One Holy Passion Preached at Salem Feb 8, 2009

One Holy Passion Preached at Salem Feb 8, 2009

Mark 12:28-34

    A couple of weeks ago my professor at Liberty , Dr. David Earley, asked us, "What is your passion?" Naturally I asked, "what do you mean by passion?" We usually define passion as a feeling very strongly about a subject or person, usually referring to feelings of intense desire and attraction, be very passionate about something. Christians refer to Christ's passion or suffering leading up to when He went to the cross. Actually Christ's passion wasn't the suffering itself but the reason why He suffered in the first place. However you would describe passion, Dr. Rick Warren (you may remember him as the preacher who gave the invocation at President Obama's inauguration last month) says that "The creative force behind all great art, all great drama, all great music, all great architecture, all great writing is passion. Nothing great is ever accomplished in life without passion. Passion is what mobilizes armies into action. Passion is what causes explorers to boldly go where no man's gone before. Passion is what takes a good athlete and turns him or her into a great athlete where they're breaking records. What are you passionate about?

    Looking at our text today, One day a man walks up to Jesus and he says, "Lord, what's the most important thing in the Bible?" And you know what the Great Commandment is. Jesus said, in Mark 12:30 And you shall
love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

    Nothing matters more than that. That's the number one thing in life. God says I want you to love Me passionately." Nothing else matters in life if you don't love God passionately. What do I mean by passion?
    Let me tell you what I don't mean first: I'm not talking about just an emotion or a feeling. I'm not talking about something sensual or romantic God doesn't want you to love Him half-heartedly. He wants you to love Him with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. The word heart is not referring to this blood pumping organ that we have in our chests. In the Greek language, this word heart καρδιας – means the center, is actually where we get the word passion from- the center, the very core of your being, is the idea. , "If you're going to follow Me, you've got to go it with passion. You've got to give it some oomph, some spark, some zip, some enthusiasm, some zest. I want you to live passionately."
    Then as if you didn't get the message, in Colossians 3:23 He says "Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as unto the Lord and not unto men." He says I want you to do everything passionately when it comes to loving Me, serving Me, living for Me.
I. One of the reasons why there is so much dissatisfaction is not because we can't find anything to be passionate about- but that we are passionate about anything except God. I guess because we are embarrassed to be passionate about God. I can be passionate about movies. I can be passionate about sports. I can be passionate about politics. I can be passionate about fashions and clothes. I can be passionate about cars. But I cannot be passionate about God.

    If you go into Barnes & Noble bookstore you'll find all kinds of books with Passion in the title of it. There's a book call A Passion for Birds, A Passion for Books, A Passion for Cactus, A Passion for Chocolate A Passion for Fashion, ... for Fishing... for Flying, ... for Gardening, ... Golf, Hunting. There's even a book called A Passion For Mushrooms (somebody's smoking them probably is what he's doing. I can't figure out what that one's all about!
But in our culture it's ok to be passionate about anything except your faith, except your relationship with God. I can go to a rock concert, or a political rally or a baseball game and I can shout my head off. I can get excited. I can get hoarse from yelling so loud and really embarrass myself. When my team loses I could cry- really make a fool out of myself. Nobody thinks that's a big deal. When my team wins I can jump up and dance around and wave my hands in the air. If I do that at a game people go, "He's a real fan!" If I do that in church people say, "He's a fanatic! He's a nut case." You don't want to get too emotional about your faith. Its ok about anything else but not that.
    Romans 12:21, in the NIV it says, Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord" Keep the fires going in your life. Circle the word "keep." Notice, it's not automatic. It's a choice. It's a discipline. It's something you must maintain. You and I are not by nature passionate about God. It's something that you must choose to do. You and I get distracted and everything in life conspires to keep you from being passionate about God. So He says keep your passion going. Keep the fires going. It's not just automatic. This kind of thing -- being passionate about God has nothing to do with either your personality or your age.     Everything in life conspires to keep you from being passionate. And it dissipates your energy. We were at Walmart or somewhere they were selling helium balloons. This lady was looking at them and let a whole bunch of balloons slip out of her hand. The clerk said, "No big deal, they'll probably come down tonight. And the truth is, it wasn't even that long. In just a few hours they began to dissipate, lose their steam and come back down.
    A lot of times we're like that. When you first become a believer and you really understand what a good deal you've got you get excited about it, And you get excited about that when you give your life to Christ and you're pretty passionate. But then, BUT THEN, you feel this overwhelming pressure from somebody comes along who just loves to throw cold water on stuff and says, "YES but you won't always feel this way! Why do people do that? They are jealous of what they used to have. Probably because they want everybody to be as miserable as they are. As though we needed any help, Because as time goes by you begin to lose your steam. You begin to lose your zip, your zest, your enthusiasm. What happens? Why does that happen?
One of the things that steals our enthusiasm for God more than anything else is this:

