Just a couple of things MatchPoint is currently up to:

This young lady, named Kelly, is the widowed mother of three children. Her husband was in an accident a few years ago and suffered a traumatic brain injury. He recovered physically, but the injury gave him a form of mental illness. Earlier this year he took his own life after months of addictions, etc. An anonymous donor has attempted to pay off her mortgage but has been unable to find a way to do so. This lady’s church was afraid to involve themselves because of repercussions in the congregation and fear of the IRS. MatchPoint is set up for just these situations.

MatchPoint will represent the donor and retire this lady’s mortgage ($140K) and pay a large portion of the Hazardous Material cleanup.

MatchPoint is a contender in Pepsi’s Good for the Gulf program, which will award 1.3 millions dollars to charities on the Gulf Coast to benefit the region. MatchPoint is competing for $25,000 from the program and will provide mental health services and counseling to those in need. MatchPoint works to match people with specific needs with the right resources to achieve their goals. MatchPoint needs support in the form of votes to secure funding. Those interested in supporting MatchPoint can log onto the Pepsi Refresh site to vote everyday this month through August 31, 2010. Visit: www.gulf.refresheverything.com/matchpoint.

_______________________________________________
CRCF—8/29/10

ME

I was up till almost 1:00 a.m. this morning. Most parents want their kids to talk to them about everything, don’t you, Mom and Dad? It rarely happens that way, though—especially with teenagers. Right? Well, last night was a double-header for us. Two of our teenagers decided it was the night to talk about some pretty big stuff in their lives. Now, I have to admit that I was less coherent during conversation #2, which actually occurred today, after the stroke of midnight. Robin was the main parent involved in that one! But it was a great night! We went to bed feeling good that our kids had come to us to talk about stuff.

Why don’t I do that with my Ultimate Father?

WE

What keeps YOU from talking to your Ultimate Father about stuff?

I want to be a good Daddy. But I blow it—a lot.

But God, our Ultimate Father, NEVER blows it! He’s the perfect Daddy! He always understands, never says the wrong thing, really listens all the time . . . and, get this, WANTS us to talk to Him about it all!

Last night, get this–I even think my kids listened to what we had to say! And that’s cool—because our experience in life can keep them from having to learn the hard way.

The same is true with God, isn’t it? There’s power in prayer. God acts on our behalf—He shows us the right way, He changes circumstances, He strengthens us to go through junk in life . . . and on and on.

Talking to Your Daddy
James 5:13-18

When we talk to our Father, He will work in our lives in answer to prayer.

GOD

James 5:13-18 (NLT)

13 Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray.

I think James has the trials these folks were facing in mind here—the stuff of James 1:2-7. And there, James told us to ask God for wisdom in the middle of our trials. Here, James is just reiterating the same thing—he’s about to wrap up his letter, and he’s basically saying, “Talk to your Father about it all!”

Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.

Singing praises is a form of prayer, because we sing our worship and adoration and love to God.

14 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.

What’s the deal on verses 14-15? Is this stuff real today? We here at Cross Road believe it is. We simply do what it says here, when requested by someone. The oil referred to here is probably olive oil, which was medicinal in that day, as well as serving as a symbol of the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives. Our elders have prayed for and anointed with oil many folks, including my wife. So, yes, it’s for us today.

Is this an absolute promise that God WILL ALWAYS heal? NO! Robin is still fighting cancer. God reserves the right to be God when we pray. Our Scripture reading at the beginning of the service is the ultimate example of how God’s will and our prayers are supposed to link up.

Matthew 26:39, 42-44 (NLT)

39 He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
42 Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open.
44 So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again.

No one has ever had a more perfect faith and trust in God than Jesus. No one has ever known how to pray better than Jesus. And yet, Jesus says—I want to skip this, but, Father, I want YOUR will more. And guess what happens? The Father’s will—the Crucifixion.

James himself has already taught us a similar truth in this letter.
James 4:13-16 (New Living Translation)

13 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.

Luke 11:2-3 (New King James Version)
2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.

However, God certainly CAN and DOES heal. The point is this—we ARE to obey and pray, submitting to the perfect will of God for our lives.
(Quickly discuss Linda Siniard’s healing and then lack of later).

“God heals, faith doesn’t, and all prayers are subject to God’s will. But our prayer are part of God’s healing process. That is why God often waits for our prayers of faith before intervening to heal a person.” (NIV Study Bible, 2098).
16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
Sometimes there IS a connection between sickness and sin—but NOT always.
1 Corinthians 11:29-30 (New Living Translation)
29 For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.
John 9:3 (New Living Translation)
3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.
Sometimes sickness is just simply a fact of life in a fallen and broken world.
The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! 18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.
God takes prayer seriously! Our Father wants us to talk to Him!
And he wants us to pray “earnestly”—intensely, pouring our heart out believing that He really cares and is powerful enough to answer!
Hebrews 11:6 (New Living Translation)
6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
Also, to pray earnestly means to be persistent in prayer.
Luke 18:1-8 (New Living Translation)

1 One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. 3 A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ 4 The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, 5 but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”
6 Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. 7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”
When we talk to our Father, He will work in our lives in answer to prayer.
YOU

Do YOU talk to your Daddy about the stuff of life? Do you believe that God wants you to and that He has all power to answer according to His will?

When we talk to our Father, He will work in our lives in answer to prayer.
Deuteronomy 4:7 (New Living Translation)
7 For what great nation has a god as near to them as the LORD our God is near to us whenever we call on him?
Psalm 50:15 (New Living Translation)
15 Then call on me when you are in trouble,
and I will rescue you,
and you will give me glory.”
Your Daddy wants you to talk to Him!

When we talk to our Father, He will work in our lives in answer to prayer.

WE

I wonder, what would our Father do for us, through us, among us, if we simply talked to Him about stuff more consistently?

