Finding Balance in Life

This is part 4 of a series we have been going through each week. You can look back at previous posts to go into depth, but here's a quick recap:

Week 1 - Our culture says we ought to be independent, but we all depend on Jesus for life and salvation. Whether we like it or not, we are dependents.

Week 2 - Our culture tells us we need to be handle everything on our own and not rely on others, but God provided the church so that we could have a support system and people to help us with our burdens.

Week 3 - Our culture promotes the idea of pursuing the "easy life" - looking for success and wealth so we can sit back and relax. God never promised us an easy life, even for those who follow Him, but He did promise to never leave us alone. Not only did He provide the church as a support network, but He also promised to always be with us no matter what we go through. In the midst of darkness, He is our Light.

    We each have a list of responsibilities that we have to deal with. Some of you may have a longer list than others. Here is a simple list to think about:

- School (grades, GPA, friends, teachers)

- Home (chores, siblings, parents, questions)

- Sports (practice, games, exercising)

- Instruments (practice, recitals, being reminded to practice)

- Work (shifts, coworker/manager drama, customers)

- Finances (saving up for college/car/vacation, insurance, gas)

- Hard times

    That last one ought to cover most of what may have been missed in terms of things that give us stress, worry, or anxiety. And on top of all these responsibilities, as Christians we are called to do so much more:

- Love our neighbors (and enemies)

- Help those in need

- Support our neighbors

- And one of the most difficult things: BE LIKE JESUS CHRIST.

    Why is that so difficult? Well, He was literally perfect, He performed miracles, He was patient, wise, loving and compassionate, and He wasn't afraid to call people out when they were in the wrong. He was the Son of God. He died for the sins of the world. HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD.

    He's a hard man to emulate. There's just so much going on. And yet, that's what we are called to do - to be like Jesus.

    As we put all of these together, it can very easily lead to even more stress as we try to do everything and do it like Jesus. It can be overwhelming. So what does God tell us to do?

Philippians 4:6-7 - "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

    I don't know about you, but the advice "just don't worry about it" doesn't work for me. THANKFULLY, God doesn't leave it there. He says, "Don't worry. Instead, turn it over to me. Let me take on the stress and the anxiety and the worry. Let me handle it. Trust me with it."

    Whether it be a worldly thing we are worrying about, or a spiritual thing that we feel like we are not living up to, God says we can bring it to Him. When Jesus died on the cross for your sins and mine, He took away the threat of punishment and death from those who believe in Him as their Lord and Savior. When we fail, when we mess up, when we don't measure up, God doesn't hold that against us.

The pressure is off.

    While we are called to be like Jesus, God knows that we could never measure up to that standard on our own. He knows we are going to fail at times. He knows we are going to fall short some days. He doesn't hold our shortcomings against us. Our goal ought to be to do our very best to be like Jesus, but not to give up hope or become overwhelmed by anxiety when we fail.

Luke 9:23-24 - "Then he said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever looses their life for me will save it.'"

    The call to be like Jesus is a daily endeavor. Every day we make the decision to leave behind our old self and become more like Jesus. That's what it means to take up our cross. We are taking up death, the death of who we used to be, to then follow in the new life we have received in Jesus.

    The point of this message is to help you find a balance between God's expectations and God's grace. He expects us to be more and more like Jesus every day, but He also extends us grace when we fall short.

Think about all the people in the Old Testament who fell short, and God used them anyway:

- Moses literally murdered someone.

- Abraham was a liar.

- Gideon was a bit of a scaredy-cat and lacked trust in God at times.

- David committed adultery and then sent the woman's husband to his death in battle.

- Jonah ran away from God.

    These are just a few examples of people who God used even though they weren't perfect. We see the same in the New Testament:

- Saul (who we know as Paul) hunted down, persecuted, and imprisoned Christians (before becoming one himself).

- Matthew, one of Jesus' disciples, was a tax collector (a profession known for dishonesty and greed).

- Peter denied Jesus three times.

    Of all the people in the Bible, even the Christians, only one was perfect: Jesus Christ. We are called to be like Him, but there is grace when we fall short.

    God's measure of a successful life is whether or not we followed in Jesus' footsteps. He wants to see us try to be like Jesus and to try to follow His example. So, to sum up some takeaways from this message:

1. Success = following God.

2. Any "failing" on your part has, is, and will be forgiven - you are loved, always.

3. You have an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good God on your side.

4. You have a community of fellow believers willing and wanting to help.

    So, as you are looking for how to live your life, and what to do in your life, make sure you are finding that balance between God's expectation to be like Jesus and His grace when you fall short. Whatever worries, struggles, or anxieties you face, entrust them to God.

We Are All Dependents

For anyone familiar with the US tax system - no, we are not talking about filing taxes. That's not the kind of "dependent" we're talking about today.

    My dad is an extremely hard worker. His work ethic is exemplary (particularly within the church). Having grown up in the church, I saw him plug in all over the place - setting up for events, shoveling snow, working the car wash - whatever needed to get done he was there to help. As I grew up, I slowly took on his work ethic for myself, too. But there was a dark side to it that I also took on - my dad hated asking for help. He was always willing to help others, but never willing to receive help himself.

    When we see someone working on something, our first instinct is to step in help them get it done. However, if someone came up to me and asked if I needed help, my immediate answer is almost always "no". Technically, its an honest answer. Do I need help most of the time? No. I am capable of completing most tasks on my own, and I like it that way. But even if I don't need help, I could certainly benefit from it. Whatever I am doing, I can probably do it faster and better with help that on my own.

