5/14/08 Blessed and Highly
Favored
1 Peter 4:12-16
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes
upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;
but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so
that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you
are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory
and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or
thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a
Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this
name.” I am blessed
and highly favored! Have you heard that said before? Does that phrase sometimes
make you cringe as it has spiraled down to a meaningless cliché that is used by
both heathens, and Christians alike? Well be encouraged as believers we can be
blessed and highly favored, but we don’t feel this when the new job comes; you
don’t truly know what it is like to feel blessed when ever you move into your
new home or come upon a large sum of money. Yes those are blessings, but that
fails in comparison to a Christian who gets to suffer for the name of Jesus
Christ, that is being blessed and highly favored. When Peter
wrote this letter to scattered believers being persecuted he told them not to be
surprised if they suffer. Didn’t our Lord Himself say the world will hate you
because they hated me first? Have you ever said to yourself, “this isn’t suppose
to happen to me I’m a Christian!”? As Christians we are to live expecting to
suffer, if you can come to terms with that there is no more fear. Fear very
easily creeps in when you don’t know what is coming next; But when you KNOW you
will suffer and be blessed for it, there is no more fear. This verse doesn’t
mean we suffer for Christ when your job fires you because you’ve missed to many
days of work. It is not suffering when your car breaks down, these are things
that happen to all people not just the children of God. But for a Christian
there is a special suffering, that what the world is disgusted by, God is
pleased with, and Christians rejoice in. If your spit upon for your love for
Christ, keep rejoicing; if you are being killed for your faith rejoice even
more! (1 Peter 4:13) To the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ
keep on rejoicing. The church is so blinded to think the joy comes from
temporary comfort in your physical health and wealth. That is so sad that they
have missed the most blessed thing of all, suffering for Christ and glorifying
God in and through that. It is a special suffering when three men can be
crucified the same way, but yet One who was God and man was actually paying the
sin debt which even eternity in Hell could not cover. To the world he was
crucified as a criminal like the other two; Jesus looked as if he was suffering
as a murderer, a thief, or evil doer. But He was suffering as the Son of God for
the glory of God and now has a name above all names! When is the
last time you have suffered for Christ? I don’t remember the last time I have,
but reading these words from God make me want to take risk. Maybe we aren’t
persecuted very often because we aren’t as radical as the disciples of Christ in
the 1st century. Does the fact we live in a Christianized culture
play a part in our lack of persecution? Yes it does, but believe me when I say
there are many persecuted Christians on U.S. Soil. If you want to feel blessed,
to feel value in your life, then take a stand for the glory of God and suffer as
a Believer in Jesus Christ. Oh how precious is the jewel that is placed on the
crown received by those who have lost their lives for the sake of Christ. Don’t
come to the end of your life and feel it was wasted because you never experienced suffering for Christ.
Christians are known by their willingness to suffer for the sake of Christ, if
the willingness is not in you then examine yourself and see if you’re really of
the faith. If God stirs you up to go over seas and do something radical for
Christ and suffer for it, then do not ignore His calling.
12/9/2007
Is You Sacrifice Living?
In Romans 12:1 it reads…
Therefore I urge you, brethren by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Do we sacrifice living, or dead things? Could you imagine the anger of God if during Old Testament times the high priest presented a dead lamb or calf for an offering? God has always demanded a living sacrifice; even Christ had to sacrifice his life, only after living for us around 30 years. In your life, what do you think you sacrifice as worship to our Great God? Do you sacrifice sin, read Romans 6 you are already dead to that. There is more to worship than not sinning! God calls you to sacrifice your life, so yes you must die to sin; but when it comes to worship can you sacrifice that time of the day that you like to just rest and sit on the couch? Will you sacrifice the extra 30 minutes of sleep you get and wake up 30 minutes earlier? God calls us to make a living sacrifice, will you sacrifice your popularity with friends and co-workers. I know sometimes I have to sacrifice my “comfortable state” in order to witness to someone, that is WORSHIP. It can be a fearful thing to sacrifice our social status, or financial status but God commands us to.
Living Sacrifice Defined:
If we want to talk about fearful let us turn to Genesis 22 and read the offering of Isaac. God spoke to Abraham and said, take your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. WHAT! His ONLY son, whom he loves, is to be burned as an offering to God! That is what I would call a living sacrifice. So they make the journey and on the third day they get there, father and son hand and hand. So Abraham gets the wood of the burnt offering and the knife and they walk together to the mountain. Then his precious little son looks into his father’s eyes, those who have kids know what this looks like. Isaac looks around and ask Dad, I see the fire and wood for the sacrifice but where is the lamb? His Dad looks at him and I’m sure through the deepest possible pain, for NO father could burn his child without feeling the deepest sorrow; he says Son you ARE the burnt offering.
At this point, they still continue to walk on together. I can picture the trembling of the young sons hands, and his eyes filling with tears. I’m sure Abraham prayed for faith to get him through such a horrendous act. He knew that God required a living sacrifice, and that it would be more fearful to anger God then it would be to burn his own son! To Abraham he wanted to please God and obey his commands. He let nothing get in the way of offering a living sacrifice! So then, he builds the altar places the wood and bounds his own son Isaac on top of the wood. Can you imagine the screams from his child? DAD! DAD! NO! STOP, STOP! Picture you doing this to your own son, or picture your parent having to do this to you. He raises the knife to slay his son and offering the burnt offering, when a messenger of the Lord steps it and stops EVERYTHING.
