Watch & Pray

"Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation" (Matthew 26:41a).
I was listening to the radio yesterday going home from the church, and they were talking about the first three words in this verse. It is a combination we should be putting into practice all the time. Jesus said to watch, and we do need to keep watch. We need to examine ourselves, our actions, our thoughts, our motives, our reasoning. We need be aware of our issues an faults, but doing that alone will only lead to depression. We need to pray. Ideally we would be in constant contact with God. but what are we praying about? Sometimes people pray in a fantasy world without knowing or ignoring what they really need to pray through.By putting the practices together, we are about to see where we are lacking and we have the only means to really put it right. Think on that.

Am I Saved?

"And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked" (1 John 2:3-6). I get into conversations more often than I would have expected in which this question, or a variant of it, or a concern with this idea near the hear of it comes up: Am I saved? The questioner has likely had a point in their life where someone shared the Gospel with them and they took a step of faith. Yet, they have this nagging doubt about where their eternity is. Why wouldn't they? It is the most important concern for any person. Where will I go when I die? John gives a little glimpse into that answer here. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). John says the same. Within this we can see something profound, yet simple. The Christian, the person who knows God, who is saved, who will spend eternity in heaven, is changed and changed toward Jesus. Their motives change. Their love changes. Their actions change, not to earn salvation but because they are transformed by God. If you are questioning this or you are talking with someone who is, this is how you can give them assurance or reveal to them that they are not saved and need to be. Have they been changed? What does this change look like? Does it look like them walking more as Jesus did? Have their desires come more into line with His desires?
"Have I been saved?" is not a question I believe God wants us to be in limbo about. Their is a solid answer, but someone asking the question is a good thing. We need to be able to help them find the answer. Think on that.

Brave Love

Today I thought I would post a sermon I preached yesterday.  I'm not exactly sure what prompted me to post this one, but I am assuming that maybe God would like to use it somehow on this blog like He used it yesterday.  May He speak to you today.

John 19:1-18

Point 1:  Making the Right Call

Pilate was put in a difficult situation.  History shows us the Pilate had no respect for the Jewish law and customs.  On at least two separate occasions, Pilate took action that violated the law.  During the night, he had his soldiers bring in the standards of Rome bearing the image of Caesar into the city.  What does the 2^nd Commandment say?  “You shall not make for yourself a carved image…  You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:4-5a).  The Law of God is to be taken seriously, and this led to no images at all being allowed within the city of Jerusalem.  When the populous of Jerusalem woke to see the image of Caesar all over Jerusalem, there was public outcry!  People even came running in from the country to beseech Pilate to take the Roman standards out of the city.  When Pilate denied their request, they fell prostrate on the ground, and they stayed there for five days.  Pilate tried to remove them by threat of violence, but the Jews exposed their necks and cried out that they would rather die than have their law continue to be broken.  Pilate relented, and the standards with the images of Caesar were carried out of the city.  After this, he raised another disturbance by using the sacred money dedicated to God in the temple treasury to build aqueducts.  When Pilate came to Jerusalem, the people protested it.  He had his soldiers hidden in the crowd, and he had those that protested beaten so badly that many died, and others were trampled by the crowd.  Fear held the tongues of the rest.  The fallout from these events made Caesar unhappy about the unrest and bloodshed going on in Judea, and had made it clear that if there were any more incidents, that Pilate would be paying for it with his blood.

So Pilate is there watching the Jews get angry and upset and about to riot because of they want Jesus crucified.  That is why he was afraid and also why he did eventually hand Jesus over to be crucified.

Application:  This can happen to us if we aren’t careful.  Our culture, the world, our flesh often tries to deceive us.  It looks good, but it really isn’t.

Example:  Take a look at this lake.  It looks good, right?  I came across this picture online, and the first thing I thought was I could use a vacation there.  It’s a good thing I didn’t book the tickets because even though Lake Karachey looks pristine, it is one of the most polluted lakes in the world.  Enough radioactive material has been dumped in it to kill a person with just an hour of exposure.

Pilate tries to appease.  He tries to go along with the crowd, with the world.  He does what a lot of people would consider the smart move to advance his career, and make sure he is in good favor with his superiors.  His wife even tries to warn him that he should let Jesus go, but he chose to go along with the people.  It even seemed to work.  Yet the world never has our best in mind.  God does.  Some people will tell us nice sounding philosophies, but only God is truth.  My eyes told me that lake would be a great vacation spot, but it would have killed me.

It is the Word of God that keeps us on the correct path.  We cannot even fully trust ourselves and how we feel to make the right call on things, but we can trust Him!  The next time you have a decision to make, don’t be like Pilate.  Look to God’s Word and to the Holy Spirit to help you make the right call.

Point 2:  Making the Hard Call

While Pilate was busy not listening to wise council and making the wrong call, Jesus was in the middle of making the hard call.  You see our hope as Christians is based not on law or ritual.  It is based on one person, Jesus Christ, who is God and humbled Himself to come down to us… but He didn’t have to.  God is perfectly good, perfectly pure, perfectly just, perfectly powerful, and perfectly complete.  When mankind sinned, we removed ourselves from a relationship with God in the same way a person removes themselves from their spouse when they commit adultery and have sex with someone else.  Divorce!  It is not the person’s fault who was cheated on.  It is the person’s fault who did the cheating, and we cheated!  We went to something else rather than to our first love!  “What a filthy wretch I am” that I would throw

away the love of the Father of Lights!  Yet, here comes this child in a manger, and the Magi are guided by a star rising in the east.

Now, here is this child, ~30 years later, on His knees sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He says, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with Me.”  And going a little farther He fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!” (Matthew 26:38b-39a).  Jesus is there knowing what is going to happen in all of its pain and misery and horror!  He knows what it will take to bring this relationship between God and man back together, and to call it unpleasant is the most profound understatement or all time!  Then, he makes the hard call, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39b).  Father, I don’t want to do this, but I submit Myself to you as the Son.  I will do as you command!  I will!

After this, God the Son is resolute.  He may not like what He must do, but He knows it is right!  He has made the call to love in a way that passes our understanding of the word, and when Judas kisses Him, He says, “Friend, do what you came to do.”

Think about the how it was for Jesus to stand before Pilate and the Jews hatefully and wrongly accused.

Think about His walk to Calvary, carrying the cross as the wood scraped across the wounds on His back.  Think about the difficulty in each step...  the mocking...  the scorn.

Think about the crucifixion.  Tetelestai!  It is accomplished!

The Divorce is no longer valid.

We are reconciled to God.

Brave Love.

Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you.  These things I command you, so that you will love one another” (John 13:12-17)

Jesus didn’t just command us.  He showed us.  Every step of the way, every drop of blood, every lash of the whip, every bit of agony, Christ bore in love for us.

Application:  It now comes to us.  We will have choices in life to make the easy call or the hard call.  The easy call may be fine.  Maybe there isn’t anything against it in Scripture.  Maybe they did sin against you, but remember that we sinned against a holy God who decided to make the hard call and love us more.  He would have been completely right in allowing the divorce, the separation between Himself and us to be there.  He was wronged, but it was love that moved Him to come down to earth.  It was love that caused Him to walk the steps to Calvary.  It was love that bled Him on the cross for us.  Brave Love.  Your call.