Sermon Notes 12/28/2014

IS your church a hotel or Home?

 And communion! 

Why we do what we do!!

So why do we do what we do??? Why do we give? Why do we serve, and why do we take that little chunk of bread and spit cup full of wine and eat it??? Well ask different denomination and you will get different answers to them all!!

And can I tell you these are all secondary issues??

Nowhere in the bible does it say you have to be baptized or take communion to be saved!

·      Does that mean we shouldn’t?? No

·      Does that mean it’s not important?? No

·      The most important thing for you as a Christian is your salvation and others

o   We do the others out of our love for Jesus!

o   Obedience is showing our love in the ceremonies and acts of love

So know I hope to take a little time to explain why we do it and why we do it the way we do??

And at the end of the service you will have a chance to participate in communion!

Giving and Serving

Hotel or Home? That’s the question!

Matthew 6:19–24 (NIV)

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²²“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

²³But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

²⁴“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Where is your treasure?

·      Are you storing it all up here?

·      Are tired to things more than Jesus?

·      If things matter more than Jesus your heart will never truly be his!

Stewardship

·      What is a steward?

·      Do you see yourself as a steward of God’s wealth?

·      How is that tangible or not tangible in your life today?

·      Where are you tempted to see your possessions as yours and not God’s?

·      What conflicts does the idea of stewardship raise up in you?

·      Where do you need to grow in you stewardship?

·      What can you start doing today to be a better steward?

Money and Worship.

·      How is money related to worship in your life?

·      Where do you see money/things competing with Jesus for glory in you your life?

·      What things have you sought after for joy but left you wanting after you possessed them? What do see as the highest purpose for the use of money?

·      How does your concept of money need to change for you to realign your worship with God?

Prayer:  Take time to Reflect and meditate on the death of Christ.

·      Praise God for his faithfulness and generosity.

·      Pray for correction where it is needed in regards to stewardship.

·      Pray that the money we steward is converted into souls won for Jesus.

Do you worship God or money?

·      To truly serve money has to be a secondary issue

·      To truly give your heart has to belong to Jesus

·      Are you giving first fruit or the leftovers?

Communion

Know it get confusing!!

The Lord’s Supper is not as cut and dry, in every other instance in the bible for a ceremony there are specific instructions as to when, where and how. Not so much for the Lord’s Supper!

Feast of Passover (Erev Pesah or Ta'anit Bechorim)

The 14th day of the 1st month

The Day of First Fruits (The Omer)

The 16th day of the 1st month

5. Trumpets (Rosh Ha-shanah)

The 1st day of the 7th month

6. Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)

The 10th day of the 7th month

7. Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth) - An eight day feast of ingathering.

The first day was the 15th day of the 7th month

So as you can see God was very specific about when his feast and festivals were to occur, so why did God leave the Lords Supper so vague???

·      So we could screw it up??

·      Because he forgot??

I don’t think so! I think it has a simpler answer than we think it does!

·      But again we have over complicated it and we see it in the bible

1 Corinthians 11:17–22 (NIV)

¹⁷In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.

¹⁸In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.

¹⁹No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.

²⁰So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat,

²¹for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk.

²²Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!

·      The only time there was a problem with the Lords Supper was when they come together corporately

·      Go figure, like a family reunion, some is getting fat, some get nothing, and someone is always getting twisted off!!

·      I don’t think Jesus designed it this way

·      I don’t think this what he had in mind

  

So when was it right??

Acts 2:42–47 (NLT)

⁴²All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.

⁴³A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders.

⁴⁴And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.

⁴⁵They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.

⁴⁶They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—

⁴⁷all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

Luke 22:14–20 (NLT)

¹⁴When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table.

¹⁵Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins.

¹⁶For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”

¹⁷Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves.

¹⁸For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come.”

¹⁹He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.”

²⁰After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.

START PASSING OUT SACRIMENTS!

Matthew Henry:

The Lord’s supper is instituted to be a memorial of Jesus Christ, that has by dying delivered us; and it is his death that is in a special manner set before us in that ordinance.

1.           The breaking of Christ’s body as a sacrifice for us is here commemorated by the breaking of bread This bread that was given for us is to be food for our souls, for nothing can be more nourishing and satisfying to our souls than the doctrine of Christ’s making atonement for sin, and the assurance of our interest in that atonement; this bread that was broken and given for us, to satisfy for the guilt of our sins, is broken and given to us, to satisfy the desire of our souls.  

