Pastor’s Blog

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Alone - Secrets

A series of sermons examining the root causes of isolation - why do our hearts become isolated, dis-connected, cut-off from God and others?  Even with good friends, good family, a good church, and a great God, persons still find themselves alone.  Why?

There are some good secrets.  In this sermon we are talking about the kind of secrets that make the soul sick.

Special word to children: if anyone ever tells you that you need to keep something secret, that you need to never, ever tell anyone about something; it’s very important to go to your parents, or go to a teacher, or go to a guidance counselor, or go to a pastor; and tell them what that person did or said.

Secrets separate us from God and from those around us.

Secrets are like splinters - they have to come out, though it might be very painful to get them out.

Healing, liberating honesty comes through faith in Jesus.

1.  Read Matthew 6:2-6 and Proverbs 20:19.  Describe your understanding of the difference between good secrets and bad secrets.  Discuss Pastor Craig’s special word to children.

2.  Read Mark 5:21-28.  As someone considered impure/unclean , this woman could not have come into such a crowd without keeping her condition secret; and certainly would have been kept away from a rabbi like Jesus unless she kept her secret.  How do secrets separate us from those around us, and from God?  How do verses 27-28 describe many persons’ experience of church and God?

3. Read Isaiah 29:15 and I John 1:5-7.  What is so dangerous about hiding secrets in darkness?  What happens to the soul?  What happens to relationships?  Why?  What do these verses say about those questions?

4. Read Mark 5:29-33.  The woman has a touch of God’s power, but needs something more.  Why do we need more than one touch of His power?  Why does Jesus stop and ask the question, “Who touched my garments?”  Pastor Craig described secrets like splinters that must come out, though it might be painful to get them out.  Why is it so painful to reveal secrets?

5.  Read Luke 12:1-2.  The word “hypocrite” was a theatrical term used to describe actors.  Why does Jesus warn His disciples about acting or putting on a show like the Pharisees?  What happens to you if more and more your life is a show?  Why does Jesus say that secrets are inevitably revealed?  How does that happen?  Describe the kind of denial that keeps us pretending to ourselves that our secrets will remain hidden.

6.  Read James 5:16.  Why is it important to find someone to speak your secrets to?  How do you find the right person or persons?

7.  Read Mark 5:34.  Jesus speaks these words after the woman tells the whole story.  What was the faith that woman had?  How did that faith make her well?

8.  Read Micah 7:8 and Isaiah 44:22.  How could the promises in these verses be powerful in your life?

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Alone - Envy

A series of sermons examining the root causes of isolation - why do our hearts become isolated, dis-connected, cut-off from God and others?  Even with good friends, good family, a good church, and a great God, persons still find themselves alone.  Why?

Envy isolates us by building walls of anger, resentment, and jealousy.

Envy separates us from God.

Envy will put you in a living hell in this world and a forever hell beyond this world.

Overcome envy by keeping an eternal perspective.

1.  Read Genesis 2:18 and Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.  In what ways have you experienced an “alone-ness”, dis-connection, or isolation of the heart?  How did that affect you?

2,  Read Genesis 4:1-5.  Did Cain have a justified envious anger?  Why or why not?  How do you think it was evident that God had regard for Abel’s offering but not for Cain’s offering? Share a time in your life when you experienced envy, jealousy, resentment?  Did it cause, to a greater or lesser degree, a dis-connection or isolation of your heart?  Why or why not?

3.  Read Titus 3:3 and Galatians 5:26.  Pay attention to the words other than envy in these verses.  Why are these other concerns associated with envy?  How have you seen this play out in family life, friendships, church life, etc?

4.  Read  I Corinthians 12:15-16.  Envy can cause us to feel as if we don’t belong in a church, a family, a group of friends, etc.  How have you seen this happen?

5.  Read Genesis 4:6-9.  Cain’s envy now takes him way past a brokenness in his relationship with his brother, now it separates him from God.  Why?  How did that happen?  Has envy of the road others have traveled caused a brokenness or dis-connection in your relationship with God?  How did that happen?

6.  Read John 21:15-22.  How is it that right in the middle of an incredibly significant moment in Peter’s life (Jesus is picking him up out of a pit of failure and discouragement, as well as preparing him for the challenges and difficulties ahead) Peter gets distracted by the question of whether he will have to walk a more difficult road than John?  Why do we get so consumed by comparing our lives to the lives of others?  What does that do to our relationship with the Lord?  How would you describe Jesus’ answer to Peter in verse 22?

7.  Read Genesis 4:10-12.  Though our God is a merciful, forgiving God, He sends Cain forth as a wanderer and fugitive?  Why?  Pastor Craig stated that perhaps God saw the envy that He knew would remain in Cain’s heart, forever separating him from God and others.  How might envy keep a person from coming to Christ, or cause a person to fall away from Jesus?

