Your Questions

We had the students write down their questions so we could answer them, here is my sermon

Introduction:

So here we are, with Christmas only 2 weeks away. We have made some changes around here. I hope you guys are enjoying them. We are going to continue on with the series based off of your questions. Sara spoke last week about God’s concept of sex. Now I get to answer some of your questions. Your questions that I get to answer are: How do I stay a Christian?, How is Hip-Hop Music bad?, and How do I convince my friends to come to church? I will try my best to answer your questions. If you guys have more questions then I want to encourage you to write them down and put them in the Question box.

 

How do I stay a Christian? How is Hip-Hop music bad?

What is a Christian?

The Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines a Christian as one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus.  So a Christian is someone who says they believe in the teachings of Jesus, I think Webster has some partial truth here. I believe it takes more than just saying you believe in the teachings of Jesus, or saying you believe in Jesus. I believe it takes action to be a Christian. You can’t just say you’re a Christian, and live whatever kind of life you want. It takes faith. So a Christian is a person who is following Christ with his/hers life. Simply put, a Christian is a Christ-Follower. There is a big difference from being a Christian and being a Christ-follower. It takes faith to believe that there is a God that loves us so much that He sent His son to die on a cross for us. It takes hope that you’re going to go to heaven. It takes faith to stay a Christian. It takes a relationship.

What is faith? 

Miriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines faith as firm belief in something for which there is no proof.  Hebrews 11:1 says this “Now faith is being sure of what we hoped for and certain of what we do not see.”  Faith starts with hope. We need to first off put our hope in heaven. What I mean by this is that our reason for being a Christian should be not what we can get out of being a Christian in this life, but what we get out of it in the next life, which is heaven. Heaven should excite us, and should be our reason for living on this earth so that when we die we get to spend eternity with our Father in heaven. Hope leads to faith. Faith simply put is this, when we are sure of what we do not see. We cannot see God, but we can see Him all around us in people, creation, and in our own lives. It is much more than just believing in God, it is acting on what we believe. It’s reading God’s word and then acting on it. You have power with your faith. We also need to know what we believe in order to stay a Christian.

What we believe:

I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, he died for our sins, was resurrected after three days, and is coming back again. I believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and that God’s spirit inspired mighty men to write it. I believe that the Holy Spirit is available to all believers. I believe that God created this earth. I believe that when Jesus returns that I’m going to go to heaven, and live eternally, and it’s going to be amazing. I believe this not because I have been told this, but because I have read God’s word and know that it says this. What do you believe? Why do you believe it? C.S. Lewis says this: “We are what we believe we are.” You need to find out what you believe in order to have faith in it. You need to study God’s word to find out what the truth is, and what the lies of the enemy and the world are. If you consider that there is a God, and that you need his help, and that this help comes through his son, then you have the most basic beliefs. Why do you believe this? Belief comes before faith. There is a difference between faith and beliefs. Beliefs are with the mind, but faith is with the heart. Belief is thinking these things, but faith is taking them to heart.

How do you get faith?

Paul says in Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” God’s Word is truth. You build your faith by getting truth into your heart. You can’t know God’s truth if you put the Bible on a bookshelf to gather dust. You need to read God’s word to stay a Christian, it allows you to know God intimately, and know what He says. How many of you are still doing SOAP? What about the rest of you? The next thing you need to build faith is prayer. Prayer is just talking to God like He is right there. Not just asking God for all these things, and to fix our problems. Prayer is also listening. We need to listen to God.  Spend some quiet time with God, and see what He has to say. When we read God’s word, and talk to Him daily, we can live a life of love because His presence is going to be upon us. Just ask God for it, but be prepared for his answer.

Things that help us stay a Christian.

We need to read God’s word and talk to Him. We also need to know that when we endure the sufferings of this life that we are going to go to heaven. And from how the Bible describes heaven, it is going to be a wonderful place. But we must know that we are going to mess up, and most of the time, this is what keeps people from staying a Christian. People think that because they have sinned, and messed up that they can’t be a Christian anymore. This is not truth. God’s word says in 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness.” God is a forgiving and loving God. He wants us to pursue him. He wants a relationship with us. Just because you have messed up, doesn’t mean you can’t be a Christian anymore.

