Feb 2, 2014
Do we submit ourselves completely?
Series: (All)
Larry_Achen_smlSo its good to know some people know how to use the DVR. I remember there was a cartoon show called The Simpsons and there was one episode that the comes to mind mapping of the Sunday there was it was a is Super Bowl Sunday and March finally convinces that she should drag Homer along to church service on Sunday and he really didn't want to go you wanted the watch the game finally somehow because of Martha's influence became the church and when he came to church it was his family and one other person in the church and so module saying see their others and so the pastor comes up and says it's good to see you all here on Super Bowl Sunday and the one person stood on Super Bowl Sunday they ran up the threads it's good this even very is a you today our God bless you all today's passage is taken from Romans chapter 12 verses 1 to 2 Romans chapter 12 verses one to to the lectionary talks about Christ going into the Temple being presented in the Temple and before we begin our epistle passage I just want to go back to the this Luke's Gospel just very briefly I mentioned one or two things in Luke's gospel chapter 2 verses 22 in English it says when the time came for their purification so that data is plural in the Greek it's the same way in the Greek it says when it came time for they had committed purification in the Greek is plural and in our English translation is plural plural unfortunately in my on translations they translated it as way came time for our purification there is a a a tradition of old law more than a tradition in the Old Testament that speaks about women needing to purify themselves after childbirth but I think it's very interesting that Luke the doctor looked the doctor when he narrates this he doesn't press that point instead he says I came time for their purification understanding that everyone needs purification and then he focuses on the presentation of Christ in the Temple the focus of this tradition of this passage is on bringing Jesus Christ to the church a it's it's sad and it's unfortunate that we have adopted only one view of that and take it to mean that it's only talking about the woman and her purification in a way that the basis for why the Martin the church as a service before the baptism if you listen very carefully for the baptismal service that's done before sorry the service is done before the baptism which is called stop the product (so the part that's praise prayer that given for the healthy birth in they are are and it hints of this idea is still present today of in uncleanness that exists and so we're asking that God remove this uncleanliness it's it's time that we very critically look at what we're say I don't know if anyone's ever noticed it but whenever we've taken that portion of the service had not said those words and there was one time when during Jaden's baptism I asked if said she and him the would both come forward for the prayer and they both agreed to the both came forward for that prayer and according to our church tradition it's it's all it's usually been the the woman comes forward and we pray for her purification and we thank God for the healthy childbirth what I'm asking you all to think more clearly through these things if Saint Luke being a doctor could figure out that the importance of this event was bringing Christ to the Temple why are we still why are we still stuck in the past as is leave that to you whenever you see fit many good asking yourselves why we do this in the I and I encourage you to to be critical of our church I love our church I love our church more than all of any of the church I would never leave this church unless for some reason the the the higher-ups just decided to blasphemy that I wish I don't see ever happening so I I'm staying in this church until I die with because of my love for the church I'm also very critical of our church I want our church to be in line with the Bible rather than in-line with our understanding of traditions are always secondary to the Bible this is there even in our Constitution we take all of our doctrines from Scripture then from the liturgy than from tradition I just wanted to mention that to you all we do not we do not have that concept today if you give birth to a child you are very much welcome to come to church the very next Sunday is absolutely no reason to stay away and there is no concept that prevents women from being in the mother the hot there is no concept of uncleanliness that prevents her from being in the month that's all I'll say on that issue shall we now focus our attention on Romans chapter 12 verses one and two when we know that the gospel passage focuses on Jesus's presentation into the Temple how are we to present ourselves to God is the question so it's very easy to understand what Jesus's parents were doing in that context and in that culture they had a certain kind of a tradition that they followed which made sense for them and what do we do yes we bring our children to the Temple but more than that how do we present ourselves to God in this passage Paul says I appeal to you therefore whenever you see therefore whenever you read the the the Scripture look very carefully for certain words words like therefore or but's these or yet is all words that should signal something to trigger something in your mind when we read that this Paul says I appeal to you therefore therefore means what is about to say is based on something else so he's discussed something for quite some time and now he same the practical implications of what I just talked about means this what I do a big study on the thread is no time rebbe Romans chapter 128 is more theological Romans chapter 8 Romans chapter 9 1011 talked about how it is that this theology fits in with the reality that Israel seems to be not where it should be how it seems to follow the way so Paul addresses that and then now he says therefore so based on this concept of sin that I've mentioned to based on this concept of Christ coming in justifying you based on this concept that God has now past due to sanctify yourselves therefore now I appeal to you I urge you in the Greek is very close to I beg you present to you ourselves your bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship know when we think of spiritual worship we need to break down some of these strange notions that we may have him in the or the there was and is an and he we call Gloria and gland is very passionate when she worships the reason she has that name is every every Wednesday prayer one Wednesday morning ladies prayer shall be then and when the prayer parties going on nonstop she say go to a you a you so that we gave her this she has problems with their neighbors she cannot get along with her neighbors if my memory serves me right she was the one who is very abusive to her daughter-in-law know what is this concept of spirituality that we have; we see that will thing while what spirituality to say Gloria Willard Lewis so many times so loudly that such a wonderful thing is it not what I think this passage conveys to us is a different understanding of sin. She will worship ritual worship involves presenting our bodies to him there was another interesting spiritual experience that Jesus had with his closest disciples James and John and Peter when they were on this mountain there was this beautiful experience that happened we call it the Transfiguration so Jesus says clothes began to dazzle bright light was shining so brightly was difficult this data brighter than any white imaginable and then suddenly these disciples see there is these great figures of faith for now before them and so they Peter said something that sounds very levelheaded it's wonderful that we are here let's build the reason Tabernacles let's make 310s one for you one for Moses and the is an endless day here because this is a beautiful spiritual experience and Jesus is a response to that was now let's go back down we that we had enough time him and him let's go back to and when he goes back down the very next thing that he does is he encounters a boy with seizures and he heals the sport that what I would argue is that spiritual worship spiritual worship definitely is not devoid of quiet time with God is not devoid of ecstatic experiences I'm not saying that but I am saying this the ritual worship if it does not have a practical implications to it it is not spiritual worship or when Jesus came down from that mountainside what he is conveying to his disciples is more important that we stay out here and revelation this brightness is coming off of me let's go down and actually present ourselves to God by service when we think sacrifice we think and think of it in two ways one is something has to die and definitely when we present ourselves as a living sacrifice something has died something needs to die that source. Should that our sinful nature needs to our passions are desirous to doing simple things needs to die but another element of its sacrifices also there the other element is sacrifices and authority it's a submission we are to submit ourselves we are to offer ourselves to God so that he can use us when we read this passage what I think it tells us is it's fantastic that we come here every Sunday Cintas said that we have Tuesday prayer it Cintas that each organization needs him several times a month would what is import is that these meetings that these worship services means that when we come down from the mountain we are ready to serve we are ready to reach out to others that that is spiritual worship spiritual worship is not the life of the monk who separates himself from the rest of culture fluoresces society spiritual worship is Jesus who does not separate himself he takes time for prayer he drenches his life in private prayer yes most of what the Scripture look courts is his interactions with others his concern for others is care for others is touching people is healing people that what we have to pick out from this when we will reinvent Jesus was presented before God and the Temple we need to realize that I must present myself to God how do I do that it means using this physical body to serve him not just praying not just singing not just even writing the check although all of those aren't needed an important but going out in giving your time for others that's one thing the second thing is when we look at the verse two do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your minds that I like this his ministry called the Ravi Zacharias international ministries are busy I am.org it's a fantastic website I can spend hours on that website because is so much information and so one of the people who is on this team with Ravi Zacharias is Stuart McAllister & number listening to a a a a lecture by Stuart McAllister and he was referencing this verse and he said the verse very clearly says be transformed by the renewal of your mind not by the removal of your mind most of the people today most of the preachers we all we all are are accountable to this we intend to trade renewal for removal and seven knowing and questioning just be quiet and listen to what I saying that's it instead of understanding something just go on blind faith we somehow I that elevated this chief word blind faith we don't have blind faith in we should never have blind faith our faith is very much grounded on assist Oracle fax on the birth the wrestler the death and the resurrection of Christ on numerous pages of literature of prophecy of historical events that have happened all this is the basis for our faith we do not have a blind unreasonable faith nor should we have our faith must be thought out we need to challenge ourselves and I know that this is not something that comes easily especially when we grown-up memorizing and just putting these memorized answers down on today's edition example whatnot and thinking that were good a that works when you're a new Christian when you're young Christian but if way old-time we still have that infantile perspective of Christian faith something is very wrong when we were talking about this so with our ever permission and him asking this in the leadership conference with the kids who come there and how many of that we just how many people here would would do go for this alley people have read Genesis chapter 22 division happens the Genesis chapter 2 somebody ask you a question when was which was which was first man or the creation of animals which came first the patient of humans are the creation of animals animals animals Genesis chapter 2 is a little different this is chapter 2 is a little different ideas another question how many days it take to create six Genesis chapter 2 is a little different Genesis chapter 2 is a little different for why have we never noticed this isn't because we just memorized Genesis chapter 1 we just memorized challenge yourselves really challenge yourselves I saying this for the sake of UN for the sake of your children because what worked in Kerala Wallwork here in Canada that nobody challenges your faith and Gelineau on will bring up the difference between the creation narrative and evolution knowledge of in a mess with that we hear each and every one of your children will face that they will they will face people who have read the Bible better than we have and these people who have read the Bible better than us. Pointing out and saying this is a contradiction that the contradiction if we a within our community have not used our God given minds to engage these passages we will be lost at that moment it's very difficult things I say that as a warning to you on the and as an encouragement to start start believing that when you present yourselves to Christ it means not only your body but it means your mind it means you present your minds to God everything that you learned in school all truth that you learn anywhere it, apart from God God is the source of all truth.. So we need to be seekers of truth and if we are truth seekers of truth we will understand God better but that only happens when we engage our minds don't get caught up with what the world wants to to to is very interesting when we read Romans chapter 1 that God Paul says that the gods invisible attributes are seem so very clearly in nature that no one is without excuse no one is without excuse for believing that there is a God and yet so many people do not believe that and so Paul says that God gives these people over to their debased minds the world does not use its God-given intellect like it should and when it doesn't it cuts God out there when you cut God out you've now lost all foundation for the what is the value what is the purpose of human life we have to be vigilant as we meditate on these two ideas is realize that if we do these two things if we present our bodies as a living sacrifice if we submit ourselves to serve others and move beyond. The the clichéd spirituality and if we would just give our minds over to him know that he is bigger than and we have our doubts know that he is not going to look down on you for asking questions he will only embracing because he knows that those questions comes from an inquisitive mind wants to know what we believe those two things then then we can get to the second half of the second verse so that you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect unless we give ourselves unless we present our bodies must present our minds you cannot know the will of God and believe it just very blunt like that is at a I don't know how else to explain this only one way to know little of God and that comes to submission are we willing to submit our bodies our time and energy energy is a big deal we want to say that for ourselves all that we have only ready to submit it to him are we ready to take our faith seriously and think it through really think it's know it's no strange coincidence that an engineer realized that is very rational to believe in Christ is no is no contradiction there we must think and when we do we must realize and then began to discern the will of God, so may the good Lord bless us in these two tasks of presenting ourselves for the Lord just as Jesus was presented as the passage is as a mark of his verification would do one of you please leaders in order for him and those who come prepared to take the holy communion if you would stand and say the prayer of confession after me
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  • Feb 2, 2014Do we submit ourselves completely?
    Feb 2, 2014
    Do we submit ourselves completely?
