The Proclamation Life
Notes
Transcript
Soo - looks like we’re going to hang for a bit longer - OUTSIDE of 2 Kings for just 1 more week...
As i felt like it would be a good idea to do a follow-up on our sermon from LAST week...
LAST WEEK - where we looked at this coming election - through the lens of scripture.
I know that election type sermons can get people REALLY excited - and it’s ACTUALLY BECAUSE of that - that we’ll provide a FOLLOW-UP today - regarding the message last week.
If you were HERE - If you remember -
We asked some questions OF OURSELVES - regarding the election process and the state of our country...
Those questions being…this...
1. Do we have a responsibility to speak into the election process?
2. Should Christians care about the state of the economy, and if they can help to improve the economy, should Christians seek to do so?
3. Should the government control every aspect of our living and the economy, in order to equalize the status and equitable position of all people?
4. Should the United States keep open borders, allowing non-citizens to come illegally into the country?
5. Should we as Christians care about abortion, and if so, should we take opportunities to proclaim what God has already said about this topic?
And so - IF YOU REMEMBER - what I kept saying LAST WEEK - I kept saying -
God has ALREADY spoken on these things!
AND - that the VOTING BOOTH - is quite literally - a proclamation booth.
We cast our votes - and in CASTING our votes - we PROCLAIM what we believe about God.
And so - you MIGHT be thinking - Ok, Mike - what’s this FOLLOW-UP today all about?
The first thing I’d say is - THIS TODAY - is not an indictment.
So don’t take it that way.
I feel like TODAY is - the PROPER BIBLICAL BACKDROP to OUR RESPONSE - to what we heard last week.
Because what we heard last week - was all about - WHAT GOD had ALREADY said about those things...
See - Politics - is all about ETHICS
So Politics - BY-N-LARGE - is about Rights and Wrongs
And so - Of course God has something to say about that.
But here’s where I want to take today....
As a back-drop of last week’s sermon - where we SOUGHT to PROCLAIM Jesus in the VOTING BOOTH...
WE ALSO - biblically - MUST SEEK to PROCLAIM Jesus in our living!
BECAUSE - If we don’t.... then chances are - WHAT WE PROCLAIM in the voting booth - with a Proclamation of SELF.
AGAIN - HEAR ME - this is NOT an indictment on anyone - It’s a REMINDER - for ALL of us (me included)...
COMING OUT of a sermon like last week - that we understand this...
SLIDE: The Proclamation Life: A Life of Proclaiming Jesus
The Proclamation Life
The Proclamation Life
See - If I enter the Proclamation Booth - the voting booth - and PROCLAIM Jesus THERE...
Then I ALSO should desire to… - -
To PROCLAIM Jesus in my living - OTHERWISE - IN RELATION TO WHAT I VOTED ON…OTHERWISE - my PROCLAMATION BOOTH - from last week - proves to simply be a proclamation of self.
And to SEE the Proclamation Life on display - I’m not sure there’s a better example in all the Bible than the apostle Paul!
Paul - in scripture - began as - SAUL.
And Saul considered THE WAY - as the Enemy!
He was a PERSECUTOR of the church...
He HATED Jesus followers.
1 And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.
3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
And so listen - before SAUL became PAUL -
he was a PROCLAIMOR -
he proclaimed DEATH to Christians
he was still a DEFENDER -
he defended the slaughter of Christ followers!
BUT THEN - God showed up!!
And Paul’s PROCLAMATION in life - turned upside down!
He went from PERSECUTING the church - to DEFENDING IT!
he went from HATING Jesus - to PROCLAIMING Jesus!!
AND EVEN MORE THAN THAT - he went from...
3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
TO
23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.
26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;
Paul went from CREATING DANGER for Christ followers -
TO - himself being IN danger - BEING a Christ follower!
Paul went from the HUNTER - to the HUNTED!
But WHY?
Why CHOOSE to be HUNTED??
We’re gonna see 3 REALITIES for WHY Paul would choose to become THE HUNTED - and these realities are TESTS we can use ON OURSELVES - to gauge our OWN hearts in light of sermons like last week!
THE QUESTION FOR US BEING...
SLIDE:
Are my “AMEN’s” in church rooted in the glorification of Christ, or the glorification of self?
And so Just to give you an example of what I mean...
In CHURCH - I may hear a pastor say - “GOD LOVES A CHEERFUL GIVER - meaning - if you’re not happy giving that amount to God - then DON’T”
NOW - to THAT comment made in church - you might hear [AMEN!] and over here… [AMEN]
NOW - this [Amen] may have come from a place of - That’s right - if you’re not GRATEFUL to God - not HAPPY IN GOD - just keep it - God doesn’t NEED your money” Amen.
But this OTHER [Amen] - might come from a place of - WAIT - you mean I can KEEP my money? AMEN!!!
