Category Archives: Sermon Notes
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PromiseLand Church is now podcasting again. However, this time we are podcasting the entire sermon every week!
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Rejoicing In The City | Sermon Notes
We must realize that idols cannot be removed. They must be replaced.
We need a living encounter with God. Jesus must be the “over mastering positive passion”. The core foundation of our life.
Let’s go back to the story of Jacob…A couple of weeks ago we discussed Jacob’s issues. Dysfunctional family. Competition. Looking for sex and companionship to solve his issues. Jacob wrestled with his brother in the womb. He fought for his father’s love. He enslaved himself to Laban to find love in Rachel. He even had a religious experience. Nothing worked. He was empty and scared for his life and family. He decides to leave and head back home. He hears that Esau is waiting for him. Tomorrow would be the last battle.
Genesis 32:24-31
Jacob wrestles with God and says he will not let go until He is blessed by God. (not a 10min wrestling with God at the altar after the sermon. We will pray with you, but we are talking about a life time of sticking to God.)
Jacob realizes that his whole life he has been looking in all the wrong places. The Blessings of God. From God. I don’t care if it costs me my life, I am going to reach out to you until you hold me close.
God blesses him. What must that have been like. Think of an experience with God that fills the gap of family baggage, sexual frustration, the craving for acceptance. God we need you to bless us! God still blesses!
Sex in the City | Sermon Notes
SEX in the City
Jesus has called us to be the salt of the Earth, the light of the World. A City Set on a Hill. Set apart yet influencing the rest of the City. We are looking at different aspects of our life in the City and how it affects our worship and our influence. Last week we talked about things that get in the way. Idols.
Let’s look at our Spouses and Family AND when you get right down to it. Our Sex in the City.
Isaac, Jacob’s dad tells him to go find Laban and marry ‘one of his daughters’. So Jacob goes on the journey. God promises him strongly. He will be blessed and father many children. (similar to Abraham covenant).
He finally makes it to Laban’s neck of the woods and finds sheep at a well. While he is speaking to some shepherds, he looks up and sees the most beautiful woman! Rachel!
Sermon Notes: “Idols in the City” part 1
Jesus said that we are “the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a CITY set on a hill.”
What does that mean? Right now, we can have God in our lives. Because while we were sinners and didn’t even know or care about God, He came to this earth lived a sinless life, took on all of our sins to justify us or make us right. That whosoever, shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved. The good news is that our sin is taken away and we become an eligible place for God to live. The good news is that this is a gift. He loves us and it is free. Take it!
What would it look like if we lived in unity with God and the world?
In Genesis 1, God made man in His image. To follow after God (worship) v.26 Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
- Worship God
- Rule over all created things in God’s name
Exodus 20: 3 You must not have any other god but me. (1st commandment) 4 You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. (2nd commandment) 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.
Exodus 23:24 You must not worship the gods of these nations or serve them in any way or imitate their evil practices. Instead, you must utterly destroy them and smash their sacred pillars…32 “Make no treaties with them or their gods. 33 They must not live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me. If you serve their gods, you will be caught in the trap of idolatry.”
We read that and say. Oh yeah! The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is God. Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Emmanuel. God with us. However, God put this as the FIRST commandment because He knew it would be the hardest one to keep. The more we are in the City. The easier it is to look like, dress like, talk like, desire like …the city. He definitely wants us in the city. But, he is looking for us to keep HIM FIRST.
When Moses comes down from the mountain to meet back up with the people, the first thing he realizes is that they have made an idol golden calf!
I know what you are thinking right now… “Pastor, I have been doing really good lately. I have not made any golden calves. I have been tempted, but I have held off!!” Let’s look at what happens to us as New Testament believers. Here is what the Apostle Paul says about Christians like us:
Romans 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
In 2013 (just as in the days of Romans, people are still finding their self worth in things other than God)
A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living. An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and making money, or achievement and critical acclaim, or saving face and social standing. It can be a romantic relationship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry. -Timothy Keller
An idol is anything that makes you feel: “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning. Then, I will know that I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.”
