Things these days

Today you are going to have a chance to share. I want to warn you. You will not be made to share, we won’t get in a line or row or anything. Sharing will be completely voluntary.

I listen to the news everyday. Raise your hands if you read, watch or listen to something you would call “news” or to hear what “is going on in the world.”

Cool.

Last week and week’s prior I mentioned how special you are to God. You are so special that Christ died for you, not because you are worth it. God knows you. He knows all the messed up ways you act, selfishness, the greed, even the times you just thought about doing horrible things. God desires different for you. He is loving you, not to cover for you, but to lead you into the purpose He created you for. In order to do that a punishment had to be paid for all the messed up things you did, and all the good you didn’t do but knew you should. God loves you so much, thinks your that special, that He died for you.

If you don’t see yourself as even possible for God to love you that much, as even possible that he would care about you, I wonder if it’s because of the news.

I;m not bashing the news. I’m just saying that most of us have got on the news so few times they would could tell you exactly when we got on, what channel and what for. It is so rare that many people you know have never been interviewed on camera, microphone, or appeared in a newspaper or magazine.

The New York Times has a statement that is at the head of their paper. Do you know it?

All the News That’s Fit To Print

Walter Cronkite, the news man everyone used to watch over 50 years ago would end his broadcast with, “And that’s the way it is.”

Like everything that the NY Times doesn’t write about or someone 30 minute news show doesn’t matter.

I promise you that if the NY Times existed when Jesus was born they would not have covered his birth. I don’t even think they would bother to cover his crucifixion because the New York Times and all of us are limited. We can only write, watch or listen to so much but God isn’t limited.

We need to hear what God is doing today.

I am sharing with you the book in the Bible called Galatians. I have read it many times but the message I saw today just slapped me upside the head. It was a huge light bulb. I want to share it with you today.

Galatians 1:17–24 (CSB)

17 I (Paul) did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus.

18 Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I declare in the sight of God: I am not lying in what I write to you.

21 Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches that are in Christ. 23 They simply kept hearing, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.

Most of this scripture is the last of the details about the importance for Paul of showing that God revealed the message to him personally, he didn’t learn it. He was taught by the resurrected Jesus.

All of the books we have in the New Testament are from people who knew Jesus and Jesus himself taught, or told to people who wrote down what people who were taught by Jesus directly told them.

We talked about this for the last couple of weeks. God reveals himself. He revealed his teaching to the apostles, that revelation is for the whole world. It revealed who God is and what it means to follow Jesus if you are today or a thousand years ago in Ethopia.

God still reveals himself today individually so that we can accept him as the forgiver of our sins, the one who delivers us from evil, from no purpose, to the purpose of following Jesus. He is our Savior, If he didn’t make it so we could hear, understand and have the will to say yes, we would never be able to commit ourselves to Him. We are Christians because God revealed himself.

There is a difference between what God reveals to us and what God revealed to those who knew and walked with Jesus, the stuff written down in the Bible. What God revealed to us in the Bible is for everyone all over the world. The stuff revealed to us individually may not be true for everyone.

For example God shows me in the Bible that I am to love others. We read Jesus saying, “love your neighbor as yourself.” No matter what language I speak I am supposed to love others. God revealed to me that I am called to love others by being a pastor and a special education teacher. That revelation is for me. It isn’t for everyone. You are not in sin if you work at the bank and not as a special education teacher. Your job may not even be a revelation from God but just a way God has allowed you to eat and pay for things. Yet at your job or in your retirement all of us must love others.

It was really important to understand who would have the authority at the very beginning of those who were following Jesus to share what the true teaching of Jesus is. It was important that those people knew a direct revelation from God for all of us. There wasn’t a real formal way this was decided. The Holy Spirit guided this process more than people. One of the keys seems to be, it’s not stated anywhere except that we just see how God worked, that the New Testament comes from people who were taught by Jesus directly.

So this scripture that we just read is all about Paul proving that He was very special. That the resurrected Jesus taught Him not the other church leaders,

Galatians 1:17 CSB

17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus.

Paul not going to the city of Jerusalem to meet with the other apostles like Peter, John, Andrew, and the others until after he was already taught by Jesus in the Arab desert.

Galatians 1:18–20 CSB

18 Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I declare in the sight of God: I am not lying in what I write to you.

Then he finally went and got to meet Peter and James, the brother of Jesus. Which was cool. Yes, Jesus had brothers and sisters. What is more important is that Peter, James and the other church leaders understood the Holy Spirit telling them what Paul said was true. Paul was an apostle. His teaching was valid.

Cool historical facts and it’s important to know about how our faith formed, but God got me in the last two verses that I read. I need to share this. God smacked me over the head is in verses 23 and 24.

Galatians 1:23–24 CSB

23 They simply kept hearing, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.

Why is this a big deal? Here it is, Here is the the things that God went listen and do!

