Place Your Hands upon the Lamb

 

Pastor Rick goes to Leviticus today to teach about forgiveness!

Lent - Consider the Cross

 

Nehemiah Series - Rebuilding the Walls of Repentance & Relationship - Sermon 7

As you bow your heart in repentance and worship before Him in full submission to the Truth, now open your hands and your heart to receive the gift of salvation!  Let go of the darkness and be filled with His light!  Be filled with His eternal love and receive everlasting life!  Now enter into relationship with the Architect of the Universe, the Designer of Humanity, the Christ of the Cross, The Gentle Spirit of Holiness, the Lover of our Souls.  Walk in relationship with Him – in covenant with Him – in love with Him!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is what it means to rebuild the spiritual walls of worship and the word; of repentance and relationship.  This is revival.  This is restoration.  This is rebuilding what has been torn down.  Will you rebuild these walls in your hearts?  Will you rebuild these walls in your marriages?  Will you rebuild these walls in your homes?  Will you rebuild these walls in your community?

The Power of Confession & the Freedom of Forgiveness

Wherever you are on the curve, I would like to invite you today to rediscover the power of confession and freedom of forgiveness.  If you are an unbeliever, would you confess your sins and be born again?  If you are a believer struggling against your own nature, would you confess your need, submit to the Lordship of Christ, and be filled with the Spirit?  If you are saved and sanctified but wrestling with broken relationships or the temptations to sin, would you confess your sins to God and man and discover forgiveness?  And, if you are harboring unforgiveness toward anyone today, would you confess it and relinquish it – let it go – so that you may once again know the freedom and power of forgiveness in your heart and life?  Would you once again walk in the way of peace?  Rediscover the power of confession and freedom of forgiveness.

ADVENT 2016 - The Hope of Forgiveness

Listen as Pastor Rick begins the Advent Series with a sermon about forgiveness.

What is your greatest hope? I would contend that your greatest hope is to be loved completely by someone who understands you, accepts you as you are, and forgives you when you are in need of it.  Someone who loves you with abandon without reservation.  May I introduce you to Jesus the Christ – the God Who loves you today just that way?  He designed you, created you, sustains you, and understands you.  He accepts you as you are when you come to him with a humble penitent heart.  He forgives every sin and wipes away every stain if you will only let Him in.  He loves you with abandon and without reservation as he demonstrated that first Christmas long ago when his tiny helpless form was wrapped in strips of cloth and laid in the hay. 

This is the hope we proclaim this first Sunday of Advent: the hope of forgiveness: the hope of being among the living forgiven!  Are you living in this hope today?  Are you forgiven?  Have you opened the door of your heart to the Christ: JESUS who came to save you from your sins?  He stands at the door knocking.  Won’t you let forgiveness in?

EFFECTIVE PRAYER

This week's crowd is a small and intimate one due to so many folks being out of town.  As a result, Pastor Rick shared a simple but important message for this moment in our congregational life about effective prayer.  The message was recorded in audio and is linked here.  However, in case you would like them, Pastor Rick is sharing his notes below as well.  We trust it will bless you.

"Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness."  Martin Luther.

As I have shared before, “prayer” is a huge topic.  It is a broad and deep idea and activity about which thousands of pages have been penned.  But today, I felt for our small group that I needed to talk about prayer in a simple and meaningful way.  Prayer is the life breath of the Christian soul.  The Christian that does not pray does not live.  Matthew Henry is quoted as saying, “You may as soon find a living man that does not breathe, as a living Christian that does not pray.”  And when asked how much time he spent in prayer, that great man of prayer, George Mueller, is quoted as saying, “Hours every day.  But I live in the spirit of prayer.  I pray as I walk and when I lie down and when I arise. And the answers are always coming.”

One of the first objections that often quickly arises from Christians is either:
“Well I’m no George Mueller.”
Or “I am not called to be an intercessor so I just can’t pray like that.”
Well I hope once you see them on the screen there in black and white that you also see these words for the poor excuses they are.  First of all, there is no expectation that you or I are to be George Mueller.  However, there is a clear expectation that we are to have what the old saints I knew used to call a “prayer life.”  Jesus taught in Luke that “Men ought always to pray and not to faint (18:1 & 21:36).”  The Apostle Paul taught the same thing to the Christians in Rome, Ephesus, Colosse, and Thessalonica, writing things like:
“continuing instant in prayer” (Romans 12:12)
“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;” (Ephesians 6:18)
“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;” (Colossians 4:2)
“Pray without ceasing.”  (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
I hope from these passages you grasp with me very quickly that all believers are called to live with prayer a constant thing in their lives. Do you pray continually unto the Lord?  Do you seek him always everywhere?

But this is not the goal of my sermon – to guilt trip us about whether we are praying or about how much we are praying – though if you feel guilt, then I recommend you pray about that!

