What is so special about Christmas?

It is 6:34 and I lay in bed thinking about all that is wrong in this world. We turn on the news and are bombarded with things that should not be so. I think of friends and families who have lost loved ones this year some just a few days ago. I think of my own personal struggles and how I fail in so many ways and wonder if I can ever really be the man I want to be?

The despair of this world the hardships of life can be overwhelming. Here we are at Christmas. This is supposed to be the happiest time of the year. But if that is so why is their so much struggle and pain and trouble?

How can we have hope? How can all things be set right? What does the world have to offer me? How are all these things going to be set right?

Unfortunately the world has no answers for me? Buy and receive more gifts? Go look at beautiful Christmas lights? Have a big family dinner? Watch the excitement of my kids opening their gifts? All those things are good and fun and bring joy for a moment, but it is fleeting. These are happy moments in time but bring only temporary joy. I know I am going to have to face trouble again. Trouble is coming just the way it is. Friends are going to die, there will be another 4000 babies killed tomorrow, there will be more wars, more death, more lies, more things stolen, more of every sin committed that we can think.

What hope do we have?

There is only one answer to this question. There is only one thing that will bring ultimate joy, peace and love. There is only one solution to every problem in this world. There is only one person who can set all things right. There is only one person who conquered death to demonstrate who He is what He is and today we celebrate His incarnation. The birth of the God Man, Jesus Christ.

This world can offer me bits and pieces of joy. But my true hope, joy and fulfillment are only found in Jesus. The thought that the God of this incredible universe was willing to humble Himself and enter our world and deal with all of our struggles is staggering in itself. He lived the perfect life I cannot and today I celebrate with my family and friends that there is hope. That there is ultimate purpose, that Christ has given us hope.

Today a King of kings and Lord of lords is born. He has come and lived the perfect life and paid for every single sin of those who put their faith and trust in Him. It is only by Him and through Him that the mess of this world will be fixed. We have an awesome Savior.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”(Luke 1:31-33 ESV)

I rejoice in my Savior! Have a very MERRY Christmas today!

John 2:13-22 - Why Do You Believe?

As we open God's word tonight I want us to remember why John has written this gospel to us. We want to keep this theme as our overall back drop of what John is communicating to us. As we progress through this Gospel we are going to see this theme occur over and over again and tonight will be no different. Let us turn in our Bibles to remember what this central theme is:

Please open your Bibles to John 20:30-31. 

30  Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 

31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. 

So that we may believe that Jesus Christ is God and we may have life only through Him because there is no other way then through Him.

But why do we believe in Jesus Christ? Have you ever really thought about it, what is it about Jesus that made us believe in Him? Is there good evidence in what He says and what He has done? Do I believe because my parents made me go to church, do I believe because I think it is better than other religions? Why do we believe in Jesus, instead of Muhammad, Buda, Joseph Smith or any other religious leader? Are they all valid choices, just different ways to get to God? 

What authority does Jesus have that I should believe anything He says? Why should I put my faith and trust in Him alone over any of those other religious leaders?

The last few weeks we have seen men who dropped everything in their lives to follow after Him. We saw Jesus calling each of His disciples and each of them responding in different ways. Some of them needed a little more convincing than others but Christ sought after each of them and they believed. 

And last week we saw Jesus giving His very first sign that He is who He says He is, and that was at the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine. He demonstrated to His disciples that He is God and He has super natural power. John 2:11 tells us why He turned water into wine, it was to demonstrate His glory, that He is the true Messiah and the result was this, His disciples would believe in Him. This is it God demonstrates His glory and our faith is confirmed by what He has done. If Jesus only said He was the Messiah but His life didn't demonstrate it His followers probably would have fallen away. But as we see through His miracles His disciples are convinced and they believe. 

We don't get to see these exact same miracles that Jesus performed but we get to read about them and we get to see other miracles that are just as amazing. All we have to do is look at our own lives and see the miracle that Jesus has done in our hearts. [Sarah Ortel, witness on Facebook]

Lets open our Bibles and turn to John 2:13 and read to verse 2:22.

John 2:13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 

John 2:14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.

John 2:15 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; 

John 2:16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business."

John 2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, "ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME." 

John 2:18 The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" 

John 2:19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

John 2:20 The Jews then said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" 

John 2:21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 

John 2:22 So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. 

In Verse 2:13 we see Jesus heading up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The Passover was celebration in remembrance of the Jews being freed by their bondage of slavery to the Egyptians. When the Jews were in bondage to Egypt God told them to sacrifice a lamb and place the blood on the door frame of their homes and when the Lord came to strike down the first born of every house it would pass by those who had the lambs blood on their door frames. This was the final plague/judgement on the Egyptians. After Pharaoh's son died he released the Jews from their bondage. Every year the Jews would celebrate their freedom by making a sacrifice at the temple and have a great feast to acknowledge how God had freed them from the slavery of the Egyptians by the blood of lambs.

Here is the irony of this situation. 

And who is going up to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast, as we have learned Jesus is THE Lamb of God who is going to take away the sins of the world. Here we have the final sacrifice, Jesus Christ Himself going to the city to celebrate the Passover. The Passover is just a mere shadow of the things to come. We have Jesus who is going to free people from the bondage of their sins. Just like the Jews in Egypt were in bondage. We have the advantage of looking back through corridor of time and know that Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. He is the Lamb who is going to shed His blood for all those who believe. 

As Jesus makes His way to the temple what does He find? Does he find people preparing for this feast? Are they giving worship and reverence to God for what He did for them in the past? Unfortunately not, what did he find but them doing big business. He found a place of business not a place of worship and giving God glory. The house of the Lord was being abused by its leaders and Jesus is going to address this issue. There were no God honoring acts of worship going on but  what is happening...?

Verse 2:14 tells us

John 2:14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.

Well why would this anger Jesus? Jews had to travel great distances to get to the temple and it was impractical for most to travel with their animal sacrifices or maybe they were people who dwelt in the city who didn't raise animals. They needed to buy their sacrifices which would be fine but we get to the root of the problem. People were selling animals at exuberant prices. Have you ever been anywhere when you have no choice but if you want a bottle of water that should cost a buck and they are charging five for it. You know you are being ripped off you just have no choice in the matter. 

Then there were the money changers, every Jewish male over the age of 20 had to pay their annual temple tax. The temple would only take Jewish or Tyrian coins. So foreigners would bring their currency and the money changers would charge them as much as a 12.5 % fee so people could make their annual temple tax payment. 

Those in charge of the temple where ripping the people off. These are the men who are holly above reproach, who are to be representatives of God and they were taking advantage of the people. Jesus was angered and it a was righteous anger. 

How does Jesus respond? It is so different than how we perceive Jesus in the New Testament. Isn't Jesus full of love and forgiveness? I say yes of course. But isn't He the just Judge as well. Yes of course and we see this righteous Judge bring judgement to the people of the temple. I think of all the images that have been painted of Jesus and it seems most the time they show Him as this frail kind of wimpy guy. But I don't think Jesus looked that way at all. I mean He was a carpenter by trade, I think that He was strong and probably had calluses on His hands and He was not meek or wimpy but strong and bold. So what did He do? Look at verse 2:15

John 2:15 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; 

John 2:16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business."

