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Encouraging Love This practical explanation of what real love looks like from 1 Corinthians 13 will provide you with ways to meet the needs of those around you with Christlike caring. Encouraging love is patient. Patience is the ability to be wronged and wronged again, and to have the power to retaliate, but refuse to strike back. Kindness gives to one’s enemies. Encouraging love catches people doing right and makes a big deal out of it. It shelters others from the storms of life, and always gives the benefit of the doubt. Love perseveres, never withers, never fades. ENCOURAGING LOVE 1 CORINTHIANS 13:4 Bronwyn’s brush with “death” when she tried to feed a sea gull. When one sea gull sees another with a piece of meat, sea gulls will fly straight at the second, blasting into him like a linebacker into a full back, doing all he can to dislodge that piece of meat. He has absolutely no concern for the welfare of his fellow bird. Sea gulls do not care and do not share. Honking geese have an entirely different understanding of community. Flying in a “v” is intended to conserve the energy of the entire group. They save 71% more energy than they would if they flew individually. And they rotate that leadership in that “V” so that not one goose is ever too exhausted. If a goose begins to fall, that team of geese knows how to dispatch a second one to keep the fatigued goose company until the bird can re-join the flock. Geese know how to take care of each other. Sea gulls are always picking and pecking and colliding with each other. Geese are always watching out, caring for each other, encouraging one another. In fact, many scientists say that the incessant “honk” of a goose is really a way of keeping the slow birds encourage so they won’t lose their way and they won’t fall too far behind. Three-part series on encouragement: I want to accomplish that today in the context of agape love. The essence of divine agape love is encouraging others to get along well in life—meeting the needs and navigating the storms of life. “Man doesn’t live by bread alone. He needs buttering up.” Love is a verb. All verbal participles. Children definitions of love—all action oriented. ·SLIDE: When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love. ·SLIDE: Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday. ·SLIDE: I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones. ·SLIDE: Love is when mommy sees daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross. ·SLIDE: You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget, and it’s good for them to get reminded. Teenagers move toward defining love in terms of feelings Girl at youth camp: “an inward ishness, outward ishness; all over ishness, ness” Watch her wiping fevered brow of 1st baby: 2:00 am. Diarrhea, alcohol baths. Ask her: “Are you enjoying this?” “Are you kidding?” Ask her to define love. This is love!” Love is not a feeling. It is not something that happens to us. Love is something we do. Love is a commandment. It is not an emotion, it is a product of our will. The preeminence of Agape love in the first three verses. ·SLIDE: 1 Corinthians 13:1-3: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Verses 4 to 8 is divided into three movements. ·SLIDE: First movement sets the tone for the deeper dimension of agape love. 1 Corinthians 13:4: Love is patient; love is kind. ·SLIDE: Second movement describes Love’s attitude: eight “nots” 1 Corinthians 13:4-6: It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil ·SLIDE: Third movement returns to the opening note of positive action. 1 Corinthians 13:6-8: [Love] rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. Understand that Love is Personified. Put in your own name. “I am …” ·SLIDE #: LOVE IS PATIENT. Patience Is The Ability To Be Wronged And Wronged Again—And To Have The Power To Retaliate—But Refuses To Strike Back. We usually think of patience: A clock and time. But this word has little to do with that. It is talking about patience with people. The word literally means – “long tempered”. It has a long fuse. Listen to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: ·SLIDE: Matthew 5:38-39: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Hank Gunlock bruised face—turn the other cheek. Jesus never said if we turn the other cheek we would not get hurt. What He says is that when we turn the other cheek ·SLIDE: we look more like Jesus than at any other time in our lives. ·SLIDE: LOVE IS KIND. Patience says, “I’ll take anything from my enemies.” Kindness says, “I’ll give anything to my enemies.” Of course, not just enemies. This is the flip side of Patience. Patience endures the injuries of others. Kindness pays others back with good deeds. Let’s talk about Tips—tip good service. What if you get bad service? What do you do? Anyone tip less because they just did not deserve it? Raise hands. This is exactly what I am talking about. Any cat can scratch back. But agape love says, “You wronged me. Nevertheless, I am going to do something really nice for you.” Bad service, run ragged, maybe a single mom: give 50%. Shock her. If we act like this we will change the perceptions of Christians. The root word here in Greek is “useful”. I will do anything that will be of use to another. Love gives itself away to help somebody else. So, Gordon and Gail McDonald sit down in their seats near the back of the airplane. As the plane loaded up, a woman with two small children took the seat right in front of them. Behind her came another woman. The two women took the A and C seats and one of the children sat in the middle seat and the second child sat in the lap of one of the women. I figured that these were two mothers travelling together with their children—and I hoped the kids wouldn’t be noisy. He didn’t get his wish. The air was turbulent, the children cried a lot. Their ears hurt—it was a miserable flight. He watched as the two women tried to comfort the children. The woman at the window played with the child in the middle seat, trying to make her feel better—gave her lots of attention. I thought, “These women ought to get a medal for what they are doing.” Near the end of the flight, everything really went down hill. The child in the middle seat got sick. Stuff from the inner recesses of her body came roaring out of her mouth. Her diaper came loose and loosed out the contents of her diaper. A strong stench wafted throughout the cabin. Both stuffs were all over the woman, on her dress, all over the seat; on the floor. Repugnant. The woman next to the window patiently tried to quiet the child and clean up the mess and make the best of a bad situation. When the plane landed the passengers tried to exit the plane as fast as they could. The flight attendant came up with paper towels and handed them to the woman in the window seat, and said, “Hear ma’am, these are for your little girl. The woman said, “This isn’t my little girl. This is something we all can do. And it will set us apart from the rest of the world. ·SLIDE: LOVE REJOICES WITH THE TRUTH. Love Catches People Doing Right And Makes A Big Deal Out Of It.. Instead Of Parading In Public Someone’s sins and short comings, Love Picks Out The Good And Talks About That. John Blanchard: The One-Minute Manager: “Catch them doing something right.” Need practice: some of us can criticize some one for 60 minutes. We have a hard time keeping compliments going for 60 seconds. March Madness just concluded. Many of you love basketball. Many of you women