Seven Words to Change Your Family

 

Seven Words to Change Your Family

 From the teachings of James MacDonald

What we really want for our families is change.  More of God's agenda and less of ours.  Real love and peace and health in our families.  So how do we do that?  There are seven biblical words that, when understood and applied, will transform your family.  

 

#1 FORGIVENESS

Why is is so hard to forgive the ones closest to us?  Jesus has a lot to say on this subject.  In Mark 11:25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”  Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;"  In the Lords Prayer He taught us to pray for forgiveness as we forgive others.  Over and over the scripture tells us that is how we are forgiven.  Are you all about forgiveness?  There are countless people that have been wounded and hurt by things that have been said and done by others.  No matter who it came from, the fallout from forgiveness is seen in the family.   Anger and heartache that is in the family today is due to not forgiving.  There are two points here, when families do forgive and when families don't forgive.   Forgiveness is a decision to release a person from the obligation that resulted when they injured you.   If you have a problem you can first let it go.  If that doesn't work, then go work it out with that person.  

What if the person does it again and again?  Matthew 18:21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.  The point is is limitless.  We should not be keeping count.  Verse 23 continues "Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.  One talent is worth a weeks work.  So ten thousand was more than we can make in a lifetime.  ²⁵ But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. ²⁶ The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ ²⁷ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.  ²⁸ “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet^[d] and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’^{[e] 30} And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. ³¹ So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. ³² Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. ³³ Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ ³⁴ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. ³⁵ “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”  There are several points under this parable.  Number one, notice that the rationalizations that are used are just foolish.  It's so clear that others must forgive but often it's not as clear in our own life.  

5 Common Rationalizations 

The hurt is too big.  That doesn't make any sense.  The bigger the thing is, the more you should want to get rid of it.  

Time will heal it.  Time will heal nothing.  Once someone pokes that place of unforgiveness it will hurt again.  

I'm going to forgive when they say they're sorry.  They are not coming.  Here's the other thing, what if they have shown up?  I'm so thankful that I had forgiven them that I don't know if I would be in the right state of mind if I didn't.  That's a rationalization.  

I can't forget.  You will never forget until you forgive.  It's a process of setting it aside and it's a choice that begins the process of rationalization.  

If I forgive, they will just do it again.  Face up to it and be done with the dumb rationalizations.  Don't shatter the relationship completely.  If you are harboring the things that need to be forgiven, you are so focused on the pain that people will not want to be around you.  Maybe your unforgiveness to one person in your family is fracturing your relationship with another person in your family.  

God forgives us of all the the things we have done, so we can forgive others for the small amount of things they do.  The desire to see pain in another and see them feel what we felt fuels a heart of unforgiveness.  You might associate forgiveness with church and sermons,  but research has shown that forgiveness improves physical and emotional health.  It has direct and indirect effects on the body and mind. When people forgive they replace negative feelings with sympathy and love.  These positive emotions reduce hostility and stress which in turn reduces heart problems and boosts the immune system.  Forgiving people are more stable and have more romantic and platonic relationships.  Forgiving people are often happier and less likely to be depressed and have anxiety.  The Stanford Forgiveness Project said, " We have come across very few people who understand how forgiveness works."  This shouldn't surprise anyone.  Choose to sin, choose to suffer.  When God says to forgive, do yourself a favor.  

Stay tuned for the next helpful word to change your family. 

Revealed As: Worth Following Part 2

Revealed As: Worth Following

Part 2

From the teachings of James MacDonald

Not a creative title but that's what we see happening in the Gospel of John.  Jesus Christ being revealed in various ways that remind us how incredible it is to follow him.  When you strip away all of the church and the religion, at the end of the day a Christian is a follower of Jesus.  We seek to walk in his step, to build our life according to his ways.  We seek to obey God the Father the way that he did.  We seek to carry hardship the way he did.  We seek to respond to trials and to the wounds of others in a way that honors Christ.  At the end of the day a Christian is one seeking to live like Jesus Christ.  Now well none of us do that perfectly.  The proof that you are a genuine believer is if you are doing that increasingly, not perfectly.  Nobody here should have it on hold.  Nobody here should be like, "Well I've come far enough and there's no more growth for me now."  Everybody should be standing and looking over areas of their life where they still need to be changed into the image of Jesus Christ.  If you're for that, I think this will be an encouraging message for you and a strengthening message for you.  

I will pray for you because we understand that to be really impacted by the word of God it requires more than a voice.  It requires the Holy Spirit working through that voice to make this more than Bible understanding.  We don't go to church to get some information understood.  We want it to grip our hearts and to change us.  So we pause to pray to the Lord to do things for us that we cannot do.  

1) Even when it's hard; keep serving like - Jesus did.