He clears the temple of unrighteousness and we have two groups of people who are watching all this go on. Let's talk about the first groups response. Watching in amazement are the new followers of Christ, His disciples. They saw His passion and his righteous indignation of God's Holy Temple being used as a market instead of place of worship. Here in verse 2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, "ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME." 

This is a direct quote from Psalms 69 which is full of messianic prophecy about Jesus. Jesus was concerned for God's house and wanted no unholy activities to be taking place in it. He wanted it cleansed of all unrighteousness. The disciples were able to connect with what they saw with what was written about the coming Messiah. They see the connection they are being further convinced this is the Messiah, we believe!

The second group responds with a challenge. I can just hear the contempt in their voices for Him. The second group are the religious leaders, those who were overseeing the temple activities. Verse 2:18 tells how they respond. "who do you think you are?" John 2:18 The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" 

What is interesting to note here is that the Jews didn't have Him arrested immediately but they are looking for a sign from Him, maybe they saw the authority of what He was doing and they were wondering who on earth this guy is. 

Jesus responds with what must have seemed like a crazy response. NO one in that temple either the Jewish leaders or His disciples understood his enigmatic response. 

He declares destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it up!

What a response. It confounded the Jews it. It was a response to veil His statement of truth to unbelievers. It is the same way Jesus communicated truth in the parables He taught. The statement wasn't for the Jewish unbelievers but it was for His disciples and us as well. How glorious we get to understand this truth that they never understood. How did they respond?

John 2:20 The Jews then said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" 

Woosh that went right over their heads. They have absolutely no idea what He was saying nor why. Even years later after Jesus was crucified and raised 3 days later they completely missed the point of Jesus' statement. It went right over their heads. 

John 2:21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 

No longer was anyone going to need this physical temple to perform animal sacrifices. Among them was the one who was the perfect sacrifice who would take away the sins of the world, Jesus Christ. This was a prophetic message that Jesus proclaimed His death and sacrifice were going to take place and in 3 days of His death He would be raised again. He promised and He fulfilled. 

This was the sign that He promised.

John 2:22 So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. 

Two groups were given a sign. One group never even saw it. The other group recognized the sign. 

They believed and in Him they found eternal life. 

John 1:1-5 Unveiling Jesus Christ

Well this morning I want to start things off a little different then we normally do. I want us to take some time right now and brainstorm and write down a list of items that we cannot control. What are the things in this world or things in our life that we cannot control?

Diseases
Natural Disasters
Death
Life
Results of my witness encounters
Health
My Genes
War
Famine
Weather
Evil People
Persecution
If my boss likes me
Plane Crashes
Nuclear Disasters
Terrorist
False Accusations
Racism
Hatred
People making fun of another person


Here we have this huge list of things we say we don’t have control over, things that are out of our hand, and things that we cannot change. But there is one who is able to control these things. There is one who has such amazing power that he can even use these things for good. There is One who never changes and we can always trust. The Gospel of John presents us with Jesus, the Man, who is God. This is the God who was and is and is to come. He is living today, and able to bring us new life as well as to exercise His own control over those things that are beyond us. There is nothing that surprises Him there is nothing that He cannot overcome. He is God. Jesus Christ is the God of all. This is who John is introducing us too, the God who is in control, the God who is Light, the God who gives Life. Do you believe this is true?

Many years ago the Apostle John took up his pen to write to us about Jesus Christ and he wrote the things he saw, the things he witnessed and the things he knew as truth. And when the Apostle John was coming to a close in his letter he wrote the following to us:

John 20:30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
John 20:31 but these have been written (Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit I write these things to you) (For what purpose?) so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. John wrote this Gospel so we may have life in Jesus Christ.

John’s written Gospel is unique from the other 3 synoptic Gospels that were written to specific audiences in Jesus’ time. Matthew was written to the Jews and he wanted them to see Jesus as the King, behold our King. Mark was written to the Romans and he wanted them to see Jesus as the willing Servant, behold the suffering Servant. This is why Mark’s Gospel contains no genealogy because no servant had a genealogy that mattered. Luke was written to the Greeks and he wanted them to see the humanity of Christ, behold the man. Finally, John’s Gospel was written as a universal Gospel to present the deity of Christ, behold your God. John’s purpose is to unveil the Man, Jesus Christ, and to reveal Him as God! He is not half man and half God but He is fully man and fully God. He is the light unto this world and He is the author of life, not just physical life, as we will learn but that of spiritual life as well.

John unveils that Jesus Christ is God.

Like any great author, John is going to introduce us to the main protagonist of his book. However, this is not a book of fiction this is not some make believe story but this is the account of the God Man, Jesus Christ!

John is going to unveil one incredible fact about Jesus Christ. It is a simple truth that all of us have heard, Jesus Christ is God, all of us know this fact but the real question is do all of us believe? Does my life really demonstrate that I believe Jesus Christ is God? (Go BACK to the Whiteboard Do I believe God is in control of) Have I put my faith in trust into this God Man? Or are you like me and you question whether you believe, am I really sold out for Jesus Christ?

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
John 1:5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John begins his Gospel so different than Matthew or Luke who introduce us to the genealogy of Jesus. But John begins his Gospel unveiling Jesus Christ as God, the everlasting eternal God and He explains that he has always existed. In verse 1 we see Jesus called the Word and have you ever thought to yourself why does John call Jesus the Word. He is the only author who uses this term for Jesus.

Well there is a good reason and it has a two-fold meaning. First to the Greeks the term “Word” referred to the rational principle that supervised or governed the universe. The idea to them that there was some sort super power that controlled all things and they would philosophize that this being had a mind, had reason and had power.

To the Jew the term “Word” was a reference to God. We see this in the very beginning of Genesis that God created the universe by His Word, He spoke everything we see into existence by His Word. We see His power, His will, His mind directed towards men through His Word. John was communicating to his contemporaries that Jesus Christ is in control of everything and He is God. It is brilliant!

In the beginning was the Word and John is telling the Greeks you know that power you talk about, that thing that controls the universe, it is Jesus Christ and He is God. And to the Jews John is telling them you have been looking for this Word, the Messiah, and here He is Jesus Christ, He is God.

John continues in verse 1… that Jesus was with God in the beginning. They have eternally coexisted with one another for all of eternity. There was never a time when Jesus Christ did not exist. The Father, the Son and the Spirit have always existed together for all of eternity. There was no beginning for them but there was a beginning for us and they existed before that beginning.

We call this the doctrine of the Trinity, 3 distinct persons who make up the Godhead. I know trying to wrap our head around that fact can be really difficult and we are not going to dive into this doctrine but here is a perfect place were we see the distinct personhood of the Father and the Son.