Jim Cymbala

Satan’s main strategy with God’s people has always been to whisper, ‘Don’t call, don’t ask, don’t depend on God to do great things. You’ll get along fine if you just rely on your own cleverness and energy.’
Ephesians 3:20-21 (New King James Version)
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Celebration of the Lord’s Supper

ME

When it comes to waiting, I’m not a role model! I don’t like to wait in lines. I don’t like to wait for a meal—in fact, if my blood sugar gets low, watch out! So I keep food stashed in my office here and at the bank! I hate having an appointment, say with a doctor, and then having to wait far past the time of that appointment. I’m just not good at waiting—which requires patience!

WE

How are YOU at waiting? Is patience something that comes easily for you?

“Endurance is patience concentrated.”
Thomas Carlyle

So you’re no better at waiting than I am?

But you know what?

I CAN patiently wait for things like my birthday, vacation, Christmas—because what happens on those occasions is worth the wait! And those occasions help me to even be patient while I’m waiting—because I know those good days are coming! It all depends on what I’m waiting for!

Worth the Wait!
James 5:7-12

Because Jesus is coming back soon, we can patiently and faithfully wait through our trials.

GOD/YOU

James 5:7-12 (NLT)

7 Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return.

First off, Jesus IS coming back!

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (NLT)

For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then together with them, we who are still alive and remain on earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with Him forever. So comfort and encourage each other with these words.

Also, we need to note here that these folks were facing oppression and economic injustice because of their faith in Jesus from rich unbelievers (see vv. 1-6).

Unknown

“If your faith is no good in times of trouble, then it is just no good. If it is only good for when you don’t need it, then you don’t need it.”

7 Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.

8 You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.

Message

8 Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time.

1 John 2:28 (NLT)

And now, dear children, continue to live in fellowship with Christ so that when He returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from Him in shame.
9 Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look—the Judge is standing at the door!
Message

9Friends, don’t complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner.

Griping about other people is so natural when life is tough, isn’t it? We want to put the blame on someone for our difficulties, for our pain. And often, it’s those nearest and dearest to us that get the complaints—whether it’s our family or maybe someone in our church family.

What James points out here is that

griping/complaining/grumbling about others just proves that we’ve forgotten how close Jesus’ return is!

And it means we’ve forgotten Whose has a plan and purpose, and is ultimately in control of, our trials!

James 1:2-4 (NLT)

Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when you faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

God allows trials in our lives to make us more like Jesus! If we’ve got a gripe about our circumstances, it’s ultimately with God, not someone else! (even if a person is involved).

Oswald Chambers

“To choose suffering makes no sense at all; to choose God’s will in the midst of our suffering makes all the sense in the world.”
10 For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.
12 But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned.
Now, the connection of verse 12 with the rest of what we’ve read is not as obvious as we’d like. I think Eugene Peterson helps us get why James talks about this now in his Message Translation:
Message
12And since you know that he cares, let your language show it. Don’t add words like “I swear to God” to your own words. Don’t show your impatience by concocting oaths to hurry up God. Just say yes or no. Just say what is true. That way, your language can’t be used against you.
When we’re waiting out a trial, it’s tough. And we get impatient and want it to be over—we want the pain or, at least the strain, to end! And so we start getting REAL serious! Like if we swear we’ll do something, surely things will change! Ever been there? You want SO BAD to change your circumstances that you take you’re commitment to action up a notch and SWEAR that you’ll do it!

James says that patient waiting just says yes, knows God’s in control and does what you’ve said—no impatient swearing necessary!

Because Jesus is coming back soon, we can patiently and faithfully wait through our trials.

WE

Matthew 10:38-39

If you refuse to take up your cross and follow Me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will find it.

Because Jesus is coming back soon, we can patiently and faithfully wait through our trials.

Charles Spurgeon

“I have always looked back to times of trial with a kind of longing, not to have them return, but to feel the strength of God as I felt it then, to feel the power of faith as I felt it then, to hang on to God’s powerful arm as I hung on to it then, and see God at work as I saw him then.”

Because Jesus is coming back soon, we can patiently and faithfully wait through our trials.

Celebration of the Lord’s Supper

VIDEO—from The Passion of Christ with Scripture

If the bloody Cross of Jesus Christ is not where your heart and mind goes Sunday after Sunday when you come to this Table, then you miss the point of coming!

THAT is the heart of all we are about as a church!

THAT is the heart of the Lord’s Supper, which is what we’re going to think about this morning.

Sharing a table together with others was huge in the culture of Jesus’ day. To open up your table to others was to accept them and welcome them into your family’s life.

So, it’s NOT insignificant, nor surprising, that Jesus’ left as a reminder of His saving sacrifice a meal, a table where all who will trust Him may come and feast.

Ronnie McBrayer

Early in his ministry the Pharisees and other teachers of the law sought to bring Jesus into the fold. They invited him to dinner, to the customary cocktail parties to get to know him better, to steer him in a more appropriate direction. When he wouldn’t act right, they quit inviting him. They quit eating with him: One of the greatest shows of disapproval one could display in Jewish society. He became a persona non grata – unwelcome at their table.

What did Jesus do? He began to associate with, socialize with – yes even eat with – tax collectors and notorious sinners. By sitting at the table with these pariahs, he was welcoming them, so to speak into the family of God. Jesus didn’t misunderstand the culture. He knew exactly what he was doing by breaking bread with a pack of extortionists, prostitutes, indicted criminals and drunks. He was putting on a display of his own: I am, as God’s Anointed One – his sent representative – giving you the God of the open arms, not the clinched fists. So the late night dinners, the banquets and suppers Jesus attended, which earned him the title of “glutton and drunk” were not just free-wheeling good times. They were acts of invitation, acts of bridge building, acts of communion.

