Message Experiencing Jesus 03/23/2014

Transcription

1 Message Experiencing Jesus 03/23/2014 DO YOU KNOW HOW TO PRAY? I heard a story of a ship that was sinking in the middle of a storm, and the captain called out to the crew and said, "Does anyone here know how to pray?" One man stepped forward and said, "Yes sir, I know how to pray." The captain said, "Wonderful, you pray while the rest of us put on life jackets--we're one short." It is good to laugh, isn t church? It is good to experience Joy thru laughter, because it takes us far away from some pains, both physical and emotional or just the everyday pains and struggles of life. But it is normally short lived. Knowing Christ and experiencing Christ is not short lived. Will you pray with me Church! Heavenly Father, thru the message today, let there be clarity of the word spoken! Let this sanctuary be filled with your Holy Spirit, rain down upon us father and let each of us recognize your presence here at this time and Place. You have placed upon my heart the desire s of your very own thru this message father. Interrupt any evil spirit here father, any spirit that is not of your own. Let the words be pure as milk and honey from your lips father. Most of all, let the people respond in your favor, In Jesus Name: AMEN!

2 I pray that thru the message spoken last week and for that matter every week that something that God said to you thru me, might have made a difference or a change in your life. We talked about Judging and the consequences for judging for ourselves before we discern God s will. We looked at Matthew 7:1-6 (NIV) (In the Beatitudes) Judging Others 1 Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother s eye. 6 Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. The words Mean what they Mean Church! My prayer is that those words stuck with you throughout your week, and that you felt conviction and you made a mends with God and those convictions. That you changed the way you acted toward others. See I think that so often we try and make church everything but what it is suppose to be. And we are so inclined to come into church with our worldly eyes on and instead of focusing on God and

3 ourselves we spend more time looking around to see who is here and who isn t, who the new people are and who do they know? What s the Pastor wearing, what songs are we going to sing, I like that one! I don t like that one! Prayer is too long, it s too short, which hardly is ever the thought. I m standing to long, what is with this up and down! And if we are really aren t careful our minds start to wander into the abyss of the sanctuary. I wish the Blinds were open! I wish they were closed! See and all the time you were suppose to be praising God and thanking Him, and listening for Him to touch you. And all the while you were somewhere else! LOOKING THROUGH CLEAN WINDOWS A young couple who moved into a new neighborhood. One morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside. 'That laundry is not very clean', she said. 'She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap' Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Everytime her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments. About month later, the woman was surprised to see nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: 'Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?' The husband said, 'I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.'

4 And so it is with life. What we see when we are looking thru the eyes of judging the world, depends on the purity of the window through which we look. See I don t want you to just come to Church! I want you to experience God s love here? That s what this is all about! Do you know what that means, or what it feels like to experience God or God s love? See it is great to experience the Love of fellowship with the church family and laugh together. It s great to sing songs we know and love. And it is great to hear a message that makes us laugh and makes the time go by quickly and to hear a familiar scripture, But are you experiencing it deeply for yourself! I had a Pastor once tell me; that your church family will remember all the things you did, but very few will remember the messages you gave. That is probably true in a lot of cases, because many people over the years have come to church more out of obligation than to worship and experience Him. And they come in and leave with the same set of eyes. They never seem to change. You understand that even people who don t normally attend church on a regular basis know it is a good thing

5 to attend church on special Holidays like Easter and Christmas. We use words to describe them like C and E Christians or Chresters. The new one is Crisis Christians, Those who only come during Crisis in their lives. C.E.C. Christians. But who are we to judge! What makes us so special if we come to church 52 days in the year instead of two, if our heart, our mind, and our eyes are in the same place theirs is? Never Changing! What is the difference if we come to church every Sunday and go home and cuss and swear, cheat, lie, and show un-forgiveness to others. I heard someone say; You don t talk like that in Church! NOOOOOO! You Are missing the point! You don t ever talk like that! See my fear with what the Pastor said above people never remembering a message, is that we have somehow lost the desire to want to be at church. We have lost the reasons why we come to church; Because instead of it being about our Love for God, it has become a drive thru for some kind of spiritual obligation to meet a worldly mentality mold of religion. I want you to know something church, that it is not my desire that you would love me or the programs or ministries at this church, but that you would learn to love