John has told us that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and he concludes in verse 1 that the Word was God. They are one in the same. They are different persons but they makeup the One True and eternal God. The Word is literally God; Jesus Christ is God in body form. He is the perfect revelation of God. Jesus tells us Himself; if you have seen Me you have seen the Father, I and the Father are one.

Then in the 2nd verse, John reiterates so simply what he has already told us. He wants to make sure we understand this really incredible fact in such simplistic terms. Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God.

John unveils Jesus Christ is God. Do you believe?

He continues in Verse 3
John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

John tells us all things came into existence through Jesus and nothing apart from Him came into being. Everything we see the entire creation around us, even the things we don’t see like, love, gravity, thoughts, and feelings were all created by Jesus Christ, apart from Him nothing came into being.

Jesus Christ is the uncreated, who created all things. We know there is a God because all I have to do is walk outside and see creation around me. There is no denying this simple fact because God says His creative power demonstrates His existence. However, many people have denied God’s existence.

Listen to what Paul writes in Romans 1 about the creation and no man has excuse to deny John1:3.

Rom. 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Rom. 1:21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Rom. 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,

I was listening to a Podcast the other day by Greg Koukle, a Christian apologist, and he was having a discussion with a Biochemist Dr. Fuz Rana who has written a new book Creating Life in the Lab. And essentially Fuz Rana said that within a few years man would create life in a test tube. When you hear man has created a brand new life form does that create a problem for us? Is that going to shake the core of your faith? When you read in the newspaper one day and across the headline it says man creates life, there is NO God. Does everything we believe in crumble? Has man created something from nothing? We tell our kids God has made everything and my son looks over at a car and says He didn’t create that did He? And I tell him He did, not directly but He created our minds and provided the raw materials for it so in essence He did. But what about man creating a new species of bacteria, does that disprove a creator?

Absolutely not all it does is confirm what John is telling us in this gospel.

John unveils Jesus Christ is God. He is creator of all! Do you believe?

How does man creating a living organism demonstrate there is a creator? Because these men who have been working on this project for 12 years plus PROVE that you can only create life with intelligence. Life did not happen randomly like an evolutionists claim but to create life it takes a DESIGNER! These men have spent hundreds of thousands of hours to create the basic cell structure it takes very specific ways of aligning the DNA, proteins and molecules to create the basic structure. Its like the fictional challenge the Scientist make to God. We can make life just like you. They take a bucket of dirt and gather their materials to make life and God says what a second you don’t get to start with dirt you need to start like I did with nothing!

John unveils Jesus Christ is God! Do you believe?

And we come to verses 4 and 5 let me read them again to you, because it is so rich.

John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

John 1:5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

These two verses really articulate John’s entire message in his Gospel. Jesus Christ is life, and if we were to look up the Greek word here we would see that John is talking about spiritual life, He is telling us God is self-existing He is the Life, there is no life without Him neither physical nor spiritual. It is through His life that we may obtain spiritual life, that we can spend an eternity giving glory to our God.

The life was the Light of Men, here we see that Jesus Christ and His Gospel message is the truth and knowledge for all mankind. It is a common metaphor that John uses to demonstrate the truth and knowledge of God. This is why God came down to earth to give us the knowledge and truth of who He is.

This Light, Jesus, shines in the darkness. The God of everything was willing to enter His creation and continues to be actively involved in demonstrating His truth and His Holiness to this dark world, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Or a better translation would be and the darkness did not overcome it. Jesus Christ has conquered this dark world He has shed Light for all men to see, for all men to comprehend it, for all men to believe in Him.

Jesus brings light into this dark world; He brings His Truth and His Life. We go back to our whiteboard and we see these things that we have no control over. We see tragedy, we see despair, we see evil people; we see the darkness of this world. But there is a light, there is truth, there is someone who is Holy, and He has come to give you life, what an amazing God we have who was willing to give us His Light and His Life and darkness can never overcome it.

John unveils Jesus Christ is God! Do you believe?

John knew He was God, John walked with Him, John saw His miracles, John saw Him crucified and John saw Him resurrected. John unveils Christ is God.

There is only one question left for you today. Do YOU believe this fact? Not in some theoretical knowledge but do you believe with everything you are, that Jesus Christ is God? How does this work out in your life? Are you willing to give up everything for Him? Are you willing to do anything and everything He asks of you? If He is God and we believe this fact and we place our trust in Christ then we will answer with a resounding YES! We are on a mission to discover this Truth through the book of John in the coming months!

See, we live in a world full of darkness, full of things we have no control over, but there is One who has come to show you the light, the truth, and to give you life, do you believe?

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
John 3:20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
John 3:21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John unveils Jesus Christ is God! Do you believe?

If you say yes does your life demonstrate that fact?

Are You Rooted? - Part 3

Part 1 and Part 2

Welcome to Rooted! We have a special night planned and I am really excited to see God working in this room. He is changing hearts, He is changing lives, and He is changing you and me. Tonight we are going to glorify God and I hope to edify the body Christ. We are going to have communion tonight in remembrance of what Jesus did upon that cross. We are also going to give an opportunity for you to share with this body of believers your thankfulness for what Christ is doing in your lives. We have also a short video clip from Saving Private Ryan, all kinds of fun stuff to talk about and see tonight. I am overflowing with gratitude tonight and you will see why!

We have been learning what it means to walk in Jesus Christ the Lord. We have answered two questions in the last couple of weeks, the first is why, why do I want to walk in Him? I know you have this answer in your head, because He is Lord. He has given us life and has transferred us to His Son’s Kingdom. He died upon that cross to give us life. That is why we want to walk in Him.

And last week we talked about how. How do I walk in Him? First, at a given point in time I must become rooted in Him. It is when He becomes the Lord of our lives. We put our faith and trust in Him it is when we believe in His death and resurrection upon the cross. It is when we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that He is Lord.

Then we are built up in Him. This is a continuous process not a one-time event. We have our foundation established by being rooted in Jesus and then we are ready to be built up. We get built up in a two-fold process; first we need to understand what God wants from us. We go to scripture for all spiritual matters to know what He wants from us, then the second half of the process is that we must apply it to our lives. A head full of knowledge about God is useless unless we apply it.

We get rooted then built up in Him we then become established in our faith. It is the promise of God that He establishes us for all of eternity.

Do you know why we are here tonight? For one reason to give Him glory. He deserves all glory. I hope tonight we get to glorify Him and praise His name in all we do.

Please open your Bibles to Colossians 2:6-7 and lets take one last look out our passage. Tonight we are going to be focusing on the last 3 words of this passage. It is a result of everything that we have learned in the last two weeks. Let’s read.

Col. 2:6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 
Col. 2:7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Overflowing with thankfulness. That is the outcome of all that we have learned. It is our hearts filled with love for our Lord, our hearts are full appreciation for what He has done for each one of us. We should be walking in Him, overflowing with gratitude.  If you are walking in him this is the attitude you will have. If you are not excited and overflowing with gratitude then you might want to check if you are really walking with Him. Now of course its not that we are bouncing off the walls every moment but when we think about Christ and what He has done I hope that overflowing thankfulness wells up in your heart.  If it does not then you better check whether you are truly rooted in Him.

