Life’s choices
Matthew 5:1-5:12
This sermon was gleamed out of materials of Rick Warren and the starting of a Celebrate Recovery group at our church.
Introduction-
I want to begin this morning by saying that we serve a great big God.
Those of you who know Christ as Savior also serve a great big God.
It is not determined by what any of the political parties are doing or not doing or the outcome of this year’s election.
It is not based upon today if I am happy or sad, or if I have money.
It is based upon the goodness of God, the mercy of God, and the love of God toward the people He has created and invested in.
We messed up the plan, not Him.
He came with a plan to redeem us and to have us live lives that are meaningful and complete.
That is my prayer for us this morning, that we would live a life that God intended for us and that it is meaningful and complete.
Prayer-
Please turn to Matthew 5 which is Jesus Sermon on the Mount.
This morning message comes straight out of God’s Word, thoughts John Baker of Celebrate Recovery, and what I believe is important for Rosedale to continue growing individually and being a disciple to those that we come in contact with.
There are too many hurting people to ignore what God is trying to do, what groups and helps are available if you would be willing to admit that you need help, and the fact that Christians especially in the USA are putting their head in the sand and pretending that everything is okay or blaming their problems on someone else and not taking ownership of them.
Read Matthew 5:1-2
Jesus saw the crowd, He went up to a secluded place and He waited for His disciples to come to Him.
Jesus isn’t impressed with the crowds, He is impressed with those that will step away and allow God to teach them and disciple them. The people that will admit that they need His help and want to live lives that are meaningful and complete.
This is what He said to the listening disciples in Matthew 5:3-12 Read from the Bible
9 blessed are you verses to His disciples. (Blessed means happy)
The crowd was in the distance, some will listen and some will not.
Some will serve for awhile and some will decided they do not want what He offers anymore.
In his book experiencing God, Henry Blackaby said “You never find God asking persons to dream up what they want to do for him, without a doubt, the most important factor in each situation was not what the individual wanted to do for God. The most important factor was what God was about to do.”
He is the one that desires and has the capability for us to live meaningful and complete lives. Without God’s help, there will always be voids that we ourselves cannot fill.
Take note of this;
There are some burdens that are meant to be shared, meaning that we need each other to help us along life’s journey. God puts people in our paths to help us. He designed the church to be a place where people can get that help.
There are some burdens that are meant to be shouldered, meaning that because there are consequences to our actions, some only you can carry but God can help you with them and the people of God can be a strength and encouragement.
There are some burdens that need to be shed, meaning that with Christ help they can be overcome and the burden of carrying it eliminated. There are a lot of people carrying burdens that Christ wants to cast into the sea of forgiveness and never be brought up again.
We all have burdens and we all have baggage! Say amen because it is true. We all have baggage, Wither it is spiritual, emotional, financial, physical, or medical. Wither that baggage comes because of something you did to yourself or because of the actions of someone else. We all have baggage.
Let me tell why I do what I do. It is for no other reason than God got a hold of my heart and changed me forever. The path that I was on was destructive and dangerous and I know in my heart that if God would not have intervened, I would not be here. I am grateful for that and I want to see God do it for others. I am not anything special and God does not love me more than anyone else. We have a responsibility as believers of Christ to give back to the kingdom of God for the goodness and mercy that God has shown us. Salvation cannot be earned, but there should be fruit in our lives to show what He is doing.
So let me make this message two-fold this morning.
(1) This is about starting a recovery group at Rosedale that will meet the needs of the community and dealing with hurts, hang-ups and habits of believers inside the church. I will be presenting to the board this afternoon the need, the format, and the way I would ask them to support the new ministry. I don’t need to ask permission for a new small group start, but will need their blessing, support, and ideas for this ministry and support group because I will need their financial help and show how this fits into the plan that we believe that God has shown us in the revitalizing of Rosedale COTN.
(2) To show each of us here this morning that we all carry baggage and we need to hear from the Lord that our past faults and failures are not final. He desires to interact in our lives that we may live that meaningful and complete live now and not have to wait till we get to heaven to experience the blessing that God wants us to have here and now as believers.
I can tell you that I am not a big fan of books, groups or pastors of mega-churches and trying to fit their curriculum as a one size fits all church setting. I believe Celebrate Recovery model has biblical truth and each church has to look at it to see if it fits the character and community that you are trying to start it in.
We will be putting our leadership team in place and adjusting as we feel the Lord is leading us.