And so Jesus left us with a table, a meal—so that we can also grow together in our love and devotion to Him, while inviting others to come to the table—with simple trust in Jesus—and join us.

Time for a quick history lesson:

From the resurrection and ascension of Christ to about the year 300AD Christianity was very primitive. It was organized. There were pastors and congregations, but not as we have known them here in North America. It looked a whole lot more like what we might find today in China or some Islamic countries. It was an underground movement, subversive, meeting secretly in homes and catacombs, often persecuted and viewed with great suspicion by the Roman Empire. Communion, during these early days, was as I described it earlier – part of a larger celebration – a communal event. These were the days of the Jesus movement, not Christianity as religion . . . We have collected to ourselves, what Alan Hirsch calls, “the clutter of unnecessary traditional interpretations and theological paraphernalia;” and we have lost the utter shocking simplicity of gathering at the table together, as the followers of Jesus. (McBrayer)

Come to the Table
1 Corinthians 11:17-34

The Lord’s Supper grounds us together in Jesus’ saving sacrifice.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 (CEV)

17Your worship services do you more harm than good. I am certainly not going to praise you for this. 18I am told that you can’t get along with each other when you worship, and I am sure that some of what I have heard is true. 19You are bound to argue with each other, but it is easy to see which of you have God’s approval.
20When you meet together, you don’t really celebrate the Lord’s Supper. 21You even start eating before everyone gets to the meeting, and some of you go hungry, while others get drunk. 22Don’t you have homes where you can eat and drink? Do you hate God’s church? Do you want to embarrass people who don’t have anything? What can I say to you? I certainly cannot praise you.
[The Early Church called their gatherings “Love Feasts”—speaking of God’s love for them in Christ and their love for one another in Christ.]
Piper
The church is the body of Christ (1Corinthians 12:27), the bride of Christ (Ephesians 2:25-27), the dwelling place of God (Ephesians 2:22). And you eat and drink as though you are the center of the universe and the gathered church were nothing.
23I have already told you what the Lord Jesus did on the night he was betrayed. And it came from the Lord himself.
He took some bread in his hands. 24Then after he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Eat this and remember me.”
25After the meal, Jesus took a cup of wine in his hands and said, “This is my blood, and with it God makes his new agreement with you. Drink this and remember me.”
{Brief Explanation of Transubstantiation, Consubstantiation, Symbol}
26The Lord meant that when you eat this bread and drink from this cup, you tell about his death until he comes.

27But if you eat the bread and drink the wine in a way that isn’t worthy of the Lord, you sin against his body and blood. 28That’s why you must examine the way you eat and drink. 29If you fail to understand that you are the body of the Lord, you will condemn yourselves by the way you eat and drink.
Message
29 If you give no thought (or worse, don’t care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you’re running the risk of serious consequences.
Ray Stedman
God guards the Table from unworthy partaking. Now, what that means, of course, is what Paul has just been rebuking these Christians at Corinth about. They were partaking in an unworthy manner because they were careless, selfish, and indifferent to the needs of others.
Piper

There are no perfect saints at the Lord’s table. We are all debtors to grace. Forgiveness is our only hope of acceptance.
Ray Stedman
What does “discerning the body” mean? It means two things: First, it means understanding the meaning of the symbols. The Body of Christ is involved, his death on the cross for us, his life made available to us. But then it means also our concern and care for others who are members with us in this Body. We are members one of another, and we recognize those ties.
These warnings are to US, as the church, as followers of Christ about how WE come to this table!
30 That’s why many of you are sick and weak and why a lot of others have died. 31If we carefully judge ourselves, we won’t be punished. 32But when the Lord judges and punishes us, he does it to keep us from being condemned with the rest of the world.
Ray Stedman
God had to say to some of them, “Look, I can’t trust you any more down there. Come on home where I can keep an eye on you.”
1 Corinthians 10:14-17 (NLT)
14 So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. 15 You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true. 16 When we bless the cup at the Lord’s Table, aren’t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren’t we sharing in the body of Christ? 17 And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body.
If we love anything more than Jesus when we come to this Table, then we dishonor His death and resurrection for us!
33 My dear friends, you should wait until everyone gets there before you start eating.
Message
33 So, my friends, when you come together to the Lord’s Table, be reverent and courteous with one another.
34If you really are hungry, you can eat at home. Then you won’t condemn yourselves when you meet together.
After I arrive, I will instruct you about the other matters.

The Lord’s Supper grounds us together in Jesus’ saving sacrifice.
Ray Stedman

Nothing is more revealing than to see what your attitude is when you come to this central act of Christian worship.

The Lord’s Supper grounds us together in Jesus’ saving sacrifice.
So, what about children and the Lord’s Supper?
Short and simple: parents, it’s up to you! I won’t keep your children from this table because Jesus told the children to come to Him—they CAN understand and trust Jesus. But only you can determine whether they do or not.
Again, the warnings here are all to BELIEVERS and about HOW WE come to the Table.
What if you’re here this morning and you say, I know I need a Savior, I need forgiveness from God, I want know His love and not His condemnation, but I’m just not sure—I struggle to believe that it can be so good, so free, so amazing!

Listen to what one man said to Jesus:
Mark 9:24 (NLT)
24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
Jesus didn’t chastise him—didn’t tell him he ought to have more faith! He healed the man’s daughter—and, in doing so, essentially said, “That’s OK! I’ll take that little bit of trust that you have and I WILL help your overcome your unbelief!”
So, Jesus says to you, dear friend, “Come to the Table! One step at a time, come, follow Me!”
The Lord’s Supper grounds us together in Jesus’ saving sacrifice.
If you need God’s grace in Jesus this morning, come to the Table!