KEPT HEARING about what happened AND GLORIFIED GOD BECAUSE of IT

We need to praise God for what God is doing with other people

We need to hear what God is doing with other people

We need to share what God is doing in our lives so people can glorify God!

Let me explain the Bible verses to you

Galatians 1:23–24 CSB

23 They simply kept hearing, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.

The they is an actual group of people. It’s so funny I often talk to people and some of you and others will say, “they” are running this country or “they” don’t want me to have it, and I will be like who is they? And my friend will be like I don’t know, them, the people, the ones who did it. Most of us use they when we have no idea who they is but in the Bible here we know exactly who the “they” were that Paul was speaking about.

They are the apostles in Jerusalem and the other Christians there. Peter, James, and then others who hadn’t even yet met Paul like Andrew maybe Thomas, and many unnamed church leaders. These Christians who loved Jesus knew Jesus all knew someone killed because they followed Jesus and many had been arrested. Here they were amazed because they heard the one who used to attack them was now sharing the faith.

You see Paul actively stood by and held the coats of people who killed these leaders friend Stephen because he was a follower of Jesus. Paul traveled from place to place arresting people because they followed Jesus. These people’s freinds, they are the they at the beginning of this verse, I am sure they had been praying for friends who Paul had arrested. Now, the guy who had arrested people, was completely changed. He was preaching the faith!

Preaching the faith, he was telling others about Jesus, He was sharing the power of the Holy Spirit to heal, he was sharing the Jesus conquered the grave and He was sharing the Jesus was for all people, that all people were made right with God and God introduced himself to the world through the Jewish people but now all people, no matter their color, government, or family history were made right with God by Jesus himself dying on the cross, being resurrected and He still lives in power and glory.

Paul was preaching! They were amazed but before they were amazed, they heard!

God changes people!

We never know how God is going to answer our prayers. I am so amazed and in awe of how God has delivered from addiction and how God delivers people. How what people call are limitations are really the opportunities for God to shine!

Today, much earlier today, our brother Steven Kunkel, who is a missionary to Japan through this church among others, preached in Japanese. Neat, but it becomes even more amazing in that Steven is autistic and was non-verbal at the age of 2. . It would be enough if I just told you that God led him to this great job but there is more now Stephen is fluent in Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Arabic.

It is vital that we hear what God is doing!

I shared with Noah during our movie night this passed Friday that I was on the news on three different local newscasts. Some of you might remember when I talked with the media on behalf of Eddie’s family after his murder. It was then that it fully dawned on me what life is like for a local television news reporter. It is going from one horrible incident to another horrible incident to another. What a horrible life of all bad news. If you wonder why your scared realize you might be getting a lot of information from people who spend every day trying to find scary and horrible news.

The news does a horrible job at sharing good news. There really is no place for the God news to be reported by anyone else and I wonder if that’s because, it’s our job to share the works God is doing in our lives!

Psalm 96:3 The Message

3 Take the news of his glory to the lost, News of his wonders to one and all!

Psalm 145:12 CSB

12 informing all people of your mighty acts and of the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

What has God done in your life?

I want you to start thinking about this right now because in just a little bit you will have opportunity to share the great news about what Jesus has done or is doing in your life. It can be a sentence, it can be a couple of minutes, God is working in our lives. It is fun to share good news!

This past week I lost my keys on Wednesday night. Worse I have these things called Tiles hooked to all kinds of things I lose a lot which allow me to find the items with my phone. What was so bad was the batteries had died and I didn’t notice! I couldn’t find them anywhere. I called stores I visited. Dave, Phil, myself, and Lori searched the church for my keys. I visited the stores my keys could be at. I was praying, I was dreaming about my keys, no kidding. and do you know how awesome it was that my keys were found in my home on Saturday night by my amazing wife! The first thing I did was give her lots of kisses and hugs, next my wife helped me replace the batteries and then I told everyone who had been helping me search for my keys. It gave me joy to find my keys and great joy to tell others.

That’s just keys, it’s nothing compared to the amazing blessing it has been to see God bless your lives!

Yet if we don’t verbally share about the things God is doing in our lives, the ways our lives our going, even for those who have been followers of Jesus for a long time our faith can get stale, worse fearful of what is happening, and worse still losing faith that God is still at work in our day.

When you share you don’t need to exagerate, God blessing doesn’t have to be finished, just share what God is or has done in your life with all of us so that like was done with Paul we may glorify God because of you!

> This Friday it was a long day of work ...

God blessed me with the reminder that I just need to keep serving every single day.

Galatians 1:24 CSB

24 And they glorified God because of me.

We need to praise God for what God is doing with other people

We need to hear what God is doing with other people

We need to share what God is doing in our lives so people can glorify God!