The other big reason is that people get bored with being a Christian. They get tired of reading their Bible and praying daily, get tired of coming to church, or they get too caught up with their own lives that Christianity is just boring compared to that. Let me tell you this, Christ is not boring. You are not a “Christian” if you are not following Christ with your life. Being a Christian does not have to be boring, it is us that makes it boring. We need to refocus our lives, and remember how we felt when we first became a Christian. We were excited and we thought we could do anything, but then we looked around and realized that nobody else is sharing in our excitement no more, that they too are living the boring Christian life. I want to tell you guys this, don’t look at other Christians and compare you lives with them. Look to what God has promised you for being a Christian, and that will make everything exciting. Look at the entire New Testament after the Gospel, they were excited to suffer for Jesus because they knew that when they died that all of this would be over, and they would get to go to heaven, and celebrate. Heaven is our prize, Jesus said that he is going to go prepare a place for us. I imagine that heaven is going to be so great that even our imaginations can’t compare anything to it. So if you think Christianity is boring then take your eyes off your lives, and imagine what heaven is going to be like, and be excited. When we set our eyes on heaven then all of this life will fall into place because this life won’t matter.

 

 

Accountability Partners:

A very helpful idea for Christians, and for anyone, is to have an accountability partner, a person that you can go to for prayer and encouragement when you don’t want to be a Christian anymore. We are told to do this in the Bible. 1 Thessalonians 5:11: Therefore encourage one another and build each other up…” You need someone who can challenge you to read your Bible and pray daily. Someone that will ask you the tough questions and that you will be honest with. You need to find someone who won’t judge you, but will not be easy on you either. It needs to be someone that has the same beliefs as you. Pretty much they need to be a Christian. After you find an accountability partner, you need to find a mentor.

            Mentor:

A leader that will encourage you and challenge you. Someone you can look up to because of their faith in God. I’m going to tell you now, that if you’re looking for a perfect mentor, you’re not going to find one because nobody is perfect. The crew are great people to ask to have as your mentor. They will help you out, and answer your questions, and if they don’t have the answer, they will find it for you. You and Your accountability partner should find someone that can help you both. We have so much pride, guys especially, that we want to make this journey on our own. We need someone around us to help us. We can’t do this on our own. We need God’s help and the help of others.

Lifestyle Change

This does not mean you have to give up everything in your life, but it means changing your life. We should check everything in our life. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (Message): “On the other hand, don't be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what's good. Throw out anything tainted with evil.” God says to test everything in your life, music, sermons, movies, and see if it is good and lines up with the Word of God. Get rid of anything that is evil. God doesn’t say that you must only listen to worship music and hymns or watch only television ministers or Christian movies. God has given us music. He intended it for good, but the devil turned it for evil. Early music was all about God, and you didn’t hear music with cussing, about sex, or murder. If you look at modern music anymore, almost every song has some cuss words in it, is about sex, drugs, murder, or something else that doesn’t glorify God. How is Hip-Hop music bad? Hip-hop music is not bad, the lyrics or the artist is bad. When you listen to a song or watch a movie, ask yourself these questions, Are the lyrics glorifying God, Are the lyrics good and won’t cause me to hinder my faith, or are the lyrics bad, and they will hinder my faith? The second thing that I like to do is to check out the artist, Check and see how many of their songs are bad, most of the songs are bad then you probably shouldn’t be listening to any of their songs. If you like a certain genre or type of music, but you don’t know any bands that are Christians, and that they glorify God, talk to one of the crew members, Darrin and I are huge music people, and we know about a lot of bands. So if you want, you can talk to us, any of the crew, and we will help you make a decision. Whatever you do, DON’T GIVE THE EXCUSE THAT YOU ONLY LISTEN TO THE MUSIC AND NOT THE LYRICS. That is a lie of the enemy. Just because you don’t listen to them, your brain is, and it is and will affect you, and your walk with God. It’s not just music that affects us, EVERYTHING WE DO AND LISTEN TO!  Just remember this, God has given us the pleasures of this earth. He wants us to enjoy these things. God gave us these things to remind us about how much greater heaven will be, but the enemy is a pervert. He perverts the things that God has created for good and made it evil.

How do I stay a Christian and How is Hip-Hop music bad? 

