There is one thing that we can never forget about disciples of Jesus and that is that they (we) are human.
When a person surrenders their life to Jesus they don’t become perfect. They don’t become infallible. They don’t become superman or superwoman.
Disciples of Jesus are not all-powerful.
In Matthew 17:16 listen to the powerless condition of the disciples. It says, “And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not heal him.” The disciples could not heal the demon possessed boy. That does not make them bad or faithless; it makes them human.
There are five things that are true of all disciples of Jesus that show they are human.
Disciples of Jesus are ordinary.
Matthew 12:1
At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
Luke 22:45
And He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow.
Disciples get hungry.
Disciples get sleepy.
Disciples experience sorrow.
Disciples of Jesus are ordinary people who serve an extraordinary God.
Disciples of Jesus can be fearful.
In Matthew 26:56 it says that all of Jesus’ disciples left Him and fled. They fled out of fear of being arrested.
In John 20:19 it says, “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews.”
The disciples were fearful that they, like Jesus, would be arrested and executed so they ran away and hid. And these are the guys that the Jewish leaders said stole Jesus’ body. They were hiding out of fear, not because they were trying to fake a resurrection.
Disciples of Jesus are tempted.
In Luke 17:1 Jesus says to His disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!”
Everyone is tempted. Disciples of Jesus face temptations just like everyone else. In fact, as disciples we are going to be faced with more temptations because Satan attacks us more. Why does Satan attack disciples more? Because we belong to Jesus. And he hates Jesus and everyone connected to Jesus.
Disciples of Jesus struggle.
In John 6 Jesus shared some very hard teachings and many of the disciples left and stop following Jesus at that point.
In verse 60 it says, “When many of His disciples heard it they said, ‘This a hard saying; who can listen to it.’”
In many cases I hear people talk about not feeling close to God because they are struggling with some area of their lives. Listen, struggling is not bad. Struggling means that I am not giving in. Struggling means I am fighting, not just giving up.
We have to remember we are in a war and war means struggle.
In Philippians 2:12 Paul says to “work out” your own salvation with fear and trembling. Paul is not saying work for your salvation. He is saying that to follow and obey Jesus is a struggle. Being a disciple of Jesus is hard. It will hurt and be painful at times because being a disciple is a struggle.
In Matthew 26:41 Jesus finds His disciples asleep in the garden. He says to them, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Disciples of Jesus are weak.
We don’t have the physical or spiritual strength in our own natural human resources to follow and obey Jesus as He requires. If we could, Jesus would never have had to come and die for us on the cross.
Remember Romans 3:23 says we have all sinned and come short of God’s glorious standard.
Everyone is either a sinner or a recovering sinner. Sinners, even the recovering ones, cannot obey God in their own strength.
Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.”
God knows we don’t have it in our natural selves to obey Him so He graciously gives us as His disciples the Holy Spirit.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about acknowledging that we as disciples of Jesus are human. We are:
Ordinary
Fearful
Tempted
Struggling
Weak
We don’t need to pretend that we are all-power or all-knowing or all-loving or have our lives all together. We have an All-Power, All-Knowing, All-Loving God who does have it all together so we don’t have to and we can depend on Him.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being authentic and transparent.
Disciples of Jesus don’t have to change the world. We just have to be fully surrendered to Jesus so He can change the world through us.
Disciples of Jesus don’t have to pretend to be something we are not or cannot be. We only have to be the people that God created us to be. He will enable us to accomplish His will when we humble ourselves before Him.
The world doesn’t need to see what you and I can do. They need to see Jesus. The world will see Jesus in the life of His disciples when we, Jesus’ disciples, admit we are human and let Jesus fill us with His Spirit.
As a Human Connected to Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Disciples of Jesus Grow Up
We all start out physically the same - we are born as babies.
We all start out spiritually the same - we are born as babies.
John 1:12 says, “But all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.
1 Peter 1:3 says, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.
We start out being born as babies but we have to GROW UP both physically and spiritually.
Disciples of Jesus grow up.
It begins with being born.
John 4:1 says, “Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John…”
Baptism is the outward symbol of being born again. So baptism is like birth and just as all people start with birth, so all disciples of Jesus start with birth.
Then as disciples we have to learn.
Matthew 11:1
When Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples, He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.
Jesus teaches.
Disciples learn.
The word disciple means “one who sits at the feet.” In Jesus day disciples would literally sit at the feet of their teacher as he taught.
Jesus used a variety of methods to help His disciples to learn.
He used:
Scriptures
Illustrations
Modeling (He showed them truth)
Jesus had formal times when He taught His disciples and He used informal spur-of-the moment situations to teach them.
Jesus wanted His disciples to learn.
Jesus also wanted to take them a step further, He wanted them to understand.
Mark 4:34 says, “He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to His own disciples He explained everything.”
Jesus used parables or stories to communicate truth to the crowds. But to His disciples Jesus explained the meanings of the stories so they could gain a greater understanding.
Jesus wants us as His disciples today to learn, but to go deeper and understand what He is telling us.
The disciples of Jesus got their deeper understanding from having Jesus reveal that understanding to them. We as disciples of Jesus today get our deeper understanding from the Holy Spirit as He works in us and reveals truth and wisdom to us.
Understanding comes as we hear God’s Word, have the Spirit give us understanding and we then live that revealed truth out in our everyday life.
That brings us to the fourth thing that we need to do so we can grow up - Abide in God’s Word.
Jesus says in John 8:31, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples.”
What does it mean to abide in God’s Word?
It means to:
Read it
Study it
Memorize it
Mediate on it.
But abiding in God’s Word most of all means to live it!
We can read, study, memorize, and mediate in and on God’s Word, but if we don’t obey God’s Word, we are not abiding in God’s Word.
When someone comes to me for counseling, I tell them up front that what I am going to use to counsel them is God’s Word. It has to be the authority of how to live for a disciple of Jesus.
Then there is one more element in a disciple growing up.
That element is found in Acts 6:7. It says, “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”
The last element in disciples of Jesus growing up is to GROW.
All healthy living things grow. If you and I are healthy disciples of Jesus, we will grow.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about disciples of Jesus growing up.
We will all grow at different rates. But we all need to grow.
Paul in Ephesians 4:11-16 writes to encourage the church in Ephesus to grow.
Paul writes:
And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
The goal in growing up is to grow up and be like Jesus.
Everything involved in following Jesus and being His disciple is about becoming like Jesus. So when God’s children grow up, He wants us all to be like Jesus.
All the big words we use in the church like salvation, justification, and sanctification really mean to grow up and be like Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is ultimately about being like Jesus.
What makes Christmas so awesome is that God gave us the Role Model for what we are to be when we grow up.
So in a few days when we celebrate Christmas we are celebrating the coming of our Savior and our Lord and our Role Model. God could have just told us what He wanted us to be, but He loved us enough to send the one and only Son of God. Jesus lived so we could see how we are to do everything and then He died to pay for our sin and then He rose from the dead to overcome our sin.
May we celebrate Jesus and grow up to be like Him.
Growing and Celebrating as We Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls
Joe
We all start out spiritually the same - we are born as babies.
John 1:12 says, “But all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.
1 Peter 1:3 says, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.
We start out being born as babies but we have to GROW UP both physically and spiritually.
Disciples of Jesus grow up.
It begins with being born.
John 4:1 says, “Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John…”
Baptism is the outward symbol of being born again. So baptism is like birth and just as all people start with birth, so all disciples of Jesus start with birth.
Then as disciples we have to learn.
Matthew 11:1
When Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples, He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.
Jesus teaches.
Disciples learn.
The word disciple means “one who sits at the feet.” In Jesus day disciples would literally sit at the feet of their teacher as he taught.
Jesus used a variety of methods to help His disciples to learn.
He used:
Scriptures
Illustrations
Modeling (He showed them truth)
Jesus had formal times when He taught His disciples and He used informal spur-of-the moment situations to teach them.
Jesus wanted His disciples to learn.
Jesus also wanted to take them a step further, He wanted them to understand.
Mark 4:34 says, “He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to His own disciples He explained everything.”
Jesus used parables or stories to communicate truth to the crowds. But to His disciples Jesus explained the meanings of the stories so they could gain a greater understanding.
Jesus wants us as His disciples today to learn, but to go deeper and understand what He is telling us.
The disciples of Jesus got their deeper understanding from having Jesus reveal that understanding to them. We as disciples of Jesus today get our deeper understanding from the Holy Spirit as He works in us and reveals truth and wisdom to us.
Understanding comes as we hear God’s Word, have the Spirit give us understanding and we then live that revealed truth out in our everyday life.
That brings us to the fourth thing that we need to do so we can grow up - Abide in God’s Word.
Jesus says in John 8:31, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples.”
What does it mean to abide in God’s Word?
It means to:
Read it
Study it
Memorize it
Mediate on it.
But abiding in God’s Word most of all means to live it!
We can read, study, memorize, and mediate in and on God’s Word, but if we don’t obey God’s Word, we are not abiding in God’s Word.
When someone comes to me for counseling, I tell them up front that what I am going to use to counsel them is God’s Word. It has to be the authority of how to live for a disciple of Jesus.
Then there is one more element in a disciple growing up.
That element is found in Acts 6:7. It says, “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”
The last element in disciples of Jesus growing up is to GROW.
All healthy living things grow. If you and I are healthy disciples of Jesus, we will grow.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about disciples of Jesus growing up.
We will all grow at different rates. But we all need to grow.
Paul in Ephesians 4:11-16 writes to encourage the church in Ephesus to grow.
Paul writes:
And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
The goal in growing up is to grow up and be like Jesus.
Everything involved in following Jesus and being His disciple is about becoming like Jesus. So when God’s children grow up, He wants us all to be like Jesus.
All the big words we use in the church like salvation, justification, and sanctification really mean to grow up and be like Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is ultimately about being like Jesus.
What makes Christmas so awesome is that God gave us the Role Model for what we are to be when we grow up.
So in a few days when we celebrate Christmas we are celebrating the coming of our Savior and our Lord and our Role Model. God could have just told us what He wanted us to be, but He loved us enough to send the one and only Son of God. Jesus lived so we could see how we are to do everything and then He died to pay for our sin and then He rose from the dead to overcome our sin.
May we celebrate Jesus and grow up to be like Him.
Growing and Celebrating as We Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls
Joe
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Disciples Depend on Jesus
When Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew to follow Him and be His disciples Scripture said they left what they were doing. Peter, Andrew, James, and John left their fishing business. Matthew left his tax collecting service. They depended on Jesus for everything.
Disciples depend on Jesus.
This meant that for these first disciples they physically followed Jesus around all over Judea, Galilee, and at times Samaria. They depended on Jesus for what they needed to live.
What does it mean for us as Jesus’ disciples in the twenty-first century to depend on Jesus?
First it means that we live and operate under Jesus’ authority.
Matthew 10:1
And He called to Him His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
Jesus gives the twelve authority. He gives them His authority over both spiritual and physical forces.
In Matthew 28:18 we are told that Jesus has all authority on heaven and earth.
When I try to live and minister based on my human abilities and resources I am very limited. I can only accomplish what is possible through my human abilities and resources.
When I live and minister based on Jesus and His authority, then I am not limited. I am depending on Jesus, not me.
Matthew 19:26 Jesus says, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
God can accomplish whatever He sets out to accomplish. Nothing is impossible for God. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and always present. He is not bound by time or space or any of the limitations as we as humans are.
Disciples operate under Jesus’ authority .
Another aspect of depending on Jesus is believing the Bible, God’s Word.
John 2:22
When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
The disciples believed the words that Jesus spoke. They believed the Old Testament scriptures because they saw that they revealed the truth about the Messiah, Jesus.
In a culture that does not believe in absolute truth, we as the disciples of Jesus must proclaim and live out the absolute truth of God’s Word.
It is not just about knowing God’s Word. I have met people who know God’s Word in detail, but don’t really believe it. We as Jesus’ disciples must make the Word of God the foundational authority for everything we do.
The Word of God is described in Hebrews 4:12 as:
Living
Active
Piercing
Discerning
As Jesus’ disciples we have to let the Bible do that in our lives every day.
A third thing it means to depend on Jesus is not to depend on rules and traditions, but to depend on relationship.
The disciples of Jesus were criticized by the religious leaders for not following the Sabbath rules. They picked grain and ate on the Sabbath.
The disciples of Jesus were criticized by the religious leaders for not washing their hands (my mother used to get on to me about that one) in the way the rules required it to be done.
The disciples of Jesus were criticized by the religious leaders for not fasting according to the rules.
Jesus’ response is found in Matthew 12:8. He says, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Depending on rules, rituals, regulations, or traditions is like the man who built his house on the sand. When the storms of life came, the house didn’t stand. If our lives are built on rules, rituals, regulations, or traditions, our lives will not stand.
But if, like the man who built his house on a rock, we build our lives on the Rock, Jesus, then when the storms of life come we will stand.
When Jesus came, He followed the commands of God not the rules of men.
Jesus taught and demonstrated how to follow God’s commands. The disciples learned to depend on Jesus, not be bound by the law.
God created us to have order and structure to our lives. Order and structure produced by man-based rules will only give an outward appearance of order. Lives that are ordered and structured by depending on Jesus will be lives filled with inward hope, peace, and joy. They will have real order.
I remember going to help a friend buy a car one time. We got to the car dealership and he asked me to pray with him about what kind of car to buy. My friend began to pray and he asked God to show him in detail what kind of car to buy. He even asked God to tell him what color car to buy. When he had finished praying I asked him if he thought God really cared what color of car he bought. He told me that no, God didn’t really care what color the car was, but that he wanted to bring everything to Jesus, even the trivial things. That way, he knew and Jesus knew that he was depending on Him for everything.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about following Jesus as a disciple. Disciples depend on Jesus by living and ministering under Jesus’ authority. Disciples depend on Jesus by believing God’s Word and living in obedience to it. Disciples depend on Jesus by living based on their relationship with Jesus, not based on rules.
Depending on Jesus will not always be easy but will form us into the image of Jesus and that is the goal of the Father: for us to be like Jesus.
Depending of Jesus to Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls
Joe
Disciples depend on Jesus.
This meant that for these first disciples they physically followed Jesus around all over Judea, Galilee, and at times Samaria. They depended on Jesus for what they needed to live.
What does it mean for us as Jesus’ disciples in the twenty-first century to depend on Jesus?
First it means that we live and operate under Jesus’ authority.
Matthew 10:1
And He called to Him His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
Jesus gives the twelve authority. He gives them His authority over both spiritual and physical forces.
In Matthew 28:18 we are told that Jesus has all authority on heaven and earth.
When I try to live and minister based on my human abilities and resources I am very limited. I can only accomplish what is possible through my human abilities and resources.
When I live and minister based on Jesus and His authority, then I am not limited. I am depending on Jesus, not me.