    So why wouldn't I want help? Well, I think it comes down to the fact that we live in such an individualistic society. American culture pushes the idea of being self-sufficient, independent, and doing things on your own. We see it all the time in TV shows, where one of the characters will have this really hard thing to do, and they'll be like, "This is something I have to do on my own". EVEN THOUGH it would go way better and be much easier if they accepted the help of their friends or family.

    We did a little game during youth group where one of the students had to take plastic balls from one bucket and run them, one by one, across the room to another bucket. The goal was to see how many he could run across in 30 seconds. He was pretty fast, and managed to get 7.

    So then we added 5 more people, and they formed a line and passed the balls down the line into the other bucket. As you can imagine, they were able to get a lot more working together than he could by himself. I believe they reached 18.

    But then I added one more challenge to the game. Or rather, took something away. I took away the bucket that had the balls in it. Guess how many they were able to get across without that bucket? 0. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Without access to the bucket, they couldn't do anything, even when working together.

Our message focuses on one verse:

John 15:5 - "I 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."

    This is Jesus speaking to His disciples about the life and work He has called them to. When we put our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we receive new life from Him, and with that new life comes a whole mission to make disciples of every nation all over the world. We are called to live for Him, according to His Word and teaching, and to share the good news about salvation through Him to everyone we meet.

    In this verse He gives both an encouragement and a warning to those who have put their faith in Him. The encouragement is that when we stay connected to Him, He will empower us for ministry. He will give us the energy we need to "bear much fruit" and live the life He has called us to. He will work through us to spread salvation to our friends and family. This is wonderful news!

    But the warning is that when we are disconnected from Him, our efforts will be fruitless. We cannot live the life or do the work He has called us to without being directly and consistently connected to Him. We won't be able to live according to His Word, we won't be able to obey His teachings, and we won't be effective in bringing the good news to others when we are disconnected from Jesus.

    Jesus is the bucket from that game earlier. When we have Him in our lives, we can do some great work for God's Kingdom. When we have Him and other believers working alongside us, we can accomplish even more amazing things! But when He is not there, when we are disconnected from Him, we cannot do nothing.

    As I mentioned before, our culture pushes this idea that we have to be self-sufficient, that we have to be independent. But when we put our faith in Jesus, we are already acknowledging that we are not self-sufficient. Jesus is the only way to salvation - we cannot obtain salvation without Him. We already depend on Him for salvation, so why stop there?

    Our culture tells us that dependency is a weakness, that we are weak if we need to rely on someone else. But Jesus says that's ok. Because we absolutely have to depend on Him. And He says that unless we depend wholly on Him, we cannot live the life He has given us.

    So, if you want to live for God, if you want to serve Him, if you want to please Him, and receive the joy, peace, and love that His life offers, you have to keep going back to Him.

How do we connect to God?

By spending time reading His Word.

By spending time praying to Him.

By spending time worshiping His name and His mighty works.

By spending time with other believers.

    Ask yourself this: how often do you do those things? How often do you read the Bible per week? How often do you pray each week? How often do you worship God? And how often do you spend time with other Christians?

Once you have answer for those questions, consider this: How connected do you feel to God?

    Let me reassure you, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are saved. God is with you wherever you go and He will never leave nor forsake you. But the question is meant to assess how connected you feel. Because I am willing to bet that if you don't spend much time in the Word, in prayer, in worship or with other believers, you probably don't feel very connected with God.

    And this isn't some kind of a recipe for connectedness, as though you can do these things and always see an immediate result. But these are the practices of those who are actively seeking to be near to God. He has revealed Himself in His Word, He communes with us in prayer, He transforms our hearts when we worship, and He encourages us through fellowship with other believers.

    If you want to be connected with God and be effective in the work of His Kingdom, these are solid practices to help get you there. These teach us to depend on God, because after all, we are all dependents.

What Are the Wages of Sin?

    I used to work as a facilities assistant at a bio-analytical company. It sounds fancy, but really I just managed a stockroom of chemical supplies and moved chemicals around. Due to the potentially dangerous nature of the work (some of those chemicals were quite dangerous) I got paid well. At the time I was working part-time there and part-time at the church, but my real passion was the church. So, when they offered to hire me full-time I had to say no. I stayed on as a contract worker for about a year and a half, which meant that I got paid by the hour. If I worked a lot of hours, I got paid a lot, and if I worked only a few hours, I got paid less. If I wanted to get paid, I had to earn it - that's what we call a wage. A wage is a fixed, regular payment that is made to compensate someone for their work.

    The focus of this post is addressing the "wages of sin". Well, we now know what wages are, but what is sin?

    Literally translated, "sin" is "missing the mark". If you think in terms of archery, sin is when I miss the bullseye. I have not hit the mark I was aiming for, so I have sinned. In the Bible, this word is always used to describe disobedience or rebellion against God. You see, God has set the "mark" for us. What we are aiming for is perfection according to His Law and what He says is right. Anytime we miss that mark, anytime we fall short of perfection, we are sinning against God. It is anything we think, say, or do that goes against God.

    Now that we understand these two terms, let's get into the answer for the question. What are the wages of sin?

Paul makes it very clear in the first part of Romans 6:23:

"For the wages of sin is death..."

