessions. And that IS an issue for many Christians. The lure of possessions and the promise of happiness is everywhere. People build their lives around how much money they have in 401K, and how many possessions they have in their homes and garages.
ILLUS: For example, say a man owned a business here in Chardon. He was always struggling financially and he came to you and asked advice. You noticed he always leased a brand new Trans Am car every couple years and suggested that maybe he should “downsize.” He was shocked and replied: “But God wants me to be happy, doesn’t He?”
This man’s problem was that he was hooked on the idea that happiness could be found IN his possessions.
ILLUS: Out West there is a General Store in the middle of nowhere. When travelers stop in - they see a sign that says "If you can't find it in this store, just ask us about the item, and we'll tell you how to get along without it."
Jesus said: “(You can’t) serve two masters, (you’ll) either hate the one and love the other, or (you’ll) be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Matthew 6:24
It’s a repeated theme throughout Scripture: Only a fool clings to things of this world
One writer explained it this way:
• Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit... and they weren’t even hungry! As a result they ended up losing all they had in exchange for shame, suffering, and death.
• Lot's wife, fled from Sodom as God destroyed it BUT then looked back at the home she couldn't keep, and became a pillar of salt.
• Achan stole a garment of gold from Jericho that he couldn’t wear, and silver and gold he couldn’t spend, and ended up losing all that he had... including his life.
• Judas, for 30 pieces of silver which he had no occasion or conscience to use, took his own life in shame and despair.
• Demas, a companion of Paul’s - loved this world more than Jesus, walked away from Christ and brought upon himself the wrath of God.
Jesus said: “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Matthew 16:26
Trying to GAIN the world at the expense of walking with God... is DANGEROUS!!!
As a kid, did your parents ever put soap in your mouth? I can admit that it once happened to me. It is one of the earliest memories that I have. I can still remember sitting on the bathroom counter of our house, with a bitter, unpleasant, ivory colored bar of soap in my mouth that completely filled my mouth.
My Mom was “cleaning” my mouth from the bad thing that I must have said. The sad part is that I cannot remember what I said, but it certainly must not have been good. Mom wanted me to use my mouth better.
God has plans and uses for our bodies and members other than what we may choose. He has given us our reason, senses, eyes, ears, minds, and all our members, mouths included. God didn’t give us a mouth to have both blessings and curses to flow from it. In fact, God gives us our eyes, ears, mouths, minds, and members to receive gifts from Him. In James 1:17, the Apostle says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” As James finishes his teachings on the tongue, he tells us about a gift that comes from above, wisdom. Wisdom is what proceeds from the tongue and the heart. God’s wisdom produces right speaking. But what is the wisdom from above, this gift of God, that James tells us about?
James starts by telling us what it is not. Once when I was looking around in a book store I noticed a strange arrangement. Next to the theology books and Bibles was the...self help section. It was an interesting interpretation and placement. In the mind of the organizer, it seemed to be a logical placement. They thought they went hand-in-hand, and were not that different. But this couldn’t be any farther from the truth.
The wisdom that James is going to tell us about is not some sort of self-help advice. It isn’t wisdom about how Christians should behave or act. It is not a wisdom about how to make friends and keep them, or how to get ahead at business and to make some money. It is a wisdom completely different from the self-centered wisdom of the world.
What James means by wisdom is the understanding of the Gospel, made possible only by the Holy Spirit. But wisdom doesn’t just involve the acknowledgment that the Gospel is true, but also the expression of that Gospel in the life of a Christian. It is putting that truth into action.
Worldly wisdom, according to James, is often marked by jealousy and selfish ambition. It is not meek or humble. It goes against the truth. It is thoughts and actions that focus on me, and what is best for me. It is self seeking and self serving. It focuses on how to increase my influence and standing, even at the cost of others. It is about how to exert my will and influence to get what I want. The world calls this wise.
James describes and calls this wisdom for what it really is, though. He says it is earthly, that is, having no living awareness of God and lets its thoughts and behaviors be governed by the world. We hear it with phrases, “This is the new norm” or “everybody does that now.” He calls it unspiritual, that is, it directs all concerns of one’s soul and life to things this side of Heaven. It is an obsession with the self that has no regard for the spiritual. James also calls it demonic, that is, under Satan’s control and influence. We can see this with the great deception of our age: “It doesn’t matter what you do or who you are, what matters is that you are happy! Do what makes you happy!” It is often the logic to do whatever you want!
So, the root of quarreling & fighting that James is talking here is BASED on the fact that too many Christians fall in love with their worldly possessions. And when they cling to those possessions - they ultimately abandon God.
But there was something else that caught my attention here. It was that phrase where James 4:1 asks “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” James tell us this often happens because we WANT something we can’t seem to get.
Now, sometimes folks argue over possessions (it happens a lot when families battle over inheritances). But other times, those conflicts arise because I want MY WAY. I want something MY WAY and you won’t let me have it! I can’t GET what I WANT (my way)... so I’ll argue with you.
Then, by contrast, James tells us “the WISDOM FROM ABOVE is first pure, then PEACEABLE, GENTLE, OPEN TO REASON, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” James 3:17-18
Thus, every time you or I get UPSET and argue and quarrel with someone we tend to reflect a WORLDLY wisdom... a wisdom filled with disorder and vile practices.
What’s that mean? It means that many Christians operate under the assumption that if I can insult someone enough, or curse at them enough or (and this is the most common practice) INCREASE THE VOLUME OF MY VOICE!!!! I can intimidate the other person into submission and surrender by the force of my anger and indignation.
John 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
But, why do people get angry at us if we glorify Jesus? Mostly because – when we say Jesus saved us – we’re saying Jesus is the only way to heaven. “Jesus said ... ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6) That’s pretty definite!
ILLUS: In ancient Rome, this commitment by Christians to Christ led the Romans to hate Christianity. They even called Christians atheists. Atheists? Why would the Romans call Christians “atheists?” Because early Christians refused to worship THEIR gods. That made the Romans mad!
And that hasn’t changed for centuries. There are people TODAY who get mad at Christians because we refuse to accept homosexuality/transgenderism/abortion, and other life choices. Why? Because they think folks ought to have the right to do as they please. But, we know that the Bible tells us these things are sin and there are consequences to those sins. And so we reject those life choices as valid. And that makes them mad.
Ephesians 5:5-11 declares: 5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
So, we’re ALWAYS going to be at odds with the world. And we are going to be in conflict with the world because of our love and commitment to Christ. But we’ve got to be careful how we respond to worldly people. We’ve got to be careful NOT to get into arguments and quarrels because - when we do get into those quarrels - we become like the world. We imitate their style of conflict!
ILLUS: There’s old saying that says “You never want to wrestle with a pig. You just get dirty and the pig enjoys it.”
Now that’s a lighthearted jab at what happens too often to too many Christians. We get upset, we say things we shouldn’t say, and we even insult people who are non-Christians
But too often, we ALSO do it to people who are brothers/sisters in Christ. Christians get mad at each other because they can’t get THEIR WAY. They’ll insult and threaten and manipulate. And God says “Don’t do that!”
Why? My point is simple. We don’t accomplish the will of God using the wisdom of this world. We can’t argue or shame people into faith.
We must reflect the wisdom of God to accomplish God’s will.
James 1: 5-6 tells us 5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7).
In summary, to tap into God’s wisdom, we must diligently study God’s Word
(2 Timothy 2:15), 15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
meditate on the Word, pray for wisdom, seek it with all our
hearts, and walk in the Spirit. God desires to give His wisdom to His children. Are we willing to be led by that wisdom?

Based on a sermon given
by Jeff Strite

The Great Banquet

The Great Banquet

Luke 14:15-24

 

INTRO:

Good evening.   About this time of year, it seems to me that summer barely arrived and now it is winding down.   Perhaps the week of cooler temperatures after the last hot spell made me think that.   For whatever reason I started to think of the things we have to look forward to in the latter part of the year.

 

For example; I appreciate the month of November for two days that remind us to be thankful of where we are and what we have, and to be thankful of the sacrifice made by those that serve. Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving Day.

 

I heard a story about little Johnny I’d like to tell you. One Sunday morning the preacher noticed little Johnny was standing staring up at the large plaque that hung in the foyer of the church. It was covered with names and small American flags mounted on either side of it.   The young man of six had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the preacher walked up and stood beside him and gazing up at the plaque he said quietly, "Good morning son."

"Good morning sir " replied little Johnny not taking his eyes off the plaque.

"Sir, what is this?" Johnny asked.

"Well son, this is in memorial to all of our young men and women who have died in the service," replied the preacher.

Soberly, they stood together staring up at the large plaque.

Little Johnny's voice barely broke the silence when he asked quietly, "Which one sir, the 11:00am or the 6:00pm?"

 

I can easily understand little Johnny’s confusion and perhaps you can as well.   Fortunately, when it comes to telling us of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus does not confuse, though His audience may sometimes be uncomfortable. Please turn in your Bibles to Luke 14 which will be our reference for this evening’s lesson. One of the great qualities, which dominated the life of Jesus, was His unselfishness. While He was eating dinner in the presence of the Pharisees, Jesus’ thoughts turned to the many people who hadn’t been invited.

 

He spoke to His host in the plainest of terms and said in Luke 14:12-14 – “Then He also said to him who invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid.   "But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.   "And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.''”[NKJ]

 

Make no mistake about this, these were hard words, I would imagine the host staring at Jesus with anger in his eyes, but that didn’t deter Jesus.

 

1. Have you ever been in a conversation about a subject that you just don’t want to talk about or that makes you uncomfortable?  When that happens to me, I usually try to change the subject or say something that will make my thinking a little easier.  
   1. I suspect something like that is what happens next because out of nowhere one of the other guests tries to break the spell and dismiss the statement by saying in Luke 14:15 – “… Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Jesus then responds with a parable that compares God’s kingdom to a banquet furnished by God.
   2. Luke 14:16-24 – “Then He said to him, "A certain man (God) gave a great supper (God’s Kingdom) and invited many (these being the Jews),   "and sent his servant (God’s messengers) at supper time (the coming of the Messiah) to say to those who were invited, `Come, for all things are now ready (We sing about this – so the fullness of time has come).'   "But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, `I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.'   "And another said, `I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.'   "Still another said, `I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'   "So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, `Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.'   "And the servant said, `Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.'   "Then the master said to the servant, `Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.   `For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.' ''”[NKJ]
   3. Before we get into the parable, I need to mention Matthew’s account. In Matthew 22:1-14 we find a similar parable by Jesus about a feast like the one we have just read.  I suspect the two parables are independent of each other, but the obvious similarities are due to their common origin, Jesus Christ.
   4. What Jesus does here, is compare the kingdom of heaven to a wonderful banquet. It’s significant that in most of Luke 14 Jesus talks about feasts and banquets. In this atmosphere Jesus compares entering the kingdom of heaven to coming to a feast.
2. During the days of Jesus there was a rumor that went around which the Jews believed as fact, even today many Jews still believe it.
   1. It was a common belief at that time that in a literal sense when the Messiah came, in the golden age of His reign, all the Jews would be invited to sit at His table in a great feast. With that in mind Jesus may have used this popular notion and compared the kingdom to a banquet. It’s not a long dreary funeral procession; it’s a festive occasion of warm fellowship and unheard of delight. Our meal that we enjoy at our potluck is like that. A meal with loving brothers and sisters.
   2. Remember that Jesus didn’t come to darken an already gloomy world. His mission was to bring good news.  I wish the world would recognize that. Jesus’ message of good news has been distorted almost beyond the point of recognition. Multitudes of people have come to believe that people cannot enjoy themselves and still be a Christian.
   3. People have misconceptions about Christianity because they have a distorted view of Jesus. Yes, it’s true that Isaiah 53:3 describes Him as a “Man of sorrows”, but this point has been magnified out of all proportion.  Look with me at how scripture, Isaiah 53:2-3, describes the messiah; “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

• A man named Publius Lentulus supposedly wrote a letter to the Roman Senate. It is reported he was a Roman Counsel from 27 BC to 14 AD and Governor of Judea before Pontius Pilate. This letter is considered apocryphal for several reasons. But listen to the way he describes Jesus.
  1. “There has appeared in our times, and there still lives, a man of great power (virtue), called Jesus Christ. The people call him a prophet of truth; his disciples, son of God. He raises the dead and heals infirmities. He is a man of medium size (statura procerus, mediocris et spectabilis); he has a venerable aspect, and his beholders can both fear and love him. His hair is of the color of the ripe hazelnut, straight down to the ears, but below the ears wavy and curled, with a bluish and bright reflection, flowing over his shoulders. It is parted in two on the top of the head, after the pattern of the Nazarenes. His brow is smooth and very cheerful with a face without wrinkle or spot, embellished by a slightly reddish complexion. His nose and mouth are faultless. His beard is abundant, the color of his hair, not long, but divided at the chin. His aspect is simple and mature, his eyes are changeable and bright. He is terrible in his reprimands, sweet and amiable in his admonitions, cheerful without loss of gravity. He was never known to laugh, but often to weep. His stature is straight, his hands and arms beautiful to behold. His conversation is grave, infrequent, and modest. He is the most beautiful among the children of men.”
  2. This image of Jesus has had a lasting effect on the art of succeeding ages, and even today Jesus is seen as a man who never laughed. Is this what Jesus was like?
  3. I’m reminded of Romans 14:17 – “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Matthew tells us in chapter 25 that the faithful servant will enter the joy of his Lord.  John 15:11 says; “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”
  4. We’re not expected in “Monk fashion” to withdraw from the world and punish ourselves. We’re not expected to be like the Pharisees and bind ourselves with a code so strict that even toys for children are condemned as “Works of the flesh.” Jesus said, “His kingdom is one of Joy”. Not a joy of bodily depravity and sensual living but a joy of what is spiritual and eternal.