II. Many Do Not Have a Passion Because Their Purpose is Unclear. Its not that they don't know what it is, its just they have become so familiar with it being there that they don't think about it all that much, and when they don't think about it, they just take it for granted- that's what we do with God. They have allowed something precious to become familiar. After a while, things become just common.
    Max Lucado: "God Came Near," tells how he almost lost his 2 year old daughter because she fell in the pool one day. He took things for granted and wasn't careful. Here are some of his words, after the almost tragedy. "It was only a matter of minutes, maybe seconds. We almost lost her. The thought was numbing and convicting. He almost lost his daughter to familiarity. His goal is nothing less than to take what is most precious to us and make it appear most common. To say that this agent of familiarity breeds contempt is to let him off easy. Contempt is just one of his offspring. He also sires broken hearts, wasted hours, and an insatiable desire for more. He's an expert in robbing the sparkle and replacing it with the drab. He invented the yawn and put the hum in the humdrum. And his strategy is deceptive. He won't steal your salvation; he'll just make you forget what it was like to be lost. You'll grow accustomed to prayer and thereby not pray. Worship will become commonplace and study optional. With the passing of time he'll infiltrate your heart with boredom

    When you forget the purpose of your life that is a sure way to kill your passion for life and for God. If you don't know the purpose for life, why bother? Why get up in the morning? Why put forth the effort? Life without purpose is activity without direction. It's motion without meaning. Life without purpose is trivial, petty, and pointless.
    But even still it's easy to forget why we're here on earth. We get distracted by budgets and bills and babies and baseball and all kinds of other things. Whenever you forget why God put you on earth you're going to drift toward apathy and lethargy. Who cares? Maybe you've felt like Isaiah who said in Isaiah 49 "I've labored to no purpose and I've spent my strength in vain and for nothing." (NIV)
    There is no reason for we as believers not to know what our purpose is or so familiar with it that we get bored with it. Passion and purpose go together. When you have a clear purpose it's going to give you a lot of passion. But it's got to be God's purposes for your life. If you're only living for yourself, that's a pretty dinky purpose. That isn't going to make you very passionate. In fact it's pathetic. "I'm living for me." That'll give you a lot of energy to get out of bed in the morning! You need a cause greater than yourself. That gives life significance and gives life meaning. The more you understand God's purposes for your life and the more you live those purposes the more passionate you're going to be.
    Hobbs wrote this about passion. He said, "Passion is waking up in the morning wherever you are and bounding out of bed because you know there's something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that God made you for and you're good at, something that's bigger than you are and you can hardly wait to get at it again. It's something that you'd rather be doing than anything else and you wouldn't give it up for money because it means more to you than money."

III. A Passion Could Be Described as What You Be Willing To Die For

    Paul, writing about his passion in Romans 10:1 , says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. Paul so passionately desired that his people be saved- to accept the Savior as Messiah that he tells us in Romans 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen^[a] according to the flesh. Of course, he knew this would not be possible, but Paul's attitude was unmistakable. There was no way you could read a statement like that and not know what Paul was passionate about. Sometimes being passionate is described not only in terms of what you live your life for, but what you would be willing to die for. I personally feel like if you don't have anything you'd be willing to die for, what kind of passion are you willing to live for.

    I want to die the same way Wilson Bentley died. Wilson grew up on a farm in Jericho, Vermont, and as a young boy he developed a fascination with snowflakes. Obsession might be a better word for it. Most people go indoors during snowstorms. Not Wilson. He would run outside when the flakes started falling, catch them on black velvet, look at them under a microscope, and take photographs of them before they melted. His first photomicrograph of a snowflake was taken on January 15, 1885.

    Under the microscope, he found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind.

The first known photographer of snowflakes, Wilson pursued his passion for more than fifty years. He amassed a collection of 5,381 photographs that was published in his book Snow Crystals. And then he died a fitting death—a death that symbolized and epitomized his life. Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley contracted pneumonia while walking six miles through a severe snowstorm and died on December 23, 1931.

    And that is how I figured out how I want to die. No, I don't want to die from pneumonia. But I do want to die doing what I love. I am determined to pursue God-ordained passions until the day I die. Life is too precious to settle for anything less.

“Loving God With All Your Soul” Matthew 22:34-40 Preached at Salem on Feb 15, 2009

"Loving God With All Your Soul" Matthew 22:34-40 Preached at Salem on Feb 15, 2009

 

    When I say "soul" what is the first thing you think of? Aretha Franklin? What do you picture? Soul train? Soul food? What comes to your mind? It's different with your soul. Where is your soul? If I say where is your heart? That's easy. If I say where is your mind? That's easy. But where is your soul? Do you point to your foot? We don't even know where to point. The greatest question to begin this is What is my soul? Heart and mind are obvious but soul is not quite so obvious. It's a little more abstract than what we looked at last week.

