Sunday Morning 9/7 (who are we and why are we here)

SUNDAY MORNING 9/7- Who are we and Why are we here?

THE WHO:

We are created in the Image of God. We are created by God to be like God. To resemble God.

Genesis 1:26-27

26then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, ^[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

You and I are “holy temples” for his spirit to live in us.

Ephesians 2:19-22

So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.

THE WHY?

Why are we here?

Genesis 1:28

Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it…”

Fruit: God’s will being done.

John 15:5

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

If you cut a branch off of an orange tree, the branch is not going to produce fruit.

This is saying that you can’t produce any fruit, or do any part of God’s will with out it coming from God first.

1 John 4:8

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

This is saying that if he was not doing things out of love (which comes from God), then he would not have been doing God’s will. He would have been doing them to build a name for himself, which in the eyes of God means nothing.

Many of us believe that because we do the right things, we are saved. This introduces me to my next point.

The Problem.

We are all sinners, starting with Adam (except for Jesus)

We are sinners. We deserve to die.

· We use the hands he gave us to hurt

· We use the tongue he gave us to curse

· We use the feet he gave us to lead others in the wrong direction

· We use the mind he gave us to think evil about others

Romans 6:23

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Despite our wickedness, God sent Jesus on the cross so that we have the POSSIBILITY of being saved

Salvation is not: Believing that there is only one God.

James 2:18- You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.

You can’t say you are saved because you know who God is.

Salvation is not granted because you attend church on Sundays.

· You are not saved because you go to church

· You are not saved because you have been baptized

· You are not saved because your parents are saved

These things may be evidence of salvation, but they are not why you are saved. You go to church because you are saved. You get baptized because you are saved.

THE HOW?

We are saved by being Born again and repenting of our sins.

Born again:

Spiritually born again.

This is the point when you accept Christ into your life as you Lord and Savior. This is the point when you realize that you, just like everybody else, are a sinner and your life means nothing with out Christ. This is the point when you trade in your old life of sin and death, and begin a new life, a life that you have been changed from the inside out by Christ and you begin to live for Christ instead of for yourself. This is the point when the old you “dies” and the new you with Christ is “born” hence the term born again.

Sunday 8-24-08

Philipians 3:2-6

2Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

What this is saying is to watch out for the people who think they are saved because they are going to church.  who think they are saved because they have been baptised.  who think they are saved because they do all the right things.  It is saying that people who put trust in their actions and rituals are evil people.  dogs.

he follows that up with, We are the true circumcision, for we believe by faith.  Paul then goes on to say that, he is a hebrew of all hebrews, he has done everything by the book, but he doesn’t  believe in that being the reason why he is saved, he says it is by faith.

It is how i went to church my whole life, and because i went to the building and i hung out with the people and i knew what to say from time to time I thought i was saved.  But i wasn’t.  i was putting my trust in the ritual of going to church.  people would ask me, why are you saved? and i would answer, i am saved because i go to church.  yes i knew all about jesus, i knew what he did for me, but i thought going to church was the defining factor of we were using that gift of salvation or not.

What are the problems with that?

i was thinking i was saved because i went to church, when it should of been, because i am saved, i am going to church.

So how then are we saved?

Jesus described it to nicodemus in John 3

You must be born again.

well you ask, what does it mean to be “born again”?  it means that you bury your old life of sin, addictions, lust, ect. and then pick up a new page of life.  a page of life in which you live by the spirit confessing him your lord your God.

As it says in Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be save

What is lord?  the definition of lord is a person of high authority over your life.

actions speak louder than words amen?

Saying that Jesus is Lord, and not living up to anything he says is kind of like this.

If a ferrari and a stock geo metro were to race, which do you think would win?

The ferrari right?  To say that you Jesus is Lord, and to not do what he says, is like you saying the ferrari will win, but betting everything you own on the Geo metro winning….but by like 3 miles in a 1/4 mile drag.

Saying that Jesus is Lord, but not displaying that in your actions is like betting that you yourself can be better than jesus and Get yourself into heaven.  You say you believe in heaven? But how do you think you are going to get there with out jesus? with sinning? with murder? with rape?  don’t bet on the geo metro.  bet on the God who slit the red seas.  The God who made it rain until the earth was covered. The God who can make the lame walk and blind see.

You must be born again, and live by the spirit of God and do what he says because you have been saved, and not do some of the things he says because you think it will save you. Many people will plea to God, but we cast out demons in your name, we performed many mirracles in your name, and God will say, depart from me, I NEVER KNEW YOU.

Do you get what i am saying to you this morning?

On my finishing note, Don’t turn back.

