All we do must be for the Glory of God: (John 7:14-24)

All we do must be for the Glory of God: (John 7:14-24)

In our life time we are going to do something that brings us some type of glory, whether it be graduating high school or finding a cure to cancer.  But what if I told you that when such things happen it is our duty as those who are Christians to give that glory to God, for it is not ours to keep.   If we are to follow the example of Christ we see that He always points all His miracles and teachings to God the Father.   Then in John chapter seven we see Christ talking to the crowd during the festival, He is explaining to them that He came from Heaven that He is not come there to bring honor to Himself but to God.  He says ““I’m not teaching my own ideas, but those of God who sent me.  Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.  Those who present their own ideas are looking for praise for themselves, but those who seek to honor the one who sent them are good and genuine.” (John 7:16-18)   What Christ is saying here is that anyone who is truly seeking out to please God understands that it is never about them, Christ Himself teaches only what God has taught Him.  We can easily see when someone is in it for just themselves.  The same rule applies for Christians. Are we truly seeking out God or do we just want to feel good about going to church and dressing up for the part?

It is not about tradition it is about a heart condition: (John 7:19-24)

Now Christ touches on a sensitive subject with the Jews. He reminds them that they do not obey all the laws for they (they being the Jewish leaders) want to kill to Him.  But they retreat back saying that he is possessed by a demon.  He quickly reminds them the healing at the pool of Bethesda which happened on the Sabbath.  Asking them if they were allowed to circumcise on the Sabbath in order to keep the law that Moses gave, then why is it a crime to heal the whole body?  We too can be just like the Jewish leadership we get stuck on traditions and forget even why they are there when asked why do we do this the answer comes back, it’s how we have always done it, we then push away others who don’t do it and we don’t even know why we do it.  Some even go as far as saying that one is not saved if they don’t do it, I remember sitting talking to a pastor who told me of an experience his brother had with an evangelist.  It was a hot summer day and they were having a tent meeting revival; two young women came and gave their lives to Christ that night.  His brother said isn’t that wonderful for two young people like those women get saved.  The evangelist said we’ll see if they really got saved tomorrow, if they come back with their hair up and in dresses down their ankles then we know that they are truly saved.   We cannot tell just by how someone dresses whether or not they are saved!  Paul tells us in Romans, “No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not a cutting of the body but a change of heart produced by God’s Spirit. Whoever has that kind of change seeks praise from God, not from people.” (Romans 2:29)  Otherwise are we as followers of Christ allowing God to change our desires so instead of bringing praise to ourselves we are bring praise and honor to God? 

A All Powerful God

A.W. Tozer writes, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.… Worship is pure our base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.”  If what Tozer writes is true then the question is what do you think about God, how do you see God, picture God?  Do you take in for account that He is an all-powerful God who created this earth and this universe?  A God that loved us so much that He gave us His son so that our sins are forgiven.  Do you remember that we serve a God who hates sin?  I have forgotten how important our view on God effects how we worship Him, the next part of this series on how are we to act as Christ followers/Christians, I want to focus on how we should view God.  The first part being God the all-powerful, followed by Gods glory, then the Holiness of God.

Let us pause for a minute and think of the powerful person you may know or know of, now I ask you a simple question can that person speak something into being?  No, no one can do that, but that is exactly what God did.  We read in Genius chapter one that out of nothing God spoke it into being, take note that in Genius chapter two when we read of the creation of man, God formed us and then breathed life into us, His tender love and care for man runs deep even in our creation we were not simply spoken into being as was everything else.  As we look at all the complexities that go into this earth, in just the laws of gravity alone, not to mention how complex each living animal is for God to just speak it into being is mind numbing.  I can’t even train my dog to sit on command all the time and God speaks and a whole galaxy is created.   Yet we forget that the most powerful words we will hear God speak will come after we die.

