What Will I Give Him?

Nathan has spent the past three weeks teaching us. Let's recap!

Two weeks ago, he taught from Matthew 13:44-46. It is the passage about a man who sells all he has to be able to purchase a pearl of great value and another man who did the same to purchase a field with a treasure hidden in it.

Our conclusion that day was that what the man GAINED was obviously worth more than what he gave up. We listed all the things we have in Christ, for that is what we gain. (See the post below from December 27.)

Last week, he continued on the theme, and then talked about the value of what we gain by serving Christ, and reminded us that we cannot focus on two things at the same time. We cannot pursue Christ wholeheartedly, if our attention is on something else. "No man can serve two masters." (Matthew 6:24)

So today, with those two concepts in mind--the great worth of what we gain in Christ and the fact that it is impossible to pursue Christ and something else at the same time--we talked about the importance of being set apart for Him. Remember that when we are set apart for Him it means we are also set apart from something else. It involves giving up whatever would keep us from pursuing him with a single minded focus.

Now this doesn't mean that God wants us all to sell or give away all we have, live on the streets, quit our jobs and sit around and pray all day. We don't need to do anything unless He tells us to. We don't need to make a renewed commitment to do more or be more or take on more. We need to listen and obey Him. If He tells us to take on something, do it! If He tells us to give up something, do it!

The point is to listen to Him. Ask Him what is keeping you from focusing on Him, and when He tells you what it is, then repent and obey Him. He may tell you to give up your focus on one of the things we listed on the white board: toys, hard work, children/grandchildren, sports, retirement, marriage, relationships, causes, etc. Are any of those things bad or wrong? Of course not! But if they are becoming the focus of your life, then they have become an idol in your life. You cannot focus on two things at once. You cannot serve two masters.

Focus on Christ as your ONLY master. Listen to what He tells you to do. Adjust your life accordingly!

Thoughts?

What Is It Worth?

On Sunday, Nathan shared with us part two of a three part message. You will remember that last Sunday (see the previous post below) he talked with us about the things we receive by being "in Christ." It was an amazing list of the benefits of choosing Him.

To review Sunday's message, here are some highlights that stood out to me:

1) We have to give up everything else, (just as we read in Matthew 13:44-46 we have to sell the lesser thing to gain the greater) because otherwise God is just "one more thing" in our collection. That leads to the next point.

2) We can't serve two masters. We are not very good multi-taskers. We can't focus on God while focusing on something else as well.

3) We value the thing we choose and devalue the one we don't. We will rejoice in what we acquire or seek to acquire, and we will downplay that which we choose not to acquire.

4) There are some consequences of not pursuing what we say we value:

• A limited ability to rejoice in Him, when we aren't choosing him.
• A loss of enthusiasm/zeal for the things of God.
• A loss of confidence and an experience of doubt.

5) There are some biblical remedies for the temptation to focus on other things:

• Philemon 1:6 - Be active in sharing your faith so that you will have full understanding.
• Matthew 6:25-33 - Seek God and His kingdom, and then all the "stuff" that you need will be provided.
• I Timothy 6:6-19 - Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Don't pursue riches, but pursue God and He will give richly all you need.
• Philippians 4:10-19 - Two things here: You can do all things, including enduring hardship, through Christ. When you share what you have, God will supply what you need.

And finally, a passage that sums it all up:

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and
be content with what you have, because God has
said, 'Never will I leave you; never will
I forsake you.' So we say with confidence,
'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?'"
Hebrews 13:5-6

If God is with us, if He is our helper, we have nothing to fear. Not only that, but we can pursue Him, love Him, and turn from other things, because He is all we need. We can be content.

What are your thoughts?

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it." (Matthew 13:44-46)

On Sunday Nathan talked with us about those things that are available to us when we are in Christ. As we went through the scriptures, we discovered why the passage in Matthew makes sense. Why a man would sell all he had to gain a "hidden treasure" or a "pearl of great value."