Rather today I want to focus on something further.  I want instead to address these questions: “What prayers does God hear? & What prayers does He answer?”  I cannot study this exhaustively today, but I hope to put us on the pathway.  I suppose that the seed for this message was planted when I recently saw this statement from someone I love: “Whether you are serving the Lord or not He’ll hear your prayers.”  When I saw that statement, it grieved me a little bit.  In that statement there was reflected a misunderstanding of God and of what the Bible teaches about our prayers.

According to the Scripture, the only prayers that God hears and answers from the sinner is the sincere prayer of repentance.  1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Observationally, He also seems to sometimes answer the desperate call for aid from a sinner – but this seems to me discretionary at best – that it is only done because He can see that in the long run it will result in their salvation &/or His glory.  If you do not agree with this idea that God does not listen to sinners, let me share some scriptures with you to back it up:
Job 27:8,9 – “For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?  Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?” 
Psalm 66:18 – “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”
Proverbs 15:29 – “The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.”
Proverbs 28:9 – “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”
John 9:31 – “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.”
There are other scriptures that support this truth that God does not attend unto the prayers of the unrighteous and wicked, but I think these are clearly stated and we need not list more. 

The implication then is that God only responds to the prayers of the righteous.  Does the Scripture back this up?
Psalm 34:15 – “The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.”
Psalm 145:18 – “The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.”
Proverbs 15:29 – “The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.”
1 John 3:22 “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”
James 5:16 – “16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Having briefly presented the case for the argument that God only hears and answers the prayers of the righteous, this last verse is the one I want to focus on today.  Let’s look at its context.

James 5:12-18
12 ¶ But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
 13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
 14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
 17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

Now we have to understand a few things about this passage.  It appears that the Apostle James is writing about the healing of the sick.  James describes the remedy of prayer and anointing in verse 14.  Then he emphasizes the element of faith in verse 15.  In verse 16 it gets interesting.  He says, that we are to confess our faults one to another (our failures, errors, and sins) and pray for each other that healing can be found.  This is the basis for the final sentence of verse 16.  “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”  In other words, effective prayer is based on faith, forgiveness, and righteousness.

To those that might object that such effective praying is not possible, the Apostle James calls to remembrance Elijah and the story of the rain from 1 Kings 17 that we talked about earlier.  He does this to emphasize that even the humblest and simplest of believers can experience answers to prayer through effective praying just as Elijah who was just as human as any of us.

So let’s look at that recipe again: Effective Praying Rests on:
Faith
Forgiveness
Righteousness

Faith
Faith is the first essential ingredient to effective praying.  If we do not believe, we cannot even approach God. Without faith it is impossible to please Him.  “Hebrews 11:6 - But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”  Faith is the beginning of it all.

Forgiveness
The prayer of faith results in personal forgiveness and forgiveness one to another.  Forgiveness is a reconciling.  If we have prayed unto the Lord and found His forgiveness, we should then find strength in that forgiveness to extend forgiveness to those around us.  We also know (from the teachings of Jesus and the apostles) that we who are forgiven must forgive those around us.  Only in this reconciled position, can we continue to live and walk in faith.

Righteousness
By faith, having found forgiveness, we may then learn the life of righteousness that comes when we walk in the righteousness of Christ.  It is by His righteousness that we find remission of sins and reconciliation to God.  It is then that we cast off the old corrupt man and “…put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24).”   Then we live righteously according to the Word of God.

In this walk of faith, forgiveness, and righteousness, we then have confidence that not only does God hear our prayers, but we may believe that He will answer them.

Simply stated today, if you are a normal human being, you are called to a life of constant prayer.  For that praying to be effective, you must have faith, be forgiven, forgive those in your life, and walk in the righteousness of Christ, living righteously according to the Word.  IF you do this, then not only will God hear your prayers, you may be confident that He will answer them. 

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

A Few Painters I Enjoy...

I love many of the paintings of artists Thomas Blackshear and Ron Dicianni:

Footprints to Follow Series - Sermon 6 - "Opposites: A Testimony"

This sermon's recording was unsuccessful.  As a result, here are Pastor Rick's sermon notes.  We apologize for the inconvenience.

Today we continue our series from Ephesians about what it means to put off the old man and former lifestyle of sin and put on the new man created in righteousness and true holiness being renewed in the spirit of our minds.  We have learned that we do that by following Christ and walking in His ways. 

We learned that Truth is at the core of Who God is and whom we are to be in Him.  Truth is foundational to all lasting relationships and is essential to the life and integrity of couples, families, friends, and church families.