We have been studying in John 4 and the woman at the well, and her past, and how Christ forgave her and she told others.  It's interesting that you see this in the Gospel a lot.  A real faith is a contagious faith.  And when you really have it, you want others to have what you have.  And so in John 4:39 It says Many Samaritans in that town believed the woman because of his testimony.  He told me all that I ever did.  As they listened and watched it says in 32 No longer because of what you said we believe, we've heard for ourselves.  And we know that this is indeed the savior of the world.  That takes us to where we finished of last time.  Verse 33 says After two days Jesus departed for Galilee.  Samaria was kinda like a no man's land and Jesus grew up near this town, in the North. With that as a backdrop you look back in the text where it says after two days He departed for Galilee for Jesus himself had testified that a profit has no honor in his home town.  What was Jesus home town?  Was it where he grew up?  Where was he born?  He was born in Bethlehem.  And that is just outside of Jerusalem.  So when it says in the text that he departed for Galilee for Jesus himself had testified that a profit had no honor in his own home town, was it referring to he is going North to Galilee to get away from his home town where he was born?  Or is it saying that he's actually going North towards his home town?  Some people say that can't be because a prophet had no honor.  That's a negative, so he's trying to get away from that problem.   Some people say well he didn't really receive his ministry in Jerusalem, so he's getting away from that problem.  I think that's wrong.  I don't think think that Jesus was going away from what was hard.  While Jesus was born in Bethlehem, he grew up in Nazareth.  This passage, I believe, is not saying that Jesus went away from what was hard.  It's saying that he went toward what was hard.  

That principle is that to minister where he grew up was hard because a prophet is not without honor.  When you go out of town where you're not as well known, people can celebrate you.  But it is where you're known it is hardest.  It's harder to be a Christian at home because they know you.  You can come to Church and worship and study the Bible where no one knows you.  In the life of Christ this is even true.  Jesus was perfect.  Rejoice in his character.  Hebrews 4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.  Jesus was tempted by loneliness.  Jesus was tempted by lust.  Jesus was tempted by lying.  Jesus was tempted in all points.  This is what theologians call the impeccability of Christ.  Not only did he not sin, he could not.  Because he could not, people say how could you be really tempted?  Let's think Olympic weight lifting for a minute.  You see the guy in the crazy tights on.  Picture he lifts this massive weight, and he gets it high.  He tries to get it over his head but he can't and he drops it on the ground.  But another competitor, he gets it up high and he jumps and he puts up, and he holds it over his head.  Who feels the weight more?  The one who tried to lift it and failed?  Or the one who actually held it over their head?  Second feels the weight more.  It's not in our trying and failing, which we all do, that we feel the full weight of sin.  But in Christ that we have felt the full weight of temptation but have lifted it up over his head.  He is our victor and our champion.  If Christ in his perfection still was without honor in his own town, but it wasn't with regarding his sin.  He didn't fail.  They had to get people to lie so they could crucify him.  The limiting of his ministry was not in anything sinful, it was perfect.  It isn't in imperfection that a prophet's ministry is limited, it's unfamiliarity.  

In 1386, 100 plus years before Columbus came to America, from Chaucer's Tale of Melibee, comes this well known phrase.  "Familiarity breeds contempt."  That's the idea the more you know something, the more you know it the less you think of it.  The more common it becomes to you, the less you appreciate it.   This is a big problem in life.  This is the problem Jesus is dealing with here.  He went to Galilee but he had testified he had no honor in his home town because they were familiar with him.  It was difficult for them to learn from him and respect him because they knew him so well.  Keep in mind, it wasn't that they saw things in him that were wrong.  It was just that they were so familiar with him that it was difficult for them to esteem and honor him the way that they needed to in order for them to benefit from his ministry.  This concerns me because while Jesus was perfect, we are not.  I am not perfect.  If Jesus dealt with a lack of honor because of familiarity, this concerns me in regard to the marriages in our church.  I am concerned that our familiarity with our spouses could lead us not to value them the way that we should.  All of the reasons why you fell in love with that person, they're still there.  The problem is a prophet is without honor accept in his own town.  And a husband is not with out honor accept in his own home sadly, too often.  Ladies I would encourage you to stir up within you a genuine gratitude for the things about your husband that you should righteously esteem.  Men I will challenge you to stir up affection for the woman that you are married too, less familiarity breed contempt.  This also concerns me about employment.  Some of you have been working in the same place for 5 years, 10 years, 15 years.  People say they don't love their job, but they are thankful for it.  Think back to the day you got that job and how excited you were to go to work there.  How thrilled you were that of all the people that got interviewed, waiting and hoping, and hanging on every phone call that you would get that job.  But over time, familiarity breeds contempt and we can fail to be thankful for what we should treasure.  It concerns me in our friendships.  The years you spend with friends, through all the years of prayer, joyous moments spent, the hardships spent in support of each other, are not to be taken for granted.  I don't want familiarity to breed contempt.  I want to be thankful and grateful to God for the things that are around me.  It concerns me about our Church.  Think back to when you first came to your church.  And think about the first time and the worship you enjoyed.  And how fervent it was and how strongly your heart was drawn into worship.  Try not to let the regularity of something get you to the place of where you're contemptuous of what I should be deeply thankful for.  But all of those concerns together don't add up to the thing that the Lord convicted me about most in the preparation of this message.  I was strongly reminded about the words of Christ in Rev. 2.  Because more than anything, I want to be thankful for Jesus Christ.  I don't want my familiarity with the things that the Lord let me get to the place where I'm not deeply grateful for what Christ has done for me.  But it can happen.  