Remember the list we generated from the New Testament scriptures we read? What do we gain from our relationship with Christ? Is there anything better than those things on our list? Here is that list, to refresh your memory:

Redemption xxxxx Forgiveness xxxxxEquality
Access to God xxxxx Wisdom xxxxx Understanding
Provision xxxxx Peace xxxxx No shame xxxxx Faith
Hope xxxxx Righteousness xxxxx Freedom
Light xxxxx New creation xxxxx Brought near to God
Confident xxxxx Life xxxxx Love
No condemnation xxxxx Grace xxxxx Mercy
Body of Christ (family) xxxxx Fullness/Completeness

Which of these resonate with you? For which of these are you most thankful? How do these things compare with the temporary things of this world that you value?

Talk to me!

What Should I Do While I'm Waiting for God to Answer?"

On Sunday we talked about waiting for answers to prayer. All of us have experienced that at one time or another. We pray and we wait, and then we pray again. Do you ever wonder if God is just really busy or if He is sleeping? It brings to mind the old Andrae Crouch song

He never sleeps. He never slumbers.
He watches me both night and day.
He never sleeps. He never slumbers.
The reason I know - He told me so.

One thing I hope that you got from my message is that delayed answers to prayer always have a purpose. Let's expand on a couple of the points, shall we?

1) When answers are delayed, consider how God is preparing your life for what He has for you. Ask God what He is trying to say to you or what He wants to change in your life. God always has a plan, and part of His plan is to use things in our lives (including having to wait for an answer to prayer) for good.

He wants to accomplish something, so the best thing you can do is cooperate with that. Start seeking not only answers to your prayers, but answers to the question of what God wants to say to you and what He wants to change in you.

2) When answers are delayed, understand how God speaks in your life. If all you are listening for is the answer to your prayer, you may not hear what else God is saying to you. You will hear God best in the context of worship. If you are living your life as an act of worship to the Lord, you are much more likely to hear Him speak to you.

As a side note, part of our worship involves fellowship with believers, so it is important to be in regular fellowship with others in the body of Christ (i.e. Sunday services, small group, one on one, etc.). Why? Because sometimes God speaks through other people!

3) When answers are delayed, recognize how God evaluates your life. While you're waiting, evaluate your life and spend some time asking God what your life message is. Ask Him to show you opportunities to share His love with others, and ask Him to help you be an example of His grace to those around you.

If you put all of your faith and energy into praying fervently for an answer, you may put your life and your ministry on hold. That would mean a lot of missed opportunities to let God use you in the lives of those around you.

What are your thoughts? How do you respond to delayed answers to prayer? How do you deal with waiting for an answer? Talk to me!

The Branch

Yesterday we focused on Isaiah 11:1-16. It is a passage that is quite often passed over as confusing or hard to understand. The passage refers to Jesus as a shoot from the stump of Jesse. Jesus is also referred to as the branch that comes from that shoot. New life coming from something that is dead.

Isaiah was giving hope to the people of Israel. He was telling them that even in their "deadness," that new life would come from the Messiah.

I remember hearing a story many years ago about a man, who I will call Jack, being given the job of removing a thick growth of ivy from a wall surrounding a large piece of property. He was working hard at the task. This was a job that would not be accomplished in days or even weeks. He hacked and he cut back and then hacked some more. It was slow going.

At some point, a gentleman came by. The man stood and observed Jack working for a few minutes, and then walked over and asked if he could offer some advice. Jack was willing to hear anything that would help.

The man simply said, "Go along the bottom of the wall and cut the roots. Come back in a few days, and you will have dead vines to deal with. They'll come out much easier."

What a concept!

The reason that worked so well is this: If the thick growth of vines was not connected to the roots, they would die. It is much easier to remove dead branches and growth than it is to remove live ones.

The spiritual application is obvious. Stay connected to Jesus, the Vine. If we don't, we will die spiritually. From the Vine, we get life, health, and fruitfulness. Apart from the Vine, we get spiritual frailty and barrenness and, yes, death.

Jesus said it best:

"I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing." - John 15:5

Stay connected to the Vine. We literally depend on the Vine for our very lives, and we cannot function without Him.

