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I know, slightly out of order, but the speaker for "Give us this day our daily bread" had a scheduling conflict. We'll get back to that next week or the following week.
So anyway, my week was mostly peaceful. And btw, I'm going to try going back to publishing on Sundays so you won't be a week behind me. I got better response the first time I published on Friday, but not since. Sheila continues to get more help, which is nothing but good news on all fronts. Good for her to relieve her anxiety, and good for my next door neighbor's and my nerves not to have her knocking 17 times a day. (I'm not kidding!!) Within the building, I'm still seeking balance with Rob. Continue to pray in faith* for Rob's continued emotional healing and growth and wisdom for myself going forward. Farther afield, continued prayers for Mike that God's provision would come soon and for those of you who embrace Divine Healing, pray for his COPD to be gone. He believes in and has experienced "moments" of relief, but I have stronger faith and experience to see it happen. Greater provision will also help his health as he will be able to buy better food and lose weight. And of course, the weight loss will help his overall health regardless.
We all have rules that we live by, whether in our homes, our countries/cities, or just our lives. And we've all broken at least a few of them at times. (anyone who claims otherwise is either lying or kidding themselves) The one that sticks out for me falls under the "life rules". There have been 2 periods in my life where I allowed men to cheat on their partners with me. During the first one, I was also cheating on my husband. The other time I was single. My oldest daughter saw the first one happen, but she was too young to actively remember it now. The other was far more recent, and all 3 of my kids were old enough to witness it, although I'm pretty sure it was only my girls who actually knew about it. In any case, those were not times where I was setting good examples for anyone, much less for my kids.
Pastor Matt's personal story of imperfection was of a far lesser "crime"... He had come home to find evidence that his kids had been eating in the Living Room, but "said kids" were not present therein. He promptly gathered them and rendered an "excellent lecture", when he turned to look by his own chair and found an empty soda bottle left from the night before!! lol Now it's bad enough to have discovered this for himself, but the worse thing was when his kids called him out for it!! Yikes!! lol
So as we continue our exploration of the Lord's Prayer, let us this week also explore our hearts to see where we may not be acting on our best behavior...
Matthew 6:9-13
New International Version
9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation,[a] but deliver us from the evil one.[b
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Although the Lord's Prayer is our core passage for the series, our message today is based in 2 Cor. 5:16-21 -- join me in reading...
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
New International Version
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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As we pray God's forgiveness for our complicity or participation in the brokenness of the World, this passage encourages us by reminding us that we, as believers, are already righteous in God's eyes. We know from other passages that it is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of our sins. He makes us aware of them, not so that we feel shame, but just so we can fix them. Praying for forgiveness doesn't "change God's mind" about them, it just gets them "out of our system" so that we can make the necessary adjustments and grow in Him. It helps us to follow His Will, as we prayed about last week. After all, we can't just take something out and not replace it with anything. We need to replace the bad with something good so that our lives will be lived as better reflections of God's love as we receive it from Him and extend it to those around us*.
There are 3 main ways that we may try to avoid our admissions of guilt. If you've been reading for a while, you've seen these before; but for the "newbies", they are as follows --
Deflection -- We try to compare ourselves to others we see as being worse than us. We say things like, "At least I'm not like so-and-so..." But just by saying things like that, we make ourselves even worse because now we're judging them*. Remember, sin is sin is sin to God. He doesn't have a "rating system". John 3:16 says that Jesus died for ALL... (I couldn't find anything more specific just now)
Denial -- We think, "Oh, it's not a big deal." or "Everyone is doing it." or the biggest one for me is, "I deserve to be happy and so does he."
Hiding -- We try to "sweep it under the rug" because we're ashamed. We know we've done wrong, but we don't want anyone else to know if they don't already. Maybe it's something we don't want to admit even to ourselves at first. But as it says in Num. 32:23, among many others, "be sure your sin will find you out."
It's important for us to remember that Jesus took care of everything that was needed to bring reconciliation and freedom to us in His loving nature of truth and grace. Holding to these patterns of deflection will only keep us in bondage to our guilt.