    When we sin, we earn death. Death is our fixed, regular payment for our sin. Before Adam and Eve had ever sinned, God warned them that this would be the result.

Genesis 2:17 - "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

    He set a simple mark for them - just don't eat the fruit of one particular tree. As we know, they missed that mark. For those of you who know the story, they didn't die immediately - the fruit wasn't poisoned or anything. But because of their sin death entered into the world. Paul explains this very quickly in Romans 5:12:

"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned..."

    If Adam and Eve had not sinned by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then death would not have entered the world. They would have been able to stay in the Garden of Eden, eaten the fruit of the Tree of Life (which was not off-limits) and lived forever.

But they did sin. And as a result death entered the world and now everyone deserves death.

Romans 3:23 - "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..."

    Everyone has earned death for themselves. You, me, our friends, our families, our neighbors, our coworkers (if we have any), everyone. For Adam and Eve, the immediate consequence was separation from God, removal from the Garden of Eden and a loss of access to the Tree of Life. We are currently living in those consequences, with death in our future. What happens when someone dies while separated from God?

    There are several names used in the Bible to describe the destination of sinners: Hell, Hades, Sheol, Gehenna... and according to Revelation all these will eventually be cast into the Lake of Fire (or as Jesus sometimes describes it, the fiery furnace or outer darkness). In His teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives us a consistent picture of what the Lake of Fire will be like for sinners who go there:

Matthew 8:12 - "While the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Matthew 13:42 - "And throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Matthew 13:50 - "And throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Matthew 22:13 - "Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"

Matthew 24:51 - "And will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Matthew 25:30 - "And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Matthew 25:41 - "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'"

Matthew 25:46 - "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

    In each of the passages above, those who are cast out are those who are against God. They are those who do not belong to Jesus, who are disconnected from Him, and who have set themselves up against Him. Those who do not belong to God, who remain separated from Him, are cast out into this place described as an eternal fire or punishment, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

    The idea of weeping seems pretty straightforward. In some translations, the word "wailing" is used. From this we can understand that there will be great and overwhelming sorrow, anguish, despair, and hopelessness.

    "Gnashing of teeth" is a phrase used to show either intense pain, or anger and disrespect, or both. If you imagine being filled with rage at someone, you might grind your teeth together at them. It is an expression of hate, anger, disrespect, and usually results from experiencing great pain.

    When you put these together, you get a picture of desperation, hopelessness, pain, and anger. These are the feelings and experiences that characterize the Lake of Fire. What makes it worse is that it is eternal - it will last forever. There is no end to it. Imagine being constantly overwhelmed by hopelessness, despair, pain and anger forever and not being able to do anything about it. That's Hell. That's the Lake of Fire.

Hell is not some kind of "afterparty" where sinners all gather and continue in their sin. It is a dark place of loneliness, hopelessness, anguish, bitterness, sorrow and anger that lasts forever.

    Because of sin, this is the default destination for everyone. We have all earned death which leads to the Lake of Fire for all eternity. It is where we belong, it is where we deserve to go because we have all rebelled against the one and only Holy God.

BUT - yes, there is a but! Let's read the rest of Romans 6:23:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

    I used to be headed for Hell. That's where I deserved to go. But then I put my faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross.

Romans 5:8 - "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

    When Jesus died on the cross over 2,000 years ago, He took on all the sins of the world and paid the penalty for our sin. The death that we earned - He took it on Himself. And He did it out of love for us, so that we could be reunited with God and have life everlasting.

The best part is - IT'S FREE!

    While we earned death, life is a free gift from God through Jesus Christ. We don't deserve it at all, but by His grace He offers it to us freely, should we choose to accept it. When I put my faith in Jesus Christ and accepted this free gift, my sins were forgiven and I was made right with God. He no longer holds my sin against me because the penalty has been paid by Jesus! He turned me around so that I no longer belong in Hell, but rather I am welcomed into His Presence and will spend eternity with Him!

    We know that this hope is real because Jesus didn't stay dead. He did something that we could never have done. He took death in our place on the cross, and then 3 days later He rose from the dead. He demonstrated that He has power even over death, and it is proof that what He did on the cross was sufficient to save us from our sin. This is the God we worship and we will get to raise Him forever!

    Those of us who have believed in Jesus are no longer destined for Hell. We belong to Jesus and we have the hope of of living with Him forever. God saved us.

    But I know that many of your friends, your families, your coworkers, your teachers, and others in your life have not believed in Jesus. They either have not heard or have not accepted God's free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. That means they are still destined for Hell. They have sinned, and they have earned death.

YOU HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT THEY NEED.

    You have the good news they need to hear about Jesus. You know about the free gift that God has offered to all people. Don't leave them on their path to Hell when you have what they need to hear! Go tell them about Jesus!

    When I worked at that bio-analytical company, one of the highlights of the day was when someone brought in donuts or pizza and left it in the breakroom for anyone to come and take. One of my coworkers was always on the lookout for these, and whenever someone would bring something in, he made sure to tell me about it. The free food was there, but if I didn't know about it I couldn't get it. Someone had to tell me.

    God's free gift of salvation is there for everyone. He has commanded those of us who know about it to share the news with others. He has put you where you are so you can tell the people in your life about Jesus. Tell them about this free gift that God has offered them. Let them know about the life they can have with God forever, and don't leave them on their path to Hell. You know what they need, so tell them about it. Get the conversation started. Invite them to church or youth group. Bring a friend with you and start talking about Jesus. You could save their life.

