Need a Cake?
Notes
Transcript
Red Velvet Cake
Red Velvet Cake
Sara’s recipe’
1 pkg German chocolate cake mix
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. oil
1 (1 oz.) bottle red food coloring
3 eggs
1 (8 oz.) pkg cream cheese, softened
6 T. butter or margarine, softened
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla
Combine all cake ingredients at low speed until moistened.
Beat 2 minutes at high speed.
Pour batter into 3 prepared 8” cake pans.
Bake at 350 until done, about 20-25 minutes.
To make cream cheese icing.
Combine cream cheese and butter.
Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Ice between the layers and on top.
How old were you when you found out a Red Velvet cake is really just a chocolate cake w/ red food coloring?
It’s a chocolate cake. I thought I had a new favorite cake until I found out.
There it is. Easy. Simple recipe’. Great cake.
Here’s the deal. Every one of us at some point is going to have to bake a cake. Maybe you’ve already been there. Wife’s BD, kids’, g-kid’s, dinner party.
Something is going to come up and you’re on the hook.
Many of you, no big deal. You’ve done this a thousand times. You can do it in your sleep. Movie, ballgame on TV, music on Alexa, reading a book, riding a unicycle, baking a cake all at the same time.
But for some of you, this is panic time. You have no idea where to start. You don’t just want a cake out of a box. You want to do something special, but have no idea.
Then, you’re going to remember this sermon, Sara’s Red Velvet cake recipe in on slides. You can go to our website (mpcc.church), scroll down to the sermons, check the archives for Sept. 12 “Need a Cake?”, there it is, on the slides.
Seriously, who can’t follow a recipe?! Easy as pie, or piece of cake.
You put it all together, throw it in the oven, you’re up here at your cabin in MP. What happens to cake in your oven in MP?
Experienced bakers; what happens when you follow a recipe that is written for sea level and you’re at 7000’?
The rising agent takes over you have red velvet cake batter all over your oven, on the heating element, burning, smelling up your house to the extent you may never want a Red Velvet cake again. It’s nasty.
You guys know, my wife is a great cook. I talk about it. Many of you have eaten something she has prepared, here, Fire Aux., a dinner party, somewhere.
I’m her to tell you that there is a fair amount of trial and error that goes on in our kitchen. Baking has been the biggest challenge for her.
How do you bake successfully at altitude?
Me watching from across the room, I’ve heard the cries and screams, different baked goods react differently up here.
Trial and error. Adjustments and readjustments to be able to successfully navigate and manage baking at altitude.
I’m taking on a real risk here. It’s after 11 in the morning, some of you did not eat breakfast, you’re already thinking about lunch at one of our great restaurants in town, I’m talking about Red Velvet cake.
You can taste it, smell it, and you’re like, “Steve, give us the cake already” There has to be a cake around here somewhere. Just give it to us and we’ll leave church today fat and happy.
That’s what we all want in life, is to be fat and happy. Right?
If Steve, maybe somebody else will give us the cake.
So, how does this illustrate the passage today?
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Perseverance and maturity.
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Perseverance, character, hope.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
Faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, love.
Possess them in increasing measure. Growth. Maturity.
The c.1 Xians were living in time when they had never been more stressed. It was probably worse than what we are facing now. But, stress is relative.
This is the most anxiety creating time in our lives.
All the normal stuff.
Health, financial, relational, parents, kid, business/hiring issues.
All the stuff people for ages have been dealing w/. But now, we are dealing w/ all this in the midst of a pandemic that has come in waves. It just doesn’t seem like it’s going away.
Last summer it was COVID. This summer it has been the delta variant. They are already talking about the mu variant this fall and winter. Will it ever go away?!
Hope. Biblically, hope is a certainty, we just don’t know when. We are certain of a good future, but when?
The light of hope at the end of our tunnel seems t/b dimming, shrinking.
Have all these positive characteristics in increasing measure. But right now, they seem t/b decreasing while anxiety is increasing.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
We’ve got the trouble. Where’s the peace?
There are times in your life when you are going to have to bake your own cake. And you’re going to say, just give me the cake.
Steve, Sara, somebody, just give me a cake.
But you are going to have to get the box, the eggs, cream cheese, powdered sugar, oil, butter, and the rest; mix it together, read the instruction, interpret the meaning, bake it and eat the result.
The first time, it may not turn out so good. Try again. And again, again, again, until you get what you want in the end.
B/C, nobody can give you what you want when you are stressed beyond measure. Peace is something you have bake on yourself.
Maturity. Mature Xians can manage life’s bigger issues and situations b/c they have wrestled with the bibles tougher passages and deeper truths producing the growth that settles them down.
Immature Xians are more likely to quit on X when life gets hard b/c they think X quit on them.
Not age. Not even the length of time you’ve been a Xian necessarily.
God has given you the recipe and instructions to bake the cake that give you everything you want to manage life’s tougher issues.
But, you have to bake the cake.
If you have been totally dependent on me, your pastor in the valley, your wife, parents, friends to just give you the cake; then you’re more likely to panic when you need the cake.