You stay a Christian by faith. You get faith by reading God’s word, coming to church, and listening to what the person talking is saying, taking notes on what they say to find out if it is truth. Pray daily, but don’t just ask God for things, listen to what he has to say. Next find an accountability partner and a mentor to help you on your journey and encourage you to have perseverance in your Christian walk. Next you need to check everything in your life, music, movies, friends, influence, even the sermons you hear. Check everything and see if is hindering your from your faith, or to see if what your being told lines up with the word of God.  I also want to add this, it is a quote from the movie “Facing the Giants”: “Praise God when you win and when you lose.” This means when you mess up, or you fail at something, or your life is not going good then praise God, and when you are living life to the fullest, and giving God your all, and everything is going good, Praise God! Paul says in Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Paul says to rejoice always in all circumstances.  So the second question was this: How is Hip-Hop music bad? The truth is, it’s not bad, what is bad about it, lyrics, and most likely the artist. Check them out or get with a crew member.

 

How do I convince my friends to come to church?

          First off let me tell you this, it is not your responsibility to save your friends. It is, however, your responsibility to plant seeds and invite them. God cannot save your friends if he doesn’t have the opportunity to. To get your friends to church, you need to live your life in such a way that they will know that your different, and want to be different to. If you are saying you’re a Christian, but living your life exactly like your rebellious friends then why should they want to come to church. You can’t convince your friends to come to church. They have that choice just like you have that choice. Don’t pressure them into coming, but make them envious of your changed life. That way when they see that you’re different, you can tell them why you’re different, and invite them to church. Let God’s love and power do the rest.

Conclusion

          I just want to conclude with this, I want to encourage you guys this week to use your imagination, and think what heaven will be like. Read God’s word about heaven, and if you don’t know where to look, ASK. We need to set our minds on things above like Paul says in Colossians 3:1-2, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Set your mind and hope in heaven where your creator is sitting waiting for you.
            Remember that God created everything for our pleasure, but it is how we use them that either glorifies God or doesn’t.  So Hip-Hop music is not bad, but the lyrics are what will kill you.

            When you live your life in such a way that it is different from everyone else’s life your friends will want to come to see what makes you so different. When you live a life that is so focused on your Creator and spending time with Him, then you will live a life that reflects that. You will live a life of love, and your friends desperately want to be loved.

 

 

The Slumber of Christianity

I am currently reading the book The Slumber of Christianity by author Ted Dekker. He is writing about man's search for happiness. More importantly, Christian's search for happiness. He talks about his quest for happiness. He writes about how God intended His people to enjoy the pleasures of this life, It is God's gift to them. It says this in Ecclesiastes. But first we need to have our hope in heaven before we can truly enjoy the pleasures of this life. Are we really excited about sitting down at a table before our Creator, and dining with Him? Why do we get so bored easily with praying if we say we want to have a relationship with God? If we want to have a relationship with someone then we shouldn't be bored with talking to them, right? Christians are in slumber because we are too busy trying to find pleasure in this life, that we forget to put our hope in the pleasures of our next life. It is then, ONLY THEN, that we will enjoy the pleasures of this life. Our happiness on earth will only last for a little while without having hope in heaven.

Now I am left with the questions, Am I happy? Is my hope for heaven greater than my hope for pleasures on this earth? Am I a Christian in Slumber?

As I continue to read this book, I am in awe at what Ted is saying, Some of it goes against what I thought I believed, but it makes sense. This quote from the book is making my mind think. The quote is this: "To Live is to Die; To Die is to Live." What he is saying with this quote is this, Living is killing us, we are all going to live for some 80-odd years and then die, but when we die with the hope of glory which is our salvation, then we are going to live eternally with Jesus. The New Testament is full of hope, but not for this life, for the next life. Am I talking about reincarnation, no, i'm talking about when we die, we will go to heaven and eat at God's huge banquet table, and this should excite us. Many times, we are not excited about dying. I can honestly say I do not fear death, but I don't fear death for the wrong reasons. I don't fear death because I know God has called me to be a Pastor, and He wouldn't call me to something and allow me die. No my reason for not fearing death should be this, It should be because when I die, I know that I am going to go to heaven, and spend eternity in the presence of my Creator. I need to wake- up from my slumber and realize that my hope is in my salvation which has not been revelaed to me yet. It will be revealed when I die. My hope needs to be in what is in heaven, and not my desires on earth. I pray that this is your hope as well. We need to run this race towards the finish line which is HEAVEN,ETERNITY,LIFE WITH JESUS, and not run this race for what we get along the way. Yes, it is amazing to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be baptized, and to do many things in Jesus' name, but this should not be our focus while we are on earth. Our focus' should be on our hope in heaven. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, "But seek first his kingdom, and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." First we need to seek salvation, which leads us to his kingdom, and to his righteousness, which is how we should live, We need to have hope that one day we will enter His kingdom, and then all these things will be given unto us. So Wake Up, and seek after God's kingdom, your salvation, and his righteousness, and then you will be given the things you desire. Our desire should be spending eternity with God, and living a life that pleases Him. When we have this desire to spend eternity with God, then we are going to do whatever we can to please the one that has given us the way to Him.

