Footprints to Follow Series - Sermon 8 - Imitators of God

Listen as Pastor Rick challenges us from Ephesians 5:1,2 to be Imitators of God as dearly loved children.  Who do you imitate?

The Spirit Series - Sermon 3 - Receiving the Spirit

Listen as Pastor Rick shares a simple but heartfelt candid message about what it means to receive the 
Holy Spirit.  Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?

The Spirit Series - Sermon 2 - The Sending of the Spirit

Listen this week to the second sermon in the 3-part "The Spirit" Series, "The Sending of the Spirit."  Shared on Pentecost Sunday, 2015, this sermon briefly shares the significance of Pentecost to the Christian Church, particularly to the individual believer.  Do we NEED the Holy Spirit?  Listen to this sermon to be prepared to hear the final sermon of the series next week.  

Footprints to Follow Series - Sermon 7 - "Sealed by the Spirit"

Listen as Pastor Rick shares a sermon that is Sermon 7 of the Footprints to Follow Series and Sermon 1 of a three-part series about the Holy Spirit.  Are you sealed by the Spirit?


Excerpt:
"So I encourage you again: do not walk in fear.  Instead walk in righteousness as you are called to do, doing so in the fear of God ever listening to that precious whisper of the voice of the Holy Spirit who is our security, our authenticator, our endorser, our preservation, and our protection in this present world and in the world to come."

Magnificent Moms!

Listen as Pastor Rick encapsulates the great privilege and great responsibility of being a Mom!  Happy Mother's Day!

A Letter to Moms

At Water of Life Fellowship, we believe in mothers!  Whether you are able to be a full-time stay-at-home mom or you follow a less traditional path, each and every mother is immensely valuable.  Though we take you for granted far too often, you truly are the most important people the world has ever known.  Without you humanity wouldn’t exist!  Every human’s life begins with Momma (and as many are fond of reminding us, it could end with them too)! :-)

Sadly, our culture has devalued the role of mothers far too much.  It has tried to demean the many roles they play and hats they wear and imply that a mom is somehow less valuable than a woman who follows a professional career path.  These days it doesn’t even stop there.  Now the big debate in some circles is whether or not children need parents of both sexes at all.  This is all symptomatic of a larger underlying problem: Satan hates families and will do whatever he can to destroy them: and he is not a nice guy.  He won’t hesitate to make it hard on moms.  Satan recognizes something that many people have forgotten: there is no substitute for a mom who loves God, loves her husband, and shepherds her children.  Moms are in a position to build greatness, shape history, and change eternity. 

Don’t forget, every great human being had a mom: whether it was Isaac Newton, John Wesley, Abraham Lincoln, Irene Curie, Eileen Collins, or countless other people who changed history.  Even Jesus, the incarnate Son of God was granted a precious mother.  And for most of these people, mom was the single most important influence in their lives.  Think about it!  Even today when the camera pans to the celebrity or the crowd, what is the cliché response? That’s right.  You guessed it: “Hi Mom!” Why?  Because the inspiring assumption is that even if no one else is watching, Mom is.  And Mom matters!

That is what I want you to know today.  Moms, you matter.  Far more than you probably realize as you discover cheerios in the toilet, clean goo from your designer clothes, and sacrifice even the most basic rights to privacy on a daily basis, Y-O-U matter.  You matter to your husband who is likely clueless about how very much you have to do (until he has to babysit for all of two hours). :-) You matter to your children - who don’t know it now - to whom you are showing every day what it means to live and love and walk with faith.  You matter to God Who - by granting you the gift of children - has privileged you with the one of the highest callings of all time: the call to motherhood.  Please know how incredibly valuable you are, how much you matter, and how privileged we are to share your journey!  Water of Life Fellowship Salutes You!  May God’s richest blessings rest upon you today and always.  Happy Mother’s Day!

-        Pastor Rick

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

Footprints to Follow Series - Sermon 5 - Talk the Talk

Listen as Pastor Rick touches on a very sensitive topic for us all: how we talk.  Are we talking the talk as we walk the walk following Christ?