    Series: (All)
    Larry_Achen_smlSo its good to know some people know how to use the DVR. I remember there was a cartoon show called The Simpsons and there was one episode that the comes to mind mapping of the Sunday there was it was a is Super Bowl Sunday and March finally convinces that she should drag Homer along to church service on Sunday and he really didn't want to go you wanted the watch the game finally somehow because of Martha's influence became the church and when he came to church it was his family and one other person in the church and so module saying see their others and so the pastor comes up and says it's good to see you all here on Super Bowl Sunday and the one person stood on Super Bowl Sunday they ran up the threads it's good this even very is a you today our God bless you all today's passage is taken from Romans chapter 12 verses 1 to 2 Romans chapter 12 verses one to to the lectionary talks about Christ going into the Temple being presented in the Temple and before we begin our epistle passage I just want to go back to the this Luke's Gospel just very briefly I mentioned one or two things in Luke's gospel chapter 2 verses 22 in English it says when the time came for their purification so that data is plural in the Greek it's the same way in the Greek it says when it came time for they had committed purification in the Greek is plural and in our English translation is plural plural unfortunately in my on translations they translated it as way came time for our purification there is a a a tradition of old law more than a tradition in the Old Testament that speaks about women needing to purify themselves after childbirth but I think it's very interesting that Luke the doctor looked the doctor when he narrates this he doesn't press that point instead he says I came time for their purification understanding that everyone needs purification and then he focuses on the presentation of Christ in the Temple the focus of this tradition of this passage is on bringing Jesus Christ to the church a it's it's sad and it's unfortunate that we have adopted only one view of that and take it to mean that it's only talking about the woman and her purification in a way that the basis for why the Martin the church as a service before the baptism if you listen very carefully for the baptismal service that's done before sorry the service is done before the baptism which is called stop the product (so the part that's praise prayer that given for the healthy birth in they are are and it hints of this idea is still present today of in uncleanness that exists and so we're asking that God remove this uncleanliness it's it's time that we very critically look at what we're say I don't know if anyone's ever noticed it but whenever we've taken that portion of the service had not said those words and there was one time when during Jaden's baptism I asked if said she and him the would both come forward for the prayer and they both agreed to the both came forward for that prayer and according to our church tradition it's it's all it's usually been the the woman comes forward and we pray for her purification and we thank God for the healthy childbirth what I'm asking you all to think more clearly through these things if Saint Luke being a doctor could figure out that the importance of this event was bringing Christ to the Temple why are we still why are we still stuck in the past as is leave that to you whenever you see fit many good asking yourselves why we do this in the I and I encourage you to to be critical of our church I love our church I love our church more than all of any of the church I would never leave this church unless for some reason the the the higher-ups just decided to blasphemy that I wish I don't see ever happening so I I'm staying in this church until I die with because of my love for the church I'm also very critical of our church I want our church to be in line with the Bible rather than in-line with our understanding of traditions are always secondary to the Bible this is there even in our Constitution we take all of our doctrines from Scripture then from the liturgy than from tradition I just wanted to mention that to you all we do not we do not have that concept today if you give birth to a child you are very much welcome to come to church the very next Sunday is absolutely no reason to stay away and there is no concept that prevents women from being in the mother the hot there is no concept of uncleanliness that prevents her from being in the month that's all I'll say on that issue shall we now focus our attention on Romans chapter 12 verses one and two when we know that the gospel passage focuses on Jesus's presentation into the Temple how are we to present ourselves to God is the question so it's very easy to understand what Jesus's parents were doing in that context and in that culture they had a certain kind of a tradition that they followed which made sense for them and what do we do yes we bring our children to the Temple but more than that how do we present ourselves to God in this passage Paul says I appeal to you therefore whenever you see therefore whenever you read the the the Scripture look very carefully for certain words words like therefore or but's these or yet is all words that should signal something to trigger something in your mind when we read that this Paul says I appeal to you therefore therefore means what is about to say is based on something else so he's discussed something for quite some time and now he same the practical implications of what I just talked about means this what I do a big study on the thread is no time rebbe Romans chapter 128 is more theological Romans chapter 8 Romans chapter 9 1011 talked about how it is that this theology fits in with the reality that Israel seems to be not where it should be how it seems to follow the way so Paul addresses that and then now he says therefore so based on this concept of sin that I've mentioned to based on this concept of Christ coming in justifying you based on this concept that God has now past due to sanctify yourselves therefore now I appeal to you I urge you in the Greek is very close to I beg you present to you ourselves your bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship know when we think of spiritual worship we need to break down some of these strange notions that we may have him in the or the there was and is an and he we call Gloria and gland is very passionate when she worships the reason she has that name is every every Wednesday prayer one Wednesday morning ladies prayer shall be then and when the prayer parties going on nonstop she say go to a you a you so that we gave her this she has problems with their neighbors she cannot get along with her neighbors if my memory serves me right she was the one who is very abusive to her daughter-in-law know what is this concept of spirituality that we have; we see that will thing while what spirituality to say Gloria Willard Lewis so many times so loudly that such a wonderful thing is it not what I think this passage conveys to us is a different understanding of sin. She will worship ritual worship involves presenting our bodies to him there was another interesting spiritual experience that Jesus had with his closest disciples James and John and Peter when they were on this mountain there was this beautiful experience that happened we call it the Transfiguration so Jesus says clothes began to dazzle bright light was shining so brightly was difficult this data brighter than any white imaginable and then suddenly these disciples see there is these great figures of faith for now before them and so they Peter said something that sounds very levelheaded it's wonderful that we are here let's build the reason Tabernacles let's make 310s one for you one for Moses and the is an endless day here because this is a beautiful spiritual experience and Jesus is a response to that was now let's go back down we that we had enough time him and him let's go back to and when he goes back down the very next thing that he does is he encounters a boy with seizures and he heals the sport that what I would argue is that spiritual worship spiritual worship definitely is not devoid of quiet time with God is not devoid of ecstatic experiences I'm not saying that but I am saying this the ritual worship if it does not have a practical implications to it it is not spiritual worship or when Jesus came down from that mountainside what he is conveying to his disciples is more important that we stay out here and revelation this brightness is coming off of me let's go down and actually present ourselves to God by service when we think sacrifice we think and think of it in two ways one is something has to die and definitely when we present ourselves as a living sacrifice something has died something needs to die that source. Should that our sinful nature needs to our passions are desirous to doing simple things needs to die but another element of its sacrifices also there the other element is sacrifices and authority it's a submission we are to submit ourselves we are to offer ourselves to God so that he can use us when we read this passage what I think it tells us is it's fantastic that we come here every Sunday Cintas said that we have Tuesday prayer it Cintas that each organization needs him several times a month would what is import is that these meetings that these worship services means that when we come down from the mountain we are ready to serve we are ready to reach out to others that that is spiritual worship spiritual worship is not the life of the monk who separates himself from the rest of culture fluoresces society spiritual worship is Jesus who does not separate himself he takes time for prayer he drenches his life in private prayer yes most of what the Scripture look courts is his interactions with others his concern for others is care for others is touching people is healing people that what we have to pick out from this when we will reinvent Jesus was presented before God and the Temple we need to realize that I must present myself to God how do I do that it means using this physical body to serve him not just praying not just singing not just even writing the check although all of those aren't needed an important but going out in giving your time for others that's one thing the second thing is when we look at the verse two do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your minds that I like this his ministry called the Ravi Zacharias international ministries are busy I am.org it's a fantastic website I can spend hours on that website because is so much information and so one of the people who is on this team with Ravi Zacharias is Stuart McAllister & number listening to a a a a lecture by Stuart McAllister and he was referencing this verse and he said the verse very clearly says be transformed by the renewal of your mind not by the removal of your mind most of the people today most of the preachers we all we all are are accountable to this we intend to trade renewal for removal and seven knowing and questioning just be quiet and listen to what I saying that's it instead of understanding something just go on blind faith we somehow I that elevated this chief word blind faith we don't have blind faith in we should never have blind faith our faith is very much grounded on assist Oracle fax on the birth the wrestler the death and the resurrection of Christ on numerous pages of literature of prophecy of historical events that have happened all this is the basis for our faith we do not have a blind unreasonable faith nor should we have our faith must be thought out we need to challenge ourselves and I know that this is not something that comes easily especially when we grown-up memorizing and just putting these memorized answers down on today's edition example whatnot and thinking that were good a that works when you're a new Christian when you're young Christian but if way old-time we still have that infantile perspective of Christian faith something is very wrong when we were talking about this so with our ever permission and him asking this in the leadership conference with the kids who come there and how many of that we just how many people here would would do go for this alley people have read Genesis chapter 22 division happens the Genesis chapter 2 somebody ask you a question when was which was which was first man or the creation of animals which came first the patient of humans are the creation of animals animals animals Genesis chapter 2 is a little different this is chapter 2 is a little different ideas another question how many days it take to create six Genesis chapter 2 is a little different Genesis chapter 2 is a little different for why have we never noticed this isn't because we just memorized Genesis chapter 1 we just memorized challenge yourselves really challenge yourselves I saying this for the sake of UN for the sake of your children because what worked in Kerala Wallwork here in Canada that nobody challenges your faith and Gelineau on will bring up the difference between the creation narrative and evolution knowledge of in a mess with that we hear each and every one of your children will face that they will they will face people who have read the Bible better than we have and these people who have read the Bible better than us. Pointing out and saying this is a contradiction that the contradiction if we a within our community have not used our God given minds to engage these passages we will be lost at that moment it's very difficult things I say that as a warning to you on the and as an encouragement to start start believing that when you present yourselves to Christ it means not only your body but it means your mind it means you present your minds to God everything that you learned in school all truth that you learn anywhere it, apart from God God is the source of all truth.. So we need to be seekers of truth and if we are truth seekers of truth we will understand God better but that only happens when we engage our minds don't get caught up with what the world wants to to to is very interesting when we read Romans chapter 1 that God Paul says that the gods invisible attributes are seem so very clearly in nature that no one is without excuse no one is without excuse for believing that there is a God and yet so many people do not believe that and so Paul says that God gives these people over to their debased minds the world does not use its God-given intellect like it should and when it doesn't it cuts God out there when you cut God out you've now lost all foundation for the what is the value what is the purpose of human life we have to be vigilant as we meditate on these two ideas is realize that if we do these two things if we present our bodies as a living sacrifice if we submit ourselves to serve others and move beyond. The the clichéd spirituality and if we would just give our minds over to him know that he is bigger than and we have our doubts know that he is not going to look down on you for asking questions he will only embracing because he knows that those questions comes from an inquisitive mind wants to know what we believe those two things then then we can get to the second half of the second verse so that you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect unless we give ourselves unless we present our bodies must present our minds you cannot know the will of God and believe it just very blunt like that is at a I don't know how else to explain this only one way to know little of God and that comes to submission are we willing to submit our bodies our time and energy energy is a big deal we want to say that for ourselves all that we have only ready to submit it to him are we ready to take our faith seriously and think it through really think it's know it's no strange coincidence that an engineer realized that is very rational to believe in Christ is no is no contradiction there we must think and when we do we must realize and then began to discern the will of God, so may the good Lord bless us in these two tasks of presenting ourselves for the Lord just as Jesus was presented as the passage is as a mark of his verification would do one of you please leaders in order for him and those who come prepared to take the holy communion if you would stand and say the prayer of confession after me
  • Jan 19, 2014Bearing fruit in Unity
    Jan 19, 2014
    Bearing fruit in Unity
    Series: (All)
    Larry_Achen_sml The gospel passage for the Sunday taken from John chapter 15 verses 1 to 12 the theme according to lectionary is called unity unity is also ecumenical Sunday in our church our lectionary is shared between the modular church to see and I church and the CSI church was a three-year cycle that the we use at any given Sunday if all the actions are using the lectionary and it's amazing to think is that there's about 5 million Christians out there who are all meditating on the same passage the 5 million Christians all meditating on this passage in John chapter 15 verses one through 12 called unity that shouldn't philosophic kind of sense of our to know that there's so many other Christians just like us who have the same struggles who have the same joy is as us also learning more about Christ in their own respective communities and it's a great blessing for us to acknowledge the fact that God is the God over all denominations we did not separate our denomination out of the Christian faith and say that we're the only way nor do we say that it's the only way in Kerala there a number of options number of churches that you can go and participate in have fellowship and I'm glad that you are here and I believe that the modular church has something special to offer and the I hope that slowly we can understand what that is over the course of time when we start off this sermon with a a short little story that I heard there was a missionary who just recently went to a very remote village in Africa with them he had supplies along with the supplies he had a small generator and a little lightbulb so he set up this generator in the lightbulb in his and his little hot in order to get light and he started inviting people from the area to come and visit with him and that a few of these people who came these villagers who came they were really amazes they watch this missionary go and turn us Legion and suddenly life came out of this bulk and they don't have electricity in the area this is something new for them after their talk was over one of the you have visitors one of the villagers asked the evangelist missionaries he could have one of these lightbulbs the missionary thought he had no problem he probably wanted it as a keepsake or souvenir city gave them a lightbulb some time went by and then when he's making his rounds in these nearby villages he meets this man enters into his home and sees that lightbulb hanging from a string in the middle of the and that he had a smile the many said my friend this lightbulb only works if you have a generator which conducts electricity and you need wires for adults that we make on a smile just like that missionary would when we realize the innocence of this village for him to think that the lightbulb in of itself would light up but we have to realize that quite often we do the very same thing in this passage Jesus tells us a story about the importance of our connection to the true source of power which is Christ which is the true vine when we are in this true vine when we are connected to this true vine and then things work then we have power to do we have the ability to bear fruits of several times he talks about abiding me and I in you a few times he says this phrase abiding me abide in me now I want to look at two things that are assured to us if we do abide in him and then we will start the beginning and asked answer the simple question what does it mean to abide in him the first of all what are the two things that are assured to us Christians who abide in the vine one of the first things that he assures us of is pruning we will be prudent and pruning seems at first to be a counter intuitive action a number just after we moved into the parsonage here in Garden Grove we had a good amount