We come to Jesus and we lay down the big ones. We ask him to forgive us of all the sin in our life and we are inspired/motivated by His Spirit to eliminate sinful habits and activities from our life.
We worship fervently on the weekend and some at home. (picking up Bible and then putting it back down.) We work a lot on the items of our life. Investing a lot in each one. Becoming emotionally connected to each one. Desiring to see each one of them perfected. Finding our identity in the completion and the look of these things to other people. This is the idolization of life. We go to God, Bible in order to prop these things back up and we are disappointed in God when we see Him not showing up in each item.
Sunday morning, Daily reading/prayer, accountability, serving the kingdom, all these items are in our life to refocus and recenter our thoughts around the Gospel. All these parts of our life are here to give us a soil or planting ground for His purposes. The success of failure of them in and of themselves is NOT important. His glory is not found in the perfection of our life parts, but in His gospel being revealed and his Kingdom being established.
Why do we lie, or fail to love, or break our promise, or live selfishly? Of course, the general answer is “Because we are weak and sinful,” but the specific answer is that there is something besides Jesus Christ that we feel we must have to be happy, something that is more important to our heart than God, something that is enslaving our heart through inordinate desires. The key to change (and even to self-understanding) is therefore to identify the idols of the heart. – Timothy Keller
The number one way to identify an idol is to think of the thing or things that cause you the most stress. I’m so stressed because______________. Many times we think that as Christians that we are being attacked by a spirit of darkness, but really our stress is coming from a demanding idol craving your attention. Idols are so demanding.
We have placed family on a pedestal. We have placed financial security on a pedestal. We have placed sexual fulfillment on a pedestal. We have placed being accepted by our peers on a pedestal. AND because we have deficiency in some of these areas it causes us stress and until we get it looking just right.
Galatians 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
Sermon Notes – The Season’s Reason
Luke 1:30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. …37 For with God nothing shall be impossible. 38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
NLT I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.
THE SEASON’S REASON – Lets pray
In the beginning of time, God gives mankind options. In order for there to be true love, there has to be a choice in the matter. Rick Warren says that it is our greatest asset and our most crippling liability. Our freedom of choice. God allows us to be who we want to be.
Each time we turn from God, we vote for darkness. Not because we are hoping for darkness. We actually desire pleasure and immediate gratification. However, we turn from the light.
We live in a dark world. People are talking about the end of the world on Friday, Dec 21. It has sort of been a joke, but when you look at the headlines, it doesn’t look all that funny. It looks deadly serious. The end of this world actually doesn’t sound all that bad, if that means we live forever in heaven.
The US government is facing the fiscal cliff. Where financial markets are in a turmoil. Taxes being raised in 2013 have people scrambling to sell.
It seems every few weeks there is more news about violence. The news from Connecticut on Friday was devastating.
We stumble through the dark. Find a lot pain and struggle. The wages of sin is death.
We try to generate light ourselves by our work ethic. Our purchases. Our ‘making it’. Earthly success seems to give us a glimmer of hope, but it is no match for the strong man. Luke 11 says that you can become strong, and protect your possessions. However, they are only protected until a stronger man comes along.
God’s answer to the strong man is the manger. A baby. The Season’s Reason.
All we need is Jesus. **Even after we come to Jesus. We still need Jesus.**
Only time would tell just what that meant. ’Let everything happen to me’ Many of us have responded in the exact same way. “Yes, Lord, I will follow you. It is not too long after before we realize that trials come to everyone. Jesus says you will have enemies. It rains on the just and unjust.
Matthew 5: 11 God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.
Matthew 24:9 Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers.
Mary faced the physical pains of the natural birthing process. She also unleashed the wrath of a society that believed she was in sin for conceiving a baby out of wedlock. After this waned, she faced the struggle of her adult son traveling the region preaching, teaching with no home and no means of survival. He eventually is tortured and sacrificed on the cross in front of her face. Her own son.
