Greatness in Serving

In our last sermon we examined the teaching of Jesus on true greatness. True greatness, as Jesus said, was not based on being served but on serving others. Serving others is not something that comes easy. Even though we have the Holy Spirit and have been given the mind of Christ, we still have sinful tendencies in us that inspire us to want to be served. By nature we are selfish and self serving people. But Christ has set us free from living under the domination of our sinful nature. If we are going to serve others and "be the slaves of all" we must first die to ourselves. When the apostle Paul gathered the Ephesian elders to wish them farewell before he journeyed to Jerusalem he exhorted them and testified of his own ministry. In testifying of his own ministry he explained to them that the Holy Spirit has testified to him that he was going to face imprisonment. What was his response to this?

"But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."Acts 20:24

This sounds bizarre and self deprecating. Paul does not value his life? Isn't life a gift from God? What Paul meant was that he "didn't count his life dear to himself" He knew that wasn't living for himself, but for God. Saul of Tarsus had died. Life had new meaning now for Paul. It had meaning and purpose in regards to living for God. So how did Paul's life manifest itself? As we read further in the text, we see Paul recount and describe his ministry..


33-35  I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”


Wow. Not only was Paul a faithful minister of the gospel, but he worked with his own hands and labored to "help the weak". Why? Because he was mindful of the teaching of Jesus, "It is better to give than receive" which is Paul's way of articulating, "But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all."Mark 10:44

The only way we can truly serve others with a joyful heart and give of ourselves freely is if we have died to ourselves and do not count our lives as dear to ourselves. This is the only way we can truly be great in the Kingdom of God. Jesus put it another way, "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." John 12:25-26

Serving Christ, Serving others = reward of eternal life and being found honorable in the sight of the Father.

Signing off..

The Gift of Marriage

In this weeks sermon we looked at a very explicit passage in the scripture which teaches how sexual intercourse is to be enjoyed, celebrated and pursued in the context of marriage. It is a wonderful blessing that two people enjoy and is a genuine gift of God. As we ended the sermon we looked at how single people should approach marriage. The question was to marry or not to marry. Certainly remaining single has advantages in that one is completely free to serve God in the ministry. But for most people, remaining single is not an option. God's word states:

1 Cor. 7:9 "But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion."

Today in many Christian families and circles, we are discouraging young people from marrying, and instead encouraging them to go to college and get and education. There is nothing wrong with this and I will certainly encourage my daughter to do the same thing when she is of age. But one thing I find a problem is when young people are burning with passion, and then discouraged form being married. Now certainly it is not the best reason to marry, but nevertheless, it is a command of scripture. The problem with many young adults is that the temptations to sin sexually abound. Besides their biological urges, they are bombarded from every angle. College life is notorious for sexually charged environments.  From spring break to the dorm life, it can be very different for young believers to remain pure in light of such temptations. At the work place and in general there is a great pressure to cave in. So the question is, "Would we rather have young Christian adults are who defiled sexually but are on the fast track to an education? Or have young Christian adults who may have the slow track to an education but be morally pure?

If we are serious about God's word, than we are more concerned about what scripture says than what society mandates. It is better marry than to burn. That is because the bible makes so clear that no sexually immoral person will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Now I am referring to extreme circumstances. The ideal thing is to have young Christians who can go to school and get a career and wait to get married afterwards. But if they cannot why hinder them.

I write this article in light of the reality of what a low view of marriage we have in our society today. And that low view has trickled into the church. On the other hand society has a very liberal view towards sexuality and that likewise has trickled into the church. This is where we as Christians must take a stand and go against the grain of society and trust and obey God's word. God is more concerned  with his peoples holiness than he is about what degree they hold. He is more concerned with family life that exalts him than he is about a secular career. And he is more concerned with his people enjoying the gift of sex within its proper context, than the fleeting pleasures of sexual immorality.

For those people who are single- If you can remain single and pure- Praise God!! But if you cannot- it is better to marry. But know this- marry in the Lord. Many people have made a shipwreck of their faith by entering into an unequally yoked marriage. They may have satisfied their carnal cravings, but at the cost of a lifetime of grief. What a blessing when a Christan man and Christian woman marry each other and enjoy the gift of sexual intercourse to the glory of God!

The Sacred Body

The 1960's brought us the Beatles, the hippy movement and sexual liberation. In the name of love and peace, many young people part of the counterculture movement of the 60's indulged themselves in sexual immorality rejecting the notion of fornication being a sin, because they had rejected all forms of authority and moral norms. Some have lived though it and some, like myself, are the children of that generation. But we do not have to look back tot he 1960's to look for evidence of a sexually charged culture. Right now in our day, sexual immorality is at a high point. According to recent data, because of the information available to young children through technology, they are beginning to "experiment" with sex as young as seven and eight years old and inventing new forms of immorality through things like "sexting". Forget about premarital sex, and living together- that's old school- the new thing is to be homosexuality. Pop culture icons like Lady Gaga, Brittney Spears, Adam Lambert, and even  now Miley Cirus (Yes Hannah Montana, the cute show on Disney that you let your little girls watch) have promoted and openly participate in the gay lifestyle. Is this freedom?