of shades because the trees in our courtyard were very lush and a bushy is a large trees unkept cheese that provided a good amount of shade we are very happy because we came in may and so it's a little warm and having that said makes the difference but I some point in time they can hire people to come and trim back the tree to prudent and even then I didn't understand why they would do that because I lost so much shade and I felt like the tree doesn't even look good anymore and I imagine that me being a person looking at it with our perspective with an outside perspective it seems a bit odd that we would do such a thing imagine if you were the tree being prudent how strange it would feel to have parts of your being taken away from you but this is exactly what Christ does now if you come into our courtyard it's beautiful to see the shape of the streets the pruning actually worked it actually yielded some sort of a benefit when the gardener prunes there times when he prunes dead branches he takes off things that are attached to the branch that are of no use they're not producing anything and so he takes it away and in our lives there will be times when if we are abiding in him that the spirit will come into our lives and will take away things from our lines that are dead and useless we have to be ready for the because sometimes it might not be comfortable but still we can maybe understand why that sort of thing would be done with pruning doesn't stop there a good gardener knows it there sometimes when you have to cut what looks like a healthy branchless stem in order to make the rest of it even healthier even stronger and so there times in their things in our lives which may be good and it may even be better but God will trim those things in order to make room for the best and we have to be willing to let go of those things I was trying to think of some examples of what these kinds of things that would be pruned back would be I I was thinking in my life time if you conceptualize a time would be something that that might my use of time needs to be pruned their times and I spent a good amount of of of of time just reading random things and thought Christian related but I really do feel that what their times in God prunes me in order to be a little bit more focused and limited sharper in what I do with my time as a simple example that I can think of there a number of examples and a number of opportunities in our own lives to be prudent are you willing to let go of those things after the service is over I'll be meeting with the youth Fellowship and when I meet with the youth Fellowship were to be talking about a passage where a you rich young ruler went to Jesus and said what must I do to and heritage and the life and he says follow the Commandments and the rich young ruler says I've been doing all those and then Jesus looked at him with love and said: sell all your possessions and come and follow me in that action the pruning was too painful for this young man and he walked away and left if we are going to abide in Christ as we should we have to be ready to let God take away those things that rob us of the spiritual vigor that we need and that is possible if we allow it now another thing is pruning happens in a very cystic way it is in verse three you were pruned by the word that you won't see it in your Bibles because in your Bibles most likely it'll say you were cleansed by the word the what we really what we need to realize is that in Greek is a word being used that's translated as pruning and that same word in other contexts is translated as cleansing the same word in Greek so it's the word of God the that cleanses us will prunes our heart if we don't spend time in the word we will be and unkept tree we will be like a wild fine growing any random direction people may look and say impressive AAA takes up so much space will we know that it would be just like the situation with Jesus walks up to a fig tree that's full of leaves find no food and him and then curses at may we not be counted among that category the next thing that we can be assured of is that those who abide in me will bear fruit but interesting the way this is written the gardener doesn't go and encourage the branch to bear fruit nor does the gardener go and yell at the branches motivating them to bear fruit if the branch is connected to the fine it will bear fruit in will it's natural the scary implication of that is this if I'm not bearing fruit in my life what does it mean am I truly abiding in the vine like Christ has called me to what is the fruit of the Spirit we've done this a few times before love Joy peace patients gentleness faithfulness generosity self-control and else the missed one memory love Joy peace patients kindness Jim generosity faithfulness gentleness and if these things are not there in our lives is a red flag to us is definitely a warning sign to us that something's wrong is very easy it's very easy to go through our Christian lives doing the actions we grew up in the faith so we know all the actions we know exactly what we need to do every Sunday we know what the aneurysms are and we follow through with it but not to say this in order to scare you but to say this in order to make it very blunt who do you think you're fooling I say this to myself as well what we see right now is just physical it's just the will material world is more to life than this this could be a day when after we pass away that we will have to stand before creator at that point we can say I was is having fun I was young nobody really told me that this was a serious thing I've been doing all the action since and I've been doing it for number of years Christ and so I thought that the actions would be enough if I can convince you to do anything else today it would be to stop playing the games of being a Christian and really abide in Christ really abide in him know what does it look like to abide in Christ how do we do it what is it Methow to the manifest itself is very clearly obey my commandments obey my commandments love one another loves sacrifices for others to say that you should love one another is not an easy commandment is very difficult it means that the person who you feel has wronged you a you must love them the person who is gone behind your back in the workplace to get the promotion that you deserved you must love them the person in the school will a zero the person in the school who says God rumors and gossips about you the person in the church who never talks to you who always ignores you and that person you must love and if you can do that then yes I would say that this is a sign of your abiding in Christ another way of abiding in Christ means worship everyone can come to church at worship but when I say worship I really mean worship I mean you wake up in the morning and you want to come to church you wake up in the morning the first thing you want to do is thank God for the rest of last night that's worship not the and and called me to be here not the let me set my good example for my children and so I'm going to come not that kind of which that may lead to abiding I pray that it does but that does not consist of abiding meditating in the word and finally I would say abiding means being Christ like earlier on in John's Gospel in John chapter 6 versus 56 he says this those who eat my flesh and drink my blood will abide in me and I in them communion why is it that the Martha church does communion every Sunday is a little boring isn't it a bit monotonous routine I've been doing number of churches when they don't do communion very often it's once every two months once every three months why do we do communion wide we emphasize communion so much in our church it is because communion is a call to us to abide in him when we come forward and when we get this bread in this line when we receive it in faith are we not partakers of his flesh and of his blood is this not what our this is not the symbol of what our faith should really be if we cannot accept the symbol how will we manifest its truth this is why every bishop tells first communicants take communion every chance you get because we human beings were forgetful creatures we have a tendency to lose track of things and we have a tendency to become apathetic towards things and being apathetic towards God is one of the most dangerous things I can think of I feel it's much better to take God the to be apathetic towards him because at least you have some passion behind it but it's so sad when in our church and I included in this category when we become apathetic towards being in Christ towards being connected to him in a way that produces fruits in our lives we must do this we have to to fix this is what the world needs the fruits that are produced by the vine are not for the sake of the vine the line never gets to partake of the grapes nor does the branches the fruit of the vine is for others Christ came to this world to save us and it is now through our actions to our testimony to the fruits that we their they we were able to testify to the truth of his saving ability in us I pray that as you meditate on this and as you prepare yourself to partake in communion that you would realize the communion means you will be proved you will have portions of your life cut be ready for it allow it to happen and realize that when you come forward to take communion you are expected to bear fruit naturally listen very carefully in the liturgy there comes a time when we pray that the holy church bears fruit for the stability of the kingdom that is up to us it is up to us to be one to be united with him to commune with him to have unity with him and when we do that we could have unity with all 5 million of those other Christians and all the other millions and millions and millions of Christians around the world who praised the same got into or attached to the same fine the may the good Lord bless us.
  • Jan 12, 2014Body as a temple of God
    Jan 12, 2014
    Body as a temple of God
    Series: (All)
    Larry_Achen_sml According to our church lectionary the theme for today is body as the Temple body as Temple of God and also as temperance day I had the that the Kulpa not from our Metropolitan Joseph what the mother many which said that today is supposed to be understood as the day that the church recognizes the social evil that alcohol cost in India I'm sure you know the kind of evils that have occurred because of the abundance of alcohol in Kerala especially Kerala IAI can what the exact statistic was but I'm sure in India Kerala has the most common amount of consumption and sale of alcohol as compared to any other state considering how small Kerala is that's a very pathetic statistic to be saying about our home state but the sad reality is that alcohol is definitely a problem and there is no understanding of moderation is no understanding of the kind of evils that it creates within the family life sin so people get lost in they spend all their time working just so that they can earn enough money to buy the next bottle and then they come home with just a few rupees for the family to then feed themselves with and it's a great social evil when we were in Kerala the number of families that we visited that worse under the impression of alcoholism there were times when we visited homes and the father would be passed out in another room and the wife would be trying to cover up for this kind of her attitude of covering up combined with the prevalence of alcoholism has led to alcoholism just being an accepted part of the culture there in India everyone just knows it's there and no one really tries to do too much about it and there's a lot of the addiction centrism is a lot of good work being done by the church but as a whole it's pretty sad when we see that something that has been there since the beginning of time you could say is so easily abused by people and that abuse causes so much heartache to day that passes that has been selected for us comes from Matthew's gospel chapter 5 verses 21 to 30 if you heard me saying the a gospel passage you maybe wondering what does this have to do with temperance Sunday or even a you may think if you just listen to it quickly what's the connection between this and the Temple our body of is the Temple of God dwell in order for me to say what our church stances are in order for me to to advocate our church stands I have to take a step back and explain a little bit about Christian ethics and I think for that this passage is one of the best passages that we can use just so you know the church stance against alcohol is abstinence the church advocates abstinence from alcohol because of the social situation that it is in because it is in this issue in his area know what alcohol is so utterly abused the church does not want to let there be any confusion it doesn't want to let you any kind of leeway be a stumbling block for others and so they advocate abstinence from alcohol if Jesus were the one giving us the ruled of the commandment what would Jesus we look at this passage left understand a couple of things first of all when we talk about Christian ethics we have to be able to distinguish between the universal principle that applies in every situation and the custom or the practices associated with a particular custom those are two things must be able to distinguish what does the Bible say about capital punishment or about drinking her about abortion this no direct versus about those things so what our job is we must find out what are the universal principles taught to us from Scripture and this isn't something new Jesus strove to teach this way he never taught simply rules for the sake of rules he never said do this and automatically you will receive eternal life it was always a concept that he was trying to teach it was always a principle that he was trying to educate us on that Jesus was very erratic regardless of what we may think and regardless of how we have kind of a around it off his sharp edges over the course of time Jesus was very radical he was not attained person and he was not someone who just blankly and blindly follow traditions to say that doesn't mean that he's an extremist he wasn't anti-tradition neither there was something beautiful about the way that Jesus taught the law before we get into verse 21 I have to take a few verses back and look at verse 17 in verse 17 he says do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets have not come to abolish but to fulfill so what he says this because he knows that what he is about to say sounds very radical sounds almost contradictory and he wants everyone to know that I'm not against what has originally been handed down by the prophets and originally been given to us from God himself I am trying to do something that causes it to be fulfilled not in this chapter 6x6 times you have these key phrases being said every key phrases this you have heard it said are you have heard it said of ancient times Rivington days another phrase that he says is but I say to you now for the Jewish listener these phrases would have been very unique phrases and they would've they would have signified a certain way kind of meaning behind it if I were to say because another common phrase was is written in Jesus says it is written of anyone that time said it is written the Jewish person knew that what would talking about now is Scripture to the the modern-day equivalent of it is written would be for me to say the Bible says whenever I say the Bible says you know that I am referring to of verse I'm referring to something directly from Scripture Jesus does not say it is written in this chapter instead he says you have heard it said now what does that mean the Pharisees made it their business to interpret the law for every law there would have to be someone who expounded on who explained it to help people to understand it and all these collections understandings were called to tell mood and so the Talmud was a number of books actually use volumes and volumes of pages worth of information explaining how to live the law that was their understanding of how they felt they needed to do things but a problem with their pharisaical interpretation is that it was they shall it was very literal and it wasn't a didn't have much depth to when Jesus says you have heard it said listener knew that he is not talking about the written law he's talking about the interpretation of the law so you have heard the interpretation of the law paths you shall not murder and whoever murders shall not shall be liable to judgment that when we read that animal we understand that this is the interpretation given we have to realize that this is a shallow interpretation shall in the sense that it's taking it very literally every time the commandment is given this to polls to that commandment for everything that is negated the assumption is that something that is being advocated so when Christ a when God gives the law that thou shall not murder the obvious understanding was that because the life is sacred in it must be preserved that idea is always advocated this is always the case in the Scripture for every negative kind of commandment we have there is an implied positive statement that needs to be understood and this is true even for us when we teach our children when we tell our kids don't cross the street it would be very foolish for them to never cross the street under any circumstance no matter how old they are the know or at least they should know because we should teach them that behind this rule is a meaning that says you are to be safe at all times therefore you do not cross street that's comes of the level of maturity unfortunately it's very easy to be spiritually immature and we can easily say that this passage does not refer to us at sin this refers to the people in first century Jerusalem and and they had this going to problems they were Pharisees and him and these Pharisees were off when nothing like them all we have to realize is we are just as much or if not more shallow in many ways as these Pharisees there a number of ideas that are in our minds as simple rules that we have never taken a moment to ask why is it there when she teaches do not commit murder after that he says but I say to you that Jesus was known for his sense of authority he was known for being so all of orientated in the way that he thought it was certainly rabbis were you nervous to do this kind of thing but I say to you what rabbis would mostly do is say according to the Scripture we understand and they always point out Scripture but here we have the Messiah who interprets the law finally him he says I say unto you whoever has anger against his brother whoever insults his brother or sister and whoever says you will they are liable of judgment and again we can take that very simply that's not the point that he wants to teaches he's teaching us that any time we insults a brother or sister are we not profaning the sanctity of their existence are we not belittling the makers creation when we do something like that when we call someone a fool are we not insulting the master are we not making fun of her belittling the potter who has made us we have to realize the flipside for this and if we do then I can start to teach about alcohol but unless we get this concept I can't make that and so I assume that we get this thing just to reinforce and let me say maybe a couple of kind of applications Academy pointed out in our dates of a lives you have heard it said before that you should attend church but I say to you worship genuinely with real fellowship to see the difference you have heard it said before by I'm sure everyone of your parents it said attend church attend church you have to be there in search we now let me say from the Spirit of the Lord worship genuinely with real fellowship you could attend every Sunday but if you are not worshiping genuinely with real fellowship you have missed the spirit of the law is another one you have heard it said before give a 10 give type to the church there have been many pastors and many options who have taught this they faithfully but let me say from the spirit of this teaching that you should use all that you have to glorify God not just 10% see