Gospel Empowered Lives
Contribute to the Needs of Others; Show Hospitality
March 13, 2011
Romans 12:13
People can act like wild animals sometimes especially when it comes to first come first serve seating. This can happen at movies. You’ve probably seen this. Imagine some of you are the planner structured type. When you go to a movie, you plan an event. You find some place to get coupons to ensure you get cheaper tickets. Then you go to the theater earlier in the day to purchase your ticket. You leave in plenty of time, breeze past the tickets line and go through to the theater. You select the seats you want. Then you go and purchase movie treats unless you’ve smuggled in your own food which as a Christian, you try to justify by saying “I’m being a good steward of God’s resources.” The movie theater fills up. Five minutes before show time it’s pretty full.
Then the late comers stroll in. Upon realizing that there were only single seats left, some of the bolder ones would look for rows where there were two single seats. Then they would ask people if they minded moving so they could still sit with their friend. That’s when the huffing and puffing started. People who had settled in nicely for nearly half an hour had to get out of their seat and move. You could hear lots of sighs and grunts as strangers actually sat beside each other. It’s an amazing phenomenon to watch in our spread out “I need lots of room” culture.
This “personal space” preference can manifest itself in other places. We only let people we really know into our homes or cars, because that’s our personal space. We only sit with people we know in the school cafeteria or at church. We only talk to people we know after the church service. Certainly, there is value in exercising appropriate caution when it comes to our personal space. But might we be too cautious? Might we be too hesitant to offer our resources or cars or homes for others in need? Does God’s character and His Word speak to us about this?
God’s recipe for perseverance - Part 3
March 6, 2011
Romans 12:12
God’s people have prayed throughout history. So do we, God’s people at Sturgeon Valley Baptist Church, join them? What priority would you say you place on prayer in your life?
We’re going to talk about prayer today. You might think this is something I have to talk about because I’m a pastor. You might be bracing yourself for a huge guilt trip. You might believe you’re just not the praying type. You might think it’s only for the super spiritual. Or “it’s just a religious duty.” Or “it doesn’t work.” Or “I find it boring.”
Sometimes, we might not pray or think that we have to pray a certain way for God to hear us. Or we think we have to know the right way to pray. Or that we have to weave Bible verses into our prayer for it to be acceptable. So what is about?
God’s Recipe for Perseverance – Part 2
February 27, 2011
Romans 12:12
Is perseverance just putting your head down and doing it? For some of us, the answer might be yes. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. We’re tough and we can do it. We push our way through to come out the other side. So is perseverance just for the tough people? Is it a personality thing? It is a cultural thing? “We keep a stiff upper lip and persevere.”
But what about those times we don’t feel very tough? What if we don’t have that personality or that cultural background? Are we just left on the outside of the persevering people? And for all of you who are pretty convinced you’re the tough persevering type, what’s your attitude like during tough times? Stubborn; Resilient; Committed; Never give up; Pushing on; Getting Through; Patient! What? Patient? No. It’s about getting through the tribulation with all the strength we can muster as quickly as possible. But we’re not going to be patient through it.
Wherever we’re at on the perseverance scale, God’s Word presents something dramatically different than the norm. In fact God commands His people to “Be patient in tribulation.” How well do you think you might be doing on that one? “Be patient?” No way. So what is this all about? Why would God command this?
God's Recipe for Perseverance
February 13, 2011
Romans 12:12
Perseverance – resolve and determination to keep going. Persevering animals and people can inspire us – like the Chinese ballerina who lost her arm in an accident but continued to develop. Or people in Special Olympics who keep going against all odds. You might be able to think of someone in your life you would describe as persevering. But sometimes, it’s hard to persevere. Sometimes, we might feel like giving up. This can happen in our Christian lives. We see many people around us not living the Christian life. Their lives are not led or empowered by the Holy Spirit. They have different values and motivations and we may be tempted to throw in the towel and join in. And then there are the tough times life brings. Sometimes things go poorly, health deteriorates, work is stressful, a relationship struggles or we receive bad news. It can be tough to persevere and keep going during these times. So what is the recipe for perseverance that God provides us?
Lukewarm or Boiling
February 6, 2011
Romans 12:11
If you could measure your spiritual passion for Christ today, where would the arrow on the thermometer point? Some of us might admit it’s cold. You feel nothing for God. You don’t even believe in Him. Some might place their arrow in the high range, not because you’re arrogant but you find yourself hungry and thirsty for more and more of God. But some of us might put ourselves in the middle. We’re not cold. But we’re not boiling hot either. We’re between cold and hot.
Some of us don’t want to be there. We want that boiling hot passion. But we’ve let it die down or leak out or fizzle out. And now we’re just kind of warm. But others think being in the middle is okay. It’s the safe place. We might think “those boiling hot people go overboard. I do NOT want to be like them. But I’m not cold to Jesus either. I think I’ll hang out in the middle.” Is it okay just to stay in the middle – not cold but not hot either? If it’s not, what’s necessary to move us from lukewarm on the thermometer of spiritual passion to boiling hot?
Warm Love and Highest Honor
January 30, 2011
Romans 12:10
What do you do when you don’t love or like another Christian or feel basically nothing for them? Well, you can avoid them. One disadvantage of a church our size is that you can successfully avoid people. There are multiple escape routes out of the sanctuary. So if you see that person you don’t like or are uncomfortable with, you can hide behind the crowd or go to another exit. Another option is to be civil to them. You’re polite. You ask questions about the kids. You may even smile. But in your heart there’s no affection. Or you can be openly hostile towards them giving the silent treatment, scowling or entering into feverish disagreement.
Or what happens when another Christian you feel nothing for or even dislike gets honored? What happens inside of you when they get credit or praise? Do we avoid them or make some snide comment when we see them? Or do we fake that we’re happy for them while seething inside with jealousy. Is it okay to dislike, avoid or feel nothing for other Christians?
Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good
January 23, 2011
Romans 12:9–21
Is there such a thing as right or wrong? Is there good and evil? How do we decide? If there is, how are Christ followers supposed to respond to it? How are we to react to evil and good that’s around us? God and His Word give us great help in this. His Word serves as a compass to find our way through these situations when we encounter them. Today, we’re going to talk about evil and good and our response to them.
Gospel Transformed Lives and Hypocrisy
January 16, 2011
Romans 12:9–21
Today we are going to ponder just the first phrase which talks about love – What does Paul, the author of this letter to the Romans say about love? As we dig into it, maybe we could think about the love we offer in our important relationships – family, friends and other Christians. See if the Spirit exposes anyway we need to grow in this love.
Romans 12:9 begins simply “Let love be genuine.” or in the New International Version, “Love must be sincere.” – real – authentic. So if you wanted to summarize this message in one sentence, it might look like this: Gospel-transformed lives display genuine love.
The Gospel Empowers Christians to realize the dream of unity
January 9, 2011
Romans 12:3–8
We discovered the theme of this letter in Romans 1:16. Paul states, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.” We learned that the term “salvation” in Romans does not only refer to that past event when we trusted Christ and received forgiveness. Then we were transferred from the realm under God’s wrath to the realm under God’s grace. That is a huge salvation moment in the life of any Christian. God saved us from the penalty of sin. But there is still much more salvation to go. God is now saving us from the power of sin. Sanctification involves the Holy Spirit’s work of making us more and more holy. We learned about all God has provided to assist and empower us to grow in holiness. We look forward to future salvation – our glorification – when Christ comes back and we will be saved from the presence of sin. So this letter is all about the Gospel – the power of God unto salvation.