    If you do a study of the Old Testament word for "soul" and the New Testament word for "soul" you get a pretty quick idea of what God is talking about. What's God talking about when He says, "Love Me with all your soul?" The Old Testament word for soul is the word nephehs and it means literally "to breath" and it's the idea that God breaths life into us. That's why we have a soul. We're a living soul. We have an awareness that nothing else in creation has because God Himself breathes life into us. The New Testament word for soul is the word we get psychology and all those words from – psuche. It has to do with your will, your drive, the passion of your life, the power with which you live. Put those two ideas together – Old and New Testament and you get a pretty good idea of what the soul is. Based on a good long look at those words and how they were used in the Bible four things that are a part of who you are when it comes to your soul. Soul is my desires and passions. Soul is my God given personality. Every one of us is unique. God h as made us that way. At the essence of it your soul is your life. I put that in capital letters because we're talking about the kind of life that only God can give, the creator, the life that is given to us by God. Your soul is the passion with which I've living, the personality that I've been given, it's the path my life is taking. It's the power in my being.

It's you. That's what your soul is all about. Tonight we're going to take a look at, based on this definition, how do you and I love the Lord with all of our soul.

Do you want to love the Lord with all your soul? Do you want to take the personality that you've been given an use it to love the Lord. Loving God with all your heart- I covered passion pretty well with that last time

1. Your Soul love Him with Praise

    Have you ever stopped to think about how numb we are- we have so much thrown at our souls these days that some kind of mechanism has kicked in to shut ourselves down emotionally to the point that we can't feel anything anymore. We're bombarded by so much stimuli that we can't take it anymore, so we can't seem to feel what we once could feel. For example, I remember as a kid the distinct soothing feeling that listening to the rain would have on me, or someone running a bathtub full of water. It would soothe me right off to sleep. I don't have that feeling anymore. Some people have told me they once had that feeling of excitement and love for their spouse they don't have any more. The human emotions are like that- they can get where they just kind of shut down. Some people have even said that about loving God- and feel like God doesn't love them anymore- or they don't have the same feeling they once had. Aside from the fact that God's love for us is not based on feeling, but on fact, the fact is the reason we feel like this from time to time is because we have allowed ourselves to become empty. Not long after we were first married Robin and I went for a drive somewhere. We were driving out on a west Texas highway, must have been 100 degrees when all of a sudden, the car began to shimmy and shake, and then the engine cut off and we rolled to a stop. I looked at the fuel gauge- slam empty! Robin doesn't say a whole lot- she didn't need to. Ever get that look from your wife? One look was all it took to communicate the message- "what kind of idiot would make take a trip like this and not fill up first?" Believe you me after 25 or more years of marriage I have never failed to do that since.

    We may never forget to fill up our gas tank before we take a long trip somewhere, and we may never forget to fill our fuel tank before winter sets it, but why is it we have a more difficult time filling our soul tank. As in every relationship, we get out of it what we put into it.

    When we spend time with God, loving Him, its amazing how quick that tank gets full.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. (Psalm 103:1-5) Notice how the Psalmist says your youth is renewed- the passion you had for God is restored, so that you are no longer empty but full. This comes about by praising God. I mentioned God filling up your soul- did you know that the Hebrew idea of the soul nephish is also part of the word they use for well.

Psalm 9:1-2 says I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. 2 I will be glad and rejoice in You;  I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.Ps 150:6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.Psalm 25 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in You…Remember O Lord,Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, for they are from old.

    Many people don't understand the value of praising the Lord. But they are one of the ways that we fill up our souls. If they spend anytime with God at all, its usually just enough to dump on God about what they want from Him. O God- gimme that new truck I've been wanting. O Lord fishing season's coming up. Everybody's got a new boat but me! Then they come to church plop down on a pew and park themselves and think "now if I can just get through this thing we can all get out of here. I'm tired of having the Methodists beat me to the Golden Corral. They wonder why their relationship with God is so empty- its because they are not praising Him.

II. . You Soul loves God with all Your Worship    Let's take it to another level-not just praise, but worship. Praise comes from our mouths, but worship comes from our soul- we were built to worship God. Worship is the expression of our soul, who we are as the people of God. If you want to learn how to express yourself, then worshipping is the way to do it. One of the reasons why some folks are just so dead and empty inside is because they have never been taught to worship.

I want to shift gears here and take you to another level. Romans 12:1- which is your spiritual worship. Sometimes when we come to church we think that as long as we sing a couple of hymns, take up an offering, and then listen to a sermon, then we have worshipped. No we haven't. If our soul is just as dry when we left as when we came in- then we haven't worshipped. We don't worship until our souls receive something from Him and when we have something to offer to Him. God wants so much to fill us with His presence, but we have to have a heart that He can fill. I mentioned our tanks being full- but sometimes its not full of the right stuff. Sometimes the well of our souls is contaminated- polluted- by sin. Sometimes its full of full of the stuff of the world, or ourselves, or whatever that God wants to fill us with His presence but can't because of all the stuff that is in the way. Its got to be cleaned out first, purified.

