I have spent the last couple of days talking about that we should live with a sense of urgency because Jesus could return at any moment.  Today I want to explore the church’s role in all of this.  I believe one of the greatest reasons that people are not living with urgency knowing that Jesus could return at any moment is because of the church.  By in large, the church of Jesus Christ has lost its focus and its urgency.  And if God’s people are living as though Jesus could return at any moment, why should the rest of the world?  Paul wrote in Romans 13:11, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”  Paul was writing to the church at Rome here and he was telling the church to wake up and realize what time it is.

Have you ever set an alarm clock the night before then when it went off in the morning you cut it off by accident instead of hitting the snooze button?  Then all of the sudden you wake up and realize it is 5 minutes until you are suppose to be at work and you live 45 minutes away.  Something similar happened to me a few weeks ago.  I had worked much later than I planned on the night before, in fact not getting into bed until two in the morning.  For Christmas Diana got me an alarm clock that I dock my iPhone with and so the alarm is one of my iTunes songs.  In my fog that morning after only getting a few hours of sleep, I grabbed the remote and hit the power button to turn it off.  I just thought that maybe I turned my music on by accident.  I had forgotten that it was my alarm clock.  I woke up at 7:45 that morning in a panic because the kids had not woken up yet and they had to be at school in 15 minutes.  They weren’t dressed, fed, lunches packed, or teeth brushed.  Needless to say they were late to school that day.  Anyone who knows me is aware that I can not stand being late, it embarrasses me horribly.  So you can imagine my horror when one of the boys teachers sent me a text message to see if they were coming to school.  I wonder if we as Christians would be as panicked or embarrassed if Jesus returned and we were living in sin as we are when we oversleep (or whatever embarrasses you).  I believe that is the reason Paul wrote Ephesians 5:15-16 which says, “See then that ye walk circumspectly (cautiously), not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

It is time for the church to act like and look like the bride of Christ.  We cannot continue to fuss, fight, and divide our churches over meaningless things.  We cannot continue to live as though Jesus is not going to return.  Because when we do, we give the world a false sense of security that will ultimately lead to their eternal damnation.  Can we honestly be ok with people not going to heaven because we wanted to live like hell (no it is not entirely our fault if they go to hell, they have a choice of accepting or rejecting Jesus for themselves, but we need to show them the differences in their choices)?  We must live out the truth that Jesus Christ has saved us and changed us and then we must tell others that He can and will do the same thing for them, and we need to urge them to make that decision today so they don’t have to worry if they have tomorrow or 1,000 tomorrows.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

Yesterday I wrote that we should feel a sense of urgency toward the Gospel because Jesus could return at any moment.  Today, I want us to understand we should have a sense of urgency because life is short.  James 4:14 reminds us “. . .for what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”  I realize this isn’t exactly the most pleasant thought in the world, but do you realize that from the moment you were born, you began to die?  Do you know what humans and the world have in common?  They both have more time behind them than they do in front of them.  The truth of the matter is we are getting older and death is getting closer and closer.  Again that may not be the most appealing thought you have today, but it doesn’t make it any less true.  There comes a time in our life (generally after a life changing event such as a heart attack, stroke, cancer, etc) in which we begin to think about our own death.  I guess that is ok as long as we have that life changing event.  But what about those who don’t have that “wake up call?”  Many times after our life changing event we sit down and begin to get our affairs in order.  That is all well and good, but the Bible urges us to get our affairs in order as soon as we can because our life is here today and gone tomorrow.  God never promised us that we would have a life changing moment that would allow us to get our affairs in order.  I remember when I use to sell life insurance we were trained that when a person said “I don’t think I really need life insurance right now” we were to say “I hope you don’t need it right now, but it is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”  The same is true about facing our own death and eternity.  It is better to be prepared for it now, then to step out into eternity unprepared because then there is nothing you can do to change it.  We all know we need to be prepared for anything.  It is one thing to not have milk or bread when a snowstorm comes and the roads are blocked for a day or two.  It is another thing entirely to not be prepared for your eternity.  Take the time today to make sure you are prepared for eternity, whenever it begins for you.  To know you are prepared I refer you back to Acts 2:38 just like yesterday, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins.”  Don’t put off until tomorrow that which must be done today, because tomorrow may never come!