Matthew 19:26 Jesus says, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
God can accomplish whatever He sets out to accomplish. Nothing is impossible for God. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and always present. He is not bound by time or space or any of the limitations as we as humans are.
Disciples operate under Jesus’ authority .
Another aspect of depending on Jesus is believing the Bible, God’s Word.
John 2:22
When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
The disciples believed the words that Jesus spoke. They believed the Old Testament scriptures because they saw that they revealed the truth about the Messiah, Jesus.
In a culture that does not believe in absolute truth, we as the disciples of Jesus must proclaim and live out the absolute truth of God’s Word.
It is not just about knowing God’s Word. I have met people who know God’s Word in detail, but don’t really believe it. We as Jesus’ disciples must make the Word of God the foundational authority for everything we do.
The Word of God is described in Hebrews 4:12 as:
Living
Active
Piercing
Discerning
As Jesus’ disciples we have to let the Bible do that in our lives every day.
A third thing it means to depend on Jesus is not to depend on rules and traditions, but to depend on relationship.
The disciples of Jesus were criticized by the religious leaders for not following the Sabbath rules. They picked grain and ate on the Sabbath.
The disciples of Jesus were criticized by the religious leaders for not washing their hands (my mother used to get on to me about that one) in the way the rules required it to be done.
The disciples of Jesus were criticized by the religious leaders for not fasting according to the rules.
Jesus’ response is found in Matthew 12:8. He says, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Depending on rules, rituals, regulations, or traditions is like the man who built his house on the sand. When the storms of life came, the house didn’t stand. If our lives are built on rules, rituals, regulations, or traditions, our lives will not stand.
But if, like the man who built his house on a rock, we build our lives on the Rock, Jesus, then when the storms of life come we will stand.
When Jesus came, He followed the commands of God not the rules of men.
Jesus taught and demonstrated how to follow God’s commands. The disciples learned to depend on Jesus, not be bound by the law.
God created us to have order and structure to our lives. Order and structure produced by man-based rules will only give an outward appearance of order. Lives that are ordered and structured by depending on Jesus will be lives filled with inward hope, peace, and joy. They will have real order.
I remember going to help a friend buy a car one time. We got to the car dealership and he asked me to pray with him about what kind of car to buy. My friend began to pray and he asked God to show him in detail what kind of car to buy. He even asked God to tell him what color car to buy. When he had finished praying I asked him if he thought God really cared what color of car he bought. He told me that no, God didn’t really care what color the car was, but that he wanted to bring everything to Jesus, even the trivial things. That way, he knew and Jesus knew that he was depending on Him for everything.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about following Jesus as a disciple. Disciples depend on Jesus by living and ministering under Jesus’ authority. Disciples depend on Jesus by believing God’s Word and living in obedience to it. Disciples depend on Jesus by living based on their relationship with Jesus, not based on rules.
Depending on Jesus will not always be easy but will form us into the image of Jesus and that is the goal of the Father: for us to be like Jesus.
Depending of Jesus to Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls
Joe
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Disciples Practice Spiritual Disciplines
People who are disciples of Jesus practice spiritual disciplines.
The word discipline means training that develops self-control, character, and efficiency.
A disciple, then, is a person who, as he follows Jesus, allows Jesus to put certain disciplines in his life that will produce self-control, godly character and God-honoring works.
I want to focus on three disciplines that are mentioned specifically in the Gospels in relationship to the disciples of Jesus.
Luke 19:37
As He was drawing near - already on the way down the Mount of Olives - the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.
Disciples worship Jesus.
We think of worship in terms of music and singing. But the word translated worship in the New Testament means to bow and kiss the hand of one out of reverence.
Worship is not just music. It is a an act of a person’s will to surrender to Jesus as Lord, serve Jesus with all that they have, and obey Jesus no matter what.
The acts of private and corporate worship help us to be disciplined or trained to live our lives in worship of God 24/7.
Disciples pray.
In Luke 11:1 Jesus was praying. When He had finished, His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray.
Jesus then gives them a model prayer. He didn’t intend for this prayer to be simply repeated. It was a model to help us to know what to pray for.
Jesus instructs His disciples to pray that God’s name will be honored. Jesus says to hallow God’s name. To hallow means to purify something. We are to purify God’s name by not using it in a common or profane way. We are to always honor and glorify God’s name because His name is who God is. We are to honor God. That has to be our first priority and out greatest desire.
Disciples are to pray for God’s kingdom to be established. Our goal as disciples is the establishing and growing of God’s kingdom. We are not to spend time or effort growing our kingdom.
Disciples are to pray for their daily needs. When we pray for our daily needs, it demonstrates our dependence on God, not ourselves, for everything we need. In 2 Peter 1:3 we are told that God has given us all we need to live a godly life. Praying for our daily needs shows that we believe all we need is found in Him. We are given freedom to pray for what we “need”, not what we might “want”.
Disciples pray for forgiveness of our sins. Disciples are not perfect, sinless, got-life-all-together people. Disciples are like all other human beings - sinners. Two things distinguish a disciple of Jesus from a person who is not a disciple.
First, disciples are forgiven because we have acknowledged our sin, repented of our sin and asked God to forgive us. The second is that we then become recovering sinners.
So, yes, disciples still need to seek God’s forgiveness.
Then disciples turn around and forgive.
How could we not forgive others? What we did in rejecting Jesus and making our own selves God is much worse that what anyone could ever to do us. When I compare what God has forgiven me for as compared to what I have been asked to forgive others for, it is the difference between asking someone for a penny or asking someone for a trillion dollars. My sin is the trillion dollar forgiveness.
Disciples pray to overcome temptation.
We are going to face temptation. We cannot avoid it.
Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus was tempted in every way that you and I have been tempted, but He overcame all of the temptations He faced.
On my own, I will not overcome the temptations I face, so I need to pray so that Jesus’ power to overcome is enabling me to overcome. If I depend on my strength I will fail and let temptation lead to sin and sin leads to death.
There is another thing that Jesus taught His disciples to pray for that is found in Matthew 9:37-38. It says, “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’”
The harvest is God’s. We don’t make the harvest; God does. God gives us the privilege and responsibility to “harvest the harvest“. As Jesus’ disciples, we need to pray for more disciples to go and reap the harvest so more disciples can be produced.
Disciples serve.
When Jesus fed the five thousand and the four thousand, He blessed the bread and fish, He broke them and then He gave them to the disciples and they served the people.
The word serve in the New Testament means to execute the command of a superior to meet the needs of another.
According to Matthew 20:28, Jesus came to serve and He wants His disciples to follow His example.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about letting Jesus form spiritual disciplines in us. The purpose is that we can exercise self-control, develop godly character, and effectively serve God.
Our ability to practice spiritual disciplines comes from the Spirit filling, enabling and controlling us. That only happens as we apply the truth of Luke 9:23: denying self, taking up our cross daily, and following Jesus.
Spiritual disciplines come only by surrendering everything to Lord Jesus.
By Godly Discipline Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
The word discipline means training that develops self-control, character, and efficiency.
A disciple, then, is a person who, as he follows Jesus, allows Jesus to put certain disciplines in his life that will produce self-control, godly character and God-honoring works.
I want to focus on three disciplines that are mentioned specifically in the Gospels in relationship to the disciples of Jesus.
Luke 19:37
As He was drawing near - already on the way down the Mount of Olives - the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.
Disciples worship Jesus.
We think of worship in terms of music and singing. But the word translated worship in the New Testament means to bow and kiss the hand of one out of reverence.
Worship is not just music. It is a an act of a person’s will to surrender to Jesus as Lord, serve Jesus with all that they have, and obey Jesus no matter what.
The acts of private and corporate worship help us to be disciplined or trained to live our lives in worship of God 24/7.
Disciples pray.
In Luke 11:1 Jesus was praying. When He had finished, His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray.
Jesus then gives them a model prayer. He didn’t intend for this prayer to be simply repeated. It was a model to help us to know what to pray for.
Jesus instructs His disciples to pray that God’s name will be honored. Jesus says to hallow God’s name. To hallow means to purify something. We are to purify God’s name by not using it in a common or profane way. We are to always honor and glorify God’s name because His name is who God is. We are to honor God. That has to be our first priority and out greatest desire.
Disciples are to pray for God’s kingdom to be established. Our goal as disciples is the establishing and growing of God’s kingdom. We are not to spend time or effort growing our kingdom.
Disciples are to pray for their daily needs. When we pray for our daily needs, it demonstrates our dependence on God, not ourselves, for everything we need. In 2 Peter 1:3 we are told that God has given us all we need to live a godly life. Praying for our daily needs shows that we believe all we need is found in Him. We are given freedom to pray for what we “need”, not what we might “want”.
Disciples pray for forgiveness of our sins. Disciples are not perfect, sinless, got-life-all-together people. Disciples are like all other human beings - sinners. Two things distinguish a disciple of Jesus from a person who is not a disciple.
First, disciples are forgiven because we have acknowledged our sin, repented of our sin and asked God to forgive us. The second is that we then become recovering sinners.
So, yes, disciples still need to seek God’s forgiveness.
Then disciples turn around and forgive.
How could we not forgive others? What we did in rejecting Jesus and making our own selves God is much worse that what anyone could ever to do us. When I compare what God has forgiven me for as compared to what I have been asked to forgive others for, it is the difference between asking someone for a penny or asking someone for a trillion dollars. My sin is the trillion dollar forgiveness.
Disciples pray to overcome temptation.
We are going to face temptation. We cannot avoid it.
Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus was tempted in every way that you and I have been tempted, but He overcame all of the temptations He faced.
On my own, I will not overcome the temptations I face, so I need to pray so that Jesus’ power to overcome is enabling me to overcome. If I depend on my strength I will fail and let temptation lead to sin and sin leads to death.
There is another thing that Jesus taught His disciples to pray for that is found in Matthew 9:37-38. It says, “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’”
The harvest is God’s. We don’t make the harvest; God does. God gives us the privilege and responsibility to “harvest the harvest“. As Jesus’ disciples, we need to pray for more disciples to go and reap the harvest so more disciples can be produced.
Disciples serve.
When Jesus fed the five thousand and the four thousand, He blessed the bread and fish, He broke them and then He gave them to the disciples and they served the people.
The word serve in the New Testament means to execute the command of a superior to meet the needs of another.
According to Matthew 20:28, Jesus came to serve and He wants His disciples to follow His example.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about letting Jesus form spiritual disciplines in us. The purpose is that we can exercise self-control, develop godly character, and effectively serve God.
Our ability to practice spiritual disciplines comes from the Spirit filling, enabling and controlling us. That only happens as we apply the truth of Luke 9:23: denying self, taking up our cross daily, and following Jesus.
Spiritual disciplines come only by surrendering everything to Lord Jesus.
By Godly Discipline Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Disciples of Jeus Are Called to Action
Disciples are called to take action.
In Mark 1:16-20 Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow Him. In Matthew 9:9 Jesus calls Matthew to follow Him.
Jesus’ initial call is to follow Him. It is a call to action.
Jesus didn’t call them to just come see Him or come spend the day with Him. He called them to follow Him.
The disciples followed Him everywhere.
In Matthew 8:23 the disciples get into a boat to follow Jesus.
Matthew 8:24 tells us the results. The verse says, “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but He was asleep.”
They followed Jesus into a storm.
When we follow Jesus, He will lead us into storms. He will lead us to take risky action.
But Jesus has everything under control. In Matthew 8:26b it says, “Jesus rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.”
By following Jesus into the storm, the disciples experienced the power of God.
In Mark 6:1 the disciples followed Jesus to His hometown of Nazareth.
They followed Jesus into a circumstance of rejection.
When we follow Jesus, He will lead us into circumstances where we will be rejected.
But they came away from this experience with a better understanding of faith and the importance of faith in relating to Jesus.
Mark 6:5 says, “And He could do no mighty works there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.”
The people in Nazareth lacked faith in Jesus and rejected Him, and so it hindered Jesus from displaying His power and glory.
In Matthew 22:39 the disciples followed Jesus to the Mount of Olives. Jesus was leading them into a time of testing.
When we follow Jesus He will lead us into times of testing.
In their testing the disciples got to see Jesus follow the Father’s will and offer Himself as a willing sacrifice.
In John chapter one Andrew follows Jesus and experiences a revelation that Jesus is the Messiah. He then in John 1:41 goes and finds Peter and tells him that they had found the Messiah.
The initial action of following Jesus will lead to more and more action.
In John 4:2 we are told that the disciples, not Jesus, were baptizing new followers.
The disciples, by following Jesus, were given the privilege and responsibility of helping people to come to Jesus, connect with Jesus and begin following Jesus.
So the initial call of Jesus is to follow. It does not end there.
The command that Jesus gave His disciples before He left is found in Matthew 28:19-20. It says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
The impetrative in that passage is Make Disciples. But look at the other action words in that passage - go, baptize, teach.
We make disciples through our actions of going and baptizing and teaching.
The teaching was a result of the following. They could teach about God’s power because they saw it as Jesus stilled the storm. They could teach about faith because they saw the result of a lack of faith by the people in Nazareth. They could teach about obedience and sacrifice because they saw it as Jesus followed the Father’s will and gave himself up for us in the garden.
All of this comes out of following Jesus.
We Want to go because we are followers of Jesus.
We are Enabled to make disciples because we are followers of Jesus.
We are Qualified to baptize because we are followers of Jesus.
We Have Something to teach because we are followers of Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about Following Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about Making Disciples.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about going, baptizing, and teaching.
Disciples are called to be followers. It is a call to action.
With Action Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
In Mark 1:16-20 Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow Him. In Matthew 9:9 Jesus calls Matthew to follow Him.
Jesus’ initial call is to follow Him. It is a call to action.
Jesus didn’t call them to just come see Him or come spend the day with Him. He called them to follow Him.
The disciples followed Him everywhere.
In Matthew 8:23 the disciples get into a boat to follow Jesus.
Matthew 8:24 tells us the results. The verse says, “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but He was asleep.”
They followed Jesus into a storm.
When we follow Jesus, He will lead us into storms. He will lead us to take risky action.
But Jesus has everything under control. In Matthew 8:26b it says, “Jesus rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.”
By following Jesus into the storm, the disciples experienced the power of God.
In Mark 6:1 the disciples followed Jesus to His hometown of Nazareth.
They followed Jesus into a circumstance of rejection.
When we follow Jesus, He will lead us into circumstances where we will be rejected.
But they came away from this experience with a better understanding of faith and the importance of faith in relating to Jesus.
Mark 6:5 says, “And He could do no mighty works there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.”
The people in Nazareth lacked faith in Jesus and rejected Him, and so it hindered Jesus from displaying His power and glory.
In Matthew 22:39 the disciples followed Jesus to the Mount of Olives. Jesus was leading them into a time of testing.