Edwin Markham, The Parable of the Builders, tells of a rich man who wanted to help other. He came to a poor peasant living with his family in a tiny hut. The rich man employed the peasant to build for him a beautiful house. To save money so his profit could be more, the peasant used the cheapest materials he could find, secretly enjoying outwitting the rich man. He also gave his slackest effort to the project. When the house was finally completed, the rich man returned to inspect it. Then he shocked the builder, “This is your house,” he said, “it’s my gift to you and your family!”

Honoring Grace
2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NLT)
14 Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

We need to think practically about giving Jesus all that we are.

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him our . . .

1. TIME

Lloyd Cory: “Time is significant because it is so rare. It is completely irretrievable. You can never repeat it or relive it” (Swindoll, 571).

Ecclesiastes 3:1

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

1 Corinthians 6:20

For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Matthew 22:37-40

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Our lives are not ours—we are Jesus’ servants!

Matthew 28:19-20
19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Colossians 4:5-6

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

It’s always time to witness for Christ—in word and in deed, no matter what the circumstances!

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

2. POSSESSIONS

1 Timothy 6:17-19 (MSG)
17-19Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.
Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

Now, some of you may object and say, “Well, this isn’t for me, cause I’m not rich.” Oh yes, you are! According to a Stanford University study of the world’s population, over 95% of Americans are among the world’s most wealthy people—in the top 8%!

4 Principles:

a) Enjoy What You Have (17c)

b) Don’t Be Proud of What You Have (17a)

Luke 6:24

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

c) Don’t Trust In What You Have (17b)

Proverbs 23:5

Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven.

d) Share What You Have (18-19)

John Wesley said, “When the possessor of heaven and earth brought you into being and placed you in this world, He placed you here not as an owner but as a steward” (Swindoll, 534).

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

3. MONEY

George W. Truett, the pastor of First Baptist Dallas, TX for 47 years, once said, “A man right about this question . . . is likely to be right, or easily led to be right, on every other question of religion. A Christian man wrong on this question . . . is likely to be seriously wrong on every other question of religion!”

Jesus said it best:

Matthew 6:21

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jesus told 19 parables, 12 of which were about money or giving.

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

2 Corinthians 9:6-15 (NLT)
6 Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. 7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” 8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 9 As the Scriptures say,
“They share freely and give generously to the poor.
Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”
10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.
11 Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. 12 So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.
13 As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. 14 And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you. 15 Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!

The Law of the Harvest (6)

Do you want God’s bountiful reward in heaven? Then give liberally, generously!

Don’t ask, “What can I spare?”, but “What can I share?”

According to the IRS, people earning less ($10-15K) are 10 times more likely to make charitable contributions than people making more ($50-100K). “The higher the taxpayer’s income, the less likely he or she is to give”.

W. S Tulner: “He who is not liberal with what he has, does but deceive himself when he thinks he would be liberal if he had more.”

If God were to give back to you 10X what you gave last Sunday, would you be able to live on it this week?

God’s requirement is intentional, hilarious giving! (7)
Exodus 36:2-7 [See Later]

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

You can’t outgive God! (8-11)

You don’t have to worry about not having enough after you give. You don’t have to wonder whether that 90% or less will be enough.

Malachi 3:10

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.

Luke 6:38

Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom (lap). For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.

It is God who enables our giving!

Matthew 19:26-29 (NLT)
26 Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
27 Then Peter said to him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?”
28 Jesus replied, “I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life.

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

Stuff Happens When We Give (12-14)

1) Meet the Needs

Hudson Taylor: “When God’s work is done God’s way it will not lack for God’s supply.”

2) Glorifies God

3) Is Evidence of Obedience to Our Confession!

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

WHY We Give (14c-15)

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

“Stewardship is NOT the church’s plan for raising money! It is God’s plan for developing Christ-like character . . . The standard for grace-giving is the Cross where Jesus personally demonstrated how we are to give!” (MVK, II).

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

2 Corinthians 8:1-5 (NLT)

1 Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. 2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.
3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. 4 They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. 5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.
Our giving should be . . .

1) Steady (2a)

2) Sacrificial (2b-3)—NT Giving =Tithe + Grace

The tithe is the floor not the ceiling on NT giving!

A pastor once told his fashionable congregation: “Many of you came to church this morning riding in stolen cars, wearing stolen clothes, and adorned in stolen jewelry, because you paid for those things with money which you withheld from God.”

3) Sincere (4)

4) Surrendered (5)

THIS is the key!

2 Corinthians 8:9

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty you might become rich.

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

Sam Houston was an authentic America hero! He was born in Virginia, was a Congressman, and later, the Governor of Tennessee. As commander of the Texas army in the fight for independence from Mexico, he led the defeat of Gen. Santa Anna and the Mexican forces at the battle of San Jacinto. When Texas became a republic in 1836, he was elected as its first president. Men molded by the frontier knew how to fight, gamble, drink, cuss and kill. So did Sam. But later on, he married a devout Baptist wife who prayed for years that he would be saved. Late in life, Sam Houston surrendered his life to Christ under the preaching of Dr. Rufus Burleson, then president of Baylor University. Upon bringing him up out of the baptismal waters, Dr. Burleson said, “Now, Sam, your sins are all washed away!” Houston replied, “God help all the fishes!” Just before he was baptized, Dr. Burleson suggested that he give his wallet to a friend so it wouldn’t get wet. “No, I believe not, Pastor—I’m afraid it needs baptizing, too!” And indeed, after his baptism, Houston began paying half of his pastor’s salary and faithfully gave financial assistance to ministerial students at Baylor University until his death! Sam’s baptized billfold was proof that God had changed his heart by grace! And if you’ve gotten a real dose of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, you’ll be a giver that honors God with your money, your possessions and your time!

Jesus’ love motivates us to give Him all we have.