    Jason was telling us last week that part of the process of Katie's healing was that the doctors are confident Katie will get better, but the process also involves some things that are getting in the way of it, impeding it- and when they get rid of those things, then Katie's healing goes better and faster. Our souls work the same way. IF we want to experience the fullness of God's presence and to fill up our souls in worship, we've got to get rid of some things. We can't give God a soul full of sin? We can't give Him a soul full of porno or deceit, or lustful thoughts. We can't give him a barrel full of selfishness or hatefulness or bitterness. You would be surprised how little bitterness it takes to fill up the well of our souls.

 

III. Loving God with All Your Soul Means Being Filled By His Spirit Another way we love God with all our soul is coming into contact with His power- we call that the Holy Spirit. Now I must warn you- this might make you feel the way I did at the dentist a few weeks ago. Dr. Griffin, my dentist, is up in his 80s now. When he tells you this is going to make you feel a little uncomfortable, you better ask him for some novacane and then grab on to the arms of that dentist chair as hard as you    Ephesians 5:18 tells us Do Not be Drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Here is the uncomfortable part. People's souls don't get full of God because they don't feel comfortable with the power of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because we are afraid of Him. We're afraid the Spirit is going to cause us to get out of control. That's funny because many who imbibe in alcohol don't worry for one minute they're going to get too drunk to drive home. They don't have any worries about getting so inebriated they can't stand up right or that they'll do something foolish like put their head through the juke box or really embarrass themselves. The Holy Spirit will never cause us to do anything like that, yet why are we so uncomfortable and self conscious.

    God's the one who is present in our lives. And when I open up my life to Him, He starts to fill your life with God-things. It's inevitable. So the question we have is how do I do that? How do I open up my life to Him? How am I filled with God's Spirit? How is the truth of Ephesians 5:18 fulfilled in my life "Be filled with God's Spirit."

1. I desire to be filled. It starts with a thirst. Psalm 42:1 We're talking about "Is He controlling my thoughts and actions?" Is He the one who's in charge?

    The first step to letting Him be in charge is saying, "I desire to be filled." Let me work up a thirst for you. Just dream of what it would be like if Jesus Christ were at the center of every decision in your life? What pain might it have saved? Even more, what opportunities might you have seen that you hadn't seen? What would it be like if He were at the center of every decision? What would my life be like if Jesus Christ, if His control, God's Spirit, were at the center of every relationship? How would they change? Maybe not immediately but slowly, surely, securely how would they change? What would it be like if He were at the center of my career? The center of my friendships? The center of my thought life? The center of my love life? The center of my worries and stresses? How would they change? Just dream about that for a minute. That's what we're talking about when we say thirst for this.

The world has yet to see

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. That's a promise. That is something we should be thirsty for.

2. You repent of your sins and receive God's cleansing. Recognize I've turned my back on my relationship with God. He hasn't turned His back on me as a believer but I've turned my back on Him and I'm walking a different direction. The word "repent" simply means to turn around and walk in a different direction. Do a 180. When I repent it means I agree with God about the fact I'm headed in the wrong direction. I turn around and start heading in the right direction. It's not so much a matter of though as a matter of action. Turning around and moving in a different direction of life. You repent of your sins and then you recognize God has forgiven you because of His grace. I don't deserve it but He has forgiven me.

3. Yield to the Holy Spirit's control. When you see a yield sign what does it mean to you? It means you give the other person the right of way. It doesn't mean "stop". You yield. Some people think it means stop. If I'm yielded to God, I stop, I do nothing and I'm yielded totally to God. It doesn't mean stop. It means you give the other person the right of way. Yield to God's control. You keep moving but it means you give Him the constant right to have His way in your life. That's yielding to the Holy Spirit's control. You don't stop. You don't sit down. You say, "God what do You want me to do today?" and if any of you are doing this perfectly you should be up here teaching this and not me. We all struggle with this. .

    In my life right now, I don't even know all the areas I need to yield to. If He showed me everything I need to yield to Him, I'd die right on the spot thinking I could never do that. All of us would. But He just graciously shows us one little bit at a time. That's why you never run out, by the way. The day you think, "I've got it! I've figured out the Christian life!" He puts something else in your mind. There's always new areas of growth. You yield to the Holy Spirit's control.

4. Trust God to fill you as He said He would. Trust that God will keep His promise and fill you. I've confessed all the sin I know about in my life. I've yielded my life to His control as best as I know how. Now I trust Him to fulfill my life.

Can you be filled with God's Spirit without feeling filled with His spirit? Of course you can. What does a Spirit filled person feel like? What does a Spirit filled person look like? Do they like glow in the dark somehow? Do you grow more hair? I wish, but you don't do that. Do you smell different?