When we follow Jesus He will lead us into times of testing.
In their testing the disciples got to see Jesus follow the Father’s will and offer Himself as a willing sacrifice.
In John chapter one Andrew follows Jesus and experiences a revelation that Jesus is the Messiah. He then in John 1:41 goes and finds Peter and tells him that they had found the Messiah.
The initial action of following Jesus will lead to more and more action.
In John 4:2 we are told that the disciples, not Jesus, were baptizing new followers.
The disciples, by following Jesus, were given the privilege and responsibility of helping people to come to Jesus, connect with Jesus and begin following Jesus.
So the initial call of Jesus is to follow. It does not end there.
The command that Jesus gave His disciples before He left is found in Matthew 28:19-20. It says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
The impetrative in that passage is Make Disciples. But look at the other action words in that passage - go, baptize, teach.
We make disciples through our actions of going and baptizing and teaching.
The teaching was a result of the following. They could teach about God’s power because they saw it as Jesus stilled the storm. They could teach about faith because they saw the result of a lack of faith by the people in Nazareth. They could teach about obedience and sacrifice because they saw it as Jesus followed the Father’s will and gave himself up for us in the garden.
All of this comes out of following Jesus.
We Want to go because we are followers of Jesus.
We are Enabled to make disciples because we are followers of Jesus.
We are Qualified to baptize because we are followers of Jesus.
We Have Something to teach because we are followers of Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about Following Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about Making Disciples.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about going, baptizing, and teaching.
Disciples are called to be followers. It is a call to action.
With Action Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Sunday, November 23, 2014
What a Disciple of Jesus Is
God has been speaking to me about the purpose of the church and the purpose of my life.
I believe based on Scripture, that the purpose of the church and my purpose and your purpose as followers of Jesus is to make disciples.
Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
In that passage we are given the:
Authority
Command
Scope
How To Do
and
Power
For Making Disciples.
I believe that for us to do that, the church, the people of God, must experience real revival.
But I realized that if my purpose and the purpose of the church is to make disciples and I have been given the command, the authority, the power, the scope, and the how do of making disciples, I still needed one thing. - I need to know what A Disciple Is.
The word disciple means learner or pupil. The root word means to learn by use and practice.
A disciple is one who learns not just by studying something but who takes the knowledge and uses it every day.
The biblical definition of disciple is found in Matthew 4:19. It says, “And He said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”
There are three aspect of a disciple contained in that verse.
#1: Follow Me
This is an invitation to follow Jesus. When we follow Jesus it means we come under His authority and direction. The invitation is to follow Jesus and enter into a relationship with Him but not based on how we want to follow. It is based on us submitting our lives completely to Jesus.
We don’t follow a set of values.
We don’t follow a list of rules.
We don’t follow a religious tradition.
We follow a person - Jesus.
In Matthew 9:9 Jesus offers Matthew the same invitation that He offered Andrew, Peter, James, and John - Follow Me.
Jesus gives us the same invitation today.
#2: I Will Make You
Jesus is a living and active God. He transforms us into new people as we follow Him as His disciples. We are changed in our relationship with Jesus. He does that by using prayer, Bible study, the guidance of other believers, and life experiences. These are all directed by the Holy Spirit.
Paul tells us that in Romans 8:29 what God wants to do in our lives. He says, “For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.”
God wants to change us to be like His Son - Jesus.
#3: Fishers of Men
Fishers of men are people who go out and connect with and share the love of Jesus with others.
Jesus tells us in Luke 19:10 that He came to seek and to save the lost.
A fisher of men is a person who follows the mission of Jesus to seek and save the lost and grow them into new disciples of Jesus.
Jesus invites us to follow Him. A disciple knows and follows Jesus.
Jesus says He will make us. A disciple is being changed by Jesus.
Jesus tells us we are to be fishers of men. A disciple is committed to the mission of Jesus.
So are you are disciple of Jesus?
It does not require:
Perfection
Super Human Faith
Great In Depth Theological Training
Complete Knowledge and Understanding of God
Great Spiritual Insights
It does require:
Faith
Passion
Submission
Humility
Courage
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being a disciple of Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about making disciples.
We live in a nation where going to church is easy.
We live in a nation where making a commitment to Jesus is easy.
We live in a nation where calling ourselves Christian is easy.
Most people don’t really have to sacrifice anything to go to church, to read the Bible, to pray or to do anything connected with being a Christian.
If we want to be a disciple of Jesus it will cost.
If we want to be a disciple of Jesus there will be sacrifice.
The cost and the sacrifice is our lives.
When Andrew, Peter, James, John, and Matthew became disciples of Jesus it cost them their lives. They left home and family. They sacrificed security and comfort.
The picture that Jesus draws for us about becoming a disciple in Luke 9:23 is - DEATH.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Paul says “I killed the old self who lived for itself and now Jesus lives His live in and through me.”
That is what occurs when we become disciples of Jesus.
Crucifixion is painful; it is called death by torture.
And the old self, what Paul calls the flesh, will not go down easy.
In Galatians 5:24 Paul says, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with it passions and desires.”
The flesh is not neutral; it has “passions and desires”. The flesh is going to fight. It wants control.
Disciples of Jesus give Jesus control. They make Jesus the sole Authority in their lives.
Over the next several week I want to explore the characteristics of a disciple of Jesus.
As a Disciple of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
I believe based on Scripture, that the purpose of the church and my purpose and your purpose as followers of Jesus is to make disciples.
Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
In that passage we are given the:
Authority
Command
Scope
How To Do
and
Power
For Making Disciples.
I believe that for us to do that, the church, the people of God, must experience real revival.
But I realized that if my purpose and the purpose of the church is to make disciples and I have been given the command, the authority, the power, the scope, and the how do of making disciples, I still needed one thing. - I need to know what A Disciple Is.
The word disciple means learner or pupil. The root word means to learn by use and practice.
A disciple is one who learns not just by studying something but who takes the knowledge and uses it every day.
The biblical definition of disciple is found in Matthew 4:19. It says, “And He said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”
There are three aspect of a disciple contained in that verse.
#1: Follow Me
This is an invitation to follow Jesus. When we follow Jesus it means we come under His authority and direction. The invitation is to follow Jesus and enter into a relationship with Him but not based on how we want to follow. It is based on us submitting our lives completely to Jesus.
We don’t follow a set of values.
We don’t follow a list of rules.
We don’t follow a religious tradition.
We follow a person - Jesus.
In Matthew 9:9 Jesus offers Matthew the same invitation that He offered Andrew, Peter, James, and John - Follow Me.
Jesus gives us the same invitation today.
#2: I Will Make You
Jesus is a living and active God. He transforms us into new people as we follow Him as His disciples. We are changed in our relationship with Jesus. He does that by using prayer, Bible study, the guidance of other believers, and life experiences. These are all directed by the Holy Spirit.
Paul tells us that in Romans 8:29 what God wants to do in our lives. He says, “For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.”
God wants to change us to be like His Son - Jesus.
#3: Fishers of Men
Fishers of men are people who go out and connect with and share the love of Jesus with others.
Jesus tells us in Luke 19:10 that He came to seek and to save the lost.
A fisher of men is a person who follows the mission of Jesus to seek and save the lost and grow them into new disciples of Jesus.
Jesus invites us to follow Him. A disciple knows and follows Jesus.
Jesus says He will make us. A disciple is being changed by Jesus.
Jesus tells us we are to be fishers of men. A disciple is committed to the mission of Jesus.
So are you are disciple of Jesus?
It does not require:
Perfection
Super Human Faith
Great In Depth Theological Training
Complete Knowledge and Understanding of God
Great Spiritual Insights
It does require:
Faith
Passion
Submission
Humility
Courage
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being a disciple of Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about making disciples.
We live in a nation where going to church is easy.
We live in a nation where making a commitment to Jesus is easy.
We live in a nation where calling ourselves Christian is easy.
Most people don’t really have to sacrifice anything to go to church, to read the Bible, to pray or to do anything connected with being a Christian.
If we want to be a disciple of Jesus it will cost.
If we want to be a disciple of Jesus there will be sacrifice.
The cost and the sacrifice is our lives.
When Andrew, Peter, James, John, and Matthew became disciples of Jesus it cost them their lives. They left home and family. They sacrificed security and comfort.
The picture that Jesus draws for us about becoming a disciple in Luke 9:23 is - DEATH.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Paul says “I killed the old self who lived for itself and now Jesus lives His live in and through me.”
That is what occurs when we become disciples of Jesus.
Crucifixion is painful; it is called death by torture.
And the old self, what Paul calls the flesh, will not go down easy.
In Galatians 5:24 Paul says, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with it passions and desires.”
The flesh is not neutral; it has “passions and desires”. The flesh is going to fight. It wants control.
Disciples of Jesus give Jesus control. They make Jesus the sole Authority in their lives.
Over the next several week I want to explore the characteristics of a disciple of Jesus.
As a Disciple of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Seeking God's Face
God has directed me over the last six weeks to lead my faith family through a study of revival. The purpose was not to just learn about revival, but to let God put us as His people in a position to receive revival. Revival is a sovereign act of God so you cannot make it happen. You can get your life in a surrendered and repentant condition so that, when God does pour out His Spirit in revival, you can be ready.
One of the verses that God has been using is 2 Chronicles 7:14. It says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.”
I want to focus on one phrase in that verse that God has impressed on me. It is a phrase that I had overlooked as I thought about the verse and even as I prayed it for my faith family.
The phrase “seek His face.”
We many times pray for God to bless us or thank Him when we perceived He has blessed us. But seeking God’s face and seeking God’s blessings are, I have come to understand, two very different things.
When I seek God’s blessings I am seeking God’s hand. I am seeking what He can DO for me. I believe seeking God’s blessings please God. God wants us to acknowledge our dependence on Him and seeking God’s blessings does that.
Seeking God’s face means I am seeking God presence. I am seeking God’s heart. I want to know and experience God as He is. I am not just interested in what God can do for me, I want to know WHO GOD IS.
I believe that seeking God’s face, His presence makes God smile. I really believe that it makes God laugh with great joy.
When we go to see our children and grandchildren, our grandchildren usually come running with arms open wide shouting “Grammy and Pops.” They don’t do that because we have gifts for them. They do it because they genuinely are glad to see us, to have us with them.
Well, God is overjoyed when His kids are genuinely glad to see Him and are excited about hanging out with Him.
So, from a practical aspect, what does it mean to seek God’s face?
I see in Scripture six things that will allow us to seek God’s face, to hang out with God if we will practice them.
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
We invite God to know us.
We invite God to examine us.
We invite God to rebuke us.
We invite God to correct us.
If God is going to do that, we have to be TRANSPARENT with Him. We cannot invite Him in and close off areas of our life. We have to let Him go anywhere He wants in our lives.
Mark 12:30-31
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
We are to love. Love God with all we are. Love others like we love ourselves.
If we are going to love God like that we have to be PASSIONATE.
If we are going to love others like that we have to be GRACIOUS.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
If we are going to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness above all else (that is what “seek first” means), we have to be OBESSED with Jesus.
2 Corinthians 7:1
Since we have these promises, beloved let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
If we are to do that, we have to possess two things:
A Holy Humble Fear of God (awe)
A Holy Humble Courage
When I think of God, two thoughts come to my mind. First is fear or awe. This is the All-Mighty, All-Knowing, Ever-Present God we are talking about. The second is comfort. This same awesomely fearful God loves me and is on my side.
For us to have both fear and courage we have to be DEVOTED to God. Devoted means to cling to something. It means we have to have it or our life will not be right or good.
John 15:4-5
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Abide means to remain as one.
If we are to abide, remain as one with Jesus, we have to be completely DEPENDENT on Him.
Joel 2:12-13
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; He relents over disaster.
If we are to repent and return to God we have to be HUMBLE. We have to admit our wrongness and our sin. We then have to come back to where God wants us.
Revelation 2:4
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
I remember when I was dating Jan. I would spend a long time getting ready. I would pick out the clothes I thought she liked. I would spend time making my hair look good (yes, I had hair at one time). I wanted to show her that she was special, that she was The One I cared for above all others.
Jesus wants to know that He is our first love.
If we are to truly return to our first love, we have to be HONEST. We cannot tell Jesus we love Him and go live in direct opposition to His word and character. We cannot tell Him we love Him above everything and have anything else as the focus of our lives.
Seeking God’s face means we are to be:
Transparent
Passionate
Gracious
Obsessed
Devoted
Dependent
Humble
Honest
If I were really clever I would spell a word using the first letter of those words, but I not so I am not going to try. If you can come up with one, please let me know.
Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls is about seeking God’s face.
Seeking God’s face will not always be fun or pleasant, but it will be necessary and a blessing.
You see the real blessing that God wants to pour out on us His children is - HIMSELF.
God is the blessing.
Seeking His Face Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
One of the verses that God has been using is 2 Chronicles 7:14. It says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.”
I want to focus on one phrase in that verse that God has impressed on me. It is a phrase that I had overlooked as I thought about the verse and even as I prayed it for my faith family.
The phrase “seek His face.”
We many times pray for God to bless us or thank Him when we perceived He has blessed us. But seeking God’s face and seeking God’s blessings are, I have come to understand, two very different things.
When I seek God’s blessings I am seeking God’s hand. I am seeking what He can DO for me. I believe seeking God’s blessings please God. God wants us to acknowledge our dependence on Him and seeking God’s blessings does that.
Seeking God’s face means I am seeking God presence. I am seeking God’s heart. I want to know and experience God as He is. I am not just interested in what God can do for me, I want to know WHO GOD IS.
I believe that seeking God’s face, His presence makes God smile. I really believe that it makes God laugh with great joy.
When we go to see our children and grandchildren, our grandchildren usually come running with arms open wide shouting “Grammy and Pops.” They don’t do that because we have gifts for them. They do it because they genuinely are glad to see us, to have us with them.
Well, God is overjoyed when His kids are genuinely glad to see Him and are excited about hanging out with Him.
So, from a practical aspect, what does it mean to seek God’s face?
I see in Scripture six things that will allow us to seek God’s face, to hang out with God if we will practice them.
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
We invite God to know us.
We invite God to examine us.
We invite God to rebuke us.
We invite God to correct us.
If God is going to do that, we have to be TRANSPARENT with Him. We cannot invite Him in and close off areas of our life. We have to let Him go anywhere He wants in our lives.
Mark 12:30-31
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
We are to love. Love God with all we are. Love others like we love ourselves.
If we are going to love God like that we have to be PASSIONATE.
If we are going to love others like that we have to be GRACIOUS.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
If we are going to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness above all else (that is what “seek first” means), we have to be OBESSED with Jesus.
