Being the Body of Christ

Today we talked about the practical side of being the Body of Christ. Most of us accept the concept of praying for or encouraging one another. And many of us understand the concept of practical help with finances, food, rides, childcare, etc. Most of us readily sign up to reach out and help.

But what about when we are the one who NEEDS help? That is usually where the difficulty comes. We don't ask. We believe that we should not need help. We believe that if we do need help then it is our fault so we shouldn't ask someone else to help "clean up our messes." We also believe that if we need help it is a sign of immaturity. Lies. All lies.

In Acts 2:41-47, read how the early church lived together in community:

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

They lived in community--sharing, giving, receiving with no one being more or less than anyone else. Apparently, the norm of the day was learning to walk in the Spirit of Christ and exhibit His fruit in relationships--

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Galatians 5:21-22

Paul wrote about carrying one another's burdens. He exhorts the church in Galatia to "carry each other's burdens" and that "each one should carry his own load." While that might seem like a big contradiction, I think it is simple and clear. We are not to be purposely lazy and let others do for us while we sit by and watch, but there are times when we cannot carry a burden by ourselves, nor should we.

We are, as believers, to be people who live like we belong to God. That means putting off the old way of independence and self-sufficiency and then humbly acknowledging that we agree with God when He says that we need each other.

So the next time you need help, ask. In doing so you will be obediently glorifying God by living as He intended those in His Church to live!

Loving Works

Thanks so much to Lew for his ministry to us this morning.

He gave us a list of "works of love" to consider, and I thought I would repost it here along with the scripture references he gave. I encourage you to look up the scriptures, meditate on them, and see what God would ask of you.

Works of Love

Speak truth Watch your words
Be kind and compassionate.
Forgive one another Pray for each other
Give generously and cheerfully Serve one another
Teach Lead Encourage Show mercy
Meet material needs of others Prophesy
Visit others Strengthening one another
Hold each other accountable Avoid division
Confront Correct Exercise discernment
Healing Hospitality Administering
Shepherding Be available Helping
Calling Submit to leaders

So now for the scriptures. Read them and let God use them to plant a new seed in your heart that will lead to "works of love" that can bless those around you!

Ephesians 4:15
Ephesians 4:29
Ephesians 4:32
Ephesians 6:18
II Corinthians 9:6-7
Romans 12:6-9
I Corinthians 1:10
Hebrews 12:14-15
Matthew 18:15

I'd love to hear how God speaks to you this week! Post a comment!

What About Hell?

We digressed this week to address a topic that I believe is important to our understanding of all we have learned in Romans. After all, if we really don't understand the enormous consequences of our sin, how can we grasp the reality of what Jesus and His grace has done for us?

We talked about hell starting with getting our identity from anything other than God. Ultimately, it all boils down to "me." I feel good about myself because I am handsome or beautiful, or because I have an amazing job, or because I am a wonderful mom, dad, kid, teacher, bookkeeper, gardener, babysitter, student or.... You get the idea. It's all about me.

What I want to focus on in this post is the last part of yesterday's sermon. People can't be scared into heaven. What? Let me say that again! People can't be scared out of hell and into heaven!

The reason that is true, is because if I start serving God and following His commandments and going to church because I don't want to go to hell, it is still all about me! I am now using God for my purposes (to go to heaven) but there has been no change in my heart!

A quote from yesterday's sermon:

Radical unconditional love is the only thing that will take our mistrustful, in denial, conniving hearts and shock them into a whole new way of living and being.

When man sinned in the Garden of Eden, it began with a thought of pride and arrogance and wanting what I want. If I begin to "straighten up" solely for purposes of escaping hell, all of those same sinful elements are there:

• Pride - I can do this myself. I can escape hell through my own choices and my own good works.
  
• Arrogance - I can beat the system. I can prove God wrong by doing it myself.
• Wanting What I Want - Forget the worship and the submission to God, I'll just do this thing to get what I want.
  

What God wants from us is a radical response to His radical love. He wants a bended knee and a contrite heart. He wants you to agree with His assessment of your helplessness and come to Him with a grateful heart. Not waving the white flag of surrender, although surrender is involved.

When a weary enemy surrenders in the battle of war, he waves the white flag, but in his heart he is still angry and hates the one he is surrendering to. He is only surrendering because he wants to save himself. But there is no change of heart.

When we come to God, it is more than a white flag surrender. It is a radical change of mind because we see the light and understand God's radical love and amazing grace. We are filled with gratitude that calls us to give our lives and everything we are and everything we have to our Savior.

Embrace God's Grace

This morning we talked about dying to sin and offering our bodies to Christ to be instruments of righteousness. We cannot do this without God's help. It takes focus. It takes determination. But mostly it takes the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit resides in all of us who have received Christ as our Savior. But we still have our free will whether to behave in ways we are prompted by Him, that is to obey, or to choose to continue to be an instrument of wickedness and disobey. The Holy Spirit is our Guide and He will give us warning when we are headed into danger.