Tonight you are going to be given the opportunity to share what you are grateful for, what is overflowing in your heart? How has Christ changed your life and what are you thankful for? But before we get to that I want us to see a human example of what God has done for us.

I want to take a look at this video clip from Saving Private Ryan. And see what it looks like when man lays his life down for another man. In the movie Private Ryan was one of 4 brothers who went off to fight in WWII. His other 3 brothers ended up dying and the US government sent men out to look for him to bring him home back to his mother so the entire family was not lost. The ultimate cost was paid to save him. Please watch.

John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you.
John 15:15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
John 15:17 “This I command you, that you love one another.

There is no greater love than someone who lays his life down for a friend.

The video clip we just watched showed us the ultimate human sacrifice or as the bible says the ultimate picture of love, one man giving his life for another.

Can you believe the creator of all things has come down to this dark earth and laid down His life for you and me? He is the one person who lived a perfect life, He is the one person who was completely sinless, and He is the one person who did not deserve to die but He did. He was willing to die in our place. He was willing to pay our debt.

Are you walking in Him overflowing with gratitude?

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. When Jesus imputed His righteousness into us it is the day that we were rooted in Him. It was the day we were saved.

The Creator of the universe, Jesus Christ the Lord, who we have become rooted in, and now being built up in Him and established us in our faith, as we have been instructed should cause an out bursting of overflowing gratitude and thankfulness. This is what God has taught us through Paul’s teaching.

Are you overflowing with gratitude in your soul? Should we Walk in HIM or what? I kick myself and think about all the times I walk away from Him and instead of walking in Him I ignore Him or worse yet I turn my back on Him. Oh wretched man that I am who can save me from myself! Thank heavens Jesus can and does and will.

I think about that video clip and really how insufficient it really is, our God is a million times greater than what those men did for Private Ryan. Our God gave us life and He has saved us from an eternity of suffering. If you noticed in the video the Captain told him to earn it. Earn this gift of life we have given you. Our God tells us you can’t earn but I am going to give the gift of salvation to you anyways. I am going to take all the punishment you deserve, I am going to take your place on that cross and die for your debt. Is it not amazing?!!!

Walk in Him overflowing with gratitude. I pray that each one of you have done this:

Confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, that you will be saved;
Rom. 10:10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

If you say you have then….walk in Him, be rooted in Him, be built up in Him, be established in your faith in Him.

Are You Rooted? - Part 2

Part 1 and Part 3

This ministry is for one person and one person alone. It is for Jesus Christ. We are here so we can glorify Him. We are going to glorify Him through our lives and that can look so different for each one of us. Some of us have the gift of playing an instrument or singing with your voices. As much as I want to have that gift God did not give it to me. Others have the ability to preach and teach, or you may have the gift of servitude, or maybe your gift is compassion for the elderly. I don’t know what your gift is but what I do know is all of you have a gift. We want to help you with your gift and encourage you to use.  See we want to build up a body of believers who make an impact in this world. Everything we do inside these four walls is to equip you when you leave to be the church to the world. To be a light unto the world, to reflect Jesus to everyone who comes in contact with you to love those people who are lost. We want to be a community of believers who change this world so those who are not giving glory to God turn their lives over to Him and give Him glory. We want to build up His Church. We want to walk in Him.

Tonight we are going to look at how we walk in Him. Last week we answered the question why we should walk in Him. Do you remember why? Because He is Lord!!

He is the God of the universe, He is Creator God of all things and all things were created by Him and for Him.

We also know as believers in Christ he has transferred us from the domain of darkness to His Son’s kingdom. At one moment in time we were perishing forever and the very next moment we are transferred by God into His Sons kingdom.

How were we transferred? How does this happen do you remember Romans 10:9-10

Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Romans 10:10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

It is by making Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives. When we confess Jesus as Lord and believe that He died for your sins and was raised from the dead you will be saved. He has conquered death. God has given us the greatest gift. He has laid down His life to save our lives. He has paid our debt upon that cross.

This is the ultimate reason why we want to walk in Him as we learned.

So our question we want to answer tonight is how do I walk in Him. What does it mean when Paul tells the Colossian people to walk in Christ Jesus the Lord.

How do I walk in Christ and what does that look like?

Well to answer that question we better take a look into our bibles for that answer. This is where we find all answers to any spiritual questions you may have.

Please open your Bibles to Colossians 2:6-7

Col. 2:6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
Col. 2:7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

This is such a fantastic passage to study. We are answering the question how should I walk in Him and Paul gives us 4 ways how and tonight we are going to cover the first three and the 4th is really a result of what He has done for us.

Here we see Paul writes having been firmly rooted, now being built up and established in your faith. What is really interesting is that each of these things we are to do has a perfect tense of the participle. The verb of each of these things goes from past, to present to future.

Having been Rooted this means at some point in time the eternal planting of salvation has taken place and we are to grow deep roots into Christ. Christ has become the source of our spiritual nourishment; we grow because our roots are planted deeply in Christ.
Now being built up in Christ, is the process of being more and more like Jesus Christ by continuous action in our present lives. We will keep growing and be built up in Christ. It is the things that we are doing now to build our lives upon Him.
Lastly, the results of being rooted and built up in Him cause believers to be established in their faith. It is an act of God working in our lives that establishes us in our faith for all of eternity. Once we have this faith God continues to establish it for us for all eternity. We have past, present and future events as we walk in Him.

Like a tree with deep roots in a rich soil believers have been firmly rooted in Christ. That eternal planting took place on the day of salvation. It is when Christ became the source of our spiritual nourishment and growth. It is the day we say Jesus Christ is Lord. It is the day we received Him and we bow our knees to His Lordship. It is the day we confessed with our mouth and believed in our hearts that He is who He says He is. It really is the day we were planted as believers and we grow deep in Him. For us to walk in Him we have to be saved. It all starts when we plant our roots in Christ. This is a one-time event in our lives. We get rooted once and we grow in Him. Once you are rooted in Him you can never be uprooted. Once we are saved we are always saved. You cannot lose your salvation you cannot be uprooted.

It reminds me of John Chapter 10
John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
John 10:28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
John 10:29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.


But what happens if our roots are not deep in Christ but are really rooted in this world?

Let’s use the illustration of a tree. A big tree with lots of foliage and lets say this tree represents our life. And this tree has tons of branches representing all the good things in it. I have a great job, I have an awesome wife and kids, I just got a raise at work, we just got back from a Tahiti vacation, we just got a new 4000 square foot house over looking the ocean, you get the idea life seems swell. Yeah I go to church on Christmas and Easter. Yeah I walked down at a Harvest Crusade and said the sinner’s prayer but honestly everything else besides God is important in my life. The tree looks really good on the outside but it has no roots in Christ. Then one physical at the DR office and the next thing you know you are diagnosed with a brain tumor and it is all going to end very soon for you. All that has been important to you are the things of this world and the pleasures of the here and now.  Want to know what your life is going to look like? [Slide 1] It has been uprooted. Not being rooted in Christ is going to leave you in a disastrous situation. Everything looks really good on the outside but you have no roots in what is important, Jesus Christ. The results have eternal consequences if you are not rooted in Christ.

