Promise Keeping
Notes
Transcript
Handout
We are concluding the series, I Promise.
We all make promises and if you have lived very long at all, you have broken a promise or had promises broken to you.
Promise: from Promittere
Promise: from Promittere
Pro: Forward
Pro: Forward
Mittere: Send
Mittere: Send
I am going to send this promise into the future when it will be needed.
We can’t live life based on feelings because they go all over the place. Choices lead and feelings follow.
Promise: A declaration I make now that will be needed in the future.
Promise: A declaration I make now that will be needed in the future.
We want to build our lives on principles not on feelings.
Conclude with three promises you can make to yourself that will help you keep your promises.
Promise Keeping
Promise Keeping
1. I promise to respond, not react.
1. I promise to respond, not react.
I know many of us are reactors…
How many of you react in traffic?
It’s not a good thing when the first thing that pops into our minds comes out. We need to be slow in our response… slow down.
10% what happens… 90% how we respond.
10% what happens… 90% how we respond.
Being a Christian is about becoming more and more about Jesus. Jesus responded not reacted.
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
Talk about injustice. He never did anything wrong and they killed him. Instead of going toward them, he went towards Him.
We need to pause… when we discipline our kids… tweet… post on FB. Wait 24 hours before you send stuff out. I get sick of what people put on FB, Twitter… etc. If it weren’t for Pastor Kathy and the HS, I would probably be just as bad as everyone else.
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
2. I promise to focus on the good, not the bad.
2. I promise to focus on the good, not the bad.
Everyone has something Good about them.
You can find good and bad in anyone. Love keeps records of the good stuff not the bad. What would it look like if we kept a record of right actions?
How many of you married your opposites? When you are dating, Opposites attract… when you are married, opposites attack.
It’s easy to make a list of the things we don’t like about each other… Choose not to do that.
ILL - Kathy and me traveling… I want to get there… she wants to shop at Cracker barrel…
ILL - Ruth Bell Graham - asked if it bothered her that BG was gone 6 -7 months every year. She replied that 5 months with BG was better than a year with anyone else. She probably didn’t feel that way, but she chose to look at it that way.
Look at the Bible...
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
We need to focus on and speak life instead of death… it will change your life.
Respond slowly… focus on the Good...
3. I promise to talk not walk.
3. I promise to talk not walk.
When the going gets tough… the tough don’t go… Kathy and I are not going anywhere.
This promise is for when you let weeds pile up and then you find yourself not wanting to work it out… Unforgiveness will become bitterness and become like a giant tree that you can’t get rid of.
26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.
Solve your problems every day.
When you do go to bed angry… you are opening a foothold for the devil.
When the going gets tough, we will do what4ever it takes to work it out.
Listen to me. I don’t want you to try to learn this. You have to have life change because you were in the presence of God. We need to experience this. Let God to work in you today.
A Time to Gather Stones
A Time to Gather Stones
1 For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. 2 A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. 3 A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. 4 A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. 5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
Stones were used to inflict pain on someone who had hurt you. Solomon is saying that there is a time to gather them. A time to hurt someone or a time to gather them and build an altar to God.
Story of Jacob - Rachel…
Laban tricked him with Leah… changed his wages… instead of fighting…
Jacob left… Laban finds out and went after him.
Angel visits Laban and warns him not do do what he planed to do… some of you don’t need to do what you intend to do…
44 So come, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and it will be a witness to our commitment.” 45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument. 46 Then he told his family members, “Gather some stones.” So they gathered stones and piled them in a heap. Then Jacob and Laban sat down beside the pile of stones to eat a covenant meal.
Eating was a sing of sealing a covenant. Instead of using the stones to hurt, they used the stones to make an altar.
What does it take to not do what you intend to do? What does it take
1. Acknowledge my own mistakes.
1. Acknowledge my own mistakes.
You have to acknowledge we have a rock in the pile. You will never have to forgive anyone else than you have already been forgiven.
Laws of Reality.
1 You married an imperfect person
2 You aren’t so hot yourself.
You can’t through rocks because you are guilty too.
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
2. Abandon my right to get even.
2. Abandon my right to get even.
I am going to through down my rocks. We have the right to get even, but we give up our right to get even. Our society is too litigious… we sue over everything. We have to abandon our right to get even.
19 Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord.
When you do this, you allow God to take care of the situation.
3. Apply God’s Grace to others.
3. Apply God’s Grace to others.
You apply the same grace you recieved from God.
19 We love each other because he loved us first.
The same grace you have received… you apply to others.
Grace is God’s unmerited FAVOR. None of us deserve it. That’s why we call it Amazing Grace. The reason I can give grace others is because I have received it myself.
ILL - Wealthy businessman who was saved… said he was shocked by how good it felt to NOT carry around grudges and unforgiveness. He was completely surprised and shocked by GRACE
Prayer
Heal hearts and mend relationships…
The most important relationshiop to mend is between you and God