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.  

 

Where is your Discernment? Part 1

Where is your Discernment?

Part 1

You hear them every day.  False philosophies presented as truth.  Ways that seem right to a man, tickling your ears and tempting your heart.  So many people fall prey to Satan’s deceptions and find themselves in relational ruins.  As a follower of Christ, God has opened your eyes to the truth of His Word.  And with His Spirit, you can distinguish truth from lies.  In this message on discernment, James MacDonald challenges you to let God lead and direct you, developing your ability to choose His will.
 

Part 1 

What if I told you that aliens were coming into the world and that most of the people around you right now maybe even you had been taken over.  Super humans, had special powers they were consuming and that they were seeking to free themselves?  In fact, they were seeking to free themselves in the entire world of anything that is negative in anyway.  And by freeing themselves of the negative, they are insuring that they would have another lifetime to live on this Earth, and that eventually through a series of lifetimes, coming back as super humans, aliens, but taking on the form of humans.  That eventually they were going to free our galaxy from anything negative of any kind.  What would you think if I told you that?  Well that’s what L. Ron Hubbard taught beginning in 1953.  That’s a fundamental doctrine of Scientology.  You say to yourself, “That sounds like something a science fiction writer would say.”  Correct.  Hubbard was a science fiction writer.  And he wrote something and people said that is real, so he said, “Great, then it’s real.”  Where is the discernment?
 

Knowing completely is using discernment.
 

1 John 4 1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try/test the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.  2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of
God:  3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.  4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.  5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.  6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us.  Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

There it is right there.  That is what we desperately need.  We need to know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
 

First thought, discernment is needed.

 1 John 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.  And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

Every follower of Jesus Christ who has repented of their sin and embraced Jesus Christ by faith and received the free gift of eternal life gets the Holy Spirit, at conversion.  This is what the bible teaches.  

Romans 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:  1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, [1] whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

When the spirit of God came into your life by Jesus Christ, he came to stay.  You might try to get away from God, but the reason you can’t get away, if you’re really converted, is because God’s spirit will not let you go.  He will take hold of you.  He has many reasons for coming into our life.  He gives us comfort.

 John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

He gives us strength, assurance, peace.

 John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.

 He gives truth, wisdom, and discernment.

 1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try(test) the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

 Beloved is a term of endearment.  John is so loving using this term.  Do not believe every spirit.  Spirits, which can be a demonic spirit, can mean an attitude or thing that brings destruction to yourself.  When people have a negative spirit it is demonic and draws us away from the will of God.  Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit.  Prove through careful scrutiny.  Do this and keep doing this for the rest of your life.  Test the attitudes, the things that people assert to you.  Why, to see whether they are from God.

Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

That’s what’s going to happen in the last days.  That’s what is happening in these last days.  The spirit said this expressively.  So in those last days discernment will be needed like it’s never been needed before, because the competition for what is right and wrong will become more intense than it’s ever been before.  And many will depart from the faith.  They’re going to get a visitation from a spirit.  The Bible says Satan will disguise himself as an angel of light.  Mormons claim their founder Joseph Smith was directed by an angel to a secret series of golden scrolls that had to be read with a particular pair of spectacles.  Are you kidding me?  He claimed to have been visited by an Angel.  But the spirit expressively says that in the last days many will fall away listening to doctrines of demons.  That one began September 21, 1823.  Muslims believe that Mohammad got the Quaran from the Angel Gabriel.  The angel gave a new Bible called Quran in A.D. 610.  But if they just read the only book God wrote, they’d found in Galations 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.  Paul said though we or an angel from Heaven teach you any gospel other than the gospel you have received, let him be cursed.  Where is your discernment?  Discernment- Is the spirit given ability to distinguish God’s thoughts and ways from all others.  Without the Holy spirit, there is no discernment.  No knowledge of what is right and wrong, to distinguish.

Five unbiblical beliefs pounding people today:

