When you were a kid did you ever get in trouble?  What did your folks do about it?  Did you deserve the punishment?  Did it help you learn to do better?  Has your life benefited from correction or discipline?

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CHAPTER FIVE – Do You Want The Good News or The Bad News First?

Have you ever notice how things can completely change depending on your perspective?  For example, imagine that you’re asleep–a nice comfortable sleep filled with sweet dreams and somebody slaps you in the face so that you wake up to a very sore cheek.  How do you feel about that person?

Ok, now say the same scenario happens, but once you’re awake the person who hit you explains that the building you’re in is on fire, and you need to get out before you’re trapped inside.  Now how do you feel about that person?

The Bible can bring about different reactions from different people.  For example.  If you don’t love God, and your life demonstrates a disregard for how he has told us to live, much of the Bible is going to sound pretty harsh–and even frightening.  But if you’ve been saved by God, and your life shows it through living the way he tells us to, then you’re going to read the same Bible with a lot of thanks and joyfulness.

So what do you get out of it–good news or bad news?

PS. I don’t know what happened, but this one has terrible sound quality too.  The others are better.

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CHAPTER THREE – Really Bad Breath

Let’s say you are at home, in your front yard, and you look across the street and notice black smoke and flames coming from the roof of your neighbors house.  Then you notice that your neighbor is just getting home from work and hasn’t noticed that his house is on fire and he’s on the porch fumbling for his keys.

What do you do?  Do you let him go into a burning house without saying a word.  Or do you yell at the top of your lungs, “DON’T GO IN THERE!  YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE!”

Now picture all the people who are dooming themselves to eternal fire through their own sin.  What do you do?  Do you do whatever it takes to get their attention and convince them to stop?  Or do you let them walk into that burning house?

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Why do people fall in love?  What’s their motivation?  I mean, why does anybody go through all the trouble of pursuing and building a love relationship.  I’m not talking about lust and sex.  I’m talking about people who fall head over heels and are willing to put on their best and spend their money and make extra time for dating and gifts and trips –and all the emotional stress and upheaval that comes with the risk of putting your heart on the line hoping for somebody else to respond with the same feelings.  Why do people do that?

The answer is pretty obvious–even if it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense when you think about how much time and attention a good relationship takes.  People give their love because it’s rewarding to share real love with another person.  When husbands and wives love each other or parents love their children et cetera, it often requires a lot of sacrifice, but anybody with a good relationship will tell you that it’s more than worth it.

Living for God is the same thing.  Serving God often requires sacrifice and takes work and dedication and commitment.  But anybody who has a good relationship with Jesus Christ will tell you that it’s more than worth it.  The joy and contentment and deep love that fills your life as a result of belonging to God makes living life God’s way a desire rather than just a regulation.

Do you know what I mean?  If so, congrats!  If not, would you like to?

(This podcast is a retelling of the same idea from the December 27th podcast.)

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What drives you?  What’s your main motivation in life?  Do you enjoy being alive?  Or are you bored or depressed or unfulfilled?  What trips your trigger?

What about you Christians…why do you live a life of love and purity?  Why do you live a holy life and always make righteous choices? (By the way, if you’re not living that way, it proves you don’t belong to Jesus?  If you are a true Christian your life will produce the fruit of the Spirit and you will rid your life of sin.  You can’t love God and commit evil against him at the same time.)  Anyway, why do you live for God?  Because you love to or because you have to?

How do you think God wants you to be motivated?  Fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING of wisdom.  But love casts out fear.  So if you are motivated by love–if you enjoy living for God–then you have no need to be afraid because your love will drive you to live a life that pleases God rather than incites his wrath.

So, which do you prefer?

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“Don’t judge me.”

I’ve heard that a lot.  In other words, they’re asking for you to ignore the decision they’ve made.

“Yeah, I decided to do what I know is wrong.  And I know that you know it’s wrong”  But I’m trying to convince myself that I’m not a bad person for doing it.  So please don’t mention that it’s wrong to me.  Don’t use your brain when you think about me.”

Well, you know, I wouldn’t have to “judge” you if you used good judgment yourself when you made the decision to do something wrong.  If you would do good, then you would want me to judge you and notice the good.  It’s only when you do bad that you don’t want people using discernment about your behavior.

And keep in mind that my judgment can’t do much more than cause embarrassment or inconvenience to you.  But we will all be judged by God for all of our thoughts and actions, and his judgment determines our eternity.

