Sermon Notes & Videos
2023-01-27 | Matthew 8-9 | Let the Dead Bury the Dead
Weekly Scriptures | Sermon Notes | Sermon Video
Water finds the path of least resistance. Want proof? Just place a barrier into any stream, and the water will simply find the easy way around it. It won’t first choose to climb over the barrier. It would only do that if its path is blocked completely, otherwise it takes the way of least opposition. Pour water on any flat surface and it seeks to descend into every crack and indentation. Water would rather go lower than sit on top.
Disciples, unfortunately, cannot take the same easy way around as does water. When obstacles block their progress, disciples must choose to stay on top, to take the high ground; they must opt for the hard road. In fact, Y’shua often separated Himself and moved to higher ground, or to the other side of the sea, or He delivered an impossible message, just to separate who would follow from those who would take the path of least resistance. The journey of a disciple begins with some miraculous encounter with the Lord and then moves to this phase; “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” And then Y’shua challenges your offer with some version of this; “Okay, let’s get started! Here is what you can expect as one of My followers; it will be a life of zero possessions, zero comfort, zero security and zero certainty. Still want to follow?”
And, as soon as it does not appear to be all sunshine and rainbows, too often the would-be follower reacts with some form of excuse: I’m coming, but let me go check my work schedule first; or let me get the approval of my wife; or let me calculate the current valuation of my stock portfolio; or let me evaluate the condition of my business ventures, so I can determine if it’s a good time for me.
Note to self: it’s NEVER a good time!
Other times the disciple-to-be bypasses the “I’ll get back to you phase” altogether, and just fast-tracks his excuse, conceding quickly to his wind-blown thinking, “Thank you, but no thank you; I changed my mind.” It’s a life of excuses that fuels the easy way around, rather than a life of reasons; reasons to energize a leap over the barrier; or reasons to empower knocking it down; or reasons to simply exercise the patience necessary to wait in front of it, until it crumbles before your faith.
Then there are those who do jump right in, but when it gets challenging, that is when they change their minds; their past life starts to look so good again. As such, they return to their old ways and never look back. Others have even convinced themselves that they really did choose to follow, only to realize when pressed that they never actually joined in the first place. They are easily exposed as being completely unprepared when asked, “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?” Such a question leaves them speechless. If that is you, things will end very badly.
I guess the question remains, “Which type of ‘disciple’ are you?” When He says, “Follow Me into a life of zero possessions, zero comfort, zero security and zero certainty!” do you tell Him you will get back to Him after you check your schedule; that you might have some dead bodies to bury. Or do you say, “Lord, to whom else shall I go? You are the only One with the words of eternal life.” And for good doctrine’s sake, let’s make this clear; the only true disciple is the one who sees “zero” as a perfectly acceptable option!
2023-01-20 | Matthew 7 | Six Degrees of Separation
Weekly Scripture | Sermon Notes | Sermon Video
I don’t decide what is true; I just report it. And quite frankly, it does not matter if you like it or not. Truth does not bias itself; and it has no allegiance to anything, other than itself. And maybe the worst part about the truth is that it hurts sometimes. You’ve heard that phrase, haven’t you? Here’s why it hurts. The truth exposes pretense, everything that isn’t right, real and authentic; and unfortunately for many of us, gentle Jesus is a specialist in truth.
“Truly, truly I say to you…” Y’shua said that twenty five times in John’s Gospel. And that leading phrase with a single “truly” appears fifty additional times in the other three Gospels. “Truly” is the word translated as Amen, from both the Greek and the Hebrew, and when it inaugurates an idea, it claims something about the nature of the truth that follows. It asserts that the claimant has intimate, personal, and firsthand knowledge about, and authority over the subject matter. When repeated, as in “truly, truly,” it is an almost audacious claim from Y’shua that the truth that follows is His own original idea. Y’shua is saying that He is not merely aware of these truths, He is the originator and author of them. That itself was revolutionary! Why?