were forced to sit with your spouse and boy friend watching games during the last several week-ends. Heard the term “assist.” One person with the ball passes to another and he shoots and makes a basket without taking more than one step. Great John Wooten: basket ball coach at UCLA for decades. Won 11 or 12 Final four national championships. Outstanding coach to do that. Built character and values among his players. Principle: If some one passes the ball to you and you make the basket, he gets an assist on the score sheet. After the basket turn and point your finger and wink to the one who passed you the ball. “What if he’s not looking?” “Don’t worry. He’ll be looking.” ·SLIDE: LOVE ALWAYS PROTECTS Love shelters people from the storms of life—and does all in its power to stop gossip. GREEK: The word literally means to cover, shelter, or protect. Love is a retreat which shelters people from the storms of life. In other words, love does not delight in exposing the weaknesses of other people. In 1 PETER 4:8, Peter puts it so beautifully, “Love covers a multitude of sins.” Love doesn’t rejoice in somebody’s mistakes and problems—and doesn’t go passing it around. 7th grade class. Roger’s pimple face: Mrs. Horne at Walnut Hill: “What’s wrong with Roger? Doesn’t he wash his face enough?” Face on fire with shame… Took me years to finally forgive her—the old hag. Zack Miller: “It’s O.K. Roger, it won’t stay like that forever.” We see a good illustration at the cross of Jesus. Up in Heaven God doesn’t say, “You know, those human beings are gross! What do you angels think about them? Especially that Roger Barrier. He’d bad.” No. We are not the subject of heavenly gossip! Isn’t that nice to know. Rather than sit up in Heaven and gossip with the angels about the sins of men, God just came to the cross and threw a mantle over man’s sins and bore their sin in His own body. ·SLIDE: LOVE ALWAYS TRUSTS. Love is quick to give others the benefit of the doubt—not the slop. Bill Weber: “Too Many People Are Willing To Give You The Benefit Of The Slop.” Love believes in people. Think about Jesus Christ and the disciples. They were nothing too hot, frankly. The ones who were the most well known in the New Testament were all sinful. Peter was a notoriously faithless character who was continually falling on his face. James and John had a pride problem – they even sent their mother to see if they could have the best seats in the kingdom. We know very little about the others. But they were all sinners, too. Jesus Christ could have scratched His head and said, “Father, I don’t know how to tell you this but this whole deal isn’t going to work out. I have twelve losers. If you think I ought to come back to Heaven and turn this whole thing over to them, I’ll do it, but it looks a little shaky to me.” You know, Jesus knew the sins of the disciples better than anyone else and yet He believed the best about every one of them, didn’t He? He said, “They can do it” – and He sent them out into the world and they did it. What an important part of Christian love this is – to look for good in people and help them to recognize it, to let them know that you believe good of them, rather than evil. Love is a plus. It encourages goodness. It finds the best and exalts it. Stacy Smith: Remember for two things, great athlete and wild morals. Basketball practice: nylon stocking on his hear. Remember the look on Coach Dowd’s face. Stories about his womanizing (high school iizing) were legendary. Bachelor party for best friends: arrived with case of beer and pornographic movies. No hope for him. Ten years later: Farrell Ray: “Stacy teaching in children’s ministry in out church!” People who believed in Him led him to Christ. Cyber Slop Cyber bullying. Man betrayed by a friend. Posted story on face book. 15 friends unfriended him ·SLIDE: LOVE ALWAYS HOPES. As Long As The Grace Of God Is Operative, Then Human Failure Is Never Final. Love refuses to take failure as final. God wouldn’t accept it from Israel. You see love doesn’t run out. It doesn’t bail out and leave as soon as the first mistake is made. Love waits and waits and believes and then when believing begins to waver then it just starts hoping. When other people have given up hope for us and when we have become absolutely hopeless about ourselves, the Lord is never discouraged. Christ, because He is love, never gives in to dismay or gives up to despair. I am so glad I have a God like that, for when others give us up it is wonderful to know there is a God in heaven who goes on hoping and planning for our good. Prison Service At Florence. Bob Erler – “Catch-me-if-you-can-murderer” was leader. Once attacked by 9 men. face laid open by an iron bar and he knocked them all out. Mild-mannered, soft spoken – leader. Testimony from Indian. Been to prison 27 of 49 years. Cup of water on ball field – led him to Christ. Water came from Bob Earler. Christ took that minus person and made him a plus. ·SLIDE: LOVE ALWAYS PERSEVERES. No matter how fierce of hopeless the battle, love hangs in there to the very end. “Love endures all things.” is a Greek military term to describe being in the middle of a fierce battle and hanging in there to the very end. Tom and Mary (not real names) once came to me for marriage counseling. Marriage deteriorated over past several years. Decided it was all over. Came for counseling. Really did not want to put their marriage back together but they were about to get divorced for unbiblical grounds and were hoping to have their consciences salved. Began to tell me the sordid details. Mary said, “So, you see, there is no hope left, no love, nothing to build on.” Tom took his turn, said, “So, you see, there is no hope left, no love, nothing to build on.” Wanted me to say, “Well, you are right. No hope left, no love left, nothing to build on, I guess the only option is to get a divorce. Instead I said, “This really is serious. I guess you will just have to learn how to love!” That is not at all what they wanted to hear. So, I said to Tom, “God says you are to love your wife as Christ loved the church.” Tom: “I could not love her like that. No way.” Roger: “All right, let’s go to a lower level. The Bible commands us to love our neighbors. Since you sleep with her and she’s the closest neighbor you have, love your neighbor.” Tom: “No, I can’t do that. I don’t want to do that.” Roger: “OK, let’s go one step further, the Bible says, “Love your enemies….” You should have seen the look on his face. But what happens when the rope gets further and further and further out and you’re starting to lose hope? What then? Okay, the last part of verse 7. ·SLIDE: LOVE NEVER FAILS. Love never withers, fades, nor falls away. Love blossoms forever. We can never get away from the call to love and compassion. The classic Greek presents the picture of a bad actor being hissed off the stage. Love never hissed off the stage. The other picture is of a fading flower with falling petals. Love never withers, fades, nor falls away. Love never loses its place. ·SLIDE: Barnabas Was A Plus Person. Sold a piece of property Vouched for Paul with the early Christians who were terrified of him. Took John Mark on 1st journey and he quit. Mark young boy lost cloak Time for 2nd journey: Paul refused to take Mark. Barnabus was a plus person. He added to people. He didn’t subtract from people. He stood by Mark. Sharp disagreement arose. 2 Timothy 4:11: Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. ·SLIDE: “Man doesn’t live by bread alone. He needs buttering up.”