1. Back to Luke 14:16-18 - "… A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, "and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’   But they all with one accord began to make excuses..”
   1. There are three excuses given, but they can be divided into two classes. The first two have to do with earthly possessions and the third concerns earthly ties. We are going to look at the excuses in more depth in a minute, but let me first say this; the word translated as “with one consent” or “with one accord” or “alike” in verse 18 is interesting because it doesn’t mean they couldn’t go or they simply said “No thank you”. What it points to is that they “didn’t want to go”. “from one motive they began to make excuse”.
   2. Let’s look at the first two excuses, the earthly possessions. Luke 14:18-19 - “The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.” “And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.”
   3. There is little difference between the two excuses. Both men are absorbed in their own interests. Both men were so tied up in their business affairs that they had no time for anything else. They were basically saying that, “They had too much to do, so they couldn’t come.”
   4. How many times have we heard that excuse over the years? I would love to come to worship, or I’d love to stay for the fellowship meal, or I’d come back this evening, - but my life is just so busy at the moment! It’s like focusing on “self” is everything and the “life that is now” gets the most attention. Their business is their “Bible” and making a living is their creed. They rarely seem to have time for other people… never mind time for God.
   5. God knew that all of mankind would struggle with this and so what He did to help us take our minds away from our earthly possessions, is institute what is called the Lord’s Day. It’s a special occasion with a special service of worship on the first day of every week. Sunday’s are the days when He gives us a spiritual call to put aside all our concerns of the previous week and give full attention to the concerns of God.
2. As we meet every week with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we encourage one another and each of us reflects upon the sacrifice of Jesus, as we are reminded again of the cost of sin. In Matthew 4:4 - Jesus tells us that, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
   1. Let me quote a passage of Scripture that some Christians don’t like. Hebrews 10:25 - “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” “the assembling of ourselves together” is a reference to the Lord's day worship of the assembly, the regular Sunday services of congregations of believers, as set in motion by the apostles, honored by disciples in all ages, and fully recognized as a sacred obligation for all Christians by the author of Hebrews who penned this formal commandment regarding attendance.
   2. The reason I said that some Christians don’t like this verse is because it is a direct command from the Holy Spirit, through the Hebrew writer, for us to continually come together.  The ones who don’t like this verse are those who are already in the habit of not meeting together. I don’t know about you but I need encouragement.   Maybe I’m not as strong as some other Christians but I need encouragement more than once a week.
   3. That’s why I am glad I’m not alone with my struggle.   That’s why I’m glad that others attend the “Wednesday night Bible study”.   I feel very privileged to have an opportunity to attend those classes. I thank God for our Sunday Bible study.
   4. I thank God for “Potluck meals”; because I need the encouragement from other Christians to help me through.
   5. How important is this attending of the assembly? First consider John 20:19-20 – “19. Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you.'' 20. Now when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
      1. The beginning of the church on Pentecost occurred on a first day of the week when the disciples were gathered together.
      2. Consider such references as "Let every one of you lay by him in store on the first day of the week" (1 Corinthians 16:2), and "When the disciples came together on the first day of the week to break bread" (Acts 20:7).
   6. We don’t want to end up like “Demas who loved this world, and deserted Paul and went away to Thessalonica” according to 2 Timothy 4:10. When James is talking about those who are rich and are oppressing other people, he says in James 5:5 - “You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.” You see it’s not just a matter of commitment; it’s a matter of encouragement.
3. Let’s look at the second excuse, the earthly ties. Luke 14:20 - "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.'” This man’s excuse is a little more difficult to understand because of one of the Laws written in the Book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 24:5 - says, “When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business; he shall be free at home one year, and bring happiness to his wife whom he has married.”
   1. Perhaps the man was basing his excuse on this particular Law and maybe he felt that he had a perfectly good excuse. He placed the obligation of his family and his home first and he thought that everybody would understand, but when you think about it, it’s a paradox that something as lovely and sweet as home can stand between a man and God. After all Genesis 2:24 - says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” That doesn’t mean that he is to leave his Father in heaven.
   2. When we think about our homes, they are among our greatest blessings, but as we know many a blessing can turn into a disaster.  There are at least two ways in which we can use our homes wrongly.
      1. Our home and our family ties can occupy the chief spot in our hearts. The man said in Luke 14:20 - “'I just got married, so I can't come.'” It seems like a reasonable excuse but read on in verse 26, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.” We are going to look more at this another time, but for now let me say that Jesus commands an exclusive affection from us. He wants the whole heart.
      2. Our homes can be used selfishly. We can come home after a hard day at work and want to do nothing but relax and enjoy ourselves. We can spend much time and effort making our homes so livable that we wrap ourselves up in comfort and shut others out.
   3. You see, folks, regardless of how our homes are constructed; the windows should always look out on the needs of others. This is the way they were in the first century church and it’s the way we should think about our homes today.
   4. In Romans 12:13 – we are told; “Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”[para] In Hebrews 13:2 - “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.”  Practicing this is one of the great glories of having a Christian home.  Ask yourself, when was the last time you invited someone to your home?

• Continue now in Luke 14:21-23 – “"So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, `Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.' "And the servant said, `Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.'   "Then the master said to the servant, `Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”
  1. The flimsy excuses had made the host angry, especially by those whom He invited but who didn’t want to come. He sent His servant out into the city, He sent his servant onto the streets, and the alleys.  
  2. He wanted His house full. He sent his servant out into what we would call the slums. What’s Jesus point here? The point is that Jesus was saying to the Jews that if they reject the invitation they wouldn’t sit at God’s table. He’s telling them that those they consider the lower classes of people, the publicans, sinners and even the heathens are going to take their place at the table.
  3. He’s says in Luke 14:24 - “For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.” This is bad news for those who rejected His offer but great news for us. Isn’t that a wonderful truth – when you think about the applications here – that God wants His house to be full?
• Romans 5:17 – I paraphrase; “For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.”
  1. He is abundant in mercy and desires the salvation of all. Once His invitation is refused, He goes to others in order for those others to feast at His banquet. Matthew 28:19 - “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,   "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you…”
  2. This is a universal invitation to come and feast at the Lord’s Table. The gospel is for all; the love of God desires a multitude of guests. What a sight it must have been! The cripples, the downcasts, the poor with their heads bowed. The blind groping around for a place to sit, the lame leaning on their crutches.  You might think that is a miserable sight. No, no, no. It is not a miserable sight!
  3. What we need to remember is that it was a happy group of people on the happy occasion of this feast. I wish I could just leave the sermon on that happy note, but I can’t, because there are still the others, the ones who didn’t come in. They had closed themselves out, they had sent different excuses, yet there was only one reason why they didn’t come. The three excuses all plead something that pertains to self. They loved things too much, they rejected a generous Host and they rejected His grace.
  4. Imagine what it’s like. Some are filled with the bread of life and for others are dying of hunger! Some have living water at their feet and others are dying of thirst!

 

CONCLUSION:  

Matthew 5:6 - “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” What is Jesus doing through this parable? Jesus is giving those who aren’t Christians an invitation. He is generous. Yet people continue to reject His grace. When we converse with non-Christians, we need to try to get them to the point where they think about Jesus’ offer of salvation.   When they get to that point perhaps, we can encourage them to think about confessing His Name before people. Talk to them about repentance, talk to them about turning away from self and start turning to God.

 

If they start thinking about those things, they may come to the question the Jews asked Peter in Acts 2:37, “What must we do to be saved?” Every person needs to get to that point. It is not a case of saying - “God, this is what I’m going to do to be saved”. It is asking what God wants us to do. When people come to that conclusion, we can teach them that they can become a child of God by doing what Peter told them to do and what every other Christian who is here today has done. Acts 2:38 "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

 

If we get anything from this parable tonight it is this. Jesus’ invitation is open to all of us. Anyone and everyone. Keep in mind people are going to come up with excuses. We need to put in their minds that an excuse is simply that. It’s an excuse. We need to let them know there is a table here, and there is a space at that table for them. We have not prepared it, Jesus Himself has.

Luke 14:21-23 - "So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, `Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.' "And the servant said, `Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.' "Then the master said to the servant, `Go out into the highways and hedges, and urge them to come in, that my house may be filled. " [para]

 

 

 

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins… If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

 

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

 

#607 “All Things Are Ready”

 

Reference Sermon

Mike Glover

The Fruit of The Spirit – Self-Control

The Fruit of The Spirit – Self-Control

Galatians 5:22-23

 

INTRO:

Good morning.   For the last several weeks I've been presenting lessons from Galatians 5:22-23.  The sermon this morning will be the last sermon in this group and we're going to be looking at the subject of self-control.

 

I want to encourage you to take out your Bibles and look at the scriptures I mention. If you have any questions about anything I say, I’ll be glad to talk to you about it. If I’m wrong, I will stand corrected.

 

We're going to again begin with Galatians 5:22-23 – “22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23. gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”  

 

Self-Control again is an expression that defines itself. Self-control is the controlling of our selves.   There are two things that are understood from the word self-control here.

 

The first is I have the ability to control myself, self-control.   The mere fact the word exists tells me I have the ability to control myself.

 

The second thing I’ve learned from this is God expects me to control myself.   We human beings are driven by our will and our desires.  In our lives as children of God we understand what the will of the Lord is, yet we struggle in doing it.

 

It is not so much that when we edify each other we have to convince each other of what the truth is, as it is encouraging us to do what we already believe and know the truth to be.   Self-control is living that belief and that truth.   It is one thing to know the commandments of God, to know what is within the Word of God but it’s quite another thing to do it, to live by it.

 

In our lives as Christians we will have various situations and trials and temptations, then with the knowledge of the Word of God, we are expected, by faith, to do the will of God.   Unfortunately though, there are times when there is a situation, a scenario, or a temptation where we know the will of God, yet we choose not to do what God says. This is where self-control is needed.  

If we are going to be Christians, we are expected to have self-control, so we do not just desire to do good, are not just willing to do good, but we carry it out in our lives.  We are keeping His commandments by faith.

 

A point we've made in the lessons so far about the fruit of the spirit is that we're talking about manifestations, the fruit, the product, which comes from our relationship with God.  

 

In examining faithfulness, we point out that faith comes by hearing the Word of God and faithfulness is the product, the fruit, of that faith.   We are keeping his commandments by faith.    Our relationship with God is directly tied to the Word of God where our faith comes from.

If we are going to live by faith, we need to go to the Word of God where faith comes from.   As faith grows, we will find its going get stronger and become hope and the highest level of faith is love.   Love for God, whom we've never seen and then we're walking, living, by love and keeping His commandments because we love Him.

 

1. Self-Control And The Mind – Self-control is the key, it is the very heart of all of this.   When we have self-control, we are carrying out in our body what we are willing in our heart and mind.  
   19. Let’s look first at the book of Matthew in Matthew 15:18-19.  Here it talks about the tie between the mind and our actions when it says; “18. "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19. "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”
       1. Notice that all our actions, all our words, originate in the mind.  If we're going to have self-control, we need to recognize where it starts.
       2. It starts with getting control of our mind, getting control of our thoughts.
   20. Next in Proverbs 4:23 and let me mention that if you ever want to memorize a verse memorize this one; “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Here we are dealing with the mind – as a person thinks in their heart, so he will be.   We're dealing here with our mind, keeping it with all diligence, gaining control of the process.
       1. You hear the words coming out of my mouth.   They start right here in my mind.  If I am flailing my hands around that starts here in my mind.
       2. Walking back and forth, everything I do, everything I say, originates in the mind.   If we're going to have self-control, we've got to keep our heart with all diligence.
       3. The idea is getting control of what is coming in and what is going out. From our heart spring all the issues of life. Everything we say, everything we do originates with thoughts in our mind.
   21. Now in Romans 8:5 – it says; “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” Have you ever heard a parent ask “where was your mind” when a child got into mischief?   Have you as a parent ever thought “where was their mind?”   I certainly have heard this expressed about the immature, including myself.
       1. Sometimes we think that about adults too.   The point here is the mind… It says someone who's in the world sets their mind on the things of the flesh but the person who’s a Christian sets their mind on the things of the spirit.
       2. The common denominator between these three versus that we just looked at in Matthew, Proverbs and Romans—is the mind. The mind is ultimately what controls the actions.  
       3. That makes the mind pretty important doesn’t it?
   22. The Spiritual War For You Mind – In thinking about this I’m sure we recognize there is a war that is taking place and that war is the war for our mind.   Our mind which controls our actions, is the spoils in this battle.   It is going to determine our soul’s eternal destiny.   Satan wants to fill our minds with filth, with temptations, with the desires of the flesh, so that our thoughts are going to be fleshly oriented and desire oriented.   Then our actions are going to be the actions of the flesh.  We will be creatures of the flesh. - There's a battle for our minds.
       1. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:11 – “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,” One of the worst things we can do as Christians is just float through life.  Not keeping our heart with all diligence, not guarding our heart with all diligence, and just allow anything to come into our minds and come into our hearts.
          1. For example, when it comes to the holiday season, I've got some bad news for us.   We are what we eat. I know we joke about it but it is true.
          2. What we take into our mouth is going to make up our body whether we like that or not.   Think about that.   In like manner, what we take into our mind is what is going to make up our thought processes whether we like it or not.
          3. Have you ever heard someone say “oh I can watch that it doesn't bother me”.   Really?   I guess that would mean what I eat won’t become part of me.
          4. Just like what you consume with your mouth is making up your body, what you take into your mind through your eyes and ears is going to be making up the thoughts in your mind, and it is going to be coming out in the actions of your life.
          5. We need to recognize this is a war that is taking place.  Satan wants into our minds.   We are surrounded by Satan's attacks on our eyes and our ears, the goal of which is to get into our mind and to get into our life.
          6. The text says here abstain from fleshly lust.  What do you understand from the word abstain?  To see how close you can get to it?   No. You stay away from it because it's warring against your soul.
          7. There's a war going on and the worst thing that we can do is compromise, let down our defenses, not guard our heart with all diligence, just let Satan come in and just fill our mind and heart with all kinds of things we do not need.
          8. We need to develop our self-control, to get in control of what we're watching and listening to and reading.
       2. It says this in Psalm 101:3 – “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.” The way in which we take information into our mind is through our senses—taste, touch, smell, and the primary two senses of sight and hearing.
          1. How can something we see or hear cling to us? Have you have ever learned a song just by listening to it several times on the radio?   I have listened to a song four or five times and by the fifth time or so I know every word and every note.
          2. You see its going in there.   They call this “the information age” for a reason. Don’t we realize that what we watch on television, in the movies, read in magazines, listen to in music, and see on the computer, is information that is being taken into our mind?
          3. No wonder so many Christians struggle when it comes to questions of the spirit and the flesh.   How many are going down the broad way because of the information Satan has managed to get into their minds?
          4. How many become lost because they're sitting there watching filth and pornography, then come to assemble and sing, “Oh how I love Jesus”?    They are acting like; “Oh, I can watch that stuff and I can read about that stuff but it's not going to affect me”.
          5. If we think that, who are we kidding?   We must have control of what we put in our mind.   You don't have to be a Solomon to figure out that we are being bombarded with filth through all sorts of media.   Do not watch it, don’t listen to it, don’t read it… abstain.
          6. If you know it's going to be there before you go there, then don't go there.   Get control of what's coming into the mind.  Guard your heart with all diligence.
          7. Going back to It shall not cling to me. Have you ever got something on your hand, and you can’t seem to get it off?   Rubber cement comes to mind for me. That’s clinging.   We set something wicked before our eyes and it is clinging to our thought processes. People think, “That’s not affecting me.” Oh yes it is, it is clinging to you and it will come out in the things you think about.
          8. Go back and read from Matthew 15:18-19 again - “18. "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19. "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,”. You must get control of your self and through that control get control of what is coming into your mind.   Abstain from it.  It's warring against your soul.   It will cling to your mind.   You'll find yourself having thoughts that are fleshly oriented and they will come out in your actions.
          9. What can we do?
       3. Do we remember what it tells us in the twelfth chapter of Romans? Romans 12:2 – “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” We need to recognize it is in the mind where the battle is, if we're going to gain self-control.   What we are told in the text is renew your mind.   It is the idea of a changing of our heart, a changing of our mind which will ultimately manifest in a changing of our life, in a word—repentance.
          1. Notice the close of this verse in Romans, and perfect will of God.” That is what we need to be controlling our minds, not the things of this world.
          2. If we want to be spiritually minded, and be keeping our heart with all diligence, a major part of helping us carry that out in our life is letting our mind be filled with the word of God.
       4. Ephesians 5:18-19 – “18. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19. speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,” That brings a question to my mind, what kind of music does God like?   I like many types, though not all types.   Some like rap affect me so negatively I don’t even want to hear it.
          1. Jazz is perhaps my favorite kind of music, yet I have never been spiritually minded by listening to jazz.   I like country, especially the old style that told a story, ballads, but it does not lift me spiritually. I really like classical music. I was raised on classical, but listening to Mozart has never really brought me closer to God.
          2. There's only one kind of music I have found that actually affects me spiritually,  which will even bring me to my knees in the privacy of my room, and that is psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
          3. In Ephesians again we find the idea of getting control of what's coming into us.   It says do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit. Then we are told a way of being filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,  We're being filled with the spirit, becoming more and more spiritually minded by listening to psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  If we want to become spiritually minded we take things of this nature into the mind through the ears and the eyes.
       5. I’d like to cross reference this with Colossians 3:15-16 – “15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
          1. In Ephesians 5 it says be filled with the spirit.   In Colossians it says let the word of Christ dwell in your richly.   These verses are saying the same thing.
          2. Romans 10:17 tells us that; “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
          3. John says in John 20:30-31 – “many of the signs truly did Jesus in the presence of the disciples which were not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you may have life to his name.” [para]  
             1. The reasons Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written was so that we could read and learn about Jesus. His birth, teaching, miracles, crucifixion, and resurrection.
             2. From this record we conclude that Jesus of Nazareth, a man whom we have never laid eyes on, really is the anointed one of God, the Christ.