How then are we suppose to live life? Before I answer this you must know that faith isn't about what you do; it is about what you believe. What you do will flow from what you believe. It is our desire for the tangible that leaves in a state of slumber. To sum all of this up: Our faith comes by hearing the word of God with our hearts, we should live by thinking on the things above, about heaven since all the pain of this earth will be gone once we enter heaven. We should empty our lives of the useless things on this earth, and fill them up wit the ideas of our Creator. What in our lives are keeping us from our hope of heaven? We need to be like a child and enjoy what God has given us while we desire to be with him. God has given us the pleasures of this earth, they become evil when we put them in front of our desire to be with God. God created all things for His glory.  So first off acknowledge your true condition whatever that is and then fix your mind on truth. Fixing your mind on heaven will change your life on earth.

History Never Changes

Here is an essay that I wrote for my english class. It was a comparative and contrast essay. I got an A.

History Never Changes
Time and technology have changed, but people are the same because history repeats itself. The people in ancient Israel kept turning their backs on everything they believed in, and modern civilizations have done the same. People never change; history just repeats itself.

Israel was a nation that considers itself God’s chosen people. The people of Israel came
out of Egypt because of oppression. They were not allowed to worship their God freely. So God raised up an individual to take them out of Egypt into the land that is now known as Israel.
During the time of the Judges, the people had given up on the true God, and turned to pagan
gods because other gods allowed them to do what they wanted to do, even if it meant giving up
what was right. They turned to these other gods and practiced paganism until things started to gobadly for them. During the time of Jephthah, the Israelites were taken to the nations of Philistia and Amon. They were forced back into oppression. That is when they began to cry out to God,and admitted that they messed up. They turned to God for help, and he elevated Jephthah to save them. God, through Jephthah, saved them by delivering them from their enemies. Israel did this many times. They would worship God, and then they would look around and find somethingthat looked better, even if it meant going against what they believed, but as soon as things wentbadly, they would turn back to God. God would then raise up a leader to save them. This pattern was repeated over and over.

The United States of America has done the same thing. We too, left England, our
homeland, to worship God freely. We came to the land of America and became a nation founded
on principles. As we have advanced through the years, we have given up God and our morals.
We have said no, people can’t worship God freely because you might offend someone. We have
become a nation of tolerance. Because of this, things have gone horribly. We keep turning to
something else we think is better. We have lost our morals and principles as we believe in
something we think is better than God. We have turned to other religions, cults, or the occult, or
denied the existence of God. Right now, I believe we have made money our god. We do worship
it we might not bow down to it, but we do whatever we can to have more of it. I don’t believe
that money is the cause of this. I believe the love of money is the cause because money leads to
power, and everybody wants power. Since we have turned to money, our nation is failing and
falling apart. Our economy is collapsing because we want money we do not have. We are at war
with a country that is controlled by terrorists. We think we can do everything on our own, but
really we can’t. Israel was the same way, in that they wanted more, and thought they could get it on their own. We have leaders who are either trying to help, and we won’t listen, or we have
leaders who are flatly corrupt, and we do listen. We are like Israel, in that we want something
we think is better, and that is going to make us happy. It is only going to lead to our deaths. The
only way to fix it is to do like the Israelites did, to go back to how it all started; to go back to
God.

History repeats itself over and over, but it simply keeps getting worse. America is just
like Israel in that they both want something they think is better. Israel chose to worship other
gods who they thought brought them joy and happiness, but all they found was war and
destruction. As Americans, we often choose ourselves and money because we believe the more
we have, the better off we are, but all we find is pain and desolation. So really, what is the
differences except for the time?

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day

I just finished the book, In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars by Pastor Mark Batterson. It is an amazing book about how we need to face our fears and the opportunities that come our way. Mark has seven skills that we all need to take to chase after our lions. God has given us dreams, ideas, plans for our lives for His glory, and so many times we allow things, especially fear, to get in the way.

Mark takes the story of Benaiah, who was King David's bodyguard, and he became Commander- in - chief over the army of Israel. It is because he didn't allow stuff to get into his way. The story is in 2 Samuel 23:9, "There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valian warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moah's mightiest warrior. Another time he chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it. Another time, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with it."

