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Captured By God
A Lifestyle of Prayer
Luke 6:12
Introduction
As we continue to look at what a life Captured by God looks like ...
We have already seen.
That our life is a life given by God
Last week we talked about what our life, or walk with Jesus,
should look like.
It is a life that is totally different from non believers.
It is a life where we focus more on others than ourselves.
It is a life where our shoes get dirty as we minister in this
world.
Today, we are going to spend a few minutes talking about
something, that can revolutionize our life with God.
We know we are suppose to do this.
We may even do this, but maybe like we should.
We also know that there is great power in being involved in this.
What is this? It is prayer.
Illus:
In the mid-1800’s a jewish boy from Eastern Europe immigrated to America. He eventually ended up in San Francisco and opened up a mercantile store. One day a gold miner came in complaining that his pants had holes in them. They were only 6 months old and the knees were worn out. This young jewish man thought of an idea of making pants out of canvas. He employed a tailor and began making pants from canvas. The rest is history as Levi Strauss made jeans for the working man. (MacArthur, Signs of Life, p. 83.)
We as Christians should have the same problem as these gold miners. Our knees should be worn out because of prayer. However, that is not necessarily the case for the American church today.
One Christian once said, Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint on their knees.
As I looked at some Barna research, Barna confirmed what I feared
within the American Church.
We don’t have as many who pray
We don’t pray as much.
We don’t pray as long.
What we must understand, prayer is vitally important tool for us to have a life captured by God.
Prayer is not a life line when we are in trouble.
It is a life line in all situations that we are in.
Read passage
In this passage we see that Jesus went to pray before he chose his
inner 12 disciples. The ones he would invest 3 years of his life
with.
It was an important decision. So he went to pray.
What can we learn about prayer as we live a life captured by God?
1. Prayer for a life captured by God, shows submission to God.
There are many levels to our relationship with God, but make no
mistake, the most important relationship we have with Him is
as Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
God is so much greater than we could ever imagine or attain.
Jesus submitted himself to God, we should as well.
It would have been easy for Jesus to choose his fav 12.
It would have been easy for Jesus to choose those who
increase his business
It would have been easy for Jesus to choose those who were
“yes men”
Jesus could have made the decision himself, but he chose to
go to God.
When you make decisions in your life, where do you go?
In the Old Testament, when Israel went to war they had
two choices.
They went to God in prayer first.
They went out and fought and were soundly defeated.
2. Prayer for a life captured by God, shows one the plan and
will of God.
When we come to Jesus and have him as Lord, we no longer seek
our own agenda. We seek out God’s agenda.
When Jesus went to the mountain to pray, he wanted to know who
God wanted to be the apostles.
God was orchestrating His plan to save the world from their sin.
Jesus knew this and He knew every decision and act He made
had to be from God.
When Jesus prayed it was not just for a few minutes
He spent the whole night praying …. Luke 6:12
Jesus spent a lot of time praying in his ministry.
It was his source of power to accomplish God’s plan for His life.
If you read the biographies of the great Christian leaders of history,
time and time again, you will find them to be people of prayer.
They did not spend minutes in prayer, but hours in prayer.
Even though they wanted to do great things for God, they
realized that it all began with prayer.
Their knees were worn out.
For us to be effective in doing what God wants for us, we must pray, pray, and pray some more.
3. Prayer for a life captured by God, shows dependence on God.
I’m sure that Jesus could have done a fine job on selecting His
disciples if He had not gone to God in prayer. After all He is
God.
Before Jesus came to earth, I’m sure He knew His mission. He saw
the blueprints and knew the strategy of the cross.
He could have come to earth and accomplished everything He sat
out to do without every communicating with God in the process.
But He choose to go to God. He chose to be dependent on God.
As a believer, as a church, we could probably do a lot of great
things for God without praying much.
We could be successful in the world’s eyes.
But is it true success if we fail to depend on God?
Our prayer life should show our utter dependence upon God.
When we depend on God, we show our trust in God.
He is true and faithful!
" Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD." Jeremiah 17:7
It is a question of how much faith we want to put in God?
As we bring all things to the throne, seeking God’s direction in all
things, we are showing a true life captured by Him.
It has to be all!
Nothing is too small, nothing is to large that cannot be brought to him.
Conclusion
So where do you stand in your prayer life?
Are you submitting your life to Him?
Are seeking the plan and will of God?
Are you totally depending on Him?
