If people do not see the power of God in churches, they will seek the power of another god elsewhere.
Churches today should be able to demonstrate the Power of God in their services because the bible says " you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses"  Acts 1:8  

Our actions and our speech should show the world around us what the Lord has done in our lives.  We should be living epistles which are read of all mankind.  Our testimony should be one of truth and love.  Our speech should be seasoned with salt and light.
My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power. 1 Cor 2:4

Jesus is summoning us to walk in greater power than we have ever known before.  He is entrusting us to complete the mission that He began when He walked in this earth.  
When Jesus chose the twelve, " He gave them power and authority over all the demons, and power to heal diseases." Luke 9:1-3  Jesus is choosing you and I today.   He has given us the same power he gave to the twelve disciples so why are our churches so dead and dying?   People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,  unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good,  traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  holding to the form of religion but denying its power. Avoid these people! 2 Tim 3:1-5   Men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw yourself.  But godliness with contentment is great gain.  1 Tim 6:5-6


  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.  John 14:12   Its time for the Sons of God to be made manifest.  Its time that we start walking in the Power of the Holy Spirit and do these GREATER WORKS that our Heavenly Father is commanding us to do! 

For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment. 2  Tim 1:7
May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints'  inheritance in the light. Col 1:11-12

Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself.  Phil 3:20-21 

God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness" —He has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.  We are pressured in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed.  2 Cor 4:6-9 

 





 

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength. He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens.  Ephes 1:18-20   

The Wisdom of God

During the space race NASA spent vast amounts of time and money developing a pen that would work effectively in a zero-gravity environment. What did the Russians do to solve the problem? They used pencils.

Man spends countless hours gathering statistics and conducting research to determine the right way to live when all he really needs to do is listen to God!  When we seek God's wisdom we find truths that enhance our relationships and protect us morally and spiritually.

For it is written, " I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will twart." 
1 Cor 1:19  Sometimes what we think is the most clever thing to do is not always the best thing to do because we have not sat down and counted the cost.  In order to make a wise decision we must first seek the hidden wisdom which can only be found in God. 
He is the source of our life and He holds the only wisdom that was decreed before the ages for our glorification.   It is not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age but it is a secret and hidden wisdom that only the Holy Spirit can impart. 

No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him. God has revealed to us through the Spirit.  For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.  So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit.  1 Cor 2:9-13
Contributor: Barnett Gushin  Published: Homiletics December 2004

 

Jesus Take the Wheel

The Department of Transportation once set aside $200 million dollars for research and testing of an automated Highway System. This system would purportedly relieve traffic woes by placing all cars that entered the highway on "super cruise control," allowing them to move in unison as they traveled in heavily congested cities.

Such travel would be made possible by using special magnets embedded in the asphalt every four feet, which would transfer signals between the vehicles and a main computer system. Steering, acceleration and braking would be controlled by sensors, computer navigation systems and cameras along the side of the road. Control would be returned to drivers as they exited the highway.


According to Mike Doble, Buick’s technology manager [at the time], ‘The only thing we can’t do yet is get people to comfortably trust the system. It’s not a technology issue." Mr. Doble asks, 'Would ‘you’ drive, closely spaced, at high speeds, through San Diego?’"

In a paper prepared for the University of California Transportation Center, Sanghyun Cheon writes, “…the extent to which motorists would accept reduced manual control of their vehicles and be willing to travel in automated vehicles at close following distance, on narrower lanes, and at higher speeds is not yet clear.”

The USDOT cancelled the NAHSC program in 1998, citing budget pressures, though many conjecture that the funding actually dried up, at least in large part, due to the public’s lack of enthusiasm (e.g., lack of trust and comfort level with the system) 
 
God has established a system that is intended to assist us as we travel through life--it's called grace! Grace is God's fail-safe system designed to put us in "super cruise control" when dealing with circumstances and relating to people. There is just one difficulty with the system--getting people to comfortably trust it. The truth is, we prefer to retain control of the steering wheel, even though it is this proclivity that drives us to discontentment and endless relational conflict. Rather than insisting on doing life our way, we should be crying out, "Jesus take to wheel!" 
 
Published: 1001 Quotes, Illustrations, and Humorous Stories for Preachers, Teachers by Edward K. Rowell, p.209; National Automated Highway Research Program: A Review. TRB Special Report 253.
 
"Trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).    Sometimes we have to let go and let God do the work in our lives.   We cannot depend upon what man can do for us because man will always fail us and forsake us but God has promised that He will never leave nor forsake us!   