Footprints to Follow Series - Sermon 4 - WORK

Is work part of the curse?  Listen as Pastor Rick debunks popular myths about work that are held by many Christians and as he helps us learn what the Bible has to say about a topic rarely mentioned from the pulpit: work.

Book Review - Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Book: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, as contained in The Harvard Classics, Volume 1, as part of The Five Foot Shelf of Books, © P.F. Collier & Son 1909, 1937, and printed in its 56^th Printing by P.F. Collier & Son Corporation, New York, 1965.

Author: Benjamin Franklin

Reading Completed: 20150415

Reaction:

As I read this autobiography penned by Mr. Franklin in two separate periods of his life, I developed a better understanding of how this man by determination, diligence, focus, frugality, sagacity, and cunning rose from poverty to a position of means, influence, and popularity among his peers, before the public, and in service to his nation. 

Mr. Franklin was very successful in most ventures to which he put his hand, displaying ingenuity, creativity, and a willingness to go above and beyond his peers to achieve the goals he desired.  He was widely read, opinionated, and relatively wise.  However, he was also egotistic and proud, and thought rather highly of himself, though it could be argued that he did relatively well managing this vice compared to what other men might have done in his stead.  He did greatly admire virtue, the ability to think and reason, and knowledge to be gained through reading, experience, observation, experimentation, and conversation.

Mr. Franklin was not a devout Christian, though he professed a deep faith in a sovereign God and a belief that His hand was at work in our world.  He regularly supported the church of his choosing and went often to hear sermons though not always pleased by their structure, content, or presentation.  He seemed to imply a longing for a church that was practically engaged in the matters of the world rather than one that spoke only of dry and distant concepts that were not anchored to practical reality.  Mr. Franklin also developed his own prayers and once conceived of beginning his own sect which he never actually pursued.

Mr. Franklin began many organizations or practices that endure even to the present time including public libraries, volunteer fire companies, and what is today the University of Pennsylvania.  He was instrumental in bringing printed money into common use in the colonies and was deeply involved in influencing public opinion on many matters by his writing and printing.  In my observation of his own accounting of some of these matters, it seemed to me that sometimes he worked very hard to advance what he believed to be in the common good even if it might in some instances trample on what we would today term a “right.”  Of course, in context, it is true that he was operating in a monarchical environment and the democratic republic of the United States had not yet been born.  Thus, it may be argued that he was not at fault for endeavoring to better his fellow men, even if it was not as advanced as the environment in which we now understand ourselves.  

One point upon which he was very keen was equity.  He constantly strove to ensure the common people were treated with equity in comparison to the “proprietaries” of the province and that those in positions of power were treated the same as the common people in reference to the law especially in particular regard to equitable taxation. 

Two lessons stood out most strongly to me from his account:

1.      Speak always with grace and equity and remain self-deprecating even in the face of those you oppose.  Not only will this cause men to regard you with good will when you propose an opinion, but it will often save unnecessary embarrassment if one is found to be in the wrong.  It may also often take an opponent off guard and possibly allow coherent conversation to occur in the place of bombastic denunciations.  In this way I think the merits of an idea may be better judged on their own integrity when they are not obfuscated by the personality or the presentation of their proponent.  In the words of Jesus, “The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth.”

2.      Spend every opportunity to work hard, labor with diligence, commit to frequent regular study, and listen well to the perspectives of others.  This formula will go a long way toward contributing to the success of the person who follows it.

Finally, as a pastor, I found great interest in Mr. Franklin’s perspective of ministers.  Though often profoundly influenced by his interactions with the Quakers and the Moravians and even though he developed a personal friendship with the great George Whitfield, he was officially a Presbyterian.  However, he found the dry dogmatic theology-based sermons expounded by these men to be un-stimulating and impractical.  He much preferred the preaching of men who extolled people to live practically virtuous lives connecting Bible truths with life as people lived it.  He implied that he thought Christianity should also lend to making men good citizens.  When it did not contribute to this end, Mr. Franklin was frustrated.  In my opinion he would probably have been greatly intrigued by intellectual articulate Christians of our time such as Os Guinness and Ravi Zacharias.

Overall, though this book was dry reading at times, I enjoyed it very much and have a new-found respect for Mr. Franklin and the context in which he lived and served.