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

Have you ever had something burden you so deeply that you almost didn’t know what to do with it?  As I sit in my office this afternoon many people here in Virginia are awaiting the snow to begin falling.  In fact snow crews are being dispatched, schools are closing early, and the grocery store is a mad house.  If we are to believe the meteorologist it is not a question of if it will snow, but rather a question of when will it start.  And so there is a sense of anxiousness for some people who are at work and are concerned about whether they will be able to get home after dark when the heaviest of snow is to fall.  And there is a great sense of urgency in many people (especially school children).  What if we had the same feeling of excitement and expectation for Christ’s return as the children have for the snow that is coming? The Bible tells us in Matthew 24:36, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”  In its historical context Jesus was speaking His Second Coming after the seven year Tribulation Period. However, it is still applicable to us today because many Christians (I am one of them) believe the Bible speaks of an event that precedes the beginning of the Tribulation Period.  That event is known as the rapture in which Christ comes for His church and takes us to heaven (John 14:3; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-54) before the world falls into utter chaos and a man known as the Antichrist arrives on the scene.  And so logically it follows that if we don’t know when the Second Coming of Christ (the time when it literally comes to earth and rules from Jerusalem), then we also do not know when the rapture will take place.  Many people have spoken of and preachers have preached on the “last days.”  Let’s be clear on this point, we have been in the “last days” for nearly 2,000 years, because since Jesus ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9), at any moment after that the rapture could take place.  If we understand the “last days” in that context then we should all have a sense of urgency because the rapture literally could happen at any moment.  In fact the longer we go without it happening means the closer it is getting (in other words there is more time behind us than in front of us). We must understand that everyone, regardless of their religious beliefs, is but one breath (death) or one event (the rapture) away from having their life forever changed.  If this doesn’t create a sense of urgency, I’m not sure what will.

This urgency and anxiousness can be replaced by the peace that comes from knowing you have given your heart and life to Christ and are eternally secure in Him.  The Jews who heard Peter preach on the day of Pentecost understood the urgency (that was nearly 2,000 years ago, so how much more urgent should we be).  In Acts 2:37 we see some Jews ask Peter a question, “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”  Peter gave a response that is still applicable today in Acts 2:38, “Repent (turn away from trusting yourself to be good enough to get into heaven), and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission (removal) of sins. . .”  Peter was teaching that to have peace with God, you must stop trusting yourself and start trusting Jesus with your heart and your life.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

The title of this blog entry is something that many times we ask around Thanksgiving time.  When we ask the question, what are you grateful for, many answers are given.  Some are grateful for their family, their health, their job, etc.  These are all things that we should be grateful for, because they are blessings from God (cf. James 1:17).  But there is another truth about these things.  That truth is that they are temporary things.  These are things that we have throughout our life, but eventually they fade away.  They are also things that we cling to in order to bring us satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment in this life.  The problem them becomes very obvious.  When you put your worth and sense of fulfillment into something that may or may not be here tomorrow, there will come a time in which you feel as though you have nothing.  We must understand that is nothing wrong with getting enjoyment from these things.  As a husband and a father, I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids.  I have often said that the difference between a bad day and a good day can be whether or not I am home or not.  Because for me even the toughest of days melts away when I walk through the door and my kids come running to greet me with a “daddy’s home!”  I have been blessed in my health in many ways, despite not taking the best of care of myself, I am still able to play with my children and enjoy life.  I may be one of the few people (very few I believe in talking to others) that really enjoys what I do for a living.  I often tell people, “I don’t have a job, I have a calling” (and trust me there is a huge difference between those two things).  You can enjoy these things, but to put your self-worth or a sense of accomplishment into any thing of this earth is simply setting yourself up for failure.

As I was reading a devotional this morning I came across these two verses.  Romans 4:7-8, “Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”  The word “blessed” here in the Greek is “makarios” which means happy or to make happy.  So these verses are describing those who are truly happy (grateful).  They are the people who are forgiven, sins are wiped clean, and will never answer for their sin.  This is an eternal standing given to us by God and secured to us by Jesus Christ dying on the cross.  So many times we (especially those of us who have been in church for many years) forget to thank God for what He has done for us in the way of salvation.  I want to challenge us to each day thank God for the work Jesus did upon the cross.  May we all be grateful for what saved us and is changing us, the blood of Jesus Christ.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

