His Heartbeat:
A Heartbeat with Promise for Us
March 18th, 2012
INTRODUCTION
On Saturday, July 23, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, PBS's ANTIQUES ROADSHOW Veteran ROADSHOW Asian Arts expert Lark Mason identified a collection of five late 17th- or early 18th-century Chinese carved rhinoceros horn cups. Watch this clip from the Antiques Roadshow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxXsiKYDPEs
I guess I won't have to just depend on social security.
The owner of the five sups remained anonymous since he lived in a very small town in the Midwest. What is amazing is that this man lives with life changing resources that were his but never appropriated for 36 of his life.
It is no doubt that his life will be changed because now he knows he has those resources, but I wonder how his life would have been different if he had known the value of those cups earlier and had appropriated them for his benefit.
One of the concerns for the church today is that it may be filled with Jesus followers who are much like this man. Individuals who possess great resources but realize their value.
We been looking at stories from Jesus life that help us understand how his heart beats for us. We discussed how his heart beats for us to experience more, how his heart bests with a passion for changing our lives, how his heart beats with extravagant love for us. Today I want us to turn our ear to another heart beat of Jesus.
P.S. Jesus Heart Beats with Promise for us.
Promise:
a : a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something specified
b : a legally binding declaration that gives the person to whom it is made a right to expect or to claim the performance or forbearance of a specified act
Jesus made over 200 promises
Some promises of Jesus relate to the far future when he shall have returned in glory. Others relate to his followers' present life on earth. Some promises seem to relate to both the present and the future.
Many of the promises of Jesus are only conditioned upon faith in him. Some of his promises have other conditions such as obedience, prayer, and humility.
Jesus made most of his promises to all who believe them and fulfill their conditions. But some of his promises seem to have been offered only to particular individuals and groups.
But he makes over 200 of them. They pledges of amazing worth, life changing assurances, yet to perhaps too many they are more like secrets not hidden away but never discovered.
Jesus Heart Beats with promise for us. Today I want to look at four promises in the hopes that they inspire us to dig deeper into him in our quest for more of what he has for us.
T. S. Would you pray with me?
I. Jesus heart beats with the promise of life
John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. NIV
I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but through him. We get eternal life, saved from our past, we get a future.
Promise of life, not riches, not with out hardship, not without trial, but with satisfaction.
A lot is written about living without regrets.
* Commit Yourself to Proactive Living
* Tolerate Nothing
* Identify Proactive People
* Try New Things
* Get Into Action
The list goes on and on. Jesus says, come to me, come deep into me, taste and see, begin to experience it and I'll make your life satisfying.
He will do it right where you are, as you are. And he will never give up on it, the work he begins in you he will bring to completion.
I think there a very few prefect jobs, perfect families, perfect kids, perfect husbands perfect wives, perfect relationship. But there is a perfect God, who has lived above it all who promises to take our imperfect lives and make them wholly complete satisfying in Him.
Jesus offers himself as the answer for life dissatisfactions.
Application:
Less than satisfied, in some element of your life? There is a resource to be tapped, a promise to claim your right to. Jesus in you I can discover life to the full, I want it, I want all of it.
II. Jesus heart beats with the promise of endless possibility.
Overcoming obstacles is one major aspect of life that every human will have to deal with. Jesus promises that our challenges and obstacles can be overcome with endless possibilities.
Mark 9:16-27
Background
20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21 Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"
"From childhood," he answered. 22 "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."
23 "'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
24 Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" NIV
One of Jesus' last promises was that in this world we would have trouble, difficulty trials. One of the amazing promises that often goes untapped by believers is that "everything is possible for those who believe."
* Anger
* Marriage
* Financial
* Physical
* Emotional
* Addiction
The enemy who comes to steal to kill land to destroy, the Life we are supposed to have in Christ will work hard at pulling us down, defeating us. I love this passage, we can face, we can endure we can overcome it how, because everything is possible for those who believe.
Bad marriage (it can change believe)
Financial challenges (believe)
Addictions (believe)
Appl: Promise and Proceedure, ask Believe, ask for help believing
III. Jesus heart beats with the promise of purpose
One of the biggest and most basic questions written upon our hearts is this. What's the purpose, what the meaning in all this, what's my purpose?
"Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for." -- Viktor E. Frankl, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor.
* a sense of purpose it adds significant value to life.
* A sense of purpose brings increased psychological well-being.
* A sense of purpose brings greater life-satisfaction
It seems as if everyone is searching for their purpose in today's world. Though, with so many conflicting messages being constantly presented to us, many have no idea how to find it.
Matt 28:19-20
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
Matt 16:18
upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it
Jesus promises purpose in the present, with significance that lasts beyond the span of our own lives.
In the movie Troy, Achilles who has no interest the Great War Agamenedom is fighting goes to war when his mother reminds him that his name will never be forgotten. The desire for meaning that lasts beyond our lives is written upon our hearts. Solomon, declared that everything is meaningless, all the work, the wisdom, the knowledge, the projects, the work of our hands, the pleasure we indulge in, it's all meaningless in the face of our mortality.
Jesus shares with us a purpose that goes well beyond our lifetime, he meets that yearning for purpose and significance by inviting us to his mission.
IV. Jesus heart beats with the promise of spiritual power
The great failing of most believers is seeking to live out the god life in human power. It's like pushing a huge ball uphill.
It can be done for a little while, but without joy,
Luke 24:46-49
46 He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." NIV
Clothed in power
* To live the life he reveals
* To become effective in his kingdom
* To make a difference.
Jesus promise us the infilling empowering work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, that work changes everything.
SUMMARY
Four promises.
Jesus Heart Beats with promise for us.
Life, possibility, purpose, power
His heart beats for us to discover, appropriate, lay claim to those promises.
Life, possibility, purpose, power
CHALLENGE
When it comes to the promises of Jesus have you discovered them, have you claimed, have you laid hold of them.
Today is a day of promise.
Do you need new life in him--claim it.
Faced with challenge, obstacles and difficulties--claim new endless possibilities.
Realizing how fast life sweeps by, looking for last purpose, -- claim it embrace the mission.
Tired of trying so hard on your own, in your own strength -- lay claim to the power.
As we close if today you would like to pray about any one of these promises becoming real in your life. Come forward, and I'll prayer with you.
Tonight, More.