Next we learned about anger and the only proper way for it to be experienced or expressed.  The 3 parameters for Christian anger:

1.    Our anger must be sinless - In your anger do not sin.

2.    Our anger must be tempered, controlled, regulated, and not left to simmer.

3.    Our anger must not become a climate or environment permitting the devil a foothold in our lives.

We learned that anger is dangerous.  In it lies great potential for error, harm, and sin.  Therefore, like all our other emotions and actions, our anger must be surrendered to Christ and placed under His guidance and control.

Then we discovered that “work” is a gift, a grace, and a testimony and that becoming followers of Christ means that we go from being selfish takers to selfless givers and that for the Christian, even their secular work has a sacred quality.

Last week we learned the importance of our spoken words coming to an understanding that our speech demonstrates what is in our hearts, can determine where we will spend eternity, and can dim our relationship with God if we are not very careful.  We also learned that the path to changing from corrupt communication to pure communication takes 3 steps: Get clean; Self-discipline; and WORD Therapy.

This week we are going to pass through verse 30 (we will be coming back to that one soon) and pick up with verses 31 & 32.  Today is about a list of opposites.  Let us read our passage together:

17 ¶ This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

 19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

 20 But ye have not so learned Christ;

 21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

 25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

 26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

 27 Neither give place to the devil.

 28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

 29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

 30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

(KJV)

Today we focus on verses 31 & 32:

31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

In the Holman Christian Standard Bible it is:

³¹ All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. ³² And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.

Several of the scholars and commentators I studied see a close connection between these two verses.  As a result, I want to frame them before you as a series of contrasts that display a true testimony.  Remember we are still talking about putting off the old man and putting on the new in Christ Jesus.  In verse 31 there is a list of things that we are to “take off.” We translate the Greek words to say “Let [these things] be put away from you which in the Greek it means to “carry them away and make a clean sweep.”[1]  In other words, get rid of them completely sweep them off the floor and out the door of your heart.  Don’t permit them to remain.  Clean house!  In verse 32, however is a list of things we are to put on.  It begins with the English word “Be” [this way] which in the Greek is actually saying “Keep on becoming” [this way]. So if you combine the two verses they are saying, “Empty your heart of one group of behaviors and let it be constantly filling with the other behaviors.  If I could say it another way, I would say, empty – pour out – the pitcher of all these bad things and put it under the spout to be constantly filled with good things.

The first of these contrasts we want to talk about is

Bitterness versus Kindness

Before I dive into this I want to connect it for our kids a little bit.  What is bitterness?  Give me an example (interplay here with the kids).  When I think of something that is bitter I think of something that is acidic, tart, and sour like a lemon or sour candy, or even taking a nasty medicine. 

Now I have a video of Emma from about 4 years ago.  She is little and tries a lemon on camera.  It makes me giggle in the video and I still smile even now every time I see it.  Pay close attention to her face all the way through.  Please play the video of Emma.  You see, her face contorts and reacts to the bitterness of the fruit.  In this context it is only a momentary sensation and it is funny.  But what happens when bitterness is far more serious, deeper, and longer lasting than the taste of a lemon?  I am talking about bitterness in the heart.  Bitterness in the heart will contort the countenance far more than the taste of a lemon in your mouth. 

In fact, when you begin to think about bitterness it is not a long metaphorical leap to connect bitterness and poison.  Poison attacks the systems of the body and interferes with their normal operation.  Poisons can cause illness, impairment, paralysis, and death.  (Poisoning was associated with 727,500 emergency department visits in the United States in 2010.)[2] When poison has been ingested into the body, the only solutions really are to absorb it and expel it.  This is done by ingestion of activated charcoal to absorb it and then various other very uncomfortable ways to remove it from your body.  Poisoning is something we do not want to experience. 

Like poison, bitterness interferes with the spiritual life of a person and can deeply inhibit the functionality of the body of Christ.  As a result, just like poison must be removed from the human body completely to ensure survivability and health, Paul tells us here that bitterness also must be completely swept out of our hearts. 

Bitterness against our past, against others, against our circumstances, against ourselves, against God: in all cases bitterness poisons and convulses the soul.  It inhibits the functioning of our minds and hearts as they should.  It prevents healthy relationships and separates us from others and from God.  Bitterness is vile thing that can poison the richest of friendships and ruin the deepest bonds. 

I think you get the picture.  Paul is clearly telling us to kick bitterness out the door.  Get rid of it.  Let it go.  It will only damage and destroy.  In place of bitterness, we are to practice kindness.  It is hard for kindness toward someone to exist when we are bitter toward them.  Conversely it is hard to be bitter against someone when we are being kind to them.  There is connection in kindness.  And, at very least kindness extended to the undeserving is a picture of grace.  Once the bitterness is expelled from the heart, it is to be replaced by a continual filling of kindness.  That kindness should then overflow out of the heart and splash into your life and into the lives of others. 