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Does your life celebrate Palm Sunday?  Would you like to have a new life to celebrate?  Turn to Jesus, who came to save you and the King who will be your Judge.

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Here’s a question to get you thinking: Why should God forgive you for anything?

Think about it.  When God created the universe and world it was good.  He looked at everything and was pleased with his creation.  There was no death, no pain, no suffering.  But Adam and Eve messed that all up.  They had a relationship with God, but they threw it all away out of their selfishness.  And ever since then people have been turning their backs on God.  The world is full of people who have chosen to lie and cheat and steal and murder and hate and abuse one another and live immoral and sexually perverted lives.  People ignore God’s commands all the time and choose instead to gossip and let their lusts control them.  And it has destroyed our world.  What used to be a perfect place of peace and blessings is now a world of death and pain.  We can still see semblances of beauty behind the mess we’ve made, but it’s often a reminder of how much human beings have destroyed.  So why should God bother with such wicked and evil people who have been so destructive and hateful towards him?

The obvious answer is love.  But here’s another question to think about: If God is willing to save you because of his great love–if the love of Jesus was enough to hold him to the cross instead of damning every person who has ever sinned directly to Hell’s fires–if he was willing to go through such pain to be a sacrifice for us, how are you going to respond to that love.  Because a relationship only works if the love goes both ways.  If you are unwilling to obey God, it proves you don’t love him.  Jesus said “Those who love me obey my commandments.”

Here’s my answer to the first question: God forgives us so that we can love him.  He wipes our sins away to give us the opportunity to return his love.  He cleans up our lives so that we can live clean lives.  To many people think God forgives them so that they can have a free ticket to Heaven and be just as self  centered as they have always been.  So they might say they love Jesus, but their lives show otherwise, because they continue with the destructive sin that proves a lack of love for God.  But God saves people so that they can e brand new and live for him instead of themselves.  God wants the very best for us, and selfishness and sin are not the best for us.  Living in harmony with God and following his commandments is what’s best for everybody.  Salvation is not about getting into Heaven.  It’s about becoming God’s children and living as family and experiencing his love without measure and sharing that love with the world.  But it means cutting the sin out.  It means trading our old evil life for a new pure life.  And God promises to help us live right every step of the way.

So who do you love?

Here are the verses that you can’t hear in the message:

Romans 5:15-21 (somebody read) And what a difference between our sin and God’s generous gift of forgiveness. For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this other man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God’s bountiful gift.  And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but we have the free gift of being accepted by God, even though we are guilty of many sins.  The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over us, but all who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

Yes, Adam’s one sin brought condemnation upon everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness makes all people right in God’s sight and gives them life.  Because one person disobeyed God, many people became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many people will be made right in God’s sight.

God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful kindness became more abundant.  So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful kindness rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:1-11 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness?  Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?  Or have you forgotten that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him?  For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was.  Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.  For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.  And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life.  We are sure of this because Christ rose from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.  He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God.  So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.

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Sometimes people talk about God’s grace as if it’s something they can manipulate.  They think saying a prayer will force God to forgive them for whatever they do.  But no words can convince God to forgive an unrepentant person.  We don’t choose God and close a deal on a ticket to Heaven.  God also has to choose us.  If it weren’t for God’s grace we wouldn’t even be given the opportunity to seek his face.  And only those who truly repent  will be accepted by God.  It’s not about just being sorry or feeling bad or having an emotional experience.  It’s a practical change of mind that results in a practical change of behavior through the power and grace of God.  We aren’t forgiven of our past to get us a free trip to Heaven.  God grants forgiveness so that we can live new and holy lives that please God.  We are saved so that we can do good works and be righteous people.  It’s not some ethereal spiritual condition.  It’s a real way of life.

But some people think they can earn God’s grace, and that once they do they are better than everybody else.  In fact, some people think once they pray a particular prayer that they can use God’s grace like it’s a limitless get-out-of-Hell-free card and go on living a life full of sin and get away with it.  But the true Christian, who actually loves God, is not only changed by God’s grace, but in God’s grace they also choose to live a life of obedience to God.  We don’t change into different people when we die.  We simply change forms.  And if your heart is still enslaved by sin on Judgment Day you will be cast out.  But if your heart is pure, you will continue on the path you have already found in Christ.

Whadaya think of that?

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Have you ever been asked to do something crazy?  I know people who do wild fun things just for the adrenaline rush.  But have you ever been in a situation where you really had to decide to stretch beyond your comfort zone for a bigger purpose?  It can be a tough decision to make.  This talk is about just that kind of dilemma.

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