Philipians 3:12 says to forget about things that have happened in the past and focus on the future and the goal.  that we won’t be running a race and not looking where we are going.  we will trip and fall on our faces that way.

a few verses down in philipians 3:16 it says to only live up to what we have already attained.  don’t be like the dog that returns to his vomit.  Don’t turn back to your old ways.  it won’t do you any good.  just keep running to God.

Genisis 4-7

CHAPTER 4:

It says that Adam and eve had 2 kids, cain & able.  they both offered a sacrifice to God.  The lord took Ables sacrifice of the first born lamb, but rejected the vegies that cain offered.  Can got mad, and then the lord told him in vs 7 “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

I think that is a very good verse to depict sin and strong holds.

He then proceeded to kill his brother as a result of a bad game of family feud, and then God cursed his farming grounds and made him become a wonderer.  He had kids and then his kids started polygamy. Adam and eve then had another son named seth whom i did not know about, but from the moment in time that seth was born, people started worshiping the lord by name.

CHAPTER 5:

so chapter 5 is a big family tree basically.  people were living up to be 900 + years old.  except for one man, his name was enoch.  He walked in close fellowship with God, and then one day when he was 365 years old, he disappeared because God took him to heaven.  the grandson of enoch was noah.

CHAPTER 6:  The world became corrupted.  there were giant people, and they slept with lots of beautiful women, and made many worldly heroes and God saw that they only had currupt thoughts and intentions.  Noah was the only good man, so He told him to build the big boat, so he did, with out questioning.

CHAPTER 7: He took one pair of every animal, his wife, 3 sons and their wives, and then 7 pairs of animals that were approved for eating and sacrificing.  it rained for 40 days and 40 nights,  the flood waters were 22 feet higher than the tallest peak on earth. the earth was under water for 150 days

Genisis 1-3 (i never liked apples anyways)

so who said that there is nothing good in genisis and it is all of that boring stuff like, God created the earth in 7 days, technically 6 because the 7th day he rested, and how about making man from dust. After reading it again now that i care, i find it even more interesting and an awesome display of Gods power.   it astonishes me how many people including myself limit Gods power and what he can do in our lives, but yet he created the universe in 6 days. how does that work out?  just a question.  After creating the universe and everything in it, he proceeded to speak man into existence from dust and breath.  The first thing that he said to man was “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it” including the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.  2:21-25 is the verse that talks about God making woman.  He says This helper was created specifically for man, from man, ans she is perfect for him.  not he is perfect for him.  but she.

Later on in chapter three it discusses eve eating that darn apple.  she was deceived by the serpent and then God put man in charge over woman.  There was a list of consequences that came from that stupid apple.

For women, the pregnancy pain is sharpened, and it says that woman will attempt to controle their husbands, but the husband shall rule over her.

For men, it says that the ground was cursed because man listened to his wife and ate the apple anyways, and it says that all of the fruit bearing bushes ad trees will grow thorns and sharp pokey things so that man will only eat enough to get by by the sweat of his brow.  and this would be until man and women returned to the dust consistency in which we were made.

wired jv 8/10/08

The power of prayer is so over looked.  Even in my own life and the peoples lives around me, the power of prayer is often over looked.  especially by people that are young in their faith.  Through prayer comes healings, through prayer, the labor for other peoples salvation is done, through prayer we communicate with God.  Through prayer demons are cast out.  Through prayer, not only do we prepare for the battle that is constantly surrounding us and our friends, but we fight it also.  You can ask anybody that knows God about the power of prayer, and they will say miracles can be done via prayer, it is common head knowledge among the believers of Jesus Christ.  The problem with that how ever is for a vast amount of people, is that most people comprehend the power of prayer, but they do not recognize it.  They say they believe it, but their actions do not show it.  This concept of the power of prayer needs to move about 16 inches from our brains to our heart.  Although many people know that prayer is powerful, they have not experienced the power of prayer because they do not practice it.  If prayer can do all of these awesome things, then how come people that say they know its powers, don’t pray for more than 5-10 minutes a day.

Prayer is not something that comes naturally.  it is not something that you start of praying for hours on end.  prayer takes practice and it needs to be taught. that is the purpose of today.  it is hard for me to tell you that  i want you to pray daily if i do not teach you how to pray.
luke 11: 2-13

2He said to them, “When you pray, say:
” ‘Father,^[a]
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.^[b]
3Give us each day our daily bread.
4Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.^[c]
And lead us not into temptation.

father, hallowed be your name: means that you spend time praising him.  glory to your name

Your kingdom come: that means that you are seeking his will to be done.  you desire for his will to be done in your life and in other peoples lives.

