ECLIPSE: Misconceptions That Dim The Light
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· 21 viewsECLIPSE: Misconceptions That Dim Light How often have you misjudged someone? We all do it. We assume something about a person based on what we’ve heard, or what we’ve seen. It’s not until we really listen and get to know them that we realize just how wrong we’ve been. We do the same thing with God sometimes. We misjudge His character because of something we’ve heard, or maybe because it seems like our prayers have gone unanswered. When we let our misconceptions about God eclispe our view of Him, dimness grows and light fades. In the month of August, we will turn the light of three essential truths about God and His character that will enable us to get to know Him better.
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ECLIPSE: Misconception God’s Love
ECLIPSE: Misconception God’s Love
Intro/Me: I’m excited about this solar eclipse. We are going to meet a lot of new friends and be able to serve our community servants.
I’m most excited about using this cultural phenomenon to illustrate a huge point. So your worshipping the sun. No...
X sun
+ Son
We: When people have a misconception of a situation it is an environment to incubates misunderstandings.
We: When people have a misconception of a situation it is an environment to incubates misunderstandings.
It was long ago that people had a misconception of the sun. Their concept was that the sun rotated around the earth. That the earth was the center of all things. It was logical. The Sun rises in the east and it sets in the west… Nope, that concept is a misconception.
When I have a misconception of a situation it is an environment to grows misunderstanding.
Conceptions = the way in which something is perceived or regarded
Misconceptions = a view or opinion that is incorrect because it is based on faulty thinking or understanding
Again, misconceptions incubate misunderstandings. I hate to be misunderstood.
Ill: Pastor Greg is going to “finish” his ministry here at Mud Creek Baptist Church.
God: That is funny. But what is not funny is when people have a misconception of God because of a misunderstanding.
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” - A.W. Tozer
Your conception of God is the most important thing about you.
Your view of God impacts every area of your life.
Your conception of God’s view of you is a close second.
Here is the concept I want you to grasp. It will change your life...
God loves you and you can experience that love.
God LOVES you and you can EXPERIENCE that love.
Three understandings shape our conceptions.
What we think about ourselves
What others think about us
What the world thinks about us
All of these concepts grow our of performance or DO. That when we are “bad” God tolerates us.
What if God doesn’t take his ques based on our performance? God is not angry with you. You are here now to clear up this giant shadow of misconception that God loves you based on what you do. Nope. He loves you!
X Do
+ Done
So, DO eclipses God’s DONE - performance overshadows everything about God’s personal love for me. That misconception dims the light of God’s love in my life.
Arg: How do you know God loves me Mark? - Jesus
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?
SEEN ME / SEEN THE FATHER
One of the titles of Christ was - FRIEND OF SINNERS
Do you have a misconception of God? He is not mad at you!
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
This can be the greatest day of your life. You can clear up the misconception that God is made at you. You were created to be loved by God. We were created as Human Beings not Human Doers.
Ill: Religion v/s Relationship. Our natural bent and drift is to doing.
Ill: Accountability - Rob Ray… flat tire.
My view of God is the most important thing about me. Second, how I believe He views me.
Ill: We believe in this so much at BCC that our PreK team down in the small, small pond teach -
God made me
God loves me
Jesus wants to be my friend forever
Volunteers, you throw the anchor of God’s love. So when they drift they can have a way to come back to God’s truth.
VOLUNTEER/SCREEN
Can you..
be a Bible storyteller-
Give high fives- greet-
Lead small group activities
Serve as a receptionist
Comfort a crying baby
Assist new moms
Help organize supplies
Welcome new guests
Arg: know this! God loves me. But you are missing it by 18 inches. You’ve accepted the concept that God is love but reject the concept that God actually loves you! In your head you know it but in your heart you haven’t accepted it.
Arg: know this! God loves me. But you are missing it by 18 inches. You’ve accepted the concept that God is love but reject the concept that God actually loves you! In your head you know it but in your heart you haven’t accepted it.
You can drive 18 miles in either direction of Brevard, NC and miss the eclipse. You can get just 18 inches away from your heart and miss it! Don’t dim the Light!
Listen to me - God loves you. There is nothing you can do to cause God to love you more and and nothing you can do to cause God to love you less.
Ill: Song - Jesus loves me! We know it but we’ve never experienced it.
Three truths about God’s love
1. God Loves Me Personally
God is a personal God that knows your name.
Arg: You say you love me but you don’t know my name! You don’t love me.
Tears, head, womb - He drew you here today. He loves YOU!
My greatest desire in life is to be LOVED. We do stupid stuff to get people to love us. Many times we are looking for love in all the wrong places :-)
Our view
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, 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.
who loved me
2. God Loves Me Consistently
I’m not consistent. I don’t get it right all the time. I’m human. You are human so you can’t love me consistently.
Human love wears out = divorce / Human love = fall out of love
No one in this room loves the people around them consistently. God’s love never wears out!
2 Timothy 2:13
13 If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.
unfaithful / faithful
God’s love is not based on circumstances it is based on His character.
God does not determine His response to me based on my behavior. He is faithful event when I’m unfaithful.
Ill/Video: Napkin Theology - Faith, Facts, and Feelings
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
LIVE by faith! NOT feelings!
3. God Loves Me Unconditionally
Who do you think God loves more me or you? Now wait, let’s compare spiritual resumes.
I’m a pastor
I’m a tither/giver
I’ve never been divorced
I don’t have a criminal record
Mark, you’re right God loves you more than me. WRONG! I believer my resume is better than yours. God loves me more than you. WRONG!
We base love based on a record or resume. BEHAVIOR/DO becomes a filter. If that is the case the older I get the less God loves me. So God loved me the most as a 4 year old. The last 40 years. Wow!
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
his
Not our love… but HIS LOVE! God took the do out of it!
God had removed sin from impeding His love for me.
God loves me PERIOD!
There are two groups of people - 1. Pharisees 2. Sinners… both got it wrong because they thought their behavior dictated God’s love for them.
17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
God loves us so much that He doesn’t
wide long deep high deep v.19 experience complete fullness of life power
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
1 John 4:16
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
v. 18 cast out fear
When you experience God’s love it casts out fear of...
Failure
Rejection
Uncertainty
HOW DO I LEARN TO LIVE IN GOD’S LOVE?
1. Surrender my heart to God daily.
13 “If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer! 14 Get rid of your sins, and leave all iniquity behind you. 15 Then your face will brighten with innocence. You will be strong and free of fear. 16 You will forget your misery; it will be like water flowing away. 17 Your life will be brighter than the noonday. Even darkness will be as bright as morning. 18 Having hope will give you courage. You will be protected and will rest in safety.
2.
v. 14 strong and free of fear
v. 17 brighter bright
v. 18 hope rest
2. Remind myself of the way God loves me daily.
2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
3. Extend His love to others daily.
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
personally, consistently, unconditionally
Conclusion:
We’ve all been grieved over this past week over the death of Tommy Bryson. I watched a video interview with his wife Lynn Bryson that illustrates God’s love brightly.
Video: News 13 Exclusive: Bryson's wife, sons discuss forgiveness in wake of murder 11:37 - 13:08 by Jay Siltzer
Wednesday, August 2nd 2017
“He could be living in the light. Religion now is so in the wind. If you would only try Jesus.” - Lynn Bryson
Next Moves: