Freedom

You, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

We all love to point to our Christian liberty! Rightly so. After all, the bible tells us that as new covenant Christians, we are not under law but under grace. However, the question begs asking, "How are we going to use our Christian liberty?" Our passage of scripture today reminds us that we are not to use our liberty as Christians as an opportunity to gratify the desires of the flesh. Using the grace of our Lord that way tramples it. With that kind of attitude you become a disgrace to grace.

May we go deeper? If a person uses their liberty as an occasion for the flesh, are they really free? What is real freedom? Might I suggest to you that real freedom is not the freedom to do what we want to do, but the freedom to do what is right? It is only through the power of Christ that we are able to be over comers and live lives that are pleasing to Him. Those who are really free, are the ones that have experienced the transforming power of Jesus to make us new creations who thirst after righteousness. I see a huge gap between the state of the person I just described and the person who is making excuses for sin. Do you see it?

Do not use your freedom in Christ as a justification for vice. Let your freedom in Christ empower you to be free from vice. If the son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed.

Thanksliving

1 Thessalonians 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

It is awesome that we live in a country that still sets aside a day to thank God for His blessings. It is sad that many in our country, probably the majority will go through the entire day without really acknowledging God. They will eat lots, get together with family that they really don't like (grumbling about them all the way there and grumbling about them all the way home), watch football, watch movies and never once stop to give thanks to the Lord for His blessings. Nevertheless, it is awesome that we set aside a day in our country for the purpose of remembering the Lord's provision.

Time for confession. I was sitting here a few minutes ago feeling sorry for myself. My wife is a Registered Nurse and has to work today. Chances are she won't get off until 8:30 or 9:00 tonight.I happen to love her and I miss her. It's Thanksgiving day and I would like to be with her today. In the middle of my pity party, the thought occurred to me, it's Thanksgiving and I should spend some time with the Lord this morning telling Him how much I appreciate Him and what I am thankful for instead of sitting here feeling sad about what I don't have. .....As I started to tell God all the things that I could think of that I was thankful for, it suddenly dawned on me that I had stopped feeling sorry for myself. I noticed that I had been released from my little pity party. Right at the exact time that I had that thought, the phone rang and it was Kay. She said, "I had a free moment and wanted to call and say happy Thanksgiving, and I love you. Save me some food I am going to eat no matter how late I get home tonight." She only had time to talk for about two minutes, but I felt like that was God's little gift to me. I just said, "Thank you Lord. Forgive me for feeling sorry for myself earlier."

Feeling sorry for ourselves for what we don't have is the opposite of a thankful spirit. I am reminded of something this morning. It is impossible to thank God and think about what you don't have that you would like to have at the same time. If we will just learn to live out 1 Thessalonians 5:18 in our lives, Thanksgiving can be more than just a holiday.....it can be a lifestyle.....thanksliving!

From the Hester family to you and yours: Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Final thoughts on the model prayer

Matthew 6:13 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.'

Jesus asks for the Father's help to avoid temptation. It reveals a deep desire Jesus had to be pleasing to the Father. There was a thirst after righteousness. There was a longing for holiness. For a lot of Christians, there is no such longing. They want to see how close to the pig pen they get without falling in. Jesus wanted to be as far away from the pig pen as He could get and He prayed to the Father to order His steps away from filth. We would do well to pray along these lines daily. Praying this way will create in us a longing to live holy lives.

As the prayer begins to close, once again Jesus mentions the Kingdom. This time He says, "Yours is the Kingdom." Jesus begins by referencing the authority of the Father, and He ends the prayer by once again acknowledging the authority of the Father. The Kingdom is the Father's and we ought to make mention of it in our prayer lives. It is a reminder of who is in charge. Nobody walks into the King and demands anything. Even Queen Esther was apprehensive about approaching the King on behalf of her people the Jews. When you approach a King, you approach humbly.  Jesus teaches us to pray humbly. Beware of approaching God with a sense of entitlement as if the Lord owes you something. For the record, He does not.

Jesus finishes off the prayer with more praise, mentioning the power of the father, and the glory of the Father. I am struck by how much of the prayer is devoted to recognition of the attributes of God and how little is devoted to asking things from God. I am not saying that we ought not to ask anything from God. Nothing could be further from biblical teaching on prayer. We are told in the scripture Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." So we ought to ask for whatever we want. The point I am simply trying to make is that we do not spend enough time in prayer praising God and just worshiping Him. Jesus teaches us in the model prayer to spend a larger proportion of our prayer life praising the Lord. I challenge you to spend more time in prayer praising God. I bet it will make your prayer life deeper and richer.

The model prayer continued

Matthew 6:12 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Now in the prayer Jesus moves into confession of sin. Confessing sin should be a regular part of our prayer life. For the believer, understand that confessing sin is not a matter of salvation. That is already settled for a truly born again person. It is a matter of relationship. When we do things that displease the Lord, in order to restore our relationship, we need to confess those things to Him. I personally believe that there is nothing else that will determine how our relationship with God goes more than regularly confessing our sin to Him. Confessing sin shows that we are conscious of the things in our lives that please and displease the Lord. Confessing sin will make us more sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Confessing sin is a key to spiritual growth because it causes us to remove things from our lives that need to go.

Jesus also teaches in this model prayer how important forgiveness is. People are sinful and they do hurtful things. Jesus is teaching us to forgive in light of the fact that we want forgiveness from the Father. When someone does something to hurt you, take that pain to the Lord. Then forgive them....declare to the Father that you are forgiving them.....it will release you and prevent bitterness from settling into your heart.


Jesus is teaching us two more very important elements to our prayer life: 1) Confession of sin 2) Properly dealing with those who have wronged us in our prayer life. Do you have sin in your life that you need to confess to get your relationship with God back to where it needs to be? Do you have hard feelings toward others that have mistreated you that need to be taken to the Father? If so, confess your sin. Pray for the Lord to help your attitude toward the person that wronged you. Pray for God to bless them today. In the process, you will feel a weight lifted from your soul, and you will experience deeper intimacy with the Lord.

Even more on prayer

Matthew 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.

Jesus is teaching us to pray by praying a "model prayer" for us in what we have come to know as "The Lord's Prayer". The prayer was not meant so much to be repeated, as it is to provide guidelines and principles that help us to pray in a way that is pleasing to God. Do you ever think about whether or not your prayer is pleasing to the Lord? Solomon's prayer pleased God....1 Kings 3:10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. We ought to consider whether or not our prayers please the Lord. If we pray the way Jesus taught us to pray our prayers will please God.

Jesus acknowledges the authority of the Father, praises the Father, and recognizes the sovereignty of the Father in verses 9 & 10. (see previous posts for more detail) Then in verse 11 Jesus asks for daily provision. He does not ask for next weeks provision. Jesus asks for what is needed today. When we pray, we recognize our total and utter dependency upon God to provide what is needed today. Jesus is teaching not only something about prayer, but also something about life. None of us are promised tomorrow, so we need to take each day as it comes. Jesus tells us later on in Matthew's gospel, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself." Matthew 6:34 

This goes way against the grain of western world thinking. We live in the land of insurance, IRAs, 401Ks etc. There is so much built into our culture that is designed to hedge against tomorrow's difficulty. It is so easy for us even as Christians to start trusting in those things and have our sense of security in them and not in the Lord...... 

Jesus says the way to live is one day at a time totally dependent on the Father. May our prayer lives reflect a daily dependence upon HIM.

More on prayer

Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

I have been at the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV) annual meeting in Richmond which is why I have not blogged in a while. The SBCV is our Baptist state convention comprised of 564 churches from all over the state of Virginia. Some of you recall that approximately 40 of our people went to the "Families on Mission" mission trip in Big Stone Gap Virginia? That mission trip was sponsored by the SBCV. The SBCV annual meeting was a glorious time of worship, preaching, testimonies of what God is doing all across the state, and a little bit of business thrown in. I am in awe of what God has done in so many of the churches of our state convention, and I wish that every one of you could have been there to hear the many inspiring testimonies of what the Lord is doing through Southern Baptists all over Virginia.

Last week I was writing about prayer and will continue. In verse 10 we see Jesus acknowledge the sovereignty of the Father. That is what He is doing when He says, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We ought to always pray reminded that the Kingdom of God is coming. One day Jesus is coming again! So no matter how bad it gets down here....no matter how hard serving the Lord becomes.....we need to remember that it is only temporary and that the Lord Jesus is coming again. Remembering that Jesus is coming again will affect the way we pray.

We also need to remember that God is in charge, He is in control. Nothing happens that God does not allow. So when we pray, we need to be mindful that we are praying to the one that has the whole world in His hands.

In Jesus' prayer, we can observe 4 steps in verses 9 & 10 so far:
1) He teaches us to acknowledge the authority of the Father
2) He teaches us to praise the Father
3) He teaches us to look forward to God's coming Kingdom
4) He teaches us to recognize that the Father is sovereign

Jesus does all that in His prayer before asking anything from God. I challenge you when you pray, to spend time in your prayer life in these 4 areas above. Linger in His presence as you do and you will experience intimacy with God on a new level.

Prayer continued

Matthew 6:9 "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

Jesus is teaching us to pray. He starts with an acknowledgment of the authority of God the Father.

Then He says "Hallowed be Your Name". Hallowed is an interesting word. In the Greek it is the word "hagiazo". On seven other occasions in the New Testament, the word "hagiazo" is translated "sanctify" in English versions of the bible (John 17:17, John 17:19, Ephesians 5:26, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Hebrews 9:13, Hebrews 13:12, & 1 Peter 3:15). I point this out because it gives us some insight as to the meaning of the word "Hallowed", not exactly a common word in English. "Hagiazo" means to "set apart". It is closely related to the word "hagios" which is the Greek word for holy. So when Jesus says, "Hallowed be Your name", He is saying holy, sacred, set apart be Your name Father God. Jesus is saying, may your name be honored above all other names. It is praise of the highest order.

When we pray, Jesus is teaching us that our prayers should not consist solely of the things that we want God to do for us. We are told in scripture to ask for things from God, and we will talk more about that later. But it is notable that before Jesus asks anything from God the Father, He first spends time praising Him in prayer. Do you do that? Do you ever have time in your prayer life where you are not asking anything from God but just simply are praising Him? You should.

Sometimes we treat God like He is our "Genie in a bottle" or our "Heavenly bell-hop". We come to Him with the list of things we want Him to do to make things better in the universe, without ever spending any time adoring and praising Him.

May I tell you from personal experience, that if you spend time praising God in your prayer life, when it does come time to ask for something from God..... it will change what you ask for, and it will change how you ask for it. 

Prayer

Matthew 6:9 "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven....

If you are an active member of Bethel Baptist you will be receiving a letter in the mail from me within a day or two. I am calling the church to a season of fasting and prayer. So in my devotional time, I am doing some personal study on prayer, and I will be sharing some of that with you on this blog.

What we have come to refer to as "The Lord's Prayer" in Matthew chapter 6 is Jesus' instruction on prayer. He tells us to pray in this way. So Jesus did not mean for "The Lord's Prayer" to be an incantation that we repeat. He was teaching principles about prayer as He prayed.

Notice how He starts the prayer: "Our Father who is in heaven..." This is a recognition of the authority of the Father. He is Father, and He is in His exalted position in Heaven.

God the Father is the Creator, the All Mighty, the All Knowing, the All Powerful God of the universe, the Great I Am. Powerful prayer starts with a proper understanding of who God is. And even though we will never fully comprehend our awesome God.....we should continually pursue getting to know who He is. As you do, you discover that God is an inexhaustible well as you reach deeper levels of understanding in regards to who He is. The more you understand who He is, the more in awe you become of Him.......and it will affect your prayer life.

In "The Lord's Prayer" Jesus is teaching us to start our prayers by acknowledging the authority of God the Father. When we pray this way, it helps to put us in the proper mind set, so that we pray the right way.

Trust and obey

"But Naaman went away angry and said, 'I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy'" (2 Kings 5:11-12). 

Naaman was an army general with a terrible disease known as leprosy. It was a degenerative condition of the body tissues that literally caused the flesh to deteriorate to the point where limbs would eventually fall off in the advanced stages. It was a horrible and dreaded disease. Lepers were separated so as not to infect the rest of the population. It was suggested to Naaman by a young servant girl of the king's house that the prophet Elisha could heal him. Elisha sent a message to him: "Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed" (2 Kings 5:10). When the instructions came as to what Naaman was to do, it seemed ridiculous to him. 

God's ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Therefore some of the things that God tells us to do may not always make sense on the surface. We have to be careful about trying to "figure God out." God instructed Joshua to march around the city of Jericho seven times. Jesus told a man to put mud on his eyes to have his sight restored. Jesus told Peter to catch a fish to get a coin to pay his taxes. None of them questioned God, they just did what He said.

We must learn to listen to God and do what He says, whether it makes sense to us or not.

Thanks

Last night I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love during "Pastor Appreciation" night. There were so many kind and encouraging things that were said to my wife and I that it was hard to take it all in.

One thing that sort of comes with the territory when it comes to being a pastor is scrutiny. Every sermon, every decision, your wardrobe, your demeanor, everything in the church you are to some degree held responsible for whether the decision was yours or not......everything is scrutinized all the time by someone. Any pastor will tell you, a lot of the time the only people you hear from are the ones that have some negative feed back regarding you or the church. So as a pastor you have to develop some thick skin and let a lot of stuff roll off of you. You also have to learn from the scrutiny and change the things about yourself that need changing that you can change (because some of it you can't change, it's just who you are) and try to improve constantly.  So the scrutiny can be a good thing......but honestly over time it wears you out......unless it is balanced with some encouragement and some positive feed back along the way.

Hopefully none of us serve the Lord for the praise of men. Ultimately we serve God because we love Him and we desire to please Him. But encouragement sure is nice. And last night I received a whole lot of it. Thanks Bethel for a tremendous outpouring of love last night. I count it a privilege to serve as your pastor.

Use your talents

Matthew 25:15 "To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.

Jesus tells a parable about three servants that were given money to mange by their owner. A "talent" was an amount of money equal to about 20 years of wages for the average person of that day. The money is a metaphor for the modern day English meaning of the word talent (gifts and abilities). So the idea is that everyone gets a lot. We do not need to overlook that thought. Most people have more ability than they give themselves credit for, and tend to "let themselves off the hook" so to speak. They do nothing for God, and justify it by reasoning that they have no ability.   

Even though everyone got a lot, everyone in this story was not treated the same. One got five talents, another two, and another one.  Jesus does not pretend in this story that all of us are alike. In fact Jesus acknowledges that we are different. Not everyone has the same potential. Some have more potential than others.

This is both relieving and challenging at the same time. It is relieving because it reminds us that God is not going to hold us responsible for doing things that He did not gift us and call us to do. Our tendency sometimes is to compare ourselves to others and to feel guilty that we have not accomplished what they have accomplished. That is just the devil's way of making us feel worthless.

It is challenging at the same time, however. Because it is a reminder that God is going to hold us responsible for using what He has given us. It begs the question from each one of us, "Am I using what the Lord has given me to its full potential?" We should all ponder that question.....

Die daily

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:24-26).

There is an irony observable in nature that Jesus sees and relates to the spiritual realm. When wheat dies and falls to the ground, out of the death of that wheat comes many seeds. Through the death of that wheat kernel comes the potential for so much life.

This is analogous to what happens in the spiritual realm. If we die to self, and let Jesus live through us we create life. If we die to ourselves and allow Christ to live through us, we will be witnesses for Him. Those seeds of the gospel that we scatter will produce born again children of God. But it all starts with us making the decision to be dead to self and alive to Christ. 

There is another irony in this passage of scripture. Jesus says that people's efforts to hold on to their own lives are futile because ultimately such people lose their lives in the end. In a sense Jesus is giving us a picture of the person that is truly saved.....the truly saved person has lost his life.....God is not fooled by people who participate in religious activity yet hold on to their own lives in every other sense.....that is not a born again person, that is a religious person. Jesus said you must be born again to see the Kingdom of Heaven. So according to Christ, losing your life is not just a matter of being a good Christian.......it is the evidence of whether or not you are a Christian at all.

Provision

"Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about'" (Gen 22:2). 

God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and that he would have a son. Years went by, but eventually Isaac was born, who was the promised son.

God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son to demonstrate his obedience to God. Abraham waited so long for a son, and now he is being told to sacrifice him. This doesn't make sense but Abraham starts to follow through on what he is told to do. God sends an angel to tell Abraham not to harm the boy. God provides a ram caught in a thicket for the sacrifice. God provided what was needed in a miraculous way!

Just reminds me I need to always do what God tells me to do whether it makes sense to me or not. It is only when I obey in this way, I get to see God make His most miraculous provisions, just like Abraham did.