the difference again the spirit of the law is much more life changing much more profound and powerful there some churches that say you must speak in tongues in order to show the evidence of the Holy Spirit but I suppose a better way a way that even Paul says you should speak in love with the without tongues I can is a very profoundly different way of saying it now in the God in the Scripture Paul tells Timothy have a glass of wine a day because it's good for your health it will help you is what Paul says it's a summative pointed out Scripture and say Paul says and so therefore I'm we just live in a another one is Jesus made how many as 630 to 40 gallons worth of wine at the wedding feast at Cana came again if you just take that you can go and enjoy but that's not the spirit of what's being taught all of very clearly says do not be drunk on wine even then he doesn't let that be it but instead what be filled with the Holy Spirit it's not about drinker not drink that's too simplistic that's to pharisaical thing to being there instead of letting your senses be dominated by and liquid let your senses be dominated by the Holy Spirit and if you can follow that principle in your life then I think you've understood the heart of what's being taught here in India they teach abstinence and if I'm in India I would teach absence in America I would still highly highly recommend you stay away from out of because it is a slippery slope it gives a lot of stumbling blocks to many other people's I highly advise you to stay away from it not because alcohol in and of itself is evil and not because there is a verse in the Scripture that says you should not but because the principle is twofold one is never be dominated by anything except I Christ the second principle is never be a stumbling block for others and if these two things are being fulfilled in your life then so be it God bless but if these two things are not being fulfilled regardless of whether you are drinking or whether you are not drinking the will to you is that the same thing the Christ tells to these people how we teaching our children now I understand you that a younger age we teach by rules we teach by memorization we tell our children Bible stories and then we expect that at a certain point in time we go beyond the stories and we try to teach the meaning behind the stories so in the beginning we talk about how to know brought know will was to make an art and the animals were to come into by two and that's what every child memorizes then there comes a time when you understand that punishment comes for evil okay fine that's a good lesson and then later on if you studied even more deeply to go back to the Scripture actually read it a kind of learn new things and you realize that the commandment the only commandments given to Noah was built an ark building ark meaning the Ark of salvation the art that is to say and the only thing that God said that I am definitively going to do is I'll bring the flood I'll bring the flood you build the ark that's another principle that we should learn and it should be taught with the Noah's Ark story how do we teach our children are we teaching them in a pharisaical way I we teaching them to come to church just because I have come church when I was younger I we teaching them to read the Bible just because Eidson said three the Bible outlines have to be deeper spirituality must be more genuine and the only way to do it is to really get into the word without understanding the beauty behind the words behind the letters we will never experience the full joy that there is of life all and him one final analogy that comes from Scripture and I believe that mentioned it before Jesus was gathered around a table to eat and those a number of fantasies than some of his disciples went their Justin wash his hands he began to eat and the Pharisees began to complain when Jesus said to them why why are you so concerned about me washing my hands rather why not you make sure that you are inside is cleaned or rather why are you so concerned about the small tiny things of the law the letters of the law such as do not eat insects and you strain out the naps but then you go ahead and you swallow the camel why don't you concern yourselves with the deeper things of the law with graciousness with forgiveness with justice those of the things that we need to be more aware of more concerned about Christian ethics is not something that is an easy topic and I don't want to you all to think that I've given you license to come up with anything that you want to so that you can then be fine with this that's our Christian ethics is Christian ethics is understanding the universal principle behind what Christ has taught us and applying it within the safe of the Fellowship of fake that's what we're here for some in the good Lord bless us so that our lives would be lives that are more than just rules so that our lives would be meaningful and deep and may we be very aware of the social evils that alcohol presents and may we do the grace of the Holy Spirit formulate an answer a solution to this problem so may the good Lord bless us and guide us by these words
  • Jan 5, 2014Being Jesus in Jonah – A new year message
    Jan 5, 2014
    Being Jesus in Jonah – A new year message
    Series: (All)
    Larry_Achen_sml I did sensing some of you for the first time happy new year and just a few who are didn't see action respond today we are focusing our attention to the book of Jonah the book of Jonah do know where the book of Jonah's Old Testament or New Testament kids start with easy questions the old us of the resident New Testament book new Old Testament correct you know where Jonah is what's in front of Jonah the cookie maker I heard someone say was the right so we tend to the book of Jonah Obadiah Amos is close our lectionary according to our church lectionary and the theme for this week is God's revelation to all God's revelation to all the passages that were read. First and second lesson the epistle and even the gospel all refer to different instances in which God's revelation is being given to the unassuming given to those outside of who we thought would get the revelation I have decided to take the book of Jonah as our focus today the book of John is one of my favorite prophetic books not just because it's a quick one to read through and so I've read through it several times not just because of its shortness what this something very greedy about it something very real about it the other books sometimes I feel like I if I struggled to identify myself with but with Jonah I see I see myself as is Jonah and quite often I find myself in his shoes and several times what is it about Jonah oversoul it's just to give you a little bit of background Jonah was written according to most scholars around the eighth of the eighth century BC the for price 800 years before Christ was likely this book was written down it was probably an oral turn in oral use before that but finally it eighth century BC it was written down you know who the Assyrians were the good guys and bad guys bad guys the Assyrians are bad guys the Assyrians and 622 PCs in our member for NBC everything is backwards so smaller number means it's exit close to us and so in the sixth century BC we have the Assyrians coming in and taking over Israel they invaded Israel the city the capital of Assyria is and him and him and minute the capital of Assyria is an event either know about the modern-day Assyria or anything like that and I'm a biblical in olden times if it was the capital of the nation as are men of a was a capital abuse of Assyria the nations. In that day and age everyone knew the the mentality of the Assyrians they were they were cutthroat people if they wanted to take over the nation they would not just simply go in there and through democratic means takeover bill go in there with the full force of the Army and him devastate the place they'll control and dominate bill killed people of people who are the best and the brightest the kill them off because those are the biggest threats to them these are ruthless people and to these ruthless people God is telling Jonah at you: preach to the Ninevites and we have to imagine what must it have been to be in at you reading this book what kind of ideas must it have conveyed in their own minds what was God trying to convey through this for chapters according to our theme God's revelation for all I would like for us to look at Jonah from the angle that God's revelation is meant for everyone even the that guys the Jewish people they had a sense of only miss only necessary meaning that they felt that they were the chosen ones God is the only God everyone agreed with that all the Jews agreed with that them over the course of time they made it very clear that God and God alone is the only one that actually exist all of the gods are they God's that just statues made of wood are made of metal our God is the only God and with that idea over the course of time came the sense of we are the only people and so the Jews had the sense of loneliness and because of the sense of loneliness it made them very self-confident it made them very self-sufficient and they felt as though they had everything that they needed they look down on others other communities other nations other religions were looked down upon granted there several times in Israel's history where they decided to go and him and estates and mimic those of his practices but on the whole the nation of Israel was very patriotic patriotic wanted to always maintain it's only miss and to these people who decided that you know we are who we are as God shows us and we are special because of that and no one else's like us to them he is this strange message: preach to the Ninevites that if we look at one very interesting verse in the book of Amos Amos chapter 9 verse seven we see a very strange side of the Bible that we don't usually talk about all read the verse for you this is God speaking to the Israelites through profit animals are you not like the Ethiopians to me OPB with Israel did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt and the Philistines from after and the Aramaeans from tier with this whole time the Israelites believe that God is only working in their community God is only working in his beloved in his chosen community and because of that idea they became a complacent in trying to be and live up to this beautiful title of children of God and so when they started to slack when profit a most finally gets fed up with the way that society is going in their arrogance he the word of God tell them God is working through other communities don't you realize that what makes you think that you are so special what makes you think that you are the only ones who are able to hear the word of God that that's a very strange concept I don't mean to make that sound like its pluralistic, though but I do mean to make you sadder our notions of what our boundaries are we have some awesome the community have been here for now 25 years slowly now we are incorporating and we are adding to our numbers nonmonotonic but in our community I'm pretty sure that we are welcoming a more welcoming than other communities are I remember how many senior youths in Houston would have interracial marriages and then because of the pressure of the community they could bring their spouses to church that was the sense of only miss that we had just like the Israelites had we are the boss, it's no one else can be our revelation from God is just for us it's not open for all it that's the kind of attitude that slowly developed and slowly build up here we have a man who is told: preach to them group of people who will one day take over your country: preach to the people who despise you because my revelation needs to be heard by them my revelation is for all and so as we read through the book of Jonah I'm not taking any verses because I assume the Jonah the book of Jonah is a familiar story to assault as a read through the book of Jonah when we get to the end chapter the last chapter we realize that he has finally preach to them through a kind of conversion experience which will get back to he finally does preach to the Ninevites and then they repent and then what does our man Jonah did intrude Minnelli for he goes on a hill and he just wants to see them destroyed he hopes he hopes that they don't actually repent because he doesn't like them isn't want them to actually be a part of his community that's the kind of wall that he built up that's the kind of wall that was built up in God's own chosen community think now about the walls that we have built up think about all the kinds of hindrances that we place in front of others from joining our church or just from hearing the gospel is more important do we care like God cares for these people finally at the end he goes and he waits and he builds a booth for himself and the Bush goes up and he hides under the shade is very comfortable under the shade and then God sends a warm to destroy this say that he loved so much and then he says like a baby I'm so angry I could die and then God comes in and he says you know why why are you acting like this I'm paraphrasing why you acting like this why you behaving like this don't you know that there are and number of people there who don't know the difference between right and left don't they need my revelation you will have received this love and care for me for so many years don't you realize that the love that I given to you is meant to be shared with others that's what it means to have a revelation to all the grace that we have received is Martha might the grace that we have received as Christians should not end with us we have to go out and talk to those people who we normally wouldn't want to talk to were those kinds of people people of other nationalities I will miss them people of different sexual orientations they need God they need to hear this revelation and if we avoid interacting with them if we of we going out to them and speaking to them and love will talk to them what about those people that we are prejudice against other religions Okies a Muslim what is a Jew will use a you and I talked to him about in one of the verses that we had read in the epistle I can't remember off the top of my head to the epistle reading RFID was the second lesson but if you don't: who will how will this message being given to them shortly God could have come down and made himself known to the Ninevites surely he could have he's got but he chose to use Joan and he chooses to use you he chooses to use each and every one of us 44 families and growing of those 44 families average family has about 30 to 40 if each one of these people would just speak to one not this and if we had 10% effectiveness that be so glorious what stopped us as a community that believes in the word from revealing this word to everyone around us we look at the life of Jonah we are reminded just how childish we are and just how stubborn we and it's time for us to grow up God desires that all be safe first Timothy chapter 2 verse four the how can this happen there was definitely something in the middle that I missed out on chapter 2 is a very important chapter in this for chapter book where does mission start mission always starts here first the first converts in the book of Jonah is Jonah himself door reluctant convert though it he may be a convert who didn't quite get it even in the end nonetheless he was the first converts know we have to ask ourselves if we are not going out and if we don't feel the need or the desire the past and to speak the gospel to others what does that mean about us and our own conversion experience what does that say about the effectiveness of our year-end revival what does it say about the effectiveness of having a vibrant church all these things not in vain if we can't care for those people who God cares for alcoholics need love they need our care they need our attention they need the grace of God who better than us to tell them about their already mentioned homosexuals and liberals those people who are loners was people were fundamentalists racists it's difficult it's not easy and we like Jonah will have a tendency to run and I pray that when you do run the you get swallowed up by fish that's the only way it seems for some of us I jokingly say me going to graduate school was my fish and it took me some time to realize what he was calling me to do don't spend more than three years them spend more than three days in the fish we we are in a very blessed situation Lahore about the church a brand-new church with the American Watson who isn't going to hinder any of your desires to work in this community I'm only getting current window very lucky situation not lucky blessed I'm blessed to be here we need to make something up this is the beginning of a new year 2014 we just had the leadership conference at the leadership conference in the middle of it on day two they had a service project were they invited people they went to different shelters and invited people to come to their church where they serve them food where they gave them provisions and were most of all we show them love I don't know how many people were converted on that day but I know how many people understood the a little bit better about this revelation of the love of God and that's where needs to start I pray that in this new year that we would do find new ways to do this that we would be more than Jonah's that we would be Jesus is Jonah the one who was reluctant to throw himself over the boat is the opposite of Jesus who gave up his life we need to be able to understand and learn from John God's revelation is for all we have been so blessed to receive this revelation this this beautiful message of the gospel of grace of forgiveness of sins of wholeness of piece of redemption that Terrance much shared with everyone that we can in order to do that but us ourselves go through this Jonah conversion experience that is taste and see that the Lord is good and I pray that the new year would be one full of blessings full of challenges that would help us to grow and with God by our side who can stand against
  • Dec 25, 2013Experiencing Christ personally – A Christmas Message
    Dec 25, 2013
    Experiencing Christ personally – A Christmas Message
    Series: (All)