To show the strength of the kindness we are to have, let’s look at another place where the Greek word chrestos (which we translate kindness) is used.  Romans 2:4 – “…Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”  Wow! The goodness of God!  That puts it into a new light. Instead of a poisoning bitterness that consumes and convulses the heart impairing everything we are and impacting everything we do, we are to be continually becoming kind filled with the riches of goodness/kindness of God himself! Don’t be bitter – be kind! 

If we do this, we will find our lives and relationships enriched.  As we are filled with his goodness and kindness it will transform how we perceive others and how we respond to them.  If we are ever living to look at people through the eyes of Christ to see them and love them as He does, we will find ourselves putting off the old man and putting on the new. 

The next contrast is

Wrath & Anger vs. Tenderheartedness

We have already spent time talking about anger and wrath and their appropriate exercise in the Christian heart.  I won’t rehash it.  The key here is the contrast between the angry wrathful heart and life versus one filled with compassion.  Show me a person being wrathful and compassionate to a person at the same time.  You will have a hard time convincing me that the red-in-the-face shouting individual who is clearly enraged is being kind and compassionate to the object of his wrath.  Those two things do not easily go together.  As followers of Christ, our hearts are to be swept clean of the anger and the rage and the uncontrolled violent passion and find it continually replaced with tenderness and compassion toward each other.  This goes for spouses, for siblings, for families, for friends, for brothers and sisters in the Lord.  What a difference it displays in our lives to the glory of God when wrath and anger are replaced with the tender compassion of Christ!  What a testimony to family, friends, coworkers, and even enemies when they experience our compassion and tenderness where they only expected and maybe even deserved anger and wrath. 

The next contrast is

“Clamor and Evil Speaking” vs. Forgiveness 

 The concept here is that when you are bitter about someone or angry at them what is the tendency for most people?  We speak badly of them.  We try to cast them in a bad light to ourselves and to others.  This is a means of self-justification.  It is incredibly damaging.  This simple act of an outcry against another person or speaking badly of them (blasphemia) can destroy life-long friendships, fracture marriages, split churches, and utterly demolish a community.  Sadly there is a long and terrible track record for this one even in the church world.   Paul recognized its danger and said “get it out.”  It must be swept out of our hearts into banishment.  Do not permit it to linger near.  It is deadly.

In its place, should be forgiveness.  When we encounter those moments in our relationships that for the old man would have been damaging, we have a solution.  When others hurt us or impact us in ways that once would have resulted in bitterness and rage, we are to respond with forgiveness.  Oh I know it is not an easy thing.  But this is where it is comforting to know that this is a filling of God’s goodness pouring into our hearts.  When the temptation to speak evil of or to clamor against someone else is presented we are to respond with forgiveness. 

Literally the Greek word here means to “grant as a favor, gratuitously, in kindness, pardon, or rescue: to deliver; frankly to forgive, and freely give or grant that forgiveness.”[3]  To pardon or rescue: wow.  That puts a new spin on things.  When you are extending forgiveness to someone, you are extending a pardon, a rescue to them.  This implies that their words or actions may very well have been wrong and be in need of pardon or even more that their actions or words may demonstrate they are in need of rescue.  Our job is to extend the pardon or offer that rescue and we do so by forgiving.  And that forgiveness is to be granted gratuitously which means even when others would find it unwarranted, even when it is not merited, it is to be given free of charge without obligation.[4]

The final contrast is

“All Malice” vs. “God for Christ’s sake”

Here the Greek word kakia which we translate as “malice” means badness, depravity, malignity, evil, naughtiness, wickedness.  All that bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking – the destruction – of that old man at its root stems from the depravity of the heart, the sinfulness of evil, and the wickedness that is in this world.  This is contrasted with what we are to have by putting on the new man in Christ Jesus.  From Him we are filled with kindness, favor, and compassion toward our fellow men, extending forgiveness like an unmerited rescue to even those who would be against us and we do this just as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us. 

Against a backdrop of the darkness, bitterness, destruction, and despair of evil we are shown the brightness of the glory of God in Christ who died on the cross as a sacrifice unto God opening the heart of God to us wherein we can experience His kindness, tender compassion, and gratuitous forgiveness.  What a difference!  Therefore, as followers of Christ, our old man with all its bitterness, anger, wrath, and evil speaking rooted in the wickedness and malignity of sin and evil is supposed to be put off – kicked out – from our hearts.  In its place we are to put on the new man in Christ Jesus which is ever being filled with His love to us from which we extend kindness, tender compassion, and gratuitous forgiveness to our fellow men.  Truly this is a contrast.  Truly it is a testimony to the power of God’s grace in our lives. 

 “31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”

---

[1] Robertson’s new Testament Word Pictures for Ephesians 4:31, accessed via PowerBibleCD 2.9

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison

[3] From Strong’s Concordance, # 5483

[4] http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/word/gratuitous