Over the course of the next several days college football’s season will come to an end.  There was a game on the other night that was particularly intriguing.  It was a match-up between the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the University of Southern California Trojans.  If I simply mentioned that Georgia Tech won most people wouldn’t really care or see the importance of mentioning it in a blog.  But what if I told you that coming into the game Georgia Tech had a losing record (6-7 entering the game) and USC was the number 1 ranked team at the beginning of the season?  Both of those statements are true!  USC began this year as the top ranked team in the country and approximately 14 weeks later ended the same season by losing to a team with a losing record.  Why does that matter in the realm of Christianity?  It matters because as the old saying goes, “it’s not where you start that matters, but rather where you finish.”  The Bible is full of stories of people who didn’t get off to the best start.  People like Joseph in the Old Testament.  A young smart-mouthed kid who told his parents and brothers they would one day bow down to him turned into the man God used to save the nation of Israel during a horrible famine in the land.  Or how about Jacob, a young man who stole the birthright from his older brother who would end up being the father of the sons that would begin the nation of Israel?  Or Peter who was last seen before the crucifixion of Christ cussing and denying knowing Jesus, but after the resurrection becoming a powerful evangelist.  Let’s consider Paul who when we first encounter him goes by the name of Saul.  Saul had a letter in hand giving him permission to find and imprison and/or kill Christians, yet God blinds him with a light, he changes his name to Paul, and becomes the greatest missionary in the New Testament.  We all have a past, but our past doesn’t have to dictate our future.  It is best expressed in the saying “every saint has a past and every sinner can have a better future.”  As we begin a new year, maybe you realize that something has got to change. The thing you must realize is this, you don’t have the power to produce lasting change.  If you did, you would have done it already.  That is why the majority of New Year’s resolutions will fail within the first 30 days of 2013.  However, just as in the case of Joseph, Jacob, Peter, and Paul, God has the power to change who you are and where you are headed in this life and in the life to come.  But you must surrender your heart and life to Him.  We may not be able to hit the rewind button in life and do things differently, but when we come to Christ confessing our sins and placing our faith in Him to save us, He erases our past and gives us a right standing with God.  So don’t worry if you have gotten off to a lousy start in life, or even if you are stumbling out of the blocks right now.  The important thing is to recognize that change needs to happen and then surrender your heart and life so that God can make that change.  It’s one thing to start slow or lousy, it is another thing to finish that way.  Surrender your heart and life to Christ and let Him take you from worst to first!

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him!

From my family to yours, Happy New Year!  It is hard to believe that 2012 is already over and we are starting over again.  Each new year reminds me of God’s grace and the second chances He gives us.  Both a new year and God’s grace are undeserved, and both are not promised to us.  So many times as the new year begins we make resolutions or vows that we will do better.  Yet so many times those resolutions or vows end up failing, and this causes us to feel like failures.  We get in our minds (partly because satan puts it there) that we have yet again let God down.  Let us remember that we don’t hold God up, it is Him who holds us up.  I would like to suggest a few things that may help keeping those resolutions a reality for you this year.  First and most importantly it must be a “love thing.”  Many times our resolutions to follow God closer this year are done because we are dissatisfied with our walk with Christ.  Guilt may be a good motivator for a while, but eventually it just fades into shame.  If we are truly going to follow God closer this year it must be because we love Him and appreciate Him more.  The second thing is that it must be a “want to thing” not a “have to thing.”  Much like guilt, obligations can motivate us to do certain things for a certain amount of time, but eventually it fades.  If I love God the way I am suppose to (see Mt. 22:37) then I am going to want to spend more time with Him and get to know Him better.  If I do it simply because that is what a Christian is suppose to do, eventually the cares and concerns of our life will choke this out and we will end up back in the same rut we are closing 2012 out in.  Finally, and this one sums up the other two in many ways, it must be a “relationship thing” not a “religion thing.”  By God’s grace I have been married to Diana for eight years (almost nine).  The key to our relationship (one of many) has been we enjoy spending time together.  The reason I enjoy spending time with her is because I love her, but I also want to know more about her.  The only way I can learn more about her is to willingly and deliberately choose to spend time with her.  The same principle that applies to marriage, applies to our relationship with God.  I pray 2013 we will become more like Christ.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

