Loving God... Loving Each Other
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If I were to ask you all this morning if you love God, I truly believe there would be no hesitation in your response in the affirmative.
If I were to ask you if you love each other there my be varied responses on that.
You may think that is an awful statement for me to make. But human relationships are fickle aren’t they. One minute we are all together getting along well then when something happens not so much love is there.
I remember growing up my parents loved the Gaithers and there was a song they sang… Loving God… Loving each other.
We love God but sometimes each other is pushing it. But you see in order to love God loving each other is a part of that.
talks about what we need to do about all that. Our duty as Christ followers is to honor God in all aspects of our lives and that includes relationships. We would never openly desire to dishonor the Lord. Our desire is to love and honor Him in all ways, or at least I truly hope that is the case.
About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them.
Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
“And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.
But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.
“What sorrow awaits the world, because it tempts people to sin. Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting.
So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet.
And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
“Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.
About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them.
Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
“And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.
But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.
“What sorrow awaits the world, because it tempts people to sin. Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting.
So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet.
And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
“Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?
And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away!
In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.
“If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.
But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses.
If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.
“I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.
“I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you.
For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”
Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him.
In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.
He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
“But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’
Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
“His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded.
But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened.
Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me.
Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’
Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
“That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
Come Humbly
Correction/Conflict
Restoration
Prayer: Lord illuminate relationships that we need to see in order to correct and make better. Give us the courage and the attitude of Christ to overcome the hurts and obstacles that will cause us to not forgive and to do our best to bring honor to your name.
Our text this morning first speaks of a time when Jesus takes time for children. The disciples try to stop the children from coming to Christ because they were thinking He would have no time for them and that there were more important things to attend to. But Jesus takes time to use children and their ways as a great illustration of our attitude.
Come Humbly
Come Humbly
The disciples ask the question who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven and the response Jesus gives I believe takes them by surprise because Jesus names a child. Their humility, their attitude, and their desire to follow Christ without question.
Jesus talks about coming humbly before Him with a childlike faith/attitude. We need to turn from our sin and accept the ways of Christ. This is a daily battle because we have a sinful nature, therefore we need to crucify sin daily.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
We are told to live according to the spirit not the flesh. We should not be led by our human desires and often that means an eye for an eye. If someone does us wrong we ultimately want to get back at them, we don’t want to be walked on. But that is not the attitude of Christ. We can be free from addictions and sinful behavior. Some struggle with this others are delivered immediately. So our advice is to daily crucify the flesh, be led by the spirit for the deliverance will come.
Do we believe we can be free from addictions and sinful behavior?
Is there anyone in this room able to testify to that? hu
There are times that the enemy would have us believe that deliverance is not possible for the struggles we face. This causes us to hold onto it and not surrender it to Jesus. This robs us of the blessings that He wants to pour out on us.
It is a daily act - this daily surrender - we are human- we stumble and struggle but we need to give it over to him daily.
We need to follow Him and deny ourselves.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Self denial - it is not about out comfort but it is about our humility to submit to him.
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
It is a call to follow
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
Three gospels call us to submit, follow, deny self.
I think it is something we need to pay attention to.
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
He has given us the freedom therefore we do not need to be slaves to sin. We are to honor Him with our lives.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Have you nailed your fleshly passions and desires? Have you submitted to give Him the things you struggle with? The addictions, the difficult relationships?
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
I tell you the best thing I ever did do, I took off the old robe and put on the new.
If you want to know what it takes to crucify the flesh then listen to this.
The flesh is the part of us that resists our transformation into the new person in Christ.
And since this is the case the devil wants to use the pleasures of our flesh to keep us enslaved to our old habits and sinful attitudes.
We have daily choices to live according to God's righteous desires, and deny sin. When we use our power to choose God's way instead of sin's way, we crucify our flesh.
God helps us crucify our flesh through the Holy Spirit so that we may live in the newness of the Spirit.
As we put these things to death, we are able to then put on the new man, renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created us.
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.
As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
This is what I call humble submission.