2 Corinthians 7:1
Since we have these promises, beloved let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
If we are to do that, we have to possess two things:
A Holy Humble Fear of God (awe)
A Holy Humble Courage
When I think of God, two thoughts come to my mind. First is fear or awe. This is the All-Mighty, All-Knowing, Ever-Present God we are talking about. The second is comfort. This same awesomely fearful God loves me and is on my side.
For us to have both fear and courage we have to be DEVOTED to God. Devoted means to cling to something. It means we have to have it or our life will not be right or good.
John 15:4-5
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Abide means to remain as one.
If we are to abide, remain as one with Jesus, we have to be completely DEPENDENT on Him.
Joel 2:12-13
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; He relents over disaster.
If we are to repent and return to God we have to be HUMBLE. We have to admit our wrongness and our sin. We then have to come back to where God wants us.
Revelation 2:4
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
I remember when I was dating Jan. I would spend a long time getting ready. I would pick out the clothes I thought she liked. I would spend time making my hair look good (yes, I had hair at one time). I wanted to show her that she was special, that she was The One I cared for above all others.
Jesus wants to know that He is our first love.
If we are to truly return to our first love, we have to be HONEST. We cannot tell Jesus we love Him and go live in direct opposition to His word and character. We cannot tell Him we love Him above everything and have anything else as the focus of our lives.
Seeking God’s face means we are to be:
Transparent
Passionate
Gracious
Obsessed
Devoted
Dependent
Humble
Honest
If I were really clever I would spell a word using the first letter of those words, but I not so I am not going to try. If you can come up with one, please let me know.
Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls is about seeking God’s face.
Seeking God’s face will not always be fun or pleasant, but it will be necessary and a blessing.
You see the real blessing that God wants to pour out on us His children is - HIMSELF.
God is the blessing.
Seeking His Face Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
How Jesus Made Disciples
In Matthew 28:19 Jesus gives us as His people a command - Go Make Disciples.
How do we do that?
Jesus made disciples while He was physically here on earth. We as the church, the Body of Christ, are to continue Jesus mission of making disciples.
In John 17 Jesus prays about His disciples. He prays for those that were there then and for those, like us, who would become disciples through the testimony of those who were there then.
In this prayer Jesus tells us how He made disciples and thus brought glory to the Father. That was Jesus’ mission and ours.
John 17:2-3
Since You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life that they may know You the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Jesus made disciples by giving eternal life to them.
We have defined eternal life as “going to heaven.” Jesus defines eternal life as knowing the Father and Himself.
If we look at eternal life as a relationship with the Father through Jesus and not as a place or an achievement, then a disciple is not just a person who is going to heaven when they die, but a person who knows God.
The only way you come to really know God is by surrendering your life to Him.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about sharing eternal life with others.
John 17:6
I have manifested Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world. Yours they were and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
John 17:8
For I have given them the words that You gave Me, and they have received them and have come to know the truth that I came from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
John 17:17
Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
Jesus made disciples by revealing the Father and truth through the Word of God.
The Word of God is our sole authority for how to live. The Word of God is not just good stuff; it is Life.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about sharing truth, God’s Word with others.
John 17:9
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given Me, for they are Yours.
Jesus made disciples by praying for them.
Jesus didn’t pray for comfort for them or for them to be removed for the world or for wealth and health. He prayed they would become formed into His image.
We pray many times for people to be removed from difficult circumstances. Maybe we should be pray that God would use the difficult circumstances to make them more like Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about praying for other believers.
John 17:11
And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one.
John 17:16
They are not of the world, just as I am not of this world.
Jesus made disciples by setting them apart. Jesus made them holy.
Disciples are in the world (they live and operate and have contact with the world), but not of the world (don’t buy into the ideas and values of the world).
If we are too attached to the world, we will love the world and the love of the Father is not in us. If we are too isolated from the world, we can’t relate to people and we are not effective in sharing God’s life with them.
We have to be connected with the people but reject the values.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being holy, set apart for God’s use only.
John 17:20-21
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
Jesus made disciples by giving them the understanding that allowed them to stayed connected with the Father.
We can do nothing disconnected from God. We only produce fruit when we are connected with God. Producing fruit glorifies God.
The message Jesus taught His disciples allowed them to understand the truth that they needed God.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about sharing the truth and helping people to understand that they need God.
God is not an option for our lives. He is the essential.
John 17:22-23
The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and You in Me, that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.
Jesus made disciples by loving them.
God is love.
The Body of Christ is to be love.
The world will not be attracted to Jesus by our judging and condemning them. They will be attracted to Jesus as we, with godly standards, love them as Jesus loves them.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about loving people as Jesus loves them.
The way that Jesus made disciples is exactly how we are to make disciples.
We make disciples:
By Sharing Eternal Life
By Sharing God’s Word
By Praying
By Being Holy
By Sharing the Message of the Need for God
By Sharing God’s Love
The purpose of all followers of Jesus is to glorify the Father.
The way we glorify the Father is by producing fruit.
The fruit that is pleasing to the Father is godly character that produces new disciples.
If we are going to be Jesus’ disciples, we have to die to ourselves so He can be born and live in us.
Luke 14:27
And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be My disciple.
Making Disciples With Jesus by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
How do we do that?
Jesus made disciples while He was physically here on earth. We as the church, the Body of Christ, are to continue Jesus mission of making disciples.
In John 17 Jesus prays about His disciples. He prays for those that were there then and for those, like us, who would become disciples through the testimony of those who were there then.
In this prayer Jesus tells us how He made disciples and thus brought glory to the Father. That was Jesus’ mission and ours.
John 17:2-3
Since You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life that they may know You the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Jesus made disciples by giving eternal life to them.
We have defined eternal life as “going to heaven.” Jesus defines eternal life as knowing the Father and Himself.
If we look at eternal life as a relationship with the Father through Jesus and not as a place or an achievement, then a disciple is not just a person who is going to heaven when they die, but a person who knows God.
The only way you come to really know God is by surrendering your life to Him.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about sharing eternal life with others.
John 17:6
I have manifested Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world. Yours they were and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
John 17:8
For I have given them the words that You gave Me, and they have received them and have come to know the truth that I came from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
John 17:17
Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
Jesus made disciples by revealing the Father and truth through the Word of God.
The Word of God is our sole authority for how to live. The Word of God is not just good stuff; it is Life.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about sharing truth, God’s Word with others.
John 17:9
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given Me, for they are Yours.
Jesus made disciples by praying for them.
Jesus didn’t pray for comfort for them or for them to be removed for the world or for wealth and health. He prayed they would become formed into His image.
We pray many times for people to be removed from difficult circumstances. Maybe we should be pray that God would use the difficult circumstances to make them more like Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about praying for other believers.
John 17:11
And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one.
John 17:16
They are not of the world, just as I am not of this world.
Jesus made disciples by setting them apart. Jesus made them holy.
Disciples are in the world (they live and operate and have contact with the world), but not of the world (don’t buy into the ideas and values of the world).
If we are too attached to the world, we will love the world and the love of the Father is not in us. If we are too isolated from the world, we can’t relate to people and we are not effective in sharing God’s life with them.
We have to be connected with the people but reject the values.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being holy, set apart for God’s use only.
John 17:20-21
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
Jesus made disciples by giving them the understanding that allowed them to stayed connected with the Father.
We can do nothing disconnected from God. We only produce fruit when we are connected with God. Producing fruit glorifies God.
The message Jesus taught His disciples allowed them to understand the truth that they needed God.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about sharing the truth and helping people to understand that they need God.
God is not an option for our lives. He is the essential.
John 17:22-23
The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and You in Me, that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.
Jesus made disciples by loving them.
God is love.
The Body of Christ is to be love.
The world will not be attracted to Jesus by our judging and condemning them. They will be attracted to Jesus as we, with godly standards, love them as Jesus loves them.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about loving people as Jesus loves them.
The way that Jesus made disciples is exactly how we are to make disciples.
We make disciples:
By Sharing Eternal Life
By Sharing God’s Word
By Praying
By Being Holy
By Sharing the Message of the Need for God
By Sharing God’s Love
The purpose of all followers of Jesus is to glorify the Father.
The way we glorify the Father is by producing fruit.
The fruit that is pleasing to the Father is godly character that produces new disciples.
If we are going to be Jesus’ disciples, we have to die to ourselves so He can be born and live in us.
Luke 14:27
And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be My disciple.
Making Disciples With Jesus by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Sunday, November 2, 2014
God's Relentless Love
The relentless love of God is overwhelming to me. The relentless love of God is also intimidating to me.
1 John 4:8 and 16 both say that God is love. Those verses don’t say that God is a God of love. They say God is love. He is the very essence of love. He is love as love really is.
We know based on those verses He is love.
John 3:16 says that God loves the world, the people, so much that He sent Jesus, and through faith in Jesus we have eternal life.
We know based on this verse that God’s love caused Him to give the most precious gift He could give - His Son.
But it is in the Old Testament book of Hosea that we see the relentlessness of God’s love for us.
In Hosea 1:2 God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute.
It would have been interesting to seen Hosea explain to his parents why He was marrying a prostitute. Love to have heard that conversation.
Hosea obeys God and marries Gomer. (Every time I read this passage I have visions of Hosea marrying Gomer Pyle.)
So we ask why would God tell a godly man like Hosea to marry a prostitute?
In Hosea 1:2 God says it is to show that His people are committing spiritual prostitution because they are worshiping other gods.
Gomer and Hosea have three children.
The first is Jezreel. That name means God scatters.
The second is Lo-ruhamah. That name means not loved.
The third is Lo-ammi. That name means not my people.
Each of these names reflects the strain in the relationship of God and His people.
Gomer then leaves Hosea and goes back to her old life of prostitution.
In Hosea chapter 3 God tells Hosea to go find Gomer and take her back as his wife. When Hosea find her she is being sold as a slave and Hosea buys her for fifteen pieces of silver and ten bushels of barley. This was an exorbitant price.
God also renames the children from “not loved” to “love” and from “not my people” to “you are my people.”
The relentlessness of God’s love is shown in:
Hosea’ s love for Gomer in the first place.
Hosea’s buying Gomer back after she had betrayed and abandoned him.
The renaming of the children showing that a people who were not loved and who weren’t God’s people were now loved by God and were reclaimed by Him.
You and I are Gomer. We are the ones that God created and loved who betrayed and abandoned Him. The names of the children show how we related to God. We didn’t want His love or to be His people.
Hosea represents God:
The One who loves us.
The One who bought us with an exorbitant price
The One who pours out His love on us.
The One who wants us as His people.
There is another part to this whole event that we many times overlook.
In Hosea 3:3 Hosea says to Gomer after he has bought her out of slavery, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”
Hosea tells her that because of the great price he paid, out of his love for her, she has to be with him and no one else.
Three aspects of God’s love in Hosea 1-3.
First, God’s love is forgiving.
God’s desire is to forgive. It is not to punish or condemn or destroy.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God sent Jesus to die for your sin so that He could offer you forgiveness. God wants to forgive and He is waiting to forgive.
Second, God’s love is merciful.
Mercy is not giving someone what they deserve.
Gomer deserved for Hosea to leave her to the consequences of her actions. He was directed by God to rescue her from slavery. She did not deserve that.
In the same way God has saved us from what our actions deserve by sending Jesus to take our punishment. Jesus died in our place on the cross.
1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the spirit.
Third, God’s love is gracious.
Grace is being given more than you deserve.
Ephesians 1:7-8
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.
God didn’t just do the minimum. He lavished the riches of salvation on us along with great wisdom and insight.
He didn’t just save us from hell. He saved us to be in heaven.
That is the overwhelming part.
The intimidating part is that God commands me to love in that same way.
Mark 12:30-31
And you shall love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am to love God with all that I am.
I am to love other people in the same way I love myself.
It is great to know that God’s love is forgiving, merciful, and gracious. But my love is also to be forgiving, merciful, and gracious.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about accepting and receiving God’s love.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about living daily in God’s love.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about giving God’s love to others.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about loving just like Jesus loves.
How can we do that?
Romans 5:5
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
God has poured into us by the Holy Spirit His same relentless love.
Am I capable of loving like Jesus? - No!
I am not a capable in my own natural resources. But God has poured into me His supernatural resources so that it is not me loving; it is actually God loving through me.
God gives us a command in Ephesians 4:32. He says, “Be kind to one another, tendered hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
God says love, forgive and show mercy and give grace, just as He does to me. The Holy Spirit will fill you and love through you. We have to surrender to allow God to do that.
With God’s Love Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
1 John 4:8 and 16 both say that God is love. Those verses don’t say that God is a God of love. They say God is love. He is the very essence of love. He is love as love really is.
We know based on those verses He is love.
John 3:16 says that God loves the world, the people, so much that He sent Jesus, and through faith in Jesus we have eternal life.
We know based on this verse that God’s love caused Him to give the most precious gift He could give - His Son.
But it is in the Old Testament book of Hosea that we see the relentlessness of God’s love for us.
In Hosea 1:2 God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute.
It would have been interesting to seen Hosea explain to his parents why He was marrying a prostitute. Love to have heard that conversation.
Hosea obeys God and marries Gomer. (Every time I read this passage I have visions of Hosea marrying Gomer Pyle.)
So we ask why would God tell a godly man like Hosea to marry a prostitute?
In Hosea 1:2 God says it is to show that His people are committing spiritual prostitution because they are worshiping other gods.
Gomer and Hosea have three children.
The first is Jezreel. That name means God scatters.
The second is Lo-ruhamah. That name means not loved.
The third is Lo-ammi. That name means not my people.
Each of these names reflects the strain in the relationship of God and His people.
Gomer then leaves Hosea and goes back to her old life of prostitution.
In Hosea chapter 3 God tells Hosea to go find Gomer and take her back as his wife. When Hosea find her she is being sold as a slave and Hosea buys her for fifteen pieces of silver and ten bushels of barley. This was an exorbitant price.
God also renames the children from “not loved” to “love” and from “not my people” to “you are my people.”
The relentlessness of God’s love is shown in:
Hosea’ s love for Gomer in the first place.
Hosea’s buying Gomer back after she had betrayed and abandoned him.
The renaming of the children showing that a people who were not loved and who weren’t God’s people were now loved by God and were reclaimed by Him.
You and I are Gomer. We are the ones that God created and loved who betrayed and abandoned Him. The names of the children show how we related to God. We didn’t want His love or to be His people.
Hosea represents God:
The One who loves us.
The One who bought us with an exorbitant price
The One who pours out His love on us.
The One who wants us as His people.
There is another part to this whole event that we many times overlook.
In Hosea 3:3 Hosea says to Gomer after he has bought her out of slavery, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”
Hosea tells her that because of the great price he paid, out of his love for her, she has to be with him and no one else.
Three aspects of God’s love in Hosea 1-3.
First, God’s love is forgiving.
God’s desire is to forgive. It is not to punish or condemn or destroy.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God sent Jesus to die for your sin so that He could offer you forgiveness. God wants to forgive and He is waiting to forgive.