    Larry_Achen_sml Merry Christmas! Everyone. Usually the response isn’t that loud, today morning everyone's awake today is of course a big day for us as Christians today we celebrate the birth of our Savior there's a story and can of of introduction that I heard a you a bishop give pastor Bishop NT Wright it goes like this McGuire had been practicing for Jesus the singers were tired the conductor kept the matter though eating back down he made them practice it again and again the reason is they would only have one chance to sing this song it was a beautiful song and singer is thought to himself while we seen this only once this is such great music wouldn't it be better if we went to different places in front of different audiences and sang this song the conductor looked of the singer and said this is a special song this a special music that you will be singing but it can only be sung once by you after that the ones who hear it have to learn to sing it for themselves the conductor is God the choir are the angels and the audience was the shepherds we look at that Christmas morning and we see and we read this beautiful song that was sung to the shepherds what do we make of that what do we understand from that day from that moment in history that is never repeated and never will be repeated that moment when all I split in two we have the for Christ and then we have A/D that moment in time that defined human history what do we make of it what do we make of this song that was only someone's it's interesting because just before the song was sung the angel says to the shepherds do not be afraid for see I bring you good news of great joy for all the people to you born this day in the city of David a Savior who is the Messiah the Lord now we look at that today a Savior has been born… That's definitely good news if it's true it's sure it's something that shatters all comprehension isn't there is a a wonderful logical argument that CS Lewis put forth and I've still never heard of very good counter to this we look at the life of Jesus Christ we are confronted with three options this Jesus Christ event he was a liar or he was a madman or he really was who he said he was based on the claims that he said about who he was based on the testimony that we have of him he could be a liar he could be a fantastic fraud he could be someone who was able to trick all those people in those days but when we look at that we have to ask if he really were a fraud if he really were a liar when those closest to him have been able to realize this when they have been able to attack his lines why would anyone died for a lie why would anyone suffer for a lie so the we look at that option that we are proud to think about Christ and we must admit that that's not a plausible option a can't make sense that Christ was a liar let's look at another option maybe he was mad maybe wasn't lying that maybe he was just delusional maybe he really believed he was the son of God all the while he wasn't again confronted with some strange things going history how does the delusional man creates such a following out of the delusional man perform miracles how does the delusional man lived a perfect life that Christ has been known to live not only does the Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke get a very his store will account eyewitness account of who Christ was a we have other historical documents that give us a an understanding of who Christ was in none of those documents are we able to even see a glimpse of a madman so he's not a liar and if he's not a madman are we left with the only option were left with is this must be a man who says and who is what he says if he really is Christ if he really is Messiah but our hearts should be overwhelmed with joy if he's not Messiah a we come here needlessly we can go home and relax we need not have waken up this early in the morning but we know we know that this man who lived on Earth was God incarnate we know that Jesus Christ coming to be with us was Messiah for us now if he was Messiah if he really was God what does that mean what does that look like and that's with this beautiful song comes in glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he favors we have glory to God then we have peace on earth two things many times he will think of these are two different things we all know the people who glorify God but do very little to bring about peace when it comes to other people's pain and suffering they don't do too much but they're very dedicated and they attend church and there in the front doing all the things that we would expect of a person who follows God to be doing with the thing is you can never separate these two ideas glorifying God in bringing peace on earth are one and the same one of the those old songs that we had signed in sign in stone it never quite struck me the depth of its meaning heaven came down and glory filled my soul Christ is that haven't come down when he came down we are able to glorify God and we are able to rejoice because with his arrival comes piece our Christian walk our faith is not something detached from the realities of this world our faith is not something that we sit put just on a Sunday was just on a holiday like Christmas our faith is something that in phase all of life that is the meaning of this song but the Angels sung do we do both living in a state like California we know that there are plenty of liberals liberals have good intentions but I was undoubtedly refer to myself as a liberal liberals have in their the a tendency to want to be socially active which is good we need a that we can learn from liberals in that regard will when the liberal goes to the extent of saying I can do ministry I can do social work without glorifying God is utterly confused we cannot glorify God apart from the real fullness of the Christian life and that includes both service and worship when we come here today our purpose is definitely to worship to worshiping community is one of those blessings that I don't know if we fully fathom we take it for granted perhaps I myself coming together to worship is such a blessing it is such a privilege and but it doesn't end there glory to God in the highest and peace on earth on earth peace among those who he favors in Jesus is a message at the sermon on the Mount one of the lines that he said that is blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the kingdom of God are we just worshipers do we just celebrate Christmas or are we really listening to that wonderful song with the Angels sung and are we being peacemakers are we bringing heaven down to earth for the world to see what it's like to be with him are we learning that song of the Angels and are we singing that song of the Angels I just did a quick word search in my Bible software nowhere else no one else is this phrase mentioned in the Bible glory to God in the highest nowhere else is this song some none of the other gospel writers mention it it was someone's by those Angels and now it is our turn to sing that song it's our chance to yell from the rooftops to tell our friends at work to tell our friends in the school that today you see who is been born the problems that you face are real problems and we do not ignore them we can't ignore them to know that in the midst of those problems there is one who has come to be with you and just so you know what that feels like let me do that for you let me be the Christ the you can never see unless you read the Gospels and experience them yourself that's what Christmases that's what it should be for us is a reminder the Savior is born and more than that for us today it's a reminder that we must sing the song we must not be quiet I remember we last to send this back we put all these poinsettias in the choir pews and I couldn't help remembering averse to goes like this is along the lines of this if the people of God do not worship as the people of God not praise the rocks who cry basically nature will praise him and seeing all those poinsettias nicely lined up in the choir pews I thought to myself are we doing what we should be doing are we praise him like we should be praising it is a profound task that we have and we look at verse 15 we realize that knowing is not enough -itis: and see this go and find this child that God is made known to us we know who Christ is and no doubt that everyone in this room knows who Christ is with this Christmas we must experience him we must go out and meet him in verse 16 it says the shepherds made haste they went in a hurry to go and be with him Christian life is not easy as him into the and it's not something that ends in something indefinitely one day has a beginning but it never has an and every day he quickly strive every day we must seek after the moment that we as a church is a small new community think that we have it all figured out that's when with the furthest I pray that this Christmas we would take some time to experience that we would take some time to listen to that him that was sung so long ago and I pray that after having experienced him we would be like the shepherds that we would return rejoicing and proclaiming what Christ has done with the good Lord bless us this Christmas day the good Lord bless each and everyone of you so that you would be a blessing to those around you.
  • Dec 22, 2013In the beginning
    Dec 22, 2013
    In the beginning
    Larry_Achen_sml Good afternoon everyone. Roshan was telling me that the with the same force that I gave the announcement about Christmas I should've done it about Sunday so that more people would've seen the need to attempt. Instead of the main discouraged by it that I am I'm actually very thankful that you all found it within your hearts to realize what God has done for you and the need to come to church I pray that God would bless you abundantly and I pray that you would help me in reaching out to those families who don't see the need of coming to church after any church event it's a serious problem and it's one we need to address as a church I is that sin cannot do it on my own people will only listen to me for short amount of time because it only known me for a short amount of time you've all live next to these families for many years you were witnessed your encouragement I believe is is as powerful as mine would be some asking you very humbly I need your help to make sure that we have more people attending each and every Sunday shall return to the Gospel of John chapter 1 verses one John's gospel is by far my favorite gospel and I I really like Matthew Mark Luke and John the something very different about John's the way that he writes it it it's of a different level he has a different style he is a different angle different point of view when he writes whereas Matthew Mark and Luke they write from more the historical angle and they tell you the exact it offends John actually wrote this gospel much later it's believe that around 90 to 100 A.D. is when this book was and down to this a lot of time for reflection is a lot of time for the words of Christ to develop into coherent thoughts within his heart and those thoughts are being now presented to us for our edification and we read this passage it's sometimes easy to to gloss over the beauty that there just in that first verse in the beginning was the word diving in order to appreciate true genius we need to know a little bit of the background and member when we were growing up were in our elementary science classes we had heard in Einstein's famous equation E = MC squared and him and we knew that Einstein is a genius and whatever that equation meant it was really something but it wasn't until we went on to study physics and we learn about quantum mechanics only understood what this actually is quite impressive that something so profound could be is summated in this simple three variable equation and the beauty of that can only understood when we get a little bit of the background if we take a step back and retrace his steps so we should do the same for John one John says in the beginning was the word we the know what does the term word means the original years of John wrote to Greeks and he wrote to Jews that we look at the Greeks this term word in Greek logos logos meant something very significant him and the reason him and will him and logic and it was something that they all admire all Greeks looked up to this logos I was is reviewing a book that on philosophy if anyone is in the philosophy all recommend for you a fantastic book for cartoons looking at philosophy that will because of the cartoon pictures of May makes more sense to me a but it's also pretty deep and so in that is this a character who I remember faintly studying about when I took my introduction to philosophy class years back Heraclitus advises known for us you philosophical ideas one of them is if you studied philosophy is you never step into the same river twice meaning no matter what as soon as you take your foot out and put it back in it's not quite the same river it slightly different because the water is constantly flowing and so he had this idea change and change is always there and then he believe that there is some power beyond this change that's able to direct and die each and every change so that it appears in a very logical and coherent way and he called that power logos later on in this just to give you a sense of the timeline this is really the he lived in 470 BC so around the time of prophet Nehemiah and as run when the Israelites are coming back after Babylonian captivity in the coming back to Jerusalem the want to rebuild the Temple you have a Greek who is coming up with these kinds of philosophical ideas of the logos this logos that governs everything that hides everything that somehow behind the scenes it's not personal but still real later on Plato picked up on this idea Plato believed that logos is the basis for the notion of all laws of nature to he was under the assumption that because there is such a thing as logos this the reason this will this power when able to actually look and make sense of nature were able to understand with some sort of without any ambiguity and were able to understand and study what goes on around us because of logos you fast-forward to the time when this was written the philosophical the philosophers of the day would all say that God is the equivalent of God would be this logos everyone understood that at the time and so what John did it he said yes this logos this will this reasoning is logic that you speak of he was a a with God and he is God and it was very that part of it wasn't so profound for the Greeks I would say because okay they understood this is an ultimate being but then when you get to verse 14 and he says that idea that you all aspired to know more about became flesh and lived among us and suddenly now the Greek years apart and now they're little bit curious is the logic of this the of philosophical idea that we had focus so much attention on your saying it's a person yes John's millets take a sidestep and look at the Jews what was the Jewish understanding of this term logos will definitely when we read this book when it starts it starts out in the beginning in the beginning the way that it's written in Greek is the exact translation of the Hebrew in the beginning that we find in Genesis in the beginning metal sheath and the Jewish people would have known it right away because I like us they name the books of the Bible according to the first words of the book so unlike our Genesis they called it in the beginning so they went immediately understood John is saying something very significant when he starts his book the exact same way that Genesis starts so the heat Hebrews by listening intently what you have to say John and he says in the beginning was the word with a know what this word is for them logos in Hebrew was the but how did God create the world when we look at Genesis chapter 1 he spoke he spoke forth let there be light and light came into being by the very word of his mouth he was able to create a for the Jewish people this guy Bob this logos was so important because this is the creative power of God this is the stuff that makes reality know why that's so important for the Jew it's so important for the Jew because when you look at their history this is something we don't study enough when you look at their history a promise was given to Abraham his son finally makes it to the promised land and suddenly there's a famine they migrate to Egypt and ever since then it went downhill the Egyptians enslaved them finally they get make their way back in they develop their own nation and the Philistines constantly harassing them then later on we have the Babylonians who come in and pull away the best and the brightest which is where we get Daniel and me shack and said I can Abednego those of the best and the brightest been taken away into Babylon and that really hurts the Jewish national sentiment after some time they were allowed to come back because the Persians had taken over in the Persians declared everyone goes back: Persians continued to dominate the scene finally has an empire started to wane then we have the Greeks then we have the Romans and that's where we find ourselves now throughout the course of the history the was only a brief moment in time when they were free for them this.Bob was so important because they needed that creative power of God to bring about a restoration for them so when John was getting a gospel something new the good news and he starts out like Genesis and he says that creative power was with God and that creative power is God he then goes on to say in verse 14 that creative power that is able to bring light out of darkness became a human and him walk right next to you and you live and breathe just like you live in Greek it's so beautiful when we look back even David understood this David and his Psalm 51 how does he expect a new heart to come about he says create in me a clean heart the word that he uses for create is the same word that's used in Genesis it the kind of creating that only God can do David understood that what if not for the creative power of God and his life his heart would never be clean he would never experience grace of forgiveness and restoration the Hebrews long for that century after century of being under low-pressure and John tells them this good news that creative power is a lie that creative power preach to us in touch that healed us we've experienced in earnest the brilliance of John is that he is able to speak to two different cultures using that one word logos and he is able to explain to them that Christ is the one that you are looking for Paul later on did it when he was speaking in Athens on Mars Hill he said to the I looked around or sitting I see that you're very religious people and you have a number of God is everywhere and there's one God that you have it says the unknown God and I'm here to tell you that unknown God you do not know is Christ focus on him worship you Christmas is meant to remind us that Christ is the answer that we are searching for a we have to apply this passage to our context in order really get the fullness of it in those days it was really important to the Greeks that they understand logic and reason and it was really wouldn't to the Jews that they experience that creative power what does this world needs today this is where we come into play this is where God has gifted us with the ability to think and we have to figure out what does this world desperately yearn for I would say yearns for love I was just reading an article that was posted on Facebook today in San people homeless people died because of cold in the richest part of this country in the Bay Area where is the love that this world seeks can we say like John can we be as humble was brilliant whichever way you want to save and say in the beginning was love that love that you seek after it was very the beginning with God it is God and that love came down to earth and his name is Jesus seek after him and you will find love and put it into another context piece how many people are looking for peace I'm not talking just about peace between governments piece in our homes these in the workplace can we tell people in the beginning was piece and pieces with God piece was God in that piece that you search for is Jesus Christ the beauty of Christmas is that we are reminded that he is this ultimate answer he is a thing that every heart searches for John put it in the context of the Greeks and the Jews it is our responsibility to put it in the context of this day and age there is a Scottish evangelist named Gypsy Smith the fund name he said that there are five Gospels Matthew Mark Luke John and you but most people will never read the first four Gospels can we be like John can we declare to the world what this world so desperately needs instead of coming for and I I don't say this to criticize you because you all are here but to the to critique our church instead of coming for a service a Christmas Carol service and him and not showing up to thank and praise him on Sunday what does that say about what we are searching for if we have not found Christ and it makes sense that it's the way it is now but if we have experienced him and I know we have if we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good then we must we must declare like John in new words for this culture to understand that what we seek came to us not in in any way that you would ever expect it in the lowest of the it came in a manger where there was no room for him and he grew just like anyone of us and he was tempted to psych anyone of us and out of love for us we went to the cross and died for us and because of his and that because of his giving up of himself for us we breeze we breathe not only physical ever we breathed spiritual life and that is what the world needs to know when the good Lord give us the courage that it takes for the good Lord give us the wisdom that it takes to be the fifth gospel that this world needs to hear some of the world could understand what is Christmas.