Revelation

To the Church in Ephesus

2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 

 You used to love me so much.  Your heart was so tender to me.  Your soul was so hungry for my word.  Your life showed such thirst for the living water.  And you're not like that anymore.  What happened to you?  Has familiarity breed contempt.  Are you so comfortable now in the family of God and with the people of God that you don't need to stir up fresh affection for me?  Remember therefore from where you have fallen.  Just like a couple needs to think back to the reasons they fell in love.  Just like an employee needs to think back of how excited they were to have that job.  Just like a friend needs to think back and examine all the treasured years and take that for the value that it is.  Just like a church member needs to be reminded of how blessed we are.  So also most importantly, we need to be stirred this weekend not to let our familiarity with Jesus Christ breed contempt in us.  A casualness, an indifference, a slowness of heart, a losing of first love.  And so he says,

⁵ Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place. ⁶ But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

<sup>Let's go back to the main part of the text.  Jesus Christ, led by every step of the spirit, turns not from something that was hard, but to the something.  I can picture Jesus on the outskirts of his home town.  He's walking into his town and he can see the people he grew up with.  He can see the kids that he played with, the parents he used to know.  Now they are like, who does he think he is?  Who are those twelve guys walking with him.  We know who that is.  We saw him grow up.  He's not that much.  Can you imagine what that would be like?  I'm inspired that Christ went toward what was hard, not away from it.  He didn't run or hide from it.  I think I've hid from my home town myself.  I did things that I'm not proud of, things that I'm ashamed of.  I grew up choosing the wrong way of things.  I steered away from God.  And because of that I never went back home.  No matter where you have been or what you have done, Jesus Christ loves you and he will forgive you and receive you and change your life.  God is bigger than the things that we would imagine that would limit our ministry.  Notice as Christ modeled this.  When he came to Galilee the prophets welcomed him.  Christ went right into the hardness of having no honor in his home town.  They welcomed him having seen all that he had done.  The point is even when it's hard; hard decisions, choices, consequences,  always lean on God for the strength he gives you.  When I take care of what's on God's heart, God takes care of what's on mine.  If you're burdened, God knows what that hard thing is on your heart.  It is the time to lean into the Lord.  God sees your faith when your heart is breaking.  Not once did Jesus shrink back when it was hard.  He went right into it by faith.  Take the humbling, be better for it, take the criticism, and keep serving like Jesus did.  

2)Even when it's dark; keep believing - in Jesus.</sup>

^{John 4:46} Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.

  

^{Ever battle an overactive imagination?  I read that and I'm like this is the same town where he did his first miracle turning the water into wine.  Here he is walking into this town and the townspeople are excited thinking he's going to do it again.}  

 And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum.⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. ⁴⁸ “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” ⁴⁹ The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. ⁵¹ While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. ⁵² When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” ⁵³ Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed. ⁵⁴ This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

If you need a miraculous provision from the Lord, subject one will always be your faith.  It's not a discussion on God's capacity.   It's not even a discussion on God's willingness.  The subject is going to be what do you believe about the Lord.  The end of verse 49 there was two mistakes the man made.  The first mistake was thinking that Jesus had to come to where his son was.  Second mistake that he made was thinking that if his son died that that was the end.  The whole book of John is about Jesus Christ is sovereign, even over death.  Later he says he is the resurrection in life and whoever lives and believes in him will never die.  This guy didn't know who he was talking to.  Jesus spoke the word, the man believed the word, and as he was going down the servants met him and told him that his son was recovering.  Picture the guy leaving to find this healer.  He had a very extensive time between the time where the word was spoken and the time he found out that the healing had happened.  The reason this is important is cause that's where most of us are today.  We're in between the promise given and the promise experienced.  We are holding on by faith.  Word spoken, word believed, word experienced.  That's how we live our lives, between the word.  You have to believe it when it was spoken God was at work to make that a reality according to his faithfulness to himself and what he has spoken.  