His gift is there for anyone to accept, but someone has to tell them about it. Let that "someone" be you. Amen.

What Does It Mean to "Take Up Your Cross"?

 We had the great fortune of hearing from one of our volunteer leaders for the message last night as we looked at what it means to "take up your cross and follow [Jesus]".

    Before we dive into the passage, let's look at some context. In the chapters leading up to our passage for today, Jesus is seen feeding a crowd of 5,000 men (plus women and children), walking on water, healing a demon-possessed girl, and feeding another crowd of 4,000 men (plus women and children). His disciples are with Him the entire time and witness all of these things firsthand. Each of these miracles by themselves are incredible, and when linked together they are a powerful display of Jesus' authority over creation. This brings us to the first part of our passage:

Matthew 16:13-20 - "When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?'

They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'

'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?'

Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.'

Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.' Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah."

    Following those amazing miracles Jesus sits down for a conversation with His disciples and He asks about the rumors that are going around about Him. "What are the people saying about me?" And the disciples tell him - the people recognize that He is someone of great importance, like a prophet of old. The crowds have seen His miracles and they have heard His teachings and they can see that He is someone sent from God. And they are partially right - Jesus was sent by God.

    But then He takes the question and makes it personal: "What about you? You have been with me and heard my teaching and seen my power - who do you say that I am?" After everything they have seen and heard, He wants to know if they understand who He really is yet. And Peter replies, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." "Messiah", also known as the "Christ", means "anointed one". That's right, "Christ" is not Jesus' last name. It is a title. Peter calls Jesus the anointed one from God, the one promised in the Old Testament who would come and bring salvation and liberation to the world. And, even more importantly, Peter calls Him the "Son of the living God." Essentially, Peter calls Jesus God.

    And how does Jesus respond? "You're right." He gives Peter high praise for understanding who Jesus really is, and then blesses him by saying that He will establish the church and give Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven. A quick side note here: "Peter" means "little rock", and the word used for "rock" when Jesus says "on this rock I will build my church" means more of a "big rock". So He is saying here that Peter will be part of the foundation of the church, but ultimately it will be built on Jesus Himself as the "chief cornerstone" (Ephesians 2:19-20).

    This is very high praise for Peter, and he must have felt awesome after hearing it. Unfortunately, that awesome feeling didn't last very long.

Matthew 16:21-23 - "From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 'Never, Lord!' he said. 'This shall never happen to you!'

Jesus turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.'"

    He goes from being a part of the foundation of the church and holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven to being called "Satan" (which means "adversary" or "one who resists"). He went from being a key player in the establishment of the church to an adversary of Jesus. Why? Because his mind was set on human concerns rather than Godly concerns.

    We know that Jesus' death and resurrection payed the penalty for our sin and bought us from the power of sin and death into eternal life. If Peter had been right, or had convinced Jesus not to go down that path, then we would not have access to eternal life or a relationship with God. Without Jesus' death and resurrection, the Christian faith would mean nothing. Jesus' concern was for our redemption, even though it meant His death. I think Peter stopped listening after he heard Jesus say He was going to die. "But Jesus, if you die, then how are we going to establish the church? How is this kingdom thing going to work if you're not around?" It was a human concern, thinking only about this life and what was happening here. Jesus warned Peter that his thinking needed to change. He needed to get on board with Jesus' death, or he was only going to be a stumbling block in Jesus' mission.

This brings us to our final piece of the passage:

Matthew 16:24-28 - "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. Truly I tell you, some of you who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.'"

    This is one of Jesus' hardest teachings. What do you think it means to deny yourself? Well, this one is pretty straightforward - rather than go after what we want, we instead go after what Jesus wants. Whatever my heart's desires, wants, or future goals may be, my priority as a disciple of Jesus Christ is to pursue His desires, wants, and future goals, even if it costs me my life. This is where the next part comes in. Today, a "cross" is symbol for the church of what Jesus did for us when He died. It is a symbol of hope for us. But in His day, the cross was a symbol of humiliation, submission, and execution.

    The Romans used crucifixion (death on a cross) as way of executing the worst of criminals in the most painful and humiliating way possible. If you look forward in the gospel of Matthew (27:27-37), you will see that it was normal for the Romans to force the prisoner to carry the beam of wood that would be his cross up to the place of his execution. This was both humiliating for the prisoner as well as a forced symbol of his submission to the Romans. Jesus had been so brutally beaten and tortured before this point, however, that they had to get someone else to carry it for him. This is where we get the phrase "my cross to bear".

    So, when Jesus says that those who want to be His disciples must "take up their cross and follow me", He is saying that those who want to be His disciples will have to bear humiliation and death. In Luke's gospel, he adds that this is something they have to do daily. So every day Christians are called to carry death and humiliation as they follow Jesus.

    If that's the whole sales pitch - "Follow me and die" - which of you is taking Jesus up on His offer? "Follow me to death" is not the end of the discipleship under Jesus, however. This is the cost. This is what it will take to follow Jesus. You have to be willing to give up your own desires and wants, and even your life, to follow Jesus as His disciple. If you are unwilling to give up your life, or as He puts it, "whoever wants to save his life", then you are not fit to be His disciple. That's why this is such a hard teaching.

    Praise be to God that death is not the end! Jesus says, "Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it". The reason why we deny ourselves, and take up our cross and follow Jesus is that through Him we have everlasting life and salvation for our souls!