My wife and I were doing what millions of people in America are doing, cleaning up from Christmas.  It still amazes me that a perfectly clean house can turn into a federal disaster area in less than 10 minutes.  With the opening of the new toys by the boys and the putting up of Christmas decorations, my wife decided we need to re-arrange some things in the house.  Diana and I have been married for eight years now and one of the first purchases we made as a couple was an over-sized microfiber recliner.  I absolutely loved that recliner, not only because it was over-sized, soft, and comfortable.  But also because I could sit and hold the boys beside me in it, and I did just that with all three of them.  I spent many nights holding our newborn sons and taking naps with them in that chair.  However, it became slightly broken over the past couple of years.  Diana argued that it should have been thrown away several years ago, but I will leave that discussion for another day.  The first step in her plan to get me to throw it away was to move it from upstairs to downstairs in my mancave/office.  Although I knew what she was up to I figured it could go down there because at least it was still in the house.  However, just 24 hours ago the final stage of her plan was accomplished and I took the recliner and threw it away.  I tried every trick in the book I could think of to keep it including playing the “sentimental” card of “but honey that is the first thing we bought together as a married couple, it is special” (please don’t judge my desperation to keep this chair, did I mention it was the most comfortable chair I have ever had?).  But alas I even realized that one side was laying back so far as to almost be touching the wall, it was broke, and it was time.

That chair is kind of like our sin nature isn’t it?  We know that once we become a Christian and God begins working in our heart that many things are going to change because our love for God out weighs our love for worldly pleasure.  But it is hard to let some things go isn’t it?  We make excuses such as “well it takes time” or “it’s not really that bad is it” or “God will forgive me for this.”  We need to see them for what they really are, excuses to live in sin when God has said it needs to go.  Paul wrote in Romans 6:11, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  In other places Paul would say we need to crucify our flesh with the Lord Jesus.  They both mean the same thing, our sinful lifestyle much like the broken recliner must go.  If we are honest with ourselves we aren’t missing much.  After all sin always over promised and under delivered didn’t it?  But there is something about familiarity and comfort that causes us to want to keep it around even though we know there is something better in Jesus Christ.

Since moving the recliner downstairs, Diana and I have gotten a couple of recliners that nice and comfortable, and the best part is neither of them will dump you in the floor if you lean back in them (the old one sure would). I still get to hold the boys in either chair, so I haven’t lost anything that was important to me, I have just gained safety and security.  It is the same with dying to our sin nature and living for Christ.  You won’t lost anything that is truly important to you (most things we call important simply aren’t really important), and what you gain is far greater than anything you ever had.  Go ahead, confess your sins to Christ, ask for His help in giving them to Him and burying them for good.  I promise you it is worth it!

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

Have you ever had the best of intentions only to see them not come to fruition?  I apologize it has taken this long to get part three posted.  I want to finish up the discussion of the shepherds in the Christmas story by talking about what they did once the angel had announced the birth of the Messiah.

We notice is in verse 15 and it is the fact that the shepherds wanted to go investigate what they had been told.  In this day and age there are so many people claiming to have a word from God, but they are nothing more than false teachers who are leading people astray.  The Bible tells us in 1 John 4 to “test every spirit to see if it is from God.”  When someone says “the Bible says” or “God told me” we need to take the time to go and find out if what we are being told is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth from God.  To show that what they were told was true the angel gave them a sign, the babe wrapped in clothes in a manger.  Notice what verse 16 says, “And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.”  It was just as the angel had told them and so now they have confirmed they have received a message from God.  But their responsibility doesn’t end there.

Luke 2:17 says, “And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.”  The shepherds went and made the message known.  Notice it doesn’t say they made their opinions known abroad, but rather they made the message they had been given known.  So many times we want to offer our opinions, but many times our opinions muddy the waters.  The Word of God speaks for itself and can defend itself.  A proclaimer (not just preachers, teachers, or evangelist) is simply to proclaim the Word.  It is the Holy Spirit who is going to convict a person and draw them, not the one sharing the message. So many times we worry about what we are going to say to a person.  This leads to us depending upon ourselves to bring a person to God.  The best thing we can do is to pray for opportunities to share the Gospel, pray before we begin sharing (even if simply quietly to yourself), and then trust the Holy Spirit to do the work the Father sent Him to do.  When sharing the Gospel, keep it simple, clear, and concise.  The Gospel is Jesus Christ crucified for the sins of the world, buried, and on the third day risen from the dead, and now offering us forgiveness of our sins and eternal life.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

This is designed to be a continuation of the sermon from this past Sunday at Westlake Baptist.  I wanted to continue this because I had so many notes and points I wanted to make, but God only had one point to emphasize from the pulpit.  So hopefully this will encourage you as we continue to look at the passage of Luke 2:8-20.

By way of review, the one point we extracted from our text on Sunday was that God’s gift was given to everyone (verse 10).  That is something that we cannot lose sight of is, is the fact that God intends the Gospel to be shared with everyone and that it is our job as “shepherds” to to and tell all the things we have seen and heard. We are to act as the shepherds did because God has revealed Himself to us and invited us to be a part of His plan, just as He revealed Himself and invited the shepherds to share His plan with the world.  So that is a quick synopsis of this past Sunday’s message and today’s point continues along that line.