Celebration of the Lord’s Supper
–Brief Explanation of 1 Cor. 11 & mention
Sermon Next Sunday

ME

Forgiveness is a whole lot easier to talk about than it is to do.

It seems I have a harder time with forgiveness when someone messes with someone I love. Oh, I can get mad and offended when people do stuff to me—don’t get me wrong. But just mess with my wife or my kids or my really close friends, and I go from 0 to 60 with anger!

There have been two situations in the last year where people have done stuff to hurt my oldest two children. It is SO hard to forgive!

WE

When was the last time you struggled with forgiving someone? Go ahead—think about that person and the situation. Let’s make this practical right from the start!

GOD

Practical Grace
Ephesians 4:30-5:2

Nothing shows others Who God is more than forgiveness!

Ephesians 5:1-2 (NLT)

1 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. 2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

The Message

1-2 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

Nothing shows others Who God is more than forgiveness!
What does this look like practically?
Ephesians 4:30-32 (NLT)
30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.
31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
Nothing shows others Who God is more than forgiveness!
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Romans 5:8-10 (NLT)
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Isaiah 53:5-6
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Nothing shows others Who God is more than forgiveness!

Ephesians 4:30-32 (MSG)
30Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.
31-32Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.
Nothing shows others Who God is more than forgiveness!

Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)

43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Slide re: Loving Unlovables

Nothing shows others Who God is more than forgiveness!

Romans 12:19-21 (NLT)

Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God. For it is written, ‘I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it,’ says the Lord. Instead, do what the Scriptures say: ‘If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink, and they will be ashamed of what they have done to you.’ Don’t let evil get the best of you, but conquer evil by doing good.
Nothing shows others Who God is more than forgiveness!

YOU

What difference does all of this need to make in your life and mine?

Piper

No one was more grievously sinned against than Jesus. Every ounce of animosity against Him was fully undeserved. No one has ever lived who was more worthy of honor than Jesus; and no one has been dishonored more. If anyone had a right to get angry and be bitter and vengeful, it was Jesus. How did He control Himself when scoundrels, whose very lives He sustained, spit in His face? Peter gives the answer in these words: “[Jesus] committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself . . . to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:22-23).

Right now, identify at least one relationship where you need to extend enemy-love to someone. And tell God silently, from your heart right now, that you are committed to do just that by HIS power!

Ward

We are most like beasts when we kill. We are most like men when we judge. We are most like God when we forgive. (Swindoll, 216)

Nothing shows others Who God is more than forgiveness!

WE

Can you imagine what our community would look like if we all practiced this kind of enemy-love?

Yancey

Grace is Christianity’s best gift to the world, a spiritual nova in our midst exerting a force stronger than vengeance, stronger than racism, stronger than hate. Sadly, to a world desperate for this grace the church sometimes presents one more form of ungrace . . . How rare to find a church competing to “out-grace” its rivals. (30)

Lord’s Supper

We come to the Lord’s Table—the celebration of forgiveness! Every Sunday, we celebrate the fact that God loved us, His enemies, in the ultimate way—by giving His own precious Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sin. If we would celebrate HIS forgiveness toward us, we must, at the same time, celebrate the power His love gives us to extend forgiveness to others!

I’ve never NOT been in church. From the time I could be carried, I was in the church nursery. I’ve seen a little of everything in the church—a lot of good, and a lot of bad. I’ve played all the church games, and I’ve gone to church for the right reasons. I’ve been a hypocrite and I’ve been sincerely trying to follow Jesus. And through the years, one of the major struggles I see for all us as Christ-followers is making sure that we don’t just talk about loving Jesus and try to look like we love Jesus, but, as proven in our actions, we truly do love Jesus.

“In Oliver Crowell’s day, the British government ran out of silver for coins. Cromwell sent his men to the cathedral to see if they could find any there. They reported, ‘The only silver we can find is in the statues of the saints standing in the corners.’ To which the great soldier and statesman of England replied, ‘Good. We’ll melt down the saints and put them in circulation.’” (Swindoll, 480)

The church in America today needs a massive meltdown of silver spoon saints that can be circulated to take the healing love of Christ to our sin-enslaved world—which is out there, NOT in here!

Saints that don’t circulate are just dead weight!

The Real Deal

James 1:26-27

Acting like Jesus is the proof that we love Jesus.
James 1:22-27 (The Message)
22-24Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
25But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
26-27Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
Acting like Jesus is the proof that we love Jesus.

“The Real Deal” means . . .

1) Serving the Needy (27a)

2) Staying Close and Clean (27b)
Serving the Needy (27a)

Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight
Psalm 146:9

The Lord watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow; but the way of the wicked He turns upside down.
Matthew 25:36, 40

I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me . . . Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.
Mark 10:42-45

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
James 2:15-17

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

17 (Message)
Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
Acting like Jesus is the proof that we love Jesus
There are over 1 billion chronically hungry people in the world! Last year, over 30 million Americans did not have sufficient food for their family at some time during a given month.
That’s why we support the Gilmer Food Pantry. That’s why we’re starting “There’s Hope for the Hungry” tomorrow morning!
True religion serves those who need help the most!
Acting like Jesus is the proof that we love Jesus
Staying Close and Clean (27b)

and guard against corruption from the godless world

27b (NLT)
and refuse to let the world corrupt us
Romans 12:9

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

James 4:4

Adulterers and adultresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Acting like Jesus is the proof that we love Jesus
The Tell-Tale Sign=THE TONGUE

(Another is YOUR CHECKBOOK)

James 1:26

Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air.
Matthew 12:34-35

Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
James 1:19

So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
Acting like Jesus is the proof that we love Jesus
Screwtape to Wormwood: “If you can obscure these facts, there’s a good chance that he will embrace what hell considers to be the perfect synonym for true religion—churchianity. In this marvelous imitation of the Enemy’s church everything looks and sounds right and good, but the Enemy’s Spirit is conspicuously absent. You must arrange to make him a devout Methodist or Anglican or Baptist or Presbyterian or what have you. Make him that. He must come to accept the church as a type of religious social club where people congregate. Nothing more. In a word, Wormwood, help him to become more religious, but for hell’s sake, not more Christian!” (Martin, Swindoll, 481).
True religion has dirty hands and a clean heart! True religion gets your hands dirty by serving the needy while keeping your heart clean as you worship Jesus alone!

