Word Keeper

Sermon from August 1

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Here’s the audio a little late. I did not update my notes.

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What is the Christian life? The Christian life is one of integrity, love, and purity. It is life that follows Christian ethic. … Ephesians 4:25,26; 5:2,3

Why should we live the Christian life?

1. Because Jesus died for me, I live the Christian life out of gratitude to Him and love for Him (1 Timothy 1:12-17). … We live the Christian life because of what Christ did for us. We’re sinners. Christ came to the world to save sinners. Christ came to save us and all we have to do is accept His mercy and His grace. … John Newton wrote “Amazing Grace.” He was a slave trader who experienced God’s grace.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come.
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

2. Because I am united with Jesus, I live the Christian life because He lives in me. I am dead to sin and alive in Him. My body belongs to Jesus (Romans 6:1-7; 1 Corinthians 6:17-20; Colossians 3:1-3). … We died to sin. Sin no longer has control over us because we have turned our lives over to God. … Why would we want to sin now? Jesus died to free us from sin. … Now God’s Spirit lives inside us. We have no reason to sin because we are free from its chains. … This is a matter of integrity and purity. God’s Spirit is inside us. Our bodies our temples of God. If we disgrace our bodies, we disgrace God’s home. And our integrity diminishes.

3. Because Jesus is coming back, I live the Christian life to be ready for His return. I want to hear Him say, “well done” (1 Thessalonians 5:23;  Jude 24; Matthew 25:19-21). … Jesus will come back to take His people to Heaven. I want to be  ready to go with Him. … If I have a friend coming over, I can clean up a little before they come, and I can wait until the last day to do it. But I don’t know when Jesus is coming back. Because I don’t know, I have to be ready everyday. I have to stay pure. I need to keep my soul clean. I want to do my job for Christ so he’ll say, “well done” when he returns.

Jason religion, Sunday Sermon

This lady talks fast. And she speaks the Truth.

Jason Fun, Video

This is a great song…..

Jason Fun, Music, Video

Sermon from July 25

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The Audio (“How Beautiful” is the song he was talking about)

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As we go through this, consider this question: Do you have an “if” Faith or an “if not” Faith?

What are these two types of Faith?

“If” Faith (Genesis 28:20-22):

The story of Jacob. … Jacob wronged his brother. His brother wanted to kill him for it. Jacob ran away from home. On his first night out he has to sleep under the stars, so he uses a rock for a pillow. Jacob has a dream about angels going up and down a staircase to Heaven. God speaks to Jacob and repeats the promise He made to Jacob’s grandfather and father, Abraham and Isaac. God promises to make a great nation from Jacob and that He will be with Jacob and will bless Jacob and will watch over Jacob wherever Jacob goes. Despite Jacob’s lack of integrity, God will keep His promise. … Jacob woke up, realized he heard from God, and took the rock he used as pillow and set it up as a pillar. He then made this vow:

²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear ²¹ so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God ²² and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

“If” Faith is conditional. This is saying, “I will only have Faith in God if He takes care of me, otherwise, I’m on my own.” “If” Faith is an immature Faith. We shouldn’t only have Faith when God is taking care of us and then not have Faith when life takes a bad turn. … God made unconditional promises to Jacob and Jacob responded with a conditional faith. … Here’s another way to explain what’s really being said. In computer programming, we use “if” statements a lot. if (condition is true) then do this; else do this. So, here is what this prayer might look like in a program:

if (life is good)

I will trust in the Lord and tithe;

else

I’m on my own;

How do I know if my Faith is conditional? … One indicator is what you do with your money. Do you only tithe when you’re earning a good wage, or do you continue to tithe even when life is not going your way and you don’t have as much money?

“If not” Faith (Daniel 3:16-18; Habakkuk 3:16-18):

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were taken from Judah to Babylon. The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, set up a large, golden statue and decreed that everyone would have to bow down and worship him when his band was blown. This was no big deal to the Babylonians, but the Hebrews who were taken from their homelands faced a big dilemma: should I bow down to this idol or obey God’s commandments and risk death? … The band played and everyone, except Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, bowed down to the idol. The three men were reported to the king and he gave them one more chance to bow down to they to idol if they don’t bow down, they’ll be thrown into the furnace. They responded:

¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

They had Faith in miracles, but even better yet, they also had that “if not” Faith. … This is saying, “even if life is not great, I will still trust in God and tithe.” … “If not” Faith is unconditional. No matter what happens, I will have faith. … in coding a program, it would like this:

I will trust in the Lord and tithe;

There is no “if” not statement. Whatever happens before it does not change the fact that it will happen.