It is not about us it is about Him.
Child Like
Children follow our example. They listen to their parents and trust them to lead them in the right direction. There is innocence in this trusting way. Children are undefiled because they trust the way of their parents to lead them in the right direction.
We are to follow this example to trust, to submit, to believe His ways are best and He has our best interests at heart and stop trying to take things into our own hands. To allow Him to lead.
We need to put our own desires to the side and trust His ways for us. To crucify our flesh.
When a man is crucified, he dies. And when you die, you're dead.
Therefore those of us who belong to Jesus need to crucify the flesh so that we become dead to the flesh, dead to our passions, and dead to our desires.
Now if this is true, why do we still have ungodly desires, and why do we still yield to the flesh and it's passions?
Also since these things still bother us, does that mean that we are not one who belongs to Jesus?
Are we failures as Christians? Do we really belong to satan and not God?
Have I struck a nerve? Perhaps you've pondered over these exact same questions.
I suspect that all of us may have felt this way at one time or another.
Rest assured, you are still a child of the King if you have excepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior.
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.
God paid a high price for you. He sent His own Son to die in your place.
Therefore the intent of () is not to discourage, but to encourage us to resist these fleshly desires and passions.
What is dead is the strings that attach us to sin that no longer bind us because they were cut loose and destroyed by the Blood of Jesus and the Word of God.
Crucifying your flesh does not mean that your life will lack pleasure. God is the author of true pleasure that is not tainted with sin in any way.
Many think that serving God means no more fun. But I feel more fulfilled in my life when I submit to Him and allow Him to lead and then we learn true pleasure and happiness with Him at the helm.
In fact, God provides perfect pleasures that bring lasting satisfaction and joy, unlike the temporary pleasures that selfish sin could ever offer.
Correction and Conflict
Correction and Conflict
No one likes correction. Remember getting called to the principals office? Or when someone approaches you saying we need to talk. The pit of your stomach seems to get weak because you think oh no what now.
If the pastor asks you to come into the office why do we think theres something bad coming?
Criticism and correction weighs on us.
I know if someone is upset with me it affects me a lot. Not that I need everyones approval it is because I do not want to be the source of hurt or stumbling block to someone else if at all possible.
Correction does bring growth which is something we all need to learn to embrace.
We are not perfect. I know some of us may have a hard time taking that in.
We need to give ourselves grace and offer it to others.
Conflict destroys relationships. We are not meant to be in conflict with one another. The Bible is clear on this and states clear steps to resolve conflict.
Matt. 18:15-
“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.
But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
We must go, confront and forgive.
First, a Christian who has a conflict with another Christian is called to address the matter with the other person personally. When matters are handled privately, misunderstanding can be addressed, and there is great potential for the other person to respond positively. In addition, a private meeting helps to avoid the problem of gossip that can occur when a matter is taken to others instead of the person involved.
Second, if a private discussion does not solve the issue, a Christian is to take one or two other believers and meet with the person with whom they have conflict. The clause “that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” refers to the Old Testament law that required a charge to be supported by two or more witnesses to be valid. In the case of personal conflict, this principle allows for additional witnesses to observe the matter firsthand and help determine the proper course of action.
Third, when there is no resolution after steps one and two, the matter is to be taken before the local church. Only in rare cases will a Christian seeking to follow the Lord refuse to resolve conflict when the entire congregation is involved.
Finally, if the person in the center of the conflict refuses to respond positively even when the entire congregation is involved, then that person is to be considered as “a pagan or a tax collector.” This simply means to excommunicate the person, removing the negative influence from the congregation.
Why do we let conflict come in and rob us from blessings? Why do we allow our selfish desires and addictions rob us from freedom that Christ gives freely?
Why are we willing to block restoration from happening?
Christians are called to handle disputes in love, with a goal of restoration. Christians if you have conflict with someone who is not a Christian, by not confronting and trying to restore the relationship we are bringing disgrace. We are to be mirrors that reflect Christ and be being unwilling to forgive, to restore and make the first steps to fix strained relationships this does nothing for our testimony in Christ.