1. Salvation by works- By being a good person, being better than the average person, by being smarter than the average bear, that somehow God is going to accept me someday, and that he’s going to weigh up the good and bad that I’ve done.  I can get to heaven by myself.  That’s a lie.  People think they can get to heaven by being a good person, but by God’s grace and by God’s spirit they are able to discern and know they have been on the wrong program.  And they turn from self-salvation to the free gift of eternal life offered by Jesus Christ.
2. Sanctification by works- I might not have been able to save myself but I can sure make myself righteous.  No you cannot.  If you are trying to get victory over sin in your own flesh, if you’re trying to do the right thing by the power of your will, then you are falling down a lot.  You can’t save yourself.
3. Be true to yourself- That is everywhere!  That is on every poster in every store.  Shakespeare said this, “This above all, to thin own self be true.”  Is that true?  That you don’t have any obligation outside of yourself?  I tell you what, that is the surefire way to set sail to the shore of misery.  Be true to others!  Be true to God!  That’s the way to live life.  That’s not what they teach out there or at school.  They teach you to pump yourself up, to do what makes you happy in the moment.  Where is the discernment?
4. Morality is personal- Personal issue, guy with a guy, girl with a girl, me with her before I’m married, and me whatever I want on the first date.  If it works for me, you shut up about it.  If I feel fine, then why is it any of your business?
5. Truth is unknowable- Let me ask you this.  Is the truth about oxygen knowable?  Why don’t you go for a few minutes without that truth.  How about this, James and His wife, while raising their kids they didn’t wanna mess them up with truth claims and all( just an example) said, “Well if you wanna touch the stove, touch the stove.”  Because what didn’t work for me, who am I to say that might not work for my kids.  And what was an unsatisfactory thing to me to put my hand on that burner, what if one of my kids appreciated that?  They say that the truth is unknowable because it is unfindable, unfashionable.  Jesus said Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my word will not pass away.  They say the truth is unknowable because the truth cannot be fixed.  It’s different from each generation.  No, sin stays the same.  And the solution is the same.  Where is the discernment?

Worship for the Soul

“Authentic Revelation”
From the teachings of James MacDonald
 

Revealed As: Worship for the Soul
John 4:24

Worship is the most powerful joy producing hope sustaining life altering thing we can do.  I don’t know where you are today but I hope you can hear this.  Politicians are constantly asserting overstatement.  “I will” or “I promise.”  I want you to know that I am not over stating anything here.  Worship is what it’s all about.  When Jesus said out of the heart the mouth speaks, he was punctuating the absolute centrality of worship at the determinate for every human future.  Pride is the condition of heart that leads to placing worship in the wrong object. Even sometimes in ourselves.  Worship is what God has to displace what pride leads me to; which is sin.  Commandment #1 “You shall have no other God before me.”  The greatest sin is idolatry.  Worship is the highest and most human experience.  Love the lord God first.  Idolatry insulates our hearts from the delight we were created to revel in.  A lot of things come to mind when you hear the word “worship”; like your encounter with God when you see something magnificent, like the Grand Canyon, the stained glass windows in the church, the sound of an organ recital, or a walk in the woods.  I don’t know what comes to your mind, but to talk about this the whole message, let’s make sure we have the right definition.  The Old Testament version means to touch your head to the ground.  In the New Testament, two words describe the action of worship.  One is proskuneo, to kiss the hand. The second word is latreuw, to give or pay homage.  When you worship you are saying this is worth more.  Letting go of what is worth less and embracing what is worth more.  Some people are fond of saying “Worship is more than singing.”  “I can show God worship by the way I cut my grass, by the way I prepare a meal for my family.”  False!  Those acts may be worshipful or like, but this is key.  Worship is not the act of doing things that evoke awareness in God, or even indirectly can ascribe worthiness to him.  Worship is the conscious, direct, specific adoration of someone or something greater than ourselves.  Arch Bishop William Temple quoted, "Worship is the submission of all our nature to

God. It is the quickening of the conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of the mind with His truth; the purifying of the imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of the will to His purpose and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is original sin and the source of actual sin.”  When I worship I am taking an ax to the base of the tree that has caused pain and misery in my life.
 

I’m always looking for something fun to do, something to bring humor or joy.  I’m saying this because I’ve had a lot of fun but no extent of it can touch the border of the joy that I’ve experienced in the joy of worship.  I have filled my life with the worship of God and it has produced so much joy and it is hope sustaining.  I know what it is to weep, to face dark nights, where I can’t even think of what to ask God because it seems so far gone, I can’t even think of a way to ask God to resolve it.  But all those things have passed.  People ask how I got through it.  Worship is taking hold of the Lord.  And in worship we find that not only does he alter us, not only does he give us joy, but in the dark times, worship is what sustains our hope.  When problems are big, God is small.  But in worship, when we say magnify the Lord within me, all of a sudden the holiness of the greatness of God begins to eclipse those things, like they will never happen.  So worship is the most powerful joy producing hope sustaining life altering thing we can do.
 

So what does Jesus Christ think of worship? In John 4, the Samaritan woman was a sinful woman and to be avoided. She was so filled with shame and regret. She might have wrongly assumed that worship was for other people, better people, but worship is for everyone. Jesus was talking about the water that satisfies the soul. (Last week’s lesson.) In order to see the Lord fill what is empty in me, to satisfy what is hungry in my soul, I have to be exposed for who I am really am. She perceived he was a profit. In John 4:20 He finally exposes who she really is. Then she wants to have a debate about worship. Talk about jumping across four lanes and going in a different direction. The truth is, we don’t know why. Don’t supply a motive though. She’s of a different faith. How often do people of different faiths get to talk? Whatever her motive was, we can learn a lot.
 

