Do You Stand In Awe? Job 25:2

“Dominion and awe belong to Him, Who establishes peace in His heights.” Job 25:2 God is so amazing! The sad thing is instead of standing in Awe of God, it seems as if we are just getting so complacent. Yesterday we baptized 8 people at FBC and it was a great celebration. We celebrated because God got a hold of 8 people’s hearts and forever changed their lives. They were coming to be baptized because they had accepted and made Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior and they wanted to make it a public announcement. This is not to say that they will not face struggles and hurts and trials but we can say for certain that they will not have to face eternity in Hell separated from God because they realized they were in need of a Savior, and responded to God’s call into their life and accepted His son. How amazing is that, but we take it for granted. Think about your life, think about your thoughts, your behaviors, all the ways in which YOU are not holy, all the ways in which you are a sinful person that is hostile to the gospel, yet God said I love you so I am going to give over my son for the ransom of many, for the ransom of YOU. But not only that he allowed us to live and breath until we could respond to what He did. That is what amazes me the most about God, how patient He was(and is) with me and how much He never gave(or gives) up on me even though I was(am) so lost in sin. Let me be personal for a minute so I can tell you what I mean. God protected me from a certain death of eternity separated from Him in Hell on many occasions before I was saved. I remember one time in particular; I was partying with my family and had gotten really intoxicated. My brother in law decided that the best thing to do while drunk was to get in to an old pickup truck and go off-roading. So that is what we did and as we were going along we blew two tires on the truck and we were just riding on rims. But that wasn’t going to stop us from being idiots and we decided to ride down a train track. As we were riding down that train track, sparks were just flying as we were riding rim on rail and I decided to stick my head out the window so I could yell and scream. I did this for about 3 or 4 minutes and for some reason I stopped and I was in the process of rolling up my window and before I could even get the window up, a sign hit the mirror and pushed it into the window blowing the window that I was rolling up out, splattering glass all over me. If I kept my head out the window 5 seconds longer I would have been decapitated by this sign that I did not see. What made me stop yelling out the window and stick my head back in. Many will say coincidence but I say it was Gods greatness. God saved me that day from a death separated from Him in hell, and I did not deserve to be saved but yet He still saved me. I did not deserve and still do not deserve the grace that God has shown me, yet He keeps showing it. I did not deserve the protection He gave me when I was living to fulfill the sinful desires of this world yet He protected me. I did not deserve the grace to be saved the day our daughter died ; yet He showed me it. I did not deserve the call to be a pastor, yet He called me and equipped me. The reality is when we really think about it we have so much to be amazed about with God. So much to be in AWE about. This week I encourage you remember all that God has done for you before and even after you have been saved. And as you do stand amazed and stand in awe of what a great God we have.

Who Will Dig The Graves?

Last Sunday night I had Steve Sheldon speak at our Sunday Evening Service. Steve and Linda Sheldon are missionaries with Wycliffe and FBC has supported them for many years. Many things that he was reporting on and many of the stories that he shared fascinated me. One particular story caught my attention. He told us how he and Linda were in the mission field 9 years before they had a person converted to Christianity. After this man came to know Christ as his Savior, Steve was interested in trying to find out what made him finally come to know the Lord. As Steve talked to him he found out it wasn’t the translation of the Bible in his language, it wasn’t the Bible verses that he told him, it wasn’t those “spiritual things” per say that made this man accept this Savior that Steve was telling him about. His reason for wanting Steve’s Jesus to be his Jesus too was because Steve dug the graves. See at the time there was an illness going around and many of the villagers were dying. These village people only believed in evil spirits. According to the villagers there were evil spirits of the air and also evil spirits of the ground. Steve said that there would be times when their house would be full of village people because the spirits were after them. So by Steve digging the graves he did something that met a significant need in their life because it saved them from having to be tormented by these evil spirits that they believed lived underground. So here is the question I have been thinking over since hearing Steve, “Who will dig the graves?” What I mean is, what is the equivalent to digging the graves here in Sibley? See for Steve digging the graves for these people were the way he showed them the love of Jesus. The man that was saved thinking was like this, If you dug the graves for us because Jesus loves you and you want to show us this love then this love of Jesus that you talk about must be so real. So how will we show our community the love of Jesus? People don’t see love through a denomination, through the color of carpet, through a constitution; people don’t even see love through words unless it is followed up with action. See we have a great opportunity to be that church that meets people where they are at in their life. We have a great opportunity to be that church where people say, they really know how to love people. I don’t mean loving people that are in the church, because most churches in Sibley has that down, most churches in Sibley know how to love the insiders. What I mean is, loving the outsiders, loving those people that look different, loving those that act different, loving those people who are in need and are hurting. We have an opportunity to be the church that is known in the community as “the church” that is there for the community. And all it will take for us to become all of this is to dig some graves. So the question that we all need to think about is this, are we ready? Are we ready to dig graves? If we are it’s going to require us to think outside the box at times. If we are it will mean that at times you will become uncomfortable. If we are it will mean that you will get dirty? If we will be it will mean that you might have to put others first before yourself. But if we will people will get saved and Sibley will be changed. So I don’t know about you but I think we should “dig some graves.”