OOOoooo - one of those Amen’s SEEKS the glory of God - and the other demonstrates the Glory of Self!
THAT’s where this is coming from today - -
And SO - to ANSWER this - let’s look at the apostle Paul’s LIFE - DISSECT what those 3 realities ARE - and then apply them to ourselves...
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Shall we just keep sinning since there is no longer any condemnation awaiting us?
Basically saying - If the penalty of sin is removed, why not just keep sinning?
This is the question...
And Paul answers the question by saying that our actions (in word and deed) reveal who our master is.
And WHAT WE’LL SEE is this...
SLIDE: The Proclamation Life: A Life with a New Master
The Proclamation Life
The Proclamation Life
How does God describe the UNBELIEVER??...
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Is it any more clear, that before we were redeemed by putting our faith and trust in Christ...
...that we were slaves to sin? With sin as our Master?
In John 8:34, Jesus tells the unbelieving Pharisees:
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
And so Christ here uses the analogy of a slave and his master...
...to say that a slave obeys his master because he belongs to him.
Where there's a slave...there's a master.
Paul is saying - If you continue in sin, then you're OBEYING sin, revealing that sin is your master.
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
See slaves have no will of their own...They are literally in bondage to their Master.
And we talked about this before...
When sin is our master, we cannot resist it.
Everyone...All of us, before we were justified before God by faith alone in Christ alone, we were all slaves to sin.
Everything we did was sin...
Regardless of what it was...
regardless of how moral it was...
or how good it was.
Everything we did was sin.
23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
And so for the unbeliever, they're in chains...
All they do is sinful...
When they help the old lady cross the street....sin
When they drive their friend and drop him or her off at the Bible Study.....sin
When they go down to the homeless shelter and pass out food to the poor.....sin
Even when what is done looks to the eye like biblical obedience, all that an unbeliever does...is sin.
Enslaved TO sin...can do nothing BUT sin!
And this is Paul's point!
Our actions (in word and deed) reveal who our master is...
= With the ACTIONS THEMSELVES - not BEING sinful - BUT - because they are done WITHOUT faith - they are done - IN SIN.
And Paul is saying - if the theme of your life is SIN, then sin is your master.
And so that statement right there may just cause all of us to stop dead in our tracks and say - "Well that's ALARMING!"
"BECAUSE I SIN"
I sin everyday, does that mean sin is my master?
As we would see in the next chapter, (7), Paul understands that as BELIEVERS, we will deal with sin in this life.
The apostle Paul had a THORN in his side - a SIN that he kept struggling with - we’re not told what it was...
But he understood that a REPENTANT LIFE CANCELS OUT any claim of being a SLAVE to SIN.
And the REASON - is because of this NEW MASTER...
What is this NEW MASTER?
18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Through Faith alone, in Christ alone, we become slaves of righteousness.
Righteousness - our NEW MASTER.
AND SO for TODAY - POINT BEING - If I vote as though I have a NEW MASTER - do i LIVE as though I have a NEW MASTER?
But that’s not all we see from Paul...
One way that we can really know if we DO have a NEW MASTER - is to determine if this next point is TRUE in our lives...
SLIDE: The Proclamation Life: A Life with New Affections
The Proclamation Life
The Proclamation Life
We’ve looked at this analogy before - but it works so well I believe - that we’ll use it again!
Hopefully we know - HOW the Jewish nation viewed the law of God.
By-n-Large - the Jewish nation looked at the Law - as an Obstacle course...
What’s an obstacle course?
What’s the POINT of it?
The point is to - MAKE IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH IT - to get to the finish LINE...
And WIN a prize if one was up for grabs.
But WITHIN any obstacle course - couple things to KNOW...
There is a CERTAIN WAY to go...
NO FREEDOM in choosing what you wanna do!
You have to CONTORT your body in order to MAKE it THROUGH...
Climb this...
Scale that
Duck under this
Jump over that...
And on and on and on
If you DON’T FINISH - you DON’T WIN!
That’s how the JEWS viewed the LAW!
NOW - That’s how PAUL once viewed the LAW...
but then he got - SAVED...
And his view of the LAW - changed!
Romans 6:17–18 (ESV)
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Once SLAVES to SIN...
But now have BECOME - - Obedient - from the heart
this is true faith...
True faith, flowing from NEW AFFECTIONS for God.
As John Piper has said - The Christian life is a fight for joy in God! Christianity is not about "doing good things"...
- God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him!
The Christian LIFE is about - DELIGHTING in God…!
And OVER and OVER again this is the CALL from Scripture!
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
OK WAIT - Paul - AS SAUL - HATED followers of the WAY…followers of Jesus!
And now PAUL is telling US - Rejoice in the LORD - ALWAYS?