• He really is the son of God.  He died for me because He loved me.    He rose from the dead and the resurrection is really going to happen.

1. Our faith comes from the Word of God.  If you are going have faithfulness you've got to have faith.

4. In like manner if we are going to be spiritually minded, we've got to have the word of God dwelling in us.   To get to that point we need to have self-control.
   1. I’ll put it to you this way. I have a glass and fill it with water to the very top then turn it sideways, what's going to come out? Water.
   2. If we develop self-control and diligently guard our mind so that what we are allowing into our mind is the Word of God then His word will dwell in us richly and we know what's going to come out in our life. - The word of God.  The perfect will of God.  

• We have changed our mind to where it is no longer fleshly minded, but is now spiritually minded, motivated by faith, hope, and love and our life will be changed.

• The Fruit of Self-Control – What are the manifestations of self-control?
  1. A good verse to look at is one we ended with last week 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 – “for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” [para] Let’s start with “the weapons of our warfare”.
     1. Again, please remember we are engaged in a war folks.   The battleground is your mind and your heart, and the spoils of this war is your soul’s eternal destiny.  If you just lollygag and lay around and are not engaged in the battle, guess what, you're going to lose the battle.   We had better be soldiers of Christ fighting the battle.
     2. What then do we fight this battle with? Spiritual perspectives.   We are fighting against a spiritual enemy. God has given us spiritual weapons. These weapons work.
     3. When Jesus was attacked by our enemy, Satan, in Matthew 4, do you recall how He defended Himself? When Satan said; ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’    What was Jesus response? IT IS WRITTEN `Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'. To each attack of Satan Jesus response was “It is written”. What Jesus was doing in His defense was pulling the spiritual sword out of the sheath; and what is that sword?   The word of God.
  2. When we're going to be in battle against spiritual wickedness, we better learn our weapons and use them. Find the scriptures that fit that spiritual struggle.
     1. Everybody here, every one of us, have our own spiritual weaknesses. There are areas in our life that are strongholds.   Last time we briefly talked about these strongholds as something in our mind or the minds of others that prevents the word of God from entering.
     2. A stronghold is where Satan has come in times past into our life and he's tempted us.   We are thinking to our self I'm not going to do this again.   I'm not going to act that way again, I'm going to live a Christian life… and then here comes the same old temptation.
     3. It is not something new.   I’ve been down this road time and time and time again.  I’m sure you have too. Here comes the temptation and you give into that temptation.   You have let that temptation succeed and then you end up sitting there, mentally whipping yourself saying; what is wrong with me?
     4. I know I'm describing everyone including myself, because when we give into temptation, we feel godly sorrow.   We are struggling with a temptation and we are wondering what's wrong with me why am I giving in to this, it is then we realize the problem is self-control.  
     5. We're willing to do good. We want to do the will of God and yet we find our self giving into temptations.
        1. And they're not strangers to us. They are temptations that we're very familiar with.
        2. We can know ourselves and recognize where our spiritual weaknesses are.   But the enemy also knows them. Then what we need to do is find the scriptures that fit our spiritual struggle and put those scriptures in our mind.
     6. I have had and still do have a problem with my temper.   How about this one? Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; Or this one? "Be angry, and do not sin'': do not let the sun go down on your wrath, How about this one from James 1:20 “for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
  3. These verses are spiritual weapons God has given us.  The point we need to recognize, folks, is that the weapons of our warfare are mighty.  They make it so we can pull down a stronghold.  The temptation is seen beating us down again and again and we think what's wrong with me.  
     1. You can have the victory.   You can say no. You can resist it and he will flee from you, but you've got to know your weapons.   And you have to use your weapons.
     2. Find the scriptures that fit where you are.  Put them to memory and the next time Satan comes back, and you know he's coming back, the next time he hits you pull the sword out and say it is written and quote scripture. Then let that sink in.   These weapons work but we need to have them at the ready and use them.
  4. Look at the next part of 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. “bringing every thought into captivity” That says every thought into captivity, every single thing I think is under control. Captive.
     1. That is the level we strive to get to.   Have we reached it? No. But that is where we are trying to get to and what does this bringing every thought into captivity ultimately end in?   “…the obedience of Christ”.
     2. If we're going to keep His commandments, we will need to have self-control to where we carry out in our body, our lives, what we are desiring and willing to do in our heart as Christians.
  5. From James 1:19-20 I was quoting this one to you earlier. We learned “let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;”. Notice it says first swift to hear.   That tells us, puts in our mind, to first listen, hear what is being said.   Then slow to speak, speaking is usually the first reaction to what someone says, or a situation isn’t it?
     1. I’ll paraphrase James 1:26 says; “If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.” We should learn to let some time pass before we open our mouth and speak.
     2. It is a very difficult thing to do but if we are going to be Christians, true Christians, we are expected to get a bridle on our tongue and have control of what is coming out of our mouth.
     3. How many times have words come out of your mouth and you really wish they would come back?  Can't get them back.  We need to be slow to speak so the words coming out of our mouth are words we've thought about and are exactly what we want to say at the time.   The right words at the right time. That is using self-control.

 

 

CONCLUSION:

Then finally Paul said in First Corinthians 9:27 – “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” Disciplining the body—the idea is gaining control of the body, bringing it into subjection to where when we're willing to and desire to do the will of God guess what?  We carry it out.   We're actually doing the will of the Father in Heaven not just knowing what it is.  We understand it's not enough to recognize what the word of God is.  We're expected to do the will of the Father in heaven, by faith.

 

To do that and to be faithful, to be keeping the commandments of God is going to require discipline of the body, control of the temper, control the tongue and getting all the way down to the core of it—control of the thought, our mind.   Bringing every thought into captivity.

 

To get to that level we need to become more and more spiritually minded realizing that is where the battle is taking place.  That's the battleground, our mind.   We've got to keep our heart with all diligence, taking control of what we are bringing into our mind and into our heart through our eyes through our ears.   Do not allow the filth seen in this world to come into our thought processes because it will cling to us. Then it will come out in our thoughts and our actions.

 

Instead be filled with the spirit.  Listen to songs, hymns and spiritual songs. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.  Spend time reading the Scriptures. Listen to the Scriptures. Learn what they say.

 

I suggest that we learn specifically the Scriptures that fit our personal spiritual struggles and then bringing the sword out of the sheath when the battle is engaged.  By doing this we can experience the fruit of the spirit—self-control.

 

As I said at the very beginning there are two things that are understood by the word self-control.    First, we do have the power within ourselves to control ourselves and second God expects us to do it.

How can we do it?   By becoming more spiritually minded. By getting engaged in the battle and fight to strengthen our faith, to strengthen our relationship with God so that in our lives we are carrying out, doing the will of God.

 

There may be somebody here this morning who is not a member of the body of Christ.

If you believe in your heart that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the son of the living God and you're willing to openly confess your faith and repent of your sins we'd be glad to assist you as you are baptized into the body of Christ.

 

All that will be expected of you in your life as a Christian is to take up your cross daily and follow by faith.  You need to recognize just because you obey the Gospel doesn’t mean the battle’s over.   You’ve finally engaged in the battle.  You're finally fighting against the enemy; standing up to the enemy and not letting Satan just roll over you.   You have begun a race that if you run faithfully all the way to the end of your life, it will lead to the throne of your king.

 

If you are a child of God and you find that you are struggling with self-control and thus struggling with obedience to the will of the king I hope that you have the desire to deal with it.  The worst thing to do is recognize the problem is there and do nothing about it.

We have the ability to grow in these spiritual attributes, but we have to be willing to take those first steps.

 

If you are a subject of the Gospel call in any way let us know while we stand a sing the song that has been selected.

 

 

Invitation song: xxx

Reference sermon by: Wayne Fancher

 

The Little Things in Life

The Little Things in Life

Matthew 13:31-32

 

INTRO:

Good evening.   We continue our look at the parables.   Last Lord’s Day evening we looked at the parable of “The growing seed.”  We saw how the spiritual kingdom of God grows.

We saw that this kingdom growth was orderly, just like our physical growth.

We grow through infancy.

We grow through childhood.

We grow through youth and adulthood.

In other words, it takes time and we need to be patient.

 

We also saw that God Himself is the one who causes the growth.   We plant the seed. We water it when we get the chance, but it is God who causes the seed to grow. We don’t know how God makes the seed grow but we know He does because we are here today as Christians.

 

Tonight we are going to look at another aspect of this kingdom growth but from a different angle. This evening we’re going to look at “The parable of the mustard seed” and we will do so from the garden or the field point of view.

 

Before we get started, I would like to share some things I read recently in Natural Wildlife.   Did you know the Praying Mantis only has one ear?   Praying Mantis have a single ear deep in the centers of their thoraxes, or chest segments. "The ear doesn’t look like any other ear," says the article. "They're the only animals known to have just one ear."   The other thing that is interesting about this ear, is that Mantis detect attacking bats by picking up the mammals' high-frequency or ultrasonic chirps. “When a flying mantis is trying to escape from a hungry bat, one of its primary nighttime enemies, it can suddenly pull up in midair, turn to the side and drop into a power dive similar to that of a military pilot avoiding an adversary”.

 

I guess if we get anything from that, we should spend more time in prayer and less time listening to all sorts of questionable things - yet keep an ear tuned to the wiles of the enemy.

 

Did you know that insects with stingers kill more people than snakes with fangs?

The lesson from that may be we need to control our stinging remarks as well as our biting gossip.  

 

Finally, did you know that if a beaver dam breaks, the beavers from several miles around will help rebuild it?  What an example that is to us when one of our own is in need.

 

The point is that everything God created has a purpose and we can learn many lessons from nature, and that includes the mustard seed.   During Biblical times it was very common practice to talk about the mustard seed as one of the smallest seeds.  Strictly speaking it wasn’t the smallest seed around at that time, but the tiny mustard seed is used to stand for anything minute.  

 

For example, Jesus spoke of faith as a grain of mustard seed.  In Matthew 17:20 He says to His disciples after they asked Him why they couldn’t drive out an evil spirit from a boy, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, `Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”

 

Then in Luke 17:6 we find the apostles asking Jesus to increase their faith and Jesus says, “"If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, `Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.”

 

The Palestinian mustard plant, because of its size wasn’t set out in a garden but was usually found in an open field.   This plant could grow to between 10 and 12 feet in height.  When it comes to shrubs, this was a giant. Its branches were so large they would spread out like a tree.

 

I have read that because of its size, it would very often attract small birds to come and nest.  During the time of Jesus, birds would often be seen in the branches of the mustard plant and they fed on the small black seeds of the mustard pods.

 

31. Here again Jesus reveals a secret about how the kingdom of God grows from an every day event.    Let’s read the parable.   Matthew 13:31-32 – “31. Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32. "which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.''” I want to look at 3 points from this parable. The 1st one is this, just because something is little doesn’t mean it’s not important.
    1. When you look at the small mustard seed and you see how tiny it is, you might be forgiven for thinking it’s not worth much, but when you talk to someone who grows these plants you will find exactly how valuable it really is.
       1. As a spice, mustard is sold in seed or powder form and today you can buy it in paste form.  It can be used in biodiesel fuel and pesticides.   According to one report it can produce 2 tons of oil per acre of seed.
       2. In other words the little mustard seed by itself doesn’t look so important, but man’s experience teaches him not to minimize it.  The little things in life should never be discounted.
    2. Of course, when you look at the world today it is obsessed with bigness.
       1. The Great Wall of China is 1700 miles long.
       2. The Alaskan Pipeline runs for 800 miles.
       3. The Dubai Mall has 1200 shops, 13 million sq. ft. and 22 cinema screens.
       4. The largest cruse ship, the Symphony of the Seas, is 5 times the size of the Titanic and with a crew of 2000 it carries 6000 passengers.
       5. When you think about our farmers they are termed as successful by the size of their operations.  To a world obsessed with magnitude Jesus makes an example of the power of the small in saying; “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed”.
    3. Jesus says in Mark 9:41 – “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” A cup of cold water, a visit to the sick, a welcome to a stranger, a lost sheep, these are little things in our estimation, yet Jesus uses them in His teaching.
       1. In Matthew 25:35-36 when Jesus is talking about the great division which will happen on judgment day, he says to those on His right, “35. `for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36. `I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'”
       2. Notice Jesus does not want you to feed the world.   He doesn’t want you solve world poverty.  It’s not big things He wants from us, its little things.
          1. Give a hungry person something to eat.
          2. Give a thirsty person something to drink.

