The Lasting Change Redemption Brings

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect. Hebrews 12:22-23

Excuse me, but can you show me the way to Mount Zion? I hear that’s where my eternal home is and I want to know how to get there. Because, well, I tried Mount Sinai, but I couldn’t find my home there.

All of us face this choice-Mount Sinai represents the law, Mount Zion represents God’s love-which one do you want? You have to choose whether you think you work your way to Heaven or recognize that you can’t make it on your own and need God’s grace to save you.

But the truth is that you can’t save yourself. You can fool yourself into trying, but you’ll fail. You need a Savior. That’s why Jesus came to die and be raised again for you.

Why don’t more people embrace this offer of pre-paid salvation? Well, there are a number of reasons actually.

First, there’s a lack of interest. I mean, it’s not like the word hasn’t gone out. Jesus declared the good news of redemption and the apostles confirmed this word, and it has traveled through history to us today, but not everyone has received it. Not everyone is interested.

Second, some people don’t believe. It doesn’t matter if you tell them that they can have free salvation, because they just don’t believe you.

Third, some don’t want to hear it. They have grown dull of hearing, whether because they think they’ve heard it before, or maybe because they’re stubbornly clinging to other things. Whatever the reason, they just don’t want to hear it.

Fourth, they say they tried it, but that it’s not for them; it didn’t work. Right, like Jesus ever failed at something. Jesus’ redemption changes our lives, so if their life didn’t change, they weren’t really listening to believe in their heart.

Fifth, they’re afraid of God. They say, Man, if I came into your church, I’d be struck by lightning. This just shows that they’re looking at the wrong mountain-the one based on law instead of love. Jesus paid it all. All to Him we owe.

God’s salvation-the only salvation there is to find-is free, because Jesus paid for it already. Don’t try to find your home on Mount Sinai, and don’t use one of these lame excuses to reject God’s love. Find your home in God’s love today.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You for giving me salvation for free! I know that I could never do enough to work my way to You, so I leave behind all excuses and choose to believe You today. Thank You for saving me!

Amen

In Search of Aletheia

I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father…For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 2 John 4,7

Which truth do you believe? There are many of them out there today, after all.

Oh, haven’t you heard? I feel like I hear it all the time. Jesus isn’t the only way to heaven, and heaven is whatever you want it to be. We’ll all get there eventually, if not in this life then in the next. Or I hear, You know, I don’t think Jesus really matters because Heaven isn’t real. Maybe Jesus is real, but who cares, because this life is all I’ve got.

More times than I can count, I have shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone and they have told me, Hey, I’m glad that works for you, but I’m trying something different. But it’s okay, because it’s all relative.

In other words, There is no truth.

Is that what you believe? Do you buy into the theory that you can determine truth for yourself, and that everyone’s various versions of truth are all equally valid?

A similar rumor was going around in the days of the early church and the apostle John wrote to take a stand for truth.

He said, There is no debate to be had-Jesus Christ came in the flesh, was crucified, died, and buried. But on the third day, He rose from the dead. And His death and life were given on our behalf, so that we have died with Him and can live with Him forevermore!

He did not stop there, going on to say that anyone who claimed to be a Christian yet denied these basic facts about Jesus was a deceiver and an antichrist. These are not terms to be used lightly, considering that both of them are used of the devil himself and of his chief pawn in the end times!

Our choice is clear-we can live in the truth of who Jesus is and have both the Father and the Son, or we can deny the truth of Jesus and be associated with the devil himself.

Which will you choose?

Prayer Lord Jesus,

I believe in You! I want to be like You and not have anything to do with the lies of the devil. Please teach me the truth of who You are and what that means in my life!

Amen

Faith Lift

Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city. Acts 8:5-8

Do you want to know the biggest lies that Satan tries to sell us on? It really boils down to two of them.

The devil tries to mess you up concerning who you are and whose you are. Who are you? God would never love you. You’ve blown it too bad, gone too far. He could never use you. What are you thinking that you could ever reach the lost? As if people even like you. I mean, just look at you; no one will listen to you.

Does any of that sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so. Do you want to know a powerful way to silence those lies? You get a faith lift.