Paul gives us a glimpse of man from God’s perspective. Without Christ, mankind is misguided, wounded and marred by sin. Suppressing the truth invites God’s tough love. Embracing the truth invites the full grace and righteousness of God. Our requirement is a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Tough Love: The Kindness That Leads To Repentance Romans 1:18-23 S-1698 As we move now deeper into the Book of Romans, we begin to get a view of man from God’s perspective. This is not a pretty picture. Paul shows us that Mankind without Jesus Christ is misguided, wounded, hurting, marred by sin—and Lost. The good news is that God has opened His heart in Christ to redeem man and restore an intimate relationship with them. He takes a dirty slate and makes it clean. DRAMA: A Clean Slate: Key is the ending, not the beginning. The real God is in the business of restoring broken and hurting lives. SLIDE #: Romans 1:18-19: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, SLIDE #: since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. SLIDE #: Romans 1:20: For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, SLIDE #: being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. SLIDE #: Romans 1:21: For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. SLIDE #: Romans 1:22-23: Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God SLIDE #: for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. In the opening chapters of Romans Paul placed the whole world on trial. We have all sinned and forsaken God to one degree or another: OVERHEAD SLIDE: The “Atheists and Agnostics” are without excuse (Romans 1). Good People are without excuse for their bad behaviors (Romans 2) Religious people are without excuse for their behaviors(Romans 3-4) The restoration occurs in Romans 5-8 with the saving glories of Jesus Christ. Romans 1:18-23 we see the action of God in unveiling Himself for the entire world to see. Then tragically, we see the horror of sinful man in forsaking God. SLIDE #: Let’s begin with the beauty of God’s revelation. God uses two things to reveal Himself to everyone in the world—an external and an internal witness: Conscience – Romans 1:19 Nature – Romans 1:20 SLIDE #: Romans 1:19-20: since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. SLIDE overhead #: General revelation is sufficient to know that God exists. Specific Revelation personally introduces us to God: His words, actions and Son. SLIDE #: Conscience—the God spot within every man and woman 1. Tells us that there is a right and a wrong – not the specifics – only generally. “Don’t let your conscience be your guide – use the Word of God.” 2. Capacity for God-consciousness – innate knowledge that God exists. Have to be educated to be an atheist. All simple people just know that God exists. Inbuilt vacuum longing to be filled with God. SLIDE #: Rita Carter: Mapping the mind: left temporal lobe SLIDE #: NATURE—the Intelligent Designer SLIDE #: Double rainbow here Wednesday night. It is a reminder that God flooded for man’s wickedness and saved man with an ark. SLIDE #: PSALM 19:1-2: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. SLIDE #: PSALM 19:3-4: There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. SLIDE #: Do they really sing? Yes! SLIDE OVERHEAD #: Strings singing and Multiverse Plates The more we study the universe in all its complexities, the more we see the Intelligent Design. Unmistakable evidence of God. Universe is the handiwork of God. SLIDE #: Temperature of sun – 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Earth is 93 million miles away. +/- 50 degrees, and all life on Earth would cease. Why is the sun 12,000 degrees? Who not 24,000 or 2,000 or any number you pick? SLIDE #: Why Earth 93 million miles away? Why not twice as far? SLIDE #: Why is the axis of the earth at 23-1/2 degrees? Produces seasons. SLIDE #: Air we breathe is 21% oxygen. If the Earth’s crust were ten feet thicker all the oxygen would be trapped in the crust as in most other planets. Why 21%? Why not 10% or 1% or 50%? Then if light a match the entire Earth would be ablaze! See stars – where there is a design, there must be a designer. Come across pocket watch on ground. What a marvelous product of chance! All the pieces came together and it runs properly! Ridiculous! There was a watchmaker. See a new building going up. All steel means and girders fell into place by chance. No – someone designed and built it. See this marvelous human body – beating heart, soul, fingers, toes, etc. By chance? No – human designer put it all together! God gives evidence – Conscience and nature – to show that He exists and that He is supreme being. Man who rejects or ignores God is without excuse. Man takes light he has and suppresses it! SLIDE #: mankind’s Suppression SLIDE #: ROMANS 1:18: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, SLIDE #: Romans 1:21: For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Picture is that man takes the truth about God, puts it in a box with a lid, slams down the lid and then sits on the lid! Conspiracy of silence against God. Why we can’t sing carols in public places at Christmastime. Great resistance against Bible reading on public occasions. No one wants to give God glory or thanks or even admit that He exists. Man Has Rejected The Internal Witness Of His Conscience. One of the greatest contributions of Jews was to introduce to the world the concept that we are responsible for our actions. This is called our conscience. SLIDE #: One of the most influential Jews in history is Sigmund Freud—the father of modern psychology. Freud was well aware that the Jews brought responsibility into the world with the Mosaic Law. Here’s what Freud said, SLIDE #: “The Jews carry the burden for the historical super-ego.” Super-ego is Freud’s word for what we call conscience. Then he makes very profound statement (and this certainly explains the rest of Freud’s life). SLIDE #: “Therefore the Jew alone can remove it.” Sigmund Freud considered himself to be messianically called to undo the work of his Jewish forefathers. Freud hated Moses – that’s why he wrote the book “Moses and Monotheism”. Moses is the one who made man aware of his conscience and his moral responsibility. Therefore Freud dedicated himself to undo and to reverse Moses. SLIDE #: Moses and Freud are mutually exclusive. Moses, the Jew, brings responsibility into history. Freud says that the “super-ego” – the conscience – must be smashed and crushed – and if you have mental illness… hang-ups… it’s because of your conscience. The way to solve mental problems and hang-ups is to crush your conscience. In other words, “It’s not my fault!” SLIDE #: Psychoanalysis teaches us that the reason we act like we do is because of things which happen in the past which are not our fault – Therefore we are not responsible – We can reject our conscience. Folksong from Anna Russells: SLIDE #: I went to my psychoanalyst to be psychoanalyzed To find out why I killed the cat and blacked my husband’s eyes He laid me on a downy couch to see what he could find And here is what he dredged up from my subconscious mind. SLIDE #: When I was one my mommy hid my dolly in a trunk So naturally it follows that I am always drunk. When I was two I saw my father kiss the maid one day, And that is why I now suffer from kleptomania. SLIDE #: At three I had a feeling of ambivalence towards my brothers, And so it follows naturally that I poison all my lovers. But I am happy. Now I have learned this lesson that is taught, SLIDE #: That everything I do that’s wrong SLIDE #: is someone else’s fault. We are doing everything in our culture to kill our collective conscience. Exodus 32: Don’t blame me. Man Has Rejected The Witness Of Our Conscience and Of God’s Revelation In Nature. Modern man says – All by chance. God says, “No way it’s an accident. I designed it all.” The issue has never been God versus evolution. The issue is Intelligent Designer versus Chance. SLIDE OVERHEAD #: Evolution is a theory that fails to prove or even describe how we got here. Evolution works on the macro level. Evolution does not work on the molecular level. Charles Darwin could only observe animals and insects. He had no electron microscope to study the micro level. Things don’t evolve on the molecular level. Little motor that drives cell movement spins at 10,000 rpm. Made up of rotor and engine. 