ME/WE

Mario Andretti

“If everything seems under control . . . [Slide 1]

“you’re just not going fast enough!” [Slides 2-3]

My name is Chad and I’m a recovering control freak.

Are there any others like me in the room this morning?

It seems to be the down-side of human nature to want to be in control of our lives.

Invictus

“Out of the night that covers me, black is the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever God may be for my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud, under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade and yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishment with scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”
–William Ernest Henley

Jack Welsh
Control your destiny or somebody else will.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzche
He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures.

Michael J. McCarthy
Your are in charge. You have the ability to master you destiny.

Do all of these self-confident statements of control really pan out in real life?

My Plans
and God

James 4:13-17

Assuming that my plans will happen is arrogance toward God.

That’s the crux of this wake-up-call-kind-of-passage from James.

GOD

James 4:13-14a (NLT)

13 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?

James 4:14a (MSG)

And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow.

Does this mean we don’t plan at all?

No, Scripture is full of instructions about being diligent and prudent, both of which require planning. As James goes on to say, it’s HOW we plan that is important.

James 4:14b-15 (NLT)

Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”

Proverbs 16:9 (NIV)

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

Proverbs 16:33 (NIV)

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

Proverbs 20:24 (NIV)

A man’s steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand his own way?

James 4:16 (NLT)
16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.
James 4:16 (CEV)
16Yet you are stupid enough to brag, and it is wrong to be so proud.
James 4:17 (NLT)
17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
Assuming that my plans will happen is arrogance toward God.
John Piper
I can imagine some American pragmatist saying, “What practical difference would it make in my business planning whether I believe my life is a vapor? Do I stop planning, because my life may be short or uncertain?” I think James would say, “No, you don’t stop planning. You don’t drop out of society. You don’t become a hermit, waiting for your little vapor of life to disappear.”
So what is the point? The point is that for James, and for God, it matters whether a true view of life informs and shapes the way you think and how you speak about your plans. Your mindset matters. How you talk about your plans matters. Ponder this. Believing that your life is a vapor may make no practical, bottom-line difference in whether you plan to do business in a place for one month or one year or ten years. But, in James’ mind – and he speaks for God – it makes a difference how you think about it and talk about it. “Come now you who say . . .”
Why? Why does that matter? Because God created us not just to do things and go places with our bodies, but to have certain attitudes and convictions and verbal descriptions that reflect the truth – a true view of life and God. God means for the truth about himself and about life to be known and felt and spoken as part of our reason for being. You weren’t just created to go to Denver and do business; you were made to go to Denver with thoughts and attitudes and words that reflect a right view of life and God.
Assuming that my plans will happen is arrogance toward God.

This leads us to ask a question so we can leave here knowing what to do about all this.

YOU/ WE

If assuming that my plans will happen is arrogance toward God, then how should we live our lives in light of this? What’s the right way to go from day to day? How do we plan but not be arrogant toward God?

Even as I make my plans, I must remember Who is really in control and submit my schedule to Him so that others see an unusual humility and God-consciousness in our lives!

Maybe the following story will help us understand how we’re to live our lives—how our plans go together with God’s control of our lives.
Just Pedal
At first, I saw God as my observer and my judge. Keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited Heaven or Hell when I die. But when I met Christ as my Savior, it was as though life was rather like a bike ride. But it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Christ was in the back helping me pedal.
I don’t know just when it was that He suggested that we change places, but life has never been the same since. When I had control, I knew the way. It was rather boring, but predictable, following the shortest distance between two points. But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, through rocky places at breakneck speed. It was all I could do to hang on! Even though it looked like madness, He said, “Pedal!”
I was worried and anxious and asked, “Where are you taking me?” He laughed and didn’t answer, and I started to learn to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into adventure. And when I’d say, “I’m scared,” He’d look back and touch my hand. He took me to people with gifts that I needed; gifts of love, acceptance and joy. They gave me gifts to take on my journey, My Lord’s and mine, and we were off again. He said, “Give away the gifts. They’re extra baggage, too much weight.” So I did, to people we met, and I found that in giving I received and my burden still was light.
I did not trust Him at first, in control of my life. I thought He’d wreck it, but He knows bike secrets, knows how to make it bend to take sharp curves, knows how to jump to clear high rocks, and how to fly to shorten scary passages. And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I’m beginning to enjoy the breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Jesus Christ. And when I’m sure I just can’t do any more, He just smiles and says–”Pedal!”
I must remember Who is really in control and submit my schedule to Him so that others see an unusual humility and God-consciousness in our lives!

WE ARE GIVING OUT FREE FOOD BOXES & SHARING CHRIST THE THIRD MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH FROM 10 A.M. TO 2 P.M. AT THE CHURCH.

GOD calls us to take care of the less fortunate and GOD has blessed us beyond measure with resources to do so. We are to be responsible stewards of GOD’s vast gifts and to use them in ways that pleases the LORD. We will spread the love of GOD and the Good News of Jesus Christ by sharing our gifts to feed the spiritually hungry and by supporting each other in our effort to be disciples of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.

There’s Hope for the Hungry is a scripture rooted, passion filled ministry, founded in prayer, which is committed to evangelizing and feeding people who are in need. There’s Hope for the Hungry will witness to the lost and feed those who are hungry to relieve human suffering and poverty worldwide in the name of Jesus Christ.