8.  Read Romans 8:18.  Pastor Craig made a promise that if  a person got hold of this one verse of scripture, meditating upon it, dissecting it, understanding it, receiving it in head and heart; that it will set you free from envy.  What does this verse mean?  How does it set us free from envy?

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Alone:  Judgment

A series of sermons examining the root causes of isolation - why do our hearts become isolated, dis-connected, cut-off from God and others?  Even with good friends, good family, a good church, and a great God, persons still find themselves alone.  Why?

God tells us it is not good to be alone.

When you judge others you isolate yourself.

You will stop judging others if you stop judging yourself.

Jesus was condemned, forsaken, left all alone, so that you never have to be.

1.  Read Genesis 2:18 and Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.  How would you define the isolation or “alone-ness” that Pastor Craig spoke of in the sermon?  In what ways has isolation of the heart been detrimental in your life?

2. Read Luke 6:37-38.  To judge means to separate (the bad from the good, the guilty from the innocent, the people you don’t like from the people you do like, the people you will not be kind to from the people you will be kind to, etc.).  What does Jesus mean when he says, “the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”? Pastor Craig stated that when you judge/criticize/write off others you isolate yourself.  How do you see this playing out in your life or in the lives of others?

3.  Read Matthew 21:14-16, Luke 5:27-32, and Luke 7:31-34.  Looking at each of these passages individually, how would the Pharisees’ and scribes’ lives have been different if they hadn’t been so judgmental?

4.  Read I Corinthians 4:1-5.  What does it mean when Paul says, “I do not even judge myself.”?  Verse 5 indicates why Paul does not judge himself or anyone else.  What does that verse mean to you?  Pastor Craig stated that if you stop judging yourself you will stop judging others.  How does that work?

5.  Read Matthew 27:27-46.  Though we might experience almost everything we read of in this passage, we need never experience what we read in verse 46.  Why?  What does it mean to you to know that God will never forsake you?  How does knowing this good news empower us to stop judging ourselves, stop judging others, and come out separation/dis-connection/isolation?

Sunday, April 4, 2010

If Jesus Is Dead

- If Jesus is dead, then faith in God is pointless.

- If Jesus is dead, then there is no hope for us sinners.

- In fact, Jesus is alive, and He is calling your name.

1. Read I Corinthians 15:17.  Pastor Craig asked the question, “If it was known absolutely, positively that Jesus is dead, that He wasn’t raised up from death, would you still have faith in Jesus?”  The Apostle Paul answers that question with a resounding, “No!”  Why does Paul answer that way?

2.)  Read Ezekiel 37:1-3.  When the Lord asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?”, Ezekiel’s faith is being tested: does he have faith in God, or doesn’t he?  What “dry bones” do you see around you or within you?  Why is it so very difficult to have faith that God can raise up the”dry bones”?  If Jesus remained dead in the grave, what does that say about faith in God?

3.)  Read John 20:1-11.  Mary Magdalene’s sorrow (v. 11) for Jesus and all that had been done to Him, was, perhaps, magnified as she thought back on her own experience with Jesus.  Jesus had set her free from seven evil spirits.  If Jesus was now dead in the grave, if the power of God had not raised Him up from death, wouldn’t that mean to Mary that there had never been any real power?  Wouldn’t that mean that it had been all just talk, just the power of positive thinking?  What difference does it make to you, in a personal way, if Christianity is just all about positive, inspiring talk; or if it’s about putting faith in the real, tangible power of God?

4.)  Read Ezekiel 37:4-14 and Ephesians 1:18-20.  In their stubborn sinfulness, the Israelites had dug their own graves.  Why did that make the Israelites all the more hopeless?  If the Father didn’t raise Jesus up from death, what would that say to us sinners about what happened on the cross?  In what way does the resurrection validate the promise of the cross?  More than simply resuscitating a dead body, the Father raised up from death the One who had taken on Himself all the wickedness of the world and become sin for our sakes.  What does that mean to you when you are caught in the consequences of your own sin, or when you are praying for someone caught in their own sin?

5.)  Read John 20:11-18.  Mary doesn’t know where Jesus is.  In what ways have you experienced that same feeling?  Mary didn’t realize that Jesus was right there with her, and even when she saw Him she didn’t recognize Him.  In what ways have you had that experience?  Finally, when Jesus spoke Mary’s name, her eyes were opened and she saw that it was Him.  Pastor Craig stated that believing in Jesus is logical and rational, but that ultimately we believe because He calls our name.  Do you agree with that?  Why, or why not?  In what way has Jesus called your name?