Many pains come to the wicked, but the one who trusts in the LORD will have faithful love surrounding him. Psalm 32:10  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act, Psalm 37:5 



How happy is the man who has put his trust in the LORD and has not turned to the proud or to those who run after lies!   Psalm 40:4 



Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah   Psalm 62:8 
 
With the LORD for me as my helper,
I will look in triumph on those who hate me.  It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.  It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in nobles.  Psalm 118:7-9

God our Comfort

In the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest's lifelong friend Jenny had endured a childhood of abuse and neglect at the hands of her father. In one scene, Forrest and Jenny visit her old house, and Forrest watches as Jenny throws stone after stone at the weather-beaten old house which held so many painful memories for her.

When Jenny finally quit throwing rocks and began to cry, Forrest said, "Sometimes there just aren't enough rocks.


When we experience pain at the hands of those who are supposed to love and care for us, no amount of rock-throwing can repair the damage.
 
Instead of lashing out, we must turn to God and rest in the comforting promises of our Lord and Savior, the one true "rock" (Psalm 18:2).  The comfort He offers is never in short supply.
 

The Total Christian Guy, Harvest House, 1996, p. 127


The LORD is our rock and our fortress and our deliverer; Our God, our strength, in whom we will trust; Our shield and the horn of our salvation, our stronghold!  For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?  Psalm 18:2, 31  The LORD lives! Blessed be our Rock! Let the God of our salvation be exalted. Psalm 18:46.



Bow down Your ear to us, Deliver us speedily; Be our rock of refuge, A fortress of defense to save us.
For You are our rock and our  fortress; Therefore, for Your name’s sake, Lead us and guide us.

Psalm 31:2-3  

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. 2 Cor 1:3-5



Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy,  fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Phil 2:1-3

Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. 1 Thess 5:14-15  


Brina Gonzalez writes;


Dear Heavenly Father, You have abundantly blessed me With special loved ones... Who have loved and comforted me Throughout this life of mine. Thank you for being so gracious to me; You take care of my every need. I come to you in prayer Asking You to bless... A very special Loved one. This dear person is in pain; The kind only you can take away. As I send up this prayer Please comfort this loved one; And in your own unique way... Let them feel your presence. It will help them so much to know; That they are never ever really alone. I have complete trust in You... I know that you can hear me; And will answer my prayer. Soon my loved one will know Just how much You and I care for them so. Thank you once again For all that you do; Not just for me, But many others too. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Jesus Christ Paid the Price

For those of us who resent or begrudge God for the suffering and sadness that consistently visit the human experience, we would do well to ponder the words of Dorothy L Sayers:

"Whatever the reason God chose to make man as he is -- limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death -- He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine.

And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.  Isaiah 53:2-4

Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile."

We have all sinned and are all, therefore, deserving of God's judgment, which includes both physical and spiritual death (Romans 6:23).  If this is not enough to humble us in the face of suffering, then perhaps the realization that God asks nothing of us that He hasn't asked of Himself should help.  Especially in light of the fact that while we are deserving of our pain, Jesus was not.  Add to these considerations the fact that there is one thing Jesus suffered that has not been asked of us--to die for our sins! THAT Jesus did for us.  In light of all of this, we must let the bitter chill of resentment melt away and be replaced by the warmth of eternal gratitude. 

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name!  Psalm 100:4  Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 107:1






[Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) born in Oxford, England, was a renowned translator of ancient literature, essayist, poet, mystery writer, and author of assorted Christian works.]

Here is your Sign

Norman Cates shared the humorous story of a guy who prayed this prayer every morning:
"Lord, if you want me to witness to someone today, please give me a sign to show me who it is."
One day he found himself on a bus when a big, burly man sat next to him.   The bus was nearly empty but this guy sat next to our praying friend. The timid Christian anxiously waited for his stop so he could exit the bus.

But before he could get very nervous about the man next to him, the big guy burst into tears and began to weep.

He then cried out with a loud voice, "I need to be saved. I’m a lost sinner and I need the Lord. Won’t somebody tell me how to be saved?" He turned to the Christian and pleaded, "Can you show me how to be saved?"


The believer immediately bowed his head and prayed, "Lord, is this a sign?" Are you looking for a "sign" to start witnessing?

Speaking the Truth in Love

Galatians 2:11-21  Paul Opposes Peter

(Read Outloud) 

When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.

Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

"We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners'

Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

"If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!

If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.  

Two men who lived in a small village got into a terrible dispute that they could not resolve. So they decided to talk to the town sage. The first man went to the sage’s home and told his version of what happened. When he finished, the sage said, "You’re absolutely right." The next night, the second man called on the sage and told his side of the story. The sage responded, "You’re absolutely right." Afterward, the sage’s wife scolded her husband. "Those men told you two different stories and you told them they were absolutely right. That’s impossible—they can’t both be absolutely right." The sage turned to his wife and said, "You’re absolutely right."

