Showing posts with label Obedience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obedience. Show all posts

Storing Up God's Word in Our Hearts

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Tuesday, July 17, 2012 11:25 AM

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I want to share that I was challenged in my Sunday school group this week by Keith Higginbotham. He said something that got me thinking. He shared that before his feet hit the floor in the morning he meditates on the Lord’s Prayer. I want to encourage and challenge all of us to do just that. Wake up 5 or 10 minutes early and meditate on God’s Word. This is a time that we all would connect with God. Go over the verses you are memorizing (hint: Proverbs 26:13-16) and meditate on them. Ask three key questions: “What do they say?” “What do they mean?” “What does it matter?”

Remember what David wrote,

"I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." (Psalm 119:11)

Grace & Peace,
Scott

Is the Book of Judges Our Story Too?

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Monday, May 07, 2012 10:37 AM

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As I bring another series of messages to a close I usually look back and wonder if we got it. Did we get the main point of what the author of Judges was trying to communicate? If we didn’t then I feel that I haven’t accomplished what God has called me to do. If I could give you a one-sentence summary of Judges it would be:

Forgetting God and excessively devoting ourselves to something else always ends in being enslaved by those idols.

Time and time again the tribes of Israel forgot about God and pursued the gods of their day. The phrase “Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD” is repeated seven times (2:11; 3:7, 12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; 13:1) and gives us a clue as to their problem. The root of the Hebrews’ evil was in forgetting God and chasing after the gods of their time. The gods they became devoted to were the false religions of the day. They began worshipping the Baals and Asheroth of the Philistines and the Amorites and the Perizites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

Once they were on the road to idolatry God would give them over to be “owned” by these foreign nations. Soon enough the Israelites would have enough and would cry out to God for deliverance. What is beautiful in the story of Judges is that even though the Israelites forgot God, God never forgot them. The evidence of this is that when they repented God was there to rescue them from the domination of the nations and their gods. He would raise up a judge to lead them out of their oppression and slavery. This deliverance resulted in years of blessing, peace and prosperity. And then the cycle would begin again…

The difference between then and today is that our gods don’t look the same. Yes, we have the same problem of excessive devotion to something else other than God, but we usually don’t worship our gods by making little statues. Our gods follow the American dream that in reality is a nightmare. Our gods are leisure, consumerism, addiction, entertainment and narcissism. We have become so consumed with the things of this world that following God is no longer engaging. To be honest the gods of the 21st century “own” us and are beating us down every day. The only way out is to cry out to God and ask Him to rescue us.

The design of preaching through Judges was not to be a wet blanket but to give us all hope when we find ourselves buried under a present-day god of this world. The hope is found in pursuing our relationship with God, not chasing after the American dream!

Grace & Peace,
Scott

We Are in This Thing Together

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Wednesday, August 18, 2010 5:23 PM

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Recently while visiting a shut-in she said to me, "I never want to be alone." My response to this sweet follower of Jesus was, "God never intended for us to go through life alone." This is part of what the church must be--a family. God has called us to community. "Community" means "a unified body of individuals" (Merriam-Webster). In other words, we are in this thing together. For me this involves at least the following marks (taken from Philippians 2);

Unity. We are united in Christ therefore we are one in purpose.

Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind (v. 2).

This doesn't mean for us to be mindless robots, but I believe it means for us to be unified in the goal of honoring God through His church. God has put us together not to tear each other apart but to build one another up.

Humility. No single person is more important than the whole. Mavericks like to go about their business without any notion of having to think about how their actions will affect others. Humility kills the spirit of mavericks because we see the value of others through the eyes of God.

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves (v. 3).

Deference. Deferring to others is not a sign of weakness. When we defer to somebody else's plans or desires it communicates a loving acceptance that should be commonplace in the church. It should never be "My way or the highway"; it must always be "God's way"!

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others (v. 4).

Looking out for number one is a terrible philosophy on two fronts: First, it is selfish. And second, what makes me think I'm number one?

Following Christ's Pattern. I'm so thankful God didn't leave us without instructions on how to live (i.e., the Bible), but I'm equally thankful He sent Jesus as an example of how to live in this world.

Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus (v. 5).

We must actually follow Jesus, not just talk about it!

Grace & Peace,
Scott

How We Build Is Important

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Wednesday, September 09, 2009 3:12 PM

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Last Sunday I preached the final message from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. He eloquently and appropriately ended His teaching with an illustration about two builders. One builder He calls “wise” because he not only hears the words of Jesus but he also puts them into practice. The other builder is not so fortunate…Jesus labels him a “fool” because he hears his words but refuses to practice them. I want to stress three points about this illustration and then I’ll give the Sermon on the Mount a rest for a little while.

First, it all swings on obedience. When Jesus observes that one builder “Hears these words of mind and does them” while the other “hears these words of mind and does not do them” He is referring back to the entire teaching He presented in Matthew 5-7. He is saying that hearing is not enough; just hearing leaves us better informed, but not changed. The aim of God’s truth is to change us, not make us smarter. James echoes this in his letter to the scattered and embittered believing Jews of his time:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22)

Second, storms will crash into our lives. Jesus is specific, He speaks as straightforward and honest as He can, “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house” (cf. Matthew 7:27). Calamities are an inevitable part of human existence…we cannot escape them. The storm that hits you may not necessarily be like anyone else’s. But you can bet the farm on the fact that storms will come. According to Jesus, only those who have built their lives in obedience to the norms of the kingdom (i.e., Matthew 5-7) will survive.

Third, eternity is at stake. Some who read this may be thinking, “So what.” That is the prevalent attitude in the world today and I am afraid it is also the prevailing attitude in the church. Now, good, church-going, giving, people may not verbally say this, but it is expressed in their nonchalant, ho-hum attitude toward the life Jesus teaches about in the Sermon on the Mount. We must come to grips with the consequences Jesus is teaching about. On one hand, some people’s houses (i.e., their lives) will stand in spite of being hit by torrential problems. He is saying that those lives will make it into heaven in the end. On the other hand, other’s houses will fall (and it will be a great fall), meaning that they will face eternity without God (cf. Matthew 7:19, 23).

Grace & Peace, Scott

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