You realize that it’s not about your abilities, because it’s really God inside of you who matters where that’s concerned. You realize that it’s not about your past, because Jesus paid for it already. You realize that God loves even you, that there was no asterisk by your name when God said that He loved the world so much that He sent His Son to die for it.

And realizing these things, you take up an overarching burden for the lost that supersedes any excuse we could come up with for not reaching them with the gospel.

Just look at Philip in our verses today. Do you remember that only a couple chapters before this, he was just waiting tables? He went from busboy to world-changing, miracle-working missionary in a very short period of time. But some of you might say, Well, Bob, I’m shy. I’m quiet. I could never get up there and do that. I keep to myself. I’m a type-C personality in a type-A world. I am.

Listen, God knows how He made you, and He’s big enough to use you however He made you. But what needs to happen first is for you to be willing, for you to embrace that love for the world that caused Jesus to leave Heaven so that He could save the likes of us. When you embrace that love, that overarching burden for the lost, nothing else will matter anymore because your faith will have lifted from the lies you’ve been told to who you now are in Christ and who He is in you.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for the burden You had for me! Thank You for the burden that others had that made them tell me about You. I choose to share that burden for the lost today so that many others will know You through me!

Amen

Why Aren’t You Up Here?

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2

What’s your mission in life? Or maybe more simply, what’s your mission for this year? Many of us don’t have an answer to this question, though we will have much more productive years and lives if we do. Our verse today tells us what Paul’s answer was during his time with the Corinthian church-to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. Nothing else mattered to Paul.

This became Paul’s mission. And, in the name of Jesus Christ, I greatly encourage you to make it yours. Just like Paul, determine to make it happen.

Or what have you determined? That’s a great question for us to sort of consider right now.

What have I determined to live for? What have I determined to confess with my life, with each and every one of my breaths? Am I somewhat conflicted or confused concerning this? Or have I determined, like Paul, that I will know nothing but Christ and Him crucified?

You’re like, Well, of course this is clear for you. You’re the pastor.

It should be just as clear for you. There should be no difference between what has become clear for me and clear for you in terms of what we’ve determined to confess. We know that one day all creation will confess the name of Jesus above all else, but we can choose to do that now, and it will benefit us greatly both now and in that day. But more than that, we live as examples for those around us. What we confess will influence our family, neighbors, and coworkers for Christ.

When you are at home, do you confess television sex and violence? Do you confess disrespect toward your husband, wife, children, or parents (yes, you can still dishonor your parents as an adult, and yet we then strangely expect our kids to honor us)? Or do you confess Christ, not only with your words, but with your example?

When you are at work, do you confess the water cooler gossip? Do you confess ladderclimbing competitiveness? Do you confess bottom-line-at-all-costs integrity? Do you confess laziness, doing only what’s necessary? Or do you confess Christ as your supplier and provider?

Every circumstance in life provides us with an opportunity to confess Christ and all He did for us in being crucified on the cross. Don’t let your life be empty of that message today. Determine to know Christ and Him crucified.

Prayer Jesus Christ,

I’m so sorry for the other things I have confessed in my life besides You. Please forgive me, and set me free from all my past confessions as I choose today to confess one thing: You in all that You have done for me.

Amen

Who’s Being Held

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4

How would a glimpse into your future change how you live today?

Paul knew the power of seeing the future. This is why he wrote today’s verses to the church at Colossae, saying to them, This is your future. This is what God has for you unless you’re being held back, unless you somehow are still being held hostage.

Now, some of us live still being held by something other than Christ. For a lot of us, that’s our past. We’re held hostage to our past.

So let me tell you something about your past. Ready? Here it is-your past is past. It’s gone. It’s done. It’s not your future. It’s not what’s in front of you; it’s what’s behind you, and unless you keep looking behind you to what’s already happened then your past will remain simply that-past.

In fact, here’s what Paul has to say about your past-you died with Christ and have been raised with Him. Notice that those words are past tense, which tells us that’s the past that really matters. Your history without Christ doesn’t matter anymore because your history with Christ includes the cross. Your sinful past, the abuse you suffered, that nonexistent relationship with your absent father, it’s all gone now, crucified with Christ and buried with Him. He paid for it all, and when He was raised from the dead, so were you.

Or didn’t you realize this? Paul says. If then you were raised with Christ, stop looking to the past! Start looking at your future! Seek the things above, where Christ is, where your life is hidden in Christ even right now!