We all have lions in our lives that we need to look in the eyes and chase. It may be a dream, an idea, a degree, writing a book, painting a picture, doing something extravagant, but we need to chase after it. The seven skills that all lion chaser must have are:
1. You have to start by trying to comprehend the infiniteness of God so that you can believe.
2. You have to face your fears, or they will hold you back forever.
3. You have to learn to reframe your problems through bible reading, prayer, and worship.
4. Embrace uncertainty by focusing your persepective on God's greatness, and not your problem.
5. You must take risks.
6. Seize opportunities. You can't see opportunities if your not in tune with the Holy Spirit.
7. You have to be able to look foolish.
These seven skills that all lion chasers need. I have many lions in my life that I need to chase, but I need to listen to God's still small voice and see what direction He wants me to take. I challenge you to read this book; you will not be dissapointed.

How does God love?

I preached this sermon 10/15/08


Introduction:
I want to talk to you guys tonight about God’s love and what that looks like and how we can find this great Love. We sing the song How He Loves and it’s an amazing song speaking about how God loves us so much. I love that song and it really speaks to my heart when we sing it. I decided to talk about God’s love because I was reading these fiction books by author Ted Dekker. They are called the Circle Trilogy Black, Red, and White. It’s a story about this guy from our time era living in Denver, Colorado and he has gotten involved with the mafia to pay off some family debt but now the mafia people are looking for him to repay them. Well one night on his way home from work he is attacked by a gunman and he gets shot in the head and he wakes us into the future, In this future it is very simple. No computers, no cell phones, no cars, no crime, nothing whatsoever. It’s this great colored forest and across the river is the black forest where the evil one lives. The people their worship this God called Elyon and well as the story goes on it, A great deception happens and it goes on until Elyon sends Justin to die for everyone. And during this time he finds out about a huge virus that is going to wipe out the entire earth that happens in the Histories and he learns about it and is trying to stop it in our world or the histories as the future calls it. It talks about in the books about Elyons love for his people and it’s really an allegory about God’s love for us and that is what I’m going to talk about tonight. So let’s look at how does God love?
I. He chooses
We don’t choose God, He chooses us but it’s our choice to accept that and Him into our lives. He has chosen us since before time began. Ephesians 1:4-6 says: “4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he[a] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” God has chosen us to be holy and blameless in his sight. This doesn’t mean we have to be perfect and be sinless because we can’t do that. We are not Jesus. Living a life without sin cannot be done. It is our choice to sin. We can’t live a life without sin but we can live a life without choosing to sin. I believe the only way that this can be done is Love. God loves us so much that while we were still sinners, He died for us, the Romans 5:8 in the Message Bible says 6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. and according to Ephesians 1:5 he adopted us into his family. Romans 8:29 in the NLT says 29 For God knew his people in advance and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. God knows us and yet He still chooses us everyday to be in His family and He will never change his mind. The Bible says that God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
II. He pursues
God pursues us. We would never seek God if He didn’t seek us first. God wants a relationship with you. He want us to want to pursue a relationship with Him. He doesn’t wait for us to be ready for Him. Remember the verse I read earlier that said He didn’t wait and doesn’t wait until we’re ready. I’m reminded of Genesis 3:9 where Adam and Eve had just sinned against God and God goes out seeking them. Looking for them and yet they were hiding. I’m sure God knew where they were at. They weren’t playing some game of Hide and Seek because God knows where they were at. But He asks the question. “ Where are you?” It wasn’t until after God looked for them that they responded. It is shown in many places in the Bible that God pursues us first. We would never look for God because we think We do not need God. John 6:44 says 44"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. God is relentless when He pursues us. I was going to have many verses on How God pursues us but then I realized that the whole Bible is God’s love letter that He pursues us with. I’m sorry guys but it’s a Great Romance. It’s one huge love story to us. It’s filled with so much love. I have to admit and I’m sure Darrin would admit it as well but we’re suckers to love stories. My three favorite chick flicks/ love stories are P.S. I love you, The Notebook and A lot like Love. Darrin has told me his favorites as well. Girls, your not the only one who can enjoy love stories. God has written one for us, For all of us. God loves us so much that He pursues us and wants a relationship with Him. It’s our choice to choose Him. He chose and pursued us. Let’s continue on…
III. He Rescues us