What is so rattling about Y’shua staking claim to those original ideas? Sure, claiming that an idea is original is both radical and presumptuous. But, it becomes even more tortuous when we overlay Y’shua’s assertion that He also said nothing, other than what His Father told Him to say. Think about the implications of His claim; “This truth originates from Me, and I only echo My Father’s words.” So, how could all those ideas have originated from Him, unless… unless He was also boldly proclaiming that He and His Father are ONE? This too is a radical paradigm-shifting revelation, truth worthy of, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM; and He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
It’s time to grab the shovel! Dust off the archeologist’s pick. Sharpen the scalpel; we are about to do some exploratory truth surgery! We are going to unpack the truths that literally separate God’s people from everyone else. Are you willing to square off with reality; to become completely vulnerable to truth? If you dare submit yourself to this experimental procedure, first sign off on the release of liability—because someone is going to get hurt. Yes, too often the truth hurts.
Let’s get started, but to participate you must be willing to measure your temperature by each of these six degrees of separation. Truly, truly… (1) submit yourself to an intense sober self examination; (2) expose your deepest inner desires; (3) pick the gate that leads to either the wide or narrow road; (4) let others taste the fruit that grows on your tree; (5) look into the mirror and face your real identity; (6) and choose the foundation on which to build your life. Oh, and if you think you can fake any of it, know this: “Truly, truly, no one can hide from the Originator of truth; all things are naked and exposed to Him, and you will be held accountable to everything He sees, which is, well, everything—truly, truly.
2023-01-13 | Matthew 6 | Tomorrow Never Comes
Weekly Scriptures | Sermon Notes | Sermon Video
Reckless Abandon… that’s what comes to mind. If you knew this was all you had, this one last day, twenty-four hours, how would you live? What would you do? Would you check tomorrow’s weather? Would you be obsessed with your 401K or your long-term investments? Would you be focused on the security of your retirement? “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be?” That is what Y’shua thought of such concerns.
Reckless Abandon… without care or regard for consequences, living with a rash, unrestrained impulsiveness, enthusiasm, or zeal. It combines the sense of carelessness with the idea of yielding oneself to an action or impulse without restraint. Jump in wholeheartedly, perhaps impulsively, and with no concern for consequences or danger; that’s reckless abandon.
Okay, that sounds a bit, well, reckless! So, let’s add wise biblical guide-rails before anyone listening skydives without a parachute or decides to skinny dip with piranhas. Temper the concept of living with reckless abandon by removing certain negative thoughts that display a lack of wisdom. Remove rash, impulsive, careless and without restraint from the life we ought to live. And then reframe consequences and danger as permitted only if the cause is for God. Taking unnecessary risks, those that could not possibly produce fruit for the Kingdom, is both senseless and foolish. And then reinsert restraint by qualifying every choice with first seeking God’s heart on the matter—if He approves, then go for it without restraint. What remains is a life of unrestrained enthusiasm and zeal for the things that matter most to God. It’s a life yielded wholeheartedly in service to God and others, with no concern for the consequences or danger, as long as you are advancing His Kingdom.
Now, design your life of reckless abandon for God. It would look something like this. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow can worry about itself. Sufficient for today is what today brings.” Today is all you have; you don’t need to worry about tomorrow today; tomorrow’s worries can irritate you and occupy your thoughts tomorrow. And the greatest benefit about putting off your worries until tomorrow is that… tomorrow never comes.
It’s time to face the dominant source of your preoccupation. It’s obvious if you’ll be honest with yourself, although it might be painful to admit. And if you overthink this exercise, you’re at high risk of catching what’s going around in the rationalization and self-deception pandemic, and the truth will remain elusive.
Here’s the assignment. There are only two options: things of the world and things of God. To which do you dedicate most of your efforts—your time, resources, thoughts, and energy? Is your major concern for the provisions of the world and that is what dominates your efforts? That, according to Christ, is the pagan way of life. Or, is your main focus on the priorities of God, the things of the Kingdom of Heaven? If your rationalization and self-deception immune system defense was triggered, you already know the answer. There is no treatment for this disease if you ignore the proper diagnosis.