• Give someone who needs clothes, something to wear.

1. Look after and visit the lonely and sick.
2. These are not big tasks. They are little mission fields that we all can do. We can all be involved with them.

3. Think about all the things that happen here in our congregation.  There are many.
   1. For example, someone comes early in every Sunday morning and prepares the Lord’s Supper.
   2. That may not seem like a big task, but just think about it.

• We all enjoy partaking of the Lord’s Supper every week because of someone’s effort in preparing it for us. Someone takes the time to prepare it and we all enjoy the blessing. Just because a task seems small within God’s kingdom doesn’t mean that it isn’t important.

4. Take for example doing a good deed.   Doing a good deed for someone will make a lasting impression.
   1. Doing a good deed for someone can spread the Gospel faster than a 100 good sermons.
   2. That’s because just like a grain of mustard seed, it can increase in size beyond imaginable proportion.
5. That brings me to the 2nd What we may think of as small may have a bigger impact than we realize.
   1. However important little things may be, the parable focuses on the consequences of little beginnings.
      1. The Egyptians were famous and still are famous for their pyramids.   One of the greatest pyramids built is at Giza. It contained an inner chamber where the Pharaohs were buried. His servants were usually buried in there too along with some of his personal artifacts.
      2. The rest of the pyramid complex consisted of a large enclosure, an adjacent mortuary temple, and a walkway leading down to a pavilion. When you look at these magnificent structures, you can’t help but stand in awe.
      3. When you think about it though, these structures started with one brick.
         1. Vincent Van Gogh produced many famous paintings but each one started with a single stroke of the brush.
         2. The German composer Ludwig Van Beethoven started his great symphonies and concertos with a single note.

• In English literature every book ever written, every essay, every poem all comes from the 26 letters of the alphabet.

4. In fact, the world’s biggest things have generally had small beginnings.   Momentous deeds and earth-shaking revolutions can be traced back to a speck, just like the germ of the mustard seed.

10. In Luke 2:10-12 when the angels appeared to the shepherds, the angel said to them, “10. … "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11. "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12. "And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.''”
    1. When you think about Christianity, the world’s greatest movement had its beginnings in a manger in Bethlehem.
    2. The busy Roman world didn’t take any notice of the day when Jesus was born.  It casually took notice of His life, and even when Jesus died the Roman world didn’t care much about His death. Why?
       1. Because Jesus was born in a manger.
       2. He was a carpenter from Nazareth and when He died, to them, He was gone.

• So much for a great leader!

3. Certainly, in outwardly appearances, Jesus looked less than the least of all great leaders.   His followers were counted by the dozens not by the thousands.
4. Yet, from only a handful of disciples, and in despite of their leader’s death on a cross there sprang into existence the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which you and I are part of today.

1. Let’s look at the story of Jesus.
   1. He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
   2. He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty.
   3. Then for three years He was a travelling preacher.
   4. He did not live in a big city.
   5. He never travelled more then two hundred miles from the place He was born.
   6. He never wrote a book or held an office.
   7. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness.
   8. While He was still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against Him.    His friends deserted Him.
   9. He was turned over to His enemies and went through a mockery of a trial.
   10. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
   11. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had, His garment.
   12. When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave.
   13. That’s Jesus. That’s our Lord and Savior. Twenty-one centuries have come and gone, and today He remains the central figure for much of the human race.
   14. Someone said, all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as this "One Solitary Life."  Folks, we should learn the lesson from the mustard seed.   A thing maybe small, almost without hope but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to have an effect.
2. Why is that?   Jesus is saying that small beginnings can succeed because it is God who is behind it.   God makes the seed grow. Do we think that the first century disciples ever thought that their small faith would have had such an impact in the world today?   Probably not. Their faith began almost unnoticed, just like the tiny mustard seed but look at it now. It has gone all around the world.  Jesus said with faith like that, “You can move mountains; you can tell a tree to go and plant itself in the sea.”
   1. There is a story about a town in England had been bombed one night by the Germans. When workers were clearing away the debris, they found on top of a heap of rubbish a sailor's prayer book, open to Psalm 27 with the thirteenth verse marked: “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.” The incident was widely commented upon in Great Britain, for it seemed to many that the verse noted in the open prayer book was the secret of Britain's endurance during the worst days of her trial. The victory was won, not by battleships and tanks and rifles and armed men alone, but by faith in God. Unless the Britons had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, they would have given up in despair.
   2. That’s faith.   That’s leaving things in God’s hands because you know that God is in control.

• That brings me to my 3rd point which is; don’t miss the point of this parable. Let’s read the parable again, Matthew 13:31-32 – “31. Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32. "which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.''” Why do I say don’t miss the point of the parable?
  1. Many people adjust this parable to mean something else. Some people like to believe that the branches, which Jesus talks about here, are symbolic of modern-day denominations.  In other words, just as the birds come and sit in the branches of the tree, so it is said that people can come and enter the different braches or denominations of the church.  I see a few problems with this view.
     1. First, they fail to ask the questions we have been asking with every parable we look at.  Who was Jesus speaking to and what did it mean to them?
     2. To find the answer we need to go back to Matthew 13:10 - “The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"
     3. Jesus was speaking to His disciples. Was denominationalism around in Jesus’ day?   No!
     4. Second, they neglect the context. Just prior to this, in explaining the parable of the sower, Jesus says the birds there represented the wicked one.
  2. Unfortunately, some people try to understand the parable by back-filling it into how they see Christianity today.
     1. What they need to do is look at Christianity as we find it in the first century.
     2. That’s the way to understand it.  It’s all too easy to make a verse mean something it never did by misunderstanding it to fit a viewpoint.
     3. It’s too easy to speak of branches of the church, but in the days of Christ and His apostles, these different so-called branches or divisions of Kingdom were unknown.  The Bible nowhere teaches that there are many churches. The Bible always talks about the church as singular.   How can you have a divided Kingdom with one king, one ruler?
     4. In Matthew 16:18 when Peter gives his wonderful confession to Jesus, Jesus says, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”  Jesus did not say, “On this rock I will build my churches.”  What was it He said? He said, “I will build my church, singular.”
  3. There are other people who like to say that this parable was a prophecy of Jesus.
     1. In other words, this parable remained unfulfilled until the recent rise of denominationalism.    Rubbish!  This takes their interpretation too far.
     2. The branches of the mustard plant are not in the focus of Jesus’ attention any more than the man who sowed the mustard seed or the nests that were made in the plants branches.
     3. The point of the parable is simply that the tiny mustard seed grows into a plant large enough for the birds to come and nest in it.   The man who sowed the seed, the field, the nests, the birds themselves, are all incidental to the one central truth of the parable.
     4. What is the one central truth of the parable?   The point is the kingdom of God, even with a small beginning, would prosper and prevail over all other kingdoms.  That’s what Jesus is getting at, that’s what He is teaching His disciples.
  4. Let’s look at Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, he says in Daniel 2:31-45, and bear with me because this is a long reading, but it is important to read it to help us understand about “The parable of the mustard seed.” – “31. "You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. 32. "This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33. "its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34. "You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35. "Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 36. "This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. 37. "You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; 38. "and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all you are this head of gold. 39. "But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 40. "And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters all things; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. 41. "Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. 42. "And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. 43. "As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. 44. "And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 45. "Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.''”
     1. Let me give you a quick run down of what this dream means.
        1. Verse 32 talks about “The head” as being made of fine gold; this is talking about The Babylonian Empire.
        2. Verse 32 also talks about “The chest and arms” as being made of silver. This is talking about The Medo-Persian Empire, another kingdom that will come after the Babylonians.
        3. Daniel also mentions “The belly and thighs” as being made of bronze. This is talking about Empire of Alexander and in verse 33 the legs of iron and the feet of iron and clay is talking about the Roman Empire.
        4. In verse 34 Daniel talks about “a stone” which he says it is not cut out by human hands.
        5. Look at verse 35 - "Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”
     2. The stone not cut by human hands struck the image down and became “A great mountain and filled the whole earth.”
        1. In other words, Daniel prophesied that God’s kingdom was destined to conquer all other kingdoms.
        2. All you need to do is read your history books and you will see how accurate this was.   You will read about how one kingdom after another fell.
        3. What can we learn from this parable?   Let’s mention a couple of things to think about as we close.

 

CONCLUSION:

Do we realize that we are a part of a kingdom that will never be destroyed and will last forever?

 

Don’t take my word for it, take God’s word.    Daniel 2:44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.”

 

You and I are in that kingdom today if we are Christians.   That kingdom came about in Acts chapter two. We looked at that last week.

 

Paul says in Philippians 3:17-20 “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven.”

Particularly notice that word is. It does not say will be, but it says; “is in heaven”, present tense.

In our lives we have thought to ourselves that we would like to become a part of this kingdom, but we haven’t got much to offer. Just remember what we’ve learned today.

Jesus says that it is the little things you have got to offer that can make all the difference.    You might not be able to preach or teach, but you can certainly write a letter of encouragement to other Christians in Jesus name.  You might not be able to lead songs, but you can come to worship and encourage everyone with your friendly smile in Jesus name.

In a world where people say that size matters, Jesus says, “Give me what you can, and I will do wonders with it.”  Look at what He did with a couple of fish and 5 loaves of bread. Look at what He did at the wedding in Canaan with six jugs after they have been filled with water.  Look what He does with tiny seeds. Imagine what He can do with you, if you would only give yourself to Him first.

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins… If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

 

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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Reference Sermon

Mike Glover

 

The Fruit of The Spirit - Gentleness

The Fruit of The Spirit - Gentleness

Galatians 5:22-23

 

INTRO:

Good morning.   Today we will have another lesson on the fruit of the spirit.   This time I want to look at Gentleness.

 

I want to encourage you to take out your Bibles and look at the scriptures I mention. If you have any questions about anything I say, I’ll be glad to talk to you about it. If I’m wrong, I will stand corrected.

 

We're going to again begin with Galatians 5:22-23 – “22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23. gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”  

Gentleness is one of those words that defines itself. It is learning to be gentle in your dealings with people.

 

From what we have studied if you understand the works of the flesh and what love is then you recognize that the works of the flesh are the opposite of the fruit of the spirit.

 

One of the works of the flesh is outbursts of wrath.  When you're dealing with love you learn that love is not rude, Love is not arrogant.  Whenever you think of rudeness, arrogance, and outbursts of wrath - gentleness is the opposite.  This is dealing with how we treat people.

 

In thinking on the fruit of the Spirit, notice that gentleness, is very closely related to some of the other fruits mentioned, kindness, long suffering, and goodness.

Whenever we are showing kindness to people, we will find that part of that kindness is expressed in gentleness.

 

Whenever we show long suffering with people, not giving up on people in their frailties, in their problems, and shortcomings, in our dealings with them - we're going to be gentle.

 