Second, God’s love is merciful.
Mercy is not giving someone what they deserve.
Gomer deserved for Hosea to leave her to the consequences of her actions. He was directed by God to rescue her from slavery. She did not deserve that.
In the same way God has saved us from what our actions deserve by sending Jesus to take our punishment. Jesus died in our place on the cross.
1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the spirit.
Third, God’s love is gracious.
Grace is being given more than you deserve.
Ephesians 1:7-8
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.
God didn’t just do the minimum. He lavished the riches of salvation on us along with great wisdom and insight.
He didn’t just save us from hell. He saved us to be in heaven.
That is the overwhelming part.
The intimidating part is that God commands me to love in that same way.
Mark 12:30-31
And you shall love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am to love God with all that I am.
I am to love other people in the same way I love myself.
It is great to know that God’s love is forgiving, merciful, and gracious. But my love is also to be forgiving, merciful, and gracious.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about accepting and receiving God’s love.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about living daily in God’s love.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about giving God’s love to others.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about loving just like Jesus loves.
How can we do that?
Romans 5:5
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
God has poured into us by the Holy Spirit His same relentless love.
Am I capable of loving like Jesus? - No!
I am not a capable in my own natural resources. But God has poured into me His supernatural resources so that it is not me loving; it is actually God loving through me.
God gives us a command in Ephesians 4:32. He says, “Be kind to one another, tendered hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
God says love, forgive and show mercy and give grace, just as He does to me. The Holy Spirit will fill you and love through you. We have to surrender to allow God to do that.
With God’s Love Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Old Dried Bones Can Live
There are things that Scripture records God saying and doing that if it were not God saying or doing them, would be either harsh or just plain crazy.
In Luke 7 Jesus and His disciples encounter a funeral procession coming out of a town called Nain. In verse 13 Jesus tells the mother of the young man who died not to weep. Now, if this was anyone but Jesus, God in the flesh, those would be harsh and unfeeling words. But Jesus next goes over to the casket and brings the young man back to life.
In John 11 Jesus brings Lazarus back to life. In verses 25 and 26 Jesus tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” If anyone else either then Jesus said that they would be crazy. But Jesus then goes and calls Lazarus from the tomb and Lazarus comes out alive.
Maybe the craziest thing that God did in all of Scripture is found in Ezekiel 37.
Ezekiel 37:1 says, “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley, it was full of bones.”
God takes Ezekiel and places him in a valley full of old dead bones. That sounds weird and creepy to me.
Verse 2 describes these bones as being very dry. That means the bones had been in that valley for a long time.
In verse 3 God asks Ezekiel if these bones can live. Now, my answer would have been - No Way!
But that is not how Ezekiel answered. He said, “O Lord God, you know.” Ezekiel is saying, “God, if You want them to live, You can make them live.”
God tells Ezekiel to speak in his authority as a prophet over the bones. He tells Ezekiel to say to the bones “hear the word of the Lord.”
That seems crazy to me that God would tell Ezekiel to speak to these dry dead bones.
But the message God has for Ezekiel seems even crazier. He tells Ezekiel to say to the bones: “Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
And Ezekiel did exactly what God told him to do.
The result of Ezekiel’s obedience and God’s power is recorded in verses 7 through 10. It says:
“There was a sound and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there was sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”
This is a weird and awesome story. But is that all it is? - NO!
I believe it really happened. Does that make me crazy?
There is more to what God is doing here.
Because God tells us in verse 11 what the bones represent. God says, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.”
So the bones represent God’s people, the nation of Israel.
The bones show that God’s people were dried up, without hope, and cut off.
God then tells Ezekiel to tell His people what He would do for them. God will:
Bring Them to Life
Establish Them in the Land
Put His Spirit in Them
Make Them Know that He is Lord
God ends this passage at the end of verse 14 with these words, “I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
As I read the way that God described His people in verse 11, I believe that God could describe the church in America today in the same way.
The church in America is dry.
The church in America feels hopeless.
The church in America is cut off from the power of God.
But look at what God says He will do:
Bring us to life
Establish us in the land
Put His Spirit in us
Make Us Know that He is Lord
So what is it going to take for God to do these things for us as His people in America? It will take us as His people cooperating with Him.
Cooperating in Praying
John 14:13
Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be gloried in the Son.
Cooperating in Worshiping
Matthew 4:10
You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.
Cooperating in Being One Together as His People
John 17:21
That they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, I and in You, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
Cooperating in Sharing the Gospel
Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
Cooperating in Sharing our Resources
Acts 4:34-35
There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ fee, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Cooperating in Making Disciples
Matthew 28:19
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Cooperating in Living as Children of God
Philippians 2:14-15
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.
Cooperating by Surrendering Your Lives to Jesus
Luke 9:23
And He said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
We live in an insane world. So God is going to look crazy to the world and if we follow Him we will look crazy.
Everything in our world is asking us to give up everything and Buy Into, Give, Surrender, or Abandon All for it. Jesus is the only one that asks us to surrender all to Him because He has already surrendered all for us.
1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being crazy, crazy enough to trust God and obey Him.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being radical, radical enough to believe God’s Word and live it.
Radically Crazy Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
In Luke 7 Jesus and His disciples encounter a funeral procession coming out of a town called Nain. In verse 13 Jesus tells the mother of the young man who died not to weep. Now, if this was anyone but Jesus, God in the flesh, those would be harsh and unfeeling words. But Jesus next goes over to the casket and brings the young man back to life.
In John 11 Jesus brings Lazarus back to life. In verses 25 and 26 Jesus tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” If anyone else either then Jesus said that they would be crazy. But Jesus then goes and calls Lazarus from the tomb and Lazarus comes out alive.
Maybe the craziest thing that God did in all of Scripture is found in Ezekiel 37.
Ezekiel 37:1 says, “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley, it was full of bones.”
God takes Ezekiel and places him in a valley full of old dead bones. That sounds weird and creepy to me.
Verse 2 describes these bones as being very dry. That means the bones had been in that valley for a long time.
In verse 3 God asks Ezekiel if these bones can live. Now, my answer would have been - No Way!
But that is not how Ezekiel answered. He said, “O Lord God, you know.” Ezekiel is saying, “God, if You want them to live, You can make them live.”
God tells Ezekiel to speak in his authority as a prophet over the bones. He tells Ezekiel to say to the bones “hear the word of the Lord.”
That seems crazy to me that God would tell Ezekiel to speak to these dry dead bones.
But the message God has for Ezekiel seems even crazier. He tells Ezekiel to say to the bones: “Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
And Ezekiel did exactly what God told him to do.
The result of Ezekiel’s obedience and God’s power is recorded in verses 7 through 10. It says:
“There was a sound and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there was sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”
This is a weird and awesome story. But is that all it is? - NO!
I believe it really happened. Does that make me crazy?
There is more to what God is doing here.
Because God tells us in verse 11 what the bones represent. God says, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.”
So the bones represent God’s people, the nation of Israel.
The bones show that God’s people were dried up, without hope, and cut off.
God then tells Ezekiel to tell His people what He would do for them. God will:
Bring Them to Life
Establish Them in the Land
Put His Spirit in Them
Make Them Know that He is Lord
God ends this passage at the end of verse 14 with these words, “I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
As I read the way that God described His people in verse 11, I believe that God could describe the church in America today in the same way.
The church in America is dry.
The church in America feels hopeless.
The church in America is cut off from the power of God.
But look at what God says He will do:
Bring us to life
Establish us in the land
Put His Spirit in us
Make Us Know that He is Lord
So what is it going to take for God to do these things for us as His people in America? It will take us as His people cooperating with Him.
Cooperating in Praying
John 14:13
Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be gloried in the Son.
Cooperating in Worshiping
Matthew 4:10
You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.
Cooperating in Being One Together as His People
John 17:21
That they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, I and in You, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
Cooperating in Sharing the Gospel
Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
Cooperating in Sharing our Resources
Acts 4:34-35
There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ fee, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Cooperating in Making Disciples
Matthew 28:19
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Cooperating in Living as Children of God
Philippians 2:14-15
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.
Cooperating by Surrendering Your Lives to Jesus
Luke 9:23
And He said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
We live in an insane world. So God is going to look crazy to the world and if we follow Him we will look crazy.
Everything in our world is asking us to give up everything and Buy Into, Give, Surrender, or Abandon All for it. Jesus is the only one that asks us to surrender all to Him because He has already surrendered all for us.
1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being crazy, crazy enough to trust God and obey Him.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being radical, radical enough to believe God’s Word and live it.
Radically Crazy Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Holy Humble Courage
Over the last several years I have been praying for myself, my family, my faith family and my friends that we would have Humble Holy Courage.
Holy Humble Courage is a courage that come from Jesus not us. It is a courage that is not boastful, proud or arrogant. It is a courage based in know the truth and being willing to live and speak it out.
A great picture of what Holy Humble Courage looks like and what is results in is found in Acts 3 and 4.
Acts chapter 3 begins with Peter and John going to the temple to pray at three in the afternoon. They encounter a lame man who is at one of the gates of the temple begging for money. Peter and John tell him they have no money, but what they do have they will give him. Peter tells him in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to get up and walk.
The man with Peter’s help gets up and not only walks, but leaps. The man is healed.
News about the miracle spreads through out Jerusalem. The miracle and Peter’s sharing about Jesus lead many people to surrender their lives to Jesus as Lord.
This brought Peter and John to the attention of the religious leaders. They had Peter and John brought before them. Peter then preaches to the religious leaders.
The religious leaders notice something about Peter and John. In Acts 4:13 it says, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
They saw boldness in these uneducated, common men and the only thing that could attribute it to was that they had been with Jesus.
They boldness didn’t come from:
Being Educated
Being of Noble Birth
Being Wealthy
Their boldness came because they were connected with Jesus.
I see in the church today more education and wealth then boldness. I would have to conclude that we as the church, God’s people are not connected with Jesus as we should be.
The religious leaders although impressed with Peter and John’s boldness were still ready to punish them.
They couldn’t because the man healed in Jesus’ name was standing right there in front of them. The proof of the reality and power of Jesus was staring them in the face.
The religious leaders decide to just warn Peter and John not to speak in the name or about Jesus any more.
But Peter and John answer in verses 19 and 20. They say, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
Peter and John in a very humble and respectful way tell the religious leaders that they not only will, but they have to go on speaking about Jesus.
When Peter and John get back to the church they share what they had been told and the threats they had been given.
In Acts 4:24-30 the church prays. In verses 29-30 they pray, “And now, Lord look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your word will all boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and sign and wonders are preformed through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”
The church did not:
Complain
Whine
React With Anger.
They ask God to give them more boldness to share His word and for Him to continue to do mighty acts that could only be explained by the fact that God had done them.
The result of their prayer is recorded in Acts 4:31. It says, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”
When was the last time your church came together to pray and the place was shaken?
When was the last time your church came together to pray and the church was filled with the Holy Spirit?
When was the last time your church came together to pray and the church left the building and spoke the world of God with boldness?
In Acts 4:32-35 describes the church. These verses tells us that the church was:
- United - One Heart and Soul
- Sharing - No One Claimed Anything as Their Own
- Proclaiming - With Great Power the Resurrection of Jesus Was
Preached
- Grace Covered - Great Grace Was Upon Them
- Giving - No Needy Among Them They Gave out What Came In
They church was like that because it had Humble Holy Courage.
The church in Acts is described in Acts 17:6 as the people who turned the world upside down.
Has your church ever been described as turning the world upside down?
What allowed those early believers to have Humble Holy Courage?
It wasn’t just because they believed that Jesus is the savior. Christians today believe that.
It wasn’t just because they loved Jesus. Christians today love Jesus.
It wasn’t just because they believed God’s word. I believe that Christians today believe God’s word.
The difference is in they willingness to give over everything to Jesus and for Jesus.
In Acts 14 Paul is stoned for preaching about Jesus in Lystra and he is dragged outside the city. They thought he was dead. But Paul gets up from being stoned and goes back into the city. Preaching the Gospel was more important to Paul then his life was.
In Acts 16 Paul and Silas are in Philippi. They exorcise a demon from a slave girl. As a result of doing that they are beaten, arrested, and throw into prison. In prison Paul and Silas were praying and singing. It was more important for Paul and Silas to do the work God had called them to do than to consider their own safety and comfort.
In Acts 20:24 Paul says, “He considers his life to be worthy nothing compare the finishing the course and completing the task God had given him, the task of testifying the gospel of God’s grace.”
John writes in Revelation 12:11 how we as God’s people can overcome Satan. He says, “And they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even into death.”
They were willing to die if that was what it took.
Am I willing to give up everything for Jesus, even my life?
I see the early believers not just being willing to give up everything, but DOING IT!
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about God’s people have Humble Holy Courage. That comes only by giving everything to Jesus.
I look at those early followers of Jesus and I am in total awe.
I want our culture to look at followers of Jesus today and to be in total awe because we have Humble Holy Courage because we desire Jesus more than we desire our own lives.
This has to begin with me.
With Humble Holy Courage Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Holy Humble Courage is a courage that come from Jesus not us. It is a courage that is not boastful, proud or arrogant. It is a courage based in know the truth and being willing to live and speak it out.
A great picture of what Holy Humble Courage looks like and what is results in is found in Acts 3 and 4.
Acts chapter 3 begins with Peter and John going to the temple to pray at three in the afternoon. They encounter a lame man who is at one of the gates of the temple begging for money. Peter and John tell him they have no money, but what they do have they will give him. Peter tells him in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to get up and walk.
The man with Peter’s help gets up and not only walks, but leaps. The man is healed.
News about the miracle spreads through out Jerusalem. The miracle and Peter’s sharing about Jesus lead many people to surrender their lives to Jesus as Lord.
This brought Peter and John to the attention of the religious leaders. They had Peter and John brought before them. Peter then preaches to the religious leaders.
The religious leaders notice something about Peter and John. In Acts 4:13 it says, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
They saw boldness in these uneducated, common men and the only thing that could attribute it to was that they had been with Jesus.
They boldness didn’t come from:
Being Educated
Being of Noble Birth
Being Wealthy
Their boldness came because they were connected with Jesus.
I see in the church today more education and wealth then boldness. I would have to conclude that we as the church, God’s people are not connected with Jesus as we should be.
The religious leaders although impressed with Peter and John’s boldness were still ready to punish them.
They couldn’t because the man healed in Jesus’ name was standing right there in front of them. The proof of the reality and power of Jesus was staring them in the face.
The religious leaders decide to just warn Peter and John not to speak in the name or about Jesus any more.
But Peter and John answer in verses 19 and 20. They say, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
Peter and John in a very humble and respectful way tell the religious leaders that they not only will, but they have to go on speaking about Jesus.
When Peter and John get back to the church they share what they had been told and the threats they had been given.