What is the results if your roots are deep in Christ and you are walking with Christ as your Lord? Has anyone ever seen one of these? [Slide 2] It is a stump grinder.

I remember when my next-door neighbor had 4 fairly large trees all planted next to one another and he decided it was time to get rid of them.  He chopped them down and cut up the branches but he was left with 4 stumps hence why he needed the stump grinder. Now let me tell you this is a piece of manly equipment. It has a motor, it makes a lot of noise, its got a throttle, and it takes a lot of effort to control it without killing yourself.

Anyways my neighbor let me try it out and we ground these stumps down to nothing. It was crazy it was like riding a motorcycle out of control. There were wood chips flying everywhere. His backyard was covered in wood chips. All that was left were 4 big holes where the stumps used to be.

I helped him clean up. We raked all the chips covered the holes and we laid brand new sod down on the ground. His backyard looked beautiful and these 4 trees were no more. But you know what happened about 3 weeks later? Lo and behold there were what seemed like a hundred new trees growing up through his brand new lawn. So we pealed back the lawn and started digging. You know what we found? Big giant roots and they were growing! We dug as many as we could and the pile of roots was huge. We laid the lawn back again and you know what happened in about 6 weeks? MORE TREES!!

These roots were deep! They just kept coming back. It is the same when we put our roots deep in Jesus Christ. No matter the situation if our roots are deep in Him life can throw us any curveball and things may look hopeless but that is not the case. We are rooted in Him and He will always sustain us in every situation that we face. We establish our roots deep in Him and our faith will be established to the end. It is His promise.

If we want to walk in Him we must first make Him Lord of our lives, we must be rooted in Him. You are getting the right nourishment your foundation is solid. You are ready to be built up.

Paul says so you have been rooted in Him now I want you to be built up in Him. We are to grow in Christ. Our roots are in the right spot now we need to be built up in Him. This is not a one-time event but this is our continued growth in Christ. Our continued walk in Him, to live for Him daily. How do I figure out what He wants, where do I go to get this information on how my Lord wants me to walk in him? How am I supposed to be built up? What should my life look like?

Have you ever really wanted to learn something that you have never done before? I think about Photography and the skills you need to take really great photos. Have you ever tried to use a camera with all manual controls? I know most today have auto settings but sometimes auto settings are not going to get the desired picture you want.

I remember wanting to learn how to take these great nighttime photos but every time I tried to take them they would come out blurry, to dark or just plain old ugly.  I made a decision I wanted to learn how to take great nighttime photos, but I knew nothing about it. I knew I needed a new camera with manual controls so I went out and bought one and thought that was going to do it. I did my research and found a really nice camera but I still didn’t understand how to take great nighttime photos. They were still coming out blurry and dark. What was I missing? I was missing a manual on how to take nighttime photos. I needed to understand what it took to take great photos. There was a lot to understand about taking them. I found out I was still missing some essential equipment to take them. I needed a tripod to hold the camera still. You can’t take good photos without one. I had to understand shutter speeds, aperture size, ISO sensitivity. I had to understand how all these combinations worked to take good pictures. The book I used explained all these technical terms that I had no understanding of before. I could have kept guessing on how to use the camera but the results were going to come out the same, just bad. I had to go to the manual to figure it out.

It is the same with being built up in Christ. We don’t become a Christian then just know how to walk in Him. How are we built up in Him? We need to understand our manual. We need to study and read our bibles and apply those principals we learn into action. It is a two fold processes in being built up. First I have to understand what is required from me and second I need to apply those things to my life.  It is how we are built up. Our Christian walk in Christ is a combination of many things in our life, it consist of worshiping God, growing in holiness, prayer, fellowship, obedience, understanding who Jesus is, all these things are like understanding how to take nighttime photos you just don’t get a camera and start shooting beautiful photos but you have to study, you have to practice taking pictures you have to know all the components of taking the pictures. And when we walk in Christ it is the same thing, there are many things that God wants from us and we learn these over time.

Have you ever seen a stalagmite? [Slide 3] Here is a picture of a massive stalagmite in the Carlsbad Caverns. Do you know how a stalagmite grows? It is just a little water dripping down to the ground that contains calcium carbonate and starts to build it up from the ground up. A drip of water built this massive stalagmite.  It didn’t build itself over night but took just a little water over a long time to build it up. It is the same with our walk with Christ, you don’t become super Christian over night, you don’t become perfect the next day you become a Christian but over time as you dig into God’s word, and you pray, and you live a life of obedience you will be built up in Him just like this stalagmite was built with water over the years. It is on ongoing process that will continue till the day you die or the day Christ comes back for His own.

Those small decisions we make everyday help us be built up in Him. Am I going to watch that next episode of Lost or am I going to sit down and pray and read my bible. I am I going to use the gifts God has given me or am I going to play another video game? Am I going to spend my money all on me or am I going to give some to those in need? Am I going to watch something on the Internet that does not honor God or am I going to honor Him by turning my eyes from those things? Am I going to walk in Him or am I going to walk in me. Every time we live for Him or Walk in Him I am being built up in Christ.

Being firmly rooted in Christ and growing in Him results in believers being established in their faith.

Here we see that we are established in our faith this is the result of us rooted in Him and being built up in Him. Our faith becomes strengthened and we will not waver in our faith. We will not be tossed to and fro by every wave of doubt because we are established in Christ.

Our faith is strengthened when we are walking in Christ. You know when I lose faith or you know when those doubts creep into our minds? I know when I am at my weakest is when I am in sin. It is when I feel the furthest from Him and my faith can become very week.

It’s such a simple concept but why is it so hard for us to walk in Christ everyday being built up in Him strengthened in our faith.

Are You Rooted? - Part 1

Part 2 and Part 3

We want to understand what does it mean to be rooted, who are we rooted in, what happens if I am not rooted.

But today we are going to see what God says about how we are to walk in Him. About being rooted in Him, Christ Jesus. We want to be rooted in Christ and nothing else. We want our roots deep in Him, because He is Lord. If you have your Bibles please turn to the book of Colossians the 2nd Chapter and we are going to look at 2 verses today. Colossians 2:6-7. Lets read.

Col. 2:6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
Col. 2:7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Over the past several months I have probably read this passage over 100 times and as I have studied it and meditated on it and wrapped my self in God’s word it just gets deeper and deeper. I really feel like we could spend several weeks on this passage but don’t worry it is only going to be two weeks specifically on this passage. But let us discover God’s incredible truth in these two verses, it is awe-inspiring.