Many of us have been impregnated with the purpose of God and He is wanting us to give birth to ministry that will further his Kingdom. As we carry that ministry to term and then live with it in adulthood, it takes a toll. We look for solutions to deal with the wounds and the pressure.
Since Mary’s solution was her baby (Jesus), we are tempted to think that our solution is our baby (our ministry). Therefore, when struggle comes, we work harder. We try to catch people that leave us. We think one more service, one more sermon, one more encouraging word and one more conversion will help our hurt. When this happens we continue to dig ourselves into a hole that we can never get out of. If we are looking to ministry to heal our hurt, then we will always hurt.
The mission field is inexhaustible. There is always one more Sunday to plan for. There is always one more sinner to save. We chase joy forever, if we think it is found in the grasp of our ministry.
Ephesians 2: 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
The bottomline is when we ‘give it all to God’ that means that we are ok if it all falls apart. It ‘staying together’ is not our saving grace.
We continue to give it our best effort, but it’s ultimate success or failure is solely dependent upon his Grace.
Our release is so difficult, because it has been our baby. We have poured a lot of sweat, blood, tear, money, effort into our Christian Life/Ministry. Now, we realized we have crossed a boundary and are not simply caring deeply for God’s work, and relying on Him to supply the Grace to complete. Instead we feel like God’s acceptance of us comes through the completion of the work He has commissioned us to complete.
We do not find our hope in the birth of our ministry or our work. We find our hope in Mary’s baby. Jesus was born once and it was enough for eternity.
Personal connection with Jesus is the only way we will find healing for our ministry wounds. We will continue to chase after sinners, hunt down demons, plan weekends, and get really creative with technique. However, we will stop the rat race of thinking that heals us.
Jesus, you are our source. You are our source for help and healing
MAX LUCADO
Dear Jesus,
It’s a good thing you were born at night. This world sure seems dark. I have a good eye for silver linings. But they seem dimmer lately. These killings, Lord. These children, Lord. Innocence violated. Raw evil demonstrated.
The whole world seems on edge. Trigger-happy. Ticked off. We hear threats of chemical weapons and nuclear bombs. Are we one button-push away from annihilation?
Your world seems a bit darker this Christmas. But you were born in the dark, right? You came at night. The shepherds were nightshift workers. The Wise Men followed a star. Your first cries were heard in the shadows. To see your face, Mary and Joseph needed a candle flame. It was dark. Dark with Herod’s jealousy. Dark with Roman oppression. Dark with poverty. Dark with violence.
Herod went on a rampage, killing babies. Joseph took you and your mom into Egypt. You were an immigrant before you were a Nazarene.
Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. Won’t you enter ours? We are weary of bloodshed. We, like the wise men, are looking for a star. We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger.
This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us.
Hopefully,
Your Children
The Joy of Trial
–by Marilyn Moore Apple
James speaks from those pages beneath my hand
A challenge I have laughed at just like Sarah laughed
I know of Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory
I know of the Joy That Comes In the Morning
But Joy In Trial?
How can my patience reach across that sea?
How can my tears be still in turmoil dark?
In the valley of the shadow of death even far at sea,
Shall I smile?
While pulling on the oars so hard to get to you
As you stand so peaceful on the Shore.
My sin is scarlet
My deeds are rags
My youth was wasted in the dusty alleys of this world.
I cannot see beyond the bow.
I can’t find solace in this darkest hour.
Though in my mind I see your sparkling flower covered hills.
Though through my reason I know your breadth and depth.
My breath still comes in gasps and sobs
My hope in peril on a sea of heartfelt doubt.
My flesh too weak to move
I seek to drown.
Heaven waits if I can yet somehow cast off this worthless form.
And be done with helpless futile efforts of my will.
You stand upon the sea my Lord
I see you’ve come to me.
Running to my gate of desperation
You take me in your arms.
Your voice in softest whisper
Tells me “patience, let it be”
“Let me row, give oars and all to me.”
I faint within this vision or this song.
When I awake I stand among the wildflowers on the hill,
I watch you rise again,
And suddenly I know—
You my Jesus, You are the Joy of all Trials.
Robin Steele 