It's trust, not feelings. Whether it sends a chill up my spine or not I know that it's true because He promised it. It doesn't change how you look but it does change how you act. Romans 5:5 "God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love." What if your life were filled with the love of God in such an incredible way that it overflowed to the people that were around you. What if?

 

February 1, 2009 Morning Service “Holy Desperation”

Holy Desperation Mark 5: 21-24; 35-43

Opening- The story is told of a woman locked her keys in her car. Her child was also in it, and the motor was running. So she began to pray and ask for God to send someone who could open the door. Just then, a very rough looking man appeared on a motorcycle, a gang member. He said, "Ma'am- I'll be happy to help." So he got off his motorcycle, took out a "slim jim" from his back pack, went over to the running vehicle and slid the "slim jim" down inside the window and opened the door. The woman said, "Thank you, thank you, sir! You are such a good man!" The motorcycle gang member said, "You are welcome, ma'am. But I am not a good man. In fact, I only got out of jail last week. I went to prison for five years for Grand Theft Auto." At once, the woman looked up to heaven and prayed, "God, thank you! You not only sent someone to open my car, but you also sent me a professional!"

    Most of us here have experienced, at some point in time, what we would consider desperate circumstances. It may have been searing physical pain, a long-standing financial problem, or perhaps, as in the case of our text, the grave sickness of a loved one. According to Webster's New World Dictionary Of American English, to be desperate is, "having a very great desire, need" However, there is usually an aspect of anxiety attached to this feeling of great desire or need. So much so, that one is willing to do almost anything to have that need met. You see desperation drives us to seek a solution—to find deliverance. Such was the case with Jairus (Ja-i'-rus), a religious leader in the synagogue of Capernaum. His teenaged daughter was deathly ill, and he wanted her to live more than anything in the world. He was desperate to find a solution, and he went some distance to where Jesus was to get it. When he heard of Jesus' miracle-working power, he knew that this must be the solution to his dilemma.
    A desperate person possesses a desperate passion. I call it a Holy Desperation. I call it that because it is desperation that literally drives us into the arms of a loving and compassionate God who alone can do something for our desperate need. And we won't stop until will have it and pray until they get it or until it gets them. Holy Desperation. In the story of Jairus we see:
I. AN ATTITUDE OF CONCERNED DESPERATION
A. Jairus' Respect. Mark 5: 22 "And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet. It is rather significant that the name "Jairus" means, "whom Jehovah enlightens". Jeremiah 33: 3 says, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty (hidden) things, which thou knowest not." There is always an element of enlightenment in the process of prayer. Jairus was about to receive enlightenment concerning the power and person of Jesus Christ.
[2] When Jairus fell at the feet of Jesus; he fell partly in exhaustion- anquish, but also in adoration and submissive respect. Matthew, speaking of this same incident, translates the idea as, "worshipped him" (Matt.9: 18a). This simply means that Jairus "…bowed down before him as an expression of profound respect- reverence. Frustrated because of the crowd, probably, desperate because he was fearful his daughter would die, but still reverent in the presence of the only One who could meet his deepest need.
B. Jairus' Request.
1. His request was characterized by desperation. Mark 5: 23a "and begged Him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter lies at the point of death. NOTE: [1] The English version somewhat softens the meaning of this phrase. It means that Jairus kept begging, perhaps repeatedly and desperately"
[2] The words "…at the point of death…" mean, "to be in the last gasp" (Jairus was simply relating to Jesus in the most urgent terms, that his daughter's death was imminent. I think its clear to us that although the Scriptures doesn't say it, its quite clear=Jairus wasn't begging for himself, he was begging for the life of his daughter so much that if it were possible he would have changed places with her.
2. His request was characterized by love. Mark 5: 23a "…My little daughter…"
NOTE: Most scholars agree that Jairus used these words as a term of endearment. They obviously do not refer to her size, since we are told in verse 42 that she was twelve years old. Archeologists tell us that in the first century, most young girls that age were almost grown up women, so she wasn't little in that sense. But he still called her his baby girl. According to Luke 8: 42, this was Jairus' only daughter. Her well-being was extremely important to him. He loved her so much he wasn't going to hang around and watch her die- he had to do something…
3. His request was characterized by faith. Mark 5: 23b "….Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live."" This father exercised some bold faith in Jesus Christ. He said, "Lord, if you'll just lay Your hands on my daughter, she'll live. I believe we need to come to God with this same kind of bold faith. If God ever lays His hands on this church, dear friends, it will live. It will burn more brightly for Christ than ever. Frankly, dear friends this is often the point we have to come to that will shake us out of our complacency and into dependency. We see this man, Jairus, with a high social position, a man known among the people, a man of prestige and power, but a man who had a desperate need- Sir you will never become so powerful, so popular., that will never rise so high that your problems, and your troubles can not reach you or you think you don't need God or that you can do it entirely on your own. If you do, may I respectfully say- just wait! My friends, I think you all know what I am talking about.