We learn from Christ that assessing one’s accomplishments in life should never be measured by the abundance of the things he possesses. Why? Because he who accumulates earthly treasures as a measure of success and security, is not rich toward God. And in the end, concern about such worldly things should be designated to the proper time—never!
2023-01-06 | Matthew 5 | On Collision Course
Weekly Scriptures | Sermon Notes | Sermon Video
If I say “Law,” you most likely recoil. Humans don’t really like rules and regulations and laws. Let’s be honest, it’s much more instinctual to do what we want, to satisfy our own thoughts and desires, without being restricted and constricted by a set of parameters. Nobody wants to be told what to do, at least not naturally. It’s something we must grow into, before we can become good at it, if ever.
And to further complicate the matter, as Christians, we have been taught, for the better part of two thousand years, that Christ fulfilled all the requirements of the Law, thus relieving us of our obligation to be bothered with such legalism. In other words, the burden of obeying rules and regulations is covered by the blood of Jesus, and we are freed from any concern we might have about adhering to those outdated laws.
Furthermore, as a free religious people, we have engaged in every type of mental gymnastics to reconcile a few dozen verses in the Bible, to insure this “freed from the Law” theology would be propagated all throughout Christian history, and its now tens of thousands of denominations. Here is the slogan which best unites nearly all Christian brands: “Grace good; Law bad!”
And yet, if we peek just below the surface of this religion-wide theological treatise, we find it is built on very shaky ground, loose soil at best, and quicksand at worst. Disturb the ground a little and the whole house of cards crumbles, and fairly easily at that! Keep fighting and struggling to defend it, and you will be swallowed up in the soupy sand all around you. And still, Christians everywhere argue passionately to find loopholes to God’s commands, at every turn. I call it “Loophole Christianity.”
I often ask, “Why are you so intent on finding creative ways to not obey God? Why are you wrestling to figure out reasons to avoid doing what God requires? Was not Y’shua’s sacrifice enough to make you want to obey God, no matter what He asks of you? Why do you believe God’s desire was to free you from the requirement to obey a handful of Biblical laws after you were born-again, when every other law in the universe that God created still applies to you?” If you don’t think so, just toss yourself off a cliff and see what happens!
It’s really nuts; the one people group on the planet who should be racing to do whatever God asks, no matter what, is the same people group who fight and argue and search for every excuse to avoid doing so. Oh, we are very happy to comply with all sorts of other requirements, the ones our man-made denominations uploaded to the new-and-improved version of Christianity, But, obey the Laws of God, that’s legalism!
We are not going to dismantle every poorly parsed verse in the New Testament in this study, no. What we will do is recognize this. Y’shua made the standards much harder than any set of Laws written down by Moses. He has set our human nature on a collision course with the Kingdom of Heaven. Another way to look at it is this; He requires us to do every sort of thing that is the exact opposite of our human instincts. No, He did not, could not, change His Father’s commands; but He did do two things. He revealed what were the deeper and even more difficult requirements of His Father’s Laws, and then He empowered us to obey them! In other words, the cliff is much higher than you ever imagined, and when you fall off, He provides wings, and if your wings fail, a parachute. Oh, and it does not end there. After you hit bottom, you get free transport back to the top of the cliff, so you can try, try again.
2022-12-30 | Matthew 3-4 | Time Never Fails
Weekly Scriptures | Sermon Notes | Sermon Video
“Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” There are so many critical prophetic ideas stirring, as we are introduced to the essential ministry of John the Baptist, and as we witness him baptize the Son of God. It’s a moment in time that will change everything. We simply must take pause to appreciate how this event amalgamates so many prophetic concepts. If you try to integrate them all at once in your brain, it will likely make your head spin. But let’s try it anyway.
