John 3:3 -- "Jesus replied, very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again."
John 3:36 -- "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them"
Welcome to another edition of the Weekend Sermon. Thank you for taking the time to read the sermon today. I hope and pray that everyone is doing very well.
Today, we are going to study a topic that was come to have a great deal of meaning to me over the course of the last few years. Life is but a vapor that appears for a little time and them vanishes away. That's what James tells us in chapter 4 verse 14. How true that statement is.
In my country, the average lifespan for a person is around 80. That seems like a long time. But, as I get older, I realize that it isn't very long at all. No one is guaranteed 80 years. No one is guaranteed a tomorrow. None of us know what the next moment will bring let alone the next year or the next decade.
Just like a vapor of steam, life is there, and then it is gone. We never know what a day will bring. Let me tell you of two instances from my own life.
One of my best friends had the flu about five years ago. He had been fairly sick, but he was on the mend. I called him on a Friday to see if he wanted to work on a project we had in mind. He said that he was doing better, and we would work on it on Monday. That next Monday morning, he died of the flu. He was only 49 years old.
My Dad had a call from his doctor in the morning. His doctor told him that his test results were great. In fact, he didn't need to come in to the office every six months anymore. He could start coming in just once a year. That afternoon, my Dad went to pick up his dog at the veterinary office. He said to me as he got into his car that we would go and get something to eat when he got back home. I never spoke to him again. At the vet clinic, my Dad had a massive stroke.
My friend and my Dad had no idea that death was so close at hand. None of us do. That is why James tells us we are not to boast about tomorrow.
With James' information in hand, what is to be our reaction. What is the lesson from this passage. There are three things that I want to mention. First of all, since life is short and no one knows what tomorrow brings, today is the day of salvation. If you have never accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord, don't put it off until tomorrow. Tomorrow may not come. Also, if you have strayed from following the Lord, turn back to Him and follow Him is His way today.
Second, since life is short and we don't know about tomorrow, don't put off doing what God has placed in your heart to do. If God has called you to some type of ministry, get going and do that thing that God has called you to do. If God has placed a dream in your heart, start making it happen.
Finally, since we don't know what tomorrow brings, tell the people that you love what they mean to you today. Tell those you love that you care about them every day. Don't let someone you care about pass on without having told them how important they are to you. Believe me, you will regret it if you don't do it when you have the chance.
Life is short. Who knows what will happen? Our lives are in the hand of God. May His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Amen.
Prayer Requests
Please pray that the storms forecast for my area on Friday will not be bad.
Continue to pray for an end to the coronavirus pandemic. India really needs our prayers right now. Pray that vaccines will reach those who need and want them. Pray that those who are sick will make a full and speedy recovery.
Please pray that people will care for the earth and take care to preserve endangered species.
Let us pray for peace. Pray for peace in Syria, Mali, Yemen, Afghanistan and Ethiopia.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us focus our prayers on Kosovo and Madagascar. Pray that many will hear about the love of Jesus.
Next week, Lord willing, we will finish chapter four of James. On Monday, I will post the verses. I will continue my Life Changers series midweek. May God bless you all.
Last week for the midweek post, I started writing about the major life-changing events that have occurred over the course of my life. Last week, I wrote a little about the Jesus quest that I went on to understand who Jesus is and what His characteristics truly are. Today, I would like to tell you about how I moved from not caring too much about the environment to being someone who cares deeply about this world and the animals that inhabit it.
When I was growing up, the schools and churches that I attended didn't place any emphasis on environmentalism and wildlife conservation. In fact, they were very much opposed to any type of environmental concern as it was viewed by them as worshipping the creation and not the creation.
I am sorry to admit that this attitude cared over with me when I started college after I had attended Bible college. I was definitely not environmentally aware. However, that was soon to change.
When I attended my second semester of college, I was enrolled in a college algebra class that meet at 8:00am. I liked to get to college at 7:00 so that I could go to the library and study for what for me was a very difficult subject. Some days, I didn't have much algebra study to do, so I would spend time looking at some of the books in the extremely large library at the college that I was attending.
By chance, I came across a book called "Tiger: Portrait Of A Predator" written by Valmik Thapar and Fateh Singh Rathore. This book recounted the experiences of these men as they studied tigers in the Ranthambore Park in India.
After reading this book and seeing the extraordinary pictures that were in it, I feel in love with tigers, and I wanted to do what I could to make sure that these wonderful animals were not eliminated in the wild. I began an in depth study of tigers and other big cats focusing mostly on Bengal and Siberian tigers.
From there, I begin to read as much as I could about wildlife conservation and ecology. I began to support organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society. I became an environmentalist.
For the first time, I realized that God has called us to preserve and care for this world that He has made. We are not to dominate and abuse this earth and its creatures. We are to tend the earth and make sure that future generations can enjoy all that God has made.
Right now, the earth is in a precarious situation. Species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. Climate change is a real threat. We have to take action now so that future generations can have an earth that is filled with life, clean air and clean water to drink.
Reading this tiger book really changed my life. I believe that it was the hand of God that brought me to that particular section of the library to find that book at that time.
Psalm 46:10 -- "Be still, and know that I am God."
Psalm 46:1 -- "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."
There are some dates on the calendar that I truly don't like. Today is one of them. This is the day that my friend Toby passed away several years ago now. I am very sad today, and I am not having a good day. However, as those who believe in Jesus, we do not grieve as those who have no hope. I know that I will see all of my loved ones again because Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Please pray for me today. Thank You.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read the Weekend Sermon. It finally stopped raining where I live, and we are supposed to have a few nice days. Thank you for all of your prayers.
Over the last couple of weeks, we've looked into the idea of the way of the world vs. the way of Jesus. There is something that I want to mention regarding this before we move on with our passage for this week.