    Who among us have not felt that rousing anguish of Jairus within us the past few weeks? I have seen some of you pray like I have never seen you pray before. We are not likely to have a significant encounter with God until we become desperate. There we will get a such a wonderful revelation of God that we are willing to make known to the world the truth of His Kingdom regardless of the price. And God has done some amazing things this month, not just restoring health to a teenage girl but we have seen the lost saved, we have seen relationships restored, we have seen people renew their commitment to Christ, and we have seen people healed. It is this Holy Desperation that moves us from taking God for granted to holding on to Him for dear life, as though everything in life depends upon Him, which of course, it does.
4. His request was characterized by an immediate response. Mark 5: 24 "So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him.." Jesus Himself said and I, even if I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto me" John 12:32
II. AN ATTITUDE OF CONSTANT DEPENDENCE
A. A Message That Engendered Fear. Mark 5: 35 "While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?"
    My how this father's heart must have leaped to his throat when he heard the word. Just when the news couldn't be any worse, it did. There are very few, perhaps a few in this room, that knows what it is to hear news like this, especially when it involves your own precious children. It's the call that every parent fears. Words cannot describe the awful combination of shock, grief, and heartache it is to get a call like this. I hope I never get a call like this myself, but I have had to make a call like this and friend let me tell you it is almost as bad. And when you get that call, all kinds of emotions whirl around in your mind. One of the first things you want to do is to blame somebody- or worse. Perhaps Jairus began to blame himself for not having found Jesus sooner. But my dear friend, your biggest fear does not disturb Jesus in the least. God's power does not end with the possible. He specializes in impossibilities.

    And always in a situation like this, there is always somebody who thinks they know how you should deal with that situation. Can you imagine someone so callous and heartless as to say to a grieving dad, who is fighting back the tears, saying, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?" I'm glad the culture we live in has some compassion in it to know better than to tell someone- "Hey, your loved one just died!" We have a lot of euphemisms for this-we'll say, "passed away," "gone home to be with the Lord," "gone to meet his maker," "gone to his reward", "gone to glory," etc. When we lived in Germany, they didn't have words like that- they'll call you up and say, "So and so is dead!" And I would think- so heartless, so cruel, so real! But if this person's heartlessness wasn't bad enough, they had to throw in "Why trouble the Teacher any further?" As if this person could presume what Jesus wanted to do at that moment. This messenger was a messenger of fear. Ever know anybody like that? I mean they'll run over somebody just to tell people bad news! OR they love to incite fear and panic into everybody else: "Sure hope this plane don't crash!" Speaking of desperation, people like that are desperate for attention- they love to be in the know as though they are the spokesman for God on earth. For one brief moment they hog the spotlight just so they can show how important they are. The idea of this message seemed to be that there was no more hope. The situation was final. What did they know? For that matter what do any of us really know?
B. A Message That Encouraged Faith. Mark 5: 36 "As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Do not be afraid; only believe."
When we are in desperate situations like these we have to remind ourselves, like Jesus reminded Jairus, that God is never the author of fear. The Bible plainly tells us, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (II Tim.1: 7). It may seem obvious, but we need to be constantly reminded that anytime we are living in fear, we cannot be living in faith.
[2] Jesus was telling this man, "…to continue believing, even in the presence of death" That is the test of desperate prayer and desperate faith- to continue believing when everyone around you says that hope is lost. Illustration- my father.
III. AN ACT OF TOTAL AND COMPLETE DELIVERANCE
A. The Commotion Of Hopelessness. 1. The sorrow over the fatality.Mark 5: 38 "Then He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly.." Do you know what the word tumult means? It doesn't look very friendly, does it? The word translated "tumult" means "a noise, uproar" [2] The words "those that wept and wailed" refer to professional mourners who were hired to put on a demonstration of sorrow for the occasion. As though they really needed that! Imagine it- professional wailer? I know people who do that and more for free! I think if it had been me I would say "get these people out of here!"
2. The scorn of faithlessness. Mark 5: 39 "When He came in, He said to them, "Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping."

40 And they ridiculed Him. NOTE: [1] The meaning of Jesus' assertion that the girl was "not dead," was simply that her condition was not permanent.. By the same token, death is not a permanent condition for anyone who dies in Christ.
[2] Some so-called religious scholars suggest that this young girl wasn't really dead, but that Jesus merely awakened her from a coma or some such condition. However, Luke, the physician, recounting this same event, says that the people, who laughed at Christ's statement that the girl was not dead, did so, "knowing that she was dead" (Luke 8: 53). If you don't believe that Jesus can raise the dead or heal the afflicted or move mountains in time of need, boy do I feel sorry for you!

