You Are!

Luke 9:20 “Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”

No matter what the world might think of him -- whether it is Herod or the crowd or the enemies of Jesus -- Jesus' real concern was that his disciples know. He would leave his mission in their hands. They would be called upon to put their lives on the line. They would be called to move from being merely followers to becoming followers who were leaders, mentors, and guides for thousands of others. Peter answers for them: "You are the Messiah sent from God!" Who is Jesus to you? Is he your Messiah, the gift sent from God to save you? If not, what stands in your way?

Fitting Into God's Foolishness

1 Corinthians 1:21, Paul gives us an interesting insight into how you and I please God.

“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.”

God's methods are astounding.  To bring men and women into His family through the foolishness of preaching!  When people hear the gospel preached and believe it, God is pleased.

Now how is the gospel preached?  Through your life and mine.  Every one of us has been entrusted by God with some gift to communicate the gospel.  Perhaps you have been entrusted by God with unusual wealth.  Or maybe a marvelous singing voice, or the ability to communicate, or perhaps the skill to assimilate facts.

Whatever it is, God has put something in each of us that somehow fits into His great master plan of winning this lost world to Jesus Christ.

God has chosen to use these weak, fallible vessels to share the simple gospel message that the world is separated from Him because of sin.  In His mercy, God reached down to the human race when He sent His own Son, Who willingly gave up His life on the cross and died for our sins.  The price was paid.  God's eternal justice was satisfied.  And the Holy Spirit raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

That is the message our world so desperately needs to hear today!  God is pleased when you share that "foolishness."  So however God has gifted you, use that gift today to present a living Jesus to our dying world!

What’s At The Heart

Psalm 51:6 “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.”

Have you ever gone to a sawmill and watched them process timber? They take a big log out of the woods that may have bumps and knots on it, and they lay it on a cradle, running it through a saw, cutting off one side. Then they bring it back, turn it, and run it through again to cut off another side. When they’re finished, if you stand and look down it, it’s perfectly straight. But if you look at the end of it, the heart is still crooked. That’s the way it is with some individuals who are outwardly living the Christian life. But Jeremiah 17:9 warns the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We need regeneration. We must be born again.

Avoiding Burnout In Your Walk With Christ

Isaiah 40:30-31 “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

Often today, I hear about people who are burning out, wiping out, and shipwrecking their faith because they’re just tired. They’ve worked and worked their entire lives for the ministry until one day, they just decide it’s too much, so they quit. And some even become so jaded and burnt out that they completely abandon their faith.

I don’t want that kind of burnout to happen to me and I certainly don’t want it to happen to you. And the best way that we can be sure it won’t happen is by walking in the presence of Jesus and giving time for him each day. We do this by spending time in his Word, seeking his will in prayer, and fellowshipping with one another.

The best part of the Christian experience is walking day by day, one step at a time, with your God. When you do that, being faithful to your family, to your friends, and to your church will be a natural outflow of your walk with God.

AVOID BURNOUT IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE BY WALKING IN THE PRESENCE OF JESUS AND SPENDING TIME WITH HIM EACH DAY.

Watch Me Work

Moses felt as low as a slug's belly. Way down there. He still hadn't rid himself of the idea that he was supposed to be the deliverer, and that he was somehow failing. How many times had God explained it to him? Yet, like many of us, he had trouble keeping a grip on the Lord's assurances.

Exodus 6:11 “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.”

"Go to Pharaoh, Lord? My own people just bought me a one-way ticket caravan back to Midian, and You want me to go back to Pharaoh? R-r-r-e—m-m-m-em—ber m-m-me? I'm the guy who can't t-t-t-talk. Shoot, I'd mess up a rock fight, Lord. I can't get it together. I'm at the end of my rope. How in the world are You going to pull this off?"

Moses didn't know it at the moment, but he'd put before the Lord the best proposition yet. I'm at the end of my rope. How are you going to do it?

Before we go any further, I'd like to underline a major truth in this world of ours that I don't pretend to understand. Here it is: the best framework for the Lord God to do His most ideal work is when things are absolutely impossible and we feel totally unqualified to handle it. That's His favorite circumstance. Those are His ideal working conditions.

In spite of the Lord's assurances, things kept going from bad to worse for Moses. He'd already gotten the worst of it in a meeting with Pharaoh, and now, in a subsequent parley with the Israelites, he found himself fresh out of credibility. They would no longer listen to him.

Time after time, He brings us to our absolute end and then proves Himself faithful. That, my friend, is not only the story of my life, it's the story of the Bible in a nutshell.

The Ultimate Question

Philippians 2:9-11 “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

  

When Jesus spoke to His disciples about His impending death and resurrection, it was lost in translation. They didn’t seem to get it. The problem was they had visions of grandeur. They envisioned Jesus establishing His earthly kingdom where they would rule and reign with Him, where everyone would live happily ever after. That is why, after the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus made them get into a boat and leave. The people had wanted to take Jesus and make him king by force.

Jesus was about to reveal something to His disciples they had not understood up to this point, and it was simply this: He would die on a cross. There would be a crucifixion. There would be a resurrection. There would be a Second Coming. And then His kingdom would be established.

So Jesus posed a very important question to them: Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matthew 16:13). This question is still being posed to us today, and it is the most important question anyone ever will respond to.

They are really only four options, four responses to that great question Christ posed. Either Jesus was a legend, a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. We know that He was not a legend, because there is more than enough historical evidence to clearly confirm that Jesus Christ lived and died at a marked point in time. Others will say that He was lying about everything He said, while still others would say that He was stark raving mad.

But we have to respond to this question Jesus posed. And ultimately everyone, everywhere will say that Jesus Christ is Lord. Christians, skeptics, agnostics, atheists, everyone—regardless of their religion—eventually will say that Jesus Christ is Lord when they stand before God.

Jesus posed an important question to His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” What is your response to this same-asked question of you?

Avoiding Burnout In Your Walk With Christ

Isaiah 40:30-31 “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

Often today, I hear about people who are burning out, wiping out, and shipwrecking their faith because they’re just tired. They’ve worked and worked their entire lives for the ministry until one day, they just decide it’s too much, so they quit. And some even become so jaded and burnt out that they completely abandon their faith.

I don’t want that kind of burnout to happen to me and I certainly don’t want it to happen to you. And the best way that we can be sure it won’t happen is by walking in the presence of Jesus and giving time for him each day. We do this by spending time in his Word, seeking his will in prayer, and fellowshipping with one another.

The best part of the Christian experience is walking day by day, one step at a time, with your God. When you do that, being faithful to your family, to your friends, and to your church will be a natural outflow of your walk with God.

AVOID BURNOUT IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE BY WALKING IN THE PRESENCE OF JESUS AND SPENDING TIME WITH HIM EACH DAY.