    There have been times where I have gone to a restaurant and think, "oh, that looks really good maybe I'll get that". Then I see the price and think, "Nevermind, that's not worth it". Many people look at what Jesus calls His disciples to do - deny themselves and take up their cross - and they think its not worth it. They have their minds set on earthly things; they want all the things this world has to offer like sex, money, success and power and they want those things more than they want life eternal with God. But Jesus says, "What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?"

    When we have our minds set on human concerns, like Peter did, we lose sight of what's truly important and what is ultimately going to be for our good. It is absolutely worth it to give up what I want out of this life in order to obtain eternal life with Jesus. The reward is worth the cost.

Some questions for you to think about:

1. Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Have you recognized Him, as Peter did, as the anointed Son of God?

2. What desires, wants, or aspirations are you holding onto or refusing to deny? Jesus didn't say "Deny bits and pieces of yourself". He has called you to surrender everything.

3. Are you willing to take up death on a daily basis, offering your very life in submission to Jesus? Paul phrases it like this in Romans 12:1 - "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship". Have you offered your life as a living sacrifice to God? In other words:

Are you living for God or yourself?

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like...

 So I had to apologize last night about one of my earlier messages (I will be commenting on the related post to fix the error). We had done an activity where I put out a statement and yall had to determine if it was true or false biblically. Well, I had claimed one of those statements was false because I didn't think there was any part of the Bible that said that Jesus lived in our hearts. Then, this past week I came across Ephesians 3:17 - "so that Christ [the Messiah, the anointed one] may dwell in your hearts through faith...". That section of Ephesians goes on to talk about being filled with the fullness of God. Jesus is the Christ, so if Christ dwells in the hearts of Christians through faith, then I was wrong. And I'm sorry. The main challenge from that message was to read the Bible and know it. Clearly, I needed that challenge, too.

Moving on, I have 3 questions for you. Grab a piece of paper or pull up a memo on your phone - in some way write down your answers for these, please.

1. When you have money to spend as you please (not on essentials like bills or whatever), where does the majority of your money go? To put it another way, when you get to choose how to spend your money, what do you tend to spend it on the most?

2. When you have free time (time that you get to choose what to do with) what do you tend to spend most of it doing? School/work and sleeping don't count, so pick something else besides those.

3. When you have a choice, who do you choose to spend the most time with?

Once you have answered each of these questions, look over your answers. Your answers should give you a sense of what you value, or where your priorities are.

For me, the majority of my "spending" money goes toward snacks and coffee and stuff like that. Most of my free time goes toward videogames, social media, and TV. And the person that I choose to spend the most time with is my wife. From these answers you can see that I prioritize comfort/satisfaction, entertainment, and my wife over other things. What do your answers say about your priorities?

We're looking at two short parables from Jesus today, and they are found in Mark 13:44-46 - "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it."

Jesus is using these parables to describe "the kingdom of heaven". What is He talking about with that phrase? Well, if you go back further in the chapter you'll find His parable of the Sower, where a man tosses seed out and it scatters across 4 different types of soil. He actually explains the meaning of this parable to His disciples, and says that the seed is the word about the kingdom, and the soil represents the people who hear the word and how they receive it. We can take this to understand that "the kingdom of heaven" is the message about Jesus - the Gospel.

With that in mind, let's look at these parables again. In both cases, we have a person who encounters the Gospel (the kingdom of heaven) and sells everything he has to obtain it. Whether it was the treasure in the field or the pearl, both people determined that these things were worth giving up everything they had to obtain. So what we find in these parables is Jesus demonstrating the value of the Gospel - it is worth giving up everything to obtain.

By these choices, we get to see their priorities. They valued those things (the treasure in the field and the pearl) and so they were willing to put everything else aside to get them.

Let's think about the treasure in the modern setting. Imagine you stumble across Blackbeard's treasure buried in the back yard of an old house. It's worth millions of dollars, so you go and sell your house and everything else you own so you can buy the property. We'll say it cost around $300,000. Well, now that you own the land, you can lay claim to the treasure which is worth millions. You gave up everything to obtain something of far greater value. That is the point Jesus is making in these parables. The kingdom of heaven, the Gospel, eternal life with Jesus, is worth far more than anything we could possibly get from this life or this world. It is worth sacrificing everything we have in this world to obtain. Later in the book of Matthew Jesus says this:

Matthew 16:24-26 - "Then Jesus told His disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?'"

Taking up your cross is a symbol for offering up your life. When Jesus took up the cross, it was to walk up the hill of Golgotha and die on that cross for our sin. Jesus is saying that if we want to follow Him, we have to sacrifice our very lives. We have to give up everything. And if we are willing to do that for Him, we will find eternal life. When we put our faith in Jesus and accept the Gospel, we die to ourselves and become new in Him - born again. He gives us new life, a new identity, as children of God. We become coheirs with Him in the Kingdom of God and we have eternal life to look forward to. This is a far greater gift than anything we could gain from the world. The world cannot offer us eternal life.

So, the kingdom of heaven has far greater value than anything we might be asked to sacrifice for it.

The kingdom of heaven will last longer than anything we sacrifice to gain it. Money, time, resources, energy, desires, dreams, ambitions, thoughts, wills, emotions - all of these are worth sacrificing, giving up, to follow Jesus and gain what He has to offer.

Think about, what benefit is money in the next life? None. It does not go with you, ad it cannot buy anything in the next life, no matter where you're going.