When you need healing, a miraculous intervention in your marriage, or you need some significant turn around in some way, I've been praying for you this week.  That you leave this lesson, blog, message that I've shared with you today, not with a understanding of another paragraph in the Bible, but that beyond that you would take with you a word from the Lord.  Maybe the word for you today is that even when it's hard, you need to keep on serving.  Maybe the word for you today is that when it's dark, you need to keep on believing.  We serve because that's what Jesus did.  And we believe because that's who Jesus is.  Lay hold of in this moment whatever it is that the Lord is speaking to you about.  I will pray for you.  My prayers aren't special, but the Bible says that if two or three is touching anything, it will be done for you.  If you feel like you have allowed familiarity to breed contempt in me, and I'm not at the place I once was with the Lord.  I've allowed sin and selfishness and self-centeredness, God knows what it is.  You say, well I'm not with the Lord like I was.  I'm not feeling it and seeking it like I was.  I believe that the Lord is more grieved about that than you are.  And I've at times had to turn to the Lord, and I want to encourage you to give it to the Lord.  Let him revive you.  

Personally, I've had an awesome week with the Lord.  The Lord has been so specific with me.  I long for you to feel the same fresh stirring of the spirit.  If you have a heavy heart, commit your problems to the Lord. 

You Are Loved

  

Revealed As: Worth Following

Revealed As: Worth Following

From the teachings of James MacDonald

John 4-12 Authentic Revealing

Every verse and every word in the Gospel of John matters.  We want to follow the true Christ, the living Christ.  Because of that we are seeing how he was revealed here.  All the books in all the world cannot contain all the things that Jesus did.  So the accounts of Jesus' life that John picks here are the ones that will lead us to the place of believing Jesus is Christ, the Son of God.  And the goal is that by believing we would have life in his name.

Better than your birth, first kiss, first home, better than any of that is the moment you turn from sin, open your eyes and see that Jesus is who he declared himself to be.  When he revealed the message as worth following, it declares he is worth it.  

1A) Jesus knows me better than I know myself.  My heart is deceptive. John 4:25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  She only accepted the first five books of the Bible so she knew a messiah would come.  He says very simply that he is the one.  ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” ²⁷ Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”  They had such immense respect for Jesus so they did not ask why he was speaking to the Samaritan woman.   ²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.  She went to tell the people that Jesus told her all that she ever did.  It's not a description of fact but feeling.  She felt like Jesus told her all that she ever did.  She felt that way because she has things that she regrets and now someone knows.  That isn't the total of her, but Jesus put his finger on the things about her life that she regrets the most.  The greater pain is the publicity of the things you regret.  It's just so crushing to have everyone know.  She's not offended or angry.  The experience was so positive, she can't wait to share it and runs to tell others so they can have the same experience.  When Christ puts his finger print on your life, all your self loathing, self condemnation, judgement, all of it evaporates in the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And when you begin to experience what it is for him to know you, when you begin to experience what it is for him to love you, you will not only want him to open every closet in your life, but you long for the people you love to experience the same thing.  Truth!  It's such good news.  He loves us perfectly.  We didn't earn his love through good behavior and we can't forfeit his love through our own failures and disappointments.  That's Jesus Christ revealed as we are following.  

Living in the light of the things you have learned and can do differently given the circumstances of a new chance again.  It's wonderful to go into a new place and meet new people.  It's the darkened view of one another.  It's the focus on the negatives that causes love to be diminished.  While we all struggle with that as human beings, it's good to be reminded that Jesus Christ does not struggle with that.  Over and over the Psalmists said His love endures sin.  

2A) Jesus has food to eat that truly satisfies.  So she goes and tells the others that a man has revealed all that she has ever done, and they come out of the town to him.   ³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”  ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”  ³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”    In verse 31 the disciples were referring to him as Rabbi, which refers to him as a teacher.  Saying lets eat and get it over with.  He says I have food to eat that you don't know about.  Their response is like why did we walk in there and back if you already had food.  They did not eat without Jesus because of their respect.  The disciples were always keyed in to the now.  Jesus taught them that fishing for men was not about the fish.  Not Casting your pearls before swine was not about the pearls or swine.  So when he said I have food to eat that you don't know about, they knew he wasn't talking about food.  

"The disciples' constant focus on the here and now made the teaching of Jesus hard to understand."

The fact that they were always in the here, now, us, made it hard to understand.  My food is the something that satisfies something temporal.  Here's what feeds me.  What feeds me is to do the will of my father that lives in heaven, to accomplish his work.

5 Things that Don't Satisfy our Soul

1. Food- It does not fill what my heart satisfies.
2. Experience- When I finish college, when I get married, when I get that job.  Have you ever planned and saved for the vacation that you dreamed of and to find at the end of that you are strangely hollow?    
3. Money and possessions-  The harder we try to set up possession for ourselves, the less we will have it. The harder we try to buy or attain what we want the more difficult it comes.  
4. Relationships- When that one relationship gets healed.  And we keep suspending our satisfaction in the hope that something temporal will feel and fill the longing in our souls.  
5. Entertainment- A lot of built up expectation for pleasure that doesn't ultimately deliver.  