*Please email or call Pastor Chad if you are interested in receiving food or serving.

Other websites:

http://www.thereshopeforthehungry.org/purpose.htm

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=132850540067340&ref=ts

VIDEO about Judging Others

ME

I judge others way too often, way too quickly. And, I’ve been on the receiving end of the judgment of others.

Yesterday Jonas and I watched a lady in McDonald’s talk down to the workers there and get real ugly. I told Jonas it reminded me of when I was a teenager working at Hardee’s and how folks would get so angry and mean over innocent mistakes with their order. In college, I worked for a commercial lawncare company and was often looked at with scorn as I would walk into the food court of the mall where we were mowing for lunch—dirty, sweaty. We were treated as “less than”. And it was than that I realized just how judgmental I’d been all my life. I realized how I too had viewed people like that.

Who Do You Think You Are?
James 4:11-12

If I condemn others, I’m condemning God!

Simone Weil

I also am other than what I imagine myself to be. To know this is forgiveness.

Thomas Merton

I thank you, God, that I am like the rest of men.

If I condemn others, I’m condemning God!

YOU

Is this stuff ever a problem for you?

GOD

If I condemn others, I’m condemning God!
James 4:11a (NIV)
11aBrothers, do not slander one another.
What’s in the heart can always be found on the tongue!
Remember . . .
James 3:6-8 (NIV)
6The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
Publius, the Greek sage, put his finger on a technique we tend to forget when he admitted: “I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.”
Swindoll
Think first. Before your lips start moving, pause ten seconds and mentally preview your words. Are they accurate or exaggerated? Kind or cutting? Necessary or needless? Wholesome or vile? Grateful or complaining?
Talk less. You increase your chances of blowing it if you talk too much. Furthermore, compulsive talkers find it difficult to keep friends. Conserve your verbal energy!
Start today. Fit that muzzle on your mouth now. It’s a project you’ve put off long enough.

James 4:11b-12 (NIV)
11bAnyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
James 4:11-12 (NLT)
11 Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. 12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?

If I condemn others, I’m condemning God!

Matthew 22:37-40 (NLT)
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Romans 13:8-10 (CEV)
8Let love be your only debt! If you love others, you have done all that the Law demands. 9In the Law there are many commands, such as, “Be faithful in marriage. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not want what belongs to others.” But all of these are summed up in the command that says, “Love others as much as you love yourself.” 10No one who loves others will harm them. So love is all that the Law demands.

“When we fail to love, we are actually breaking God’s Law.” (NIV Study Bible, 2096)

If I condemn others, I’m condemning God!

YOU

So, how do you make sure we’re not condemning God? HOW do we get a handle on our own hearts when it comes to judging others?

James 4:7-10 (NLT)

7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

That’s tough to do, isn’t it? But check out this promise from God!

James 4:6 (NLT)
6 But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but favors the humble.”
If I condemn others, I’m condemning God!

Ephesians 4:32 (NLT)
32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
Grace and forgiveness must be our response to others—because it is God’s response to our sin!

Philip Yancey

Only by living in the stream of God’s grace will I find the strength to respond with grace toward others. A cease-fire between human beings depends upon a cease-fire with God. (What’s So Amazing About Grace?, 92)

Will Campbell

“In ten words or less, what’s the Christian message?” one agnostic had challenged him . . . I said, “We’re all bastards but God loves us anyway.” (Yancey, 142)

Yancey—“ . . . spiritually we are illegitimate children, invited despite our paternity to join God’s family . . . The free offer of grace extends not just to the undeserving but to those who in fact deserve the opposite.” (142, 144)

If I condemn others, I’m condemning God!

WE

Grace and forgiveness must be our response to others—because it is God’s response to our sin!

On the days of July 1 to July 3, 1863, the Union and Confederate armies clashed in the largest battle of the American Civil War at a little village named Gettysburg. More than 160,000 soldiers dressed in blue or gray entered those Pennsylvania fields, and a staggering 51,000 became casualties in the fighting.
Some of the fiercest combat occurred on the last day of the battle with what historians call “Pickett’s Charge.” General Robert E. Lee ordered an advance of some 14,000 Confederate troops led by George Pickett, across an open field, to take Cemetery Ridge held by Union troops and artillery dug in on the other side.
The battle lasted less than an hour, and not half of the Confederate troops survived. It was a bloody end to the deadliest battle in the Civil War’s history. The Union was the accepted “winner,” but winning is a term hardly appropriate for so much suffering.
Fifty years later, in July 1913, surviving veterans of the armies that fought that day returned to Gettysburg for a reunion. It was the largest gathering of Civil War veterans ever assembled, with more than 50,000 in attendance. The youngest veteran was 61 years old, and the senior member claimed to be 112.
In that summer the world was once again on the edge of war (isn’t it always?). There were terrible fears — socially, politically, and economically. But for a few days the nation set aside its anxieties and turned its attention to those old men once again assembled on the rolling hills of Pennsylvania.
The Washington Post wrote of the Gettysburg reunion: “Nothing could possibly be more impressive or more inspiring … than this gathering. They feel the thrill of bygone days, without a knowledge of its bitterness, which, thank God, has passed. But even more touching must be the emotions of these time-worn veterans, as they assemble on an occasion that in itself constitutes a greater victory than that of half a century ago.”
As part of the reunion, surviving members of Pickett’s Charge assembled for a reenactment. The old Union soldiers took their position on Cemetery Ridge, and the old Confederates marched across the open field as they had done 50 years earlier.
Frederick Buechner says, “Then an extraordinary thing happened,” as the old Union soldiers moved out to rush down at the old men marching across the field. “A great cry went up, only instead of doing battle as they had a half century earlier, this time they threw their arms around each other. They embraced and wept.”
Buechner goes on to use this as an example of the new world in which we can live. The old animosities and former battles between people that could not live together are gone. We are brought together as one people, not because of the flag we wave, but because of the love that Christ brings — even among those who were bitter enemies.
God’s love in Christ knows no limit. Serial killers, thieves, prostitutes, Wall Street pirates, dirty politicians, exploiters of the innocent, the enemies of our way of life: He doesn’t approve of injustices —God forbid — but still he loves all those in his world.
“While we were still sinners,” the Bible says, “Christ died for us.” Once we were God’s enemies but in Christ God took the necessary, loving steps to reconcile us to himself. So it is that when we love without limit, when we love those who are our enemies, we are reflecting the nature of God. No, it is not practical. It is not right, fair, or justifiable; but it is love.
Forgiveness of our enemies is not natural, because humans are innately violent. But when we follow and are changed by Jesus, we are set free from the slavery of our human nature and what the world declares as normal. To follow Christ means we have found a new way to live, set free to love those we once hated. And when we are no longer fastened to what we once were, that is the greatest victory of all.