6 Jesus Christ, that thru me and the scriptures you read everyday, so you could understand the fullness of what it feels like to serve Him thru these ministries and to allow Him to be the leader, the teacher, the comforter and the Father of an unending love that is unmatchable. Your presence here today acknowledges some sense of trust in God. Your presence here today acknowledges some sense of respect for Him and or His Son Jesus Christ! But how many of you could honestly say that you understand experiencing God by the Power of the Holy Spirit everyday! Like many of you, I have gone thru my life and have experienced many things. Things that many of you haven t even heard about. And I try to keep my life very transparent for you all so you can trust me. I think that when we try and hide things that is when we are of a suspicious nature and people recognize that. But Like many of you, I have gone thru my life and have experienced many things. Both Good and Bad! And like you, each time I had encountered my experiences I found myself Changed by my understanding of how each experience develop me. But nothing has given me more understanding about life than when I gave it to Christ!

7 But I have also had experiences that left me with no or little life knowledge, like taking the garbage out. For some coming to church is much like taking out the Garbage at home. Nobody really wants to do it! But it is a necessity; otherwise our houses would fill up with bacteria ridden garbage. And when someone is assigned the duty, isn t it funny how everyone is watching the garbage so they can tell the assigned one; The Garbage is full, it s time to take it out! See for some we have no more interest in coming to church and experiencing the true worship of God than Being the one assigned to take the garbage out. As a matter of fact some of us would rather? And suddenly the whole meaning for being here is because, it is the right thing to do, and you are right by that, it is our obligation, BUT it is not meant to be a menial task, it has purpose, like taking the garbage out! See even taking out the Garbage has a purpose. But coming to church is not a task, it is an experience. How many of you have had a garbage experience? Tell me how was it? Did you worship it? Did you sing songs and praise it? Of Course Not!

8 There is no experience in taking the garbage out; It simply is a task for the sake of cleanliness in our homes. Think about it, the garbage is full, we take it out, tie the top in a knot, we throw it in the can. What is to experience? See there is nothing more to it? It has a purpose and even is necessary, but no experience necessary! Is this how we view church? Is this how we are teaching our children about church? Do we show our children that you can take or leave church as you please, its only obligation? But see even with garbage there is purpose? What are you allowing to build up in you and your child s life if they don t learn how to, take the Garbage out of their own lives? See there are many examples of things like this that we do, but relationships are not one of them and certainly not our relationship with Christ. If you treated your spouse like you do taking out the Garbage how long do you suppose your relationship would last? (I am here honey out of obligation and necessity!)

9 I would pray that your relationship with your spouse and your children would be something more than an obligation or necessity! That it would be an experience between you both of love and understanding, supported by the creator of love and forgiveness. Our children are not just a product of pleasure, they are a gift given to us to pass along a generation of Gods people to show them what it means to honor God by the examples of our lives that we set forth ourselves. We need to be a generation that teaches our children and young adults about coming to church to experience His presence in our lives each and every week. This is an obligation to make meaningful. Each and every song we sing should be sung unto the Lord and for the Lord. Each and every spoken word should rest within our souls to take home and it should occupy your heart to help us learn and Grow all week long. The words that God lays on my heart are not to be judge as to whether or not they apply to you! If they Apply then apply them! We shouldn t be focus on how well I do or how well the praise team sings or what songs or how I am dressed. We shouldn t be wondering when church will be over so you can get your favorite seat at the Pepper mill!

10 If you allow anything else to occupy your mind at church besides being focus on the experience of worshipping the God of Love, than you are no greater than the hypocrites and the C and E s, or C.E.C s you talk so boldly about. Our call to God should be a heartfelt experience bathed in anointed by pray thru the Holy Spirit! If you came here today to judge anyone for anything, than you have come here for the wrong reasons. If you have come here today because it is the right thing to do and you had no intentions of experiencing Gods spirit, just get it over with; Then I pray that this will change. Angie and I lately have been talking about many things in regards to the scriptures and the disciples during and leading up to Easter. One of the things that has become very apparent for us is that even though the disciples proclaim to be followers they were still about their own agenda it would seem. That leading up to Jesus Crucifixion on the Cross, that they were not really getting it!

11 Sure there were times when they went out and did things that Jesus told them to do, and even in the Spirit healed the sick. But when you listen to the underlining conversation at the last supper, you know that they still don t really get it! SCRIPTURE Luke 22:14-27 (NIV) 14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God. 17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. 19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. [a] 21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him! 23 They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. 24 A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. See they were more concerned about who was the greatest than even who had betrayed Jesus! They were more concerned about who was the greatest than the fact that Jesus told them this was the Last supper.