5 amino acids no one can explain by survival of the fittest or natural selection. Someone had to design this—and then make it happen. Many men have rejected the witness of nature. ●SLIDE #: man’s idolatry ●SLIDE #: ROMANS 1:23: and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Four signs of idolatry: Man, birds, animals, reptiles: Note the downward progression. Study idolatry and discover that all four seem to take place in that order. Most base form of idolatry is honoring the snake. I do not believe that it is by any accident that we name our cars as we do. ●SLIDE #: We once named them after men: Lincoln, Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Studebaker, Edsel, Hudson. ●SLIDE #: Next generation named after into birds: Studebaker Hawk, Ford Falcon & Eagle. ●SLIDE #: Now we name them after animals: Cougar, Impala, Mustang, Pinto, Jaguar, Rabbit – even a Greyhound bus. Then Ford came out with the cobra. ●SLIDE #: Now we have the Dodge Viper. ●SLIDE #: We even buy our insurance from a gecko! No one in the car industry read Romans 1. It just works out that way. It’s a sign of depravity. ●SLIDE #: Starbucks logo is the Queen of Heaven. Simmerranus—who else but the queen of heaven could charge $5 for a cup of coffee? ●SLIDE #: Oscars tonight. Give them an idol and deify them. The American entertainment industry looks a lot like the Roman pantheon in Paul’s day: the gods and goddesses were capricious, immoral sexual perverts. Three of the top five movies are about homosexual cowboys (Brokeback Mountain), a transsexual (TransAmerica) and an arrogant gay author (Truman Capote). Gracing the tv and movie screens of our society are the god’s and goddesses of our day. ●SLIDE #: We accept their moral teachings; we listen to their politics; watch their fashions; imitate their addictions; and obsess over their marriages and divorces—most of which never succeed. ●SLIDE #: We say we have no idols; but, we have American Idol. We give them our time (sometimes all night) and our money (this is a multi-billion dollar industry). SLIDE #: god’s Tough love SLIDE #: Romans 1:18-19: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven OVERHEAD SLIDE #: Two Greek words for wrath. Thumos – uncontrolled, explosive rage; Orge – settled, consistent, rising indignation which finally bursts. Along with the tough love of God comes the patience of God. God is holding back much of His wrath—like water behind a dam. Water is released a little at a time. Sometimes the dam breaks. Waited 120 years before sending the flood. God doesn’t operate on man’s time-table. Some of His wrath is being revealed while much of it is being built up. SLIDE #: At Calvary the tough love of God was fully revealed against sin. Note – is being revealed. This is present tense in Paul’s day. Look at the degenerating Roman culture. This whole passage is a most interesting social commentary. Wrath of God is functioning in our society right now. The wrath of God is visible in any society where men are suppressing their God-consciousness. So often Americans wring their hands and say, “If our country doesn’t reform and repent, we are going to experience the judgment of God.” In light of what Paul wrote here, what do you suppose Paul would say if you dropped that remark as you were drinking coffee in the living room? “If things don’t get better, Paul, America is going to experience the judgment of God.” Paul would probably calmly put down his coffee cup and say, “Friend, if you’ll look out the window, there is the wrath of God already.” See sky-rocketing divorce rates and crime rate and warped children – this is the wrath of God! – legalized gay “marriage” in several states, over three decades of legalized abortion, atheists and courts successfully declaring “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance to be “unconstitutional” and trying to get “In God We Trust” removed from our money, TV shows like “The Book of Daniel”, currently airing on NBC Friday nights which portrays a drug-addicted priest, his adulterous wife and children, his drug-selling daughter, his homosexual son, and his regular conversations with Jesus who actually appears to him and just sort of remains enigmatic about all of it. ●SLIDE #: 50% of all 1st marriages end in divorce. 78% of all 2nd marriages. 2/3 of all children today will spend some time in a single parent home. ●SLIDE #: If you were born after 1970 (35 years or younger) you will find statistically that you’ll have more spouses than you’ll have children! ●SLIDE #: After the breakdown in the family, children are 4 times more likely to drop out of school, 11 times more likely to commit suicide, 30 times more likely to be sexually abused. Wrath is for discipline and punishment for sin. But it is also for a divine purpose. ●SLIDE #: READ REVELATION 16:9 and 11: They refused to repent. OUR “TAKE AWAYS” ●SLIDE #: ●Parents, help your children find God in nature and in their inner consciences—then guide them into the special revelation of Jesus Christ. Remember that good parents often allow their children to suffer the consequences of their actions. If we don’t discipline our kids, the world will. We can protect them for awhile, but one day they will run a red light and discover that the law is not optional. ●SLIDE #: ●Suppressing the truth invites the tough love of God; embracing the truth invites the full love and righteousness of God. ●SLIDE #: ●The tough love of God is only understood when we have a deep relationship with God through Jesus Christ. ●SLIDE #: Average dad spends 14 minutes per day with his children. ●SLIDE #: Christian dads spend 17 minutes per day. We are three minutes better than the world. Tragedy is 10 of those minutes were spent in discipline. ●SLIDE #: We are raising a nation of children whose concept of a father is someone who doesn’t know me and I don’t know him who enters into my life to discipline me. ●SLIDE #: “Provoke not children to wrath.” Quickest way to wrath is to discipline child you don’t know. STORY: mom punishing me for bs when relatives were at our house. OK because we had a good relationship. Every problem in our world— Every crisis, has one purpose. Every broken marriage Every etc, God did not cause them. Man chose them. Satan sent them. But God can use them. He is getting his world back. He is bringing us to repentance. He is preparing us for Heaven.