So, to focus in on today's passage in 2 Cor., we need to "set the stage" and look at the context in which Paul was writing this letter. In his and Silas' absence, there were False Teachers who had come in and tried to convince the Christians in Corinth to follow them rather than standing by Paul's message of The Gospel. Some of the people were listening, but others wrote to make Paul aware of the problem and send back words of guidance and encouragement. This passage is a small piece of that.
Paul is writing to them here about how Jesus' sacrifice "balanced the books" for them with God. Jesus' efforts effectively erased their debt of sin so that they had reassurance that their faith in God was justified and that the False Teachers were not even worthy of their attention, never mind their loyalty.
He was reminding them that for all who are in Christ, the Old Life is gone and something New has started (vs 17)*. Because of who they were (and who we are) in Christ, we are no longer trapped in a life of sin and death; but we are re-born to reconciliation and Eternal Life in God. They and we were/are to be ambassadors of this gift of reconciliation to the World. (vs 20)
The fact that Jesus "became sin" for us (vs. 21) automatically presumes that there is sin present that requires a sacrifice*. The verse literally says, "He who had no sin". Let's look deeper into that -- what does that actually mean??
Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience both to his earthly parents and to God. There's not one of us who can honestly lay claim to that. (Rom. 3:10)
Jesus' life of perfection was a result of what we see in Genesis 1-2 before The Fall. Humanity was created to be a perfect reflection of God's love in the world, and Nature's reflection of worship to God. (Lk. 19:40)
Jesus was the only perfect sacrifice that was possible. In becoming human, Jesus undertook the task of our reconciliation to God because it was not possible for us to achieve this on our own. God cannot abide, or tolerate, the presence of sin; therefore we cannot "fix ourselves" to be righteous in His eyes due to our naturally sinful ways. According to the Jewish Laws set down by God* thousands of years earlier, the only acceptable sacrifice was one "without spot or blemish". (Lev. 1:3) His sacrificed made our souls into an acceptable condition to fellowship with God both now* and in eternity. He substituted brokenness, disease, and death for wholeness, health, and life.
This act of self-sacrifice was both transactional in that it "balanced our books" with God, and also transformational in that it renews our hearts in loving reverence to Him. Remember verse 17 above, "the old is gone; the new is here". Our sinful nature is replaced with love for God which He in turn, expects us to pass on to others*.
A good "nutshell" explanation of "sin" lies in the statement, "I do what I want." One can't help thinking of "Ol' Blue Eyes" singing, "My Way". It may seem like an inspirational song to some, but the truth is that if Sinatra ever did know God, he certainly wasn't following very closely when he wrote that song. The inherent problem with our in-born sin nature, is that our "wanters" are broken. We think we know what's best for us, but we don't always get it right because we can't see the "bigger picture" like God can. What we want may feel right for a little while, and may even feel good in some way the entire time, but it's all a lie in the end if we haven't chosen properly.* Three major ways that we tend to mess up in our "wanting" are these --
Belonging -- It's one of the "core needs" of humans to belong with others. God designed it that way back in the Garden when He said it wasn't good for man to be alone. The problem lies in how we approach it. What does it look like for us?? There may be times that we compromise ourselves or our morals* in order to "fit in" or we pursue wrong relationships just to connect to someone who we either desire and/or we feel needs us in some way. That's what happened with me the 2nd time. Kids call it "peer pressure", but it really works that way at any age. Society tells us that we don't "measure up" if we aren't with someone. They make us think that we are somehow "incomplete" unless we have "someone special". But those are just lies the Devil uses to tempt us into making bad choices. We can only be truly complete in Christ regardless of our social connections with others. It's only when we acknowledge and accept that truth, and are content with ourselves as we are in Him, that we will be able to make good choices in our social connections because we will understand that we are just choosing others to aid us in connecting with God and living in the fullness of life He intended*.