John 4:24 Influenced us about worship.  ³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.  Nothing thrills the soul of a Christian than seeing another person come to Christ.  Nothing is better than that.  ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶ Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.  Maybe it is a neighbor or co-worker that you want to bring to church or God.  That is our work.  The person who reaps is the one they bring to Christ.  The one who sows is the one who brings them to Christ.  They may worship together and rejoice.  Don't say I'll do it someday.  Say I'll do it now.  You may encounter someone now that needs Christ in their life.  One sows another reaps.

3A) Jesus reveals himself as a response to my faith.  Why don't you read the Gospel of John, every time you see the word believe, underline it.   ³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers.  ⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”  So they are believing because of what she said.  Then they believed because they heard for themselves.  Everyone has to come to the place where they make it personal.  Where you put your belief in Jesus Christ as your savior.  If you were to die tonight and came to the gates of heaven, and they asked you why you should be let into heaven, you would say because I believe in Jesus Christ.  You wouldn't say because I am awesome.  You wouldn't be because I'm better that others.  You would be like because you believe I am forgiven because of Jesus' death on the cross.  Acts 16:31  They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”  Some people really don't know what they will be saved from.  Saved from God's wrath.  We are sinners by nature and we are sinners by action, so we come into this world condemned.  It's only a thread that keeps the unbeliever from falling into hell.  They believe they are being saved from themselves, but their hearts are deceiving them. If you reject what God has offered that would be foolish.  Everyone needs a savior.  When I am convinced of it's value, then I will believe.  This is what many say.  Here's the problem, belief in Jesus Christ is the tasting.  You need to step out with your faith and ask for forgiveness from Jesus Christ.  When you step out by faith and have one true heartfelt tasting, you will know the Lord is good.  

Wise up About Alcohol

Wise Up About Alcohol

From the teaching of James MacDonald

Part 1

 6 Reasons why I believe in total abstinence from alcohol:

1.) Drunkenness is a sin not a disease.  If alcoholism is a disease, it is the only disease that is contracted by an act of your own will.  If alcoholism is a disease, it's the only disease that requires a license to propagate it.  If it's a disease, it's the only disease that is bottled and sold.  If it's a disease, it's the only one that is habit forming.  It's the only one spread through advertising.  It's the only one without a germ or virus cause.  It's the only disease that bars a person from heaven. 

^{1 Corinthians 6:9-12 9} Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men,

¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  ¹¹ And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. ¹² All things are lawful for me; but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any.

If we commit these sins habitually, we will not inherit the kingdom of God.   If we are born with an inclination toward certain sins, it is just that, an inclination.  It is not an excuse.  We need to be merciful and supportive towards people that are dealing with alcoholism.  

2.) Alcohol impairs wisdom. 

Proverbs 31:4-9

⁴ It is not for kings, Lemuel—
    it is not for kings to drink wine,
    not for rulers to crave beer,
⁵ lest they drink and forget what has been decreed,
    and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.
⁶ Let beer be for those who are perishing,
    wine for those who are in anguish!
⁷ Let them drink and forget their poverty
    and remember their misery no more.

⁸ Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
    for the rights of all who are destitute.
⁹ Speak up and judge fairly;
    defend the rights of the poor and needy.

 Rev. 1:4-6  ⁴ John, to the seven churches which are in Asia:Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.  To Him who loved us and washed^[a] us from our sins in His own blood, ⁶ and has made us kings^[b] and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

We are all kings.  In Revelation, this passage says we, us, have been made kings.  Studies show that even small amounts of alcohol impairs wisdom.  One ounce of alcohol retards muscular reaction 17%.  One ounce of alcohol increases the required time to make a decision by 10%.  One ounce of alcohol increases errors due to lack of attention by 35% and due to lack of muscular coordination by 50%.  

3) Alcohol is an unnecessary drug.  Prov. 31:6 Give strong drink to him who is perishing,
And wine to those who are bitter of heart. Notice this is not individual consumption.  This is someone else.  Take the drink you have and give it to someone else.  This is referring to the women who used to give their wine to people in suffering moments.  They tried to give wine to Jesus before he was to be nailed to the cross.  But Jesus didn't want anything reducing his suffering because it was an atoning sacrifice for sin.  "Bitter of heart", anguish.  The idea is overwhelming grief.  Not that you should give a six pack to someone who had a bad day at work.  When it talks people who are perishing, this is the idea that we had two weeks to live or our house burned to the ground.  This passage was written in the day when there was no local pharmacy.  If you have a strong drink in your home, don't use it just to pass time.  Instead give it to someone who is really perishing.  