The simple message of the cross is a stumbling block to nonbelievers. The formula for a divine transaction is found in Romans 4: faith plus nothing equals the righteousness of God. What God simplifies, man complicates. Romans 4:9-25 S-1705 Recognize high school and college graduates. (HS picture) Cowboys; Red necks; macho jocks; cheer leaders; egghead brainy types, freaky nonconformist; geeky computer nerds? Let’s take a survey—not by the group you were in, but by the group you wanted to be in. We know which group is at the top of the heap in many high schools: the jocks and cheerleaders. Return at 10 year reunion and the geeks and eggheads have all the money. In High school, it is all about acceptance. No one wants to be a loser, left out, excluded. It is built into our nature to want to be loved and included. Cell phones and the internet have overtaken our lives. Why? It is all about acceptance and connection. We don’t have to stand in line to get to talk to someone. We can stay on line, or on the phone with a friend. In many ways we never grow up. It is not just High school, Life is a longing to be accepted—fear of being rejected. Romans 4 is all about belonging. It is all about acceptance. It is all about moving into the family of God. Considering deeper dimensions of life, we long for those same needs to be met in an intimate relationship with the eternal, open and vulnerable God of our universe. Things like: amplify these and make them attractive Acceptance—“Accepted in the Beloved” Approval—“There is now no condemnation in Christ Jesus” Attention—“Behold I am with you always” Comfort—“The God of all comfort who comforts us” Encouragement—“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” Security—“I will never leave you nor forsake you” Support—“I will hold you in my right hand” : Community of relationships in Christ AN OVERVIEW OF ROMANS Romans 1-3—No excuse: atheists; agnostics, good people, religious people. All sin and fall short. We saw that salvation is not by religious rites or works – Not by circumcision or baptism or partaking of the Lord’s Supper or by law or works. It is justification by faith alone! Only way to win the game with God is simple Faith. Want to go on to Sanctified, victorious Christian life in Romans 5, 6, 7, 8 – but it’s almost as if Paul says, Whoa, whoa. Hold on. Want to be certain that you understand justification by faith. Romans 4 is the last time Paul will emphasize that nothing but faith saves! Romans 4 reads like a legal document. Lets make it simple. READ and EXPLAIN ROMANS 4: focus on FAITH verses. I am going to sum up Romans 4 in a simple formula. A SIMPLE FORMULA FOR A DIVINE TRANSACTION OVERHEAD: F + 0 = R Where F = Faith in Christ 0 = nothing R = righteousness As I speak this morning some of you will feel a strange stirring inside—that is Jesus Christ Himself stirring your inner soul to come into a loving relationship with Him. Give you an opportunity to respond to His prompting latter this morning. Now let’s explore this truth about finding acceptance and belonging with Jesus Christ. WHERE “FAITH” EQUALS FAITH IN CHRIST READ ROMANS 4:17b: *”The God who gives life to the dead” Refers to the time when God promised to produce many descendants and even a world-wide Savior through the loins of Isaac. Then before Isaac could even have any children, God told Abraham to sacrifice him on an altar. READ ROMANS 4:23-24. The Lord said something special in resurrection. His resurrection is the proof of our justification! READ ROMANS 4:25. On the cross Jesus Christ paid the debt for our sin in full! His resurrection is our receipt. : ●The amount of our faith has very little to do with it in the initial stages. Jesus told us that even if we have a tiny faith—like a grain of mustard seed—we have enough. You can surrender your life to Christ with very little faith. You can do it today. ●Christians will experience doubts occasionally. Trust Christ and immediately Satan begins to attack and to assail. Even John the Baptist doubted Jesus: “Are you the one or shall we look for another? Jesus (didn’t scold him for doubting) said, “The lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear,” etc. Every Christian doubts at times – but as he grows in maturity, doubts become fewer and less frequent. Doubts don’t cancel out faith. Faith enables a man to overcome his doubts and to answer them. : ●Faith is a cold-blooded choice to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Rational choice. Julie doesn’t need this—the emotional closeness with Christ is all she needs. WHERE “0” EQUALS “0” What Might People Add To The Formula? Circumcision is a sign and a seal. Sign of a covenant between God and Israel. If you were circumcised, you were automatically right and accepted by God. Man comes onto the office of Ray Stedman – Bible in hand. “I’ve been reading the Bible,” he didn’t know a lot about it, but he asked, “Will you circumcise me?” Stedman gasped, “Why?” “Well, I’ve been reading in the Bible about all these folks who were circumcised and it seems that if you want to know God you have to be circumcised. Faith comes not by religious rites. Circumcision doesn’t save. Abraham was justified by believing the promise about Jesus fifteen years before he was ever circumcised. Talking to Tom Austin – nine year old – “If you were in the desert with your brother and only a little water left. You’re just about to die. What would you do?” “Drink the water.” “No, just a little, no hope of living.” “I don’t know.” “Baptize your brother and yourself – otherwise you’ll go to Hell.” Circumcision was like a wedding ring. It is an outside symbol of an inside change. The modern equivalent of circumcision is baptism. Baptism doesn’t save. It is a symbol of our salvation! Baptism is an outward symbol of something that’s happened on the inside. If you are still regarding baptism, or the Lord’s Supper, or mass, or christening, or confirmation, as having anything to do with God declaring you righteous and making you fit for Heaven, then you are totally insecure in your relationship with God. Need a personal relationship with Christ based on a personal encounter of surrender by faith. The Law: all sorts of special behaviors and requirements Suppose I say to you, “If you get off