Prepare the Way of the Lord

"A voice of one calling: 'In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.'" (Isaiah 40:3-5)

The prophet Isaiah refers, in this passage, to the "desert" and the "wilderness" in which the people were living. As we said on Sunday, the spiritual climate for the nation of Israel was a bumpy one at best. The periods of great revival and faithfulness to their God were generally followed by periods of rebellion and idolatry. They would become so evil in their rebellion that God would allow captivity or bondage or some other hardship to bring them to their senses. They would repent and seek God, for a little while at least!

It seems to me that we are in a desert/wilderness today. Our nation certainly displays signs of that. For a country that perhaps has more Bibles per capita than any nation on earth, we are spiritually destitute. We have abandoned the God of the Bible and chosen instead to become a nation of secular humanists. Divorce is on the rise. Abortion has become the norm. Church attendance is down. Our fellow Americans affirm that there are "many roads to heaven." It reminds me of the days of Noah when everyone was kind of doing as they pleased. If you recall, that didn't turn out very well, did it?

With that in mind, it seems that we are truly to be "different" in such a way that we prepare the way of the Lord by pointing to the Lord.

"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." (I Peter 2:9)

Are you living your life in such a way that those around you--family, friends, neighbors--see you pointing to the Lord? You may not be running around with a sign that says, "Repent! The end of the world is coming!" but the way you live your life can speak LOUDLY and CLEARLY the message of your life.

Actually, it is probably more correct to say that your life DOES speak loudly and clearly about something. The question is, what does it say? The way you live your life tells those around you what your priorities are, what you value, what you believe, and about your God. They are watching. Don't ever be mistaken about that.

They are noticing

• Where you spend your time and money
• How you treat those around you
• If you live a life of integrity
• If you are walking your talk

Ask the Lord to help you to be the example you need to be in order to prepare the way of the Lord in the lives of those around you. It is a huge responsibility.

So I leave you with the questions I gave you yesterday. How are you preparing the way of the Lord in people's lives? Can you specify how YOUR LIFE is helping someone else to be more open to the ways of the Son of God? How will revival touch this (or that) person because of the influence of the Risen Lord in your life?

Talk to me! I want to hear what your thoughts are!

What Have You Done for me Lately?

On Sunday we talked about the lepers in Luke 17 who Jesus healed of the dreaded disease of leprosy. As you recall, I likened that physical disease of leprosy to our spiritual disease of sin.

As we enter this Thanksgiving week, we all become abundantly aware of our blessings: family, friends, food, job, shelter, material blessings, and more. The list goes on and on. But often we leave out our biggest blessing of all.

Today I am going to borrow a quote from Beverly's e-mail signature (thanks Honey!). You have all seen it before, I am sure, but it is what I want to focus on here:

"When you have nothing left but God, then for the first time you become aware that God is enough." Maude Royden

When it is all said and done, God is all that we need. Years ago, I heard a song at a concert. While I don't remember the words exactly, I absolutely remember the gist of it. Basically, it was reminding us that when God called Himself "I AM" He was basically saying that He is all we need. I like that.

But today, I really want to hone in on our basic need. Our fundamental need in life is for a Savior. The Bible tells us that we were "helpless in our sins" (Romans 5:6) and God, in His mercy and grace, saw our need and our helplessness and sent us the only One who could rescue us from our desperate situation. Jesus Christ--Son of God, King of kings, Lord of lords--came to earth as a lowly impoverished baby, sent for one purpose alone--to rescue us and save us. He bought us and brought us back from the grip of death.

In the end, isn't that what matters? All the "stuff" that we count so important in our lives (and I'm not saying that food and shelter isn't important), pales in comparison to the work of the cross on our behalf.

Every year on Thanksgiving, our family has a tradition of going around the table and having everyone say what they're thankful for. Maybe your family does that too.

This year, maybe one of the things on your list will be salvation! Maybe it will be at the top of your list! I hope so!

Talk to me! What are your thoughts about thankfulness for salvation?