12 Listen to Jesus Answer to their bickering! 25 Jesus said to them, The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. He is talking about the worldly mentality of authority! 26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. We Church are called to be Christ like to everyone, A Servant We are called to a relationship with Christ and just like the disciples we re are all so worried about everyone else s business that we have forgotten who and why we come here for in the first place. Because all we can see is the neighbors dirty Laundry! And for the disciples it wasn t until Jesus rose from the dead before they totally understood and they were convinced that He was the Son of God and then all the things came flooding back that He had said and done as to the example of this. Suddenly all the things they heard before came back to them! His words to them before sometimes seemed to be meaningless in those days, But after the resurrection it all made sense. And this is what happens when you truly give your life and heart over to Christ, it all starts to make sense.

13 I look back on my own life and concluded that many of the things that I went thru, many of the things that I did, I did on my own accord. I was a worldly man looking for worldly treasures, but when I gave my heart to Christ everything changed. I started to see the world thru clean windows! And that is what I am telling you church! We are called to wash away all the dirt in our lives! We are called to be zealous in our love for Christ and to follow the example of Christ. We are called to be passionate for His Love and for the love of our Brothers and Sisters. But most of us look at this and say; WHO has TIME for this. See free will is a funny thing! We can continue to go by the ways of man in this man s world, because God has given us the ability to do so, Without cleaning the windows. Or we can Chose to be what we were created for in the first place, Servant for God. Now at first glance it looks pretty boring, something with a lot of rules and rule keeping. But have you ever had one of those moments where something was going to change in your life and you didn t like it at first but after it took hold you suddenly couldn t do without it!

14 Illus. A young banker was driving his BMW, in the mountains, during a snowstorm. As he rounded a turn the vehicle slid out of control and toward a cliff. At the last moment he unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped from the car. Though he escaped with his life, his left arm was caught near the hinge of the door and torn it off at the shoulder. A trucker passing nearby witnessed the accident, stopped his rig, and ran back to see if he could be of help. There standing, in a state of shock, was the banker at the edge of the cliff moaning, "Oh no, my BMW, my BMW". The trucker pointed to the banker s shoulder and said "man you ve got bigger problems than a car". With that the banker looked at his shoulder, finally realizing he d lost his arm, and began crying ":Oh No, my new Rolex, my new Rolex". We live in a messed up world Church! We think that the life we live is all about our Gain Here, and that couldn t be further from the truth. We twist things around so bad and I am sorry to say that I believe it has filtered into our Churches. And Pastors are afraid to tell the truth, for fear of hurting someone s feelings. But we are called to reveal the truth! Let me ask you something? Will you help me, to help you, to get to know Jesus? Will you help me to help your Family, get to know Jesus?

15 Will you ask Him into your life today and show you how to make a difference in the people s lives around you! God needs and Army of soldiers, Church, who are willing to sacrifice time and energy and talents to build this body of believers to be strong and brave in and for Christ! I order to believe in God you must first break down the barrier or barriers that you have set forth, that keeps you from having a relationship with Him. And you must ask yourself! Is it money, time or Power, or pride or selfishness that is keeping you at arm s reach for Him? He is literally an arm s reach from many of us and yet because of our selfish motives we stand guarded to the single most important experience we could ever have. Church there are just some things that we shouldn t have to be talked into! Like the guy who was 28 and still living with His Mom and Dad in their Basement and one day this man stopped by with His daughter, She was beautiful and so charming, the father informed Him that if He would marry His daughter that she would serve Him all His life and He would inherit His mansion and all His Money, as a matter of fact you can stay in the Mansion with them and the young man said you know what I have all I need

16 here in my mom s basement and so He turned Him away! He was afraid it would be too big of a change. Another time a couple of friends decided to travel across the country in an old beat up pickup truck that one of the guys owned. And so they worked for days getting the truck ready for the trip. Finally the day came and they took off not long into the trip the one young man notice some lottery tickets setting on the dash board and so he started to look thru them. Suddenly He notices that one of them was a power ball winner worth 450 million dollars. He said to the other guy with excitement to the owner of the ticket, do you know you have the winning Power Ball ticket and it is worth 450 million dollars. He said you can buy a new truck and we could fly anywhere in the world, why are you holding out on getting your treasure! The young man said; I just didn t want it to change the way I live. Most of us would think that these stories sound ridiculous but yet standing right in front of you is a God that can give you more than all the Gold and the silver on earth could bring you and yet week after week you deny it and turn away from it.

17