1. The Actions of Gentleness - I would like to start this study on the subject of gentleness by going to James 3:13 – “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.”  In this text we are talking about a manifestation of being a real Christian.   Indeed, that is what the fruit the spirit is all about isn’t it?
   1. We're dealing with manifestations of what really walking in the faith, of what really living by faith, allowing the word of God to mold and to shape our heart - produces in our life.
      1. If we are a sincere Christian, it will show by the conduct of our life and that conduct is carried out in the meekness of wisdom.
      2. When we talk about meekness some people have a misunderstanding about what we mean.   They have the idea that meekness is kind of weak, easy, a pushover, someone kind of cowardly, who won’t stand up for themselves.   That's not meekness at all.
      3. I hope we will see in the lesson this morning that gentleness and meekness is strength, but I want you to notice James talks about the meekness of wisdom.
   2. You find the same context in verses 16-18. James goes further and says; “16. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing will be there. 17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
      1. We see again this is talking about allowing the Word of God to mold and shape our hearts, our lives to where we are like a lump of clay.   We allow God to mold us, to shape us, to where it's no longer we who live, but Christ and God living and shining through us.
      2. This is done with the wisdom, the word comes from above.   James says it is pure, peaceable, and gentle.   And he says it’s willing to yield.
   3. What is he talking about, willing to yield?   Let’s look at Matthew 5:39-42 – “But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40. "If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. 41. "And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. 42. "Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.”
      1. Let me ask this are we turning the other cheek because we are cowards?   Are we turning the other cheek just because we're afraid and we're weak? That's not it at all. You're turning the other cheek because you can maintain control of yourself when someone else has absolutely lost it.  That is what meekness is.   It is actually a position of strength.
      2. It is the ability to maintain control of yourself despite of your environment, in spite of what other people are saying, or thinking, or doing to you.   Even if someone slaps you, you’re willing to yield. You desire peace and desire it so much you're willing to turn the other cheek.
      3. Of course, they hit you and it hurt, you did not like it, no one would.   You may be fighting to maintain control because, and we realize this, what’s the easiest thing to do if someone slaps you? You slap them back so hard they never think about slapping you again.  Isn't that the easiest thing to do?   If someone hurts you, you hurt them so badly they don't ever think about doing it again.   Well that is the way the world does things.   We see that on TV and in the movies all the time.   But that's not the way of Christianity.
      4. That's not the way of our Lord.   If we are Christians, our lives are lived trying to conform to the image of Christ, who is gentle, meek, lowly, humble and kind in His dealings with us.   Learn to turn the other cheek.   Learn to maintain control of yourself when others are lashing out at you.  Folks, that is true strength.
   4. Along those lines I must mention that while what you say is important, how you say it can be just as important, if not more important.
      1. Whenever you are communicating with people, they hear your attitude first in the tone of voice that you are using.  Look at this from 2^nd Timothy 2:24-25 – “24. … a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25. in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,”  Paul is talking about the servants of the Lord, Christians, that’s us.  We must not quarrel.
      2. It has been said that meaningful communication breaks down when you raise your voice.  Have you ever been in an argument with someone and they raise their voice to the point they're yelling at you?   Again, what's the easiest thing to do?  The response is usually to yell back, isn’t it? You vent your frustration in return.
      3. Is meaningful communication really taking place in all this venting?   Do you suppose they are really listening to what you're saying?   How many of us listen when someone is yelling at us?   You know what happens, up go our defenses.   It doesn't matter what the person is saying, perhaps it is the truth. We're not going to respond because of the way we were spoken to.  
      4. In military boot camp you are trained to actually listen to the instructions that are being yelled at you, keep your mouth shut, drop your defensive attitude and listen.   It is not a natural thing and you have to be trained.   What would your reaction be if someone screamed at you “I love you”?   Even though the message was “I love you” how would you take it?
      5. What people hear first is how you are speaking to them, because it tells them what your attitude is and that is why Christians should not get caught up in quarreling.
   5. How important is this?   For example let’s say someone is caught up in the snare of the devil in the way they are going. If they continue down that path, it is going to lead them to eternal damnation and you know the truth.   We're talking about someone's eternal destiny.
      1. We're talking about what is really important.  We're not talking about say… politics.
      2. I mean we can disagree about politics but, folks, we're talking about someone going to heaven or hell.  You can't get more serious than that.
      3. Here you are in a position where you know you can help them to get untangled and get to where they need to be.   What do you do?   Do we understand the importance of meaningful communication in this situation and maintaining control even though we are discussing something which is extremely sensitive?  
      4. When we are talking with someone about religion, it can be a very sensitive subject.   Especially if we need to tell this person who may perceive themselves as being a Christian, “I'm not really sure you're right with God.   As a matter of fact, from my studying of the scriptures I don't believe you are.”
      5. It is not an easy conversation and it is an potentially explosive one!   The person you are talking to may react very badly, especially if they are a younger Christian.   Though a mature Christian may react badly too. Even if they lose control and they start yelling at you, maintain you composure.   “a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all”
      6. Instruct in humility, in meekness.   Speak the truth in love. The whole truth.
   6. Speak to people not by speaking down to them, not with arrogance, not with a holier than thou attitude, not with the attitude of trying to prove I'm right and you’re wrong, checkmate, got ya.  
      1. People can understand why you're saying what you say.   They can read us really quickly if we’re just trying to prove we're right and they're wrong.
      2. They can also tell when we really care about them and we're just trying to help them find their way to heaven. Speak to people with dignity, respect, courtesy, humility, meekness, and gentleness - but don't water down the truth.
   7. Continuing in 2^nd Corinthians 10:1 – “Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.” We're seeing how Paul was preaching and the way in which he was preaching.  What he was writing about was so important that he says he is pleading, but the way in which he did it was with meekness and gentleness.  I want you to notice it's the gentleness of Christ.   Paul is trying to emulate Christ and folks, that is what we are all about, isn’t it?
      1. We are trying to conform ourselves to the image of Christ to be like God to where it's no longer we who live but Christ living and shining through us.
      2. We are to take the wisdom that is from above, given to us in the Word of God and allow it to mold our will and our lives.  One of the manifestations of this is we're going to be more willing to be gentle and meek in our dealings with people.   The way in which we speak to them is not going to be abusive, sharp, angry, or rude.
      3. The fruit of the spirit will be that we will have the ability to maintain control and be gentle in our dealings with them.
   8. I want to talk about The Strength of Gentleness.   From Proverbs 16:32 – “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” When we think about someone who is mighty and has the power to take a city, we think strength.   They have the power to go with their military might and take the city, that’s strength, right?  
      1. The truth of the matter is if you're slow to anger, you're stronger than the man who was able to take the city.   If we rule our spirit and we do not allow the evil that is done to us to overcome us and turn us into the image of the oppressor, acting like them, speaking like them and responding to them in the way in which they treated us - that's strength, that's real strength.
      2. From Proverbs 14:29 – “He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.”
         1. How many times do we come in contact with situations and people that set us off?    They get our blood pressure rising then we start screaming and yelling and hollering at them.
         2. What if someone slaps us even if we haven't done anything wrong? What's our first thought?   Hey, I didn't deserve that!  I haven’t done anything wrong!   I have the right to strike back, the Bible says so, right?   No. Willing to yield, is being able to turn the other cheek even when you aren't doing anything wrong.   Doing good to those who have done evil to you.   Loving your enemy. That’s strength.
      3. 2^nd Corinthians 10:7-10 – “7. Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ's, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ's, even so we are Christ's. 8. For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed   9. lest I seem to terrify you by letters. 10. "For his letters,'' they say, "are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.''”
         1. If we were to think about people of spiritual strength, I suspect many of us would put the apostle Paul in the top five.   Jesus obviously is number one.   Other than Jesus, when I think of spiritual strength, I think Paul.
         2. In the time of Paul there were some of the brethren that when they looked at him all they saw was his outward appearance.   They said his bodily presence is weak.  He's not a stout, big guy.  He's not like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
         3. They said his speech is contemptible.  He's not a great orator; he doesn't have a silver tongue.
         4. Often the way we determine a person’s strength is by their appearance.   Whether they are a good speaker, how strong they are physically, how big they are, the strength of their personality.
         5. We miss the point.   We miss seeing a person’s real strength because a person’s real strength is in their heart.   It is the strength of their character, an inward strength and that is what gentleness is all about.
      4. Jesus was an example of this. Mark 15:3-5 – “3. And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing. 4. Then Pilate asked Him again, saying, "Do You answer nothing? See how many things they testify against You!'' 5. But Jesus still answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled.” In the text Jesus was before Pontius Pilate. Luke 23:10 says; “the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him.” They hate Jesus and they accused Him of many things.  
         1. They see an opportunity to kill him and they are probably screaming and hollering in their accusations against him.   Here is Jesus, not saying a word, totally quiet.
         2. Matthew 27:12-13 – “12. And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. 13. Then Pilate said to Him, "Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?''” Then in verse 14 is says; “And He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.”
         3. Why did Pilate marvel greatly?   I don't think he was standing back saying “Why aren't you defending yourself?”   No. I think Pilate knew exactly what he was seeing. Scripture tells us Pilate knew of the enmity of the religious leaders toward Jesus. “For he knew that because of envy they had delivered Him.”
         4. He was seeing someone who had so much strength of character that when others around him were attacking him with all kinds of accusations He just stood there and said nothing.   Pilate understood the strength of the character of the person in front of him.
         5. That is what meekness is.   The ability to maintain control when others around you have completely lost it.  It is a strength of character to be able to turn the other cheek, to love your enemy, to do good to those that do evil to you.
         6. That is strength, not the outward appearance of strutting and showing your physical strength or screaming and hollering or using pleasing speech.
      5. I've seen in my life some of the most humble, kind, simple, people you would ever meet.   I have also seen people that I thought were really strong, yet whenever the pressure came, they completely fell to pieces.   Then there were those others, the humble ones that you would never imagine to be strong and when the pressure came, they had a smile on their face.  They were at peace and they were still in control.
         1. Often the people in the world totally misread gentleness, they misread meekness and they think; well this person is just weak.   That’s were long suffering comes in.
         2. Let me propose this. Let's look at Matthew 7:14 where He says; few there be that find it when he's talking about us going to heaven.  The straight and the narrow way, the difficulties in the narrow way, and few will find it.
         3. Wait a minute God; you want people to be saved why don't you make it where everybody’s saved then?  Certainly, God could make us obey the gospel or make us so we can't sin.  But that is not what He does. God does not want us to not have a choice, He wants us to be drawn to Him and chose Him.
         4. How is it that God draws us to Him?   God draws us to Him through love.  The greatest manifestation of that love is He gave His son to die for us.
            1. He tells us over and over and over and over again; I love you.
            2. I want you to bear with Me.

• I want you forgiven.

1. I want you to be with Me in heaven forever.

5. He wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, but all men aren’t going be saved.  Those who come to God are going to come to God because God is gentle with us.
   1. He's kind.
   2. He's loving and He’s long suffering.
6. All these things are intertwined. When you are long suffering with people, you're not going to give up on people even though they're going in the wrong direction.
   1. You will encourage and encourage and encourage and try to encourage them with gentleness and kindness, but you're not going to encourage anyone by yelling at them.
   2. You know you can not ever encourage anyone by getting in their face and screaming at them.   That will not draw anybody to God.
   3. If we're going to draw people to God, we've got to let the love of God shine through us.

• Let's talk about the fruit of gentleness – In Proverbs 25:15 – “By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded, and a gentle tongue breaks a bone.” Here we're dealing with a ruler, a very important person and a bone which is a very rigid part of your body.   What is expressed here is that with long forbearance, long suffering, not giving up continuing to stick with it, you can finally get a ruler to agree, to be persuaded.   Although a bone is very rigid thing a gentle tongue can break that rigidity.
  1. The point of this proverb is the power and strength of patient long suffering, gentleness, sticking with it, and continuing to encourage people.
     1. When we say encourage, we do not mean control, do we?   Is there anybody here this morning that can control anybody else in the world other than them selves? I can only control myself.
     2. There are people in the world that I see going in the wrong direction and all I can ever do with people like that is show them the right way to go and encourage them to go that way.
     3. Yes, it can be frustrating in how long it takes to get some people to see were they are going off the track. In frustration we may think maybe what I need to do is get a little louder, get their attention so they will listen.  No.
     4. It may take longer to get people to respond to gentleness, but when they finally figure it out, when they finally figure out that you are treating them with kindness and respect and you're not going to give up on them, they are drawn for good and they will stick. They will be drawn by the love of God not just by trying to please you, get you off their back or please the culture around them. They’ll be drawn by the love of God.
  2. Proverbs 15:1 – “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Again, you maintain control. You speak back with gentleness, respect and control and they start to realize they're not pushing your buttons!   Don't let them push your buttons and they will quit trying when they realize they're not going to get a response.
     1. Even when someone has worked up themselves into a frenzy, you put out the fire with self-control and gentleness and kindness and help them rein themselves in.
     2. Then you can get back to meaningful communication to where you may be able to get somewhere with them.
  3. 2^nd Timothy 2:26 – “and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” If you read up a few verses you will see he is teaching Timothy that a servant of the Lord is not supposed to be quarrelsome and striving, but to be gentle to all men, to teach and be patient.   Why? So that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will.
     1. Here is seeing a fruit that comes from our ability to maintain self control and speak to people about the very important subject of their soul, their eternal destiny, - speaking to them with meekness and gentleness. Telling them the truth in love.
     2. When their minds are free of the turmoil of conflict they can begin to listen, to start opening their heart to the love of God for them and Christ crucified.   What draws people to God is His love for them.   People are not going to learn about God's love if you're yelling at them.   They're not going to be able to sense God's love for them and hear the word of God when it's all a quarrel, a big fight.
  4. Two other examples. First Peter 3:1-4 – Verse 1 says; “wives, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives,” Continuing in the text it talks about “let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is very precious in the sight of God.”
     1. This is about a man who is an unbeliever married to a Christian woman. This Christian woman should have a gentle and a quiet spirit.   The man is observing her chaste conduct, and because of this he finds himself drawn to God by the conduct of his wife.
     2. In the conduct of his wife he is seeing God. The text says what the woman is putting on, is incorruptible beauty with a gentle and quiet spirit.
     3. God says this in his word.   When God says; this is beautiful, it's beautiful—that gentle woman with a quiet spirit.    When one sees a woman like this and they see her kindness and her generosity and her patience, when she speaks to them…   She has control. What she's telling them is the truth and they are apt to listen.

 

CONCLUSION:

We'll close with 2^nd Corinthians 10:4-5 – “4. … the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5. casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”

We're talking about the weapons of our warfare pulling down strongholds, but they are not carnal.   What then is a stronghold?   Verse 5 explains.   A stronghold is someone’s spiritual weaknesses in the major areas of their life.  

How is God going to tear down strongholds in our lives to get us to repent and turn from these things we're involved in and put on the new man?  What is it that's going to get us to change our lives?

 

It's going to be the love of God for us and our love for God in return. We said before Love is the strongest level of faith.   Now abideth faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love.   Motivated by faith, hope, and love you can tear down strongholds in your lives.

 

Sooner or later we will meet someone who has strongholds built around their heart. We may think there's no way I can get through to that person.   They are so far from God, they are so stubborn, so self-willed, there is no way Christ crucified will ever be able to influence them and draw them to God.   The weapons God has given us are mighty; they are strong to the point of being able to tear down the strongholds in their lives.

 

In verse 5 of the text he says; casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.  That's an awesome text.

When we work with someone and encourage them, we do it with respect, meekness, gentleness and the truth of the Word of God.   If they do not respond to it, and we have another opportunity later we come back again, and we encourage them with gentleness, meekness, and kindness and the truth of the Word of God - spoken in love.

 

If they do not respond we are to be patient, longsuffering and at the next opportunity we come back again.   It takes patience with some people, so we speak to them again the same word of God the same truth in gentleness, kindness, respect and love.  Eventually, if this individual will be drawn to God, it will be because we didn’t give up on them.

 

We can tear down strongholds but it's not going to be through strength of body, it's not going to be through yelling and hollering at people it's going to be by patiently, respectfully telling them the truth in love.   Sometimes people misunderstand that.  Sometimes they misread it for weakness, and it takes longer.

 

We do not put shock collars on people and tell them they will get a jolt if they don’t show up to worship. Unfortunately, in history there have been religious groups that have done the equivalent of that.   Even today there is some of that.   That's not the way the Lord wants it.   If you're going to come to worship, it will be because you have the desire to come here.

 

If you will serve God, it will be because you have a desire to serve God. It's your faith that you're going to walk by, your hope you're going to live by, your love that you’re going to want to express.   Nobody else can do it for you.

 

God is long suffering with us. He is gentle with us. He is kind with us. What He wants us, His servants, to learn is to treat our fellow human beings with that same gentleness and kindness and long suffering and love.

 

There may be somebody here this morning who is not a member of the body of Christ.

If you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God we would like to encourage you to openly confess that faith.

We would like to encourage you to take up your cross and start following by faith, living by faith, repenting of your sins, putting off the old man and putting on the new man.

If you're willing to confess your faith and follow the Lord as your king, we will be glad to assist you and baptize you into the body of Christ.   You need to choose to do it.

 

If there's a prodigal son or daughter here this morning who left the Lord because your faith and your hope and your love was weak, I hope your faith and your hope and your love are stronger to the point you want to come home.

We'll pray for you.  We'll pray with you. We'll do the very best we can to encourage you and strengthen you.