Significance -- We all want to be heard, and if not always understood, at least respected. The natural urge for some may be to shout louder or even resort to violence to "make people listen". But all that's going to do is make people run the other way because we know deep down that they're going about it all wrong. We know that individually, if not always collectively. (zipped lips beyond that) If we truly want to be heard and respected, we need to behave in a manner that is going to encourage others to respond that way. I mean, think about it, how many times have you solved a problem in your relationship by arguing and shouting?? I'm guessing zero... Quiet talking after quiet reflection wins every time doesn't it?? Or if not, you do what needs to be done to move forward. Win or lose at that point, at least you've behaved respectfully.
Security -- The World tells us that more money = more security. That may be true to a certain extent, but only God can provide where the the World cannot. And that's true both for money and emotions.
Life, freedom, and peace can only be found in Christ. Paul's reminder that something new has begun* is an extension of God's invitation to share life in and through Him. It's not a command, a new set of rules, or moral behavior modification. Our acceptance of the Gospel leads us into a lifestyle of love, joy, peace, etc... * Looking out the window with Spring approaching is a good time to think about renewal.
Just remember that it's the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin, He doesn't shame us. Conviction is simply awareness, not unlike a light on your dashboard that signifies engine trouble. It lights up and says, "ooops... something may be wrong here!!" Shame is only brought on by the influence of others who want to exert a level of control on us. Control is never love, only discipline is love. Gentle correction, not guilt and shame. God wants us to come to repentance on our own, not under the compulsion of others who sit in judgement. And speaking of coming on our own, some of you may accept God's forgiveness, but hold out on forgiving yourselves. For you, it's important to realize that if God holds no record of it, then neither should you. Remember, you're just doing the best you can in any given moment. You know you're not perfect, so stop expecting yourself to be.
In closing, Pastor Matt turned our attention to Psalm 51:1-12 as we prayerfully reflected on David's confession to God. Take a few minutes now and turn there to reflect for yourselves.
God Bless!!
Footnotes --
"pray in faith" -- See last week's footnote on this.
Giving and receiving from God -- the "pendulum" of extravagant receiving and abundant giving has been mentioned more than once before...
"judging them" -- Several prior Sermon Summaries have covered this.
Old has gone and new has begun -- Many times, we may think of this most at New Year's, but the truth is that it can be used any time we need it.
Sin is present that requires a sacrifice -- This idea is in line with those who believe in "Original Sin", which is confirmed in several other places in Scripture. I only bring it up now because I saw something this past week that looked at the word, "seal" and it mentioned about something that showed ownership by etching. The author's thought was that we all start out as a "blank slate" that could be etched on by either Good or Evil. I didn't read any further... ;p
Jewish Law -- God "borrowed" these from the Pagan practices they were already familiar with in order to give them a basis for establishing a New Nation that would carry His message into the World. A thorough understanding of the book of Hebrews reveals that, due to Jesus' one sacrifice for all (Heb. 10 and others), we no longer live under the Law, but under grace. Not to "do what we want because all is forgiven", but to embrace God's love and do the best we can each day; knowing we're not perfect.
Fellowship with God now... See last week's message
"pass on to others" Some of you may remember the song from the 70's/80's, I'll include it below.
"chosen properly" -- this is another way to know if we are in God's Will. How does our choice feel in relation to Him?? If there's anything "off" about it, then you need to fix it.
"Compromise ourselves or our morals" -- We may be "people pleasing" in order to fit in, or as in my life of cheating, we may compromise our morals for something that feels good "for a minute", or 6 mos... This also may bring up the whole "gender preference" issue. I say leave it between them and God. I know what the Bible says, but I also know what it means. Context is crucial... 'nuff said...
Fullness of life... It doesn't matter if we're married, dating, or single as long as we're following God and treating others the way we want to be treated.
"something new has begun" -- We have the partial benefits of Salvation now, but the completion will come when Jesus returns. It's not just an "unfulfilled promise", but one that is currently in progress.
"love, joy, peace..." See Galatians 5:26-27 for full list.
Music -- rights belong to others...
Bonus
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