Posted at 02:37 PM in Sermons | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Captured By God
Your Life is About Your Walk
Ephesians 4:1
Introduction
Last week we started a sermon series entitled "Captured by God"
It is my goal to help us understand what our lives should look
like as we confess Jesus not only as Savior, but also as Lord.
With Jesus as our Lord, we understand that we are to be actively
involved in the Great Commission.
Last week we talked about the life we get when we come to know
Jesus as our Savior and Lord.
It is a Life Eternal
It is a life that is different from what a lot of tele-evangelist
claim.
It is a life that is marked by total surrender to Jesus
It is a life that is to be given away!
Today we look at what our life with Jesus is suppose to look like.
This life is characterized as our walk in the Bible.
Paul in his letter to the Ephesians gives an earnest plea for the Ephesians, as well as you and me, on how we are to walk!
Read passage.
Paul in this one verse is literally begging us to live a life worthy of
the salvation and grace that has been freely given to us!
Through the atoning work of Jesus we have the opportunity to
be captured by God.
He has given us all the tools necessary to live this life.
It is up to us to live it!
So what do we need to understand about this walk that we are in?
1. Understand that for you to be captured by God, means that your life is totally different from non-believers.
You might be saying to yourself …. "I don't want to be different!"
I say tough, because you are called out to be different.
Once we come to Jesus, everything about us should change (we are
transformed!)
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world , but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2
Our attitudes change
Our likes and dislikes change
Our thought processes change
Our citizenship changes
We become aliens/strangers to this world (1 Peter 2:11)
Some of these changes are immediate. Other changes take time.
But the process begins once we come to Jesus through faith.
If Jesus is truly our Lord, we can't hide from our new lives in Him.
Illus: Marie Antoinette:
Her disguises didn't work. The Queen of France was young, energetic, and immature, and she longed to be with people her own age. Resenting the limitation of royal life, she attended dances, balls, and parties in disguise. But biographer Carolly Erickson said this about the Queen of France: "Her swift, purposeful gait was her trademark. It was said that she could never successfully disguise her identity at masked balls, for now matter how she dressed, she still walked like an Empress. (John MacArthur, Signs of Life, p. 49)
Our walk should give us away as well!
2. If our lives are captured by God, we focus less on ourselves and more on others.
Jesus is our example.
As a believer, God has put a desire in your life to serve others.
You may be repressing it, but it is there.
Is your life miserable, not on the right track?
Start serving others, doing good, and see how you change.
You were created to serve others, not yourself.
Illus: Commercial of people helping others.
Illus before 3rd point: Work boots!!
Ideally need old work boots (that look like they have been used to work) and new work boots. Purpose: If I say I have worked, but my work boots look new, the likely hood of my working is not good. However, if my work boots look worn and dirty. It is a good indication that I have worked.
3. If our lives are captured by God, our shoes will be dirty.
We know during the life of Jesus, people wore sandals.
Walking from place to place, people's feet would get dirty.
When you would enter someone's house, a servant would clean
your feet.
The only time your feet would stay clean is if you stayed at
home.
This is an excellent metaphor for us as believers.
The only ones in biblical times who got their feet/shoes dirty
were the ones who left the cleanliness of their homes.
If we are to fulfill the Great Commission, we are going to
have to leave the cleanliness of this house of worship, and
get our shoes dirty.
As we live in this world, we are going to get dirty.
Some believers say the we must isolate ourselves from the
world.
How do we minister to the lost if we do that?
We must be in the world without being of the world!
We are going to get dirty. The question is, "Will the dirt
stick to us?
If our lives are captured by God, when we go into the
world to minister and share our Jesus, the dirt does not
stick.
What does stick are the scars that glorify Him.
If we refuse to live a life captured by God, we get dirty from
the world and it stains us.
The stains of worldliness cause us not to reflect our
Savior.
Forgiveness and repentance can bring back the shine of
Jesus to our lives.
Conclusion
Are your shoes dirty?
Does you focus on yourself or on others?
Do others see a difference in you?
Posted at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This got thrown at me in Bible Study tonight .....
How much did Satan know about the Trinity and its work before Jesus' ministry? Did he understand the role of the Holy Spirit prior to and during Jesus' ministry? What do you deep theological thinkers say? I'll be doing some research myself. Love to hear what you think.