    Ray Stedman tells the story of an alcoholic [who] became a believer, was asked how he could possibly believe all the nonsense in the Bible about miracles."You don't believe that Jesus changed the water into wine do you?" "I sure do! Tell you what, you come to my house and I'll show you where Jesus changed beer bottles into food and whiskey bottles into furniture."

    Holy Desperation takes you right to the brink of your worst fears and then some, but this is where you find the presence of God where you most need Him. When you are that desperate and people say, or all appearances show that there is no hope look into your hand my friends and that is where you find the hand of God. Those are the times when you have no more strength in your hands to cling to Him, that's where He is clinging to you, and will never let you go. I will never leave you, nor forsake you, He says.

B. The Comfort Of Christ's Help.
Mark 5: 40b "…But when he had put them all out (ekballo—"to throw out"—
But when He had put them all outside, He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying. 41 Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, "Talitha, cumi," which is translated, "Little girl, I say to you, arise." 42 Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were overcome with great amazement.

    Only Christ can do this my friends. Have you had your prayers answered like this- you can if you are desperate enough, with Holy Desperation to go to the One who can help you when you find yourself in a desperate situation. The thing is, there may be some of you in that situation right now and they don't even know it. You are desperately lost and the only one who can get you out of this situation is Jesus. Some of you may already be saved but you won't know the power and extent of your faith until a desperate situation has been thrust upon you. Are you willing to trust Christ in Holy Desperation this morning enough to know that there is deliverance beyond your desperation, that there is help beyond your helplessness.

January 4 2009 Morning Service FACING YOUR FEARS

FACING YOUR FEARS

Exodus 14:1-16

An Arab chief told the story of a spy who was captured and then sentenced to death by a general in the Persian army. This general had the strange custom of giving condemned criminals a choice between the firing squad and the big, black door. As the moment for execution drew near, the spy was brought to the Persian general, who asked the question, "What will it be: the firing squad or the big, black door?" The spy hesitated for a long time – It was a difficult decision – He chose the firing squad. Moments later shots rang out confirming his execution. The general turned to his aide and said, "They always prefer the known way to the unknown. It is characteristic of people to be afraid of the undefined. Yet, we gave him a choice." The aide said, "What lies beyond the big, black door?" "Freedom," replied the general. "I've known only a few brave enough to take it."

How brave do you feel this morning? Today God brings to each of us a choice – we can live by fear or by faith. If we choose fear we will live our entire lives never fully experiencing the great satisfaction of taking a risk for God. If we choose to walk in faith we will experience a newfound freedom that will lead to a personal assurance that we are living life to its fullest. Now I know that some of us here today are still living by fear even though we want to live by faith. I want to try to help you turn your fear into faith today. To begin with it will be helpful for us to understand that:

1. FEAR IS A FORMULA FOR FAILURE In a few moments I want to give you five steps on how to take risks in faith. But, before I do, I want us to look at an example of people that should have been living by faith, but instead they gave into fear. The book of Exodus tells us about the Israelite people leaving the bondage of Egypt for the freedom God had planned for them. They have just seen God's hand work in a mighty way. They have witnessed the ten plagues; they have experienced the first Passover; they have just been released by Pharoah after 400 years of bondage. You would think that they will be filled with faith, but instead they are crippled by fear.

    I think you will remember when Charlton Heston, I mean Moses, was leading the people away from Egypt and to get away from Pharaoh's army they would have to cross the Red Sea – that's where we're going to pick up the story. We're going to let the Israelites stand as an example to show us what fear can do to us if we let it replace faith in our lives.

1. IT MAKES US SKEPTICAL Then they turned against Moses and complained, "Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren't there enough graves in Egypt ? - Exodus 14:11a When we are afraid, we begin to doubt. We doubt ourselves, we doubt God, we doubt other people, we become skeptical. Studies have shown that cynics, at the root, have basically a problem with fear. We often ridicule what we're afraid of.

2. IT MAKES US SELFISH When I'm afraid, the only thing I can think of is myself. I don't think about you, I don't think about God, I don't think about anybody else, I'm just focusing in on me. Let's look at the rest of v. 11 -- Then they turned against Moses and complained, "Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren't there enough graves in Egypt ? Why did you make us leave? What are they saying? Look what you've done to us!" When we're afraid, we accuse others, we excuse ourselves, we pass the buck, we blame other people, we run from responsibility.

3. IT MAKES US STUBBORN We resist change when we're afraid. In v. 12a, they said, "Didn't we tell you to leave us alone while we were still in Egypt ?" In other words, they were saying to Moses, "Don't rock the boat. Don't upset the status quo. We've always done it this way before." And fear keeps people from growing, it keeps businesses from growing, it keeps churches from growing, because it causes us to be stubborn. God is ready to set them free from 400 years of slavery and the Israelites say, "Leave us alone!"