Before we dig into the scripture, I want to give a little context of what is going on during this time Paul writes this letter to the Colossians and what is his purpose for it. In Paul’s day you would be hard pressed to find an atheist who believed there were no god but almost all people had some sort of religious deity that they worshiped. It is not unlike today that the number of true atheist in our world is pretty small but most people claim they are spiritual and there is a god or gods. And this is exactly what Paul was addressing with the Church in Colossians. There were people in the Church who were teaching false doctrine about Jesus Christ, who He was and what He has done for us. They were mixing other religious ideas with the Gospel and essentially corrupting the Gospel of Christ.

So Paul wants to do two things in this letter and that is first to warn the believers of these false teachers. Second he wants to encourage the proper spiritual growth of the believers in Colossae or as Paul puts it he wants us deeply rooted in Christ and built up in Him and established in Him.

I want you to think about this question tonight.

Why does Paul tell the Colossians people to walk in Christ Jesus the Lord? And if Paul has told them to walk in Him why should we want to walk in Him? Why do we want to walk in Christ Jesus? Why should you want to walk in Christ? This letter was written a long time ago to people living in Colossae but as we know God’s truth is absolutely eternal. The Bible tells us the heavens and the earth will pass away but God’s word will last forever! This message is as applicable today as it was back then.

Let’s dig in and see what God’s eternal word is telling us tonight.

Paul tells us in the first verse therefore you have received Christ Jesus THE LORD, so walk in Him.

Why should the Colossians want to walk in Him? What makes walking in Christ so important? Why do we want to walk in Him? It is the same reason why all people should walk in Him.

You guys want to know the know the answer to that question? I will spill the beans up front. Here is the answer to that question. Lord, because He is the LORD. Did you hear that again? HE IS THE LORD! Oh the depths of that truth! That is why Paul encourages us to walk in Him. HE IS LORD.

Lets go back to our text and tell me what is the very first word in chapter 2 verse 6 it says therefore or it can be translated since. Since you have received Jesus Christ the Lord we need to walk in Him. That word therefore transitions all Paul has already told the Colossians the reason why we should walk in Him. For us to fully comprehend why Paul commands us to walk in Him we better go find out why? Lets see the reason Paul commands us to walk in Christ after receiving Him, to be rooted in Him.

Lets go back one chapter in Colossians and let’s hit a few highlights and see what Paul tells us about Christ.

Col. 1:13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
Col. 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

We want to walk in Him because He has rescued us from the domain of darkness. Do you hear that, if you have received Christ Jesus He has rescued us from what? The domain of darkness, not only that but he has transferred us into His Son’s Kingdom.

At one moment of time we were here, in the domain of darkness and the next moment of time we are here in the Son’s Kingdom.

I remember that day. I remember the day I finally was rescued out of the domain of darkness and God carried me into the Son’s kingdom. It is the single greatest event that took place in my life. Someday I will share all the details how I came to a saving knowledge of Christ but let me tell you I was neck deep in the domain of darkness. I was a sinner who had broken every single one of God’s commandments. I was a liar, I was a thief, I was a fornicator, I was a disobedient son, I didn’t honor God, I used His name as a cuss word, I had many idols in my life. I had sinned against a perfect and Holy God. The domain of darkness was controlling me and I had absolutely no hope in my life, and you know what I was terrified to die. I believed I was either going to die and never exist again or I knew enough about the bible that I would suffer in Hell for all of eternity. Now knowing the Bible if I had died back then I would have spent an eternity in Hell.

But about 12 years ago I don’t remember the exact day but I remember the event like it was yesterday. God finally broke the domain of darkness in my life and carried me into His Son’s Kingdom. What He did that day was allow me to see myself a sinner against a Holy and perfect God. He allowed me to see who I really was and that is a sinner who needed saving. It is the day I bowed my knee to Him and He became Lord and in a very instant I was rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred me to the Son’s Kingdom. In simple terms it was the day I was rescued from Hell. If you have received Christ as Lord then you know exactly what I am talking about.

Why does Paul encourage the Colossians to walk in Christ? Why should we walk in Christ, because He has saved us from spending an eternity in Hell to spending an eternity with Christ in heaven? Christ has moved us from the domain of darkness into His Son’s Kingdom where He will reign forever and ever. Do you see why we should walk in Him believers? He is LORD.

Lets take a look at Verse 16 and see why we else we should walk in Him.

Col. 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him.

Jesus Christ has created all things, all things we can see and even those things we cannot see.

How many of you have seen Louie Giglio’s video on How Great is our God? If you have never seen it go to YouTube and check it out. It is an amazing video on how big our God is. It is so hard to wrap our mind around God but just for one example the universe we live in is a 146 million light years across and we are one of billions of Galaxies. Try to wrap your head around that one. He is a Big God. And he has created all the things we see.

I also think about all the things God created that we don’t see but they are there. Think about our consciousness that we know we exist, or how about love. I can’t see it, I can’t touch it, but I can feel it inside of me. That thing I feel when I look at one of my boys sleeping, or thinking about my wife and all that she means to me. Where did that feeling come from? If there is no God how did it come into existence? How did the idea of 2+2= 4 come from?

Here is the great problem for anyone who does not believe God created all things. Can anyone explain how this equation makes sense?

Nothing+Nothing=Everything?

NO there is a creator of all things and He has existed eternally and all things have been created through Him and for Him.

Here is God’s ultimate crown jewel to creation. It is you. He has given you life. He has planned you out before the foundations of the earth. He has given you the air you breath, the water you drink, the food you eat. When you sit down and ponder that this God of this enormous universe has created YOU. He has created you for a purpose and that is to receive Him and walk in Him, this glorifies Him. When we walk in Him we glorify Him. What an honor we have to honor the being who has created us.

Why does Paul encourage the Colossians to walk in Christ? Why should we walk in Christ, because He is the creator of all things? He has given you everything including life. He breathed life into you. Jesus Christ is creator God of all things. He is LORD.

The first chapter of Colossians tells us everything we need to know about Christ and that He is Lord and that is why we should walk in Him.

Do you know what word for Lord is in the original Greek language? It is the word Kurious. This is the word Paul uses since you have received Christ Jesus the Kurious. It is an interesting word that means Jesus Christ is the Master.

Sometimes we forget that Christ is really Lord. Sometimes we just think of Him as Savior, which He is but He cannot be your Savior if He is not the Lord of your life as well. They go hand in and are inseparable. It is a package deal when He becomes your Savior He has to also be the Lord of your life. And If He is the Lord of your life then He is your Savior too.

Paul does not tell the Colossians just except Jesus as Savior and do whatever you want. Paul tells them and us Since you have received Him walk in Him. The verb walk in Him in the Greek is peripateo and this is not a suggestion but it is a command Paul is giving us. Its not on option or a you should do this but it is I Paul since you have received Christ the Lord command you to Walk in Him.

Again why do we walk in Him, why do we live for Him why do we want to obey Him? Because He is Kurious, He is our Master.