Hebrews 5 & 6.
What has God given us that if we use it and apply it correctly, it produces maturity, growth, the ability to handle life’s tougher issues?
The Problem
The Problem
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
We adults are faced with some heavy lifting in life. Nobody can go out and immediately lift a huge weight.
Things would rupture if we tried. If we stress our muscles, tendons, ligaments, meniscuses, like that they will explode.
We have to start by lifting light weights and gradually increase the load to get to where we can lift heavy.
It’s true in the weight room and it’s true in your living room when you are facing a heavy issue w/ someone you love, or used to love, anyway.
The preacher here just got done explaining how Jesus is Savior, Priest, and King. Son of God, descendant of David, and line of Melchizedek.
Jesus is the only person in history who is qualified like this to save you.
Then he says, there is a lot more that needs to be explained about this, but I can’t.
Why? Not b/c the material is hard to understand. And it is.
But, b/c they stopped listening.
The group, for the most part, has been Xians for years. This book was written 35 years after the crux and res.
He is calling them out. B/C by now they should be capable of leading younger Xians deeper in their faith.
Teaching these things. Maybe in a church or classroom setting. Or, maybe over coffee on your deck.
Helping a less mature believer deal w/ their tough situ.
Instead, they needed, not wanted, needed t/b taught the ABCs of the faith all over again, and again, again.
Milk, formula, pablum.
What happens to an adult whose diet consists of going to Walmart, getting the can of powdered formula from the baby dept., mixing it w/ water and sucking down for your bfst, lunch and dinner?
What would happen?
Your teeth would fall out. Never exercising them on steaks, chicken, and asparagus that are tougher to chew.
And, you’d likely die. There are not enough of the right kinds of nutrients to feed your body to deal w/ adult heavy lifting.
Life is hard. It is a walk of faith. Regardless of what century you were born in, you will face tough times that will require your have the ability to bake your cake that gives you as an adult what you want to deal w/ it.
These c.1 Xians did not know how to respond nor where to go to find the recipe and resources they needed, so they were severely tempted to walk away from X and His word to try to get it somewhere else.
Please, just tell me one more time how to be saved. How do I get to heaven?
What?! You’re saved.
B/C they hadn’t matured in their faith, they were afraid they may not be saved. They knew a little bit about it.
Angels declared “peace on earth” when Jesus was born.
They also knew they didn’t have much peace.
Whose fault is that? Jesus didn’t come thru for them. No body else gave it to them.
So, why don’t they have it?
It appeared to them that they needed the basics again. But what they really needed was a steak. Something hard to chew.
If they had not stopped trying to understand then would not only have a broader knowledge base, they would also have had the ability to manage their stress better.
Is it God’s fault? Jesus’s fault? He didn’t come thru like he promised? Like he was supposed to do?
He didn’t give us the recipe or the baking instructions?
No. We have what we need. We have the basic raw materials and recipe to mix them together into something we want.
Sometimes Sara sends me to the store to get supplies for her.
Do you know how many types of canned peppers there are in the Mexican food section? Do you know how many kinds of canned beans there are in the vegetable section?
What’s so special about organic vegetables and fruit? They are priced like their pretty special.
She will ask me to pick up these obscure little cans of things that will take me forever to find.
And, I’m not asking for help. That is admitting defeat. A little can of chopped green chilies will not defeat me.
Sometimes what we are looking for is hard to find in the bible. There is not one verse for every issue.
Sometimes the answer is in the character of God.
And, to find the whole character of God in the bible is like going to the grocery store and having to find all the little cans and packages that are tucked away in the nooks and crannies of the shelves. Then we have to bring them home and mix them together then bake them into something that is the character of God.
Not acquainted. Inexperienced. Never shopped for the ingredients or baked a cake at altitude.
Never wrestled w/ the tougher passages about deeper issues in the bible that take us into the weight room to build our spiritual muscles.
These ppl didn’t lack the information nor the access to it. They just didn’t do it.
They did lack the skills that came w/ maturity. They lacked the ability to accurately evaluate situations and determine the best course of action.
They lacked the ability to develop and maintain peace of mind in stressful situations that were completely out of their control but absolutely still under God’s control.
Trained themselves. Not handed to them on a cake platter. Who has to do the work?
Constant use. Practice. If you stop practicing difficult skills they get rusty.
If you take a break from practicing shooting your pistol, your aim will suffer.
If you stop practicing your golf swing, your score will soar.
If you stop reading, your comprehension will suffer. You won’t read as fast as your used to. Nor will you remember like you used to.
Distinguish good from evil. They lacked the ability to accurately evaluate their situations and make decisions that minimized their trouble.
In fact, their decisions fanned the flames of trouble.
They would have lacked the self-control necessary to stay out situations and control their tongue from saying things that led to more trouble.
They lacked the kindness, goodness, the mutual affection that calms things and builds good things.
Their hope was diminishing. The temptation to go elsewhere to find peace was growing.
You can’t drink your way to peace, eat your way there, buy your way there, or self-destruct your way there.