Abraham had passed the test; he would not even withhold his son because of his fear of God. The Lord was NEVER going to let him slay his son. He then provided a Ram for the Father and Son to offer as a burn sacrifice together! What a great blessing they received, the bible says they were greatly blessed and through the blood line of Isaac Jesus Christ came into the world! Then once Christ came, God had to do what Abraham almost did. God had to offer his son as a sacrifice; this time it wasn’t a test. God had to put his son on a cross after being beaten bloody. Then crucify his son as a LIVING SACRIFCE!
In light of this, what will you sacrifice? Not the dead things, the things that don’t mean anything. I want us Stand Out Family to be a LIVING SACRIFCE, let us lay our LIFE TIED DOWN TO THE ALTER!
AMEN
11/20/2007
The Love God Hates
The Hate God Loves
I want us to think about the fact that there is a Love that God hates, and there is a hate that God Loves. First let’s check out the Love that God hates.
1 John 2:15
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
This is a love that our perfect, and just God hates. Notice it is not just a love of the world, but also the things in the world. To break it down for you, God doesn’t just say don’t love being an adulterer (cheating on your wife) but also don’t love the movie that promotes adultery, or the song, website, etc. Something you love receives your attention ( the work of caring for or attending to someone or something), affection (a positive feeling of liking), and adoration (the act of admiring strongly). We must not have even a hint of these feelings towards the world, or the sinful system. Adoration is something that only should belong to God, we can’t adore the things of the world. Do you give attention, and admire being honored or receiving praise for something you do. That is loving a thing of the world. If you adore having someone tell you what a great person you are, that is loving a thing of the world. Anything that looks good in us, is only the spirit of God working through us. He deserves all attention, affection, and adoration. There is a love God hates, and it is a love of sin. Remember being young and feeling as if you feel in love with someone, now do you remember falling out of love with that person? There is a total reversal in your attitude of that person. You go from seeking them, to avoiding them. Boasting about them, to having nothing good to say about them. Have we fallen out of love with the world, or do we still treat the world as if we had affections toward it.
Now there is a HATE that God LOVES.
Psalms 97:10
Hate evil, you who love the Lord, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones’ He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
If we love the Lord, than it should be natural for us to hate evil. One definition for hate isa feeling of dislike so strong that it demandsaction. We should hate evil so much that it demands an action of obedience to the word of God. I was so excited to read this verse to know that God calls us and enables us to Hate something we once Loved! Evil is anything that breaks God’s law. We should hate lying, stealing, gossiping, and all the other sins that drag us down. Get excited, love the Lord, and hate evil. Out of that hate there should be a love towards the will of the father.
Grace and peace,
Dillon
October 29th, 2007
Give Honor Where It Is Due
Psalms 50:14-15
14"Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
And pay your vows to the Most High;
15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me."
As believers we all experienced a time when we called out to God in the midst of great trouble. Some of us remember the exact date, some only know the year, but we all cried out to him for salvation at one point in our life. When we did that the Lord did what he promised in this Psalm, he rescued us. We were sinners in need of the gift of forgiveness through Jesus Christ and he gave it to us. God has come through on his part because he is perfect and all powerful, now will we do our part.
“I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me."
The end of that verse doesn’t just say God will rescue us, it finishes with we will honor him. You have been rescued, so now will you live your life to honor him? We are to show respects towards the great God who saved us from eternal destruction. Well, how do we honor a perfect God when we are sinners?
Verse 23 tells us
23"He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me;
And to him who orders his way aright
I shall show the salvation of God."
We need to continually offer to God a sacrifice that is given not as if we are paying back a debt, but it comes from thanksgiving. This is hard because so often we tell ourselves, when I go out and witness I get in good with God, when I stumble I loose my position as his child. We are accepted because HE rescued us, not because anything we have done, or will do in the future. Romans 12 defines our life as the living sacrifice that should be offered as a form of spiritual service. So if you want to honor God, then lay your life down and submit to his will. Bottom line his will is for you to Love him with everything that you have, and to love others as your self. So many things flow from that statement, this means he wants purity in thought and deed, good stewardship in finances, forgiveness to abound in our relationships etc. He wants us to use every situation as one to magnify and glorify him. So what are you going to do today to get on the path of offering a sacrifice to him. Does this mean you may need to cut out time spent on the computer, TV, or in sleep, probably so. But God has reduced us, so it is our turn to give him honor. Something simple will be only getting on the computer Monday, Wednesday, and Friday instead of Monday through Friday. How about you set your alarm clock for 15 minutes earlier that usual and spend that 15 minutes in fellowship with God. Please don’t do this because you feel like you have to, remember if it is now a sacrifice of thanksgiving he is not honored by it. Stop and reflect about all that he has done, and continues to do for you. Soak in his loving kindness, and meditate on the salvation he has accomplished in Jesus Christ. If you do this, it should move you to offer a sacrifice out of thankfulness, not obligation.
Grace and Peace,
Dillon