He has given us life, He has created us He has saved us from the dominion of darkness, He is Master. We owe all to Him, I owe my life and my salvation to Him. Do you see how He is Master? It is hard for us to think of God as Master and that He commands us to walk in Him but this is what He wants from us.

We have a hard time because when we think of Master we think of a Master being over someone with an iron hand. Even calling Him Master could be hard for us because here in America we think about being free that no one is over me. I should be able to do what I want when I want it. But that is not the life God has called us to live.

But we need to understand He is the perfect Master.

It is hard to fathom a perfect master. Here on earth there are no perfect Masters. I think about those who are over me here. I look at my boss and he provides for me in many ways for my family and I but he is far from perfect. Or even what about my earthly father who I adore and love and respect. Has he been a perfect father to me? Has he been a perfect master to me? Of course not and maybe your father was never there for you, maybe he never loved you, maybe your father abandoned you, maybe your father was a lousy father and that is all you have known. But I stand her today to proclaim to you that our Father in Heaven is perfect. He is the perfect Master, the perfect Savior and the perfect LORD. He is everything perfect.

He loved us so much that He was willing to send His Son to die for you and me. He has given us life, He has created all things He has saved us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into His Son’s Kingdom. Therefore Christian ….Walk in Him.

There is one last word I want to look at in verse 6. It is the word received. It says since we have received Jesus walk in Him. This is just an amazing word in the original language it is paralambano. Here is what this word does not mean.

Jesus you sound like a pretty good guy. I like that you can save me from the domain of darkness. I am pretty hip on the idea that you created me. I guess I will let you into my life. Now that we have that settled you sit over here and I am going to do my thing. I am going to live my life the way I want, I got Jesus and my fire insurance.

But the word paralambano means I receive Jesus in an intimate relationship I am joining myself to Him because of who He is. It is to have a relationship with Him because He is Lord and I acknowledge Him to be such as he professes to be. I want to walk in Him in this deep committed relationship. He is my everything and I will do all that He asks of me. Why because He had done everything already, He has provided me with life, with salvation, He is the perfect LORD and He was willing to die to save all those who receive Him.

My question to you this evening is…are you walking in Him, are you in a deep relationship with Him? Have you received Him as Lord?

Christian If you are not walking with Him today WHY NOT? Has He not done enough for you? I encourage you to Walk In Him Today.

Power of Prayer - James 5:13-18

Who here loves to study the bible? Who here likes to dig into the word and figure out what God is trying to communicate to us? Who here wants to know God’s Truth?

Well today we are going to be doing a bible study. We are going to dig a little deeper than what seems to be on the surface of our text today. I hope this is an exciting morning for us that we may get to learn some truths that you have never thought about before.

This is why we do what we do, first we want to learn about God’s truth and second our desire here at the Rock is for you to fall in love with God’s word and make it a priority in your life above everything else in your life. It is how we build our relationship with Christ our Lord. Sometimes it is going to take some work but the reward of our studies is so amazing. So we learn and then we apply what we learn to our lives and as James has taught us we become Doers of the word not just hearers. God blows my mind with His Word.

Here are a few questions for you.
What is the proper response when my boss at work treats me unfairly and causes suffering in my life? What is the proper response when I am struggling with spiritual weakness in my life? What is the proper response when it seems I just can’t stop that one sin I continue to struggle with in my life? It is prayer gentlemen it is getting on our knees and seeking after the Lord. We are to pray as individuals when we are suffering and going through hardships. We seek after the elders to pray for us when we are weary and worn out. We are to pray for one another when we are in sin.

You may believe your prayers are not effective but as we will learn today they are very effective and there is great power in our prayers.

Please open your Bibles to James 5 and let’s read from verse 13-18 and see what God has to say about prayer.

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.
14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.
18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

[Pray]

As we are winding up the book of James it is good to remember the theme of James is about living out ones faith. And this theme continues as we are coming to a close in James. We see the word pray, prayer and prayed used 7 times in these 6 verses. Part of living out our faith is trusting in the power of prayer. By faith we believe God listens to our petitions. It is why we pray because with trust that God will answer our prayers.

We come and pray every Wednesday morning because we believe God answers our prayers. James is encouraging us to pray, to pray in faith and God will answer our prayers. Maybe the answer is not what you expect but God will answer with your very best interest.

Well todays passage has a challenge in it. There are many biblical scholars who believe James is encouraging us to pray for sick believers to be healed. That is people who are physically sick. Other biblical scholars believe it can only mean a spiritual healing. They believe James is encouraging believers to pray for spiritual restoration. It could mean one or it could mean the other or maybe it could be both? It is definitely a possibility.

We even see Jesus in His ministry here on earth physically healing individuals all across Jerusalem. Everywhere He went we see people being physically healed of their infirmities. Can Jesus heal us physically even today? Of course we believe that, and it doesn’t even have to be a miraculous healing but He has provided knowledge to Dr. to heal us or medicines to heal us. We believe Jesus can heal the physically sick 2000 years ago and all through the centuries up to this very day.

But here is my question to you. Do you think the focus of Jesus’ ministry is more concerned about the physical healing of individuals or is His primary focus on spiritual healing. Did He come down to earth to physically heal us or did He come down to spiritually heal me of my biggest problem here on earth. Can anyone tell me what is the biggest problem I have? Bob Thompson would say it is my hair, Anthony Terrones would say it is my singing abilities, My wife would say my loud mouth. But what does God say my biggest problem is? It is my sin. This is the sickness I have, this is my disease. The Psalmist even tells me I was even born with it. This is the disease that can kill my body and soul. Jesus came to save me and you from the sickness called sin.

So why did Jesus physically heal people? His primary purpose was to prove that He could also heal them spiritually. We see the perfect example of this in Matthew chapter 9 where the paralytic is healed. Do you remember the story? The paralytic is brought by his friends, and Jesus sees them and Jesus seeing their FAITH tells the paralytic your sins are forgiven and Jesus turns and walks away? No He doesn’t He is going to prove to all the people who were watching that He does have the power to forgive people of their sins or as I said earlier to heal us of our greatest sickness which is sin. Jesus is surrounded by the Jewish scribes and Jesus knows the heart of the men who are watching this whole thing and says why are you thinking evil in your hearts. Which is easier to forgive this mans sins or to say get up and walk. He turns to the paralytic and says get up, pick up your bed and go home. Jesus first healed this man spiritually by what means? Through his faith. He didn’t need to heal him physically except for a single reason. To prove that He can also heal him spiritually. And this is what I believe James is telling us today.

Here is the big idea. Why does James tell us to pray? Because we all need prayer for our spiritual healing. This is James primary focus in verse 13-20. This is what he is encouraging us to do. If we are in spiritual suffering, then pray, if you are spiritually weak, then pray, if you are in sin then pray.

First and foremost God wants us spiritually well that is why James is exhorting us to pray. Maybe God in his graciousness will physically heal us to demonstrate who He is but then again maybe that is not His will to physically heal us but to only spiritually heal us.