The only way to get there is to construct the ingredients of your faith into a structure that can handle the greater pressure of your life.
Their problem was immaturity. It was causing the problems to multiply b/c they were making poor decisions b/c they were not practicing using the ingredients found throughout the bible and baking them into what they really wanted.
The solution? Growth. Do the work, w/ God’s help, and get what you want.
The Solution
The Solution
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.
They didn’t need the foundation worked on any more. Build something.
They had already repented.
Their feelings were, maybe we hadn’t. Or, maybe we hadn’t done it right. B/C, doesn’t God promise that life will be easy for his children?
Does He? No.
In fact, He promises trials. B/C trials produce good things in us. They lead us to maturity.
You can’t start over. You can’t re-pour a foundation on top of an existing foundation. It will weaken it. It will not adhere and it will crumble.
Be secure enough to realize the foundation you have is solid and can handle the structure you need to build.
Saved? Not saved? Did they lose it? Can you?
They were not secure in the fundamentals and certainly had never wrestled w/ the tougher passages to know.
They had them. They could have. But they didn’t and they wanted this preacher and others to just hand it to them.
But, that hadn’t worked.
They needed to do the work themselves.
Maybe they were doing it wrong. Maybe if they behaved differently they’d get what they wanted.
Maybe they weren’t baptized right. Should they do again?
Do we need to talk about baptism? It’s for new believers. Baptized by the HS then immersed in water.
Changed in how you look to God on the inside.
And immersed in water in front of all these believers to publicly declare your belief in Jesus and commitment to behave like it.
Maybe they needed to ask for prayer. If somebody else would just pray for me. It doesn’t seem to be working when I do it.
Do you pray?
“The laying on of hands”
I can assure you I am happy to pray for you and send out prayer requests to our prayer warriors to lift you up in your time of need.
But please don’t expect me or anybody else to effectively replace your responsibility to pray for your own situations.
Know how to pray, what to say, what to expect.
It’s in the bible.
The fundamentals of heaven and hell. How to get to one and avoid the other.
And, all the talk of end times now.
Is it possible to know if we are near or even in the time when God will finish it all off.
It’s going to get ugly when He does. Are we there, yet?
We can’t know times and dates, but we can recognize seasons. There are signs of the times. They are in the bible.
Steve, just tell us. Are we there yet?
Bake me the cake.
Maybe, God wants you in your bible searching for the answers and ingredients yourself.
It’s like a dance. God will lead. We will follow. God leads the next step, we follow, And so on.
God willing, we will mature. And, trust me, God is willing, are you?
The bottom line on the solution; Know Christ better.
Paul’s words in Ephesians 1
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,
Know Christ better. Strengthen your relationship w/ Him. The religious rites and rituals won’t get you there. Your relationship w/ Him will.
Then, you will grow in you hope for your future, and in your security in the inheritance you will receive in heaven, and in your ability to access the same power that solved Jesus’s grave situation to solve your grave situations.
I am going to keep teaching and Sara is going to keep baking. We are happy to share what we know how to do w/ you.
But, the times will come when you need to do the shopping, mixing and baking yourself to get what you really want.
This is the 3rd of the 5 warnings in Hebrews.
You have access to all the ingredients you need, all the instructions you need, and all the appliances you need.
All that’s left is the trial and error until you get it right.
Remember the altitude when you bake.
Applications
Applications
Train yourself
Train yourself
Read and study on your own.
Some of it is hard to find, some it hard to understand, but there is help for you.
Help for you, not do it for you.
I can help. There are books, commentaries and websites that can help, too.
Get in the habit of getting into the Word for yourself.
Nobody else can go to the gym for you to get you in shape, nobody else can go to school for you to learn, and nobody else can bake for you to get the spiritual benefits you need for your tough situations.
Trial & Error
Trial & Error
Learn to apply what learn in the bible.
Don’t get discouraged by the error part.
Constant use. Constantly practice. Don’t expect perfection. We all make mistakes but we can always recover.
Minimize the mistakes by learning from them.
Make better decisions about how you should behave and what you should say.
It is a constant effort to use what learn to grow and mature.
Keep trying.
Know Christ Better
Know Christ Better
The relationship you have w/ Jesus is the most important thing you have to work on and develop.
The religious rites and rituals have their place. But they are intended to lead you closer to Jesus.
The closer you are to Jesus, the brighter your hope, the healthier your eternal bank acct, and the stronger your power.
Your faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love will increase.
You will still suffer, but the suffering will produce good things inside you.
In the end, you will mature and be able to manage life’s tougher situations, survive and thrive.
Don’t ask me to bake you a cake. Sara will. She’s nicer and a better baker.
Mature Xians can manage life’s bigger issues and situations b/c they have wrestled with the bibles tougher passages and deeper truths producing the growth that settles them down.
Immature Xians are more likely to quit on X when life gets hard b/c they think X quit on them.
God has given you the recipe and instructions to bake the cake that give you everything you want to manage life’s tougher issues.
But, you still have to bake the cake.