If you are a subject of the Gospel call in any way let us know while we stand a sing the song that has been selected.

 

 

Invitation song: 78 “Hark the Gentle Voice”

Reference sermon by: Wayne Fancher

 

The Growing Seed

The Growing Seed

Mark 4:26-29

 

INTRO:

Good evening.   We continue our look at the parables.   We are going to look at a parable which is only found in Mark’s Gospel.    This parable is closely related to “The parable of the Sower” which is found in Mark 4:1-20.

 

Jesus often introduces parables with the phrase, “The kingdom of heaven is like.”

For example, in Matthew 13:34 Jesus says that, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.” In Matthew 13:44 He says that, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.” We looked at these not too long ago.

 

It is in Mark 4:26-29, we find “The parable of the growing seed,” which we are going to look at tonight. Again, Jesus introduces His parable with the phrase, “The kingdom of God is…” He has just finished explaining to His disciples “The parable of the Sower.”

Once again we realize that the disciples still didn’t understand and Jesus asks them in Mark 4:13 "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?” Jesus explains “The parable of Sower” to them and we pick the story up from verse 26.

 

Mark 4:26-29 – “26. And He said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27. "and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28. "For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29. "But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.''”

 

I heard a story about a preacher who went on a mission trip to Russia.  His usual translator became ill and a substitute was found.  Unfortunately the substitute got a little mixed up with the word “heirs” as in I’m an heir to the throne and the word “errors” when he was translating.

 

When the preacher began his sermon, he noticed that his audience did not seem very impressed, but he kept on going anyway.  Then he became worried that he may have offended some people, so he asked the substitute translator to tell him what he had said to the people.

 

This is what the translator said.

"My brothers, you and I who are here today are mistakes of God's kingdom.  We are the mistakes of God and fellow mistakes with Christ, who is the mistake of all God has made."

 

We know that God does not make mistakes. The point of the story is that we are not mistakes of God. We’re not fellow mistakes with Christ and we’re certainly not mistakes of God’s kingdom.

 

In fact we’re a part of the kingdom which God spoke about way back in the Old Testament.  Before we get into the meaning of the parable, I would like to say a few words about the kingdom.

 

1. The word “kingdom” literally means “reign or rule” and the idea of The Kingdom has its roots in the Old Testament.  From the beginning the people of Israel are described as being unique. They’re described as the chosen people of God. They are the recipients of His special favor and God Himself was their king.
   22. The Bible says in Judges 8:22-23 – “22. Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us, both you and your son, and your grandson also; for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.'' 23. But Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.''”
       1. The people wanted Gideon to rule over them and be their king, but he tells them that God is their leader.
       2. God Himself will rule over them.   If you have a kingdom, you need a king to rule over that kingdom.
   23. They said to Samuel in 1 Samuel 8:5 – “"Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make for us a king to judge us like all the nations.''”
       1. Samuel wasn’t very impressed with this saying.  
          1. First of all they had a king, namely God.
          2. Second in saying this they were saying that to “take over” from Samuel they wanted to have a selection made.

• Third they referred to Samuels ways not Gods ways.

1. Fourth they wanted to be like the other nations, something that they were not supposed to desire.

2. Samuel prayed to God and God said to him in 1 Samuel 8:7- “"Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.”
3. In other words, they already had a king, God was their king, so the Israelites weren’t rejecting Samuel.   They were rejecting God Himself.
4. Even though they rejected God we know that God gave them a king, King Saul, but as time went on, those who were truly wise, recognized that there was no other authority except God’s authority.

1. Psalm 103:19 – “The Lord has established His throne in heaven, And His kingdom rules over all.” The Lord established His throne where?   In heaven. What does His kingdom rule over? All.
   1. It was during the days of King David and King Solomon that the Israelite’s kingdom reached its peak, but as we know even this was short lived.
      1. They lost their kingdom because they rejected their true king.
      2. They lost their kingdom because they rejected God’s commandments, and they ended up in captivity.
   2. It’s during this time in captivity that the prophet Jeremiah gets the word from the Lord that we read of in Jeremiah 30:8-9 – “8. `For it shall come to pass in that day,' says the Lord of hosts, `That I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds; foreigners shall no more enslave them. 9. But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.”.
2. During the same time Daniel said in Daniel 2:44 – “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”
   1. God was saying that there was a time coming when He would reaffirm His kingly reign.
   2. His people would honor Him because they’re called by His name.
   3. After John the baptizer was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. He said in Mark 1:15 – “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Jesus said a little later in Mark 9:1 – “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.” Did that time come? Has this kingdom arrived?
   4. Surely it has or there would be some very old people walking around.  
   5. Now in Acts 2:47 we find people being added into that kingdom. As we understand it that kingdom is called the church. “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Remember we are dealing with a spiritual kingdom, not a physical one.
3. Let’s read the parable again and see if we can understand how this spiritual kingdom grows.  Mark 4:26-29 and I paraphrase; “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." [NIV]
   1. The first thing we need to notice is that the kingdom is not something that sprung up in a moment.  It was planned. It was prepared for and brought into being in the past and even now awaits its final consummation.  In other words, it started its life in the mind of God.
      1. It was spoken of by the Old Testament prophets, like we looked at a moment ago.
      2. Jesus said it was near.
      3. In Acts 2 we see the spiritual kingdom was established.
      4. If you are a Christian today, then you can be sure that you are part of the kingdom.
   2. In Colossians 1:13-14 Paul describes the kingdom as; “The kingdom of the Son He loves.” It says; “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” [NIV]  We see very clearly that we’ve been transferred into this kingdom because we’re Christians.
   3. In Hebrews 12:28-29 it says; “28. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29. For our God is a consuming fire.” We are in that kingdom now.
   4. In 2 Peter 1:10-11, Peter says; “10. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11. for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Just as a side note whenever the Bible talks about the everlasting kingdom, it’s talking about heaven itself.
   5. Folks, this is the central truth taught in “The parable of the growing seed.”  The kingdom spreads all over the world. That’s what we’re going to look at tonight, the growth of this spiritual kingdom.  I want to share with you 4 points but don’t worry I’m not going to use a huge amount of time.

• The 1st point is this, Kingdom growth is gradual.  As in the production of grain, nature works step by step. There is a step-by-step process by which it grows. Nearly all of nature’s marvels are formed gradually.
  1. I like to watch TV programs about nature, about wildlife, especially wildflowers. If they film a plant growing what they do is speed the film up so that you can watch it grow, and it’s amazing to see the process of its growth.
     1. Those of us who are gardeners like Juanita, we will plant a seed in the ground and after a while you will see the results of that growth, but the actual process of growth is barely visible.
     2. It’s the same with the kingdom of God.   Jesus says in the 2nd half of Mark 4:28, “First the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.”
     3. If we were to apply this parable to an individual person, we would get a lesson in patience.  Christian growth is gradual.
        1. When a baby is born, they don’t walk and talk straight away.
        2. It is gradual and they need to be encouraged to walk and talk.

• The more they try, the more confident they get at it.

4. It’s the same with baby Christians.   We shouldn’t expect them to be able to preach a sermon or teach a lesson in a ladies’ class right after their baptism.  They need time to learn the simple things about Christianity. Things like learning how to pray, learning how to read and study God’s word by themselves. How to meditate on Gods word and understand how it commentates on itself to lead to fuller understanding.
5. When we think about it, just as it’s possible to expect too little of ourselves, it also must be possible that we expect too much of ourselves.   In our moral and spiritual development we sometimes want to take giant steps, and if we fail, we end up being so disappointed, disheartened in ourselves. We need to learn to walk before we can run.  The mature Christians among us should never forget nature’s lesson, the necessity of gradual growth.

1. You know people have come up with hundreds of ways to get others into their assemblies.
   1. They believe they have good plans to get people to join.
   2. Some use musical instruments to attract people into becoming members, some say, “Look how spiritual I am, I speak in tongues.”
   3. People are into all sorts of things to attract other people.
   4. We need to remember that a person doesn’t go to bed a sinner and wake up the next morning as a Christian. It doesn’t happen like that.
   5. We need to be patient and trust God.
2. Acts 5:14 – “And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,” We need to let new Christians develop gradually and we need to trust God to add people to His kingdom.

1. Second, kingdom growth is orderly.   Mark 4:26-27 – and I paraphrase; “A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.”
   1. When the seed is buried in the soil, its very existence seems to be vulnerable, but the seed’s growth is marked by an orderly process.
      1. Just like we go through different stages in our physical growth, it’s the same with the kingdom of God.
      2. We know that we go through different phases.
      3. When children are born and they go through the teething process, then they grow a little more and go through the terrible twos, threes, fours and fives.
      4. Next they start to go through the rebellious stage, which starts at about age 6 or so and goes on until they are 18 years old after which it gradually tapers off for most.   That was a joke by the way.
      5. In between all that, they go through what we call puberty, which is another fun part of growing up. Most people grow in the same order, infancy, childhood, youth and adulthood.
      6. It’s almost impossible to tell when one period ends and another period starts, but at the same time the different stages of development can be clearly recognized.
   2. It is in like manner with Christian development.
      1. Peter says that recent converts to Christianity are like newborn babies.
      2. 1 Peter 2:1-3 – “1. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2. as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3. if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
      3. Peter tells us that we have a duty to grow as Christians. Sadly, there are some Christians who aren’t new but haven’t grown much either.
      4. 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 – “1. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3. for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4. For when one says, "I am of Paul,'' and another, "I am of Apollos,'' are you not carnal?”
         1. In other words Paul is saying, “You guys are still like little babies, when are you going to grow up and act like the mature Christians you are supposed to be?”
         2. Someone can be a Christian for a long time, but they’ve never grown.
      5. Then Paul reminds those who are mature in 1 Corinthians 14:20 – “Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature.” He is saying, regarding evil be as infants, but in your thinking be adults.
      6. Jesus says in Matthew 5:48 – “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” We know the word we translate here as “perfect” here means “complete”.   It means maturity.
         1. In other words, there are different stages of Christian growth that we all need to be aware of.
         2. Certainly, a new Christian may do and say things that aren’t very mature because of a lack of knowledge and understanding.  Those who are mature should recognize this and give them a helping hand in their understanding.
         3. I have in other assemblies noticed that some Christians seem to complain and grumble a lot.   I now suspect that one of the reasons they complain and grumble all the time is that they haven’t grown up in Christ, they are still babies.  The point is every Christian should be growing spiritually.
      7. Ephesians 4:15 – “But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head Christ ”  We’ve all got a duty to grow up, but we’ve also got a duty to understand that Christian growth is a process, it takes time.  We need to be patient with those who are slow to develop.
   3. Third, the kingdom growth is from God. Can anyone here explain how things grow?   Scientists understand it is because of the coding in the cells but taking a seed into the laboratory and growing it, they still can not delineate what makes a seed turn into a flower.
      1. Mark 4:26-28 - “A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain.” [para] A farmer can do a great many things to the soil.   He can break up the soil, plant crops that add nutrients to the soil, make the soil looser by adding sand or mulch, modify the soil pH with additives, fertilize the soil, weed the soil but he himself does not make the seed grow.
      2. W. Dicus says in the 3^rd stanza of the song My God and I…
      3. “Secure, is life from mortal mind, God holds the germ within His hand, though men may search, they cannot find, For God alone does understand.”
         1. He’s saying the same thing that Job is saying in Job 36:26-29 – “26. "Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; nor can the number of His years be discovered. 27. For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, 28. Which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man. 29. Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds, the thunder from His canopy?”

He’s saying that the great minds can try to understand how the universe was formed, how the human body works, but they’re never going to be able to fully do so.

1. He’s saying that people can search but they will never fully understand because it is only God who truly understands these things.
2. The lesson here is that there are some things that God alone can do.

1. It’s the same in the spiritual kingdom of God.
   1. Whatever growth takes place in His kingdom is due to the operation of God.
   2. We may sow the seed, but we cannot make it germinate in the human heart.
   3. Colossians 4:3-4 – “3. meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, 4. that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” We can select the seed and prepare the soil (human hearts) through prayer. We can tend and weed through teaching, but we ourselves can not make the seed grow and we need to understand that.
   4. I know sometimes we beat ourselves up when nothing happens, especially if it is family or someone we love greatly. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:6 – “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” How does God do that?  
      1. There is the story about a young skeptic who sat in the church assembly one morning when the preacher was speaking about the wilderness wandering.   The preacher made a statement about how the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and their sandals never wore out.
      2. The young skeptic shouted, “Rubbish, how’s that possible?”

• The preacher looked at the young man and said, “God!”

1. The young skeptic said, “Oh, I understand.”
2. The preacher said, “No son, nobody really understands.”

5. We don’t understand how God makes the seed grow, but we know He does.   Do you know how we know He does? Because we are here as Christians today, aren’t we?

1. Yet consider, just because God makes the seed grow, that doesn’t let us off the hook does it?
   1. Paul says to Philemon in Philemon verse 4-6 – “4. I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, 5. hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, 6. that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”
   2. We still have a responsibility to carry out, because we still have a vital part in the growing process and our part is an active one. We are His hands.
   3. We accept that we can’t make the seed grow, but we still need to make sure that the conditions are right so that the seed will have a chance to grow.   We till the soil, water when needed, remove the rocks and pull the weeds.   We do as Adam was instructed, tend the garden.
2. John 4:24 – “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” You see at the end of the day the kingdom belongs to God and the growth of the kingdom will be from God.
   1. The sower must sow God’s seed and wait patiently for God to do His part.
   2. We must sow the seed, but it is God who causes the growth, it is God who gives fruit. We are tenders.
3. That brings us to the last part.  In the kingdom it is God who harvests the fruit.
   1. Jesus says in Mark 4:29 – “But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” What’s He saying?  Jesus is saying that it is God who produces growth; hence the fruit, then when this fruit is ripe, again it is God who will bring the matter to a conclusion, not man.
      1. Man does not add someone to the kingdom, the church.   It is God who does the adding.
      2. The imperative “immediately” here indicates to us that when a person is ready we are not to delay in bringing them before God in baptism.

 

CONCLUSION:

It is God’s kingdom and we are His workers, we tend this garden. Look with me now at James 5:7-8 – “7. Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

 

Here again it talks about the farmer waiting for the precious fruit of the earth but now we are talking about the coming of the Lord.   For the people who have been born again, this is our hope.   For those who haven’t been born again this will be the day when they will wish they had never been born at all.    I will close with Revelation 14:14-16 – “14. And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, "Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.'' 16. So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.” Judgment is certain.