What benefit is videogames, or sports, or TV, or fancy shoes, or jobs, or careers? These might offer you something in this life, like a sense of accomplishment, or enjoyment, or power or authority. But when you die, they are all left behind.

What benefit is time? In this life, time is limited. We are all going to die someday. Having more or less time here won't help you in the next life.

Jesus asks an important question: What benefit is it for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul? The whole world is not as valuable as eternal life with God. So, if God asked you to give up your time, or your money, or your ambitions, for Him, and He offered you eternal life in return, wouldn't you accept that trade?

Everything this world has to offer us can satisfy only a small part of us, and that only for a time. God satisfies our whole being. The point of these parables is to show the great value of the Gospel, and what people who find it are willing to give up to obtain it. They are willing to give up everything they have because they can see the value in the kingdom of heaven.

Look back at your answers from earlier. What does your lifestyle say about your values?

Calendars, bank accounts, schedules - all of these can say a lot about what you truly value. This is because when you value something, your time, money and energy are put toward it. When you look at where you are spending your money, your time, and your energy, does it show that you value the Gospel? Does it show that you value God? Or does it reveal that your priorities are elsewhere?

Ask yourself this: What is eternal life with Jesus worth to you? What are you willing to sacrifice to follow Jesus?

According to Jesus Himself, the answer has to be everything.

No More Excuses - The Good Samaritan

 If you had to condense all of the commands of God throughout the Bible into just 2 commands, what would they be?

Most of you probably already know that the Bible has done this for us, and you jumped right into "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." If that's where your mind went, excellent, we are on the same page. These two commands basically sum up everything has commanded of us. Everything we do ought to come out of loving God with all our being and loving others.

Now, how many of you obey these two commands all of the time?

That's a harder question. It is one thing to know what God commands, and it is another thing to actually obey those commands on a daily basis.

It's probably safe to say there are some people in your life that you don't like very much. Maybe it is someone from school, a family member, or some internet troll. What does it mean for us to love these people as ourselves? I mean, what about someone we absolutely despise, or someone who is actively trying to hurt us? Are we supposed to love them, too? How do we do with that command to love our neighbor when the "neighbor" in question is an enemy?

Our passage today is Luke 10:25-37 - the parable of the Good Samaritan.

“And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’ And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.’ But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ Jesus replied, ‘A wise man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go and do likewise.’"

There are two basic parts to this passage; two major questions from the lawyer which get addressed. 

1. What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?

2. Who is my neighbor?

For both questions, Jesus responds with a question. In the first question, a lawyer (an expert in the Law of Moses) wants to know what he has to do to inherit eternal life. We might instinctively reply saying something like "There's nothing you can do to inherit eternal life. We're stuck in sin and there's nothing we can do on our own to earn forgiveness become right with God."

What is surprising to many people today is that Jesus doesn't go this way in His response. Instead, He asks the lawyer to look to the Scriptures. We see the lawyer respond with the two greatest commands, which sum up the whole Law, and says that if one follows these he can inherit eternal life. And Jesus once again doesn't reply with "Trick question, you actually can't do anything..." Instead, He says "Great, so go do it. Go and love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus agrees with the lawyer's interpretation. Perfect obedience to the Law of Moses would bring about eternal life.

The problem is, nobody can obey God's Law perfectly. We all fall short of the glory of God. We all mess up at some point. And that's why the apostle Paul, elsewhere in the New Testament, says that the Law of God shows us our sin - when we fall short it shows us how much we need Jesus. And here with this lawyer, Jesus is trying to show the lawyer his shortcomings.

So then we get to the lawyer's follow-up question, and it shows us where his heart is at: "And who is my neighbor?" The passage tells us he is trying to justify himself. He is trying to set a limitation on who actually counts as his neighbor, because if it just the people who live next door to him, then perhaps this guy really has followed the whole Law. Maybe he has a shot at inheriting eternal life. If it includes more than just the people living next door, though, well then he might be in trouble.

We like to put addendums and caveats on the rules because it makes us feel better. Think about a "speed limit" for a moment. Unpack those words - speed limit. Its a limit on how fast you are allowed to go on a road. According to the law, you are not allowed to go any faster than that limit. And yet most drivers treat is as a suggestion, a general guideline. As long as you're within 5 mph of the limit you're good, right? Wrong. That's not what the law says, and anyone who goes above the limit is technically breaking the law.

Now, I know what you're going to say, "Michael, everyone drives a little over the limit, I'm just following the flow of traffic. A cop isn't going to pull me over if I'm only going a few miles over the limit. As long as I'm not being reckless the cops aren't going to care." We make all these excuses so we can feel better about the fact that we're breaking the law. A small infraction is still an infraction. Maybe you make these kinds of excuses for copying a friend's HW, or cheating on a test. Maybe you make them for other rules in your life. Why do we do this?

Because it makes us feel better. It makes us feel as if we are not actually doing anything wrong. But Jesus' reply breaks through all of that. The lawyer wanted to justify himself by putting a limit on who counted as his neighbor, but Jesus didn't let him get away with it.

In the parable we find this ambiguous man beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road. The first two people to come across him are religious leaders. A priest and Levite would have known the Law, and that they were commanded to love this man and care for him. As leaders they were meant to set an example for others of obeying God's commands. But what do they do? They walk around him and continue on their way. They leave him for dead. Where is their compassion? Where is their love for this man?