Today I want us to consider what we are taking to the world.  Luke 2:11 says, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”  The message you and I are taking to the world is that a Savior has been given to us by God and His identity is Christ the Lord.  Now that seems so simplistic that those who have been in church for a while may be yawning or rolling their eyes saying “I know this already.”  I have no doubt that you do already know it, but the question is, do we appreciate what God did?  First we must realize our need.  Philippians 4:19 says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  So if God gave us a gift, then we must have had a need.  God gave us something that we didn’t already have, but that we surely needed, He gave us a Savior.  The word Savior in the Greek means deliverer.  In other words, what God gave us was designed to deliver us from something.  We find out in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”  Because of Adam’s disobedience we inherited his sin nature, which means we also inherited death as its by-product.  Therefore, God’s gift of a Savior came to deliver us from sin (the problem), but also from the results of sin (death).  Therefore, we can conclude that since God sent us a Savior that we did not already have a way to be delivered from sin and death.  This is confirmed in Scripture in Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, “For by grace (unmerited favor) are you saved through faith; and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God (bold mine): not of works, lest any man should boast.”  Within ourselves there was and is no way to be delivered (saved) from sin or death.  And so God as a gift to show us grace sent a Savior.

Even though we didn’t realize that we needed this gift, and although the world says that you have within yourself the gift, God knew that we needed this gift and so He supplied it for us.  Have you spent any time today thanking God for meeting this need?  Have you thanked God that He already knows every need you have, and He has already provided a way for you to get that?  In this busy season of Christmas services, Christmas shopping, Christmas parties, etc. let’s all make sure we take time to say thank you for a Savior sent from God.

Lord willing tomorrow, we will look at the “shepherds” responsibility once they had been told about the Savior.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him!

Have you ever had someone in your life that you struggle with truly loving?  Someone who just rubs you the wrong way?  You feel guilty about feeling the way that you do and you ask God to help you love them.  After all it seems like such a simple command, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:39).  Yet it seems at least at times like the hardest thing to do.  Have you ever found yourself arguing with God about this command or trying to justify why instead of extending the right hand of fellowship you want to extend the right fist?  Sometimes you feel like a little child being scolded by your parents and the only answer you can give is “but…but…but.”  The truth of the matter is, Jesus said what He meant and He meant what He said, we are to love our neighbor as our self.  And let’s be honest for a moment we laughed when a pro football player said it, but we agree with it when he said “I love me some me” (Terrell Owens-a then Dallas Cowboys player).  So many times because we love our self we are quick to forgive the sins we commit, and we expect people to judge us by what we meant to say or do rather than what we actually said or did.  There is a line in the movie “Facing the Giants” that seems very applicable here when Coach Grant Taylor said to one of his players, “You can’t judge others by their actions and then expect them to judge you by your intentions.”  I realize and agree with you (who are probably arguing with me by now) that there are those people in your life and in my life that make it very hard to fulfill Jesus’ command.  But Paul reminds us of something that is very important here.  Romans 12:9a, “Let love be without dissimulation.”  The word dissimulation means hypocrisy.  So Paul said, “Let love with be without hypocrisy.”  This means we must not only act like we love others, but we must really love them as Christ as commanded us.  However, it also means that we must love all people and not just those that we choose to love.  Jesus said what are we proving if we only love those who love us, don’t the unsaved even do that (Mt. 5:46 paraphrased)?

We need to stop rationalizing and stop making excuses for ourselves and begin following Christ’s commands.  After all Jesus did say in John 14:15, “If you love me keep my commands.” Some may ask what commands is Jesus referencing here?  He boiled the entire Law and all the prophets down to two commands, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (Mt. 22:37); and Love your neighbor as yourself (Mt. 22:39).”  If we are going to love people we need to realize they were made in God’s image just as we were (Gen. 1:26).  This means that all people have infinite value to God.  We need to realize that Christ died for them just as He died for us.  This means that all people have redemptive value to God.  And finally we need to realize that just as God has forgiven us for how we have hurt Him and treated Him, we are commanded to forgive those who have hurt or mistreated us (Eph. 4:32). One final question, how would your life change if you started looking at people as Christ looks at them?  My guess is how we treated and interacted with one another would change dramatically because we would all be concerned with each others eternal destiny instead of our temporary reality.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him.