  • Dec 8, 2013Growing in Grace
    Dec 8, 2013
    Growing in Grace
    Larry_Achen_sml Good afternoon! today's the gospel passage is taken from Luke chapter 1 verse 57 to 66 Luke's gospel chapter 1 verses 57 to 66 was is a very familiar passage as I've said before every week in this Advent season we read a little bit from this chapter from Luke from Luke chapter 1 next week we will take a step back and will see what the angel had to say to Joseph before he found that's when he found out that Mary was pregnant and after that we will change tracks and will look at something slightly more theological to be John's gospel chapter 1 that the Sunday before Christmas and then of course will come back to Luke for Christmas they when we look at this passage one of those is a bunch of characters that we have grown up with the names it we've heard for so often Zechariah Elizabeth and John of the main three characters in the story that I I'm pretty sure that you all know the names especially in the Old Testament names had a meaning that nowadays it's not so much the case but back then when the given name it it happened meaning in that meaning was very important is very critical that you would live up to the meaning of that name does anyone know what the meaning of Zechariah is the God remembers say that was once a this God remembers very good. Comes from two words from the Hebrew word for this saccade and then the first part of Yahweh's name Yost of the new put Zach yeah that's how God remembers that's that is a nice name the know that God never forgets to know that he remembers Elizabeth does anyone know what Elizabeth name means is a little trickier we have very good very good God is my oath door or or my oath is God for God is my promise they could be seen in different ways perhaps that's also very nice name and if you look at their lives a it it actually makes sense after so many years of not having a child finally God reminds them that I have not forgotten you and so Zechariah's name actually is truth in his life and the thing that God had promised them that they would have a child in old-age and Elizabeth believed it NPC believe that I believe partly because her name was that so she had to believe that's who she is she's a person who wants to believe that God will fulfill his promises a what is John me God is God's gift God's gift or God is gracious correct and him he will in him Greek it's a little different the way it's pronounced it son John Greek for some reason when we take these Hebrew names and Greek name is and we bring them in the English language and him and somehow butchered John is actually I have given to double-click it to are you on this that's that's John actually Greek units that Yanez means God is gracious is gracious so if John's name means God is gracious what that looked like how will that be fulfilled or how can we read this passage and understand a little bit more about what grace looks like a first of all know you now you all know we all know just like Abraham and Sarah Elizabeth and Zechariah had to wait a long time before they finally were blessed with a child they can imagine how difficult it was for them in the Jewish community should be without child for so long many people within the community will be giving all sorts of tips if only you did this if only pray like this then you would've had a child they would've faced all kinds of nonsense advice and and and and on looks because people would automatically assume ODs is as a priest without a child he must be doing something evil and some people would look down on them even so is a very desperate sad situation that they were in out of that situation comes this wonderful gift of a child definitely we can say the children are a gift of God the thing is when we look in John's life is pans really didn't get to hold on to from the beginning Zechariah was told that your son is destined for great things your child is not going to be the one who always leans on you is not to be the one who stays at home and helps out he has big big things in store for him if we read later on in this chapter and verse 80 it says that John the Baptist was in the wilderness until he started his public ministry so from a very young age is quite likely that John the Baptist left home and entered into serious training spiritual training theological training Scriptural training whatever it may be that he was preparing himself for public ministry when we say God is gracious and he gives this gift of life what sense is it then to have this gift of life go off somewhere in be away from you for one beautiful thing that so contrary to the way that we think is this truth but in order to understand grace you have to realize grace is meant to be given away it's a very strange thing when we think of grace we think of getting something when Noorda understand what grace is about what it's intention is all for it's for the expansion it's always meant to be given out it was a bittersweet moment when I told my parents that you want to go for ministry aimlessly in the sense that yes they and are happy that I'm going to do this it's been in the sense that they know that I'll never get Christmas with them I'll probably never I get New Year's with them they'll have to come and see me and so I am in America and I'm not going to be in catalysts shifting around they know that I'm not can be as free as my brother would be who can just say a him taking these days often I'm going and they would just kind of vacation come down whenever they want to it son and of the where like my brother who gets to stay in one place and he gets this plant his roots into the ground gets to settle their offends knew that it's can be difficult to give him to that kind of a lifestyle it was better for them in that sense but now if you asked them there's no bitterness they they understand that grace is always meant to be let go of you don't hold on to it you don't stuff it in your pocket you give it out and then when you do you realize the beauty that this grace actually multiplies adding have said this story here before but that if you don't remember if you don't recall the say again when I was in order so we have had a one-month practical in order so when I was there in the mission field we would do we meaning the evangelist that would give Kathy to the kids candy and small cookies and I noticed something soon as they get the candy Saladin the pocket and I was recalling back to how it was in in Catalonia we have a VBS or when it's Christmastime in the Christmas father Santa Claus comes and goes Candia the same thing would happen kids would take the candy and seven in the pockets and what I've seen in Kellaway whenever they get a chance not all about kids but some of the kids they would take this candy go off somewhere where no one Cinnabon the them this art eating so when I saw this in the mission field that they're taking this candy or cooking putting in a pocket and I leaned over to the evangelist I said agate kids everywhere all the same we all can do the same things can keeping it for themselves and he looked puzzled and he looked at reason know that keeping it safe so that when they get home they can share with her brother and sister and and were talking about a tiny little hard can be they will break it they will crack it and share little bits and pieces with whoever's there in the family I felt horribly embarrassed for thinking that about those kids understood what grace means they knew that this chance to get this can be world cookie whatever it is it's not an opportunity for me to court but it's a chance for me to share when we read this passage we have to know that Zechariah and Elizabeth understood this wonderful gift of life that they had been given is meant to be given back for society is meant to be given back to the Lord in the Presbyterian Church some pastors will do this just before they do the baptism the asked a few questions publicly to the parents and one of the last questions is the toughest one last question is if in the course of time God calls your child to be with him will you let your child go what a difficult question how can you Hansen is very tough is very tough with all the blessings we have with the good clothes with a good car with the good homes that we have it's difficult to let go of that but unless we are able to let go of it we can't say that we understand grace grace is meant to be given just to emphasize that one step further to my post of first Peter chapter 4 verse 10 this is not some concept that I'm just kind of making up is not something that I'm reading into the text first Peter chapter 4 verse 10 is someone didn't read that out loud this is exactly what we said like good stewards of the manifold grace of God serve one another with what ever give each of you has received so a good steward of grace gives it out to others about the first thing that we can learn we can understand about John God is gracious humans what the second thing if we look at verse 3463 and 64 were 63 and 64 what do we read the asked for a writing tablet and wrote his name is John all of them were amazed immediately his mouth was open that his tongue was freed and he began to speak crazing God the other thing that we have to know about grace is that it's only after we a knowledge that this is God's grace can we be effective witnesses up until this point we know the Zechariah was mute was unable to speak he was unable to communicate properly in that state there's no way he could tell about the glories of God the people it was only after he you wrote down this phrase his name is God is gracious suddenly he can speak suddenly he has a witness again suddenly he's praising God do we realize that every talent that we have needs to be acknowledged as gods grace and by doing so we can be witnesses of God's good this is how can we witness unless we've experienced how can we experience unless we do what the psalmist says taste and see taste and see that the Lord is good finally he was able to express that God is gracious and went that and we went around him understood something about who God it's can we do the same we who have experienced so much grace are we acknowledging it as much as we should all be proclaiming God's goodness in our lives are we being witnesses like Zechariah was the third thing when we look at the Scriptures we look earlier on in verse 15 it says very clearly the angel said before he's born he will be what filled with the Holy Spirit even before birth is filled with the Holy Spirit, so still waiting for Steve before he was born already added now if we were in that situation if once we get to the age of understanding we are told Monnet I had an angel come and tell me that even before you were born you have the police are to me if our us when we be so happy when we think wow I'm set I done what more is there after that I had that's all the highest honor anyone could be told we don't find that sort of the stagnation happened in John's life is and say oh well thank you I'm done if we go further down to the last verse in the chapter not Lazarus and chapter and verse 80 it says that while he was in the desert he grew and he grew in the spirit that was constant grow we a have the grace of the Holy Spirit before he was born but he understood that grace is not a one-time event when we say God is gracious and him and with just that sentence coming to church two times a year because those our favorite Sundays isn't grace that's not how it's done do we know that it's meant to be growing in we know that it's meant to be developed we are just small and young children who are just finally experiencing this grace and now we have to grow winnings suggest like every day we eat food in order to grow every day we have to develop in that grace just like every day at least we we hope that we would exercise we should do the same thing in our spiritual lives John the Baptist whose very name means God is gracious understood that I have a great task ahead of me I must grow in it I must soak up the word I must study a mystery even get as much as I can of who this Christ is heated know Christ it not in this fullness but we do we have that opportunity in first Peter chapter 3 verse 18 it's the same concept Peter tells them but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are we growing a regrowing when we look at this passage we can see three things we can learn three things the name John means God is gracious grace is never meant to be ported grace is meant to be give can we give all that we have back to the Lord for the sake of others if you can do it don't worry it's quite likely that he will not ask you to do that but you need to be willing to do that's the difference just like Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac God did not take Isaac from him but that wheeling this shows something that shows our witness because once we have experienced grace remember to once we have experienced grace and acknowledge grace then only do we become effective witnesses and the third thing in order to realize the fullness of grace we must grow when it day by day minute by minute prayer) we should grow in that wonderful experience of grace from this passage may God teach us about this grace this grace that on the 25th we actually give it a new name Jesus in this Jesus came to be with us and he came to show us that grace is not some abstract concept grace is a person a person who wants to have a relationship with us and we growing that relationship can we share that relationship with his which he with others can we witness to the may the good Lord help us and strengthen us.