In Acts 4:24-30 the church prays. In verses 29-30 they pray, “And now, Lord look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your word will all boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and sign and wonders are preformed through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”
The church did not:
Complain
Whine
React With Anger.
They ask God to give them more boldness to share His word and for Him to continue to do mighty acts that could only be explained by the fact that God had done them.
The result of their prayer is recorded in Acts 4:31. It says, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”
When was the last time your church came together to pray and the place was shaken?
When was the last time your church came together to pray and the church was filled with the Holy Spirit?
When was the last time your church came together to pray and the church left the building and spoke the world of God with boldness?
In Acts 4:32-35 describes the church. These verses tells us that the church was:
- United - One Heart and Soul
- Sharing - No One Claimed Anything as Their Own
- Proclaiming - With Great Power the Resurrection of Jesus Was
Preached
- Grace Covered - Great Grace Was Upon Them
- Giving - No Needy Among Them They Gave out What Came In
They church was like that because it had Humble Holy Courage.
The church in Acts is described in Acts 17:6 as the people who turned the world upside down.
Has your church ever been described as turning the world upside down?
What allowed those early believers to have Humble Holy Courage?
It wasn’t just because they believed that Jesus is the savior. Christians today believe that.
It wasn’t just because they loved Jesus. Christians today love Jesus.
It wasn’t just because they believed God’s word. I believe that Christians today believe God’s word.
The difference is in they willingness to give over everything to Jesus and for Jesus.
In Acts 14 Paul is stoned for preaching about Jesus in Lystra and he is dragged outside the city. They thought he was dead. But Paul gets up from being stoned and goes back into the city. Preaching the Gospel was more important to Paul then his life was.
In Acts 16 Paul and Silas are in Philippi. They exorcise a demon from a slave girl. As a result of doing that they are beaten, arrested, and throw into prison. In prison Paul and Silas were praying and singing. It was more important for Paul and Silas to do the work God had called them to do than to consider their own safety and comfort.
In Acts 20:24 Paul says, “He considers his life to be worthy nothing compare the finishing the course and completing the task God had given him, the task of testifying the gospel of God’s grace.”
John writes in Revelation 12:11 how we as God’s people can overcome Satan. He says, “And they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even into death.”
They were willing to die if that was what it took.
Am I willing to give up everything for Jesus, even my life?
I see the early believers not just being willing to give up everything, but DOING IT!
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about God’s people have Humble Holy Courage. That comes only by giving everything to Jesus.
I look at those early followers of Jesus and I am in total awe.
I want our culture to look at followers of Jesus today and to be in total awe because we have Humble Holy Courage because we desire Jesus more than we desire our own lives.
This has to begin with me.
With Humble Holy Courage Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Am I Effective?
Do you ever wonder if you are being effective at what you do? If you are being effective in your job, as a parent, in your marriage, or as a follower of Jesus?
I do.
I do a lot.
I do all the time.
I have to be honest: Many I times obsess over whether I am effective.
( My wife is reading this as she edits it and is laughing.)
I have written 100 blogs.
I have written 193 devotions.
I have preached over 1,200 sermons.
I have led over 2,000 Bible studies.
I have done countless counseling sessions.
I have shared my faith for 40 years.
Have any of these things made a difference? Have I been effective in what I have shared, preached, taught, or written?
I looked up the word effective. It means producing a definite or desired result; making a striking impression; equipped and ready for combat.
Now as I read those definitions I marked one off immediately. I don’t and never will make a striking impression.
I have served at five churches and in talking to the people who were involved in my going to those five different churches I was never their first choice. It was only after one or more of the other people they were considering said no did they look at me. I am not impressive.
I used to bemoan that fact.
UNTIL! I read Isaiah 53:2: “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”
Jesus was not impressive from a human perspective either. I was like Jesus in not being impressive from a human standard.
So I ask myself, have I always produced a definite or desired results?
Well, I have to admit that I am usually able to produce a definite result, but not always a desired result.
I have to be honest, I’ve failed many times at getting the result I desired.
Jesus also produced definite results. There was and is no real middle ground in relationship to Jesus. Jesus is either all or nothing. He didn’t leave us any middle ground.
Jesus claimed to be God.
In John 10:30 Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” The people’s reaction to that in John 10:31 was to pick up stones to stone Him. They didn’t take kindly to Jesus claiming to be equal to God.
Jesus says in Luke 19:10 that He came to seek and save the lost.
Jesus accomplished the desired result in Zacchaeus but not in the Rich Young Ruler.
Jesus accomplished the desired result in Nicodemus but not in the majority of the Pharisees.
Jesus accomplished the desired results in Peter but not in Judas.
Jesus didn’t always see the results He wanted in other people’s lives.
Again I realized that I have another thing in common with Jesus in the area of being effective.
I also realized that Jesus’ motivation for what He did was never the result.
Jesus’ motivation was the Kingdom Of God.
Jesus tells us in Matthew to seek first and above anything else the Kingdom of God and God’s righteous. He tells us that because that was what His motivation was and that is what is of ultimate importance.
If my motivation to preach, teach, counsel, or write is to get a certain reaction or result in your life, then I am totally controlled by how you respond. And I will feel like a failure a lot.
If my motivation is to please and honor God, then no matter how you respond if I obey God, He is pleased and I have been successful and effective. It really has nothing to do with you. Hope that doesn’t hurt your feelings.
Jesus makes two statements in John that show that is motivation was to obey and thus please the Father and the results of living with that as His motivation.
In John 4:34 Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”
What fueled Jesus life and ministry was doing what the Father wanted.
The result is found in John 14:30-31 where Jesus says, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on Me, but I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”
Because Jesus’ life and ministry was driven by doing the will of the father, Satan had no claim on Him and the world could see how much He loved the Father.
Effective can also mean equipped and ready for combat.
We are told In Ephesians 6 to be alert and stand ready for battle by putting on the armor He has given us.
We are told in1 Peter 5:8 to be alert and watch for Satan as a roaring lion who is seeking to devour us.
It is interesting that Satan is referred to as a lion in 1 Peter 5:8 and Jesus is given the title Lion of Judah. Again Satan tries to imitate Jesus. But our Lion is the real one. And our Lion is bigger and stronger.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being effective.
Not looking impressive
Not getting the desired results every time
But being ready for battle
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about pleasing God being our motivation.
Not results directed
Not achievement directed
But the Kingdom of God directed
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about ordinary people being ordinary, but serving an extraordinary God.
Effectively Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
I do.
I do a lot.
I do all the time.
I have to be honest: Many I times obsess over whether I am effective.
( My wife is reading this as she edits it and is laughing.)
I have written 100 blogs.
I have written 193 devotions.
I have preached over 1,200 sermons.
I have led over 2,000 Bible studies.
I have done countless counseling sessions.
I have shared my faith for 40 years.
Have any of these things made a difference? Have I been effective in what I have shared, preached, taught, or written?
I looked up the word effective. It means producing a definite or desired result; making a striking impression; equipped and ready for combat.
Now as I read those definitions I marked one off immediately. I don’t and never will make a striking impression.
I have served at five churches and in talking to the people who were involved in my going to those five different churches I was never their first choice. It was only after one or more of the other people they were considering said no did they look at me. I am not impressive.
I used to bemoan that fact.
UNTIL! I read Isaiah 53:2: “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”
Jesus was not impressive from a human perspective either. I was like Jesus in not being impressive from a human standard.
So I ask myself, have I always produced a definite or desired results?
Well, I have to admit that I am usually able to produce a definite result, but not always a desired result.
I have to be honest, I’ve failed many times at getting the result I desired.
Jesus also produced definite results. There was and is no real middle ground in relationship to Jesus. Jesus is either all or nothing. He didn’t leave us any middle ground.
Jesus claimed to be God.
In John 10:30 Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” The people’s reaction to that in John 10:31 was to pick up stones to stone Him. They didn’t take kindly to Jesus claiming to be equal to God.
Jesus says in Luke 19:10 that He came to seek and save the lost.
Jesus accomplished the desired result in Zacchaeus but not in the Rich Young Ruler.
Jesus accomplished the desired result in Nicodemus but not in the majority of the Pharisees.
Jesus accomplished the desired results in Peter but not in Judas.
Jesus didn’t always see the results He wanted in other people’s lives.
Again I realized that I have another thing in common with Jesus in the area of being effective.
I also realized that Jesus’ motivation for what He did was never the result.
Jesus’ motivation was the Kingdom Of God.
Jesus tells us in Matthew to seek first and above anything else the Kingdom of God and God’s righteous. He tells us that because that was what His motivation was and that is what is of ultimate importance.
If my motivation to preach, teach, counsel, or write is to get a certain reaction or result in your life, then I am totally controlled by how you respond. And I will feel like a failure a lot.
If my motivation is to please and honor God, then no matter how you respond if I obey God, He is pleased and I have been successful and effective. It really has nothing to do with you. Hope that doesn’t hurt your feelings.
Jesus makes two statements in John that show that is motivation was to obey and thus please the Father and the results of living with that as His motivation.
In John 4:34 Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”
What fueled Jesus life and ministry was doing what the Father wanted.
The result is found in John 14:30-31 where Jesus says, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on Me, but I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”
Because Jesus’ life and ministry was driven by doing the will of the father, Satan had no claim on Him and the world could see how much He loved the Father.
Effective can also mean equipped and ready for combat.
We are told In Ephesians 6 to be alert and stand ready for battle by putting on the armor He has given us.
We are told in1 Peter 5:8 to be alert and watch for Satan as a roaring lion who is seeking to devour us.
It is interesting that Satan is referred to as a lion in 1 Peter 5:8 and Jesus is given the title Lion of Judah. Again Satan tries to imitate Jesus. But our Lion is the real one. And our Lion is bigger and stronger.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being effective.
Not looking impressive
Not getting the desired results every time
But being ready for battle
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about pleasing God being our motivation.
Not results directed
Not achievement directed
But the Kingdom of God directed
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about ordinary people being ordinary, but serving an extraordinary God.
Effectively Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Sunday, October 5, 2014
It Is Not Hopeless!
I talk to many people who seem to be hopeless as they look at their lives and the circumstances that surround them. I perceive a sense of hopelessness in our culture today.
Paul saw a similar situation in the world of the first century. In Ephesians 4:17-19 he says, “With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against Him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.”
These people are hopelessly confused and their minds are full of darkness. They are in this condition because they wandered far from the life God gives. They wandered away because they closed their minds and hardened their hearts against God. That led to them living lives with no sense of shame, of living for their own lustful pleasure, and practicing every kind of impurity.
Honestly, that sounds very much like the culture we live in today.
But the Good News in Jesus is that we don’t have to live:
Hopeless
Confused
Minds Closed
Hearts Darkened
Far from God and His Life
In Lustful Pleasure
Practicing Impurity
We can live in hope.
We can live in confidence.
We can live in boldness.
Let’s look at the lives of four men who lived in very difficult times.
These men loved God.
These men sought to obey God.
These men sought to serve God.
In Daniel chapter 1 Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were part of the people from the nation of Judah who were carried into captivity in Babylon.
They were to be trained to serve in the Babylonian government which changed their names and attempted to change their cultural viewpoints and their spiritual viewpoints.
One of the things they did was to give them food from the king’s table to eat. This food had been offered to idols, the false gods of the Babylonians. If Daniel and his companions ate it they would be entering into the worship of those false gods.
Daniel 1:8 says, “Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.”
The chief of the eunuchs refused to allow Daniel and his companions to do that because it was a risk to his positions.
Daniel didn’t give up.
In Daniel 1:12-13, Daniel says, “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.”
Daniel believes that God wants him and his companions not to eat the food offered to idols and he trusts God to work in such a way that in ten days the chief eunuch would be able to see a visible difference.
The situation looked hopeless and from a human viewpoint it was. Daniel didn’t view it from a human viewpoint but from God’s. And with God nothing is hopeless or impossible.
Then in Daniel 1:19 we are told that when the king interviewed all the young men who were in training, he found that Daniel and his companions were by far the best.
Situations are hopeless when we give up and stop trusting God.
Galatians 6:9 says, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Daniel didn’t give up even when it looked hopeless and God gave him a harvest.
In Daniel chapter three King Nebuchadnezzar sets up a golden statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide. He brings all of his government officials together and tells them that when the music starts they are all to bow down and worship the statue.
There were three of the officials, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who did not bow down and worship the statue of gold.
Nebuchadnezzar had said that anyone who didn’t bow and worship the statue would be thrown into a flaming hot furnace.
When Nebuchadnezzar was made aware of the fact these three did not bow down and worship, he summoned them to come to him. He informed them of the consequences of not obeying.
The three men answered Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3:16-18. They said, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this is to be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
So Nebuchadnezzar has them thrown into the furnace.
This is a hopeless situation. They were going to die.
They choose to not give in and worship a false God. They were willing to pay the cost for their devotion to God.
But out of a seemly hopeless situation God did something amazing.
First when Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace he saw not three men, but four.
Then in Daniel 3:27 listen to the condition of the three men as they came out of the furnace, “The fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair on their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.”
The men obeyed God. The men found themselves in a hopeless situation. The men trusted God. God gave them a miracle that affected the whole Babylonian Empire. In Daniel 3:29 Nebuchadnezzar issues a decree that no one in all the empire can say anything bad about the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
When we are in a seemly hopeless situation and obey God, He will come through.
In Daniel chapter 6 King Darius is enticed to issue a decree that for thirty days that people could not pray to any god or man except Darius.
We are told in Daniel 6:10 that Daniel knew the document had been signed but he still went to his house and with the widows open kneeled on his knees and prayed and gave thanks to God.
This was reported to the king and he was compelled to have Daniel put into the den of lions.
This is a hopeless situation.
The next day the king hurries to check on Daniel and he shouts to see how Daniel is. In Daniel 6:21-22 Daniel responds, “O king live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lion’s mouth, and they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before Him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”
Daniel obeyed God. A seemingly hopeless situation developed and God protected Daniel.
In Daniel 6:26-27 Darius issues a decree that all the people in the Persia Empire were to recognize that Daniels’ God as a living God enduring forever. That His kingdom shall never be destroyed and His dominion shall be to the end. That He delivers and rescues, That He works wonders in heaven and on earth.
When we trust and obey God in seemingly hopeless situations, it lead to:
Harvest
Whole Cultures Being Influenced
Miracles
People Being Transformed
God Being Glorified
We live in a world that is broken and from a human perspective is hopeless.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about looking at life and living life from a God perspective.
When we live from a God perspective, then it is not hopeless.
Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, not by power but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of Host.
When you face a seemingly hopeless situation or when you feel like things are hopeless, remember the truth of Romans 15:13: “May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in HOPE.”
With Hope Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Paul saw a similar situation in the world of the first century. In Ephesians 4:17-19 he says, “With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against Him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.”