We are to point people to Jesus in all aspects of our lives. If we cannot get along in our relationships what does this say about our willingness to submit, self denial and our true humility before Him?
Restoration is a beautiful thing
Restoration is a beautiful thing
When we first came here to FPC, this was a word that was impressed on my heart and I felt that it was certainly a word from God.
We need to walk in restoration and grace. We need to show love to each other and grace. We need to embrace and get rid of the things that the enemy would try to wedge in our hearts to stop what the Lord wants to do in our midst. We have no room for this in our church.
The first thing we must do in such situations is to go before God ourselves and ask Him where it is we might be in error. Then we must confess any known sins before Him, for we know that we are not without sins of our own. And then after we have done this, it is important to ask God for His enabling power, His kind and gentle words of conviction. But also ask for His enlightenment of truth to the one receiving such loving correction.
You might say to yourself, loving? YES, LOVING.
You see, the easy thing would be to ignore such behavior, set it aside for comfort’s sake. But that is the easy thing to do, not the loving thing! The loving thing is to love them enough to help them see their way out of it! To go before them with a heart and mind seeking restoration and forgiveness. But it must start with an accurate look at ourselves, a humble assessment of who we are and who they are.
If in doing so, our brother or sister agrees and makes their way back through confession, then we are both elated and God is glorified.
Are you holding a grudge against another brother or sister in Christ? Are you harboring unjust anger and allowing a root of bitterness to rise up in you? Are your words and actions anything but holy, righteous, and pure? Or has someone else offended or sinned against you? What are you doing about it?
To sit and do nothing is a sin in itself!
Jesus says go, go and tell your brother or sister. And if you have done so and nothing has happened, wait! Wait on the Lord and while you wait, pray!
Seek the throne of God for them and wait and see what miraculous thing the Lord God does! It may not happen here on earth. Are you willing to wait patiently for heaven? For maybe it’s there that you will see the rewards of this prayer and others like it.
Conclusion:
The church is a place where forgiveness flows, but often times it is a place where deep hurt abides because forgiveness is not found.
This morning please hear this. We want forward motion and this means needs to be embraced in all of its fullness. Relationships need to be fixed, restoration will flow. We need to deny our selfish ambition and submit to His leading. We need to stop thinking it is our job to correct and complain. He is the one in control. Do we think we can do a better job than Him? It is the job of the Holy spirit to illuminate the sin, are you willing to see and correct what is in your life? Or would you much prefer to point it out in others? We need to stop thinking we know best, He does! Humilty, self denial and submission are our path. It is His church, He wants to mould us and shape us in His ways. Are you willing to let that happen?
This morning please hear this. We want forward motion and this means needs to be embraced in all of its fullness. Relationships need to be fixed, restoration will flow. We need to deny our selfish ambition and submit to His leading. We need to stop thinking it is our job to correct and complain. He is the one in control. Do we think we can do a better job than Him? It is the job of the Holy spirit to illuminate the sin, are you willing to see and correct what is in your life? Or would you much prefer to point it out in others? We need to stop thinking we know best, He does! Humilty, self denial and submission are our path. It is His church, He wants to mould us and shape us in His ways. Are you willing to let that happen?
This morning please hear this. We want forward motion and this means needs to be embraced in all of its fullness. Relationships need to be fixed, restoration will flow. We need to deny our selfish ambition and submit to His leading. We need to stop thinking it is our job to correct and complain. He is the one in control. Do we think we can do a better job than Him? It is the job of the Holy spirit to illuminate the sin, are you willing to see and correct what is in your life? Or would you much prefer to point it out in others? We need to stop thinking we know best, He does! Humilty, self denial and submission are our path. It is His church, He wants to mould us and shape us in His ways. Are you willing to let that happen?
God Chisel clip
Stop letting the enemy rob you from the blessing because you cannot get over things of the past. Imagine if that was the attitude of Christ, the spirt of unforgiveness for us. Where would we be?
He knew me yet He loved me