  • Nov 17, 2013A God how knows us personally
    Nov 17, 2013
    A God how knows us personally
    Larry_Achen_sml Good afternoon once we start the to read from Luke's gospel chapter 1 we know that Christmas times coming in soon today starts the first of a series of Sunday's relating to Luke's gospel chapter 1 after we get really close to the birth then we jump to Matthew and we read from Matthew and then we come back and we finished off with the actual birth of Jesus Christ of the church calendar set up in such a way that it's meant to build up anticipation and our eager hopefulness for the coming of that date so as we started a we don't look too far forward we just try and stick with what we have the passes that we have in front of us the Gospel according to Luke with Nasca sites requested who wrote the Gospel of Luke Lucas is a trick question only in the sense that I said it was a trick question infection not requested Luke Luke wrote it down Luke wrote this book and one other book do know what the other book is the Luke wrote acts this is the first part in a two part volume in a two-part series that Luke writes to a certain man named Theophilus we don't know much about this Theophilus we have some assumptions he has some ideas of who he might be but nonetheless this is most likely someone who has heard of Christ and now is receiving extra information so to confirm his faith in Christ the with that in mind Luke is writing this book to a person named Theophilus in order to strengthen his faith when we read it we should look at it at that angle first and then will have to look at it from our own context as well but we look at it from that angle one isn't that Luke is trying to teach a awfulness here what is he trying to convey what spiritual truths are trying to be is Luke trying to accentuate in these verses that I had it written here verses three and for which I did not read in the have and give you leveling guild started from verse 51 this is just so you all know that the book is written to Theophilus when we start off in verse five one thing that we can notice is that it says in the days of King Herod of Judea that we were not talking about long time ago in a land far far away this is knots the beginning of a fable was not the beginning of like a really cool children's story this is this history this is an actual event that happened during the time of King Henry and we know when Herod the great was in charge was in power we can go back and study and secular history books and find out that there was this the Pacific time where that took place so what not talking about philosophy not talking about ideas and ideologies were talking about real people in real situations in real life context so Theophilus needs to know something merciful unlike some people nowadays who feel like Christianity and its origins is something detached from regular normal lives Luke sets out from the very beginning to say this is something that happened just close by I C I thought there are witnesses who have accounted for its abuses firsthand information of what really took place so when you hear the stories that happened throughout this book know that this is not me making it up this is not me thinking back and kind of by imagining how it could've been this is real situations if you were to build a time machine and go back you would find a scruffy looking man would probably long hair while they didn't look all that great and people called Jesus they would find a character like that a real person like that here we have a surreal situation and where the real people who we are looking at is the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth and in verse six and seven it says that they were righteous before God living blameless sleep according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord but the first seven starts the word but but they had no children because Elizabeth was barren and both were getting on in years seen this is not Theophilus is not a story of how when you do a good you automatically blessed this is not that kind of story like that may sound familiar for for the Indian year it's not a story of, where as long as you do enough good you'll get it back at some point in time is not one of those kinds of stories this is a story about a man and a woman who would devote who followed God who did everything they were supposed to do but there was still something wrong they were fully satisfied it was something missing in their lives this is how the gospel begins and it's a beautiful thing the the gospel begins like this because it teaches us that sometimes it's not what we think it should look like know my that sometimes there are some years we've done everything right squeezed tight we've gone to church as often as we could we've attended the prayer meetings of the discipline in our family prayer in our personal prayer and still things just don't go the way that we thought it should go sometimes it's like that but the beauty of the beauty of starting the gospel story with this kind of a situation is it teaches Theophilus the you know what that's where it should begin it should began with a person who's try and he's failed because his mats can only go so far the gospel story begins when human merits and the gospel story starts when all other hope is finished we have a husband and a wife who are golden age who had been praying I'm sure they had been praying consistently with tears and year after year after year nothing not even a hint of an answer from Christ the from God until finally until finally while he had been selected to offer the incense the Angel comes in he speaks to him and when the Angel comes in speaks to him what happens there in verse 13 to 17 the Angel said that him do not be afraid Zechariah for your prayer has been heard your wife Elizabeth will bear you aside and you will name him John and it goes onwards to verse 13 attitude toward to it ends at verse 17 one thing that kind of ironic about the story does anyone know what Zechariah's name means Zechariah it means God remembers is more specifically it means Yahweh remembers so uses the proper name of God that was given in Exodus Yahweh remembers if that's your name if your name is that your God remembers and you've been praying year after here after year what you start to think about the situation a we find a husband and a wife who after years and years finally the moment they had been waiting for happened and the Angel comes and says your prayer is that heard the what you need to learn Theophilus what you need to understand from this part of the story is that God always hears your prayers he works alone in a timeline that you don't understand perhaps we need to know that what is impossible by human standards that's nothing for God he can make those things happen when you think that after years of not being able to have your prayer be fulfilled don't think for a second they got has forgotten you Theophilus whatever your prayer requests may be don't give up know that he will work the impossible in your life it is a difficult road and when we look at this devout man and wife we know the pain and misery they would've gone through even Jesus himself said in Matthew's Gospel you said that the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to salvation we all know that but when where in that situation can we hope against what the world tells us can we hope against what common sense may tell us that he's forgotten this and he no longer hears my senior in seminary is an XML room Jubilee Jacob which when I met him he was my first roommate in seminary is very passionate about the addiction is he learned and read everything and anything he could about alcoholism and about how to get people out of it and add some boy named people would joke about how passionate he was about this sort of ministry he would spend a lot of time on it his thesis that it of being on this topic and so when he was my roommate I asked him you know why is this new what's the reason why you're so passionate about this and he told me that his father was known by everyone to be the other drunk he would rarely show up to church and he was abusive he was violent at times it was a pathetic situation I tend after a chin after I to try to reach out to him and he never worked J sin and his younger brother and mother they for some reason because the grace of God to touch their lives frankly with they never gave up hope and they kept praying in the Praying but it was never easy my he told me that there would be a number of nights that he would he and his brother would go and sleep on the roof because his father when he is drunk can get up there to be them it was a pathetic situation pretty much everyone in the church assumed that there's no hope for this family but the beauty that we get from this passage. That we get from a family like that is that God can work miracles no matter what situation we find ourselves in we should never get to the point where we feel like this is how we start the Advent season and in anticipation that are great hope will one day be fulfilled when we go further on to verse 18 it's interesting to note how Zechariah responds to this wonderful news if you just heard in verse 18 he says how will I know that this is so Fryman old man and my wife is getting on in years when we look at that and we know what happens afterwards that the Angel understood that this is the question of a person who is losing his faith and so you reprimands him what kind of funny because later on in the story a year later on in this chapter Mary also has a similar question Mary's question how can this be since I'm a virgin will look at these two questions Zechariah's quest in the how well I know that this is so and Mary's question how can it be we have to distinguish written notice something space addle but very important Zechariah's question was a question not of that sought understanding with Zechariah's question was one that fundamentally could not accept what was being said he needed more proof in order to believe it. It's not that doubts are wrong that I've talked to is a design about this I've mentioned in other places too it's not that our doubts are evil or wrong it's how we present our doubts to Christ it's how we approach God with our doubts here we can only assume that Gabriel understood maybe from the inflection of his question of the look on his face that his question how can this be so was one of a person who sought more evidence how many times 20 times have we been in the dark moment of our lives and we struggle to believe that God works all things for the good of those who love and we struggle to believe that promise until and unless we get at one tiny me glimmer of light as long as I get that just that small little glimmer of light then I believe the rest God but that's not faith that's not how our relationship with God is supposed to work a really beautiful phrase that I've heard bad read from John or birds or birds book faith and doubt do not doubt in the dark what you have seen in the light Junot doubt in the dark would you have seen the light I can only imagine that as Luke writes this in no way the the the writing though the words between the lines go something like this Theophilus in your search for who Christ is don't push for more evidence than a humble open-heart needs Joan go beyond that trust him he has revealed certain truths to you already things that you had already been taught believing those things apply them in the midst of the darkness and let that hope flourished there let that faith guides you met it upholds you those three things that I kind of pulled out of this text that I think that Lucas teaching to Theophilus and to us and just so you know Theophilus it is a Greek name is a Greek name that comes from two words fail us an adult. Sorry Bayless and Phyllis fails means God and Phyllis means friend's friend of God who which one of us is not a friend of God so Paul so Luke says to Theophilus who says to us friends of God he says remember that even though a you are as righteous as you possibly can be used to need grace you still need to his divine intervention to overcome what is lacking in your life the second thing that we should learn is that we should trust him never doubts never will never for a second believe the lie that God is not able to work these things out in your life know that God works in the impossibilities of the human struggle and the impossibilities of the human situation in this passage have not even touched upon the bigger impossibility that's behind-the-scenes the impossibility of after 400 years this prophecy that was given to prophet Malachi the last verse of the Old Testament after 400 years and still not yet been fulfilled even in the midst of 400 years of human impossibilities God can do the impossible and in the final thing is never despair never never doubts what God has shown you in the light don't pass for more than what a humble heart needs and if you have don't despair repents and still pressing to him and by doing so I do believe that we can mentally prepare ourselves for this this time in the church calendar that Super Bowl of of all that we have in our whole year this is what it this is the beginning of it all of the details and propose Easter also without Christmas that there is at least it starts from somewhere so I pray that we would be able to reflect on these words but the words of Paul with the the words of Luke would not fall on deaf ears that we would be able to somehow and somewhere apply these to our own problems our own dark moments in our own minds with the good Lord bless us and guide us these words could ask one of you to please leaders in order for him and him think I actually finished story of what happened with Jovita Jacob Hutchens father he after years and years he finally did give up drinking and he became one of the most active members in his church the money that he was using towards buying alcohol he finally was able to use towards finishing the construction of his home that had been started when J was a small child I went there when I was in Canada and I spent time with them and you would never us expect that he had such a dark past and so it he was 100% supportive of his son when he decided to join ministry and I believe that same spirit that causes renewal in his life can cause that same when you will in our lives and the lives of our loved ones.
  • Aug 4, 2013Sermon – Mission Sunday
    Aug 4, 2013
    Sermon – Mission Sunday
    Series: general
    Larry_Achen_sml Good Afternoon! In preparation for the sermon I have struggled over and in all humility I would like to say what I believe is what I've learned from Scripture that don't want to say something that I have thought up I don't want to give you any of my theories on how things go but I hope I hope that what I convey to you will be the message of God and I do believe that that is what happens because when we prayerfully come before God he will not lead us astray today's passage is taken from John's Gospel chapter 12 verses 20 to 26 and the theme for this Sunday is mission Sunday the church that has to introduce Christ immediately different ideas will come to my investor where the sermon is going what is he going to say and that I struggled with this for quite some time which is part of the reason why it broke down there is this concept of why don't we understand what the Bible has been teaching us all in verse 20 we see very clearly that there are some Greeks who want to come and meet Jesus there are some people who are not choose but they want to know who this Jesus is and there may be different reasons for why that is and as I was doing some research I could figure out some reasons one is perhaps the heart of Lazarus's resurrection if we read earlier on in this passage we even know that the chief priests not only wanted to kill Jesus for the chief Reese wanted to kill Lazarus and the reason was because people had seen that life people had seen what happened to Lazarus and people were believing in Jesus and because of that people were leaving the Jewish faith and the subset the chief priests the chief Reese in addition to wanting to kill Jesus they also wanted to kill Lazarus because of his life testimony perhaps they heard about that maybe they wanted to see whose diseases that resurrected this man from the dead maybe maybe they had witnessed or maybe they had heard about Jesus cleansing the temple doing Jesus walked in the temple he was in the outer courts where the people were selling things for profit and Internet outer court the Jews and non-Jews are allowed to enter so it is quite possible these are Jews were coming for a festival so it's possible that these use perhaps saw that Jesus had done something very different than a radical and so they come to see who is this Jesus about maybe maybe they heard about his miracles maybe they were completely shocked and taken back by a person who could do such things maybe wanted to see what this man is all about whatever the reason is that was something profound enough for them to want to come and to seek out this Jesus and so they come to a disciple named Philip Philip is the Greek name it's not a Hebrew name nor his entry they come to a man with a Greek name and they asked him show us Jesus I can't help but thinking that doesn't apply to us people who are between two cultures people who could easily be approached and asked who is this Jesus and how often do we shy away this topic comes up quite often pluralism pluralism is the kind of go to subject when you don't want to offend somebody is very politically correct to believe and support pluralism is very easy to say that all religions are pretty much the same all had leads. Top of the same mountain many people think that that's a very respectful thing to say if it's honoring others were not causing problems with anyone was saying that they're all pretty much the same but I really wonder is that being respectful when we say that all religions are pretty much the same when we say that they all are different paths to reach the same one God what do we know about these paths see if I go to a Muslim and I tell the Muslim my friends see your your religion and my religion that pretty much the same how would he respond me not thoroughly studying his religion would be quite offended that I would have the audacity to believe that I know where his religion is aiming him and this I go to the Buddhist and save with his friend to your religion is pretty much the same as Hinduism I don't see how he would resist from slapping because Buddhism is that religion started because they could not tolerate some of the things within the Hindu concepts such as casters say when we say that all religions are the same are we really honoring them are we really respecting them when we are tending to know that we know what all of them are talking about wouldn't be much more respectful if we studied our own religion to know what it says and have dialogue with the other person and say friend this is what my beliefs are and he says this is my beliefs and we have a disagreement isn't that much more respectful than having this kind of fake political correctness has taken over our society and culture I think it is I think it is a serious problem and I think it's because we have not really gone into our own faith of one of the good things that I saw out of our adult VBS class is dispatched to want to know some of the recent things of our faith at first that I really struggled with that maven told Ocean about it my struggle with this idea that we could be in charge for this many years and not know the basics of our faith are and at first I was almost irritated offended angry and then I thought from the other perspective these are people who never done it before and finally they're getting it I'm so happy that they're actually thirsting for that but I think that those who came to the adult Bible study class will not be saying the same thing the base would have said before the Bible study class started that all of the same because when we study a little bit more deeply into our faith we limit this this character this is Jesus who is so different from anything that we've ever seen in all of history this is a person who will came down not just to show us a better way of life but whose life was the fulfillment of something that we had seen hinted towards in Genesis chapter 3 and we went over this with the adults and we talked about how in Genesis chapter 3 verse 21 after Adam and Eve had seen God did something very strange very crass you could say in a world of perfection in the world that saw no death in the world that saw no pain God takes an animal and kills it he killed the animal and he takes the skin of the animal and he makes clothing for Adam and Eve clothing to hide the shame that was produced when they had sinned against God one they understood sin is