A hypocrite! Not Me! Matthew 23:2-12

"The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; 3 therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. 4“They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. 5“But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. 6 “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men. 8“But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 “Do not be called 1leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. 11 “But the greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted." Matthew 23:2-12
I have thought a lot lately about hypocrisy. Non-Christians sometimes accuse Christians of being hypocrites. Indeed, if you don’t like hypocrites, you have a lot in common with Jesus. But there is a difference between a hypocrite and a sinner. A sinner acknowledges his sin and works to correct his shortcomings. A hypocrite acknowledges others sins and short comings and never sees anything wrong in their own life. The fact is at times Christians have rightly deserved the title hypocrite and at other times people have just used it as an excuse not to go to church or as an excuse not to explore Christianity. At a recent Sunday evening service we studied Matthew 23,where Jesus called the Pharsies hypocrites seven times and condemned them by placing woes upon them. Let me share a couple conclusions we made as why Jesus saw the Pharisees as such hyporcrites and why he was dealing so harshly with them. In doing so, let us try to avoid the same behavior so we can avoid being called a hypocrite.
1. They did not practice what they preached. Nothing will get us labeled as a hypocrite faster than doing this. As Christians we must be careful that we don’t talk one way and live life another. As a pastor friend of mine put it, “Your behavior is what you believe all the rest is talk.” I think many people see professing Christians talking a different game than what they live.
2. They enforced rules without giving meaning to them. The Pharisees were so good at setting up rules and following them. They were able to live by the law and were great at making others feel unworthy when they could not. As Christians we can’t expect non Christians to act like us. We cant expect them to follow certain do's and don’ts when they don’t understand the “why” behind them. Even in the church we are horrible at this. The premise of certain do's and don’ts is good because God has told us some things that are right and some things that are wrong and understanding that helps us to grow closer to God but if we don’t give the “why” people will not understand and just see us as setting some rules.
3. Everything they did was for show and for the praise of man and not God –They were clean on the outside but on the inside they were filthly. Their number one motivation was so that people would see them and everything that they did. As Christians I think it is so important that we are constantly looking within ourselves to see if our motives are right. Our motivation can’t be so people will see how good we are. Our motive can’t be so people will see our good works and give us praise. It must be in our hearts that we want to please God and no one else.

Darkness Will Come As Soon As Light is Gone John 12:35

My pastor Steve Dekok lately has been asking me many silly questions. The other day he asked me this silly question, “Just wondering again. If the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, what is the speed of Dark?” And I thought it was a really silly question so I posted the question on facebook and one of my nieces responded with, “I guess you could say that darkness "arrives" when light departs. So the speed that light "leaves" the observed space would be the speed of darkness; meaning the speed of darkness would be the speed of light, about 3.00 × 108 m/s.” I thought well that’s a great answer so I wrote back to Steve with that answer which he responded with, “Doug that was one of my silly questions that has great significance to spiritual growth. Darkness will come as soon as light is no longer gave.” You know what a great reminder that is. Darkness will come as soon as light is no longer given. It reminded me that there is a time coming in which darkness will prevail. A time when the light will be gone and darkness will rule. “So Jesus said to them, “^For a little while longer ^the Light is among you. ^Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who ^walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. 36“While you have the Light, ^believe in the Light, so that you may become ^sons of Light.” John 12:35. A day is coming when the light will be gone and darkness will prevail. Because of that we need to live with a sense of urgency. We need to walk in the light now and we need to encourage many others to do the same. We need to encourage people to get right with Christ now. We need to allow the Light to shine in our lives so that people will clearly see Jesus. We need to encourage other believers to remain faithful, to endure till the end. Darkness has not yet come, but the sun could very well be setting, so while there is still light live in that light today and be more like Christ at the end of today than you were at the start.