It SOUNDS LIKE this - JOY is very POWERFUL - to have PLANTED itself inside a man who HATED - Jesus -
and then - AFTERWARD - changing that man to NOW LOVE JESUS!
This JOY Paul is referring to - springs forth from the HEART..
And the REASON it’s STRONG - is because it’s a JOY - rooted in God…in Christ!!
How is it STRONG?
WELL - we ALL experience the WEAKNESS of Joy in the world!
We as HUMANS were MADE to WORSHIP God....
AND YET...
We know that the WORLD isn’t strong enough to hold our worship!
The Grand Canyon isn’t strong enough to hold our gaze!
Just ask the locals who live there…it’s OLD news
The biggest bank accounts aren’t strong enough to hold our contentment!
Just ask those who were once rich and yet gambled it all away
Just ask those who ARE rich yet it’s NOT ENOUGH
And the best of times aren’t strong enough to comfort our death beds!
If MY JOY is ROOTED in my possessions, then WHAT HAPPENS when those possessions are taken from me??
What happens to my JOY?
AND yet - in Scripture we read about A PARTICULAR JOY that - IS Strong enough!
Jesus HIMSELF - could testify to this joy...
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
What SUSTAINED the Man Jesus Christ on the cross?
The JOY set before Him!!
THIS Joy IS strong enough!
And the APOSTLE PAUL KNEW - it was strong enough!!
24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
Paul was in the business of INCREASING peoples’ - JOY IN GOD...
Because THAT Particular JOY - can sustain us and IS Strong enough!!
HOW STRONG?
Strong enough to BREAK free from the JOY of the WORLD??
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
What did he sell??
ALL that the world TOLD HIM to PURSUE in LIFE!!
ALL the best the world can offer us!
THIS MAN - who was NOW FACED with a GREATER REWARD....
SELLS ALL that he has - and buys that field! That’s how VALUABLE heaven is...
It TRUMPS ALL that this world can offer...
And JOY ROOTED in Jesus - SHATTERS the Joy that is rooted in this world!
Paul not only had a NEW MASTER...
But he had - NEW AFFECTIONS…for God - for Christ…!
DELIGHT - JOY - in Christ!
AND LASTLY…the last measure for us today...
SLIDE: The Proclamation Life: A Life with a New Hope
The Proclamation Life
The Proclamation Life
Remember - the Jews during Christ’s day - WHAT did they trust in to get to God?
They trusted in THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS regarding the LAW...
They trusted in their adherence to the LAW to get them to God...
How do we know?
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith;
31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.
32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,
It says here - ISRAEL pursued God BY WAY of the LAW...
They TRUSTED - THEIR HOPE- was in THEIR WORKS to get to God!
And it says - they did NOT succeed in reaching the LAW...
They HOPED in their WORKS...
What else?
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
What are they trusting in?
That they come from the LINE of ABRAHAM!
THEIR HOPE - was in their LINEAGE!
PAUL would have been the SAME WAY - BEFORE God saved him.
Paul’s HOPE would have been in all those same things...
in his works...
in his bloodline...
BUT NOW - IN CHRIST - by faith…Paul was given a NEW HOPE!
10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
So we see here that this NEW HOPE - IN GOD - propelled Paul forward.
And so - ALL of these things...
These 3 REALITIES - FUELED Paul’s PURSUIT of Christ.
I often describe Paul as having a Wiley Coyote life…**
These 3 realities...
SLIDE:
New Master
New Affections
New Hope
And ALL of these things - COMBINED in the life of a Believer - should LEAD to something!
And they LEAD to this one thing..
BECAUSE even though we have these things...
WE STILL have to deal with something in this life...
- THE OLD SELF
And because we do - we fight against it.
And we’ll close with this!
SLIDE: The Proclamation Life: A Life of Self-Denial
The Proclamation Life
The Proclamation Life
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.
The cross was a TORTURE device...
It would ultimately lead to death - but it was a torture device.
Jesus says - pick up your torture device… HOW OFTEN?
Daily!
DENY yourself -
And for the BELIEVER - which is who these words are SPOKEN to… (they’re not spoken to unbelievers)
For the Believer - this means to DENY your OLD SELF.
See when we put our faith in Jesus - TRULY - we become a NEW CREATION in Christ...
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
How many of you have EXPERIENCED this NEW BIRTH?
Evidence - I see it all around
BUT - what ELSE does the Bible say?
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
So YES - the NEW HAS COME - we are NEW - IN Christ...
BUT - sin (described as THE FLESH here) is still active IN US!
And this is Paul speaking!
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
And so - BECAUSE we still (AS CHRISTIANS) deal with sin...
We STILL MESS UP...
We STILL MAKE MISTAKES...
Because that’s TRUE…
The BATTLE we now fight - as believers - is a battle of DENYING OURSELVES...
Our OLD selves
AND SOMETIMES - Our “AMEN’S” in church come from OUR OLD SELVES...