Lets take a really quick refresh in what we have learned from Bill Morris in the last two weeks. In James 5:1-6 we see James warning the rich how they are condemned because they have misused their riches and have taken advantage of the laborers. Then in verse 7-11 God is asking for the bretheren who have been taken advantage of to be patient. Be patient, God is going to set everything right when He comes back and He is returning soon to set all things right. James goes on to exhort them to not to complain against one another so you are not judged like the rich with the wrong heart. But instead be willing to suffer be willing to endure like the prophets of old. He tells them you know what happened to Job. He endured and we saw the outcome of the Lord’s dealings with him, the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. The Lord will work all things out in the end.

And now we finally come to our passage today in verse 13. James asks a question. Are any of you suffering. Are any of you suffering because there is hardship in your life? Are you enduring afflictions against you? James tells us the solution to the suffering caused by evil treatment is seeking God’s comfort through prayer. It is prayer that comforts us in our time of need. It is when we need God the most. Does James tells us we Should pray? NO he tells us we MUST pray!

But what if everything is going great? If you have a cheerful heart you are not suffering with anything then do what as well. Sing praise to God. Which is just another form of prayer to God. Whether you are suffering or everything is going great we need to be praying or praising God. We are to communicate with our creator in the times of struggle and in the times of great joy. We MUST pray.

Now we come to verse 14 and we need to dig a little deeper to understand this scripture in its proper context of what James is trying to communicate to us. Remember where we are in this passage, he has just told us about the rich who are persecuting us, he warns us not to complain against our brothers, he exhorts us to be truthful, he is warning us not to be in sin, not to be in judgement, he tells us we may have to endure like Job did.

He then asks us a question - Is anyone among you sick?

This is kind of strange question why does seem he is shifting gears here. Lets dig.
If we look up sick here in the Greek it is the word astheneo which means to be weak in this context. James is asking are you weak in what you are dealing with, are you struggling with the persecutions that are coming against you? Are you spiritual defeated? Then what MUST we do? Another commandment.

Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him,

Have the spiritual leaders pray for your weakness in what you are dealing with whether it is persecution against you or your own struggling spiritual condition. It says to have them come and pray and anoint you with oil. This is not some sort of ceremonial anointing but it is actually meaning to rub with oil. Why did people rub oil on someone, it was how they would heal wounds in James day. Do your remember the parable of the good samaritan? He rubbed oil on the mans wounds and it is the same language being used here. James is telling us, if we are struggling then call upon the Elders of the church to come and support you, to encourage you, comfort you. Metaphorically the elders are anointing the weak and defeated with oil to encourage them, and to strengthen them.

The blessed result of the comfort and ministry of intercessory prayer of the elders is revealed in Verse 15.

and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick

Again we need to look at two words in their original language to understand what James is saying. First, the word sick here is the Greek word kamno which is only used in one other location in the New Testament and that is in Hebrews 12:3 and refers to those those who are weary spiritually. No where in the New Testament does this mean someone who is physically sick. But a person who is enduring the hardships and hostility of those who come against a believer. The second word we need to look at is restore which is sozo and communicates the idea restoration and commonly is translated as save. Here is the idea of this passage, the elders’ prayers will deliver weak, defeated believers from their spiritual weakness and restore them to spiritual wholeness. We know this power does not come from the elders but it is the power of God who restores an individual.

James continues to tell us if the spiritually weak believer has committed sins, they will be forgiven him, this tells us as well that James is probably not speaking about physical healing here because we know all sickness is not due to someones sin. Now God could allow someone to become sick due to their sins however do you remember the blind man who was healed by Jesus. Before Jesus healed him his disciples asked Jesus was it his sin or his parents sin that caused him to be blind? Jesus responded and said neither but this man was born blind to glorify God. We know that our sins can only be forgiven when we as individuals pray to God for forgiveness. An elder cannot pray for me, and my sins are forgiven. So the idea here is that the elders can encourage us to confess, to help us discern our sins and join their prayers for forgiveness of our sins. I think about the individuals even in this room who have been prayed over by us and the elders of this church. (Daniel asked permission) 1 John 1:9 Tells us that If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we pray He is faithful to forgiveness of our sins and restores us to our creator. (He restored Daniel)

Now we come to verse 16 and we see a transition take place with word therefore.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

James turns his thoughts from those who are spiritually defeated and need of assistance from the elders to the rest of us. He exhorts us to confess our sins to one another and to pray for one another for healing. Obviously we are to first confess them to God first then to our friends. Again we want to look at the greek word for healed. We pray for each other for what kind of healing? The word healed in the Greek is iaomai. This is more than just a physical healing but is related to a supernatural event, a spiritual healing. Peter uses this term in 1 Peter 2:24 describing the healing from sin Christ purchased for believers on the cross. It is all about restoration to God, to turn from our sins and turn to God. Again this is not a suggestion but a command for us to do.

James is encouraging us to confess our sins so our secret sins don’t remain private because they can drag us down spiritually. We know the consequences of unrepented sin. They can be devastating in our lives. God knows your sin, He wants us to turn from them and one of the best way is to confess them with your brothers and have them pray for you. If one of my brothers is struggling with a sin I can help hold him accountable to it. I am able to pray for him and encourage him with his walk with Christ. It is about spiritual restoration.

And then in the last part of verse 15 through 18 James drives the point home with his example of Elijah.

17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.
18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

It is so important for us to understand why James choose Elijah. here as an example of righteous man who prayed and it did not rain for 3.5 years. What is James wanting us to know about this prayer by Elijah. These are the things in scripture that amaze me. God is so, so consistent. If James was focused on physical healing through prayer in all these previous passages it would be a very strange illustration that James used as proof for physical healing. So why does he use Elijah.

Well the back drop is that Ahab was the king of Israel and he was one of the most evil kings that Israel ever had. God warned the people of Israel if they turned from God to serve other gods he would cause a drought. We see from our passage in James that Elijah had prayed for this drought and God answered it. What god had the israelites and Ahab turn to back then? It was the god of baal, he was the god of the rains and fertility. Guess what? He was an impotent god. And our God proved that by not sending rain to the israelites for 3.5 years.

Elijah prayed this prayer for what reason? So they israelites would turn from Baal to the True and Living God. That they would turn from their sins and turn back to God. God wanted spiritual healing for the nation of Israel. He wanted restoration for His people to turn back to Him from the god of baal.

Elijah was a righteous man and his prayers were very effective. But guess what he just a normal one of us. James tells us that he had a nature like ours. If Elijah can pray and have the rains stopped for 3 years do you think our prayers of turning from sin can be accomplished. Do you think our prayers of spiritual restoration will be heard by God? Well he does listen because after 3.5 years Elijah prayed for rain to return and the dry parched land was restored.

If you are struggling and suffering spiritually, pray, if you are so weak that you need the help of the elders then call them, to pray, if you are in sin pray that God would help you overcome it. He wants to restore you and you have the key that will unlock the door for you. PRAYER.