your pew and start flying around the sanctuary, I’ll give you $5,000.” You’d have to say, “Forget it. No one can do that in their natural strength. You are asking me to do that which I can’t do.” The promise of the law is: Do all of this and live! But the promise that comes with the law is useless. No one can live up to it! WHERE “R” EQUALS RIGHTEOUSNESS. (“credited to him as righteousness”; “The just shall live by faith.” “I will give him a white robe and tattoo my name in his forehead.”) Righteousness is a justified standing with God. Righteousness is a gift which enables us to interact intimately with the Living God. : Don’t mess with the formula. READ GALATIANS 1:6-12: 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! OVERHEAD: different gospel = hetero which is really no gospel at all = allo Butter Pecan Ice cream cone: get me heteros: Julie brings me another butter pecan cone. Get me heteros: she brings me carrots—not ice cream at all. I spit out carrots when I wanted butter pecan. Greek word “allos” would be more appropriate. She brought me “allos.” You are not believing the same gospel at all. You have turned to a monstrosity. “Eternally cursed” = “anathema” READ GALATIANS 1:10: Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. READ GALATIANS 1:11-12: I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. Mormons F + 14 things = third heaven The MESSAGE OF THE CROSS IS REALLY Simple. God simplifies; man complicates. Complex religions with all the things we have to do to find God, perform before God, check off lists One inch formula in a complex universe E=mc2 Einstein: “God made the universe simple. If you cannot explain it in simple terms then you are not speaking the language of the universe. Einstein worked on a unified theory of everything. OVERHEAD: WNF, SNF, EM, G: Strings included gravity String theory: twang it and get proton, electron, quarks, mesons, pi mesons—sparticles. 11 dimensions: universe unstable in 10, collapsed and expanded with our four—6 distorted space time and rolled up. Math to describe it now down to a one inch formula. F + 0 = R is simple. The minute our religion gets complex, or hard to figure out, we are moving further and further away from God. Use the formula with your friends. THE SIMPLE PICTURE OF THE MESSAGE How many know John 3:16? How many know John 3:14-15? – READ JOHN 3:14-15 In John 3:14-15 Jesus referred to the uplifted Bronze Serpent as the perfect picture illustration of salvation by faith. Go to Numbers 21. In Numbers 21:4-9 we see that faith in the uplifted Christ is the only remedy that God has provided for dealing with human sin! READ NUMBERS 21:4-5 Dangerous thing to mumble and murmur against the Lord. He hears our murmurings and doesn’t appreciate it at all. (That’s another sermon.) READ NUMBERS 21:6 God sends fiery serpents to punish them. Imagine, sleeping in bed and waking up to find poisonous snakes covering the floor of your tent! Getting up, step outside – snakes as far as the eye can see. Can’t move without stepping on one. If bitten by snake – death. They’re doomed to die. Jesus referred to this as a picture of sin Old Testament picture of what sin does to us. Sin is coursing through our spiritual veins racing directly toward our spiritual heart. The wages of sin is death. READ NUMBERS 21:7 Repentance abounds – we’ve sinned. God knows that only a surrender heart can enter properly into fellowship with Him. READ NUMBERS 21:8. “Just look at the uplifted serpent and you’ll be healed. Seemed like strange request – but Moses obeyed. What good will that do? God is teaching faith and belief in the Word of God. Bitten, life ebbing away, look, new life. READ NUMBERS 21:9. Many dying that day. Imagine man at back. Can’t understand – how is looking going to save? Isn’t that just like a preacher. Here I need his help and he asks me to do what I can’t understand.” Can’t see how just looking is going to save me. But, it is so simple. Anyone can do it. Looks and lives. Another man – I wish Moses had come sooner. Too far gone to be saved. If he’d just come sooner I now I’d be saved, but there’s no way now. But, it is so simple. Anyone can do it. Looks and lives. Third man, also dying. Poison gets closer and closer to his heart. “Can’t understand this, but I know that Moses is a man sent from God. If Moses says all I have to do is look, well, I can’t understand it, but I’m going to look.” As hr drops to the ground, he looks up and is saved. READ John 3:14-15. Just as people got new life from looking at Moses’ serpent in the wilderness, you can gain new life from believing on the cross where I’m soon to die. We all are bitten by poisonous snake – sin is in his spiritual bloodstream. “I’m soon to be lifted up on the cross to die, just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness – if you’ll look to the cross and believe, you can find new life – you can be born again.” May not understand. May think you’ve sinned too much. Just look to the cross and believe – saved.

Peter teaches how deeply Jesus values you and showers you with unconditional love, grace, joy and blessing for the good purpose of blessing others. Imagine the audience in 1 Peter. They hear these words and realize wherever they go, Jesus is goes them. Discover who you are in Christ and live in that power. Preached at Casas Church. Used by permission.

Altars are markers that remind us of God’s work in our lives. Four altars we can construct are for remembering God’s revelations, for remembering decisions we have made, for giving thanks and for remembering dreams of what God is going to do.

Wise Men followed the star. They jumped for joy, and they came bringing gifts. Mary and Joseph needed a miracle and it was provided by someone that God sent from 1,000 miles away. Your gift is someone else’s miracle. Step out in faith. Be obedient to God’s vision. Celebrate more and give all you have to God and others. Preached at National Community Church. Used by permission.

Kneel in pursuit of God’s presence. Don’t   bow down to something else. Kneel in repentance. Jesus never turns away from a sinner with a repentant heart. Kneel in submission. You can kneel now or you can kneel later. Surrender! Preached at LifeChurch.tv . Used by permission of lifechurch.tv/open .