These people are hopelessly confused and their minds are full of darkness. They are in this condition because they wandered far from the life God gives. They wandered away because they closed their minds and hardened their hearts against God. That led to them living lives with no sense of shame, of living for their own lustful pleasure, and practicing every kind of impurity.
Honestly, that sounds very much like the culture we live in today.
But the Good News in Jesus is that we don’t have to live:
Hopeless
Confused
Minds Closed
Hearts Darkened
Far from God and His Life
In Lustful Pleasure
Practicing Impurity
We can live in hope.
We can live in confidence.
We can live in boldness.
Let’s look at the lives of four men who lived in very difficult times.
These men loved God.
These men sought to obey God.
These men sought to serve God.
In Daniel chapter 1 Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were part of the people from the nation of Judah who were carried into captivity in Babylon.
They were to be trained to serve in the Babylonian government which changed their names and attempted to change their cultural viewpoints and their spiritual viewpoints.
One of the things they did was to give them food from the king’s table to eat. This food had been offered to idols, the false gods of the Babylonians. If Daniel and his companions ate it they would be entering into the worship of those false gods.
Daniel 1:8 says, “Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.”
The chief of the eunuchs refused to allow Daniel and his companions to do that because it was a risk to his positions.
Daniel didn’t give up.
In Daniel 1:12-13, Daniel says, “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.”
Daniel believes that God wants him and his companions not to eat the food offered to idols and he trusts God to work in such a way that in ten days the chief eunuch would be able to see a visible difference.
The situation looked hopeless and from a human viewpoint it was. Daniel didn’t view it from a human viewpoint but from God’s. And with God nothing is hopeless or impossible.
Then in Daniel 1:19 we are told that when the king interviewed all the young men who were in training, he found that Daniel and his companions were by far the best.
Situations are hopeless when we give up and stop trusting God.
Galatians 6:9 says, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Daniel didn’t give up even when it looked hopeless and God gave him a harvest.
In Daniel chapter three King Nebuchadnezzar sets up a golden statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide. He brings all of his government officials together and tells them that when the music starts they are all to bow down and worship the statue.
There were three of the officials, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who did not bow down and worship the statue of gold.
Nebuchadnezzar had said that anyone who didn’t bow and worship the statue would be thrown into a flaming hot furnace.
When Nebuchadnezzar was made aware of the fact these three did not bow down and worship, he summoned them to come to him. He informed them of the consequences of not obeying.
The three men answered Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3:16-18. They said, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this is to be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
So Nebuchadnezzar has them thrown into the furnace.
This is a hopeless situation. They were going to die.
They choose to not give in and worship a false God. They were willing to pay the cost for their devotion to God.
But out of a seemly hopeless situation God did something amazing.
First when Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace he saw not three men, but four.
Then in Daniel 3:27 listen to the condition of the three men as they came out of the furnace, “The fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair on their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.”
The men obeyed God. The men found themselves in a hopeless situation. The men trusted God. God gave them a miracle that affected the whole Babylonian Empire. In Daniel 3:29 Nebuchadnezzar issues a decree that no one in all the empire can say anything bad about the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
When we are in a seemly hopeless situation and obey God, He will come through.
In Daniel chapter 6 King Darius is enticed to issue a decree that for thirty days that people could not pray to any god or man except Darius.
We are told in Daniel 6:10 that Daniel knew the document had been signed but he still went to his house and with the widows open kneeled on his knees and prayed and gave thanks to God.
This was reported to the king and he was compelled to have Daniel put into the den of lions.
This is a hopeless situation.
The next day the king hurries to check on Daniel and he shouts to see how Daniel is. In Daniel 6:21-22 Daniel responds, “O king live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lion’s mouth, and they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before Him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”
Daniel obeyed God. A seemingly hopeless situation developed and God protected Daniel.
In Daniel 6:26-27 Darius issues a decree that all the people in the Persia Empire were to recognize that Daniels’ God as a living God enduring forever. That His kingdom shall never be destroyed and His dominion shall be to the end. That He delivers and rescues, That He works wonders in heaven and on earth.
When we trust and obey God in seemingly hopeless situations, it lead to:
Harvest
Whole Cultures Being Influenced
Miracles
People Being Transformed
God Being Glorified
We live in a world that is broken and from a human perspective is hopeless.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about looking at life and living life from a God perspective.
When we live from a God perspective, then it is not hopeless.
Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, not by power but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of Host.
When you face a seemingly hopeless situation or when you feel like things are hopeless, remember the truth of Romans 15:13: “May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in HOPE.”
With Hope Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Sunday, September 28, 2014
What is Faith?
Faith is something all people have. We all believe in something.
But what is faith?
The dictionary definition of faith is an unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence; anything believed.
The world sees faith as a blind believing or trust in anything. That is not what faith is see as in Scripture.
Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1. It says, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”
Faith from a biblical perspective is a complete confidence in a truth. That truth is not something that we can perceive with our physical senses. There are many truths that we trust in that we can’t perceive with our physical senses. And the truth we have confidence in is God and there is an overabundance of proof and evidence for Him.
So biblical faith is not just a blind trust in something. It is a confidence based on evidence for the reality of God and His love for us as His human creation.
So what is faith going to look like in everyday living?
A picture of faith and what it looks like in everyday living is found in
1 Peter 2:11-25
Faith is:
Not seeing ourselves as completely at home in this world
1 Peter 2:11
Dear friends, you are foreigners and strangers on this earth. So I beg you not to surrender to those desires that fight against you.
Building 429 has a song called Where I Belong. The chorus says:
All I know is that I’m not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong.
C.S. Lewis says, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
Faith is to not be attached to this world, but to see ourselves as foreigners and strangers.
Acting with Jesus like character
1 Peter 2:12
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Faith cannot be separated from behavior. If I believe something, I will live it out. If I am not living it out then I don’t really believe it.
James 2:17 says, “Faith without works is dead.”
Our faith is not just a mental agreement, but also lived out behavior.
Humbling ourselves under earthly authorities
1 Peter 2:13-15
Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Peter does not write this at a time when the emperor or governors were followers of Jesus. They were very hostile to followers of Jesus. It was a Roman governor who order Jesus’ crucifixion.
Paul shares a similar truth about submitting to earthly authorities in Romans 13.
Submitting to earthly authorities is a command so that we might learn the discipline of submitting so we can more easily submit to the ultimate authority - Jesus.
Living in Jesus like freedom for the benefit of others
1 Peter 2:16
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
In Galatians 5:1 Paul says, “For freedom Christ has set us free: stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke slavery.”
Doing evil causes us to live in slavery to sin. Living for ourselves puts us into bondage.
God freed us so we can know Him, be forgiven by Him, and serve others in His name.
Showing love and honor to others
1 Peter 2:17
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Honor means to highly value something or someone.
We are to love and highly value God’s most precious creation - People.
Romans 12:10 says, “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”
Enduring suffering and unjust treatment
1 Peter 2:18-23
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.
In Acts 4 the church is warned to stop teaching in the name of Jesus. In verse 29 the church prays in the context of this life threatening warning: “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your word with all boldness.”
Notice they didn’t say:
Lord, destroy all the bad people.
Lord, this isn’t fair.
Lord, take all the persecution away.
They prayed to keep doing what they had been doing, because it was the right thing to do, and to help them do it even more boldly.
Suffering for doing right is glorifying to God.
Being unjustly treated because of your life surrendered to Jesus’ will is glorifying to God.
Dying to anything that is not what God wants
1 Peter 2:24
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
Obeying sin leads to death.
Obeying Jesus leads to life.
Jesus died because of our sin so we could live because of His righteousness. He exchanged His righteousness for our sin.
We need to get rid of anything in our lives that is not of God. We need to let God replace anything not of Him with Jesus.
Surrendering to Jesus as our Shepherd and Oversee
1 Peter 2:25
For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Faith leads us to trust Jesus and so we let Him be the one who directs and controls our lives. Faith allows us to know that Jesus will treat us with love, grace, and mercy. Faith allows us to submit everything we are and everything we have to Jesus’ authority.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about faith.
Biblical faith is not some spiritually nebulous thing.
Biblical faith is:
Real
Relevant
Righteous
Risky
Rejoicing
In Faith Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
But what is faith?
The dictionary definition of faith is an unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence; anything believed.
The world sees faith as a blind believing or trust in anything. That is not what faith is see as in Scripture.
Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1. It says, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”
Faith from a biblical perspective is a complete confidence in a truth. That truth is not something that we can perceive with our physical senses. There are many truths that we trust in that we can’t perceive with our physical senses. And the truth we have confidence in is God and there is an overabundance of proof and evidence for Him.
So biblical faith is not just a blind trust in something. It is a confidence based on evidence for the reality of God and His love for us as His human creation.
So what is faith going to look like in everyday living?
A picture of faith and what it looks like in everyday living is found in
1 Peter 2:11-25
Faith is:
Not seeing ourselves as completely at home in this world
1 Peter 2:11
Dear friends, you are foreigners and strangers on this earth. So I beg you not to surrender to those desires that fight against you.
Building 429 has a song called Where I Belong. The chorus says:
All I know is that I’m not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong.
C.S. Lewis says, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
Faith is to not be attached to this world, but to see ourselves as foreigners and strangers.
Acting with Jesus like character
1 Peter 2:12
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Faith cannot be separated from behavior. If I believe something, I will live it out. If I am not living it out then I don’t really believe it.
James 2:17 says, “Faith without works is dead.”
Our faith is not just a mental agreement, but also lived out behavior.
Humbling ourselves under earthly authorities
1 Peter 2:13-15
Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Peter does not write this at a time when the emperor or governors were followers of Jesus. They were very hostile to followers of Jesus. It was a Roman governor who order Jesus’ crucifixion.
Paul shares a similar truth about submitting to earthly authorities in Romans 13.
Submitting to earthly authorities is a command so that we might learn the discipline of submitting so we can more easily submit to the ultimate authority - Jesus.
Living in Jesus like freedom for the benefit of others
1 Peter 2:16
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
In Galatians 5:1 Paul says, “For freedom Christ has set us free: stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke slavery.”
Doing evil causes us to live in slavery to sin. Living for ourselves puts us into bondage.
God freed us so we can know Him, be forgiven by Him, and serve others in His name.
Showing love and honor to others
1 Peter 2:17
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Honor means to highly value something or someone.
We are to love and highly value God’s most precious creation - People.
Romans 12:10 says, “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”
Enduring suffering and unjust treatment
1 Peter 2:18-23
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.
In Acts 4 the church is warned to stop teaching in the name of Jesus. In verse 29 the church prays in the context of this life threatening warning: “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your word with all boldness.”
Notice they didn’t say:
Lord, destroy all the bad people.
Lord, this isn’t fair.
Lord, take all the persecution away.
They prayed to keep doing what they had been doing, because it was the right thing to do, and to help them do it even more boldly.
Suffering for doing right is glorifying to God.
Being unjustly treated because of your life surrendered to Jesus’ will is glorifying to God.
Dying to anything that is not what God wants
1 Peter 2:24
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
Obeying sin leads to death.
Obeying Jesus leads to life.
Jesus died because of our sin so we could live because of His righteousness. He exchanged His righteousness for our sin.
We need to get rid of anything in our lives that is not of God. We need to let God replace anything not of Him with Jesus.
Surrendering to Jesus as our Shepherd and Oversee
1 Peter 2:25
For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Faith leads us to trust Jesus and so we let Him be the one who directs and controls our lives. Faith allows us to know that Jesus will treat us with love, grace, and mercy. Faith allows us to submit everything we are and everything we have to Jesus’ authority.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about faith.
Biblical faith is not some spiritually nebulous thing.
Biblical faith is:
Real
Relevant
Righteous
Risky
Rejoicing
In Faith Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Monday, September 22, 2014
Dying Leads to Living
A few weeks ago I was asked what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus. I answered that a disciple of Jesus is one who comes and dies. I was then told that answer was not a popular one. That people particularly the younger generation do not want to hear about dying. They want to hear about life. They want to hear about living.
This response was not from someone who was just a Christian. This response was from a Christian leader.
I had four reactions.
First, I was giving what I believe is a Biblical answer.
Second, I know it is not popular, but it is truth.
Third, in Jesus’ kingdom life follows death as opposed to earthly kingdoms where death follows life.
Fourth, is that where we are in the church, to give popular answers?
So I want to look at each of these reactions.
First, I was giving what I believed to be a Biblical answer.
In Luke 9:23 Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
This same statement of Jesus is found in Matthew 16:24 and Mark 8:34.
A cross is an instrument of execution. It is a thing upon which people die. So to take up my cross means I am to die. I am to take it up daily so that means I am to die daily. If Jesus were speaking in the culture of America in 2014 He would say, “Take up your electric chair every day.” He might say, “Take up your lethal injection every day.”
Jesus is not interested in us becoming better people. Jesus wants us to become NEW people.
Jesus makes two other statements that talk about the fact that we have to die to be His disciples.
Matthew 10:38
And whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.
If I am not willing to die (take up my cross), I am not worthy of being a disciple of Jesus.
Luke 14:27
Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
Jesus says plainly here that if a person does come and die (bear his cross) he cannot be His disciple.
What does it mean to come and die?
We are to die to:
Selfish Desires
Selfish Dreams
Human-Based Solutions
Human-Based Priorities
We are to do what Jesus says to do in Matthew 6:33: seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
Second, we are to operate on truth, not popularity.
In John 14:6 Jesus says that He is the way and the TRUTH and the life.
Jesus is truth.
If an answer or concept or principle is popular, that does not necessarily make it right.
If an answer is truth, it may not be popular.
Jesus never did anything because it was popular. He never spoke or acted to get the people to like Him and be on His side. Jesus always spoke the truth in love.
Everything Jesus taught His disciples was the truth and He taught and encouraged them to accept and follow the truth.
In John 8:31-32 Jesus tells those who believed in Him what would happen if they believed Him and His teachings. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Truth sets us free.
If we seek to always give the popular answer so that people will like us, we will be bound by other’s opinions.
Jesus would never have been crucified if He had said what the Jewish religious leaders and the crowd wanted to hear.
So if we live by and share what Jesus taught, we will not always be popular.
Jesus’ kingdom is different and many times in direct conflict with earthly human-based kingdoms.
Our culture teaches us that before we die we are to live life with the focus on number one, ourselves. We are to live to fully satisfy ourselves. We are to get all the things we want. We are to make our number one goal making ourselves happy.
I even heard a statement by Victoria Osteen saying that when we worship we are not really doing it for God we are doing it for ourselves. She said God wants us to be happy and so that in worshiping God we were making ourselves happy so we were really worshiping ourselves.
Wow!
Jesus’ word in John 12:24 tells a different story. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Jesus’ kingdom is not based on satisfying ourselves.
Jesus’ kingdom is not based on making ourselves happy.
Jesus’ kingdom is based on pleasing Jesus.
