Sermon Notes & Videos
2023-01-06 | Matthew 5 | On Collision Course
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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regulations is covered by the blood of Jesus, and we are freed from any concern we might have about adhering to those outdated laws.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
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“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
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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!
2022-12-16 | Joshua 23-24 | Interspecies Marriage
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You feel like you’re all in. You use all the words and you sport the tidy little package called modern Christianity. You live in the world but are no longer part of the world, at least that’s the party line. Yet, you cannot overlook the obvious, you are here… “in the world.” It’s all around you; they are all around you. They live among you; that is an unavoidable fact. Among you, yes, but in you? That is the part that is completely optional.
There’s the rub; that is the choice. You are in the world, but is the world in you? The scriptures teach, nay they warn, do not intermarry—do not consummate with those who live among you who are not of you. If you do, they will get in you and you will get in them. It will be as if your thin fragile parchment became bonded with theirs, glued over every square inch to one another. Just try to separate them, to tear them one from the other, and all you will produce is fragments of both, still laminated together.
It only gets worse when one tampers with their witness. What might that look like? Oh, it’s likely much more common than you notice on any regular basis. Included in this species are all those who would swear that they are following the Lord. But, they’re not. And, you might not easily notice them because they work tirelessly to look good on the outside. Survival instincts prevail when animals are desperate to stay alive. This species will do anything necessary to appear like they are committed to the Lord, even though they happily consummate their relationship with the world daily.
Are you using your animal survival instincts to substitute a sin that is harder to recognize, for one that is obvious, just so you can remain undetected among those who care about sin? It’s just like sowing tares among the wheat. It’s all kosher on the packaging; it’s facon bacon. If you are hiding, only one question remains—are you simply struggling with sin, or do you not care? God has no problem dealing with your sin, as long as you do! It’s when you don’t struggle with your sin, when your sin does not bother you, that God’s anger burns. If you are wrestling against entanglements with the affairs of the world, tempted to carry a label that makes you appear right with God, like imitation crab, then there’s good news—when you are weak, He is strong. But, if you feel no regret or guilt about your sins and addictions, you may sadly discover that both pieces of parchment were cut from the same animal all along.
2022-12-09 | Joshua 20-22 | Pick a Vowel
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It’s encouraging when God’s people get it right. It doesn’t happen very often—unfortunately. In fact, it’s more common in biblical narratives to witness God’s people make foolish choices, rather than wise decisions. And sometimes it is the smallest nuance that separates the will of God from the will of man.
We might even say that the biblical narrative continues today. Really, other than that the reports are not being written in a book, THE BOOK, can’t we say that there has been one continuous story since creation—our story? It’s easy to overlook, but the Bible does seem to support this idea; “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ.” And might we even agree that we still get it wrong more times than not? Look around at how common it is for God’s people to ruin their testimonies. It’s so predictable that worldly onlookers have come to expect it from Christians—many using the apparent hypocrisy as fuel to stay far away from the Church.
What separates a good witness from the bad is often just one small thing: a jot, a tittle, a yod, an iota, a small stroke of the pen — one letter. It’s easy to alter things, to change them in subtle ways that make them sound the same, but they’re not. One small letter transforms the Altar into an alter. And for Christians there’s only One Altar. “We have an Altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.” Are you eating from that Altar or another? It’s not always easy to tell, but I can tell you it’s easy. It’s as easy as reading a letter and recognizing letters. “You are an epistle of Christ known and read by all men.” And all it takes to alter your Altar is to exchange one small vowel in one small word with one small stroke of a pen—a jot, a tittle, a yod, an iota. Ask the right questions and it will be easy to tell if someone is worshipping the alter or at the Altar.
There was a song popularized in 1969 about worshipping the “alter of self.” It’s title—My Way. It’s most famous letters screamed of self; “I did it my way!” It’s what happens when you alter letters. Apparently, those who worship at the true Altar sing a different song —His Way. It’s letters sing… “What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if you know? Every word of God is pure; do not change one letter, lest you be found worshiping at the wrong alter.”
2022-12-02 | Joshua 16-19 | Apostolic Footprints
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He has done so much for you already. Are you permitted to feel dissatisfied? I guess it depends on why? There is a very fine line between ungrateful discontentment with what the Lord has already provided and knowing that He has more for you. I am 100% convinced that the Bible teaches this, so you must be able to determine when you ought to feel satisfied—completely fulfilled, and when you ought to press into Yahweh for something more.
Distinguishing which attitude is appropriate at any moment has everything to do with God’s plan for mankind, and for you personally—your specific purpose and dreams. To abide in the Lord, to immerse yourself completely in His will, means you must expand your imagination beyond human limitations. I like to think of it like this; if you can imagine it, then Yahweh has even more for you. Paul says, “Be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, and glorify Him who is, with His power working in us, able to do immeasurably more than all we ask, think or imagine.” I like that! But, what does “immeasurably more” even mean?
Are you supposed to let your imagination run wild—demand satisfaction for every desire? No, it always hinges on knowing God’s will and His promises. It’s worth repeating a thousand times! To your faith, first add virtue! If your first step forward in any decision or desire is not virtuous, seeking the Lord’s heart, will, direction and approval, then your next step will always be into the abyss.
However, when you seek God’s heart and hear His voice, and you willingly submit to His direction and approval, you are then free to be as bold as imaginable. Take down a giant, lay down with lions, strangle a bear, open an ocean, hold back a raging river, and occupy a mountain. Sometimes God wants you to take more land, occupy higher ground, maybe even seize more authority.
However, once you are certain God is waiting on you, before He releases more, it’s time to go boldly before His throne to ask for it, even at the risk of seeming dissatisfied. “Thank you Yahweh, what You’ve provided is amazing, but it’s not complete; I’m certain there is more.” Trust me, at times that is exactly what you ought to pray.
However, following your bold request, it is critical you apply two safeguards. First, when Yahweh grants more, “Take it!” Even if you have to work for it, or it looks scary, or it looks impossible; take it because it’s a guarantee. And secondly, when Yahweh grants more, take “It!” Stop asking; don’t you dare request something different!