Why would you choose to be the guy in the room that’s connected to his past instead of receiving the victory and freedom and liberty in which Christ has set you free from whatever happened in the past?

So many people let their whole identity get shaped around what did happen or didn’t happen in their past, and you’re being held by it. But listen, as strong as the past can be, the cross is stronger.

I care what happened in your past, but we need to see our choice today. We can choose to let our lives be held by our past or to let them be hidden in Christ. Which one will you choose today?

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for taking my past with You on the cross so that I have died and been raised with You! I choose to leave my past behind me and focus instead on what You have for me in the future: A life in which I will appear with You in glory!

Waste Management

But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: How they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. Jude 17

There was a time when I took some people to Egypt. There we were, at the base of Mt. Sinai together. We’d just climbed up to the very top. We took this film crew with us to shoot this Bible study on top.

We rode the camels up and we hiked back down. But there at the top, we were at the monastery, the oldest monastery in the world-St. Catherine’s Monastery. It was totally off the charts for me. I mean, it was completely amazing, because there, in the monastery, are the oldest manuscripts of the Bible that we have on this planet.

As unfortunate as it was that they no longer let groups in to see those manuscripts, those manuscripts dating back to the early second century are there and can prove to us the very fact that our Bible has been inspired and preserved and protected by the very power of God Himself.

We’ve got 3,500 of the oldest documents in that monastery alone, not to mention where our group went next, having lunch over at Qumran where they discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. Of all the scrolls for those little shepherd boys to be digging out in the sand and coming across and discovering, it would be from the scroll of Isaiah, where he’s talking about this servant of a Messiah who would come and give His life as the atoning sacrifice for our sin. That’s the one that’s discovered?

You bet it is. Remember this Word. Remember the power of God’s perfect Word. Don’t begin to tweak it. Don’t begin to change it.

If you got in a spaceship and said, Okay, tonight I’m flying to the moon, and your navigation was just one degree off, you’d never get there. You’d be so far off into left field by just being a little one degree off.

If you get in a plane and fly to Maui and that pilot says, You know what? I just have a better feel today about getting there instead of trusting these instruments, you’ll never find that little dot of an island if you’re just going to base it all on feelings.

This Word is to be your navigation. This is to be your foundation.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You for Your unchanging Word! Thank You for giving me something so strong and powerful to be the foundation and rudder of my life. Lead me and guide me as I seek You in Your Word!

Amen

Wrong Way Worship

Now some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?’ Ezekiel 14:1-3

Are you a good multitasker? I want you to know today that there are areas of life where multitasking is fine, but there are areas where it is eternally fatal.

Take worship for example. If we try to multitask worship, bad move. The career and the education and the house and all of it is never meant to be something that takes the place of God, but instead allows for us to worship God with those things for all that He has blessed us with.

No, I’ve got it managed. I’ve got it compartmentalized. Here’s my God slice and here is everything else. I can manage it all.

That’s like convincing yourself that even though the law has now changed so that it’s illegal, you can still drive and text at the same time. You’ve got it down. You can do it.

Oh well, Bob, it might be a problem for you, but I am a multitasker.

Listen. When it comes to worship, it is a bad trait to be a multitasker. You should be so single-minded and focused that there is one and one only that you worship. And if somehow you’re still convinced that you can pull it off, that you can manage it all, it doesn’t mean you’re right. And it doesn’t mean you’ll succeed.

It simply means my illustration has failed, because here is God saying, You have to choose. Are you with me or are you against me? Are you going to be my child or are you going to be a child of the god of this world-the devil? Who are you going to live for? Will you stack up on the left or on the right on the Day of Judgment? Will you be a sheep or will you be a goat?

Both.

You can’t. Goofy or regular, you’ve got to choose how you’re going to ride this. You can’t serve two masters. You’re going to end up loving one and hating the other. And so, which will it be, left or right? Goat or sheep? Right or wrong? Blessings or curses? Life or death?

It’s not both. It’s an either/or proposition. You’ve got to choose sides and pick a team. Is God really your God today?

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You for being jealous of my worship and my heart, so that I can only serve one God. I choose to make You my God and worship You alone, not just on Sundays, but with my whole life, my whole heart, with all that I am!

Amen