If I condemn others, I’m condemning God!

But God WILL give all the grace we need to love and forgive and not be judgmental of others—but rather, to love and accept them, just as God, in Jesus Christ, has loved and accepted us!

Celebration of the Lord’s Supper

ME

I’ve had a week that’s been like this [Georgia Scorcher Slide].

At points, the ride was thrilling and invigorating—loops and twists, some intense G’s. Other turns were so sudden that they threw my back out. There were even some downhill plunges that, unlike the Georgia Scorcher, didn’t safely turn into an uphill climb, but just flat splatted at the bottom. And that’s sort of where it ended!

WE

Have you ever been “ridden that ride”? When was the last time life left you feeling “broken”?

[Broken Pot Slide]

The Grace Place
James 4:1-10

Brokenness is the only place God’s grace works!

I’m learning that sometimes it’s the expectations, the focus of my heart that make the ride so rough. When I start to think like the world around me and not like a Jesus-follower, it’s then that the ride gets really crazy and my interpretation of the stuff that comes my way is really skewed.

GOD
James 4:1-10 (NLT)
1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy? 6 But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but favors the humble.”
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
Brokenness is the only place God’s grace works!

Paul Tournier

True liberty is not found without confession of our sins and the experience of divine forgiveness.

Brennan Manning tells the story of a man he knew “who for twenty-five years has refused to allow a cross or crucifix in his home. Far from being superficial, he is a person of integrity. He doesn’t shout with the crowd, nor does he dismiss Christianity as a musty antique of a medieval past. Why then does he refuse? In his own words, “I can’t stand the Cross. It is a denial of all that I value in life. I am a proud man, sensual, I seek pleasure. The Cross reproaches me. It says, ‘You’re wrong. Your life must take this shape. This is the only true interpretation of life, and life is true only when it takes this form.’ And so, he will not allow a symbol of the crucified Christ in his home. In his honesty he knows that to do so, he must commit himself to a way of life that contradicts the life he is living.” (35-36)

Brokenness is the only place God’s grace works!

James 4:1-10 (MSG)

1-2Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.
2-3You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to. You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way.
4You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way.
Ligon Duncan
. . . even American Christians have fallen prey to a blended version of spirituality. The Shorter Catechism says that the chief purpose of life is to glorify God. American Christians really don’t believe that. American Christians believe that God is the best way to get the good life, rather than the chief goal of the good life. He’s the best means to getting my ends, rather than, my purpose is His glory as my end and goal. To put it another way, John Piper says, “Christ does not exist in order to make much of us, we exist in order to make much of Him.” And if we think that God and Christ exist in order to make much of us, in order to fulfill all of the immediate desires that we have, then we have already fallen prey to the worldliness about which James is speaking.
5-6And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.”
Ligon Duncan
God’s grace is the source of our ability to be separated from the world, or ability to be consecrated to God.

Alec Motyer re: Verse 6

What comfort there is in this verse. It tells us that God is tirelessly on our side. He never falters in respect of our needs. He always has more grace at hand. He is never less than sufficient. He always has more and yet more to give. Whatever we may forfeit when we put self first, we cannot forfeit salvation for there’s always more grace. No matter what we do to Him, He is never beaten. We may play false to the grace of election, we may contradict the grace of reconciliation, we may overlook the grace of indwelling but He gives more grace. Even if we were to turn to Him and say…what I have received so far is much less than enough…He would reply…well you may have more. His resources are never at an end. His patience is never exhausted, His initiative never stops, His generosity knows no limit…He gives more grace.

7-10So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.

James Hewitt

Repentance is not like the person who sent the IRS a check for $150 with the remark, “If I can’t sleep, I’ll send you the rest.”

Brokenness is the only place God’s grace works!

YOU

Is any of this registering in your heart this morning? Have you, like me, made yourself an enemy of God and begun to interpret life from that vantage point?

Brokenness is the only place God’s grace works!

The truth is that we need to stay broken day by day. If we would stay on our knees before the Cross, there’s more than enough grace to help us resist the world and to keep us from going to war with the One that died for us!

WE

Brokenness is the only place God’s grace works!

“There was a soldier in World War I who was so distraught with the war that he deserted. He tried to find his way to the coast so he could catch a boat and make his way back incognito to his homeland in England. In the darkness of the night he stumbled on a road sign. It was so pitch black dark and he was so lost. He had no idea where he was or what the sign said. He decided to climb the pole. When he got to the crossbeam, he held on to read the sign. Taking out a match, he lit it, and looked directly in the face of Jesus Christ. He had climbed and outdoor crucifix! Stunned by what he saw, he realized the shame of his life. He was looking into the face of the One who had endured it all and had never turned back. The next morning the soldier was back in the trenches” (Swindoll, 169).