Posted at 07:43 PM in Bible Study | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Why I Like Small-Town America
Well I have been out of the office all morning watching a house come down. It needed to come down. The wood burning stove caught the inside roof on fire. There was no insulation in the house whatsoever. The fire happened a couple of weeks before Christmas. Not much was burned in the house, but the smoke damage was significant. Today the house came down.
It came down at the hands of volunteers. Businessmen donated heavy equipment. Coaches at the high school brought the off-season athletes to come and help. First Baptist Church and pastor, Richard Laverty, have been spearheading the project. The house is now gone. The next exciting thing is probably by the end of a week a new home will sit where the old once was.
This will be a home that will be insulated with heat and air. It will be solid and it will be a home for a family who nearly lost it all before Christmas. A community has come together to help one of their own. That is why I like living in a small town.
Posted at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I went online this morning and checked in on one the blogs I read and found my words there. That was kinda scary! The site was mentioning our church's commitment service this past Sunday. Just goes to show you that you have to be careful what you put online. Now, not only are we accountable to God, but also to a larger internet community. See the post here.
Last night, we looked at Jesus' baptistm in Matthew 3. Most of us know this passage well if we have grown up in church. As I studied, someone I read made a statement that "Jesus' baptism began the process of Him taking the burden of of our sin which cumulated at Calvary."
These things are clear about Jesus' baptism and have been taught for a very long time. (1) Jesus baptism was to identify Himself with us, even though He was sinless, (2) His baptism was an act of obedience to the Father, which became the precursor to Christian baptism (Being baptized after coming to faith in Christ). However, what do you think about the above statement of Jesus beginning to take on the burden of our sin at this point?
As I have looked more into this today, I must say that it sounds good, but I can't find any Biblical evidence supporting this theory. What do you think?
Posted at 03:25 PM in Bible Study | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Hope for Perryton
Everyone Reach One
2 Kings 7:3-11
Watch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB4NQbIllg8
Mention what Texas Hope 2010 is about
Introduction
Elisha is the prophet of Israel
The Arameans and Israel are at war with each other.
They go to Samaria and lay siege on it (6:24)
Samaria goes into a deep famine (6:25)
Food is scarce
Outrageous prices for food that is horrible
Cannibalism is practiced (6:26-29)
Samaria is in dire straights. The less fortunate are even in worse condition.
Read Passage
The lepers are outside of the gates of Samaria
They were there because of Mosaic Law (Lev. 13:46)
Many thought leprosy was a result of deep sin in one's life
(Numbers 12; Miriam's murmuring against Moses)
Lepers had to rely on the generosity of others to survive.
The Lepers are the heroes of the day!
What can we learn from these lepers as we accomplish our responsibilities in building the Kingdom of God?
1. We must remember where we came from (vss. 3-4)
The lepers were in a bad situation without any means of helping
themselves.
They knew they could not stay where they were and live, so they
moved into a dangerous, unknown area to better themselves.
They came to the realization that "Where we are is not good."
We who are believers have come to that same conclusion in our
lives.
Remember where you were before you accepted Jesus!
We were dead – Spiritually Dead
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned-
Romans 5:12
We were without hope
remember that you were at that time separate from Christ,
excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world Ephesians 2:12
We were at the end of our rope
We can try as much as we can to live our life on our own.
We can try as hard as we can to save ourselves
We can fight as hard as we can to defeat our demons.
We can't do it alone --- we will find the end of the rope.
Illus. The Perfect Storm death scene
2. We must remember the gift that we received (vss. 5-8)
The lepers went to the enemy camp not knowing what they
would find.
What they found was salvation and life provided by God.
They enemy was scared away by God.
All the enemies food and possessions were there for the
taking.
The lepers took this free gift given to them by God.
God provided salvation for us.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
We receive the benefits of that salvation each and every day.
Reconciled to God – Romans 5:10
Eternal Life – 1 John 5:11-12
New Nature – Romans 6:4
Complete – Colossians 2:10
No Condemnation – Romans 8:1
Forgiven – Ephesians 1:7
Have an anchor – Hebrews 6:18-19
3. We must share the gift with others (vss. 9-11)
The lepers came to the realization that they should share in
the blessings that they had received.
They realized that remaining silent meant punishment.
They got up and went back to the city to share the good news!
It is not right to refuse to share the gift – it is sin!
We have been commanded by our Lord and Savior to make
Disciples – Matthew 28:19-20.
What God has done for you in saving you is good news! Go and
share!
Our excuses do not hold water with what we need to tell those
around us.