2.           And this we do in remembrance of what he did for us, when he died for us, by doing this we are joining ourselves to him in an everlasting covenant.

3.           The shedding of Christ’s blood, by which the atonement was made, as represented by the wine in the cup; and that cup of wine is a sign and token of the New Testament, or new covenant, made with us. It commemorates the purchase of the covenant by the blood of Christ, and confirms the promises of the covenant. This will be reviving and refreshing to our souls, as wine that makes glad the heart. In all our commemorations of the shedding of Christ’s blood, we must have an eye to it as shed for us; we needed it, we take hold of it, we hope to have benefit by it; who loved me, and gave himself for me. And in all our regards to the New Testament we must have an eye to the blood of Christ, which gave life and being to it, and seals to us all the promises of it. Had it not been for the blood of Christ, we had never had the New Testament; and, had it not been for the New Testament, we had never know the meaning of Christ’s blood shed.

Sermon Notes 12/14/2014

Who is Jesus!

The Great “I AM”

John 8:12–19 (ESV)

¹²Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

·      Why do we continue to want to walk in darkness?

·      Jesus has given us the light that never goes out!

¹³So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”

·      And they always question him!

·      So do we!

·      We become our own type of Pharisee (religious)

¹⁴Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

¹⁵You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.

¹⁶Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

·      Jesus could stike us down

·      But he choses to give us life if we just seek the light!

¹⁷In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.

¹⁸I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.”

¹⁹They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

·      They couldn’t even see who he was!

·      And my fear is there are a lot of Christians who don’t see him because

o   They alone want to be judge and jury

o   They alone want to hold judgment over everyone

o   But the problem is that is our own Sin get in the way!

Jesus is saying I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

·      Jesus is saying that He is the light that the world needs

·      He is the everlasting Hope of a dark world

·      He is the one we have all been waiting for

·      And He is the light that now one can hide from!

·      Have you ever been in a dark room where you don’t know where anything is? And it that room is something you need to do but you just need the light to expose it?

·      And then you turn the light on, how good it feels to see everything and deal with what ever needs done?

·      That light is Jesus and the world is our sin!

Jesus in Matthew 5:14 hands the torch to us and say we are now the light of the world, and we need to carry his light to everyone we can so we can expose sin and turn people to the light! This year we need to carry that light farther in to a Dark world and let people find the one light that will expose and cleanse them!

  

Lets set it up!

·      Jesus was away when his friend Lazarus died

·      The rule was after 3 days you couldn’t be raised

·      So jesus came in knowing he had been dead for 4 days to prove his point “I am the Great I AM”

·       

John 11:21–27 (ESV)

²¹Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

²²But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

·      I think she was fishing

·      She was asking Jesus to lift her brother from the tomb, with out asking!

²³Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

·      Jesus uses this to make his point!

·      I am the great “I AM”

·      The only way any of us will ever be raised is through the blood of our savior JESUS

²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

·      Its through faith that we will be raised just like Lazarus

·      Faith in Jesus and Jesus alone

·      Jesus is the Great “I AM” 

JESUS IS THE GREAT “I AM”

·      But Jesus explains “ I AM” the resurrection, I am the life by which all knees will bow and all tongues confess

·      Its only through faith in Jesus that any of us has a chance to live a eternal life!

·      To those that believe in Jesus Christ,

o   To those that consent to,

o   And confide in,

o   Jesus Christ as the only Mediator of reconciliation and communion between God and man, and have faith that he is the only person who can forgive sin will be resurrected and live forever in the Kingdom of heaven!

  

Sermon Notes 12/7/2014

The Great “I AM”

Why Jesus (what’s in a name)!

The first of the seven “I AM” Statements!

Let me paint a picture for you, let me set the stage for the first of the great “I AM” statements

·      Jesus had just feed the 5000 with a little boys lunch

·      And he then explains he is the bread of life

·      That it was by his flesh and his blood that all would be filled

·      They all stuck around fro the free meal but almost all of them left when there was a price to pay

John 6:35 (ESV)

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

John 6:40 (ESV)

⁴⁰ For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

·      Jesus is revealing the purpose of what God has sent him for

·      He uses a metaphor of food to explain that he is the messiah that everyone has been waiting for

·      That we don’t have to try it on our own any more

·      That God has provided a way to get back in relation with Him

·      How many of us if Jesus walked in the room today would even see Him

·      Would even welcome Him 

·      God has provided a way to get past all of our sin, all of shame, all of our hurt, and walk with Him again, His name is Jesus!

