GIVING IT YOUR ALL
STRENGTH
[BROTHER ANDREW STORY]
-I know yesterday we talked about the Word of God and how important it is, but I want to look at the twist in this story. All other stories were people saying what they believe in the face of death. In this story, Brother Andrew was doing things for God in the face of death.
-obviously I don’t want you going out and breaking laws to serve God, but this story differs from all the others because people know this guy is a Christian not by what he says or not for standing up in a crowd and yelling “I love Jesus”, but because of what he did.
-and this leads us to the last part of our verse for the weekend.
**Mark 12:30 -> 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. (NCV)
-Saturday we talked about your heart, how whatever you focus on, whatever your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be, and if we have love, if we have God at the center of our heart, we should be out living it out, we should be showing that love to everyone.
-yesterday morning we focused on the soul, the emotional part of you, your spirit, the part that no one can see and how there are things you can do to love God with your soul. How we can get to know God through our soul but also how we can bless God and live out God’s love through our emotions, sometimes simply by slowing down and calming our soul.
-last night we talked about the mind, how God doesn’t want us to be mindless obedient zombies but to actually use our brain and think a little about what we believe. How we are to love God with how we use our minds, in talking to others and how we think in that little space in our heads only we can see.
-so today we’re talking about strength, our physical bodies. When we get to heaven, our heart, our love will be there, our soul will be there, our mind, our memories, our ability to think will be there, but our bodies, they’re gone. We will have new bodies and we’ll be able to serve in different ways, but this carcass here will be gone.
-because what we do, how are bodies behave is a reflection of what is inside us, so we need to watch and take care of our bodies.
1. IT’S ALL ONE
-when Jesus said our key verse for the weekend, He wasn’t separating ourselves into four distinct pieces, all those pieces are a part of who we are, they are all one, they all work together.
-for thousands of years now we have had a group of people that take different names, different forms of beliefs but they all are lumped into one group called dualists. They believe that anything physical, of this world, is evil, and anything spiritual is good, because it’s of the same essence God is.
-the really bad part about this is these people usually went to one of two extremes. One was beating their bodies for being evil. The other was doing whatever they wanted claiming that it was simply their physical bodies, the evil part of them, but their spirit was still good. You can’t separate the two.
**Ja. 2:26a -> 26The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. (MSG)
-I think we’ve all seen the truth of this in many Bugs Bunny cartoons, where one of them dies and what do you see, the ghost or spirit of the person hovering in the air.
-there is a strong connection between our body and our spirit. Likewise, there’s also a strong connection between what we say and what we actually do.
**Matt. 21:28-31 -> 28”Tell me what you think of this story: A man had two sons. He went up to the first and said, ‘Son, go out for the day and work in the vineyard.’ 29The son answered, ‘I don’t want to.’ Later on he thought better of it and went. 30The father gave the same command to the second son. He answered, ‘Sure, glad to.’ But he never went. 31Which of the two sons did what the father asked?” They said, “The first.” (MSG)
-our bodies, our thoughts, our spirits, our emotions, our souls, they should all be working together as one, not fighting with each other, not one doing what is right and another doing what is wrong. We have to focus on our bodies and what we actually do just as much as we focus on our spirits and what we believe, how we talk to God, etc.
**Prov. 14:30a -> 30A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body. (NLT)
-I’m sure you’ve all experienced that, you get stressed out, things are going wrong, whatever it is and all you feel is tired, sick, run down. It’s all connected.
-that leads us to:
2. TAKE CARE OF OUR BODIES
-now before you start getting worried, I’m not going to go all health nut on you, I’m not going to tell you all to get on the Hallelujah Diet (yes, there is such a thing), I’m not going to say if you’re not South Beach you’re not a Christian, but, as much as we think we should take care of our minds, what we put in it, our souls, what we watch and how we affect that part of us, our body should be in there too. We should at least be taking good care of our body, not going to one extreme or the other.
-but there are two ways in which I want to focus on for this. One is in the Bible a lot, a hint that God’s trying to make a point, but also a hint that everyone has struggled with is. Sex. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that at last count I heard there were 28 sexual diseases.
-God wants us to take care of our bodies and I really think that one way we can do that is to treat it right sexually. There’s even a verse in this context where God says the body was made for Him, we are to honor Him with out body.
**I Cor. 6:13 -> 13You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. (NLT)
-I won’t go into a sex talk, but don’t, wait for marriage, it works, trust me. But the other one I want to focus on is doing purposeful harm to our bodies. There are people who are in so much pain or frustrated or whatever it is, they take knives or something sharp and cut themselves. They’re trying to deal with something but they don’t know how so they take it out on their bodies.
-if you are doing this, please come talk to us because there are better ways to deal with your pain than this. Some of you this isn’t the problem, you’ve just been watching too many episodes of Jackass and think it’s fun. But as Paul talked about honoring God with our bodies, he said this:
**I Cor. 6:19-20 -> 19You should know that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who is in you. You have received the Holy Spirit from God. So you do not belong to yourselves, 20because you were bought by God for a price. So honor God with your bodies. (NCV)
-so take care of your bodies. You may be in them for a couple more years. It’d be great if you were able to use those years to do good things for God rather than sitting at home needing a nurse to help you go to the bathroom.
-you can also take care of you body, love God with your strength this way:
3. ACT RIGHT
-remember that old expression actions speak louder than words, or in the more modern Batman quote I love, “It is our actions that define us.”
-I find this more and more true in everywhere but it seems the church. Baseball players play baseball. Lazy people act lazy. Singers sing. Do Christians act like Christians?
**I John 3:7 -> 7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you the wrong way. Christ is righteous. So to be like Christ a person must do what is right. (NCV)
-this is one of those two way mysteries that people have a hard time grasping. Are we saved by grace, forgiven in love so we don’t need to do anything? Yes. Then do we need actions to have faith? Yes.