not something that can be taken lightly and I thought I was just eating a fruit that I was doing something casual I just told a little white lie I just seven yeah God you told me not to eat from the tree but what's the big deal with my farming hooted I really hurts but it was something very serious it was something that toward the relationship between them and God apart because big as a result of that shame and guilt entered into the world it was something very serious so serious that God had to take an animal and humans in order to remove the shame and Madison Avenue seeing something like this happened for the first time ever want to take it as a historical thing they had never seen a lot before they would probably be wondering what is this liquid flowing out of his animal so they understood the seriousness of sin but then I think they also understood something else very profound the grace of God because God said today on the day that you needed it you shall surely die in the Hebrew it is emphatic you will die knowing that that's what God had said to him we seen this God who pursues them in the garden where are you calling out to them meeting them asking what happened and then doing what needed to be done in order to bring them back because after they put on those clothes a little longer stood shameful before their mighty God their relationship was somewhat restored through that act so not only do they understand the seriousness of sin they understood the graciousness of their God the God who would do such a radical thing in order to bring them back and then the third thing that they would've understood is that something had to die in order that I might live is the concept that we have learned so many times the Hebrews had learned it year after year after year in a way Passover pointed towards it in addition to Passover pointing to the 10th and final play it as they made their exit out of Egypt were when they put the blood of perfect spotless lamb on their door posts they understood that the debt that we deserved will now have been taken by that animal we know the seriousness of it we know the grace of it and we understand that new life comes because of it each and every year the family got together and they haven't a barbecue agent every year they came together and they you really understood what this meant to them profits kept telling them remember what this means don't seem to keep doing the things that you're doing don't keep running after whoever other people are saying is the real God but the Israelites did when they went their own way and profit after profit after Prophet urged them pleaded with them cry over them say come back, until when the time came when Jesus comes down and we see this person who's radically different than everyone else and not only does he show us that this this is what life looks like he proved it to us improve it to us by going to the cross with the weather was a nice person he understood that when please look at the Hinduism there was something wrong with the unfairness of the cast so he sought to make a new religion he was a nice person Mohammed was a great leader he led many people people followed him people believed him he believed absolutely but there is one God and that was something about the Christian faith that bothered him because the Christians said that there's a thing called the Trinity and so this great leader leave something else and he lives his life accordingly Judaism has Moses has Abraham great leaders again with people who time and time again show us their flaws we have in Hinduism Vishnu who came down several times in different forms and who has helped humanity and who has shown his selflessness and then we have price Christ even the Quran admits was sinless Christ who even the Muslims believe what had a virgin birth we have a price to historians even say that he can and he had done miracles we have a Christ who many people had witnessed firsthand a Christ too many people had written about we have a Christ who claimed to be God we have a Christ who understood the problem of humanity in its essence knowing that there is a problem with a nice and that the solution cannot come from within but the solution comes to him and we have a Christ who died for us in no other religion do we find this Peter and Andrew could have thought that these Greeks were heathens undeserving to stand before their Lord they could've thought that way but I believe that they showed love to the I believe that they respected that it is very shameful it is shameful when the church attacks other religions and with attacks other people we don't need to attack other religions because if we were to proclaim our religion in its fullness people would be true on to it and the reason I cry is because at that line when that when there's a certain line becomes their I'm saying blot out all of my sins and I can't help but think how many times is my life actually push people away from Christ how many times has our lives as a church given a bad taste of who Christ is in the mouths of others and then we go arguing and then we go debating with theories and missiology of those things have its place I love to study theology I addle minded good debate about introducing people to Christ means showing them who Christ is to our own lives and it's not just about actions indefinitely involves speech you can't feed a person and help them to understand just by feeding them who Christ is by feeding them you are showing them the love of Christ not tell them where that love came from explained to them who this Jesus is a servant have we have we encountered cracks because if we have what I do why aren't we introducing him to any and everyone we come into contact with why is it that when we have an adult Bible study class we taken aback by the basics of our faith why is it that after year after year after year of learning through the Sunday school lessons that we still haven't understood what greases and how serious this sin problem is the different religions have their different takes on different aspects of life this idea of sin in and of itself is not necessarily found in other religions but everyone everyone understands that there is some problem with this world in order Barnes & Noble's of any major bookstore and one of the largest sections of that store is self-help because they all understand that there's something off the something wrong there is no society in this world that lives without police officers because everyone knows that if left to ourselves it would be anarchy because everyone deep down knows there will be or is this thing that is wrong with us and I do believe that when it is struggled with when it is wrestled with no matter which religion you are in you come to a point where you realize no works will at first set me right I can do as many good things is I possibly can but I will nap for the right and once we understand that that is the problem with humanity we see that Christ offers a solution Christ after he gets these Greeks to come and stand before him he then basically declares my time is come that set I waited for this this is now the beginning of a climax of my mission in life where where is Christ in our lives have we encountered his grace do we realize the seriousness of our sin for a merciful God who cannot tolerate disobedience not because he is some sort of and did vengeful person but he can't tolerate it because he knows the author of life knows how we can truly live and that's by listening and abiding by each and every word that proceeds from his mouth and so he gave us his son and his son showed us away and his son made away for us so that we could live if we have encountered him please introduce him to one of her friends would one of you please do this in order for a a a a a a a a you a you a you a law, or a you are in. A you a you a you a you a you a you a a a a a a a him will a you he you a the are you a you a you and you and him and him and Christ died for us so we could live in communion is the teaching element that Christ is given to us to communicate that newness of life which is found in him it is something that needs to be partake in him and the very seriously all those who desire to come and take part in that communion if you would stand and say the prayer of confession after me a I confess that I have sinned against you for father son and Holy Spirit in
  • Jun 23, 2013Being Apostles for Christ
    Jun 23, 2013
    Being Apostles for Christ
    Series: (All)
    Larry_Achen_smlGood evening first time, I got it right. The today our church thinks upon the theme the topic of the apostles apostle the city of our church the nature of our apostolate in what sense are we in the tradition of an apostolate church if you are listening carefully I'm sure you a line in our Nicene Creed in the last paragraph we say I've we believe in one holy Catholic Catholic there is lowercase Catholic apostolate church what does that mean apostolate church that is the question for today and with the gospel passage that we have before us that it comes from Matthew's gospel chapter 16 verse 13 to 20 I have limited to 13 to 19 and I would like to focus on verse 19 the title of the sermon is at the bottom we had seen my keys to understand that by the end I hope when we read this passage what are we supposed and learn about our Martha, church in its nature as an apostolate church what can we learn what we notice first of all about what it means to be apostolate fires a couple of things that I have written down one is apostles follow the teachings of Jesus and so when we say that we apostolate church we are saying that we are also in that same line in that same tradition following the teachings of Christ we follow the leadership of the disciples and the apostles because they themselves were following that's one understanding of what it means to be apostolate church another thing that I can think of is that we are called apostolate church because each and every one of us is called to be an apostle the apostolate church describes the nature of each of its members as being apostolate we are called to be apostles serving and learning and walking behind Jesus even Paul would go one step beyond that when he starts his letters to different churches he says to this is to the same thing corner the to the same thing Ephesus we could say that yes we are things for Links that may sound a bit odd because they have a different definition of what it means to be a thing but if we take just this simple biblical word Saints holy ones a hug use in Greek it just means those who follow after cracks those other things those would diligently following after Christ so when we say that we are apostolate church we are saying that we are called to be apostles others another thing about our church that I love and many other churches all do say the same thing but I love that we had it written down within our Constitution itself and that is that we believe in the royal priesthood of all believers each and every person sitting here is a royal priests not only are we apostles but we are priests at the huge concept and him and him to teach that concept may need a series in and of itself but I bring that up because there's two dimensions to that priestly nature that we all have and just as there are two dimensions to an apostolate nature of our church and the first one we know very simply is that first Peter chapter 2 verse nine but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood holy nation God's own people a call we have set apart we are and apostolate church we trace our origins back to St. Thomas not that we get any pride or arrogance out of that fact should but we say that we do take it seriously we follow in that pattern in that tradition and a tradition simply is this we follow Christ so now reading this passage reading this verse what do we Lanvin what new thing can we learn about what it means to the the apostolate church and having in order to get this little the better we have to deliver the background study on this a Rabbi a Rabbi is like the teacher the day they were the the go to guys affiliating someone needs to lead a Bible study: the Rabbi the Rabbi is the person who takes the Torah the first five books of the Bible the law he takes the Torah he's studies it can meditate on it he discusses it with others he prays over it and his sole concern is to understand it and explain it better so that people can live it up for example will need examples Sabbath Sabbath is a commandment that comes in the Torah it says keep the Sabbath holy and not work on that date we all know that now with the Rabbi would do is he would create a list of things that you are allowed to do on the Sabbath and him all those things things that are permitted these are things that you can do you can walk got this much and that okay and then there's another list that he'll write up in these are lists of things that are not permitted so they specifically if on this list it says he can walk 50 m if you want anything past 50 m it is forbidden it is considered work and so we put it on the forbidden list some beings of rabbis came up with a list of do's and don'ts in order that they could that to live the Torah it's not that they had some sick obsession with legalism they you really I just wanted to of pain God's word to the letter and so they made this list you have a list of things that are permitted in the have a list of things that are not permitted and this collection of interpretations is called a rabbis all the rabbis you and if you follow certain Rabbi you carry that rabbis you do we know will of the Rabbi who said my you is easy and my burden is light Matthew chapter 11 verse 30 that's what you means we have probably heard more than and agricultural sense but that's not what the truest meaning is we have a Rabbi who comes up with a set of interpretations for how to live the Torah life and that is called his you so Christ has a set of interpretations for the law he has a way of looking at it a way of explaining it and Jesus tells to us if you do this if you carry my you it is easy not like the other guys who bear you down who put burdens laughter burden on top of you my understanding of how Christian life should be much simpler it's much easier now ever rabbis with the students is is talking with this class and he asked him some questions and him a student is and interpretation of something that's way off the phrase used by the Rabbi would be off give abolished the Torah is abolished the Torah and if the student happens to say and interpretation that is in line with the meaning of the Scripture the Rabbi would say of you fulfill the Torah you fulfill the Torah now we know that person and all links together Jesus who in his first public appearance comes out onto the scene in Matthew's Gospel and what is he say I have not come to abolish the law but I have come to fulfill it the very clearly he's saying I have not come to give you a wrong understanding on what it means to look like a child of God that comes show you very clearly very very clearly in my actions through my life what is the way in which you can live what is the way that would mean that you are fulfilling the law so that when Jesus came to do he came to show us what it looks like to follow God's law a the a it's very rare that you get a a Rabbi who comes onto the scene and has this new interpretation of things but when you do find the Rabbi like that Rabbi like that often would say things like this you have heard it said before but I say to you again that comes from the sermon on the Mount you heard it said before with a word the keys very sharply saying that you a previous understanding itself listen to what I'm saying because this is how you need to live now this endless process of forbidding and permitting this process is called binding and loosing that is the Hebrew kind of terminology they use now are starting to see the link to this verse two Jesus is giving to us away a system of binding and loosing binding means things that we forbid loosing means things that are permitted and when a Rabbi believes that his student has come to a level of maturity he does some very says something very interesting he says I present to you the keys to the kingdom so here in this passage Jesus asks his disciples who do these people say I am they gave their answers and he looks them square in the face he says who do you say I Simon. Has the courage the grace this. Enough to say you are the Messiah son of the living God it's true that statement of yours shows me that you are mature enough to carry the keys so he gives the keys to the kingdom meaning meaning he is giving Peter the asked for to start reading to reading the Scripture and to car with what it means on his own now this sounds maybe borderline article something that they make it as they put it in Islam an example see sometimes we think that this Scripture contains every answer to all of my questions in life and I'll be very honest with you it's not there is no verse in here that says I should Mary Roche is no verse in here that says that a you should leave the and engineering England ministry there's no verse in here for a lot of my questions life but what I do have is a understanding I had the Holy Spirit and I have the community within which I can understand what this Bible with the word of God is telling me to gain so I take the Scripture was some people thing is a simpler some people think is archaic in olden out of use I take that Scripture with this understanding that Christ has given me the and for me to read and understand and apply what is written here so that I can live like God wants me to live remember these rabbis didn't come up with ideas just for the sake of they would not legalistic kind of people robots they wanted to know how can I apply this Scripture to my life that I can live what does it mean to be in apostolate church it does not mean simply learning the Bible it does not mean simply coming to church and taking communion what it does mean to the in apostolate church is that I take this God given privilege and responsibility within the framework of the community within the framework of the church to read this Bible and took sides my daily life so that I can live this verse whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will be loosed have how do we understand that doesn't mean that whatever I do here is been a be approved uninhabited this is said to someone with maturity someone who is able to understand who Jesus was to that person the person who is taken the yoke of Christ to the person who has followed kind him closely diligently to the one who is given up everything else and set I will follow to that person he says that the way you live life will reflect what goes on in heaven we think heaven should look something radically different than what it looks like now we need to make this place looked like have is what our job is he on a job is not to make it doing get my so that then we can go and be happy our job is to follow the example of Christ which was bringing heaven to earth you all know the song heaven came down and Gloria filled my soul when you think that heaven is referring to Christ Christ came down and when he did he brought all of heaven with not not saying that there's no such thing as heaven waiting for us after we die but still there but what I am saying is and apostolate church makes that heaven a reality here on and apostolate church study the Bible in the community and the why is it within the society it's not enough it's not enough to come every Sunday that's as much as I love taking Bibles that is less as much as I love going to Bible studies even that is not enough to be an apostle means to be sent the Greek root of that word apostolate is a pole apostolate you to send it I just read the rest of that first Peter chapter 2 verse nine Bible verse number of read the first half when you are chosen people raise some royal priesthood a holy nation God's own people in order that in order that you may proclaim his mighty acts and his mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light and apostolate church is is huge this is a definition of who we are as a people we are a people who have followed Christ we are people who have taken on that you and show us to his disciples he says I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven be is don't misuse it don't misuse it like the Pharisees did Matthew chapter 23 verse 13 wrote to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven does our life invite people into a relationship with Christ or does our life lock people out of it examine our own hearts before God who knows what it is be honest before him this is not a spectator sport Jesus called us to apply the word apply it through the help of the Holy Spirit within the framework of the church so that the world will know what heaven looks like before they get on