Pastor Francis Chan deals with the moral failure of a church leader in a wise, compassionate, godly fashion. Sin must be dealt with, but our focus in facing the issue of compromised morality in the church should be godly fear and self-examination rather than condemnation and arrogance.

Celtic Christians called the Holy Spirit An Geadh-Glas or the Wild Goose. A wild goose can’t be tracked or tamed. Unpredictability or a hint of mystery or an element of danger surrounds the wild goose. In a sense, if you take the leading of the Holy Spirit out of life, life is boring. But if you add Him into the equation of your life, you never know who you are going to meet, where you are going to go, what you are doing to do, all bets are off. Now let me state a personal conviction. I think what is most lacking in the church is not education. Let’s keep learning but we are all educated beyond the level of our obedience. And I don’t think what’s most lacking is resources. Let’s keep giving, but we are the most resourced church in the most resourced country the world has ever known. You want to know what I think is the most lacking in the Christian church today? Guts. Good old-fashioned guts, to live by faith, to climb the cliff, to engage the enemy. We must realize that we are involved in something that is a matter of life or death and that we are called to live courageously, even dangerously for the cause of Christ. Now, the good news is, I don’t think in most scenarios, our lives are on the line. But passivity is not an option, and I think God is calling us to play offense, and this story inspires me. It tells me that the will of God is not an insurance plan, it is a daring plan. Jonathan’s plan to rout the Philistines was bold and daring. In 1 Samuel 14:1-15, Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.” “Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.” It is tough to psychoanalyze someone who lived thousands of years ago, but I think it is safe to say that Jonathan did not let his fears dictate his decision. Jonathan’s desire to advance the kingdom, so to speak, was greater than his fear of failure, and his attraction to gain was greater than his aversion to loss. Jonathan was not playing defense. He was playing offense. He courageously climbed the cliffs at Micmash, and picked a fight with the entire Philistine army. This has to be the worst military strategy I’ve ever heard of. If you read the next few verses, you discover that Jonathan’s plan is basically this. Let’s expose ourselves to the enemy in broad daylight and concede the high ground. Then he comes up with a sign. Verse 9; “If the Philistines say to us, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.” Ok, I’m sorry but if I’m making up the signs here, I’m doing the exact opposite. If they come down to us, that’ll be our sign. Or better yet, if they fall off the cliff, that’ll be the sign that the Lord is giving them into our hands. I think more often than not, the will of God will involve a daring decision, a difficult decision, sometimes a dangerous decision. But one daring decision was enough to shift the momentum, create a tipping point. I Samuel 14:23 says: “So the Lord saved Israel that day.” Because one person made one move. One person did one thing that made a difference. Can I suggest that the church needs more daring people with daring plans? When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things? Where did we get that? I think we made a false assumption about the will of God. I think we’ve assumed that it should get easier the longer we follow Christ. I don’t believe that it gets easier, I think spiritual growth prepares us for more dangerous missions, to do more daring things for the cause of Christ, and it shouldn’t get less adventurous, it ought to get more adventurous. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Can I suggest that many Christians seem to operate with the exact opposite modus operandi? What a study in contrast! I think what Saul didn’t do is just as significant as what Jonathan did do. His son is climbing cliffs engaging the enemy, Saul is sitting under a pomegranate tree on the outskirts of Gibeah. I see him just popping pomegranate seeds into his mouth, maybe a little fan action, chillin’ out on the outskirts of Gibeah. What’s wrong with this picture? The Philistines control the pass at Micmash, and as the leader of the army of Israel, Saul should have been fighting back instead of kicking back. But he is on the sidelines instead of the front lines, and you know what? It is not the only time, he let David fight his battles for him too didn’t he? Saul was head and shoulders taller than anybody else in Israel, Saul should have been the one out on that battlefield fighting the kingdom’s battles, but he was a spectator. I think, instead of playing to win, Saul was playing not to lose and he was content with letting others fight his battles for him. Too often we spend our entire lives at the foot of that cliff, we just don’t have the guts to climb it, because what if God doesn’t act on our behalf? Well, nothing exciting is going to happen and I wonder if that is why a lot of us are bored with our faith. The bottom line is this – I think there is a little of Saul in each of us. There is part of us that wants God to defeat the enemy while we are on the outskirts of Gibeah under pomegranate trees. If Jonathan hadn’t climbed the cliff, engaged the enemy, picked a fight, the status quo was going to remain. We’ve got to take that little step of faith. From “The Cage of Fear” by Mark Batterson, National Community Church, Washington, D.C.

Pandemonium means bedlam, chaos or confusion . Does that sound like Sunday morning at your house? If you know your Greek, pandemonium means daemonium (demons) and pan (all around). No matter where you are in your Christian journey, Satan is always ready to wreak havoc in your life just at the moment God is ready to do great things. Don’t go naked to church, or anywhere else for that matter. Be alert. Don’t get caught with your pants down. On our first Easter Sunday morning in our very first church, pandemonium filled the parsonage. Roger, my young preacher-husband, was raring to go. He prayed for God to rain down fire from heaven. He practiced his sermon in the bathroom mirror until he was hoarse (hand gestures and all). He’d scraped dog poop off the bottoms of his brown wingtip dress shoes, and he flossed twice for good measure (no bacon bits hanging from his molars for Easter, a pastor’s “Superbowl Sunday”). Then my hero scurried off to the kitchen to grab a powdered-sugar donut on his way to church (an unwise move-the sugar residue resembles dandruff). That’s when pandemonium ensued. Our two pudgie Dachshunds, Bootsie and Brother Barrier, eagerly greeted their Daddy, plastering him with four sets of gummy, muddy paws. Perturbed beyond belief, Roger raced to the sink, pulled out a blue SOS pad and frantically began to scrape the muddy pawprints from his cream polyester pants. Now his pants were bluish brown. This did not bode well for the morning ahead. Roger, screaming my name (not in a good way) noticed piles of green feathers littering the kitchen linoleum. Bootsie and Brother had obviously scarfed down Budgie, our pet parakeet, for breakfast while we were still sawing logs. Roger grabbed a nearby sponge to mop up Budgie’s remains and realized his garish green-feathered pants now resembled a Las Vegas show girl costume (only much more modest, of course). The pants had to go, so I threw some navy dockers on his behind, spritzed a little Calvin Klein to cover up the doggie smell and pointed him toward the door. Our pandemonium had only begun. As Roger flung open the screen door to the carport, Bootsie and Brother exploded outside making a beeline into oncoming traffic. I sprinted after the errant wieners, lickety-split, completely forgetting I was wearing my quilted blue robe and electric rollers covered in toilet paper. Oh, yeah. And I forgot the white face cream. Classic. Most Sunday morning forays into the neighborhood would go unnoticed. But we lived on the main drag-a four lane boulevard three blocks from the church parking lot. All of our parishioners were giggling and waving at us, like we were the opening act for the service. Everything went downhill from there. Two blocks later we captured our demon dachschunds and limped toward home. I heard the organist pumping out his version of “Up from the Grave He Arose” as Roger hightailed it across the church parking lot to slide into the service and catch his breath. Instead of quiet anticipation of God’s presence, pandemonium hit the fan. Our first Sunday skirmish was nominal compared to the sieges that were to come. Hopefully, we learned to be better prepared. So don’t go naked to church, or anywhere else for that matter. Get prayed up. Suit up in your spiritual armor. The more God gets ready to bless your efforts, the more you will experience satanic interference. Don’t go blind into battle. Surround yourself with prayer warriors and stay alert. If you walk humbly before God, He will enable you to make peace out of pandemonium, create order out of chaos, and do mighty miracles in His name!