Now the king is really upset. He has the furnace heated seven times hotter; it’s so hot that the guards who throw the three men into the furnace die. The king looks into the furnace and asks his guards how many men they threw in. They said there were only 3. The king saw a fourth. They were untied and walking around inside the furnace. The fourth was the presence of God! … The king told them to come out, so they walked out of the furnace, completely unharmed. And the Babylonian king praised the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Not all stories have a happy ending. … Before the time of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, there was Habakkuk who was a prophet who questioned God instead of speaking for God. … His main question was about why does God allow evil to exist so abundantly in the world (Habakkuk 1:2-3). God’s answer was to send the Babylonians to punish the Israelites, and Habakkuk thought that was even worse. He accused God of being unfair. God told Habakkuk that He knew what He was doing. God will punish the Babylonians after He punishes the Israelites. Habakkuk did not understand what God was doing. … God says, “the righteous will live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). We won’t understand everything God does, but we can live by Faith even if we do not understand His ways. … God asks Habakkuk if he trusts God. Habakkuk responds with his statement of Faith (from God’s Word Translation):

¹⁶I have heard, so there’s trembling within me.
At the report my lips quivered.
A rotten feeling has entered me.
I tremble where I stand.
I wait for the day of trouble
to come to the people who will attack us.
¹⁷Even if the fig tree does not bloom
and the vines have no grapes,
even if the olive tree fails to produce
and the fields yield no food,
even if the sheep pen is empty
and the stalls have no cattle—
¹⁸even then,
I will be happy with the Lord.
I will truly find joy in God, who saves me.

Even if the foundation of our economy fails and our resources are depleted, I will rejoice in the Lord. … We don’t know what happens to Habakkuk, but he probably lived to see the invasion.

Have you answered the first question? Do you have “if” Faith or “if not” Faith?

Jason religion, Sunday Sermon

This is a cool song with a really cool project to go along with it.

Here’s the song

They such a good response from the song that they decided to do a video project….. Here’s the video project plan

And here’s the final result….

What’s your story? And are you singing?

Feel free to share in the comments below.

Jason Fun, Music, Video

I wrote this a few years ago. I figure it goes well with part of the previous sermon….

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When born that day,

We were born into the fray.

We can overcome it together,

It’ll make everything better.

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The fray isn’t always physical,

But it’s always spiritual.

God can show us the way,

To win the everyday fray.

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Many of us are strong,

But some are for the wrong.

There are many weapons to array,

But we won’t use them astray.

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This fray isn’t our own,

We will never be alone.

We have Jesus with our cause,

To, help take on, the barrage.

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The fray may not be heard or seen,

But, affects our being.

When we do what’s right,

We must show, God’s might.

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We win or lose the war in one decision,

To got to, Hell or to Heaven.

In Hell, we’d be P.O.W.’s,

In Heaven, God would love us.

Jason poetry, religion

I thought this song would be perfect right after the previous post… Plus it’s a great song.

Unfortunately, all the best videos for this song have embedding disabled. Here’s the best one.

Jason Fun, Music, religion, Video

Sermon from July 18

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The audio

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Mark 4:35-5:20

Jesus was getting tired and told His disciples to get in the boat with Him and they would cross to the other side of the lake. Jesus fell asleep on the boat and then a storm came and the disciples were afraid they might drown. So they woke Jesus up and Jesus told the winds and waves to stop. … Whoa. That is some awesome authority that Jesus has.

When they reached the other side of the lake, a demon-possessed man came running to Jesus. Demons always know right away that Jesus is the Son of God. Humans don’t always know that. However, demons do not worship Jesus, but they do fear Him. Jesus told the demons to come out of the man, and the demons replied by asking to not be tortured. Then Jesus asked the demon what his name is. … In the Bible, to know someones name is to have some sort of authority over them. God gave Adam the right to name all the animals and power over all the animals.  … The demon replied, “My name is Legion for we are many,” and asked to bent sent to a herd of 2,000 pigs instead of being sent out of the area. So Jesus allowed the demons to go into the pigs. When the demons entered the pigs, they all ran down the hill and drowned in the lake. … We don’t know why Jesus allowed this, but maybe it just wasn’t time for the demons to face ultimate torture or destruction in Hell yet.

There is a spiritual battle going on all around us. It’s a battle between good and evil, between God and Satan. And Satan wants to destroy you.  Satan wants to destroy your mind; he wants to destroy you physically; he is a destroyer and he’ll use anything he can in order to destroy you. But thank God, Jesus is more powerful than all other spiritual forces.

The folks who owned the pigs told everyone what had happened and a large crowd gathered around the place where all this happened. The people became afraid and asked Jesus to leave. So Jesus started to leave in His boat.

When Jesus was getting in the boat to leave, the formerly demon-possessed man asked to go with Him, but Jesus would not let him. Let’s look at what Jesus said to him in Mark 5:19.

Go

There are two directions to the Christian life. Two things Jesus will say to you. First, Jesus will tell you to come. “Come to me and I’ll help you,” He’ll say, “let me be your savior.” … Have you come to Jesus? … Next Jesus will tell you to go. Sometimes we get caught up in the first instruction, the “come” instruction, and we just want to stay in our comfort zone, beside Jesus, listening to His every word as He talks to everyone. But we must go when we are ready. We don’t always know when we’re ready to go talk to other people about Christ, but He does. Jesus will tell you when you’re ready. He’ll pull your heart in a direction and say, “go and make disciples.” … We never really stop “coming” to Jesus. We come to Him everyday for strength and help, once He prepares us for the next task, we must go. … What is Jesus saying to you? Is He saying, “come, let me help you,” or is He saying, “go and make disciples, help other people” as you read these notes?