4) Alcohol is destructive.  Destruction to the individual, it kills brain cells.  Leads to sluggish thinking even when you're sober.  It leads to liver disease.  It can shorten one's life expectancy from 10 to 15 years.  Do you not know your body is a temple.  Use you body to glorify God.  Alcohol is the major cause of 36% of suicides in our country.  1 every 22 minutes, car accidents that happen because of alcohol.  In the past ten years, four times as many people have died in alcohol related crashes as in the Vietnam war.  The damaged cause by alcohol and driving is the same as one 747 a week went down.  There are so many statistics on alcohol and child abuse.  Alcohol and violence go together.  The fact that alcohol is destructive shouldn't be new information to us.

Proverbs 23:29-35 

²⁹ Who has woe?
Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions?
Who has complaints?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
³⁰ Those who linger long at the wine,
Those who go in search of mixed wine.
³¹ Do not look on the wine when it is red,
When it sparkles in the cup,
When it swirls around smoothly;
³² At the last it bites like a serpent,
And stings like a viper.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things,
And your heart will utter perverse things.
³⁴ Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:
³⁵ “They have struck me, but I was not hurt;
They have beaten me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?”

The bible does have a lot to say about drinking and we can see the negative effects of it in our culture.   Reasons 5 and 6 continue tomorrow. 

Where is your discernment? Part 2

Where is your Discernment?

Part 2

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 5 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. ⁴ For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our^[a] faith. ⁵ Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

We need to know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.   Test the spirits to see wether they are from God.  

1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,

Discernment is absolute.  2 By this you know the spirit of God.  Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.  Every messenger that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.  Actually, that phrase Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, before 100 A.D.  when the book of 1 John was written, the big error in the church was called the Gnostic Heresy.  This is Gnosticism.  They just basically believe that all matter was evil. That the human body was evil.  There has been other emphasis like this throughout church history.  Space is evil.  Time is evil.  That to escape from the body is to escape from evil.  The idea that Jesus came in a body, they were like, "Are you kidding me?"  So actually, contrary to today, their big beef with the gospel was that they say the incarnation never happened.  They were fine that Jesus was God, but he didn't really have a human body.  He didn't really become a man.  They denied the incarnation of Christ.  That's why he says here, "By this you know the spirit of God.  Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.  But I don't think the big error in the church today is denying the humanity of Christ.  The big error in the church today is Satan is just playing the same coin from the opposite side.  The big error in the church today is denying the deity of Christ.  Teaching that Jesus was just a good man, just a good moral teacher.    Just a good guy, a good example, and so on.  To deny, or denounce, or dilute the teachings of Jesus Christ is blasphemy, and heresy and error of the highest order.  This isn't something we can kid about.  It's big time.  Is there anything that rises up in you about error?  Where is your discernment?  

Biblical and historically since the days of Aristotle and Plato it's been a broadly accepted understanding that truth is outside of yourself.  That is doesn't matter what the field of study is, be it biology or theology, the truth is outside of yourself.  You study and learn to get to truth.  That's how you do it.  That's how it has always been understood.  This is the idea of thesis and anti-thesis.  This is a bit of a more complex concept, but just stretch yourself.  Thesis and anti-thesis, it's that there is right and there is wrong.  Now this is the way that the Bible presents truth.  This is the way that history has always presented truth.  There is light and darkness.  There is truth and error.  There is heaven and hell.  There is good and evil.  There is God and Satan.  This is not the way things are today.  

About 125 years ago four philosophers,Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche, and John-Paul Sartre, taught something called Existentialism.  It was pulling down the fabric of truth in your Great Grandparent's lives.  It invaded first Western Europe and then the world.  And is so inculcated into the minds of Western world people that they hardly even recognized even Christians that they've shifted from thesis/anti-thesis thinking to what's called Continuum thinking.  Continuum thinking is not right, wrong, light, darkness.  Continuum thinking is really true, kinda true, a bit true, not as true, and a lot of grey.  How do we settle the issues of grey continuum thinking?  Does it work?  That's Pragmatism.    Does it feel good?  That's Hedonism.  Does it work for me?  That's Humanism.  These are the thought philosophies behind what's driving everything on MTV and in Hollywood.  It's everywhere.  And the followers of Jesus desperately need to take out their brains and wash them off and put them back in.  

Niche was a German philosopher, raised Christian, abandoned his faith in university.  Evidently brilliant, he landed a scholarship at the age of 24, the youngest person to ever hold that position at his university.  Not a humble man.  Niche arrogantly proclaimed, "God is dead."  "There is no truth."  He referred to himself as an immoralist.  He also called himself "Anti-Christ."  He also called himself "Conquer of God."  He referred to his main book as the fifth gospel.  He said this, "One day my name will be associated with the memory of a crisis without equal on the Earth.  The most profound collision of conscience.  A decision that was conjured up against everything that had been believed demanded.  Hallowed so far.  Niche said this about himself, "I am no man. I am dynamite."  For the last ten years of his life he displayed signs of mental illness until he died of a stroke at the age of 55.  At his funeral his friends proclaimed, "Holy be your name to all future generations."  Niche more than any other single person affected Adolf Hitler.  Right after Existentialism, which they teach, comes Nihilism.  Nihilism is the idea that there is no truth of any kind, no accountability of any kind.  There is no rallying point.  There is no center.  There is just me in this universe.  And what works for me in this moment is what I'm going to do.   But what about the followers of Jesus?  Notice in verse 2, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of the anti-Christ.  Which you heard was coming and is now already in the world.  