Avoid debate.  In John 4:21 what Christ is saying is it’s not a place, it’s a pattern.  It’s just not worth having the fight.  They devalue people and the Lord.  Instead of debating with her, he decides to instruct her about what her soul really needs.  The biggest debate is the worship debate.  What our soul needs the most is worship.  And when people debate worship, they are hurting peoples capacity.  Let the passionate adoration of God grow and leave the debate at the door.
 

Start with salvation.  He says to her, “You worship what you do not know.”  People say they’re going to figure out God on their own.  Well God wrote a book that told about himself.  We don’t have to go sit somewhere and make up God. I f you want to know about God, turn to “And it is written.”  If you want to have a worship relationship, start with salvation.  People know about him but not him personally.  Do you remember when
you were in science and you would read about a physics formula?  But then there was the day you got out of the text book and went into the laboratory and did something.  And you could see the light going on in everyone’s mind saying, “I get it!”  That’s what salvation is.  It’s when you move from text book information about God to I know.  It begins with removing the barrier of sin.  We’ve all fallen short.  The wages of sin is death, both physical and eternal.  The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, the gift of eternal salvation.  God’s wrath was poured out on the death of Jesus Christ.  Salvation is when I turn from my sin and place my faith on Jesus Christ for my forgiveness.  You have to make it personal and know that you have it.  Everyone that is saved has a story.  Here is James’s story.  He remembers his Grandfather.  He was 7 and went to church on Sunday night, remembers the message his Grandfather preached and says to his Dad that he wanted to go down front.  His Dad said no, we are going home.  His Dad didn’t know what he meant.  So when James got home from church he ran in and took off his church clothes and threw them on the floor.  He walked to the kitchen and he asked why they didn’t want him to be saved.  His Mom took him into her bedroom, opened her Bible, kneeled down by the bed and showed him this verse and told him Jesus died for him and his sins could be forgiven.  So he turned from his sins and he embraced Christ by faith for his forgiveness.  That little moment he was 7.  It started then and he tried to get away from the Lord, but the Lord would not let go of him.
You’ve got to avoid debate.  If you don’t have strong convictions about what matters in worship, you’re going to get your train jerked off the right tracks every time someone shows up with their preferences or no preferences at all.  Avoid debate and start with salvation.  If someone doesn’t even know the Lord yet, then you REALLY can’t have the debate.  If you can’t come into a temporary relationship with a human being that allows for many years of your life till you go to heaven.  Then what makes you think you can come into an eternal relationship with God of the universe without knowing him.  What is your story?
 

Enter in fully.  He says the hour is coming and the time is near when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking people who truly worship him.  God wants true worshipers.  Truth matters, but it is spirit and truth.  It’s not just head, it’s heart.  It’s not just mind, it’s soul and strength.  It’s whole being adoration.  It’s vertical.  We sing about the Lord but not to him.  He’s leaning in listing.  It’s simple.  The songs sing holy, holy, holy is the Lord.  If the songs are simple it makes them easier to become emotive.  We should feel what we are saying.  Don’t just say I love you without feeling it.  Direct that love to the person you are saying it to.  Enter in fully.  When Jesus says to the Samaritan woman God is spirit, and those who worship do in spirit and truth.  And she says to him she knows the messiah is coming, he will tell us all things.  He said I am him.  

 

The final point in worship should be clear to us.  Worship should absolutely and categorically avoid debate, start with salvation, enter fully, and focus on Jesus Christ.  When James sits down at the piano he plays the same song every time, now for 20 years.  (Here is a link if you want to hear the song… http://youtu.be/DobvWwqTYhw)  The song was written by a man who founded what became known as the Vineyard Movement.  They would have a lot of doctrinal differences but a lot in common in what is preached in the church today.  One of the things we would have in common with them was a commitment to a passionate heartfelt worship. John Wimber was his name.  He was not only a preacher but a gifted song writer.  Spirit song is the name of the song.  The reason James plays this song is because it has become a symbol of what he desperately needs.  All of the things we do can become a barrier in the heart of a worshiper.  And when we worship we say this is worth nothing and you are worth everything.  The song is very tender of our dependence upon the Lord.  People who turn, run, receive or depend on the Lord are depicted as a child of innocence.  Jesus is like a Shepard and we are like a lamb.  In the song, Wimber says, “Oh let the Son of God enfold you with his spirit and his love.  Let him fill your heart and satisfy your soul.  Let him have the things that hold you and his spirit like a dove will descend upon your life and make you whole.”  The chorus “Jesus oh Jesus, come and fill your lambs.”  What a humble thing to say to the Lord.
 

 

Prayer: “Father, I pray that our worship today would be honoring to you.  I pray today that our worship would come from tender and humbled hearts.  Thank you that in drawing near in worship you welcome us.  Thank you that we are wrapped in the robe of Christ’s righteousness through faith in him and that we are welcomed into your holy presence.  Help us to come as the little children and hungry lambs that we are.  And as we sing a song of love to you, may we sense you drawing near to us, even as we draw near to you.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.