We must remember that God is also the all-powerful Judge we do not get to question His judgment, yet do we not live as if we get to question God?  As if we have forgotten that He is the great and mighty creator, Colossians 1:16 tells us “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”  Does that sound like a God who’s saying it is ok to question His authority, it is ok to go and do whatever you please and makes you happy, even if that means living a life that includes sin?  It doesn’t sound like it to me, it sounds as though we serve a God that created us so that we could honor and please Him.  Yet many times we forget He can do whatever He wants.  We live as if God owes us something, that He needs to give us what we want and that pleases us. We need to understand that we are to give our lives to God, He sent His son to die on a cross so that we could one: be forgiven of our sins, two: so we could live for Him glorifying His name.  Read the Colossians 1:3-17, see what Paul is praying for them, that they receive wisdom, grow in faith and honor God. 

In his book Crazy Love Francis Chan reminds us that it’s not our place to question God. ” Psalm 115:3 reveals, “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.” Yet we keep on questioning Him: “Why did You make me with this body, instead of that one?” “Why are so many people dying of starvation?” “Why are there so many planets with nothing living on them?” “Why is my family so messed up?” “Why don’t You make Yourself more obvious to the people who need You?” The answer to each of these questions is simply this: because He’s God. He has more of a right to ask us why so many people are starving. As much as we want God to explain himself to us, His creation, we are in no place to demand that He give an account to us. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?” —Daniel 4:35 Can you worship a God who isn’t obligated to explain His actions to you? Could it be your arrogance that makes you think God owes you an explanation? Do you really believe that compared to God, “all the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing,” including you?”

All this brings up the question is God’s justice fair then?  If we look at justice as receiving what one deserves for one actions, then we must ask ourselves do I want what I deserve?  Gods hates all sin, and he punishes those who sin.  His hate for sin is the reason for the cross, His Son went to the cross, was beaten, mocked, and tortured all so we could be forgiven of sins and come into His family, so that we may have eternal life.  God demands that we follow and obey Him, turn away from our sins, allow the Holy Ghost to enter into us and remove the sin from our lives. Paul explains this in Ephesians 2:1-10, “Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins. ² You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. ³ All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature, and we were under God’s anger just like everyone else.

⁴ But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, ⁵ that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s special favor that you have been saved!) ⁶ For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms—all because we are one with Christ Jesus. ⁷ And so God can always point to us as examples of the incredible wealth of his favor and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us through Christ Jesus.

⁸ God saved you by his special favor 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 that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”   You see when we accept Christ into our lives we are made into a new person that is no longer a part of this sinful world.   

Chan, Francis (2008-05-01). Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (pp. 31-32). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.

Are we making Christ who we want Him to be or truly following Him?

There is a danger that we might be living under the assumption that we are saved when we really have only made Christ and Christianity into what we want Him or it to be.  We do not want to dive into a deep biblical study of what Christ wants out us, that would mean that we might have to shift our view point, maybe give up things that we really do not want to give up.  Yet in today’s churches we hear messages that teach us all we have to do is believe say a simple in Christ and say a simple prayer of salvation then go on living as a good person then we are saved.  But when we look at the words of Christ we see a much different story, let’s just take a quick look Luke chapter nine verses 57 through 62.  We see in this picture three men who want to follow Christ.

The first one says let me follow you, Christ responds those who follow me may not always have all the comforts they want.  You may be called to work in places for God where you cannot even get a bed to sleep on, worse yet you may have to go to prison for your belief in God.  Are you willing to give all that up for Christ to go where you may not want to go?  The other one said let me go and bury my father.  Christ says let the “dead bury their own dead,” otherwise you have more important things to do then bury your own father if you want to follow me.  When we are serving God we must understand that there might come a point when we are not going to be able to even attend funerals of our loved ones or be at the birth of a grandchild.  I have a friend his parents are missionaries in Africa their daughter just gave birth to their second grandchild, they are not going to be able to hold touch or physically see their own grandchild for almost a year and a half.  Why? Because they are busy doing the work God has placed before them.  The third man says I want to follow you but let me say good bye to friends and family, he wanted one foot in the door and the other out.  God wants all we have to be given Him we cannot have it both ways. 