The kingdom of heaven. Its citizens are drunk on wonder. Consider the case of Sarai. She is in her golden years, but God promises her a son. She gets excited. She visits the maternity shop and buys a few dresses. She plans her shower and remodels her tent. . . but no son. She eats a few birthday cakes and blows out a lot of candles. . . still no son. She goes through a decade of wall calendars . . . still no son. So Sarai decides to take matters into her own hands. (“Maybe God needs me to take care of this one.”) She convinces Abram that time is running out. (“Face it, Abe, you ain’t getting any younger, either.”) She commands her maid, Hagar, to go into Abram’s tent and see if he needs anything. (“And I mean ‘anything’!”) Hagar goes in a maid. She comes out a mom. And the problems begin. Hagar is haughty. Sarai is jealous. Abram is dizzy from the dilemma. And God calls the baby boy a “wild donkey”—an appropriate name for one born out of stubbornness and destined to kick his way into history. It isn’t the cozy family Sarai expected. And it isn’t a topic Abram and Sarai bring up very often at dinner. Finally, fourteen years later, when Abram is pushing a century of years and Sarai ninety…when Abram has stopped listening to Sarai’s advice, and Sarai has stopped giving it…when the wallpaper in the nursery is faded and the baby furniture is several seasons out of date…when the topic of the promised child brings sighs and tears and long looks into a silent sky…God pays them a visit and tells them they had better select a name for their new son. Abram and Sarai have the same response: laughter. They laugh partly because it is too good to happen and partly because it might. They laugh because they have given up hope, and hope born anew is always funny before it is real. They laugh at the lunacy of it all. Abram looks over at Sarai—toothless and snoring in her rocker, head back and mouth wide open, as fruitful as a pitted prune and just as wrinkled. And he cracks up. He tries to contain it, but he can’t. He has always been a sucker for a good joke. Sarai is just as amused. When she hears the news, a cackle escapes before she can contain it. She mumbles something about her husband’s needing a lot more than what he’s got and then laughs again. They laugh because that is what you do when someone says he can do the impossible. They laugh a little at God, and a lot with God— for God is laughing, too. Then, with the smile still on his face, he gets busy doing what he does best—the unbelievable. He changes a few things—beginning with their names. Abram, the father of one, will now be Abraham, the father of a multitude. Sarai, the barren one, will now be Sarah, the mother. But their names aren’t the only things God changes. He changes their minds. He changes their faith. He changes the number of their tax deductions. He changes the way they define the word impossible. But most of all, he changes Sarah’s attitude about trusting God. Were she to hear Jesus’ statement about being poor in spirit, she could give a testimony: “He’s right. I do things my way, I get a headache. I let God take over, I get a son. You try to figure that out. All I know is I am the first lady in town to pay her pediatrician with a Social Security check.” From Upwords.com . Used by permission.

“All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord will stand forever.” 1 Peter 1:24,25. NIV Our earthly bodies are like grass. When you walk out and see grass or you see a flower, you must ask yourself, “How long is that flower going to last?” It’s going to start wilting quickly. That happens to us. View yourself like a plant. Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re not going to look good for long. And it’s going to get expensive to look good. When you’re born, you’ll spring up like a seedling. You’ll have your glory days, but it’s going to be over. Peter says that there is only one thing that’s going to last. The Word of the Lord will last. The Word of the Lord is unique. When you are gone, God’s Word will still be here and it will still be true. When God says something, it’s always going to be true. His Divine Truth will never be obsolete when we die and go to heaven. God doesn’t say “Now, I take that back.” We have to be people that have to learn how to love His Eternal Word. Nowadays we have podcasts of preachers all over the world, we have all sorts of Christian books, devotionals and videos, but it can’t replace God’s Word. There is something that happens when you are reading God’s Word. It totally changes you. This Word is “…the Word that is preached to you.” In chapter two of 1 Peter, Peter describes young Christians as spiritual infants longing for spiritual milk. We have all heard babies that didn’t get their bottle. You always hear the babies crying who didn’t get their bottle and the mom is frantically looking for it. Nothing works. No pacifier, nothing will shut that kid up besides the bottle. We should be like newborn infants longing for His Word. Nothing else will satisfy us. I can never read too much scripture in a sermon. That’s what the world wants these days. Sound bytes. We need His Word. It’s our life. Remember, “If you indeed have tasted that the Lord is good…” When we read and pray, communing with God, we have a unique relationship that is not obtained simply from relating with other people. Intimacy with God is irreplaceable. Invest your life in the God-moments. From “Texting God” by Francis Chan, 2009.