It’s an inflection point in history, let’s call it a prophetic moment, when time folds in on itself and we are permitted to see the past, present and future together in an instant. John doesn’t have a clue, although you would think he would; he’s well-aware of the prophecies about his life. He came in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way, and to turn hearts. But, he doesn’t really grasp it. He takes one look at the Christ, the lamb of God, the savior of the world, and immediately he feels to shrink away. “I can’t baptize You; I’m not even worthy to touch Your sweaty feet and Your filthy sandals.”
Time stands still in that moment; Y’shua pauses to correct John, and you. You? Yes, because you would have made the same error. He must reset the prophetic clock, because time never fails, like love never fails. To John, and to all who will ever read these words: “Permit it to be so NOW, for thus IT is fitting for US to fulfill all righteousness.” Permit “it,” permit it “now,” and permit it for “us,” because time never fails and because if you don’t, all the prophecies, past, present, and future crumble into dust. What is “it”? It is time to baptize the Christ, so the Father might affirm from heaven, “This is My Son…He is the One.” And why “now”?
Because it is time to punctuate Y’shua’s ministry. It’s time to congeal all the prophecies concerning the coming kingdom into one concise moment. And why “us”? Because John is not the only one who comes in the spirit and power of Elijah.
Y’shua opens John’s eyes, and ours; John, you are here to prepare the way in the wilderness, and I am about to go there for My preparation test. You started it when you said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” And I am going to finish it the same way. But, this time the whole world will know what that Kingdom is, because I will be staring at them right in the face! To John, and to everyone in the future who reads these words: “It is time, and time never fails.”
2022-12-23 | Matthew 1-2 | Best Supporting Actor
Weekly Scriptures | Sermon Notes | Sermon Video
They had reached the edge of the river. On the other side lived all the promises of the Father. All they had to do is step in and cross over. In your mind, no doubt, this imagery paints the Israelites at the bank of the Jordan looking over at the promised land. Yet, for Christians there’s more, so much more. Crossing over means finding rest, and rest means you have come to live in such a place that faith, and I mean complete faith, has become the blood that flows in your arteries and veins. Your faith is the lifeblood that is pushed around by your every heartbeat.
In Christian vernacular rest means Christlike perfection, and perfection means that the kingdom of heaven has become the pulse bounding from your beating heart. In other words, God’s heartbeat has become your heartbeat. And nowhere is the heartbeat of God better felt than in the Gospel narrative of Matthew—reading it is as if you are pressed against God’s bosom. I “fear” the Gospels! They are His Holy Ground! Dare we step on that soil with dirty feet. Dare we echo His words with unclean lips. Cross over, yes, take a strong stand on the land He has promised, but do so with reverence, awe and extreme gratitude, for such privilege would be unimaginable, had He not synchronized our hearts with His. Dare you step over? The best way to keep your heartbeat synchronized with God’s is to listen and obey, regardless of what you hear. Dare you go to that place? It’s scary, but maybe it’s okay, for a while, to feel like a wounded bird, flying in circles, searching for a perch on which to land, knowing you won’t find one just yet, at least not now.
This comes to mind if we stay with the imagery of our wounded bird—imagine a homing pigeon. They are locked onto from where they came and they are trained to return, to end up at their origin, no matter how far the journey—no matter how long it takes. You were crafted in God’s image and you are being trained to return to that image, no matter how far the journey—no matter how long it takes. What does that training look like? Listen for His voice; it’s calling you home! And, obey immediately, or your journey will take so much longer than necessary, and might even end in tragedy. The early chapters of Matthew demonstrate this perfectly.
Joseph was pressed into God’s bosom, locked onto His voice; and had he not been or had he not obeyed immediately, history altering tragedies would have ensued at each stage of his instruction. Everything, and I mean everything hinges on your ears to hear God’s heart and your willingness to obey—and I mean everything! So, home in, even if you have to fly in circles for a while!