If we look up just a few verses we see in Luke 9:23 Christ says, “If any of you want to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me. ²⁴ If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. ²⁵ And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose or forfeit your own soul in the process? ²⁶ If a person is ashamed of me and my message, I, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of that person when I return in my glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels. ²⁷ And I assure you that some of you standing here right now will not die before you see the Kingdom of God.”  Let us realize what Christ is saying is that we must give Him everything, we must allow ourselves to die to Him, allow God to begin to take control of lives.  Go where He wants us to go, talk to who He wants us to talk to.  We must not make God into who we want God to be, we must allow God to make us into who He wants us to be.

In his book, Radical, David Platts says this about this piece of scripture. “This is where we come face to face with a dangerous reality. We do have to give up everything we have to follow Jesus. We do have to love Him in a way that makes our closest relationships in this world look like hate.  And it is entirely possible that he will tell us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor.  But we don’t want to believe it.  We are afraid of what it might mean for our lives.  So we rationalize these passages away. “Jesus wouldn’t really tell us not to bury our father or say good-bye to our family. Jesus didn’t literally mean to sell all we have and give it to the poor. What Jesus really meant was…” And this is where we need to pause. Because we are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist Him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with.”

Show us a sign so we can believe. (John 6:22-32):

Show us a sign so we can believe. (John 6:22-32):

We want to see evidence from people before we give them our trust, when asking for a job one must show they are able to do the Job.  Before getting married the man must show the women that he deserves her hand in marriage.  Here we see a picture of people wanting Christ to prove to them that He is the Son of God, the only problem with this picture is He has already been out there healing the sick, and just the day before feed them all with only five loaves of bread two fish.  What more does He have to do to prove Himself?  But is this not the same question many people want answered if there is a god or if Christ was the Son of God then why do people live in pain, why do children die, why do bad things happen?   These are not bad questions, but maybe they are not the correct questions.  Hang with me for just a minute.  The reality is one could answer these questions but would the answer really satisfy the one asking them,  we all know that we live in a world that is full of sin.  Do to sin there are bad things in this world, this is why God sent His son into the world so that we may be saved from the sinfulness of this world.

Christ was not sent into this world so that we could live more comfortable in this world, He even tells his followers that, the world is going to hate them (Matt 10:22,Matt24:9,Mark13:13,Luke21:17).  Yet people are still looking to God to give them what they need for their physical and earthly needs.   Christ did not come to give us what we wanted but what we needed,a savoir.  The most hated Christmas gift for children is not the toys that they wanted, but the socks that they did not want but needed.  We do not like having to buy the things that we need we like to buy the things we want.  We do not want a god that gives us what we need instead we want a god that gives us what we want.  This asking if god exist then  why… Is it the wrong question? The question we need to be asking is if God exist then what is it that I need to do in order to know God?  If God exist then what do I have to change in my life to serve God?

The Bread that we need for our souls (John 6:32-70):

Christ answers the people who are demanding that He gives them a sign like Moses did who gave them manna.  By stating that Moses was not the one who gave them manna but it was God who provided them with manna.  He continues to explain to them that He has come so that they may be saved, that they need do nothing more than to believe and be seeking out the eternal life He has for us(verses 26-27).  He goes on to explain that He is the bread, let’s understand he was being very specific to the Jewish society here.  When He talks about bread it had a deeper meaning then just food, for the Jews used bread throughout several of ceremonies and God provided them with bread when they were in desert waiting to go into the Promised Land.  When Christ says that He is the bread of life it has a deep and meaningful meaning to the Jews.  The question asked was what can you do for us in the physical realm, the answer they received was I can save your soul.  If you truly seek me out and work on coming to know me.  Christ foreshadowing  of the taking up of Sacraments tells them I can give you everlasting life, all you need to do is eat my flesh and drink my blood.  They misunderstood what Christ was saying for the cross had not happened yet.  But we understand what He is saying here and we should think of His sacrifice daily, that when we take up of the bread and wine it means so much more than just a thing we do.  It is us saying we want God to be in us to guide and direct us.  We no longer ask the question, what can God do for me, instead we ask what can I do for the Kingdom of God.  Are you truly seeking God?