Discernment is a matter of truth.  Notice that he says it is already in the world.  This isn't a some day message.  This isn't the clouds are gathering, this is here now.  As close as the local high school, every channel on television, it's the philosophy of the parent next door that your kids play with and the person at the office who afflicts you about your faith.  Where's your discernment?  

Discernment is possible.  What you believe is everything.  It's where you're going, it's what your life is going to be all about.  And you're going to have the capacity to discern between truth and error.  I feel his tenderness like a shepherd for the sheep.  Jesus said in Mathew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.  Hear his, John, love for the sheep.  He says, "Little children, you're from God.  You've overcome them."  In other words do you know who you are now?  Because you're not that person anymore who thought there was nothing right or wrong, everything is relative.  You're not that person anymore.  You've over come that.  Little children you are from God and you have overcome them.  You have overcome the false teachers, wrong thoughts.  In order to get your sins forgiven, you had to believe some stuff.  You had to set aside all that stuff, to each his own, as long as you're sincere.  You had to overcome all that little children.  And here is a great promise, "For he that is in you is greater than he that is in the world."  Even there you didn't overcome it by yourself.  God and his grace opened your eyes to some truths that are awesome.  God is greater than Satan.  And as John Piper likes to say, Satan is God's lackey.  He is just kinda leading him around and using him for whatever he wants.  Satan is not a challenge to God, but he can be a challenge to you and to me if we believe his lies.  Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.  

 

Vertical Church Reprise

Vertical Church Reprise

James went on a long tour of many many cities preaching about what changes need to be made in our churches and about how the focus on God needs to come back.  It took 500 hours for him to write his book and he preached in over 40 cities.  Isaiah 64:1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!  The main reason he went out on this tour is because the church today in America is in trouble.  

It's not a right to have a good marriage, it's a privilege.  If you have it, it's so easy to forget that didn't come easy to a lot of people.  If you attend a good church, a gospel saturated, a vertical, word proclaiming, Christ adoring church, you're blessed.  If you have something, it's so easy to lose sight of what it's like for people who don't have it.  There are people that wish they were married that aren't.  People that wish they were married again.  There's people struggling in the marriage they're in.  

  

There are over 6,000 churches in America that are closing their doors each year.  What happened?  These used to be places filled with the glory of God and they are dead now.  Churches are for sale now and you never used to see that.  Soon we're going to be like those European churches that are big and beautiful with stained glass windows.  Us dopey Americans tour those churches all the time.  But those churches are dead.  If something drastic doesn't happen, our children, grand kids, great grand kids, will be receiving that kind of church.   Churches today are watered down, western world, hardly better than Dr. Phil church.  All this horizontal helpfulness is not about God.  Church is supposed to be life altering.  Churches don't die, God's voice in them dies.  Our problem is not a how, it's a who problem.  God just doesn't attend anymore.  James wants to do something for our churches. He doesn't want us to be a selfish little cloistered group of people that are so about ourselves, that doesn't have a heart for the American church.  

Only God moves mountains.  Isaiah 64:1 "Oh that you would rend..."  We believe God wrote the Bible.  Every word matters.  This verse has passion.  It's a prayer from his heart, crying out to God.  Our greatest expression of passion should be for God.  God wants you to come to church and reach down for the dial of what he made you and crank it to full.  We need that passion in church.  Preaching is theology coming from a man who is on fire.  

The heavens is the barrier between us and God.  How many of you say a prayer, then think afterwards that it didn't even get out of the room? Like there is a barrier?  There is one.  It's not God, he is ready to do all that we long to see him do.  The delay is what we see in the mirror and what we see around us.  God is making us spiritually fit to receive what he's already willing to do.  We pray for healing because we want to live a longer life, when we should pray so that we would be less selfish and use the days we have to honor him.  God is not unwilling or unable.  God forgive us for acting like somehow he's not on it, and we are.  He's working to get us on it so he can be.  The "mountains" is a metaphor.  It's about how to make something move, like a mountain.  Mountains make you feel permanent.  When you stand at the base of a mountain you feel small. The bible uses mountains to describe God; unchanging.  It describes God's eternality, Father, Son and the Holy spirit.  Isaiah 64:1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, the mountains....  It is not a mountain verse, it's a thing that makes me feel small that cannot be changed verse.  We all have mountains in our life that make us feel so small.  Alone in our marriage, broken hearts from our sons or daughters, loss in our lives make us feel stuck and like they are never going to change.  Now you know why Isaiah is so passionate in his prayer.  He's crying, "OH" to God to help him break down this mountain.  Jesus said, "If you say to this mountain be removed and be cast into the sea, it will be done for you."  If you have something that is not God's will for your life, that you think can never change, God moves mountains.  At church addicted people are finding freedom, sick people are finding healing, lost people are getting found, lonely people are finding fellowship.  God puts mountains in our lives and is using them to change you and to make you into who you need to be.  