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins… If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

 

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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Reference Sermon

Mike Glover

 

 

Suggested song before the lesson: 668—Our God, He Is Alive

 

The Fruit of The Spirit - Joy and Peace

The Fruit of The Spirit - Joy and Peace

Galatians 5:22-23

 

INTRO:

Good morning.   Today we will have another lesson on the fruit pf the spirit.   This time I want to look at Joy and Peace.

 

I want to encourage you to take out your Bibles and look at the scriptures I mention. If you have any questions about anything I say, I’ll be glad to talk to you about it. If I’m wrong, I will stand corrected.

 

We're going to begin in Galatians 5:22-23 – “22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23. gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”  

In working on these sermons, I noticed that my sermon on Joy was almost identical to my sermon on peace.   Rather than preach two similar sermons I have combined them. In addition Mark gave a great sermon on peace just a couple weeks back.

 

When we're talking about fruit, it carries the idea of a product. The fruit of the spirit is a product that comes from our walking in the spirit, being led by the spirit, and having a close relationship with God, to where we are walking and living by faith.   In other words, if you are a Christian this is going to be a product that comes from the relationship that you have with God your Father—joy and peace.

 

I never met anyone who does not desire to have peace in their life, an inner calmness, tranquility, quietness.  Although there are times some act like it.   Nor have I ever met anyone who does not desire joy.   When we're talking about joy, we’re not talking about laughing and comedy.  We're talking again about an inner quietness, a calmness with which you can have a smile on your face regardless of what's happening to you.

 

1. Joy and peace through the word of God - We're going to see in our sermon this morning that these fruits of the spirit, joy and peace are directly related to, connected to the strength of our relationship with God.
   119. Let’s look at Psalm 119. Here we will find there's a connection between joy and peace and our relationship with God through His Word. In Psalms 119:165 The text reads; great peace have those who love your law, and nothing causes them to stumble. If we look at Psalms 119:162 - I rejoice at your word as one who finds great treasure.
        1. We find one verse talking about rejoicing at Gods word, the next verse is talking about peace for those who love God’s law.   The connection between these two verses is that they have found the law God, the word of God.
        2. As Christians we understand God has given us the truth about ourselves.   The truth about where we came from.   The truth about our spiritual weaknesses and our flaws and our problems - and how to deal with them.  The truth about where we are going.
        3. God's word is not a set of chains keeping us from enjoying life, it is guidance to help us come to understand our life and get the maximum joy and peace and tranquility out of it. It is the one who finds the law of God, His word, who is going to find joy and peace.
   120. The same thing is stated again over and Jeremiah 15:16 your words were found, and I ate them and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart for I am called by your name O Lord God of hosts.
        1. It is not just enough to say I believe the Bible is the word of God.   I assume everybody here this morning does, but that's not enough.
        2. You’ve got do something with it. In this text in Jeremiah, he didn't just find it.   It says he ate it, in other words he consumed it.   We are to digest it mentally, take it into our mind through our eyes and our ears, letting it fill up our mind and our heart.
        3. We will find that if we do not have the word of God in our mind, in our heart, we are not going to have a close relationship with God.
        4. We have studied this before.   The strength of our relationship is dependent upon communication and if we do not let God speak to us we will be missing out on something we desperately need in our life.
        5. All of us already recognize we desire joy, and we desire peace.   We need the word of God to have joy and peace.
   121. If you were to examine your life and you think wait a minute, I call myself a Christian and a member of the body of Christ why is it I am not experiencing the fruit of the spirit… what’s wrong?   You are not alone.   Many times, there are men and women in the body of Christ who say I am just not at peace.   There is no joy in my life
        1. There's turmoil in my life and yet I'm a Christian. What's wrong?
        2. We need to realize the answer to that question is in our personal relationship with God.   It is that relationship and the strength of that relationship that is going to bear this fruit.
        3. It's not just enough to know the word of God and that it is the word of God. You've got to take it into your mind and your heart. He says; and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.
   122. In Proverbs 3:1-2 - my son do not forget my law but let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.   And in Isaiah 32:17 - The work of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.
        1. Looking at these two verses together, the one in Proverbs is talking about not forgetting the law and keeping the commandments.   It's not enough to recognize the bible as the word of God. It's not even enough to just know what it says. You’ve got to use it.
        2. Indeed, we can know what the word of God says to do and not do it.  There are many in the world like this.  When we assemble and edify one another it's not that we must convince each other of what the truth is—it is encouraging each other to do what we already know and already believe the truth to be.
        3. God knows us better than we know ourselves.   He knows exactly how we are to live our life to get maximum fulfillment and peace and joy out of it. If we do not keep His commandments, we should not be surprised when our life has turmoil.   It's really that simple.
   123. The text we read next in Isaiah is talking about the work of righteousness.   If we are keeping His commandments and His righteousness in our life, - that will bring peace.
        1. The effect is going to be peace and quietness.   There it is… quietness, peace and joy.   If we say that I'm not experiencing joy, then we need to ask are we keeping His commandments.
        2. God's word is not there to destroy our life or make us miserable.  God's word is there to set us free so we can experience joy and peace.  
   124. Joy And Peace Through Our Faith In God – Another verse I would like us to look at is Romans 15:13.   Here again getting back to the relationship with God it says; Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
        1. This verse makes the point quite clearly. How are we filled with joy and peace?   By believing.  This gets back to our faith, our trust, our confidence in God and our relationship with God.
           1. I wonder sometimes if we realize we are not alone. He will never leave us nor forsake us.
           2. Do you believe that?   Do you believe that God is with you? Do you believe He knows your name? Do you believe He loves you? Do you believe He's in your life? That His hand is in your life?
           3. We need to realize that our answers to these questions are going to determine whether we are experiencing joy and peace.
           4. If you think you're alone, if you think you're facing all your struggles and all your battles by yourself, that God is not with you, God doesn’t care, or God’s not going to help you… you're not going to have joy and peace.
        2. 26:3 says; you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. If you want to experience this peace, this perfect peace, it is going to come from your mind on God, your eyes on the Lord with total trust in Him.
           1. It's easy to talk about how much we trust God when everything's going well.   As long as the water is smooth everything goes fine.
           2. I look at it this way; when Peter and the Apostles saw Jesus coming to them walking on the water, they thought it was a spirit.
              1. Impetuous Peter said Okay if you’re the Lord bid me to come to you.
              2. Jesus said come.

• Peter stepped out and actually walked on the water a little bit. Think about that. He actually walked on the water for a few steps and then when he looked around him and he saw the wind was boisterous, the text says he began to be afraid and sink. Remember what Jesus said to him?   Oh, thou of little faith why did you doubt?

3. Why did Peter sink?   I cannot prove this, but I strongly suspect if it would have been a day when it was calm, there was no wind and he could've seen Jesus face to face and known all along that it was Jesus, by sight, Peter would have walked to Jesus.   But what Peter saw was the wind and the waves, and he became afraid, he lost his faith and began to sink.
4. We are the same way. If the water is smooth, there is no wind and everything's fine, we just think everything's OK in my life. I'm happy.  God is with me… When the storm comes, when we're surrounded by all kinds of things falling apart, it is then the real test of our faith shows up.
5. What the Lord wants from us is an unwavering faith and trust in the middle of the storm. It is easy to be at peace when the water's smooth, but the water isn’t always smooth. Trust in Him. Keep your mind focused on Him and realize He really is with you, and He is faithful.   He's not going to leave you. He is not going to forsake you. The Lord is pro nobis (for us)

1. In First Peter 1:8 - whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
   1. The text says we haven't seen him, but we love Him.   We have talked about that before. Not only do we love Him because we believe, but it goes on to say that we rejoice with inexpressible joy.
   2. Where two or three are gathered together in His name He is here in our midst.   Do we believe that? Do you believe that Christ who died on the cross for you is here with you right now?   Do we believe He is always with us?
   3. If we answer that question with a no, then we cannot expect to enjoy the fruit of the spirit.   It is by our trust in Him and by our faith and confidence in Him that we will come to experience this joy which is inexpressible.
2. The writer in Psalms put it this way in Psalms 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.
   1. The writer says his heart trusted in Him, and he is helped.
   2. Because of this his heart greatly rejoices.
   3. Our experiencing of the fruit of the spirit is going to be directly proportional to our trust in God, our relationship with God, and the strength of that relationship.

• Joy And Peace Through Salvation In Christ - Let's continue in Philippians where Mark was a couple of weeks ago. If you do not recall what the primary theme of the book of Philippians is, I would say you will find it in Philippians 4:4; Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! It is an informal letter with no doctrinal arguments. It is a letter of love and gratitude. It is a tender, warm-hearted, loving friend and brother presenting the essential truths of the gospel in terms of friendly discourse. Paul found in them constant reasons for rejoicing.
  15. It was written by the apostle Paul when he was in prison. There were people that were preaching the gospel of Christ out of envy and strife. Philippians 1:15. He was facing the possibility that he may be executed.  
      1. What kind of letter would you expect from someone in prison, who may be convicted soon and there are those working against him?
      2. You would expect a very negative, woe is me letter, wouldn't you? Yet, the book of Philippians is the exact opposite.   The primary theme of it is rejoicing and it is not just saying rejoice, it says rejoice in the Lord.  It gets back to that relationship.  This is the whole focus of the book of Philippians.
      3. It is this joy and peace and contentment and tranquility that comes from the relationship with God.  You know what Paul said. I can do all things. How? Through Christ who strengthens me.   It always comes back to that.
  16. In Psalms 35:9 we read; And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord; It shall rejoice in His salvation.   Christians should be the happiest people in the world. We need to let that sink in.   We are children of God. The majority of us that are here this morning have obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are in Christ Jesus.
      1. The blood of Christ has cleansed you of your sins.  You have been reconciled to God. You are no longer an enemy of God.  You're a friend of God.
      2. He knows you. Your name is in the book of life. When we die, we get to go to be with the Lord which is far better.
      3. The whole point of the Philippians letter in chapters 1 and 2 tells us to live in Christ.
      4. Is the idea to stay alive?   That's clearly not it, is it?  I will rejoice in the Lord and stay with the Lord. If I die that's even better, I get to go be with the Lord.
      5. I don't see how anybody can meditate on the book of Philippians and not have peace or experience joy when they believe what it is teaching.   We are saved!
      6. Christians should be the happiest people on the face of the earth with that consciousness of our salvation, being reconciled to God, knowing we are going to heaven.  The image that Christians go around looking like we've been weaned on pickle juice, always groping and probing, thinking everything's terrible, everything stinks, and everything is negative it totally wrong.   It doesn't stink and it's not negative, it's great, it is glorious!
      7. We're going to heaven and we are going to experience eternal life with God almighty!
  17. Isaiah says in Isaiah 61:10 - I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. I dare say that most of us enjoy weddings. They're fun. Everybody is rejoicing. Everybody is happy and when the bride comes down the aisle everybody goes Wow! Everybody's happy.
      1. Folks, the church, that’s us, is the bride of Christ.   Through the blood of Christ, you have been cleansed. When you stand before God in the Day of Judgment it is going to be the most wonderful moment of your existence.
      2. John says in 1^st John 1:1-3 - That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life 2. the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us 3. that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
      3. Then John near the closing of the book says in 1^st John 5:13 - I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. [ESV]
      4. We ask our self; do we know that we have eternal life? If we don't know that, then something's wrong.    If you're sitting there thinking I'm not really sure I’m going to go to heaven, why?  If we think; I'm not sure I’m saved, why?  
         1. If we're living in sin, we may have a reason to be thinking that, but if you believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and you're keeping his commandments by faith, love the brethren, and when you do sin you ask God's forgiveness, and turn from it, then rest assured, you know Him.  
         2. Because you know Him you should know that you have eternal life and have the consciousness of your salvation.   Knowing; I’m right with God.   My sins have been forgiven.  Whatever it is that I have said and done that was separating me from God has been dealt with.   There is peace between myself and my creator and I am ready to go when I am called.

• It is from that consciousness that we learn to rejoice in the Lord and experience a joy that the text says is inexpressible because we know and believe that we have eternal life.

5. Nobody's life is always smooth, clear water.   There are good moments and then there are bad moments.  There are days when it seems like everything is going great and everything you touch turns to gold, everything is a wonderful blessing.  Then there are days, I'm sure you've experienced, that before nine a.m. comes, you're ready to hide.  
   1. I have had days where it seems like everything I touch falls apart.   Days when I was afraid to touch anything because everything breaks.   I wanted to go to bed, pull up the covers and wait for a better day.
   2. We need to remember that when those days come, we can still have joy; we can still have peace; even though everything's falling apart around us.

• Paul’s life was not a bed of roses by any means.   We know from scripture all the things that happened to him and the things that threatened. Life, even for Paul, was not a straight path.   More of a zig zag and that is the way it is for us.

1. Joy And Peace In Times Of Pain And Sorrow - Even though our life is a zig zag of high moments of good and then bad moments when everything drops out the bottom, our joy, our peace, our contentment, our quietness and our calmness can be, - listen to this, - constant.
   1. Our joy can be constant and not be taken from us by the changing of our environment, not be taken from us because of the storms of life. Psalms 42:5 - Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance. We've all been there.  The writer gives the answer, hope in God.
      1. Here again we're getting back to our relationship, our trust in God, our hope in God, confidence in God, faith in God.   Because of this we realize God's going to help us.  He's not going to leave us; He'll never leave us nor forsake us… even in the middle of the storm.
      2. Did God leave Paul when Paul was in prison? Read the 2^nd Corinthians letter in the 11^th and 12^th chapters with what Paul went through and ask yourself when did God leave Paul?
         1. When he was being beaten in Philippi did God leave him?
         2. When he was being stoned or shipwrecked did God leave him?

• He never left him, did He?

1. God allowed him to go through those things.

3. God's going to allow you to go through storms and trials and suffering, but he will help you. He will strengthen you.   He will be there for you.