Jesus’ kingdom is based on making Jesus smile.
The kingdom that Jesus came and established is a kingdom where life follows death. I have to die to sin and my selfish ideas so I can come really come alive.
Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Jesus died for you and me. We die so we can experience His life in us.
Jesus’ kingdom is based on life after death, not death after life.
Is the church simply after numbers? Is the church simply about having more people? Or is the church about making disciples?
In Matthew 28:19 Jesus tells us to “Go make disciples.”
He does not say go get people to like you.
He does not say go get people to agree with you.
He does not say go be popular.
He says, “Go make disciples.”
I was a child in the church in the 1950’s.
I was a teenager in the church in the 1960’s.
I was a young adult in the church in the 1970’s.
I never was challenged in those years to come and die.
I never was challenged in those years to come and submit all my life completely to Jesus as my sole authority.
I never was challenged in those years to surrender everything I am and everything I have to Jesus.
I was told to be good.
I was told to be nice.
I was told to go to church.
I was told to give.
I was told to do a lot of good things.
But I was never told to do what Jesus told Peter, Andrew, James, and John to do - give up everything and follow Him.
I was never told to do what Jesus told the Rich Young Ruler to do: sell all his material possessions and give the money to the poor.
I was never told that Jesus was to be my all, my everything and not just one of my many things.
When Jesus addresses Martha at the grave side of her brother Lazarus, He tells her in John 11:25-26a, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believe in Me shall never die.” Then in the second part of verse 26 Jesus asks her a question, “Do you believe this?”
So I ask myself that question: do I believe that if I truly die by surrendering my life to Jesus as Lord, will I really then live?
The answer to that question is very important because being a disciple of Jesus means that I come and die.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is lived based on Jesus’ kingdom principle that life follows death.
Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls by Dying So I Can Live
Joe
This response was not from someone who was just a Christian. This response was from a Christian leader.
I had four reactions.
First, I was giving what I believe is a Biblical answer.
Second, I know it is not popular, but it is truth.
Third, in Jesus’ kingdom life follows death as opposed to earthly kingdoms where death follows life.
Fourth, is that where we are in the church, to give popular answers?
So I want to look at each of these reactions.
First, I was giving what I believed to be a Biblical answer.
In Luke 9:23 Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
This same statement of Jesus is found in Matthew 16:24 and Mark 8:34.
A cross is an instrument of execution. It is a thing upon which people die. So to take up my cross means I am to die. I am to take it up daily so that means I am to die daily. If Jesus were speaking in the culture of America in 2014 He would say, “Take up your electric chair every day.” He might say, “Take up your lethal injection every day.”
Jesus is not interested in us becoming better people. Jesus wants us to become NEW people.
Jesus makes two other statements that talk about the fact that we have to die to be His disciples.
Matthew 10:38
And whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.
If I am not willing to die (take up my cross), I am not worthy of being a disciple of Jesus.
Luke 14:27
Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
Jesus says plainly here that if a person does come and die (bear his cross) he cannot be His disciple.
What does it mean to come and die?
We are to die to:
Selfish Desires
Selfish Dreams
Human-Based Solutions
Human-Based Priorities
We are to do what Jesus says to do in Matthew 6:33: seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
Second, we are to operate on truth, not popularity.
In John 14:6 Jesus says that He is the way and the TRUTH and the life.
Jesus is truth.
If an answer or concept or principle is popular, that does not necessarily make it right.
If an answer is truth, it may not be popular.
Jesus never did anything because it was popular. He never spoke or acted to get the people to like Him and be on His side. Jesus always spoke the truth in love.
Everything Jesus taught His disciples was the truth and He taught and encouraged them to accept and follow the truth.
In John 8:31-32 Jesus tells those who believed in Him what would happen if they believed Him and His teachings. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Truth sets us free.
If we seek to always give the popular answer so that people will like us, we will be bound by other’s opinions.
Jesus would never have been crucified if He had said what the Jewish religious leaders and the crowd wanted to hear.
So if we live by and share what Jesus taught, we will not always be popular.
Jesus’ kingdom is different and many times in direct conflict with earthly human-based kingdoms.
Our culture teaches us that before we die we are to live life with the focus on number one, ourselves. We are to live to fully satisfy ourselves. We are to get all the things we want. We are to make our number one goal making ourselves happy.
I even heard a statement by Victoria Osteen saying that when we worship we are not really doing it for God we are doing it for ourselves. She said God wants us to be happy and so that in worshiping God we were making ourselves happy so we were really worshiping ourselves.
Wow!
Jesus’ word in John 12:24 tells a different story. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Jesus’ kingdom is not based on satisfying ourselves.
Jesus’ kingdom is not based on making ourselves happy.
Jesus’ kingdom is based on pleasing Jesus.
Jesus’ kingdom is based on making Jesus smile.
The kingdom that Jesus came and established is a kingdom where life follows death. I have to die to sin and my selfish ideas so I can come really come alive.
Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Jesus died for you and me. We die so we can experience His life in us.
Jesus’ kingdom is based on life after death, not death after life.
Is the church simply after numbers? Is the church simply about having more people? Or is the church about making disciples?
In Matthew 28:19 Jesus tells us to “Go make disciples.”
He does not say go get people to like you.
He does not say go get people to agree with you.
He does not say go be popular.
He says, “Go make disciples.”
I was a child in the church in the 1950’s.
I was a teenager in the church in the 1960’s.
I was a young adult in the church in the 1970’s.
I never was challenged in those years to come and die.
I never was challenged in those years to come and submit all my life completely to Jesus as my sole authority.
I never was challenged in those years to surrender everything I am and everything I have to Jesus.
I was told to be good.
I was told to be nice.
I was told to go to church.
I was told to give.
I was told to do a lot of good things.
But I was never told to do what Jesus told Peter, Andrew, James, and John to do - give up everything and follow Him.
I was never told to do what Jesus told the Rich Young Ruler to do: sell all his material possessions and give the money to the poor.
I was never told that Jesus was to be my all, my everything and not just one of my many things.
When Jesus addresses Martha at the grave side of her brother Lazarus, He tells her in John 11:25-26a, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believe in Me shall never die.” Then in the second part of verse 26 Jesus asks her a question, “Do you believe this?”
So I ask myself that question: do I believe that if I truly die by surrendering my life to Jesus as Lord, will I really then live?
The answer to that question is very important because being a disciple of Jesus means that I come and die.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is lived based on Jesus’ kingdom principle that life follows death.
Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls by Dying So I Can Live
Joe
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Fixing Brokenness By Brokenness
Romans 3:23
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
We are all broken.
We are all in the same boat. No one of us is better than the rest.
This make be sick, but that brings me great comfort. That means that people like Billy Graham, Francis Chan, David Platt, and Beth Moore are sinners just like me. They are broken and flawed just like me. They need Jesus to fix them just like I need Jesus to fix me.
So how does Jesus fix broken and flawed people?
Jesus does it through brokenness.
In Leviticus 6 God gives Moses instructions for the various offerings. In verses 20-21 God tells Moses how Aaron and sons are to bring the grain offering when they are anointed as priests. God says, “This is the offering Aaron and his sons are to bring to the Lord on the day he is anointed: a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a regular grain offering, half in the morning and half in the evening. Prepare it with oil on a griddle; bring it well-mixed and present the grain offering broken in pieces as an aroma pleasing to the Lord.”
Aaron as he came to be anointed as high priest was to bring an offering that was broken. This symbolized that Aaron came broken, surrendered to the Lord.
If we are to be fixed, we have to come broken and submit our lives completely to the Lord. We have to surrender everything to Him with nothing held back.
Then we see a similar thing in Matthew 26 when Jesus takes the bread of the Passover meal and uses it to show what will happen to Him. In verse 26 it says, “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is My body.’”
The broken bread symbolizes Jesus’ body which was broken on the cross for our sin.
It is through Jesus’ death and resurrection that we are fixed and made new.
Jesus knows that we are all broken. He wants to fix the brokenness in our lives caused by sin by having us be broken in Him.
In Psalm 51:17 David writes, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
The word contrite means crushed.
God wants are our spirit, our old nature broken. He wants our hearts, our wills broken and crushed. If we hang on to our old nature and our own wills then we can never experience the renewing work of God’s Spirit in our lives.
Our old nature has to be broken so the new nature, God’s nature, can fill us. Our wills have to be broken and crushed so that God’s will can become our will.
In Isaiah 57:15 we are told where God lives. It says, “For this is what the high and lofty One says - He who lives forever, Whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and lofty place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the heart of the contrite.’”
God lives with those who have been crushed and are spiritually humbled. He does that so He can revive their hearts.
1 Peter 5:5-7 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
God wants us to humble ourselves under His authority so He can lift us up and so we can learn to trust Him and put all our worries on Him.
In Isaiah 66:2 God says, “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My word.”
God has high regard for those who have humbled, surrendered spirits and who live in awe of God’s word.
In our culture we value and have high regard for the strong and the independent. God values and has high regard for the humble, those who depend on Him.
In Matthew 5:3 Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The word poor in this verse means bankrupt. We are blessed when we know that spiritual we are bankrupt, broke, have absolutely nothing to offer God but our broken lives. When we realize that, we will come seeking Jesus in humility. We will not build ourselves up, we will come to Jesus and let Him build us up.
As long as I believe that I have something to offer Jesus, as long as I believe that I can give Jesus something in return for Him fixing me - I will depend on what I have.
When I realize that I have nothing, that I am broke, then I can come to Jesus based on His mercy and grace.
Then I will be fixed.
In Romans 6:23 we are told that the wages of sin is death. The best I can hope to earn is death because in my brokenness I cannot meet God’s standard. But that the gift God is giving me is eternal life by Jesus’ grace and mercy.
According to Ephesians 2:8 we are saved, fixed, made new by God’s grace. That grace is made real in our lives by putting our faith, our complete trust in Jesus. And both the grace and the faith are gifts from God. Ephesians 2:9 tells us that God does it as a gift so that no person can boast about themselves; we all have to praise Jesus.
Jesus was condemned so we can be lifted up.
Jesus was rejected so we can be accepted.
Jesus was abandoned and left all alone so we would never be alone.
Jesus was broken so we could be fixed.
We are all broken.
We are all flawed.
We are all hurt.
We are all needy.
Jesus is the carpenter who will fix our brokenness.
Jesus is the artist who will remove our flaws.
Jesus is the physician who will heal our hurts.
Jesus is the master who will meet our every need.
Jesus fixes our brokenness by becoming broken for us.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about acknowledging our brokenness.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about humbly coming to Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about receiving the gift of being renewed, restored and redeemed from the mercy and grace of Jesus.
Psalm 107:5-6
They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.
In Brokenness Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
We are all broken.
We are all in the same boat. No one of us is better than the rest.
This make be sick, but that brings me great comfort. That means that people like Billy Graham, Francis Chan, David Platt, and Beth Moore are sinners just like me. They are broken and flawed just like me. They need Jesus to fix them just like I need Jesus to fix me.
So how does Jesus fix broken and flawed people?
Jesus does it through brokenness.
In Leviticus 6 God gives Moses instructions for the various offerings. In verses 20-21 God tells Moses how Aaron and sons are to bring the grain offering when they are anointed as priests. God says, “This is the offering Aaron and his sons are to bring to the Lord on the day he is anointed: a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a regular grain offering, half in the morning and half in the evening. Prepare it with oil on a griddle; bring it well-mixed and present the grain offering broken in pieces as an aroma pleasing to the Lord.”
Aaron as he came to be anointed as high priest was to bring an offering that was broken. This symbolized that Aaron came broken, surrendered to the Lord.
If we are to be fixed, we have to come broken and submit our lives completely to the Lord. We have to surrender everything to Him with nothing held back.
Then we see a similar thing in Matthew 26 when Jesus takes the bread of the Passover meal and uses it to show what will happen to Him. In verse 26 it says, “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is My body.’”
The broken bread symbolizes Jesus’ body which was broken on the cross for our sin.
It is through Jesus’ death and resurrection that we are fixed and made new.
Jesus knows that we are all broken. He wants to fix the brokenness in our lives caused by sin by having us be broken in Him.
In Psalm 51:17 David writes, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
The word contrite means crushed.
God wants are our spirit, our old nature broken. He wants our hearts, our wills broken and crushed. If we hang on to our old nature and our own wills then we can never experience the renewing work of God’s Spirit in our lives.
Our old nature has to be broken so the new nature, God’s nature, can fill us. Our wills have to be broken and crushed so that God’s will can become our will.
In Isaiah 57:15 we are told where God lives. It says, “For this is what the high and lofty One says - He who lives forever, Whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and lofty place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the heart of the contrite.’”
God lives with those who have been crushed and are spiritually humbled. He does that so He can revive their hearts.
1 Peter 5:5-7 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
God wants us to humble ourselves under His authority so He can lift us up and so we can learn to trust Him and put all our worries on Him.
In Isaiah 66:2 God says, “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My word.”
God has high regard for those who have humbled, surrendered spirits and who live in awe of God’s word.
In our culture we value and have high regard for the strong and the independent. God values and has high regard for the humble, those who depend on Him.
In Matthew 5:3 Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The word poor in this verse means bankrupt. We are blessed when we know that spiritual we are bankrupt, broke, have absolutely nothing to offer God but our broken lives. When we realize that, we will come seeking Jesus in humility. We will not build ourselves up, we will come to Jesus and let Him build us up.
As long as I believe that I have something to offer Jesus, as long as I believe that I can give Jesus something in return for Him fixing me - I will depend on what I have.
When I realize that I have nothing, that I am broke, then I can come to Jesus based on His mercy and grace.
Then I will be fixed.
In Romans 6:23 we are told that the wages of sin is death. The best I can hope to earn is death because in my brokenness I cannot meet God’s standard. But that the gift God is giving me is eternal life by Jesus’ grace and mercy.
According to Ephesians 2:8 we are saved, fixed, made new by God’s grace. That grace is made real in our lives by putting our faith, our complete trust in Jesus. And both the grace and the faith are gifts from God. Ephesians 2:9 tells us that God does it as a gift so that no person can boast about themselves; we all have to praise Jesus.
Jesus was condemned so we can be lifted up.
Jesus was rejected so we can be accepted.
Jesus was abandoned and left all alone so we would never be alone.
Jesus was broken so we could be fixed.
We are all broken.
We are all flawed.
We are all hurt.
We are all needy.
Jesus is the carpenter who will fix our brokenness.
Jesus is the artist who will remove our flaws.
Jesus is the physician who will heal our hurts.
Jesus is the master who will meet our every need.
Jesus fixes our brokenness by becoming broken for us.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about acknowledging our brokenness.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about humbly coming to Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about receiving the gift of being renewed, restored and redeemed from the mercy and grace of Jesus.
Psalm 107:5-6
They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.
In Brokenness Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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