God is omnipresent.  While it is true God is everywhere, God is not working equally in all places.  That's why we pray in the Lord's prayer we are acknowledging in some places things happen precisely as God wants on time, every time.  And other places not so much.  Some day his will, will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.  But not today.  He says draw near to me and I will draw near to you.  We think why?  He's everywhere.  But in that he's promising though he is everywhere, to manifest himself more powerfully in the person that draws near to him.  Psalms 34:17  The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.  The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart.  What we're longing for is for our church to be increasingly.  God is willing to do so much more. We have so much room to grow.  But we have to deal with what's in the way.  

Exodus 32:33 The LORD replied to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.  Moses was called to lead 2 million of God's people who were slaves to the promised land.  It didn't go good.  He murdered a guy and it all got sideways, so God sent him back to the wilderness for 40 years.  So he shows up when he's 80 and says to the pharaoh that 2 million of your people are coming with me, and the pharaoh says I don't think so.  Moses warns him, but he says get out.  Moses brings 10 plagues onto him.  So he takes the people and they are walking to the Red Sea.  You know that story.  A lot of miracles happen in Moses' life.  There is a reason God doesn't come down and render the heavens anymore.  You're not wrong that there's a barrier.  You're just wrong that it's God.  

Exodus 32:9 "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people."  God sees what happens.  He sees into our hearts.  The stiff necked people, as if to say "Don't tell me nothing. I don't need to hear anything from you.  I know."  We have a skill that we've all become too familiar with.  It's the ability to twist what happened in such a way that the responsibilities lies with others and not me.  It's my parents, kids, past.  We've got stories for why the way we are.  Are we submissive to let someone lead us to a better person?  God says to the children of Israel, Isaiah 33:3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.   Imagine if God said to you, you go do what you're going to do, I'm not coming with you.  We might as well close the doors without God's presence in the church.  It's a God thing, a God place.  Why Lord?  He says lest I consume you on the way.  We say God come to us, to all our stubbornness.  

We don't look in the mirror.  How many times have you been told by a preacher or someone that you need to spend regular faithful time in God's word?  You've been starving yourself of spirituality when you don't do it.  Jesus said, "If you will not forgive your brother in your heart, neither will your father forgive you."  A family member, former spouse, former neighbor, if they sat beside you it would make your skin crawl.  But you bring that unrighteous, unforgiving resentment and bitterness into God's house.  We let those things we have not resolved become the barrier that we're asking God to rend.   And he's willing.  How many men have been taught that the emotional nourishment of your wife is your responsibility?  You pride yourself on the fact you're not out running around on you're wife, but you sleep with your back to that woman.  Who's more unfaithful?  The man out running around?  Or the guy in the house, withholding his heart, closing himself off, causing her to live alone in a marriage.  Both are incredibly unfaithful.  1 Peter 3:7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.  God has so much more for us as a church.  You say God isn't hearing me.  Isaiah 59:1 Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.  His arm is not short.  It's not God.  His ear is not dull that he cannot hear.  Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.  Your sins have separated you from God.  Psalms 66:18  If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;  If the church is going to continue to be a place where mountains are quaking, and God manifests his power, we must remove the things that hinder us.  You have to be willing.  Exodus 33:16 For how shall it be known, that we have found favor in your sight if not in your going with us we have been distinguished.  It is not that in your going with us that we are distinct as a people.  Go into church with your hands clean and your hearts pure.  

My prayer to you:  Oh Father we turn to you in this moment we ask oh God that you would by your spirit touch us and convict us about those things that convict us, my stubborn heart.  I am stubborn and serve with stiff necked people that need to hear your word far too often to obey it.  Often we have wandered from the path of your truth and regretted it.  Never have we stayed and obeyed and found it to be less than blessing.  Why is there still debate?  Why are we not running the way of your commandments.  Oh forgive our stubbornness and let your goodness let us pour out with repentance.  And oh how we pray that the mountains that we are facing in our lives will fall forward and crumble.  Give us a story to tell our kids to tell of how great you are Lord.   We lay our burdens before you.  Nothing is beyond you.  Nothing is out of your reach.  We trust you and love you.  You can do it. Amen.