Some people really like to avoid a conflict. I should know because I’m one of them. But conflict is a fact of life, in fact many have made the point that conflict, even within the Church is a sign of life--evidence of the fact that people really care. And avoiding confrontation is often a recipe for even greater conflict and pain.

The important question is, how do we manage conflict appropriately within the fellowship of the church.

The passage we read this morning from Galatians is the record of one of the best known conflicts in the early church and in it I see a model for how we should deal with controversy among believers. First, I’d like us to consider the source of conflict and then we’ll look at the soloution to conflict. First let’s look at the source

The Source of Conflict =Fear

12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

You know what’s really amazing about what happens here between Paul and Peter? It’s that it’s Peter. Peter, who was the first of the Apostles to preach the Gospel to the gentiles. Peter, who had a special revelation from God in a dream, making it clear to him that God had chosen to pour his grace out upon the gentiles making them clean by the blood of Christ. Peter, who stood before the council at Jerusalem and defended the baptism of Gentiles. How could Peter of all people have been snared and caused a conflict over an issue that should have been long settled for him?

There is a principle here that all of us would do well to heed. It is often at the places in our lives we consider strengths that the enemy will trip us up. We become complacent. The Scripture says take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall.  Paul tells us that fear was the key to Peter’s downfall. Fear of what? Of being thought less of, of losing influence? I don’t know, but clearly not fear of God, but fear of men.

And so in conflict even today this fear of what others might think is so often at the heart of conflict, motivating the behaviors and the hurtful words that fuel our controversies. And what is the behavior at the source of conflict...Hypocrisy

13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

Francois Fenelon was the court preacher for King Louis XIV of France in the 17th century. One Sunday when the king and his attendants arrived at the chapel for the regular service, no one else was there but the preacher. King Louis demanded, "What does this mean?" Fenelon replied, "I had published that you would not come to church today, in order that your Majesty might see who serves God in truth and who flatters the king."

Peter was not prentending to serve God for the sake of others but he was pretending that He didn’t associate with the non-law-keeping gentile believers when the law-observant Jews came to visit. Imagin the impact of this behavior on these believers. Yesterday they were OK company but apparently now that the real Christians, the Jewish Christians were here they were persona-non-grata.

What genuinely makes this hypocrisy is the fact that Peter was clearly acting in a way contrary to the belief that he held. It wasn’t that he was siding theologically with the Judaizers, he simply didn’t want them to think less of him.   Hypocrisy, it’s hurtful to people, it discredits the cause of Christ.

There is one final thing in the mix of the source of conflict..Legalism

14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs.

The specific issue of controversy here was legalism. The belief that being truly Christian requires adherence to an external set of standards. I’d like to tell you that after Peter and Paul got this issue straightened out between them it ceased to be a problem, but unfortunately that’s not the case.

One young man asked "I am in earnest about forsaking ’the world’ and following Christ. But I am puzzled about worldly things. What is it I must forsake?" . "Colored clothes, for one thing. Get rid of everything in your wardrobe that is not white. Stop sleeping on a soft pillow. Sell your musical instruments and don’t eat any more white bread. You cannot, if you are sincere about obeying Christ, take warm baths or shave your beard. To shave is to lie against Him who created us, to attempt to improve on His Work."

Does this answer sound absurd? It is the answer given in the most celebrated Christian schools of the second century! Elizabeth Elliot asks "Is it possible that the rules that have been adopted by many twentieth-century; Christians will sound as absurd to earnest followers of Christ a few years hence?" (Elizabeth Elliot, The Liberty of Obedience, Nashville, Abingdon, 1968, pp. 45-46.)

Richard Foster, one of the foremost Christian authors on the topic of Spirtual Disciplines asks us to "Consider the story of Hans the tailor. Because of his reputation, an influential entrepreneur visiting the city ordered a tailor-made suit. But when he came to pick up his suit, the customer found that one sleeve twisted that way and the other this way; one shoulder bulged out and the caved in. He pulled and managed to make his body fit. As he returned home on the bus, another passenger noticed his odd appearance and asked if Hans the tailor had the suit. Receiving an affirmative reply, the man remarked, "Amazing! I knew that Hans was a good tailor, but I had no idea he could make a suit fit so perfectly someone as deformed as you."

"Often that is just what we do in the church. We get some idea of what the Christian faith should look like: then we push and shove people in to the most grotesque configurations until they fit wonderfully!