It seems that once we start down this road of faith we can start to inwardly accuse ourselves.
I know, I'm jumping right in, without going into all the technical stuff. But this is something I want to talk about right away before I start the service, because it's on my heart right at this moment.
Because I get confused. And I get upset. I'm struggling with some tough decisions I have to make, and it's hard. Because I want to make the right decisions so desperately. I really feel I need to make the Godly decision. When we start this we consciously start to try and do what God would want from us in any given situation.
But I see myself going way too far with it. I get on my knees, and ask God for a sign or for the ability to make the right decision. But let's face it, a lot of decisions we're gonna face are not cut and dry.
It's mucky, and there's good points on both sides and bad points on both sides. So it isn't easy, and it's not like God comes down off the throne and gives us a verbal answer to these situations. A lot of my frustration on this is that God isn't being as clear as I would desire.
I want an answer, I want a clear answer, and I want that answer now. Isn't that how it is as human beings?
Meanwhile, in the agonizing of making these tough decisions that inner voice of accusation just runs rampant over my thoughts and choices. Pretty soon I'm feeling guilty, and ashamed, and upset, lost, depressed and just plain miserable.
That's the point I'm trying to hit here before we start: Don't let yourself be victim to an inner voice of accusation. That inner voice that fills you with shame when you make a questionable decision. You aren't quite sure, you think it might be the wrong decision, and suddenly that inner voice is just beating you down.
Well that isn't of God. And that's what I try to answer that voice with. I found a really powerful graphic on the internet that I'd like to share with you here, it reads:
So before we start, let's go to God in prayer and ask him to join us here:
Heavenly Father, please hear our prayer. Join with us today as we praise your name. Work on our hearts Father, and make us holy, one brick at a time. Keep us on this path, and comfort our hearts. Help us to work on ourselves, and then learn to help others. And Father please lift up those who have been affected by the destruction in Oklahoma. We ask that you take them under your wing, and give them special attention in this difficult time. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
I'd like to mention something that was recorded recently, an interview in the rubble with an old woman in Oklahoma. I don't watch the news very much, just because of all the fear being pandered, but an old friend of mine brought this story to my attention. I've included a link to the interview on YouTube within the text of the sermon, so please feel free to watch it yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUc1ZgXiQGs
So there was this older woman, and sky news was interviewing her about the tornadoes. Her house was utterly and completely destroyed. You could see the broken timber and splintered pieces of the house all around her. Yet as they interviewed her she seemed strangely serene. They asked her what it was like, and she said her plan had always been to go in this bathroom for cover from the tornado. She was sitting on a stool in the bathroom. She felt the stool come up through the floor and boom, the house comes down around her and she's sitting in the rubble. And she had a little dog, and tried calling it. But the dog didn't come. The interviewer asked this old woman if she could comprehend what had happened. And she replied, "I know exactly what happened. This is life in the big city." And she seemed so calm about it. But she was sad, because she lost her dog. And just after she had said this, the interviewer noticed something moving in the rubble. And it was her dog. They came over and pulled it from the rubble. The woman was beset with relief. The first thing she said, pulling the dog from the rubble was "bless your little bitty heart." And next she said, "Thank you God." Then she said, "I thought God just answered one prayer, to let me be ok. But he answered both of them. Because this was my second prayer, " She said looking down at her dog.
That was really powerful to me when I saw it. And it's still powerful to me. The interviewer seemed to expect the woman to be frantic and lost, but she wasn't. Even after her house had been utterly destroyed, she had peace about it, because she was ok. She knew God had saved her. And she knew that these kinds of troubled aren't things we need to freak out about. They're things we can have peace about, because God loves us. She knew her first prayer had been answered. And she testified to the camera person. But God wasn't done there. God's love is bigger than even the huge miracle of protecting her life. God is abundantly loving. He not only saved her life, but he saved her dogs life.
And what I'm telling you now, isn't something I would have to tell that old woman. It's something she already knows in her heart. And it gives her complete peace in the storm of life. How many of us have lost it when we got in a fender bender or made a mistake at work? Do you remember how you felt during it? Lost, upset, afraid, confused? Just to name a few? Well this woman may have been afraid when that tornado brought down her house around her... but in the aftermath she wasn't running around the wreckage yelling and frantic. She didn't search high and low for her dog for hours in wreckage that could harm her. She took in the situation peacefully, had some faith in all of it, and God saw that. He saw that woman, and said I'm not just gonna save your life from this natural disaster, I'm bringing your dog with too. That's the kind of God we have. A loving God, named Jehovah, who actively cares for us. And is personal to all of us.
