Scatter!

Message:  Scatter!     Text: Acts 8:1-5  

“God created you for someone…for Jesus.”  

The 24/7 church. Ministry as we gather, and as we scatter  

Ministry as we gather: Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together; as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”                                                               

We are here to give, and therefore we receive.

Ministry as we scatter: Take the gospel with you wherever you go.                                                   

Who is the most important person for you to reach/help? 

The church is the only organization in the world that exists for those that are not yet members of it. 

Where are you on your discipleship journey?

Message: The gospel according to Luke Text: Luke 23:50-53

All eyes on each other; all eyes on Joseph.

How long do you keep trying to help/reach someone? When do you give up?

All eyes on each other; all eyes on you.

Where are you on your discipleship journey? Are you on a journey?

Never base your faithfulness on the faith-less-ness of others.

Jim Elliot, "We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the 20th century does not reckon with. But we are harmless and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle to the death with principalities and powers in high places…We are sideliners--coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us--we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous."

Watching but never doing.

Message: The gospel according to Luke     Text: Luke 23:47-49   (11-1-20)

I wish I would not have…  

There is forgiveness and there is repentance.       Mark 1:15, Acts 3:19  

Henry Blackaby, "Repentance indicates a decisive change, not merely a wishful resolution.  We have not repented if we continue in our sin!  Repentance involves a radical change of heart and mind in which we agree with God's evaluation of our sin and then take specific action to align ourselves with His will.  A desire to change is not repentance."  

The Holy Spirit gives you the power to do it, but does not make your decision to do it.  

I wish I would have…  

Watching but never doing. (Simon of Cyrene, Joseph of Arimathea)  

Matthew 25:44-45, “Lord, when did we see you…?”  

Work on being blind and you won't see  

Work on being deaf and you won't hear  

Work on being care-less and you won't hurt  

Guard your heart and it won't break  

A Journey Home

Message: The gospel according to Luke     Text: Luke 23:44-46  

The temple veil represented separation—the holy from the unholy. Isaiah 59:2.                                                              Jesus tore the veil from top to bottom, from God to you. 1 Timothy 2:5.  

The end game…then no more end.  

“It is finished.” Not, “I am finished.” John 17:4-5, 13  

What ends here is not the end. You’re on a journey home to the Father, everything is about this for you. God the Father already sees it, do you?

Rick Warren, "At death you won't leave home- you'll go home."  

Vonette Bright, "This life is just preparation for the next.  We don't stop living; we just stop living here."  

Vance Havner, "God's people are not citizens of earth trying to get to heaven, but citizens of heaven trying to get through this world."  

Roger Palms, "The work of God didn't start with us; it will not end with me.  We are part of a larger plan."  

"My God, My God, why...?" You are why.

Message: The gospel according to Luke     Text: Luke 23:39-43  

“One of the criminals”: What you think about eternity changes everything…changes everything you think about everything.                                                                                     

I can’t think of anything more pointless than atheism.  

C. S. Lewis, "Don't you think that all you atheists are strangely unsuspicious people?"  

“The other”: Nothing could be better for this criminal than Jesus, and nothing could be better for Jesus than this criminal. Ministry has disappointment built in, but every so often a praying criminal comes along.  

Mozart, "Remember, merciful Jesus, that I am the cause of your journey."  

“My God, My God, why…?”   You are why.  

First General Baptist teaches, preaches and believes strongly in the security of the believer. “You will be with Me…”

Saving yourself seems to be the thing to do!

Message: The gospel according to Luke       Text: Luke 23:32-38  

Look at vs 36, then Luke 1:31-33  

Father forgive…they don’t see what they’re doing.   1) an example for us     2) a reminder to us                                                                                                             “All sin is a form of insanity.”  

Saving yourself seems to be the thing to do!            

Philippians 2:5-8                                                                 

You’re not happy because you’re trying to be happy. Stop trying to make yourself happy and start trying to make someone else happy…and you will be happy.  

Happiness is sneaky and slippery; hard to find and harder to hang onto when found.  

Mother Teresa, "Love demands sacrifice.  But if we love until it hurts, God will give us His peace and joy…Suffering in itself is nothing; but suffering shared with Christ's Passion is a wonderful gift."  (CBS correspondent Dan Rather interviewed Mother Teresa and commented that she was the happiest person he had ever met…and couldn’t figure out why.) 

As it was in the days of Noah.

Message: The gospel according to Luke     Text: Luke 23:27-31  

2 Timothy 3:13, Luke 17:26  For this world, this isn’t going to end well. We know that but it still surprises us while we are seeing it.  

Acts 17:31  We are all heading toward an appointed day.  

So, what do we do as we live out  the reality of our faith?  