·      Jesus is the bread the fills the whole, that empty space in all of our hearts!

·      We all hunger for it! We all ache for it, but for most we never fill that hunger!

·      But like the crowds we want it our way, we don’t want to have to change

·      We don’t want to live a different life

·      What about you? Are willing to let Jesus invade every aspect of your life?

I am the true VINE!

Let me set this up!

·      It’s the last supper!

·      Jesus is laying down his last instructions

·      And for the Jews they knew why it was so important for Jesus to be the vine

Psalm 80:7–8 (ESV)

⁷Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved!

⁸You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.

Isaiah 53:2 (ESV)

²For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

Proverbs 8:19 (ESV)

¹⁹My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver.

·      Jesus’s reference to the vine is a thread that runs through the old testament

·      It is a call to coming and his work

·      More proof that the whole bible is about him

John 15:1–8 (ESV)

¹“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

²Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

³Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

⁴Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

⁵I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

⁶If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

⁷If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

⁸By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

·      Jesus here reveals more of His God character buy telling Us that he and God the father work together

·      To be followers we must know and believe in Jesus

·      For us to be followers we must bear fruit

·      For us to know that Jesus is with us we must grow more like Him

·      And sometimes God prunes us, and gets involved in difficult situations so that we can grow more like him

·      If Life is tough look and see what God is trying to teach you, what is it that I can do better to be more like Him in it

·      Never think God puts us through hard times to punish us, it's to teach us, to refine us, to make us more like Him

·      Jesus says if you’re not producing fruit, than you’re not of His vine, what fruit are you producing?

·      Or are you a branch that in the end will be cut off and thrown away??

John 10:7–10 (ESV)

⁷So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

⁸All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

⁹I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

·      The door!

o   I want you think about this practically

o   Have you ever tried to get in to a crowded club

o   The bouncer is there for one reason, to let the good people in and keep the bad out!

o   Jesus is the great bouncer, he protects the door to heaven, and once we have Jesus with us we have a key to the gate that allows us free access! An all access pass!

o   We have to have faith, we have to trust Jesus!

o   He stands at the door saying come in there is room

He (Jesus) stands guard at the door, looking for those with Gods stamp of approval

Ephesians 1:13 (ESV)

¹³In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

·      This always makes me think of cattle branding.

·      Every year, range cattle are rounded up, and cowboys and ranch hands heat a branding iron and sear the owner’s mark on the cattle.

·      From that moment on, whoever finds those cattle on the open range knows whose they are by the brand in their hide.

Christians are branded by the evidence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

·      Wherever we are, our Owner’s mark should be in evidence.

·      The mark of the Holy Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22, 23).

·      This is not the world’s brand.

·      The fruit of the Spirit marks a Christian as belonging to Jesus’s herd.

·      God has sealed us with His Spirit.

·      When we “heard the word of truth, the gospel of [our] salvation” (Ephesians 1:13), and when we responded in belief, God made good on His promise and gave us His Spirit

·      WE are branded (sealed) and will forever carry that brand and all will know this by the fruit we produce

¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy

·      The thief may make it look good

·      He may package it up in a nice package

·      But do not mistake it for anything other than Death

·      Satan’s whole objective is to destroy what God has created

·      He wraps it in

o   Pride

o   Envy

o   Selflessness

o   Covertness

o   Everything the world has to offer

o   But underneath it all is Death and destruction

Jesus is the Great Rancher that protects His heard!

John 10:11–18 (ESV)

¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

¹²He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

¹³He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,

¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

¹⁶And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

You ever had someone borrow something and not take care of it the way you would have??

·      Or someone takes care of your dogs and they seem like they haven’t been cared for like you would have

·      God forbid some thing happens and its them or your animals you know the choice they would make

·      The Good Shepherd

o   No own protects the heard (horses) like the owner

o   He has time and money invested

o   We has blood and sweat and tears invested

o   He loves his horses

o   Jesus is the best ranch owner around and laid his life down for his heard!

Jesus got nailed on a cross for you, he shed blood for you, and he loves you and will protect you from the evil one who has come to kill, steal and destroy!