After God chooses us and pursues us, Next He rescues us. Does anyone know what God rescues us from? Sin but not just sin, but from our own sinful self. He rescued us from perishing into hell. John 3:16-17 talks about this. 16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. God loves us so much that He gave us his only Son so that way we would not perish and die but he saved us from death, hell, and the grave. We now have eternal life with God up in heaven because of His love. Ephesians 1:4 says: 4who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, God gave himself to rescue us from our present evil age, our present life of sin. We are evil and he has rescued us from that. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 says 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. Jesus has rescued us from the coming wrath. He did that by dying for our sins. He does this by rescuing us from the wrath of God for our sins. God rescued us. It’s like those movies where the damsel in distress is taken by the evil bad guy and the Hero comes and saves the day. I’m sorry but we’re that damsel in distress. We need rescuing from ourselves. We need rescuing from this world who hates us. God has rescued us from the evil one. God is still in the rescuing business and He has rescued your friends by sending Jesus. He gave His life for us. Why aren’t we doing something about that? Why aren’t we telling them about this great love?
IV. We Choose God
We know that God has chosen us, and that God has pursued after us, and that God sent Christ to rescue us. Now We need to know how to choose God. How do we do this? We need to accept what God did for us. God has given his grace to us. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. He gives us freedom from the punishment we deserve for our sins. We are evil and we do not deserve grace but God choose to give us this grace. We need to accept Jesus into our lives and become Christ-Followers. Our gross and sinful selves are now sons and daughters of the Ever-Living God. God has freely given us His son so we can know his glorious grace. Romans 10:9 says, “If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.” God has made choosing Him, very simple in our complicated religious world. The bible says in Romans 10:12, “Whosover calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” So it takes three things to be saved.. They are called the ABC’s of salvation. A- Admit we are a sinner. We need to tell God that we have messed up. We don’t need a special prayer to do this. We just need to accept that we can’t do this on our own, that we are screw-ups and need help. That we are evil and without God we are bound for hell. B- Believe in your heart that God gave his son to die and that Jesus is still alive today. This is very simple to do. C- Confess with your Mouth that Jesus is your Lord and Savior. This is the hardest of the three to do. That doesn’t mean just doing here while we are at church and the music is going or when we sit through a sermon of P. Skips. This means doing it out there when nobody is watching and living a life of love. Let your life confess that you are different because of God’s love.
V. He woos us
God woos us. What does that mean? The definition of woos is too seek the affection of with the intention to romance. It’s like those movies where the guy is doing all this stuff trying to get the girls attention. However God doesn’t look stupid or cheesy doing it. Zephaniah 3:17 says: 17 The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save, He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. God woos us by saving us, by being with us, by taking great delight in us, by quieting us with His great love, by rejoicing over us with singing. God wants our affection, He doesn’t need it. God needs nothing from us. We should be willing to give God our affection and worship is the greatest way to show it. Song of Solomon 2:4 says that His banner of us is Love. Anymore people use the term flags instead of banners. Flags are there so we can recognize who that is. The American Flag is known to everyone that it symbolizes America. The same thing is about God’s banner. It shows everyone that WE ARE GOD’S CHILD and HE LOVES US. Jesus Christ is God’s banner of love over us. It is God’s unfathomable love. It’s His arms over us and is shouting to everyone and saying I love this child. He whispers it to us when we listen. God woos us with His Love. God wants to have a relationship with us. God wants to bless us. God lavishes us with blessings, gifts, His love, and most important part of love is His grace. Ephesians 1:7-8 says “7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” God’s greatest gift that he lavished on us is His grace. God knew and understood since the beginning of time that He would have to send His Son to die for us. That is the greatest gift that God gave us. God gives us so much. He gives us life each morning, He gives us food to eat, a shelter, clothes and many other blessings. God lavishes us with the His beauty and we can see that evident in the world which He has created. God created this earth for us to live on and enjoy. God loves us so much that he wants us to experience who he is. God is love (1 John 4:8,16)

VI. He protects us
God keeps us safe. Many times we allow our faith to be hindered by the problems in our life that we forget that God is in control and He does know what’s going on. God gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us and give us the power to protect us. God’s word says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. It also says that we are more than conquerors, over the enemy and ourselves. Just remember that God is on our side according to Romans 8:31. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” So remember that God is on your side protecting you but you have to remember also that when we go through horrible things in our life that we have to persevere because God has something great for us. God doesn’t want us to be in pain. He wants us to be safe. We go through things such as love ones dying, sexual temptations, parents getting divorce, and other problems. The Bible says we should consider it pure joy when we go through trials and temptations. (James 1:2-4) It says that it tests are faith and causes us to persevere through the difficult times. Why should we consider these things pure joy? We should know that God would not let us go through something that He knows we can’t handle it, and that it is causing our faith in God to grow if we continue to live for God. God protects because He loves us. He doesn’t want anything bad to happen to you. He wants a relationship with you. God protects us while we pursue Him through his Word, through worship, through prayer, through reaching out to others around us.