What I am trying to point out from James when he speaks about friendship with the world is something that is deeper than what I was taught growing up as a boy. In the churches that I attended, worldliness as it was called meant engaging in sinful behaviors. Being worldly meant listening to rock, jazz or country music. It meant going to the movies or watching television shows.
As a follower of Jesus, I do believe that we are called to follow the ethical and moral teachings of Jesus. However, James is speaking about something deeper. This world's system is opposed to the teachings of Jesus. I have tried in the last couple of messages to point these out. It is so important to realize how different the way of Jesus is. His is the way of non-violence, compassion, true freedom, grace, forgiveness, generosity, humility and being a servant to all. This is not the way of the world. Let us all focus deeply on what it means to follow the way of Jesus.
Now in today's message, we focus on slander and judging. James tells us that we are not to slander our brothers and sisters, and we are not to judge our neighbor. Let's look at slander first.
James is teaching us that we are not to gossip and say nasty things about others. We are not to be in the business of tearing down people. If we say things that damage another person's reputation, it can cause devastating effects on the lives of others.
As followers of Jesus, we are to love our brothers and sisters in the faith. We are called by Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. We always need to remember that Jesus taught us to treat others in the manner in which we would like to be treated. We wouldn't want others to say slanderous, mean and nasty things about us, so we shouldn't do that to others.
As I stated before, as believers in Jesus, we need to be saying things that help, heal and build others up in the faith. We need to be encouragers who are positive and uplifting. We don't want to tear others down and humiliate them. We don't want people to think that they are terrible and cause them to be depressed and miserable. We must always speak in love to those who we encounter.
James also tells us that we are not to judge others. Of course, we know that this is something that Jesus told us about in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, "Judge not, lest you be judged." It is not possible for us to know the thoughts and intents of another person's heart no matter how close we are to that person. The only one who knows enough to be the judge is Jesus. He is the one that can see a person's heart and can bring a right judgment.
Jesus told us that we should not try to get the speck out of another person's eye while we have a beam in our own eye. We need to deal with our own problems and our own sins. We need to pray for others who we think are in error that Jesus might lead them and show them the right way to go for His honor and glory.
We must encourage, love and help one another. There is enough negativity and hate in the world without Christians acting in a nasty way to one another. Let us all work to build each other up in the faith as we work together to spread the message of the love of Jesus and to make this world a better place. Amen.
Prayer Requests.
I want to thank you for your prayers. My job is going a lot better right now, and I am feeling fairly well. Please pray that the Lord's will will be done in my life.
Keep praying for and end to the coronavirus pandemic. Things are looking better here in the US, but I know that India, Brazil, Central America and Africa are still seeing many cases of the disease. Pray that vaccines will reach those who really need them and want them. Pray that those who are sick will recover.
Continue to pray for peace in the troubled areas of this world. Pray for peace in Israel, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya, Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia and Central African Republic.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those who live in Uzbekistan and Albania. Pray that many will come to know Jesus.
Next week, we will finish up James chapter 4, Lord willing. I will post the verses on Monday, and I will have a post midweek. May God bless you all.
As I mentioned last week, I will be posting something different on the midweek post for the next few weeks. I've been reflecting on my life, and I realize that there have been some very important occurrences that changed the course of my life. I want to share some of these over the next few weeks with the hope that it will help you to look at the course of your life and discern the way that the Lord has ordered your path.
If you follow the blog at all, you know that the main emphasis is on Christian ideas, sermons and a few other items. You may think that the first life changer that I will mention is coming to know Jesus as Savior. However, while this has made the difference in my entire life as my life has been focused on following the Lord, it was not a life changing moment so to speak. Let me explain.
I was very young when I came to know Jesus as my Savior. I can't really remember a time when Jesus was not the focus of my life. There was no real dramatic before and after as there was for my parents.
What was a life changing time for me is what I call my Jesus Quest. I grew up in a very fundamentalist household. I attended fundamentalist churches and schools until I got out of high school. Growing up in this type of environment left me with an idea of who Jesus is that caused me for a time to consider not even being a Christian anymore.
Even as a young adult, I was beset with the image of Jesus that was given to me when I was in school and Bible college. The Jesus that was presented to me was extremely judgmental. He was ready to punish you for the slightest infraction. His love and compassion were never presented or preached. Following the Sermon on the Mount literally was considered foolishness. Jesus was presented more or less as the way to escape hell and get into heaven. The social teaching of Jesus and His way of peace was never mentioned.
I made the decision to find out who Jesus really is. I started what I call my Jesus Quest. The first thing that I did was read the Gospels again. I then decided to categorize all of the statements of Jesus into the different categories of systematic theology to see what Jesus taught about subjects such as eschatology, etc.
After this, I decided to read all of the books about the life and teachings of Jesus that I could find. I read books from a variety of theological perspectives. I wanted to know what scholars of all types had to say about who Jesus is and what He taught while He was here on the earth.
This journey changed the course of my life. It allowed me to understand the reality of Jesus Christ. I came to the realization that Jesus was and is the man of love and compassion. He cares about us. He loves all and accepts all manner of people. He does not reject anyone. He wants to be in a relationship with us.
I also came to understand that Jesus calls upon us to reject the path of violence and seek the way of peace. Jesus calls on us to speak up for the oppressed and the powerless. He calls on us to care for the poor and the those who are considered the least among us.
My Jesus Quest allowed me to have a deeper relationship with Jesus. It allowed me to feel His love and presence in my life in way that I had not up until that time. Knowing Jesus in this way has helped me to make it through life in tough times knowing that Jesus is with me and He will never forsake me. He is seeking good for me and not ill.
I hope that you will know who Jesus is. I hope that you will let Him lead and guide your life.
