Sermon Notes & Videos
2023-01-13 | Matthew 6 | Tomorrow Never Comes
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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
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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.”