-I look at it as marriage in America because there is a black and white legality to it. If you say “I do” and sign a piece of paper are you married? Yes. But if you don’t live with the person, never talk to them, never hold hug them, never say “I love you”, are you really married?
-likewise as Christians, yes, we’re saved 100% by the grace of God, but we should be acting like it, acting as Christ, imitating Him.
-because you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say I love God and live like He doesn’t exist.
**Titus 1:15-16 -> 15To those who are pure, all things are pure, but to those who are full of sin and do not believe, nothing is pure. Both their minds and their consciences have been ruined. 16They say they know God, but their actions show they do not accept Him. They are hateful people, they refuse to obey, and they are useless for doing anything good. (NCV)
-I don’t anyone to say that about me, that I’m hateful and useless to do anything good.
-that’s why Christ came, so we could be redeemed, we could be made new and then our lives would be new, we’d act new.
-and God gave us the power to live this way:
**II Pe. 1:3 -> 3By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. (NLT)
-God gives us the strength, the power to do right, to honor Him and love Him with our bodies and our strength. To live as we should.
**Titus 2:14 -> 14He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds. (NLT)
-we should be doing good deeds? Why?
4. GOD CALLS EVERYONE TO SERVE
-it’s funny, just last week we were talking at church about the labyrinth, you know, the circular thing we use for our prayer night. The person in charge can’t set it up and take it down anymore, they are busy that day. They had someone else in line to do it, but that person just backed out, saying it wasn’t their spiritual gift. Really? It’s a spiritual gift to open a closet and take out the labyrinth? It’s not a gift, it’s serving, and we’re all supposed to be doing that.
**Eph. 2:10 -> 10God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing. (NCV)
-God gave each one of us talents, things we like to do, things we’re good at so we can use them to serve Him.
-our main verse says to love God with our strength, meaning either God wants us to get buff and look pretty, or God wants us to be using that strength, to be doing something for Him.
**Gal. 6:10a -> 10So then, as often as we have the chance, we should do good to everyone. (GNT)
-D.L. Moody was a famous evangelist who said this, “Every Bible should be bound in shoe leather.”, not meaning that it makes them look pretty, but that we should be willing to work and do what needs to be done to show people that God loves them.
-because quite honestly, this is the biggest problem with the church. Tony Campolo, the sociology professor at University of Pennsylvania, agrees this it the biggest problem with the church because we all meet together and tell everyone how we are full of love and love everyone and God loves everyone, but then we never actually live out that love.
-I mean, it makes sense, doesn’t it? Hey, God loves you and I am full of that love, but I can’t help you right now because, well, I’m busy and you smell funny.
-it’s true! But if we belong to God, we belong with a purpose.
**Ro. 7:4b -> 4Now you belong to Him who was raised from death in order that we might be useful in the service of God.(GNT)
-so we can serve God.
-this is the reason we have a summer missions trip, not for fun, although we want that to, but to serve and show people that God loves them.
-and here’s the kicker, ready? You don’t need me to force you or organize for you a time to show God’s love. I cannot bend around everyone’s schedules and be in ten different places to show love, but you can call two or three friends and say “Hey, let’s go to the food pantry this Wednesday and help deliver food up and down the stairs.” You guys have to be a little proactive at this.
-after all, we’re supposed to be like Jesus, and Jesus didn’t wait for the priests at the temple to plan a trip to help people and do good. Jesus just was always doing good, always going where people needed help and helping them.
**Matt. 20:28a -> 28”For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others.” (NLT)
-that’s why we have to realize:
5. SERVING OTHERS IS SERVING GOD
-too many times in the worldwide church we have people who say they’re helping but really do a half-hearted job. We are supposed to be serving, using our strength for God because helping people is in essence helping God.
**Col. 3:23-24 -> 23In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were doing it for the Lord, not for people. 24Remember that you will receive your reward from the Lord, which He promised to His people. You are serving the Lord Christ. (NCV)
-wow, if you knew you were going to be setting up chairs Sunday morning for God because He was coming to visit, or those days we clean the church, if you knew Jesus was going to walk down the hall, how hard would you work? I don’t want to give God crap, that’s one reason I work so hard.
-on the same lines:
**Eph. 6:7 -> 7Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. (NLT)
-I’ll be honest, when I do stuff at the church, set up chairs, practice music, work on my little talks even like this one, I’m thinking of God being there and how hard I would work if he physically walked in.
-a couple of years when I took over NewSong I kind of raised the bar a little (I did it at youth too), but I remember someone who isn’t here anymore saying that the amount of practice I wanted was too much, so I asked them this. If we were asked to play at Starbucks next week, how hard would you practice? What if we were asked to open at Verizon, how hard would you practice? I see church as God is coming, and I will not give Him less than I would give those other places. I know I can’t stop everything and only work on music, but I’m going to give God my best, and I think we should do this in every single area of our lives, especially when serving others.
-I guess my problem is I like to work too. Mother Teresa said this, “Holy living insists on doing God’s work with a smile.”
-I’ll end with this, it’s a story Jesus told about the end of time.
**Matt. 25:34-40 -> 34“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty, and you gave Me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited Me into your home. 36I was naked, and you gave Me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for Me. I was in prison, and you visited Me.’ 37“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see You hungry and feed You? Or thirsty and give You something to drink? 38Or a stranger and show You hospitality? Or naked and give You clothing? 39When did we ever see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ 40“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to Me!’ (NLT)
-so there’s a section left in your book. Three questions. How you can serve God, what things God has blessed you and enabled you to do, what you can do to serve God, how you could use those gifts, then when you will serve God, make a plan, talk to each other, think of some ideas, make some plans.