If my “AMEN’s” spring from my...
NEW MASTER
NEW AFFECTIONS FOR that Master
NEW HOPE i have in the New Master...
THEN… my AMEN will be rooted in the Glorification of God…AS I DENY Myself in my AMEN
BUT...
If my “AMEN” springs from my...
OLD SELF
Then I’m NOT DENYING SELF… i’m bowing TO IT!
And my “AMEN” is rooted in my OWN glorification and NOT God’s glorification.
And so - to close…to bring it FULL CIRCLE with last week’s sermon...
Regarding the questions we asked… we started with this one...
SLIDE:
Should Christians care about the state of the economy, and if they can help to improve the economy, should Christians seek to do so?
The FOLLOW-UP to this question is...
If I enter the proclamation booth - and I proclaim YES - Christians SHOULD care about the economy -
When I LEAVE the proclamation booth - Am I prepared to then USE a better economy FOR THE PURPOSES of...
HELPING the poor
MINISTERING to the LOST
SUPPORTING the weak in society
GIVING drink to those who are thirsty
FOOD to those who are hungry
MONEY to those in need
Am I PREPARED to WILLINGLY and JOYFULLY USE the better economy I voted for - to DISPLAY JESUS in my LIVING?
Because IF NOT - then my VOTE - was simply a proclamation of SELF!
To improve the economy for my OWN GAIN!
The next Question we asked...
SLIDE:
Should the government control every aspect of our living and the economy, in order to equalize the status and equitable position of all people?
Should government seek to be BIG Government?
The FOLLOW-UP to this question is...
If I enter the proclamation booth - and I proclaim NO - the Government should NOT seek to control every aspect of our lives FOR the sake of CONTROL -
When I LEAVE the proclamation booth - Am I prepared to then
TAKE ADVANTAGE of a SMALLER Government FOR THE PURPOSES of...
Reaching our communities for Christ
If the Government begins to DICTATE what I MUST PAY for goods and services..
Then I will probably be spending MORE TIME at WORK in order to PAY for those things...
BUT - with a SMALLER Government - I may have MORE LEISURE time...
Will I ACTUALLY USE that time FOR God’s Kingdom?
IF NOT - then my VOTE - was probably just a proclamation of SELF!
NEXT QUESTION we asked:
SLIDE:
Should the United States keep open borders, allowing non-citizens to come illegally into the country?
The FOLLOW-UP to this question is...
If I enter the proclamation booth - and I proclaim NO - the Government should NOT allow anyone and everyone to come into the country without documentation - and THEREFORE SLOW down people IN NEED - from getting help more quickly...
When I LEAVE the proclamation booth - Am I prepared to then
GO to those around me in need…to HELP THEM...
to GO (financially) to those around me… to Help them...
to GO (in UNDERSTANDING) to those around me… the less fortunate… TO HELP THEM...
Because maybe my AMEN to closed borders - is SIMPLY to help me CREATE a BORDER AROUND my own resources so I DON’T HAVE to help people...
I don’t know - but we each need to examine ourselves to see WHOSE glorification we seek - God’s or our own.
And lastly… the last question we looked at...
SLIDE:
Should we as Christians care about abortion, and if so, should we take opportunities to proclaim what God has already said about this topic?
The FOLLOW-UP to this question is...
If I enter the proclamation booth - and I proclaim YES - Christians SHOULD care about abortion - and seek God’s will in ENDING abortion...
Then when I LEAVE the proclamation booth - Am I prepared to then...
ENGAGE mothers who feel trapped...
ENGAGE soon-to-be mothers who feel ALONE…ASHAMED...
TO FINANCIALLY SUPPORT women and men who find themselves in very difficult situations...
seemingly hopeless situations?
And ALL of these FOLLOW-UP questions simply there to help us GAUGE our hearts...
Of course - we can’t HELP every person in EVERY situation - under EVERY difficulty...
BUT - we must examine our AMEN’s - to see whether they come from a desire to Glorify God - or Glorify SELF.
What have we seen today?
We’ve tried to examine whose GLORY - our AMEN’s seek.
That if we enter the Proclamation Booth… we must also display a Proclamation Life
SUMMARY
New Master
New Affections
New Hope
SLIDE:
A Proclamation Life of Self-Denial
Living out WHAT we PROCLAIM...
And part of that - is KNOWING where we stand NOW - as believers.
IF you belong to God - IF you are IN CHRIST…by Faith alone...
Then YOU- RIGHT NOW - stand in NEW HOPE...
Understanding that we’re just passing through this place...
Looking to that BETTER city
In the MEAN TIME - we seek to DENY SELF - and display Jesus...
In the PROCLAMATION BOOTH
AND in the Proclamation Life...
STANDING in His victory!
PRAY - Close with SONG