Give us each day our daily bread:  Bread is associated with eating.  The milk of the word is reading and understanding, but the meat and bread is doing the will.  doing his will that we just asked for prior to that.  It sustains us spiritually.

Forgive us of our sins as we have forgiven others:  this means that we are repenting of our sins, and acknowledging what we did wrong and turning from them and then forgiving others and not holding grudges against those that have done harm against us.

Lead us not into temptation:  help keep us pure and clean.

Romans 10:12-15

I was the youngest of  4 boys.  We would do all kinds of things together.  for example, we would play smear the queer, me, being the littlest one, was always the “queer”.  We used to play with linking logs.  This would normally be the “lets see who can make the best cabin” or something like that, but i would always a sever disadvantage because they would always need a specific log i placed at the bottom of my cabin, which looked no different than any other log, they just needed it because it was at the bottom of my cabin.

We would play games like, Keep away or monkey in the middle.  more specifically, lets take Michaels toys and keep them away from him.

You get the picture.  I fell victim of ALOT of childhood pranks.  The way i always got myself out of these, was by calling on my daddy.  “

DADDY!!, THEY TOOK MY TOYS!

DADDY!!, THEY WRECKED MY CABIN!

DADDY!! THEY WON’T STOP HITTING ME!

I did alot of calling on my dad, and he would always come to the rescue and save me from the various situations.

Romans 10:12

12….They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. 13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”^[c]

Just as i was dependent on my dad when my older bothers would gang out on me, We are supposed to be dependent on God and call upon his name when the enemy gangs up on us.

We have to seek God and call upon his name, and we will be saved.

This next point is VERY IMPORTANT.  This next point ties the great commission into all of this. Romans 14-15 states

14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

Wait, but read vrs 14 again.  do you notice how it makes the distinction between believing and calling.  It says that they have to call on him to be saved, and they can’t call, until they first believe. it doesn’t say that they are saved by believing, but that believing is a stepping stone to calling, which is how they are saved.  Do you hear me right now?  as it says in james chpt 2, even demons believe in God, but they are not saved, because they do not seek God and call upon the name of the lord.

I love how it gives the stepping stones to be saved.

to be saved, you have to call.

to call, you have to believe

to believe, you have to hear.

and to hear, you have to be told.

to be told, somebody has to be sent.

and guess what, the great commission has sent us, so lets start telling, so those we tell can hear, and those that hear, believe, and those that believe, call. and those that call, are saved.  It all starts with you, and me.  So lets go do it.  You have been sent.

Romans 10:9

9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

So this i think contains one of the most famous verses next to john 3:16.

This verse is not past tense.  it is not in if you confessed at one point in time, that jesus is lord, and if you believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

It is not like the magic jesus prayer that you can confess he is lord once, and then “believe” in your heart that God raise him from the dead, you are saved.

What does lord mean?

the dictionary definition of lord is a “person who has authority, control, or power over others; a master, chief, or ruler.”

How can you confess that he is a a person who has authority, control, or power over others; a master, chief, or ruler, if you do not do what the bible says.

You can not say he is Lord, if you do not take what he says seriously.  Actions speak louder than words, and over 50 percent of communication is nonverbal, so not only say he is lord, but show that he is lord by putting his words into actions.

He has authority.  So does your boss. If your boss tells you do something, you better do it or you will get fired.  The bible is Gods word. Do what it says.

believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.

how do you show that you believe? I have a job.  I believe i am going to get paid every other friday.  my actions show that.  If i didn’t believe i was going to get paid, would I do any work there? you can bet your bottom dollar i wouldn’t.  would you work at a job that you didn’t believe you were going to get paid from? i don’t think so.  So now i ask, How can you even say that you believe in Jesus and what he did for you, if you do not put action to showing that you believe it.  James 2:26 boldly states that “just as the body is dead with out breath, Faith is dead with out good works.”

and you will be saved

so after you confess that Jesus is Lord, and put it into action by doing what he says and saying what he says, and then believing that he died on the cross for your sins and was raised from the dead by putting action to back up your beliefs, when judgement day comes, YOU WILL BE SAVED.