1. Psalms 119:50 - This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life. Earlier we were talking about our relationship with God and by the strength of that relationship comes the strength of our joy and peace.
   1. We need to emphasize that there's a direct connection between the word of God and our joy.   When we find ourselves going through the storms of life we need to let God speak to us.
   2. I wonder, do we realize there are parts of the word of God that are given to us expressly for that purpose?   God’s speaking to us in the middle of the storm.
   3. I would encourage us that whenever the bottom drops out in our life and everything comes crashing down, that is when we go to the Word of God.   That's not the time to run from God and isolate yourself and try to stand alone and fix it all by yourself.  That's when we cling to God.
   4. That's when we draw strength from the Lord and learn the meaning of the verse, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
2. Often those who preach at funerals do so from the 1st Thessalonian It says in the close of the fourth chapter; Therefore comfort one another with these words. It's given to comfort people when they have loved ones who have died in the Lord. That part of the Word of God is given for a specific purpose.
   1. There are many of the verses in the Bible that will be useful to you in your life.   No matter what trial you're going through there are verses that hit you exactly where you are.
   2. God has given these verses for those moments in your life.   You need to feed on them, meditate on them, and let them sink into your heart and mind.  I'm telling you, brethren, it works, but you have to open your Bible and do it.
3. In Philippians 4:6-7 – we read; Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7. and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
   1. Again, what we see here is relationship.   God is speaking to us through His word and we are listening to Him and taking it into our heart and mind, and then we in turn are speaking to God, casting our cares upon Him because He cares for us.
   2. When we go through the trials of life, that's not a time to stop praying.   I strongly suggest that if you don't have a strong prayer life you need to start today.
   3. If we are not experiencing this peace and joy that we are talking about, we need to ask why. One thing we need to check is what kind of prayer life do we have?
   4. Let me put it this way to those who are husbands and wives. If you never talked to each other, what kind of relationship will you have?   I’m in general a quiet person.   Its one thing for a person to be quiet for a period of time but if they never talk, something's wrong isn’t it?   You need communication and the stronger the communication the stronger the relationship.  The more communication, the more understanding develops and the closer you get.   Talk with God.
   5. The verse begins by saying be anxious for nothing. That's telling us not to be worried. These verses indicate to me that there’s a storm going on, but there is no need to be anxious about it.
   6. So how do you deal with it?   by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.  What is the next phrase here? and the peace of God There is the peace.   It is the fruit of the spirit, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.
   7. I would suggest to you that's not make believe.   This peace does actually exist and we can experience it.  It comes by casting our care upon Him and realizing He hears our prayers.  Having faith that the hand of God is in your life. You're not alone. He will hear your prayers.
4. Psalms 4:8 - I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Here you are at the end of the day; and have you ever had a day that was so tough you were glad it was over? Here you are now in your bedroom and you close your day with prayer. You close your day meditating on the word of God and God being in your life. At the end of the day whenever you are close to God, you can close your eyes in peace.

 

CONCLUSION:

We’ll close with Psalms 30:5 - For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.

Just as our life is not a rocket taking off in a straight line where everything is always good and wonderful, your life is also not a rock that continues to drop with everything going bad.

It is a mixture of joy, and of trials; a mixture of wonderful blessings, and suffering.   Right now, as I'm speaking to you, every one of us has something wrong, don't we?   Something in our lives is wrong. It may be physical trials.   It may be physical ailments.  It may be loved ones dying. It may be financial struggles.   It may be spiritual battles we're going through.   We've all got something wrong but there's something else about all of us.  

 

There are a lot of things that are right. Aren't there? There are a lot of blessings. You are alive and you're here. There are a lot of physical blessings being showered upon us this very day. Then there are those spiritual blessings that we have in Christ Jesus and the knowledge that no matter how bad it may be, whatever suffering we're going through in the present life, is not worthy to be compared with the glory that's going to be revealed in us whenever we are with God Almighty.

 

Whenever we are in heaven and we will be, whenever we are there with God, and we will be, whenever we are experiencing that eternal life, we're not going to be concerned about a tough time back here on this earthly plane.   It will be a dark memory in the mist that we will probably give no thought to whatsoever because we will have reached our goal, what we're trying to get to; we will be with our God.

 

I'll close with Paul's statement.   He learned to be content in whatever state he was in.  His contentment and joy were not contingent, not dependent upon his environment and what was happening to him. How could he do that?   He could do all things through Christ.

 

The whole point of this lesson is if you want to experience the fruit of the spirit, you strengthen your relationship with God because that's where it comes from.  If the relationship is weak do not expect to enjoy the fruit of the spirit. It's a product that comes from our relationship with God.   It is because of our relationship with God we can experience the joy and peace which does not go away, which is constant, regardless of what happens to us.

 

There may be somebody here this morning who is not a member of the body of Christ.  If you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God and you're willing to confess your faith and repent of your sins, we will be glad to assist you and baptize you. Your sins will be washed away. They'll be forgiven and when you make peace with God you will come to enjoy the peace of knowing that you're safe.

 

If you're a child of God and you wonder if you are saved, then consider why you are uncertain. Is there sin that you have committed that you haven't dealt with? If that is describing you, I encourage you to deal with it. Take it to God. Ask His forgiveness.   God is gracious and He is faithful.   The blood of Christ is there for you. You can be forgiven.  You're not going to be at peace with God until you know you're forgiven… and you know that.  Deal with the sin.

 

We'll pray for you. We'll pray with you. We will do the best we can to encourage you and strengthen you. If you are subject to the Gospel call in any way let us know while we stand and sing the song that has been selected.

 

 

 

Invitation song: 485 “Does Jesus Care”

Reference sermon by: Wayne Fancher

 

Hope For The Hopeless

A Living Hope for the Hopeless

Luke 24: 10-35

 

OPEN: A funny thing happened in Darlington, Maryland, several years ago. Edith, a mother of eight, was coming home from a neighbor’s house one Saturday afternoon. Things seemed too quiet as she walked across her front yard. Curious, she peered through the screen door and saw five of her youngest children huddled together, concentrating on something. As she crept closer to them, trying to discover the center of attention, she could not believe her eyes. Smack dab in the middle of the circle were five baby skunks. She STRONGLY HOPED that NO ONE would get SKUNKED.

Edith screamed at the top of her voice, “Quick, children...run!” Each kid grabbed a skunk and ran out.

 

A man told of going through his father’s possession’s after his dad died, and among the things he found was his father’s 7th grade report card. Back in the Fall of 1941 this 7th grade report card showed the grading scale on the back of it. There was A, B, C, D, F, and something he’d never seen before: the letter G!

 

Who would have thought there was a grade you could get that was below F. But back then there was. “F” of course meant FAILURE. But apparently there was something worse than an F ... a G! On the back of the report card, beside the letter G was this one-word explanation: “HOPELESS!”

 

In our text today, we find two men walking along the road, and their lives have become rated “G.” They have become hopeless. Their lives have fallen apart.

They said “Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people... our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” Luke 24:19-21

 

They had HOPED Jesus would be the answer to their dreams. They had HOPED He would change their lives. They had HOPED He would make a difference in their world... but He was dead now.

 

There was no longer any hope. They were filled with despair, defeat and discouragement.

Now, they HAD heard stories that Jesus WASN’T dead. “some (of the) women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that (Jesus) was alive.” Luke 24:22-23

But you can tell, by their conversation, these guys don’t believe it. Dead people tended to stay dead. For them, the stories of Jesus rising from the dead was just wishful thinking. They refused to believe in a “false hope.”

 

ILLUS: There was a recent movie where one of the heroes mockingly said “Don’t give me false hope.

And one of the other characters replied: “It’s not false hope if it’s possible.”

Hope in God is what makes us who we are.

Hope in God is the essence of our being as Christians.

 

David wrote: “Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who HOPE in his steadfast love” (Psalm 33:18). And again: “For you, O Lord, are my HOPE, my trust...” (Psalm 71:5).

 

As children of a living God, we need hope in our lives. In fact, we can’t SURVIVE without hope.

Song: My Hope is BUILT on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and RIGHTEOUSNESS!

 

ILLUS: An Air Force Instructor once wrote something called the Rule Of Threes: “You can survive 3 weeks without food;

You can survive 3 days without water;

3 hours without shelter;

Or 3 minutes without air,

BUT you CANNOT SURVIVE more than three seconds without hope.”

 

When I first read that I thought – “Yeah sure – you can’t survive without hope? Of course you can. I know plenty of people who survive without hope.

But then I got to thinking... this is a military expert explaining the truth that SOLDIERS cannot survive without hope.

 

For any of you HISTORY BUFFS reflect back on some of the greatest military battles of history.

The armies that lost their hope... lost the battles. They either believed that the other army was so powerful that they had no hope of stopping them, or they discovered that their leader had been killed or had run away.

Either way, because they’d lost hope, they often would turn and run; and when that happened the opposing army would chase them down and slaughter them on the field of battle.

 

Over the years we have seen churches that have lost their hope. We have seen preachers who have lost their hope. We have seen Elders, Deacons, Sunday School teachers, and just plain old good Christians who have lost their hope.

And when they lost their hope they were devastated.

 

They lost their faith, their trust and their confidence, and suddenly... there was nothing left but a shell of the Christian they once were. We need to understand as Christians, we cannot survive without hope.

 

Now what I found interesting about the story in Luke 24, is that these men (walking to Emmaus) didn’t realize who they were talking to. They didn’t realize it was Jesus.

 

I wonder why Jesus didn’t just say: “Hey guys, it’s me! I’m alive. It’s not a hoax! Here, put your fingers in the nail prints, put your hand in my side”

 

Didn’t Jesus say those exact words to someone else?

Thomas. So... Thomas gets a 5 minute “show and tell” and these guys on the road to Emmaus get a 3 hour dissertation. What’s going on here?

 

Well, this is my guess!

I believe Jesus took the time to deal with THEIR hopelessness so that we’d know how to deal with OURS. All have us have faced times in life when we’ve become discouraged, downhearted and filled with hopelessness.

Times when we’ve lost our jobs, or when our marriages start to fall apart around us, or when our health was deteriorating, or when People were mistreating us, or times when things just weren’t going right.

 

Most, if not all of us, have faced times when we felt boxed in and trapped.

I believe what Jesus did for these 2 men on the road to Emmaus was recorded for our encouragement and hope. I believe the things Jesus did for these men were tools God gives to US for times when we get discouraged.

 

Notice the first thing Jesus does. “And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:25-27

 

What did He do there? He opened the Bible for them. Too many times, Christians forget that the Bible was the tool God gave us to give us encouragement. In fact, that’s what we’re told in Romans - “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have HOPE.” Romans 15:4

 

The scriptures were written so that we might have.... WHAT? (HOPE) The Bible is God’s tool to change our lives and give us hope. And it is a powerful tool.

Hebrews 4:12 tells us “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to the dividing the soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

 

There is power in the pages of your Bible. If you’re not reading it, you’re robbing yourself of the potential God wants to give you. It is in that book that we find power to become overcomers in a difficult and challenging world.

 

ILLUS: Back in 1942, a B17D crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, and 6 other men were adrift in 3 small rafts with no water and only four oranges. They tied their boats together, and drifted day after day. They were without food or water, tortured by the relentless sun by day and chilling cold by night, and constantly being stalked by sharks. It seemed impossible they could survive.

One of the men, Private Johnny Bartek, was a dedicated Christian who always carried a little New Testament with him so that he could have his daily devotions. And there, in the middle of the Pacific, Bartek had his daily devotions. It wasn’t very private, and eventually the other 6 men wanted to know what he was doing. When he explained to them about his daily Bible reading and prayer they asked they could be included. And so the men started having their daily devotions beginning at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew.

 

When they got to Matthew 6:31-34... life changed for them. They read these words: “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” And so, that’s what they began to pray for. As the men read those verses day after day, a remarkable series of miracles started happening.

 

Just when they were near starvation, a bird landed on Rickenbacker’s head. They grabbed it, carved it up for food, and used its innards for fishing bait. Just when they were near death by thirst, a cloud would drift over and fill their raft with water. Day after day as they read these verses, prayed, and claimed these promises, God would somehow send food and water.

 

Sometimes even a fish would jump into their raft. That went on for 21 days as they drifted under the blazing sun in middle of Pacific.

Lieutenant James Whittaker wrote "I don’t think there was a man of us who didn’t thank God for that little khaki covered book.

It led us to prayer and prayer led us to safety."

 

They found their hope in the pages of the Bible.

And the Bible has that kind of power. Its words can turn our hearts toward God, and when our hearts turn toward God we learn trust in Him... and then we have HOPE.

 

Now I want you to notice, when Jesus walked with the men to Emmaus, He didn’t just do a Bible study with them. He didn’t say “Let’s turn to the book of Leviticus and see if there is some kernel of truth we can apply to our lives today.”

 

Oh no. As He walked with them, He taught them about what the Bible said about His resurrection. “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

 

It was a very targeted study of the Bible. A study that focused ENTIRELY on Jesus and what He had come to do. Now there’s all kinds of important things to learn out of the Bible but THE most important thing we can learn about --- is Jesus. Without Jesus, there is no hope. And without His death, burial and resurrection, this life is all you have. You live, you die, and you rot in the ground.

 

ILLUS: There’s an old Gospel hymn that declares: “I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever men may say.” Jesus is our living HOPE!

 

That’s why I Corinthians 15:13-14 & 20 says: “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain... But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

 

Everything we are hinges on the living Hope of Jesus having lived, died, been buried and having risen from the dead. That’s why Jesus spent so much time focusing on what the Old Testament prophesied about WHO He was and WHAT He came to do.

 

That’s why Hebrews 2:14-15 HCSB version tells us (Jesus shared in our flesh and blood) so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death- that is, the Devil- and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.”

 

That’s why Baptism focuses on the fact that – to become Christians – God calls us to die with Christ, be buried in a watery grave and rise from the dead as Christ did. Just to become a Christian, we reenact the living Hope of a risen Savior.

And that’s why one of the great hymns of the faith says this

 

“I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever men may say. I see His hand of mercy; I hear His voice of cheer; and just the time I need Him, He’s always near.

(Chorus) He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.”

 

And lastly, that’s also why we take of communion every Sunday. The Lord’s Table reminds us that Jesus came specifically to die for our sins. That’s what makes the last part of the story in Luke 24 so intriguing.

 

“... they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.’ So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.” Luke 24:28-31

 

Did you catch that? It was in the breaking of the bread that their eyes were opened and they saw who Jesus really was.

 

Now, most of you here are believers. You’ve already embraced the living Hope of Jesus by becoming Christians. Our problem isn’t so much that we don’t know what we have... it’s that we don’t share what we’ve been given.

You have a powerful tool called the Bible. You need to know it and then share it. I know you’re all smart people but none of us are smarter than God, and our words are not nearly as powerful as His. It’s time to start using God’s word to share God’s hope to a hopeless world.

 

And you’ve got a living Hope in Jesus. He offers something that many in this world do not have. When peoples’ lives fall apart around you, you need to tell them about a risen Savior who’s in the world today. A Savior that loves them so much that He wants to give them hope in a hopeless world.

 

INVITATION

 

Based on a sermon given

by Jeff Strite