Then a Samaritan shows up. For context, Samaritans were half-breeds in the eyes of the Jews. They were half-Jewish and half-something else. Their ancestors had married non-Jews and for that they were looked down upon by "full-blooded" Jews. In addition, they didn't practice all the same things the Jews did from the Law of Moses (partly because they weren't allowed in the Temple), which made the Jews look down on them even more. So, racially and religiously, the Samaritans were hated by the Jews. And likewise, the Samaritans hated the Jews back. There was a lot hatred between the two groups.

Yet what does this Samaritan do? Does he walk on by? No. He stops and shows compassion and love to this beaten man. He makes tremendous sacrifice to go out of his way to make sure this man is cared for. He sacrifices his time, his money, and his resources. The "half-breed heretic" demonstrates what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.

So, Jesus asks the lawyer, "who was a good neighbor to this beaten man?" The lawyer has to respond with "the one who showed mercy" - the Samaritan. So Jesus reaffirms his earlier command: "Go and do likewise." Go and show mercy to those who need it.

The application from this is simple. We should follow the example of the Samaritan. He came across someone in need, and he sacrificed his time and resources to care for him. How often do we come across people in need and make excuses as to why we don't need to help them?

We come across a homeless person and assume they will just use our money for drugs or alcohol, so we don't need to give them money.

We come across a kid getting harassed in school, but we don't know them very well so we don't need to step in and help. Its not our business anyway.

We see another student struggling with a class, but we don't have much free time anyway so we don't have time to help them.

The point of this parable is to show us that excuses don't work with God. If we know the good we ought to do, but do not do it, then for us it is sin. We need to stop making excuses for not having compassion on people. Everyone is our neighbor - our family, our friends, our actual neighbors, every other student and all the teachers and faculty at school, the baristas at Starbucks, and even the trolls on the internet.

Jesus' command at the end of this parable is to show compassion to the people we encounter in our everyday lives, even if it means we have to make sacrifices to help them. It's a hard command, but it's the right thing to do. It is the righteous thing to do. And it is what God wants us to do.

So, go and do likewise.

The Value of Life - A Biblical Perspective

 Last night we touched on a sensitive topic, abortion. Now, we didn't go into the political arguments of "Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice" or into whether or not abortion should be legal in America. No, our focus was simply on getting a biblical perspective on human life. While the Bible does not ever use the word "abortion", by spending time studying His Word, we can get an idea of God's view of human life and allow that to color our perspective on the issue of abortion. So, as we dive into Scripture we're going to attempt to answer 4 questions from a biblical perspective: 1) When does human life begin? 2) What is the value of human life? 3) What constitutes murder? and 4) Who has the authority (right) to take human life and under what circumstances?

Each question is bolded and I have included a summary answer to each question toward the end. My hope is that as you read God's Word you will come to an understanding of how He views human life and allow that to transform your thinking.

When does human life begin?

Genesis 2:7 - "...then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature."

This is the go-to verse for people trying to say that human life begins at first breath - Adam wasn't considered a living creature until after God breathed life into him. The argument then goes for everyone else, we aren't considered fully alive (or having a soul) until we take our first breath after being born. However, we need to remember that Adam is a special case. No other person alive since Adam has been made of dust from the ground - we were born from our mothers. Since Adam is a special case, we cannot base the beginning point for every human life on the example of his creation. So let's keep looking.

Isaiah 44:2 - "Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen."

Jeremiah 1:5 - "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were even born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

Job 31:15 - "Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did he not fashion us in the womb?"

Psalm 139:13-16 - "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them."

What do all of these verses have in common? They all speak of an individuality, a specialness, a foreknowledge of God of each person in the womb. God formed them, hand-crafted them, and in Psalms it mentions that God knew of all of the days of David's life before he was even formed in the womb. These verses point to there being human life before birth, and depending on how you want to interpret God's foreknowledge, human life even before conception (I don't take it that far personally, but I will share my personal views below). What we can say definitively in answer to the question is that the Bible views human life as beginning before birth.

What is the value of human life?

Genesis 1:27 - "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

This is the description of God's creation of mankind. It is starkly different than His creation of any of the other animals, as He definitely sets mankind apart from the rest of creation. He goes so far as to give mankind dominion over the earth as stewards (caretakers) of His creation. Now, when it says mankind is made in God's image, it does not mean that we somehow look like Him physically. God is not a physical being (although He can enter the physical world). God is spirit, which means we also have a spirit, a soul. That is my interpretation of being made in the image of God - we have a soul. Animals do not have souls, we do. That sets us apart from the animals and establishes a unique relationship with our Creator.

As the Creator of all things, God has a the highest view of Himself (and He is worthy of the highest view, for everything else, being made by Him, is beneath Him). If He has such a high view of Himself, and we are made in His image, what does that mean for us? It means He has a high view of us as well.

Luke 12:24 - "Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouses nor barns, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!"

This supports the view that we are of a higher value to God than the animals.

This high view of the value of human life is reflected in all of the laws that God established for Israel to protect human life. Murder was a big no-no, and made the top 10 of God's commandments. This brings us to the next question:

What constitutes murder?

Exodus 20:13 - "You shall not murder."

Murder here is the intentional killing of an innocent person. The original Hebrew word for murder which is used in the commandment also includes accidental killing as a result of carelessness or negligence. Let me give you an example.

