Moments in the life of a Pastor

Walking with God

Monthly Archives: May 2018


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1. Responding to the Resurrection – Part 1

Luke 24:1-10

“But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 3 So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.4 As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. 5 The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee,7 that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”8 Then they remembered that he had said this. 9 So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. 11 But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it. 12 However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.”

Today we will be starting a new series titled “Living in the Reality of the Resurrection.” So often we get done with the Easter season and then go on as if nothing significant had happened. When it comes to Easter we have a tendency to pack it up and put it away instead of living in the reality of the Resurrection. It becomes just head knowledge instead of a heart knowing. It’s like putting the batteries in the flashlight once a year and letting the power illuminate our path and then pulling them out putting them back in the package only to stumble around in the darkness and struggle to survive through the rest of the year. We were not saved just to survive but to thrive. Many of us have settled for a mediocre life instead of a meaningful one because we are living life in our power instead of the Resurrection power. As we go through this series we will see our Risen Savior intersecting and impacting many different people’s lives during the 40 days between the resurrection and the ascension. We will see how different people responded to the reality of the resurrection, how it changed their lives and how it can change ours. The story starts with women who are going to serve Jesus by anointing Him with spices, and on the front end their acts of service look good. There is only one problem, behavior is driven by belief, and because they believe that Jesus is dead and gone their behavior and service is driven by sadness not gladness. You see they have a pessimistic perspective not a praise perspective. Many of us are serving out of servitude instead of servanthood, it’s a I have to instead of I get to. Servility and servitude make ministry miserable, where we end up taking on a martyr mentality. Now I’m not saying that ministry is always going to be easy but many of us have made it a job instead of a joy and so we have lost our joy in serving Jesus. Just like the women we find ourselves trudging to the tomb, dragging our heavy hearts through the darkness, living in the despair instead of the delight. Your belief affects your behavior, it impacts both your attitude and actions. What about you, are you living in the reality of the resurrection? Or are you like the women heading to the tomb living in the death and the despair instead of the light of day? Because of what they believed they headed out to anoint Jesus body with spices. When they got there they discovered that the stone had been rolled away which was great because how would they have gotten into the tomb to anoint his body if it hadn’t been rolled away? The rolled away stone fit very neatly into their plan, but it wasn’t rolled away because of their plan, it was removed based on God’s plan. And it’s here that we see God’s plan deviating from theirs. How do you respond when God’s plan doesn’t line up with yours? For the women it rocked their world. They were perplexed, confused because things were not going according to their plan. You know the number one reason why so many people walk away from God is because life doesn’t go their way, it doesn’t fit their expectations. Their belief didn’t just effect how they served it effected their expectations, they expected a dead body. And when life didn’t meet and measure up to their expectations they were disappointed. How many disenfranchised disciples do we have today, disappointed in the deity because life hasn’t worked out the way we wanted. As a result, we are standing in the tomb living in the place of death and being mad because life hasn’t measured up our expectations. Maybe the reason you are miserable disappointed and disheveled is because you are serving in the graveyard. Their belief also affected what they carried, spices to anoint His body. Tools of death not life, many of us are carrying the tools of death not life, we won’t let go of our bag of bitterness, we keep packing around our anger and anxiety, trying to run the race carrying resentment that is ruining not only our lives but the lives of those around us. Let me ask you this question do you think the women would have rather follow their plan of death and decay or God’s plan of delight? It comes down to trusting that God is in control, that He knows what He is doing, and then believing and behaving accordingly. Because the stone was rolled away they were able to go in and see, God didn’t roll the stone away, so they could serve Him with their spices He rolled it away so that they could see His plan. It’s not about what you are doing its about what He has done. As long as we shelve the Savior and keep Him in the tomb we will mope about serving out of servility and living a miserable meaningless life. These women walked right past the power of God and missed it, they missed the first miracle, because they were focused on the misery. They missed the supernatural miracle of the stone being rolled away. Instead of saying Wow look what God can do they worried about what was going on because it didn’t fit their expectations. What about you are you disappointed and disillusioned with God because things haven’t gone the way you wanted? Rather than focusing on our perceived problems we need to start focusing on God’s plan. Because even when life doesn’t make sense we can still trust and serve the Savior. Are you living in the reality of the resurrection or the ruin of perceived unmet expectations?

 

 


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34 Cultivating Christ Like Character, Self-Control – Part 3

Titus 2:11-14

11 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, 13 while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. 14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.