4. IT MAKES US SHORTSIGHTED When the Israelites were confronted with the Red Sea , they said, (v. 12b) "Our Egyptian slavery was far better than dying out here in the wilderness." They wanted to go back to the "good old days" in Egypt. They wanted to return, they wanted to retreat, they wanted to go back. They had so little faith that God would come through for them and grant them freedom that they preferred to return to bondage in Egypt . And you know what? Many people today are living the exact same way. They would rather live in the bondage of their own sin, rebellion, and guilt, than be set free by risking it all for Jesus Christ. Actually, I don't think that they really prefer living in bondage, they are just so afraid to let go and let God that they really don't know what else to do. Perhaps some of you have been living in fear for so long that you really don't know what it means to live by faith. Well, let's see what we can do to rectify that today – let's answer the question in point number two of your outline:

2. HOW CAN I REPLACE FEAR WITH FAITH? Now, how do you take risks in faith rather than caving in to fear? Whether we're talking about that first step of faith of becoming a Christian, or perhaps you're already a believer ready to step out in another area of faith, we all need to learn how to move on to the next level.

There are five principles that God teaches us in His word. But I only have time for 3 of them today…

1. INFORMATION: GET THE FACTS If you're going to take risks, God wants you to get the facts. Anything that requires faith is going to have some element of risk in it, but God says, "There's a right way and there's a wrong way." God doesn't want you taking foolish risks, that's not faith. So He says, "First off, get the facts. Find out all you can first. Every prudent man acts out of knowledge, but a fool exposes his folly. - Proverbs 13:16

Get the facts at any price, and hold on tightly to all the good sense you can get. - Proverbs 23:23 When you're going to make a major decision that involves a risk in your life, talk to people who've already done it. Get the facts at any price. Read a book. Attend a seminar. Listen to a tape. Find out who's already been there and get the facts at any price. Now, once you've got the facts, you have to go to step two.

2. EVALUATION: COUNT THE COST Find out why you're doing what you're doing and what the risk is involved in it. You find out what the costs are – What it's going to cost in time – What it's going to cost in money – What it's going to cost in reputation and emotional energy. Once Jesus was talking to a crowd and He was telling them that if they were going to become one of His followers they needed to count the cost before they took that step of faith. He illustrated His point with the following words from Luke 14:28, 31: "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?…"Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

He says, if you're going to build a building, you better go out and plan a budget first – and evaluate the cost. If you're going to go to war, you'd better figure out what the strength of your army compared to the strength of the enemy's. If you're going to step out on faith and believe in Jesus Christ for your deliverance from bondage, you need to evaluate, count the cost, analyze the risk. It is not a lack of faith to evaluate, it is an encouragement to faith. It is foolish and rash to make a promise to the Lord before counting the cost. - Proverbs 20:25 Every decision has a price tag and you'd better know what the price is before you take the risk.

3. PREPARATION: PLAN YOUR STEPS … The prudent carefully consider their steps. - Proverbs 14:15 The prudent person of faith thinks about where they're going. This person understands that you don't go charging into battle without a plan. Now, you might be wondering what this has to do with faith, with taking risks. Consider Proverbs 16:9 -- We should make plans--counting on God to direct us. Notice there are two parts to this verse: man's part and God's part. We should make our plans – That's our part – Counting on God to direct us – That's God's part – And they both go together. As you plan, you pray and you ask God to direct you. What am I saying? I'm saying that prayer and preparation go together. When you prepare without prayer, you're going to have problems. When you have prayer without preparing, you're going to have problems. One without the other is insufficient – You need them both. The Bible says to plan out your life, to think where you're going, to be intelligent in the direction of your life. Now I've heard people say, "Well Jeff, you know, I don't make any plans. I don't organize. I don't set any goals. Because I just live by faith. Who needs any plans? I just live by faith." Folks, that may sound spiritual, but that's not faith, that's presumption – and there's a big difference. The Bible says we should make our plans, counting on God to direct us.

4. DECLARATION: ANNOUNCE YOUR GOAL You need to tell the world about your intention. You need to make a public statement. Announce where you're going. Why should I make an announcement? Why can't I just go out there and take the risk and not tell anybody about it, and then if I fail it doesn't look bad? Because goals are statements of faith. They're saying, "I believe God wants to do this in my life, by such and such a date." And here's how you do it – the Bible's very clear about this. What you ought to say is, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that." Otherwise you will be boasting about your own plans and all such boasting is evil. - James 4:15-16

That's how you make the goal statement – If the Lord's willing, we'll do this or that. You don't do it presumptuously, you don't say, "It's going to happen no matter what." If it's the Lord's will, God willing, we're going to do this by this time. Now, why should I announce the risk that I'm about to take? Why should I tell other people about the thing that I'm about to do, my dream, my goal, my ambition? In the first place, it builds your faith when you announce it publicly.