But you still have to choose. I love the way it is stated in The Message:

That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God. Romans 6:12-14

Are you "running errands for the devil" or are you on a mission of love for your Father? Each and every day we are all confronted with choices to do right (die to the flesh) or to do wrong and continue to be a slave to sin.

So think of it this way. When you choose wrongly, it is kind of the same thing as standing by your old dead fleshly self (that died with Christ) and shaking it and slapping it, saying "wake up!"

Do you really want it to wake up? I'm thinking no. Paul wrote that sin is no longer our master (v.14), but we have to choose to serve our new Master.

Thoughts? Talk to me!

A Contrast of Two Trees

Yesterday we talked about being in Adam when he sinned and therefore inheriting all of his sin automatically. I suppose one of the best ways to understand it is to liken it to a woman who is pregnant and ingests drugs or alcohol and her baby is born addicted or with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

It isn't a perfect analogy, of course, the point of it is that the baby suffers the consequence of a choice his mother made. He did not use drugs, but deals with the consequences. It's similar with us suffering the consequences of sin that Adam committed.

Interestingly, though we did not choose to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, we have chosen time and time again to sin because we have inherited that sinful nature. We sin because we're sinners, and we're sinners because we sin. And so it goes.

Finally, I want to end with the contrast of the two trees that we talked about yesterday. It is pretty awesome!

The First Tree: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.

The Second Tree: The Cross of Calvary

The First Tree was planted by God.
The Second Tree was crafted by man.

The First Tree: God forbade men to eat of its fruit.
The Second Tree: Men are freely invited to draw near and eat of the fruit.

The First Tree: Eating the fruit brought sin and death.
The Second Tree: Eating the fruit brings life and salvation.

The First Tree: When Adam ate the fruit, he was driven out of paradise.
The Second Tree: The thief on the cross ate of the fruit and entered paradise.

I suppose it could be said that eating of the fruit of the second tree (repenting and receiving Christ as savior) is an antidote for the poison you ingested by being in Adam when he ingested the fruit of the first tree.

Thoughts? Post a comment!

100 Monkeys

On Sunday morning, I shared with you the story of the monkeys who learned to wash their sweet potatoes in order to eliminate dirt that disagreed with their tastes. You'll recall that the washing trend grew slowly until the hundredth monkey started washing dirty sweet potatoes. At that point, it became a phenomenon that literally took on a life of its own.

It strikes me that this is exactly what happened in the early church.

If you read the book of Acts, which is the history of the first century church, it is a book about the struggles, triumphs, and persecution of those first followers of Christ.

I find it so interesting that there was such a widespread movement to eradicate this group of believers that literally had started with a ragtag group of people with little or no credentials. Why were they considered so dangerous? They had no education to speak of. They were not among the elite. They were not the ones who held political power. Why not just let them "do their thing" and let it just die out naturally?

The answer to that is simple. This ragtag group, the first followers of Christ, were literally turning the world upside down (see Acts 17:6). After the day of Pentecost when the fire of heaven came down and they received the Holy Spirit, they were from that point on a force to be reckoned with.

We don't know how many people were there in the house that day, but we do know that it couldn't have very many by the very fact that they were in a house. The point is that the gospel began to spread and the church began to grow exponentially from very humble beginnings.

A handful of men and women with no credentials allowed God to use them in a way that 2000 years later the Church continues to grow and thrive. That is their legacy. What will yours be?

Think about it, and tell me what you think?

The Great Exchange

This morning we studied Romans 5:12-21, which is a rich and complex passage. Paul is laying out clearly what we "got" from Adam and what we "get" from our relationship in Christ. As we said this morning, it is a passage of contrasts:

From Adam came the entrance of sin and death.
From Christ came the entrance of righteousness and life.

In Adam, many died.
In Christ, many received grace.

To those in Adam came judgment and condemnation.
To those in Christ came righteousness and justification.

Those in Adam are ruled by death.
Those in Christ rule in life.

One transaction brought condemnation to all associated with Adam.
One act of righteousness brought justification to all associated with Christ.

One man's disobedience made many sinners.
One Man's obedience will make many righteous.

The law augments and intensifies sin.
Grace always outdistances sin.

Sin ruled in death through Adam.
Grace rules to bring eternal life through Christ's righteousness.

It boils down to this: What do you choose? Do you choose death, judgment, condemnation, and being hopelessly mired in your sin? Or do you choose life, grace, righteousness, justification, grace, and eternal life? That's it. One choice can make the difference!

There's a line in the sand. Christ says are you with me or against me? If you step across that line, you step into all of the benefits of being in Christ. This is a transaction that is "trading up" if ever there was one!

Talk to me! What are you thoughts?