Say you are driving on the highway, paying attention to the road as you should, and huge gust of wind pushes your car into the car next to you, causing an accident. If the person in the other cars dies as a result, you are not at fault and you are not guilty of breaking the commandment to not murder. However, if you are driving on the highway and you're texting (or distracted in some other way) and your car drifts into the car next to you, causing an accident and killing the person in that car, then you are guilty of breaking the commandment. You were being careless as a driver and your carelessness caused that other person's death. You may not have intended to kill them, but they died as a result fo your carelessness - this breaks the commandment. And finally, of course, if you intentionally swerve your car into the other with the intent to kill the person in that car, and you succeed - you've broken the commandment.

So then, a biblical understanding of murder is not only the intentional killing of an innocent person, but also the unintentional killing of another person through carelessness or negligence. God does not want us going around killing people, on purpose or by accident, which is why He established this law.

Proverbs 6:16-19 - "There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers."

This is where we see the distinction about "innocent blood". But what does it mean for someone to be innocent? In Romans, Paul talks about how no one is innocent before God - we have all sinned and fallen short of His glory. However, when we talk about shedding innocent blood, we are talking about innocence in the eyes of man. Someone who has done you no harm is considered innocent - they aren't deserving of punishment because they haven't done anything wrong to earn punishment. They certainly don't deserve death. If, however, someone has wronged you in some way (say, they mugged you and stole your wallet), well then they are deserving of some kind of punishment (not death, but definitely recompense).

The next set of verses will help explain this, as well as answer the next question. As for murder, hopefully you have gotten the sense that biblical murder is the intentional taking of an innocent human life, and includes killing as a result of carelessness or negligence.

Who has the authority (right) to take human life and under what circumstances?

Leviticus 24:17, 21 - "Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. ... Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death."

This law highlights two things: the idea of "a life for a life" and the affirmation that human life is of more value in God's eyes than animals.

Exodus 21:12-14 - "Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die."

Here we get some clarifications for the "life for a life". There is a difference made between pre-meditated murder and what appears to be a crime of passion. If the murderer planned ahead of time to kill another, he must forfeit his life. If it was an accident or happened in the heat of the moment, then the killer could flee to a city of refuge for a time and be safe.

Exodus 21:22-25 - "When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her child come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."

Now we're seeing some specific examples. If a pregnant woman gets hit, even if there is no harm, the aggressor has to pay a fine. This demonstrates that even threatening the life of the woman or the child in such a way is not good in the eyes of God. And if harm comes to either the woman or the unborn baby, the aggressor has to pay in kind. If there is injury, he must suffer the same injury. If there is death, he must forfeit his life. Once again we see a high value placed on human life (and this time even on the lives of the unborn), so that those who disregard that value are punished in kind.

Genesis 9:5-6 - "And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning, for the life of man. 'Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.'"

First, we see here that each person will be required to give an account of his life and his actions before God. That's it means for God to require a reckoning. Second, we see why "a life for a life" is the way that it is - because every person, from the unborn to the elderly, is made in the image of God and therefore has a high value in God's eyes.

Now, who said these things and who made these laws? God. God created all life, and it is His right to take it away. He established these laws so to protect innocent lives from being trampled by evil people. If a person takes it upon themselves to decide who lives or dies, apart from the Word of God, they forfeit their own life.

So, to answer this last question: God is the one who has the authority/right to take human life, and He has established laws for specific circumstances when it is okay for humans to take the lives of other humans. In every case we've looked at so far, it is only okay for humans to take the life of someone who has unlawfully taken other human life. This is where find validation for the death penalty, but only in cases of murder and disregard for the value of human life. "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image."

To sum up:

1. When does life begin? Before birth - the unborn are considered human lives and are valued by God.

2. What is the value of human life? Extremely high. Every person, from the unborn to the elderly, is made in the image of God and therefore is highly valued by God.

3. What constitutes murder? The intentional killing of innocent people, or the unintentional killing of innocent people as a result of carelessness or negligence.

4. Who has the authority/right to take human life? God has the authority, and He has given this authority to mankind only in situations where someone is guilty of murder (or heinous sins against God Himself, which we did not discuss in this post). These situations require witnesses and judges to be involved, so that we can't just go around killing whoever we want just because we think they deserve it.

When it comes to issue of abortion, you will have to decide for yourself what you believe. However, I want to challenge you that whatever decision you come to, make sure that you can back up that belief with the Word of God. If we come to believe things that go against the Bible's teachings, then we are going against God, and that is the opposite of what Christians are called to do.

My personal conviction, and you do not have to agree with this 100%, is that human life begins at fertilization (when the sperm and the egg combine, and a new set of DNA is created). This would mean that any form of abortion (from "Plan B" to late-term termination of the pregnancy) is murder, because it is the intentional taking of innocent human life. I do not believe that rape justifies abortion, because the unborn baby, though a result of sin, is not deserving of the punishment for that sin. I do make a distinction in the case of medical emergencies/complications which put the life of the mother at risk, because God cares about both lives, and in those cases I think it is within the rights of the mother to decide which life to save if only one can be saved. Like any other sin, I believe abortion can be forgiven in Christ Jesus, but it has horrific consequences in this life (one being the killing of the unborn child). These are my convictions based on the verses above as well as other passages of Scripture, and I urge you to look at these passages and decide for yourself what to believe about this.

If you have questions, you can ask them in the comments below. Or, if you have my contact info, you can ask me directly and I would be more than willing to talk with you further about this.