If you thirst for justice. Which is something I thirst for, you won't find it on Earth. But you will see it in God. And his justice is done, sometimes on Earth, and sometimes after death.
Let's get into self examination. Proverbs 16:32 says (NLT) "Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than to conquer a city."
And we've gone over several Bible verses in the past few weeks that emphasize self examination. "He who conquers himself is greater than one who concurs a city" is a way I've heard that proverb paraphrased.
We tried living a life run on our selfish will. We were in charge and we didn't need any God! Remember that? Was that ever you? I'm so self sufficient. I've got a good job, I'm gonna prosper, gain wealth and prestige and power. I'm taking the world by storm!
But now we look back, and see where that took us. It took us into selfishness. Which lead to fear. Which lead to temptation. Which lead to sin. We were rudderless. And eventually we recognized that. And started searching. Maybe we'd heard of Christianity or been raised in a church. But maybe like me, Christianity was the last thing you wanted to explore. Buddhism, Taoism, naturalism, new age, auras and zodiac stuff. I explored it all, step by step, but it was all empty. And finally, as it got worse and worse, I realized that the truth had been right in front of me all along. That instead of wandering lost through the wilderness, like the tribes of Israel after the exodus, we could've just stepped right into the promise land, if we'd just pushed past our fears, doubts, and misconceptions about Christianity and the Bible, and come directly to Jesus for the solution.
And now we don't have to be those people we see everyday. Stressing in the car. Dead in the eyes. A constant frown on the face. Miserable, while trying to maintain a reputation of self reliance. We know those people, and we see them everyday. And aren't we glad we don't have to be that way anymore?
Now, when the storm hits, the tornadoes rolling in, we can go to the basement, pray a strong prayer, trust the Lord, and wait it out, knowing that our God is with us. We can have peace in life.
We receive that peace through faith in God. We're seen as righteous through faith in Jesus. The only way to close connection with God is Jesus the Christ. The Christ that bore the weight of our sins personally on the cross.
And now that we're working on ourselves day by day, that peace and connection with God grows and flourishes. We grow up tall like a tree and bear fruit.
Matthew 12:35 says: "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him."
As Christ makes us good, by conforming us to His image, we produce good fruit. But we also know there are those in the world producing bad fruit as well.
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
So we go from the topic of self examination to sharing with others. Self examination doesn't stop. But sharing begins quickly after we're made new in Christ. Let me encourage you to pray for the opportunity to minister to others. If God wants you to do that, the opportunity will present itself. This is the great commission, the great responsibility of every Christian on the planet.
Maybe we can't fulfill loving our neighbors because of what we measure it by: Loving ourselves. Maybe we've forgotten even how to love ourselves, and thus we give our neighbors the same love we give ourselves: None.
And we've gone over several Bible verses in the past few weeks that emphasize self examination. "He who conquers himself is greater than one who concurs a city" is a way I've heard that proverb paraphrased.
We tried living a life run on our selfish will. We were in charge and we didn't need any God! Remember that? Was that ever you? I'm so self sufficient. I've got a good job, I'm gonna prosper, gain wealth and prestige and power. I'm taking the world by storm!
But now we look back, and see where that took us. It took us into selfishness. Which lead to fear. Which lead to temptation. Which lead to sin. We were rudderless. And eventually we recognized that. And started searching. Maybe we'd heard of Christianity or been raised in a church. But maybe like me, Christianity was the last thing you wanted to explore. Buddhism, Taoism, naturalism, new age, auras and zodiac stuff. I explored it all, step by step, but it was all empty. And finally, as it got worse and worse, I realized that the truth had been right in front of me all along. That instead of wandering lost through the wilderness, like the tribes of Israel after the exodus, we could've just stepped right into the promise land, if we'd just pushed past our fears, doubts, and misconceptions about Christianity and the Bible, and come directly to Jesus for the solution.
And now we don't have to be those people we see everyday. Stressing in the car. Dead in the eyes. A constant frown on the face. Miserable, while trying to maintain a reputation of self reliance. We know those people, and we see them everyday. And aren't we glad we don't have to be that way anymore?