No- This is bondage. At least that is what scripture teaches us. This is bondage to our passions and lust, allowing every impulse of our flesh to control and dominate our thoughts actions and beliefs. The bible says we have been set free from sin as believers. Yet there seems to be an epidemic even in churches these days with professing Christians engaging in immoral activity.Whether is an addiction to pornography, or extramarital affairs, or people living together outside of marriage, or member of our youth group "experimenting" with homosexuality, our churches are not immune. So how do we respond? Some have made the argument the Corinthians made, "Food is for the belly, the belly for food" implying that sexual activity is as natural as eating and we should just simply accept it. But I like the way Rick Warren responded to such a suggestion by Ann Curry about 2 years ago on 20/20. This is not verbatim, but here it goes, Ann, "Rick, how can you say that homosexuality is a sin, when there  seems to be evidence that some people are naturally inclined toward the same sex? Isn't it true some people are born gay?" Warren, "Yeah, some people may be born with a disposition towards homosexuality. And some people may be born with a greater disposition to be angry and violent people. And some like myself were born with a natural disposition to sleep with every women I see....That is because we are all born sinners. And it is our natural inclination to want to sin against God." "Sin can manifest itself in many different ways. Just because I was born with a natural disposition to have sex with every women I see doesn't mean it's right. No. I am restrained by the law of God that forbids me and am faithful to my wife."

People have been making excuses to live immorally since ancient times. Freud didn';t give us anything new, just repackaged. We have a natural tendency towards sex because God created us with that. But in our sinful nature we have perverted it through unlawful desires. Fulfilling those desires is not the path to freedom, but to bondage. God created sex to be enjoyed in its fullest sense in marriage. Any departure from that is a perversion of sex's natural purpose.

If you are a Christian you have the Spirit of god living in you and that makes your body holy before God. Are bodies are not to be used for sexual immorality but for God.(1 Cor. 6:18-21). It is put another way in 1 Thess. 4:3-5 "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body  in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God"

If we profess to know God and our bodies have been consecrated by  the indwelling presence of the holy spirit than we are to yield to the control of the Spirit, not the flesh. Rom. 8:13 "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." 

In fact the NT teaches us that "sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints." Eph 5:3.

As Paul said in 1 Cor. 6:11, "Such were some of you, but you have been washed, you have been sanctified, you have been justified." If we have experience the grace of God than we are no longer to live like the world. We are no longer driven by our natural passions, but driven by the Spirit of God. The "natural world" is passing away and under God's judgement (Rom.1:18, 1 John 2:17) but the Kingdom of God is everlasting. We who belong to the Kingdom have no business engaging in sexual impurity and can expect "not to inherit the Kingdom" if we practice such things.

Maybe you are tangled up in sexual sin. Maybe you know someone that is. No matter who it is- Flee Sexual Immorality!!! Run Like Hell!!!!! Don't give in, don't give up and don't quit. God's grace is able to renew you, forgive you and set you free- but you have to surrender and repent, or else you will be a slave to your passions forever.

The Ultimate Deception

The ultimate deception was clearly described to us in 1 Cor. 6:9-11 this past Sunday. That deception is that someone can be a born again Christian and continue to live a life of sin, and think they will still go to heaven. The most horrifying aspect is that t he person who deceived doesn't know they are. In my many years as a Christians, God's grace has often been argued as the basis for excusing sin to me by those who are living a sinful lifestyle. And this seems to be the appeal that most wayward Christians use. But what does Scripture say regarding the grace of God? In Rom. 6:1-2 Paul actually uses that same argument and analyzes it.

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"

Here we have a classic example where someone would say, the more I sin- the more God's grace abounds. Is that then a basis and license to continue in sin? The force of the Greek is more powerful then the English. But the phrase in Greek  Me ginomai  literally means- May it never come to pass in the least bit! The idea is clear- There is never an occasion in which we can excuse sin with God's grace. To do so is actually to blaspheme and make a mockery of God. The reality is, "How can we who died to sin continue to live in sin?

We die to sin by our union to Christ through faith. Because Christ died to sin and died for sin, by faith we have also died to the sin principle no longer being under its dominion. Although many times it will rear its ugly head in our lives, we are no longer a salve of sin but have been set free from sin.
 Whenever we tell ourselves we can sin and claim the grace of God, we are lying to ourselves and doing ourselves great harm. How can we over come this tendency to deceive ourselves?

We need to overcome lies with the truth. One time I heard a man say, "instead of listening to ourselves we need to preach to ourselves." Often we deceive ourselves by listening to our flesh and listening to the lies. When those time come we need to instead walk in the spirit, and preach to ourselves. Preach?Yes! Preach! the only way we can over come a lie is with the truth!

The reality is- grace is to lead us to humble repentance not continual and brazen sin. One such example of man who was transformed and humbled by God's grace was John Newton. John Newton was a brute of a man in the slave trading industry in the 1700's. One night when there was a storm his ship almost sunk. While it was filling with water he called out to God to rescue him, and God showed grace. As a result Newton came to faith in Christ and was transformed into a new man. He immediately gave up slave trading and dedicated his life to ministry. Several years later he would be a tremendous influence on a man called William Wilberforce. Wilberforce a member of the English Parliament would spearhead and champion legislation to abolish slavery in Great Britain. That's what grace does. It changes lives. It changed the life of Newton. The life of Wilberforce.  And the life of many black men and women who were victims of the slave trade in Great Britain. No wonder John Newton wrote one of the timeless hymns on the grace of God. Amazing Grace.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
We have already come;
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.