Romans 10:1-8

This section is titled salvation is for everyone.  The main thing that has been kicking my butt recently as i have been working on and overcoming the various things i go through on a daily basis, is that i forget why i work to fight these habits off or why I try to live the way I should be living.  I fell into the rut of thinking that i had to do it because the bible says so.  I never put another thought past it as to why though.  It was like when a dad tells his child to do something, and the child asks why, the dad just says, because i said so.  i thought it was like that.  As I would come across things in scripture saying i need to do certain things, i would just asume i needed to do those things because he said so.  but as i got to Romans 10 in combination with louisiana, I got hit by revalation as to why we do things we do.   We are told to love our neighbors as ourselves, to not indulge in sexual sins and so forth.  I have come to a conclusion as to why.  If live a life of sin, that prohibits us from doing what we are called to do, the great commission to go unto all the world and make disciples of everynation, healing the sick, and casting out demons.   There are 2 ways that sin effects us from doing the great commission (gc).  the first is that, if we are constantly sinning, then we are distracted and get caught up and controled by sin, which prohibits us from doing the gc.  think about it, you are hungry for what you eat.  if you feed yourself sin, sin is what you crave.  the other reason is that we have to set the example of Christ for all to see, and if we are sinning, we aren’t setting the example, so then people are not going to take God seriously and won’t believe, or will think that they can believe, but live as we do.  The actual scripture says salvation is for everyone, and that you shouldn’t pole fish.  it says don’t asume people are going to heaven, and don’t asume that people are going to hell and there is no way to save them.  out of that, it put me in my place not to judge people and not to assume peoples fate because it is not my place to judge, i am supposed to do the gc, which doesn’t say go and make disciple of people who you think will make good disciples, it says of everyone/nation.

Romans 9:30-33 & 1 peter 2:8-11

Romans 9:30-33

Isreal’s unbelief

What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. 33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,

“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.”^[c]

I peter 2:9-11

8 And,

“He is the stone that makes people stumble,
the rock that makes them fall.”^[e]

They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.

9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests,^[f] a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

10 “Once you had no identity as a people;
now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
now you have received God’s mercy.”^[g]

11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” (of this earth) to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. 12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.^[h]

what do you guys think that this means?

what i think it means is that, we are not saved by our actions, we are given the ability to be saved by his mercy and grace. we are saved by our faith. the dictionary definition of faith is “obedience or loyalty to a person or cause”.

James 2:17-19

17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”

19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God.^[f] Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?

James 2:26 Just as the body is dead without breath,^[i] so also faith is dead without good works.

So here is the call for Holy living. When i was your age, i went through the motions. I had the belief that God was real, i knew God was real, but knowing he is real isn’t enough. Even the enemy Satan himself knows that God is real. Is satan going to get into heaven? HECK NO he isn’t. What separated me from Satan at the time? nothing. I was no different. We both knew that God was real and that Jesus died on the cross for the worlds salvation, and neither of us were holding up the the discipline and obedience to his will and doing anything to advance his kingdom. That brings me back to my heart for this group. I don’t want to see you guys just going through the motions saying you are saved with out producing any fruit and with out changing your lives more and more to be more Christ like as you go through the various stages of your life. Julie and I are here to help you with your walk with Jesus which brings me to my next thing. Let us break up into groups and then discuss what we are going through in our own lives. If you feel uncomfortable talking about things in front of eachother, you can see us individually, if you do not want to talk to us at all, then that is your choice to try to do this on your own, then that is your choice, and we can’t force you to do anything. We will not Judge you, We will not make fun of you. We are here to help you live a more christ centered life. Don’t tell me that you are just that AWESOME and aren’t sinning at all. That is called complacency and not studying the law that reveals our sin.

In 1 john 1:8 it says “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.” So on that note, let divide up into our groups and have a little chaty chaty.

2 kings 4:1-7

1 One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”

2 “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”

“Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied.

3 And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4 Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”

5 So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 6 Soon every container was full to the brim!

“Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons.

“There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.

7 When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.”

the symbolism:

The lady-> us

elisha-> God

olive oil -> spirit

jars -> other people

so it starts off saying that she has a debt (sin) that needed to be paid for.  she recognizes her need that she will loose everything if she doesn’t find a way to get out of it, so she goes to Elisha (God) and asks him for help.  He says, what do you have, and she replies, i have a little bit of olive oil (holy spirit).  In a way i think it is kind of like if we go to God in our need, he is like, relax, every little thing is gunna be ok, you’ve got my spirit, now take it and do my will and you will not only get out of trouble, but you will be able to live freely again by pursuing me and my will.  This is the part when Elisha tells her to take that oil and gather every jar she can.  He specifically tells her not to be bashful and only ask for a few.  He didn’t want her to set a limit on what the spirit is capable of.  so she gets every jar and she pours and pours and pours until every jar is full.  This is how we are supposed to be.  we are supposed to get as many people as we can, and pour out our lives into to them and let the holy spirit over flow from us into them until everyone of them is filled with it.