VII. Conclusion
So How Does God love? God first off chooses us, it’s up to us to decide to choose Him back, then God pursues us because we would never pursue a relationship with God if He didn’t act first. God rescued us from our sins by sending Jesus to die on the cross. God wants a relationship with us, He woos us with His love by giving it abundantly. God protects us from the dangers of the world and we just need to have faith in the almighty God. God lavishes his love upon us by blessing us. The miracle we get daily is life itself. We have freedom from our sin. When we mess up, we can go to God and ask for forgiveness and He isn’t just willing to forgive us, He does! What does God ask for in return? Well what does any person who loves ask for in return. He wants to be loved. God created us to love Him. We were created to worship God because God is love. Everything about God is love. God also wants you to love others. Mark 12:30-31 “Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: “ Love your neighbor as yourself….” What does loving God with all you have look like: Do as Jesus would, Do everything you do, for God and in love. Make God first in your life. Then after God is first then love your neighbor which is anyone who is not you as you love yourself. Everyone loves themselves and you can’t deny it. Love everyone as you love yourself. God also says in John 4:8,16: “ Whoever does not love, does not know God because God is love.” 16: And so we know and rely on the love of God had for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in Him.” If you don’t live a life of love then you do not really know God. It’s really simple actually, We don’t have to go around telling people we love them even though that is great but love is an action. We need to show people that we love them! There are some of us in this room tonight that have never felt the love of God. Without His amazing love, our songs to Him are just songs without meaning, The love of God changes us and we are never the same. If you have never encountered the love of God, I want to invite you right now to give your life over to Him. The Bible says that if “We confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead we will be saved.” Remember the ABC’s Admit you’re a sinner, Believe in your heart that God has saved you, and confess with your mouth and life that Jesus is Lord. So in a second I’m going to invite all of you up. I don’t want anyone left in the chairs. But you all get the choice to decide. If you haven’t asked Jesus in your heart and you want to experience this great love, then I want you to come up now and a crew member will come up and talk with you. But for everyone else (Angel turns on music). If you want to encounter God’s great love then I want you to come up and spread out and just worship Him. If there is something hindering you from worshipping God, Then I want you to go and take care of that first. Maybe the person is here tonight or maybe not. If they are not then I want you to talk with God about it and this week I want you to go and talk to them. Tell them how they hurt you or apologize for how you hurt them. God is all about love and forgiveness. Forgiveness starts with God and you. The first step in showing God’s love is to reach out and show people that you have changed. Also spend time with God this week. Remember those notebooks Darrin gave out a couple of weeks ago. USE THEM! The rest of you, Come and immerse yourself in God’s love and just worship Him.

Existence

We all have one reason to exist and that is to worship God with everything we have. By living a life of love. Here is a great quote I found.


It is a slow and painful suicide. To exist without purpose or meaning. We are slowly regressing into a sad and pathetic state of existentialism. Some... to the most extreme by living like there is no God... others just dangle their toes in the water but never dive in by simply not fulfilling their purpose. And this has created a generation of people with a mindset that the goal is just to survive, that greatness isn’t attainable. The basis of existentialism is that there is no God. One of the prominent contributors to this notion is 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who declared "God is dead." But what Nietzsche failed to realize is that a lack of God is a lack of purpose, and therefore a lack of life. The exigency of meaning is an undeniable part of the human condition. We were created to need fulfillment. Because with out it we’d become a hopeless shell of a human being. There is an intrinsic desire in all of us to be great. And without God that desire will never be satisfied. You may become rich or famous or rich and famous, but it will never be enough. God is essential because purpose and meaning are essential. Nietzsche may have thought God was dead, but do you want to know where he ended up? He went crazy and spent the last 11 years of his life alone in an insane asylum. Without God...man exists without meaning. Its a slow and painful suicide.... the fatality of this existential mindset.