We Believe: God the Son

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Good morning and welcome to CCC. We are so glad you are here with us this morning. September 11, 2001 a day 21 years ago that we refuse to forget. A day that showed true evil to the world but a day where God’s love was on full display in His children. After men’s breakfast yesterday, if you were not here you missed out on great food better company and brotherly fellowship. Men’s breakfast is the 2nd saturday of every month, cooking and fellowship starts at 7 am and eat around 8 am.

After breakfast I went into my office to begin to prepare for today, type the message that I had been working on all week, prepare the slides and media for the sanctuary for worship and God grabbed a hold of me and I realized that it was going to be 9/11 and as I was looking at tribute videos and as I got to the one we just watched God laid on my heart that what I had prepared for today, looking at Jesus’ deity, humanity, resurrection and return were all very truthful and need to be preached upon just not today.

He wanted me to bring you something different this morning.

When I think of 9/11/01 I think of Jesus. The evil was a direct attack on Jesus but the aftermath showed the power of faith hope and love. The power of Jesus.

Let’s pray.

I Corinthians 13

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If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love

When I read this passage I see and hear and feel Jesus....God the Son.

As I look back and remember and honor the fallen of 9-11-01 I see and hear and feel Jesus.

I don’t understand 9/11. I don’t know why so many had to die. Why so many families were shattered. Why so many still struggle with emotions and demons of that day. I know the answer but I don’t know or understand the why. I used to struggle with that…knowing the answer but not knowing the why but as I continue to mature in Christ why really doesn’t matter that much anymore. We sing a song that says “I may not know what a day may bring but I know who brings the day”

That comes from faith hope and love…Jesus..God the Son. That is what God wants me to bring to you today as we look at We Believe God the Son

In I Corinthians 13 Paul spends the first 3 verses showing how important love is to be to Christians. You are nothing without love. Then he talks about what love is and isn’t. Then he looks at the result of that love…growing from a child to a man....the Christian maturation process. As a result of that process you move from getting hung up on the why or trying to understand the things that are happening in and around you to a place where that doesn’t matter because you understand that right now you only see part of what is going on but one day......one day you will see and understand everything and that is enough to know one day it will all make sense.

When things happen like 9/11.....cancer.....death…perscution.....hate…evil...racism…abortion....drug and alcohol addiction…the list is limitless…

When those things happen we have someone to turn to who fully understands and has in fact fully defeated each of those things…God the Son....Jesus.

I believe that faith hope and love define Jesus and should also define you as a Christian

Faith

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As a Christian you have faith that Jesus’ death.....his sacrifice....his blood a payment for your sins was enough.

Matthew 27:50-51

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“But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit. Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.”

God clearly says that it was enough.

God tore the curtain from top to bottom to signify that Jesus’ death was enough....that Jesus paid for sin and bridged the gap between man and God.

That is what we have faith in as Christians.

If that isn’t true nothing matters.

However if that is true, which it is true, nothing else matters because Jesus paid your price.

Your past doesn’t matter. Your weakness doesn’t matter. If that is true, Jesus died in your place and paid for your sin then once you accept that payment, salvation, you are saved and all that matters now is Jesus.

Jesus freely offers you the gift of salvation. If you truly accept it and truly are saved you will have the faith to give up everything else and follow Jesus.

Through Jesus and because of Jesus once you accept Him and His payment for your sins then you are changed. You no longer belong to the world and satan but to God and Jesus......notice you didn’t belong to you without Jesus no you belonged to satan and sin and death.....Jesus set you free from all of that and gave you a new name, son or daughter of God Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, the King of kings, you are his prince and princesses! That is what you have faith in!

Hope

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I Peter 1:13

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“Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Hope. What is that hope?

As a Christian your hope…my hope is that one day Jesus will return and the pain and sorrow and evil and hatred of this world will be no more....that is His grace

Because of His blood you and I will live forever with Him in heaven. Nothing else truly matters!

That hope allows you or frees you to live from Jesus in this broken, sinful, evil world. No matter what happens to you or those you love or even those who hate you.....no matter what happens God is in control and Jesus will return one day and there will be a new heaven and a new earth....that is what your hope is founded upon Jesus....God the Son.

Love.

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It was the love of God that sent Jesus to the cross.

It was the love Jesus has for you that allowed Jesus to willingly mount the cross.

It is the love of God that frees you from this world.

John 3:16-17

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“For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

We have faith hope and love in and because of Jesus.

If Jesus appeared today....secretly just showed up on earth again....sinners would flock to Him and Christians would curse and condemn Him.

Today’s Christians have moved so far into religion and so far away from faith hope and love that most wouldn’t even recognize Jesus as Jesus.

The love of Jesus is life changing. The love of Jesus makes you say and believe and do things that the world thinks is crazy.

The love of Jesus forces you to swim upstream. Live a completely different life than everyone else. You do the right things because they are the right things to do regardless of the cost or consequences in your own life.

The greatest of these is love because all of this is from and for love....God’s great love for YOU!

I think anyone who believes in the cross would say that kind of love is radical in fact Jesus’ love is a love so radical that Jesus spent most of His time with sinners. Preaching and teaching and most importantly loving them.

His love was and is so strong that dying on the cross was something He was willing to do.

A love so transformational that Saul a murderer of Christians would meet Jesus and become Paul an apostle who wrote most of the new testament.