So, where is this man being sent?

home

Go home? Some people are told to go somewhere else, we usually call them missionaries. But a lot of other people are told to go home. … This man was told to go back home, to the region he is from. The region had ten cities in it, so there were plenty of people who needed to hear the Gospel where he was from. … Why didn’t Jesus let this big, strong man with an awesome testimony come with Him?  First, Jesus was not quite ready to openly declare that He is the Christ. He wanted to keep things quiet until the time was right. Second, this man is uniquely qualified to tell about Jesus to the gentiles of the region. … Sharing the Gospel with people around you at home, at work, at school, at the game, or wherever you may be is just as important as sharing the Gospel with someone in a different country or culture.

tell them how much the Lord has done for you

We’re not supposed to just go live among everyone; we’re also supposed to tell them what the Lord has done for us. What has He done for you? If you’ve come to Him, then He has done something for you; He has saved you. Tell your story, where you came from, what happened, and where you’re heading now.

In the next verse (Mark 5:20), the man goes home to his region of ten cities and tells what Jesus has done for him and “the people were amazed.” … Here, the word “tell” is translated from the same word that is used for “preach” in the rest of the New Testament. The man was preaching to his friends and family about what happened. Every Christian is a preacher.

Later, when Jesus came back to this place, a crowd of 4,000 was there to welcome Him and to listen to Him. This is the same place where they asked Him to get out earlier.

Francis Collins is the scientist who discovered the human genome. He’s extremely bright and gifted. In college, he was a rather stubborn atheist. In graduate/medical school, when studying to become a doctor, he converted to Christianity. How? He was visiting patients and he grew to really care about his patients as people and began to hear how their faith helped them through tough times such as going through a battle with cancer. He thought it was a cultural veneer, but it got stronger in times of need. … One of his patients who was near death had always showed great faith in Jesus and she shared that faith with Dr. Collins and asked him what he believed. He didn’t know what he believed. He had investigated all sorts of scientific questions, but he had not investigate the most important question he would ever face, “is there any truth to Christianity?” So he investigated the Bible and creation versus evolution. Eventually he found a relationship with Christ. And who told him about Christ? An older woman who was in a local hospital, receiving treatment. … (Here’s a Time Magazine article about Francis Collins. … I don’t really agree with his stance on evolution and creation, but it is possible and we’ll find out when we’re in Heaven.)

Jason religion, Sunday Sermon

If you’ve never heard this song, you should listen to it….. It’s amazing.

Here’s the story behind it….

And here is Kari Jobe singing it….

Jason Fun, Music, religion, Video

Sermon from July 11

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I could not find the audio for this one. If I ever find it, I’ll add it and probably add some more notes too.

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Jesus Christ, God’s own son died on the cross. He was fully man and fully divine.

Why do we celebrate Christ’s death? Certainly we celebrate His birth, but why do we celebrate that our Savior died? It’s not very often that we actually celebrate anyone’s death. We don’t like to see our family members and friends die. We would rather have them by our side. But every year on Good Friday, we both mourn and celebrate the fact that Jesus died. … Why?

To answer why, we must first answer the question, “what does Christ’s death mean?”

1 Peter 3:18

Christ died for sins

What? Why? Well, when we disobey God, we sin. God loves us and wants to be with us, but He is also a just God. He has to punish sin. … Before Jesus, God’s people would sacrifice animals as atonement for their sins. Jesus is often referred to as the perfect lamb. 

once for all

Jesus never sinned, so He was innocent, He did not deserve to die, but He willingly went to His own crucifixion to die. He was the perfect sacrifice. There does not need to be any more sacrifices to atone for our sins. Our sins die when we accept Jesus as Savior.

the righteous for the unrighteous

Christ died in our place. That should be me and you and everyone else, except Christ, on that cross. He didn’t deserve to die, but I do, and you do too, we all do. But Jesus’s love for us is so great that He died for us!

to bring you to God

Jesus’s death and sacrifice closes the gap between us and God. We can now be friends with God. We can talk to God. We do not need an intermediary who talks to God for us. God wants to be your friend.

He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit

Jesus’s human body was really dead. His Spirit never died though. It still lives today. … When we accept Christ as savior, we die to sin and our spirit comes to life. We are a “new creation” in Christ.

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Here’s a couple videos I want to share with you.

First a comparison between Aslan’s death and Christ’s death (video from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and from The Passion of the Christ)

Next we have the resurrection of Aslan. I want you to really listen to what Aslan says when Susan and Lucy asks how could be alive.

Jason religion, Sunday Sermon