Now, when the storm hits, the tornadoes rolling in, we can go to the basement, pray a strong prayer, trust the Lord, and wait it out, knowing that our God is with us. We can have peace in life.
We receive that peace through faith in God. We're seen as righteous through faith in Jesus. The only way to close connection with God is Jesus the Christ. The Christ that bore the weight of our sins personally on the cross.
And now that we're working on ourselves day by day, that peace and connection with God grows and flourishes. We grow up tall like a tree and bear fruit.
Matthew 12:35 says: "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him."
As Christ makes us good, by conforming us to His image, we produce good fruit. But we also know there are those in the world producing bad fruit as well.
1 Peter 2:1-5 (NIV) says, "Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
So we go from the topic of self examination to sharing with others. Self examination doesn't stop. But sharing begins quickly after we're made new in Christ. Let me encourage you to pray for the opportunity to minister to others. If God wants you to do that, the opportunity will present itself. This is the great commission, the great responsibility of every Christian on the planet.
Matthew 28:18-20 says "18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus Christ is with us and it is our duty to him to minister to others. This starts with our family. Then continues with our friends. It also means encouraging and talking with our local congregation about biblical truth. And beyond our family, friends, and congregations, it does mean ministering to strangers as well.
There are numerous ways to share the gospel. We can go door to door. We can walk around college campuses. We can minister to homeless encampments. But a lot of times we can just be in casual conversation and the opportunity to bring it up comes. We have to push past the fear, and doubt, and just start talking about it.
It's a duty we have as Christians. We must make disciples of the world. How great is it to bring people to the next life with you? It's a wonderful thing. It's a gift from our Creator.
And don't be discouraged if someone doesn't take the message. You've planted a seed that can't be unsown. They can't unhear what you've told them. And if you've ministered to them humbly, they might just look back on that conversation in a tough moment and think, hey, yeah, that person who talked to me really seemed to have a lot of peace about the Jesus thing. They really seemed kind and compassionate. I want that.
So that's something that people will really take more notice of than your words. They'll take notice of your example. And there's no faking that example. People have good intuition about true peace. If you have that, that Christ within, it will shine through.
But for a lot of us we have trouble ministering to others. And maybe that's because we don't care enough. Experience has made us jaded toward our fellow man. Isn't that the case with some of us? Maybe we have trouble loving others, not because we're bad people but because society has hurt us. Remember what Jesus great command was?
Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV) 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]
Jesus Christ is with us and it is our duty to him to minister to others. This starts with our family. Then continues with our friends. It also means encouraging and talking with our local congregation about biblical truth. And beyond our family, friends, and congregations, it does mean ministering to strangers as well.
There are numerous ways to share the gospel. We can go door to door. We can walk around college campuses. We can minister to homeless encampments. But a lot of times we can just be in casual conversation and the opportunity to bring it up comes. We have to push past the fear, and doubt, and just start talking about it.
It's a duty we have as Christians. We must make disciples of the world. How great is it to bring people to the next life with you? It's a wonderful thing. It's a gift from our Creator.
And don't be discouraged if someone doesn't take the message. You've planted a seed that can't be unsown. They can't unhear what you've told them. And if you've ministered to them humbly, they might just look back on that conversation in a tough moment and think, hey, yeah, that person who talked to me really seemed to have a lot of peace about the Jesus thing. They really seemed kind and compassionate. I want that.
So that's something that people will really take more notice of than your words. They'll take notice of your example. And there's no faking that example. People have good intuition about true peace. If you have that, that Christ within, it will shine through.
But for a lot of us we have trouble ministering to others. And maybe that's because we don't care enough. Experience has made us jaded toward our fellow man. Isn't that the case with some of us? Maybe we have trouble loving others, not because we're bad people but because society has hurt us. Remember what Jesus great command was?
Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV) 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]
Maybe we can't fulfill loving our neighbors because of what we measure it by: Loving ourselves. Maybe we've forgotten even how to love ourselves, and thus we give our neighbors the same love we give ourselves: None.
Once again, that's an issue of self examination. If we can learn to love ourselves, and see ourselves the way God sees us, as his children, made perfect in Christ, maybe we could learn to love others.
So let me encourage you to start that process. We've worked on ourselves. Now we can help others effectively. Have a great day, and go in peace.
So let me encourage you to start that process. We've worked on ourselves. Now we can help others effectively. Have a great day, and go in peace.