A love so transformational that a young shepherd boy would stand toe to toe with a giant and kill him because that giant mocked his God.

A love so transformational it took at porn addicted, prideful, selfish, sinful man that was so consumed with worldly and fleshly lusts and desires that it was destroying him from the inside out and transform him into a pastor

Faith hope and love…that is Jesus....That is what we believe.

I want to close with this.

Hebrews 12:2

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“keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I, not me but God through me…is fixin to make many of you uncomfortable. He may even make you mad.

If Hebrews 12:2 is true and I believe it is....I believe all Scripture is true then you must also realize the price that Jesus paid and the price that you will pay as His follower....a Christian.

Jesus knew the pain of the cross.

Jesus knew the physical pain of the beatings.

Jesus knew the emotional pain of the hurtful words and rejection of the people He came to save.

Most of all Jesus knew He would have to become sin, which would force God to look away from Him for the first and only time in eternity and that crushed Him

He knew all of that but the joy of that lay before Him. The joy of heaven and relationship with the Father and all the saints was more than enough to help Him endure the pain of the cross.

I believe if you truly have faith hope love…Jesus…God the Son.

Modern, western Christians have been lulled to sleep and lulled into a false sense of comfort and security by satan and the world. Here it really doesn’t cost you much, there is not much you have to endure because of Christ. That is changing and will continue to change until revival sweeps this nation but it is not like one called to Christ in a Muslim controlled country where they will be kicked out of their family and town at best and beheaded at worse.

You are called. You are called to receive Christ and then take up your cross daily and live from HIM. Give HIM total control.

Sure he has specific things He created you to do…things that only you can do for the kingdom.

I also believe God does place individual callings on your life however if you truly love Jesus you will never have to be called anywhere or have to be called to do anything.

You are called to live from Jesus and to do all that He commands in His word.

As a pastor I hear all the time

“That would be great to have a youth ministry but that is just not where I am called.”

or God has called someone to that but it is not me.

Now many who say that are busy…but busy with what?

Golf.

Fishing....

Camping…

Chiefs....

hobbies…

working so they can feed the debt monster in their lives. or working to have more and more worldly possessions or to keep up with the neighbor of those who they think are successful

Most who use I am not called use it as an excuse to get out of kingdom work because it would cost them time and energy that quite frankly would rather spend on them and their desires.

Jesus and His true followers use Faith hope and love…Jesus…God the Son to be an excuse to do more for Jesus and less for themselves.

For most I am not called is such a worldly, selfish excuse to not do kingdom work!

Faith hope and love…Jesus…God the Son eliminate all that.

IF you are alive God wants you to bring Jesus to the lost....that is your calling.

You may be better equipped in some areas....

you may be more comfortable in some areas…

but if you are here and alive and a Christian you are called to serve wherever God wants you to serve and that is where you are needed not necessarily called.

If you are here and saved and a member of this church God may lay a new ministry on your heart but I guarantee you He is laying children’s ministry on you because He is laying that on this body.

I guarantee you He is laying going and finding and ministering to the lost on you because that is who He is!

Many also believe that Christians are not called to chase the lost or backslidden.

I agree to a point.

Jesus didn’t chase people…He presented the gospel and lived out the gospel and those who accepted accepted and those who rejected rejected.

The choice is always the individuals.

However Jesus did chase us in terms of the fact that He left heaven to come to earth to save us.

When he was on earth He was where they, the sinners, the broken, the hurting, the addicted…the lost....he was where they were. He went to them and they flocked to Him

Faith hope and love…Jesus…God the Son allows us…God’s Children to live as Jesus lived.

I love CCC. I love each and everyone of you but we miss it. Look around you…where are they…the sinners....the broken…the hurting…the addicted…the lost. Where are they?

At our last worship night where we come together to bring praise to our Savior and King and to hear the transformational power of Jesus in lives through testimony there were 5 or 6 people here....where are they? The sinners....the broken…the hurting....the addicted…the lost....the ones who need Jesus?

Yesterday at Men’s breakfast where we come together to fellowship in brotherly love there were 5 people here....where are they? The sinners....the broken…the hurting....the addicted..the lost....those in need of brotherly love?

If we were truly living from faith hope love…Jesus…God the Son....if we truly believed in God the Son…if we lived that outside of here this place would be full every time we opened the doors but where are they? The sinners…the broken…the hurting…the addicted....the lost.....they are still sinning.....they are still broken....they are still hurting....they are still addicted....they are still lost

What we do inside of here is so very important but not nearly as important as what we do outside of here.

Faith hope love…Jesus…God the Son allows you to step out of your boat.....to step out of your comfort zone and into Jesus!

Last night Melody and I watched a great move called Play the Flute on pureflix. It was a great movie all about the power of God’s Word to change you. It was titled Play the Flute because of the fact that Jesus doesn’t change the terms of salvation for anyone. They are take them or leave them. Accept Him or reject Him.

In one part of the movie the youth pastor stated you are either playing the flute, telling others about the gospel of Jesus or you need the flute played to you or need others to tell you about the gospel because you are lost!

Faith....Hope....Love....Jesus…God the Son allows you to play the flute.......

As this song plays I want you to wrestle with this question

Am I playing the flute or do I need someone to play the flute to me?

Invitation.....Make Room Casting Crowns.