(August 5, 2010)
Prayer & Medication
The weekend is almost upon us. Are you ready for it? Let's spend some extra time in prayer for our services. A part of my message will have an evangelistic twist to it - so bring a friend who needs Jesus.
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Devotional!
Through the law we attempt to get close to God – but no man will ever qualify through the keeping of the law. What we must do is simply allow the Son of God to come to us. We cannot earn grace – we do not deserve grace.
Grace comes to us at a time when we can do absolutely nothing for ourselves. This is both a blessing and a problem. It’s a blessing in that there is no other way to be saved than by grace. The problem is that men tend to love legalism, it is very dear to the natural man. Subsequently we get saved by grace and then tend to lean back towards legalism. Legalism is not a fault of the ungodly, but of those who have a zeal for God.
Galatians 2:18 “If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.” The Galatians were prone to rebuild that which they had formerly destroyed at their conversion. He says in essence, "If I build again the things which I destroyed- (the Mosaic law – stating that it is not necessary for justification), and then turn around and by word or practice, teach that it is necessary-I make myself a transgressor.” In this case he would be a transgressor of grace.
The principle of “salvation by works” seems to be deeply engrained in all of us. If we were to track down the source of clashes, strained relationships, and criticisms in the church we will usually find that the source is a failure in respect to the grace of God. In other words, if people don’t act in the way we think that a Christian should act, or they did not respond in the way we think a Christian should respond, we tend to get upset with them. All of these certain “ways” that we put on people are legalisms.
Legalists are always occupied with externals or outward actions. They attach the greatest importance to the comforts of orthodox practice and language as “things” in themselves. In other words, the spirit of a thing is lost sight of in an exaggerated devotion to the thing. However, with God nothing has value apart from the spiritual truth it is meant to express. Let me give you an example, lets say the thing is church attendance. The very spirit of why we go to church can be lost when there is an exaggerated devotion to the thing (attendance). When the spirit of it is lost to a devotion of the thing – then it has no value to God at all. In other words, church attendance means absolutely nothing to God when the attendee is devoted to attendance rather than why he goes to church.
Here is the problem, if you are a legalist you tend to believe that your attendance makes you more right with God than those who don’t attend as much as you do. Subsequently, you begin to preach church attendance as a means to salvation. That is a gospel of works and puts you into trouble with God.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Survival instinct: Old dog performs new tricks.
One day an old German shepherd starts chasing rabbits and, before long, discovers that he's lost. Wandering about, he notices a panther heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.
The old German shepherd thinks, "Oh, oh! I'm in deep doo-doo now!"
Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the panther is about to leap, the old German shepherd exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious panther! I wonder if there are any more around here?"
Hearing this, the young panther halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. "Whew, that was close!" says the panther, "That old German shepherd nearly had me!'
Meanwhile, a squirrel who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the panther. So, off he goes.
The squirrel soon catches up with the panther, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the panther.
The young panther is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, squirrel, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!"
The old German shepherd sees the panther coming with the squirrel on his back and thinks, "What am I am going to do now?"
Instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old German shepherd says:
"Where's that squirrel? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another panther!"
Prayer & Medication
The weekend is almost upon us. Are you ready for it? Let's spend some extra time in prayer for our services. A part of my message will have an evangelistic twist to it - so bring a friend who needs Jesus.
====================================
Devotional!
Through the law we attempt to get close to God – but no man will ever qualify through the keeping of the law. What we must do is simply allow the Son of God to come to us. We cannot earn grace – we do not deserve grace.
Grace comes to us at a time when we can do absolutely nothing for ourselves. This is both a blessing and a problem. It’s a blessing in that there is no other way to be saved than by grace. The problem is that men tend to love legalism, it is very dear to the natural man. Subsequently we get saved by grace and then tend to lean back towards legalism. Legalism is not a fault of the ungodly, but of those who have a zeal for God.
Galatians 2:18 “If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.” The Galatians were prone to rebuild that which they had formerly destroyed at their conversion. He says in essence, "If I build again the things which I destroyed- (the Mosaic law – stating that it is not necessary for justification), and then turn around and by word or practice, teach that it is necessary-I make myself a transgressor.” In this case he would be a transgressor of grace.
The principle of “salvation by works” seems to be deeply engrained in all of us. If we were to track down the source of clashes, strained relationships, and criticisms in the church we will usually find that the source is a failure in respect to the grace of God. In other words, if people don’t act in the way we think that a Christian should act, or they did not respond in the way we think a Christian should respond, we tend to get upset with them. All of these certain “ways” that we put on people are legalisms.
Legalists are always occupied with externals or outward actions. They attach the greatest importance to the comforts of orthodox practice and language as “things” in themselves. In other words, the spirit of a thing is lost sight of in an exaggerated devotion to the thing. However, with God nothing has value apart from the spiritual truth it is meant to express. Let me give you an example, lets say the thing is church attendance. The very spirit of why we go to church can be lost when there is an exaggerated devotion to the thing (attendance). When the spirit of it is lost to a devotion of the thing – then it has no value to God at all. In other words, church attendance means absolutely nothing to God when the attendee is devoted to attendance rather than why he goes to church.
Here is the problem, if you are a legalist you tend to believe that your attendance makes you more right with God than those who don’t attend as much as you do. Subsequently, you begin to preach church attendance as a means to salvation. That is a gospel of works and puts you into trouble with God.
=====================================
Medication: A Merry Heart
Survival instinct: Old dog performs new tricks.
One day an old German shepherd starts chasing rabbits and, before long, discovers that he's lost. Wandering about, he notices a panther heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.
The old German shepherd thinks, "Oh, oh! I'm in deep doo-doo now!"
Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the panther is about to leap, the old German shepherd exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious panther! I wonder if there are any more around here?"
Hearing this, the young panther halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. "Whew, that was close!" says the panther, "That old German shepherd nearly had me!'
Meanwhile, a squirrel who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the panther. So, off he goes.
The squirrel soon catches up with the panther, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the panther.
The young panther is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, squirrel, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!"
The old German shepherd sees the panther coming with the squirrel on his back and thinks, "What am I am going to do now?"
Instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old German shepherd says:
"Where's that squirrel? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another panther!"
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