Video Illus. Penn Jillette You Tube Video -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM
We must not wait any longer, we must act!
4. Our action steps!
Goal of 40 baptisms by May 2010.
Steps to effective evangelism.
1. Prepare – different tools; time in services to train;
prospect cards; build relationships with those
who need Jesus.
2. Prayer -- noon everyday pray for the lost and harvesters
3. Present – Get out and get it done; GROW; Evangelistic
messages on a regular basis; Sunday School
classes reach out.
Posted at 09:34 PM in Sermons | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
God blessed in our family of faith today! Among Texas Baptist Churches, today was Commitment Sunday to Texas Hope 2010. This is a statewide emphasis to share the gospel with everyone in the state of Texas by Easter 2010. A huge undertaking, but a worthy goal for the Kingdom of God.
God led me to preach out of 2 Kings 7:3-11, and issue to our church a challenge to get back to the the task of the Great Commission. I challenged them to commit to work at having 40 baptisms by May 2010. If this happens, it will double our congregation's normal attendance. God worked in our hearts and about 3/4 of the congregation came forward to make the commitment to share the gospel with those around them.
Needless to say, this sappy preacher weeped tears of joy and thanksgiving on how the congregation responded to the call. I'm excited as we go forward and how God will open doors for us to share Jesus Christ and Him Crucified!
This afternoon we were able to ordain one of our own young men to the gospel ministry. This was my first time to spear-head and ordination service. I think I was more nervous than he! The service went well and God presence was evident.
God is good!
Hope to post my morning message sometime Monday.
Posted at 06:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Over to the right you see the blogs that I read often. Lately my three favorites are aintsobad, Ed Stetzer, and Trey Morgan.
Aintsobad is Dr. Rick Davis' blog. He is the current pastor at First Baptist Church Brownwood, Texas. He is a deeper thinker than I, which causes me to think and wrestle with what he writes about. If you are in the ministry, I hightly reccomend his blog. You may not always agree with him, but he will make you think and we always need to think more. Currently he is writing on the relationship between the pastor and church.
Ed Stetzer is a part of the research team at Lifeway (publication arm of the Southern Baptist Convention). Even though he is a part of the SBC, he is vitally involved in other denominations as well. He always has great information and seems to have a heart for evangelism, missions, and starting new churches. He interviews people from other denominations who are making an impact on the Kingdom of God here in the United States.
Trey Morgan is a brother in Christ, who is pastor at the Church of Christ in Childress, Texas. Trey's blog is more down home with the various amount of things he writes about. Trey makes me think, but he also is a great encouragement to me with his writings. You never know what he will post, which makes it even more interesting (not that he puts anything up that is bad). You never know if you will end up in deep thought, rolling on the ground laughing, or just have a smile on your face after reading his posts.
What are your favorite bloggers and why? Maybe you are reading someone that I'm not. I'd love to check them out.
Posted at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Evangelism .... How important is it? Really think about it before you answer? The proper answer is, "It is very important!" Is it to you? If it is what are you doing about it? When is the last time you prayed for someone by name who is without Jesus? When is the last time you shared with someone what Jesus has done for you? When is the last time you shared with someone how they can know your Jesus? Now, answer the question .... How important is evangelism to YOU?
As I answer these questions myself. I must confess, that evangelism is not as important as it needs to be in my life. If given the opportunity, and if God hits me hard enough to wake me up, then I share. I don't seek out the opportunities enough. Yes, I fall into the trap too often of, "What negative response will I get from them when I start to share." Honestly, I have never had a true negative response when I have shared Jesus with someone. So why do I fall into the trap so often? I know the answer and I don't like it.
Conviction is in my life on this matter. I'm wrestling with this, knowing what I need to do, committing myself to do it, but having reservations about myself in the process. Have you been there? Do see the problem in my life? As I type these words, I see it in huge letters. I'm resting in my own power. How many times have I preached/taught against this? Too many too count. Yet, here I am.
Yes, there is a renewed passion to share Jesus within me. I pray that I may be a part of the harvest that needs to take place in my community. The opportunity is there, I must listen and respond to God's leading in the process.
Everyone Reach One will be heard from the pulpit at my church beginning this weekend! What effect would it have in our church and our community if our small congregation would double in the next one year to 18 months? Do we do it for our own glory? Far from it because we would fail. We should do it for the glory of God!
We will see about the response come Sunday. No matter what the response is, I know what I need to do? How about you?
Posted at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