Matthew 10:22  

Genesis 6:22  

Andy Rooney:  "I don't know what's wrong with me anyway but there aren't many days when I don't think about the end of the world."  

Pilgrim's Progress, "This I've resolved to do--to run when I can, to walk when I can't run, and to crawl when I can't walk."  

Queen Elizabeth, wife of King George VI, on the suggestion that her 2 daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, be evacuated to a safer location during the WWII bombing of London by Germany, "The children won't go without me. I won't leave the King. And the King will never leave." 

Simon of Cyrene

Message: The gospel according to Luke                                              

Text: Luke 23:26  

Simon of Cyrene  

Depending on how well you know someone, it is either: “I get to,” or, “I have to.” Attitude is everything.  

Jesus is being led out of Jerusalem, at the same time Simon is coming from the country into Jerusalem, he is just passing by; the soldiers compelled Simon; his name is very specific, “Simon of Cyrene,” not some other Simon; his sons are named; at the time that Matthew, Mark and Luke are writing, the church knows who Simon and his sons are.  

2 Corinthians 5:14-15  

Everything in this life and in the life to come hinges on how well you know Jesus.  

J.I. Packer, "When we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, as likely as not we shall impatiently shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm getting up and our strength spent, and someone takes our arm to help us, we shall thankfully lean on him."  

I don’t want to be Pilate

Message: The gospel according to Luke                                             

 Text: Luke 23:13-25  

I am Barabbas…I can be the Chief Priests/people…I don’t want to be Pilate  

Leaders who don’t lead anymore…they have given up.  

Spiritual Leadership: Agents of positive change; reject crowd mentality (Acts 19:32); First to stand up, first to speak up…first. So, leaders stop looking around but rather look up.  

True spiritual leaders know what the right thing is, they know in their heart what should be done. But they’re not the only ones who know. Someone in your life is waiting for you to lead, they need you to lead.  

Harry S. Truman, "I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he'd taken a poll in Egypt? What would Jesus Christ have preached if he'd taken a poll in Israel? It isn't polls or public opinion of the moment that counts.  It's right and wrong." 

Lord's Supper

Message: The gospel according to Luke                                             

 Text: Luke 22:17-19  

Lord’s Supper  

Passover for the Jews, the Lord’s Supper for us, is meant to be a reminder, a chance to reset…  

Almost every list of what we are thankful for will be important things, but mostly temporal things.  

What Jesus has done for us changes everything we have and everything we have to look forward to.  

Gave thanks and broke the bread…Gave thanks and passed the wine…  

Adrian Rogers, "If Christ didn't die on a cross, wasn't buried in a tomb, and doesn't live today, nothing matters.  If Christ did die a horrible death on a cross, was buried in a borrowed tomb, and did rise again on the third day, nothing else matters."

We can be the chief priests...and the people.

Message: The gospel according to Luke     Text: Luke 23:13-25  

We can be the chief priests…and the people.  

It was hatred of Jesus, not love of Barabbas, that set Barabbas free.  

Chief Priests: Anger that leads to hatred that leads us too far.  (vs 21-22) In relationships, you can do and say things you won’t recover from.                            Know anyone who enjoys being angry?  

I am Barabbas…

Message: The gospel according to Luke     Text: Luke 23:13-25  

I am Barabbas…  

Real love is not based on behavior:                             

Isaiah 53:6  

Romans 5:6-8  

Real love does not wait to be asked, real love goes first:                                                                   

Revelation 3:20  

A.W. Tozer, "Nobody ever got anything from God on the grounds that he deserved it.  Having fallen, man deserves only punishment and death.  So if God answers prayer it’s because God is good."  

Grace is everything for nothing to those who don't deserve anything.  

Jesus taken to Roman authorities-Pilate and Herod

Message: The gospel according to Luke                                             

 Text: Luke 23:1-12  

Jesus taken to Roman authorities—Pilate and Herod  

Vs 23:1, “…led Him to Pilate.”  Why?  

Galatians 4:4  

Romans 13:1-2  

Matthew 28:18  

Winston Churchill  1874                                                 

 Franklin Roosevelt  1882                                                  

 Adolph Hitler  1889  

         God created you for Jesus…for someone.                   

Colossians 1:16                                                                 

Romans 8:29                                                                            

Luke 19:10  

How do you speak to God? How do you hear from God?

Message: The gospel according to Luke             Text: Luke 22:63-71

How do you speak to God? What do you talk about?

Amazing how many questions God does not answer, could it be because of the questions?                                       

  Isaiah 59:1-2

How do you hear from God? What does He talk about?

Ray Pritchard, "God ordinarily will not show you His will in order for you to consider it.  He won't show you His will so you can say, 'Maybe I will…maybe I won't.'  If you want to know God's will, you have to choose to do it before you know what it is."