After seeing the seriousness of living a self-control life we now come to the:

  • SOLUTION

So, what is the solution to self-control, how do we maintain strong walls? I mean is it really possible to display self-control in this self-centered and self-seeking culture? We all know we need self-control and many of us have tried to control areas of our lives before only to fail and cause us to feel like giving up. But before you throw in the towel I want us to look at the premiere passage on self-control. It is found in the New Testament book of Titus 2:11-14. Now to give a little background context, the young pastor Titus did not have an easy assignment on the island of Crete. Crete was known as the first century “party place.” populated by people that are described in Titus 1:12 as “liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” Temptations abounded in the Cretan culture and threatened to trip up these new converts to Christ. They had come out of a carnal culture and many of them had friends who were still participating in the drunken love fests for which Crete was famous. Crete was not an easy place for Christians to live out their faith while maintaining their purity and self-control. So, it’s no surprise that Paul’s brief letter to Titus is packed with admonitions to seize self-control. Paul challenges four groups of people to “be in their right minds” by being controlled by the Spirit of God:

  1. In Titus 1:8 elders are to be men who are known for their hospitality, good works, holiness, discipline and self-control.
  2. In 2:1, Titus is to teach the older men to be self-controlled.
  3. In 2:2, older women are to be reverent, truth-tellers and not addicted to alcohol. As they teach what is good, verse 4 challenges them to train younger women to love their husbands and children and to be self-controlled.
  4. In 2:6, Titus is to be an example to young men and to encourage them to be self-controlled.

The final verses in chapter 2 give us the solution to self-control. It’s not enough to try and be self-controlled in our own strength, we desperately need God’s power and His grace. The key to seizing self-control is grace, God’s lavish favor poured out on undeserving sinners. For it is God’s grace that does at least three things, first Grace:

  1. Redeems us

There is no way we can save ourselves. Verse 11 says that God took the initiative and brought salvation to us, “11 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people.”Verse 14 explains that Christ “gave Himself for us.”He paid the price to buy us back from the slave market of sin, and free us from sins shackles. But Grace doesn’t just redeem us it should also:

  1. Reforms us

Salvation not only changes our position before God, but it should change our attitude, appetite, ambition and action. Not only have we been given freedom from the condemnation of sin but also freedom from the domination of sin. This grace that redeems also reforms and makes us godly. Verse 12 reminds us that we can say “no” to ungodly passions. To be self-controlled is to restrain ourselves by not giving in to our depraved desires. We can say “no” when everything in us is saying yes. God strengthens us in our temptations and provides the way of escape when they become too severe as 1 Corinthians 10:13 states, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”But His reforming grace doesn’t just help us to say no, it also allows us to say “yes” to the things of God. Because we have been redeemed from this world, we don’t have to be conformed to it. In fact, we can be “eager to do what is good” according to verse 14. We need to say both “no” to that which is harmful and say, “yes” to that which is helpful. Reforming has more to do with replacing than just resisting. A while back I had a friend who shared his struggle with cussing. Rather than telling him just to resist I challenged him to replace the corrupt words with Christ’s words. Rather than just focusing on the cussing I asked him to focus on what he was going to replace the cussing with. Because when we only focus on cussing we actually focus on the sin, but when we focus on the replacing we focus on the solution. I told him that every time he cussed I wanted him to speak out loud 10 praises. It wasn’t long before his cussing diminished why because the poison was replaced by praise. Instead of focusing on the sin he was speaking the solution. Thirdly grace:

  1. Rewards us (13).

We can have self-control not only because we’ve been redeemed from our former life and reformed on the inside, but thirdly verse 13 reminds us that the return of Jesus is our source of hope. Instead of living for today, we can live for what is to come. This is in stark contrast to pleasure seekers who live only for this life and what it offers. Remembering that we will see Jesus face-to-face provides the motivation to live Spirit-controlled lives today. Focusing on our Redeemers return is a powerful antidote to the poisons of this world, with its lusts and passions. The key to cultivating each of the nine-character qualities of the Fruit of the Spirit is not to try harder but to understand the short phrase that appears right after the spiritual fruit salad in Galatians 5:23: “Against such things there is no law.”This means that these characteristics cannot be legislated or enforced by a set of rules. You can’t make somebody be kind or patient or gentle. Likewise, no law can keep us from displaying the sweet fruit of the Spirit in our lives. The only thing that is keeping us from allowing His fruit to ripen is our own sinfulness and selfishness. The answer is not more rules its relying and resting in our relationship with Jesus. The answer is not self-control its letting the Spirit of God be in control. As we conclude this series on character, I want to give you an opportunity to respond to the Spirit’s promptings. As you read the following two verses from Galatians 5:16, 25: “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” I want you to answer the following two questions:

  • Are you living by the Spirit or are you trying to do it on your own?
  • Are you keeping in step with the Spirit or are you seeking to serve self?

My prayer for you is that you will let Christ not the culture cultivate your character.