Simple Conversation:
Leading to the Sunday of our lives:
John 15
9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
The majority of my message today was just preached…
The 6 people you saw baptized this morning was God’s message for us… the real life example of Romans 6…
The question this morning for us…
DO YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE SUNDAY IN YOUR LIFE? Or ARE YOU STUCK ON FRIDAY?
Do you want real change in your life?
Let’s be honest… our metaphor or example today is to watch the news… watch our neighbors… watch our own lives…
How is everyone really doing… I mean really doing. Is most of the world living well? Even those with money… are they happy? Fulfilled? Whole?
This morning I wanted to speak plainly… not a polished sermon… but a desire for us to simply hear God… the greatest thing any of us need is real change… to genuinely know God… and for Him to know us…
What is God saying…
You too can have a changed life…
There is hope for all of us…
There can be a future for all of us that is better than it has ever been…
But how do you experience God’s Sunday? The reality of Jesus coming alive so that you and I , just like the baptisms, can go through the same process… death to our old self and rebirth into new life…
How do we experience God that way… how can you find your Sunday in life?
1. First – there is a difference between
relationship and fellowship…
Now each of us are born into a family… this makes us related to those in our family. We have relationship to them and we are connected forever that way. But you and I both know there is a difference between being related to some one vs. actually fellowshipping with them.
Many of us have family members we barely know anymore. I have family all over the united states and abroad. I love them… but in many ways I don’t know them. I have relationship with them… but I do not have fellowship.
Fellowship is a deeper level of existing with each other…
In your notes today you find a contract… what we call the contract of freedom…
Defining the Contract: A contract involves two parties agreeing on a focused intent. The two parties in this contract are you and God. If you are like most of us you don’t sign a contract without knowing ahead of time what you are signing. So what is this contract of freedom?
God Offers: God offers a contract to us. He knows we are all in debt in this life, that debt is sin. Sin is living life our way vs. God’s way. We cannot pay this debt on our own. God has already paid and signed His portion of this contract. John 3 verse 16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (See also John 1:12).
God offers us not just relationship (to be His children) but also fellowship… The power of that is found in Scripture where it describes us making a commitment to Christ and making Him our Lord and Savior…
Knowing God is not about a list of rules… but in fellowship with God does require response from our side of the contract…
Which leads to my second point today…
To experience the Sunday of God in your life…
2. Second there is a difference between
regret and repentance…
Regret is just being sorry for something…
Repentance is a desire to make it right and the undesirable action to be gone…
Back to your contract to freedom today…
Our Response: In John 8 verse 32 Jesus says, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Also in John 15 verse 14 Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command.” When we sign this contract, we will find freedom from our sin, and we are committing to walk with God and learn what it means to learn what it means to know and apply the Bible.
If you want to be free in life… and really know God and be known by Him. If you want to have a changed life… where you are not stuck in the shadows but FREE… free from all that makes you worry or hinders you…
If you want to know the creator of the heavens and the universe… and know you are important to Him… then become His real disciples… and when we hold to His teaching… that is when the truth really sets us free.
How can you experience getting past Friday to Sunday in your life…
3. Lastly – Become a friend of God or we chose to sin… live life our way… we make the choice…
Have you ever had a friend you could always count on? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a friend with real influence? Not only influence but wise… and with resources, with money? Who genuinley cared about your life… who helped you… as long as you were His friend…
John 15:4
13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
This church is a church of friends… and we would love it if today you became a part of our family…
But we have a choice… will we choose the contract of God… or our own way?
But what if we are in trouble but don’t realize it…
Sammy’s Big Catch - Sammy was a young boy who lived in the Deep South. His summer days were filled when times of walking through the woods, playing with friends, and fishing in the pond down the road. Fishing was by far his favorite thing to do. Just about every day during his summer vacation, he would dig up some worms and head off, pole in hand, for a day of fishing.
This steamy hot day was like most others during Sammy’s summer break. Waking early, he could hear the pond calling him to come fish. Sammy quietly walked out the front door, grabbed his pitchfork and worm pail and walked into the woods to search for bait. He turned over old stumps and dug under leaves hoping to find worms. Under one old stump he hit the jackpot. The ground was writhing. In 2 minutes he had all the bait he needed, and in 15 minutes he was at the pond.
Reaching into his bait bucket, Sammy pulled out a big worm. He double hooked it and tossed in into the water. He noticed a stinging in his hand, but filled with the excitement of the moment, he paid no attention to it. Within 30 seconds, Sammy had a strike and pulled in a nice catfish. Wow, he thought, a fish in the first minute.
He put the catch on his stringer, hurried to rebait his hook and tried his luck again. Once again he felt a stinging sensation in his hand as he threw his hook into the pond. He didn’t have time to worry about it. Within just a few seconds, he had another huge fish. He fumbled the next time he baited his hook--his hand felt numb and stiff. But Sammy was too excited about catching another fish to give it much thought.
At the end of only an hour, Sammy had caught 8 large fish. This was definitely his best fishing day ever. He was so proud of his accomplishment that, even though there was plenty of day left to fish, he threw the heavy stringer of fish over his shoulder and dashed down the road toward home to show off his catch to his parents.
The local sheriff happened to drive up alongside Sammy and started to congratulate him on his catch of fish. With a smile and a victory whoop, Sammy held up the stringer. The sheriff gasped, parked his car and ran over to Sammy. His eyes hadn’t deceived him--Sammy’s arms really were red and swollen to about twice their normal size. “Exactly where have you been and what bait did you use to catch all those fish?” the sheriff asked Sammy.
“I found some special bait under an old stump,” Sammy boasted. “Thee worms really wiggle good,” handing up the bucket for inspection. After a close look at the worms, the sheriff went into fast-forward. Putting the bucket in the car, he swooped up Sammy made a U-turn on the dirt road and sped off to the hospital, but Sammy was already dead.
What the sheriff had discovered was that Sammy had been fishing with baby rattlesnakes. Sammy’s deadly bait brought him a good morning of fishing but cost him his life. Had Sammy stopped fishing after that first sting, he could have been saved. But Sammy was having to much fun and didn’t bother himself with the small voice of pain in his hand. Then, as the hand grew numb, even that voice was silenced.
Playing around and not dealing with sin is like using baby rattlesnakes for bait. It may seem harmless but it’s putting its venom in you and it will affect you because:
Sin will take you further than you want to go!
Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay!
Sin will cost you more that you want to pay!
o We have a choice… real fellowship with a God that loves us… new life – the life He intended us to have… if we want to sign the contract…
We repent… ask forgiveness of our sin… before the venom takes us away to death…
o we become a friend of Gods…
Your New Life: What is the outcome of this contract? It’s freedom! God offers freedom from the slavery of sin (our debt) that we might live life the way He intended, connected to Him. This freedom is not only for now, but extending into eternity, for upon death we step into eternal life in heaven instead of hell. Romans 6 says “ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Our old self dies and we are reborn and set free.
o Today is Easter… the Sunday after the Friday of the crucifixion…
Do you want to experience new life?
Do you want to become a part of our family today?
Are you sick of the sin that destroys you – and want to become a friend of God? Are you ready to sign the contract of freedom…
Today is your day of freedom…