Why should God answer you if you’re not going to believe it anyway?

We want what we want so badly we can’t believe it’s not what God wants. Important, difficult lesson: God doesn’t care about some of the things you care about so deeply. So, you have made some things more important than they actually are.

Simon Peter's Denial of Jesus

Message: The gospel according to Luke         Text: Luke 22:54-62

Simon Peter’s denial of Jesus—Jesus is not observing us in our pain, He enters our pain with us

Vs 57 Walking in Jesus’ shoes        “Woman, I do not know Him.”

Vs 58 Walking in the apostle’s shoes      “You also are of them.”

Vs 61-62 Walking in Simon Peter’s shoes.       “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.” How could Peter know Jesus was looking at him?

We can repent of our sins but we can’t atone for our sins…that’s what Jesus did. The apostle Paul said that if it’s of works it’s not of grace—we can’t have it both ways, either we’re saved by grace or we’re not saved.

We can repent of our sins, because Jesus paid for our sins.

Timothy Keller, "…the prerequisite for receiving the grace of God is to know you need it.  If you want God's grace, all you need is need, all you need is nothing."

The Arrest of Jesus

Message: The gospel according to Luke     Text: Luke 22:47-54

The Arrest of Jesus

What is the last recorded act of Jesus physically healing someone? What is the last recorded act of Jesus spiritually healing someone?

No need of swords, on either side. In Gethsemane Jesus made His choice, now everyone else has to make their choice, and they are free to choose.

We never lose the power to choose.

Love, by definition, is choice. A discipleship relationship with Jesus based on love, not duty/rules.                   

John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Jesus, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?”

Albert  Einstein,  "I believe that love is a better teacher than a sense of duty."

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it every day." -Noelle, age 7

Why is it so important that we pray? Because we need to sleep.

Message: The gospel according to Luke            Text: Luke 22:39-46

~Jesus’ struggle with the Father’s will.                                

~My struggle with the Father’s will.                                                                            

 Who is present: (Jesus) Satan, Father, an angel, disciples

Vs 46  It isn’t to escape temptation, but to not enter it (overcome, overpower, give in, fall into)

Why is it so important that we pray? Because we need to sleep.

The devil doesn’t just want you to do some bad things. John 10:10

Someone knew an angel was there…

Worrying…thinking…assuming, is not praying.

Satan's demons always have a hand on you, pressed either against your chest or your back. Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit always has His hand on you, pressed either against your chest or your back.

Jesus’ struggle with the Father’s will.

Message: The gospel according to Luke         Text: Luke 22:39-46

~Jesus’ struggle with the Father’s will.                                

~My struggle with the Father’s will.                                                                             

Who is present: (Jesus) Satan, Father, an angel, disciples

In Gethsemane the human part of Jesus is struggling with God the Father as every human struggles with God over our will versus God’s will. What were they struggling over…or who were they struggling over?

These struggles always involve choice, in this instance the choice to love…to love someone else more than yourself. Jesus loves you and had to choose to love you again.

Luke 22:34 Father forgive them…                                             

vs 35 the rulers                                                                           

vs 36-37 the soldiers                                                                  

vs 39 one criminal

Do you know anyone who is worthless? Jesus’ love for you has nothing to do with what you do, it is for what you are, you are His!

The cross is the measure of God’s love for you…nothing else.

Job as a father

Message: Job as a father Text: Job 1:1-5

The book of Job is one of the earliest Bible stories written. Israel as a nation and the priesthood had not happened yet. Job is the priest/pastor of his home, nothing changes that. The priesthood/pastorate were designed to help the larger community, not take the place of the father in the home (Esau and his birthright)

According to the number of them all—a sacrifice for each of his children, individually (Susanna Wesley)

See how busy Job’s life must be, but he’s up early in the morning sacrificing for his children. This is important to him, his children are important to him and their relationship with his God is important to him. Job does not join them and they do not join him. (The Prodigal Son)

The devil doesn't get it, We don't get it, but Jesus gets it.

Message: The gospel according to Luke        Text: Luke 22:31-34

The devil doesn’t get it:                                                                        

Satan has asked for you by name (Job, Sceva’s sons)

Martin Luther, “Whenever I enter my study, close the door, and open my Bible, the devil meets me there.”                       

“You can tell the character of a man by looking at his enemies.”

We don’t get it:                                                                                           

No one knows themselves like they think they do.                       

Matthew Henry, "The stronger the temptation to sin is, the stronger the resolution must be against it."   

Beware of “self righteousness” which is technically an oxymoron.                                                                           

We need to do what we can, only problem with that is  John 15:5.

Jesus gets it:                                                                                              

Satan asked and Jesus said yes.                                                               

We grow thru our tests. Our failures make us more than our successes.