Celebrate Your Salvation
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1 How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave.
2 Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.
John Barry: “How can we process a passage like this? How can we handle this kind of depression?”
He’s got a point!
Lamentations is full of really depressing stuff… That’s why it’s titled “Lamentations”!!!
It is full of the writers “Laments”… His “whining” about the issues of the world… His tears are full of remorse, sadness, confusion, and heartbreak…
John Barry goes on to say that when he first read the book of Lamentations, “He wept.” Because he understood the writers feelings…
Jn 11:35, the shortest verse in the Bible tells us simply:
35 Jesus wept.
When we look at the context, we see that it was (1) because of His compassion for people… He saw their heartbreak, their sorrow at the death of Lazarus, and He felt the loss of His friend…
But… On a deeper level, Jesus saw just what the writer of Lamentations saw… a lack of understanding… a lack of Faith…
We see this all the time… People who are lost… broken… misunderstanding…
People who have let the harshness… the brutality… the unloving and unjust ways of this world cause them to “lose Hope”…
We’ve all heard them…
“Why is the Bible so brutal?”
“Why would a ‘loving God’ allow children to die?”
“Why would a ‘loving God’ allow death, disease, abuse to run rampant in this world?”
“Why do bad things happen to good people?”
We have seen, met, even know… people who have lost Hope… lost Faith… in God because of something that happened in their lives…
So, What do we do in the face of the depravity and ungratefulness… the selfishness and greed of this world?
How do we answer these people?
How do we reveal a “Loving God” in the midst of these depictions of such a harsh, broken, and cruel world?
We celebrate!
We realize that these stories… these moments of violence and horror depicted in the Bible were meant to reveal the “rawness of humanity”… in all its ungratefulness and depravity…
These stories reveal people’s need for a savior!
But… the question is: “What does this have to do with ‘Authentic Christianity’?”
Simple…
Authentic Christianity celebrates our salvation… not just at Christmas… not just at Easter… But EVERYDAY!!!
Authentic Christianity is meant to reveal Christ to a lost and broken world…
Look at Romans 15:5-6
5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had,
6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That word “Glorify” is “doxazomai”, it means “praise, speak words of glory.”
Paul uses that word over and over in this passage.
Romans 15:7–9 (NIV)
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed
9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy…
Then he quotes from the OT:
Romans 15:9–12 (NIV)
9… As it is written: “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.”
10 Again, it says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”
11 And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples extol him.”
12 And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.”
Look at verse 13
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul’s words here are full of Joy… of Hope… of Celebration… amen?
Look at what he says after this:
14 I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.
15 Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me
16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God.
18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—
19 by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.
There is no doubt that Paul is celebrating his salvation and the work God has given him… amen!
We are supposed to live in celebration of our salvation every day!
Celebration of what God has done for us should infuse our lives… our work… our play… our worship…
So… Why don’t we?
Sometimes I wonder… Do we “get it”?
Do we really understand what Christ has done for us?
Look at 1 Peter 1:1-2
1 Peter 1:1–2 (NIV)
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,
2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Peter calls us “Those who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God”
Do you know what that means?!?
You have been predestined to be with God.
— How? (What does that mean?)
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Why did God… the God who created Adam and Eve… who loved them… kick them out of the Garden? Was He just being cruel? Punishing them?
Do you “know” what His actions mean? Do you really understand it?
God chose you, Right Then!
God began His work of Redemption, Right Then!
He didn’t wait… and He didn’t risk YOU being stuck in Sin…
One moment after “the Fall”… God chose YOU!
Do you get that?!?
One moment after we stepped away from Him, God RECLAIMED us!!!
1 Peter 1:2 (NRSV)
2 who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood: May grace and peace be yours in abundance.
You have been “REDEEMED” by God!
The moment you looked to the Cross… the moment you put your FAITH in Jesus… in what He did… and in what the Cross means…
God set you free!
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
It was God’s plan… from the very beginning…
It was God’s Purpose in Jesus… to REDEEM you and RESTORE you to Himself!
God has REPURPOSED you life!!!
1 Peter 1:2 (NIV)
2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
What does that mean? What is that work?
16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Notice--- God did not say “to follow our own thoughts”… “to do what ‘feels’ good”… “to just take care of ourselves”… or even “to do good works”… but to “Be Holy because I am Holy.”
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
We are called… we were chosen… to be made holy… to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit… in order to reveal God to the world!
Do you truly understand what that means?!?!
God CHOSE US!!!!
He reclaimed us!
He restored us!
He has repurposed us!!!
How awesome is that?!?!?!!!
Paul tells us in Rom 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and in Rom 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But look at Rom 7:22-25
22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
We have something to Celebrate!!!!
So why don’t we?
Why don’t we celebrate?
Why aren’t we dancing in the streets? Shouting for Joy from the rooftops?
Look at 2 Sam 6:12-16
12 Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.
13 When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.
14 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might,
15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
16 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.
King David was so full fo Joy over what God had done and was doing … over the PROMISE and HOPE of what was to come… that he couldn’t help but sing and dance!
But…
1 Chronicles 15:29 (NIV)
29 As the ark of the covenant of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David dancing and celebrating, she despised him in her heart.
Why?
— She was embarrassed! He was the King… and yet he was behaving in an undignified way… He was dancing and celebrating like a “common man”…
Who are we?
David… or Michal?
We have something to Celebrate!!!!
God has RECLAIMED us… He has RESTORED us… and He has REPURPOSED us!
We are supposed to live our lives in CELEBRATION of that Truth!
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
How do we know God loves us? How do we know God reclaimed us?
He sent Jesus.
But that means nothing unless we put our FAITH in Him…
FAITH means to “put our complete trust in something”…
Consider this chair… We can examine it… We can note its characteristics… its durability… its sturdiness… and we can believe that it it safe to sit on, but…
We do not demonstrate FAITH in its construction until we sit in it.
We are called to “put our FAITH in” Jesus…
The word “in” means “to anchor, to place security in”…
19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,
Our salvation is not based on what we do… It is based on what HE has done!!!
God has Reclaimed us… He has RESTORED us… and He has REPURPOSED us into His Kingdom!!!!
We have something to Celebrate!!!!
And the world needs to see us celebrate!
Because when we do, they are given a reason to rejoice and praise God!