In your bulleting is an outline to give you the 8 basic Principles that John Baker has found in God word here in the sermon of the mount. The principal are the nuggets he found and the commentary is what I have found as I have been praying. I am not sure how far we will get this morning, but I am quite sure that we will not finish. I will pick up next week where we leave off today.
To me, if you are going to be recovering from anything, wither addictions, alcohol, habits, any bondage, you must first admit that you need help. Amen.
Sounds easy, but for some that is the hardest part to the solution to their problem.
There are things that will keep you from achieving and living the life that Christ wants,
There are steps that must be taken to be free from them.
I believe there are things that you must do, (admit, be determined, and stay focused)
There are things that only God can do (actual healing, supernatural strength, power to overcome) have a support group in place that will keep you accountable to the task at hand and see when you are going off track.
If you are here this morning and you cannot think of one addiction, habit, hang-up that you don’t need help with, I am concerned for you this morning. If you can’t think of any, ask someone who knows you and they will probably be able to get a list out for you.
R.E.C.O.V.E.R.Y
ONE AT A TIME UNTIL GOD GET’S IT DONE.
R. Realize that you are not God-
“Blessed are the poor in Spirit.”
Happy are those that realize that they are spiritually bankrupt without God.
That should be easy, but it is not. Especially for someone that is prideful, I mean strong-willed. Admitting that you are powerless to control the situation is the first step of realizing that you are not God.
Admitting need is hard for us and change doesn’t come without fear.
There are things that you will have to admit to God and yourself that you are not God and by yourself, there are things you cannot fix this.
When you ask a person that does repairs for a living…what is the worst problems that you have found? The majority of answers ranging from gas repair people like Ben, to a computer repair persons like Josh and Marty, they will tell you that most people who do not know what they are doing try to fix a problem, they make it worse. A small problem get bigger, more things get broke.
We attempt to play God by trying to do something that we are not capable of, and without His help.
We try to control other people- they spot a problem and we bully them because they see something that we ourselves are not ready to admit.
We control the problem by saying things like “I can handle it, I’m okay, I don’t need any help, I can quit anytime I want.
The consequences of not admitting our problem
1. Fear
Don’t let anyone close because they will know what is wrong with me.
We fake strength when we are in fear.
2. Frustration-
Trying to manage the universe when you are not God will cause frustration.
I get frustrated when I cannot do something that I believe I can do.
It comes from not acknowledging our short comings.
Mix fear, anger, loss of focus and things that you normally can do, you no longer are able to do.
3. Fatigue
We tell ourselves the lie that If we don’t slow down, it will not catch up to us.
You cannot run on empty. Weather that be of sleep or the power of God lacking in your life. Empty pitchers cannot refresh yourself or anyone else.
Empty means barren and without. Fatigue and not going to the power source will leave us empty and powerless.
One admit you need help
Come to God with humble and open heart.
There are some things that good intentions are not enough.
Will power is not enough when the power you need is God.
E. Earnestly believe that God exists
“”Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Happy are those who realize that they matter to God.
Happy are those that realize that He has the power to help us recover.
Sometimes in our path to healing, there is pain. Healing is especially hard when there is denial.
Denial in God
Denial in your faith or lack of
Denial that you don’t need help and everyone else is wrong.
God uses pain and grieve to help get to the healing.
How many times have you at your darkest moments been told by someone trying to help you “To just get over it” or someone being honest and telling you that it will take a long time and you didn’t like that answer.
Time does not heal, only God can heal. Time at best is a band-aid for the deep problem that is forced to not surface.
We mourn and God can comfort if we will let him.
We mourn over the past mistakes we have made. Extra hard if we cannot change them.
We mourn because we have lost control and we cannot fix it and it causes us pain and many times we blame God even though we know it was not His fault.
Pain can be good. It can be an alarm that helps us see danger. If you had no pain, you would not know that fire was burning you. It is because of pain that you remove yourself from being burnt.
We know that God exists- I believe atheist know that a supreme being exist, they just don’t want to acknowledge Him.
He exist’s and you matter to God-
I believe it takes more faith to believe that there is no God than the faith to believe that God exist.
Rick warren illustration-
If you were to take apart a watch and set all the pieces in a bag and shack the bag the chances of a complete and working watch would be incredible. He says that the world and mankind is much more complicated than a watch.
God has the power to change you- Either take you out of situation or give you the power to endure and live through tough times.
If God can raise Jesus from the dead, there is nothing impossible with God concerning your life.
Close,
I am going to wrap this up, more than what our brains can handle. The first step to recovery is admitting to God that you need help and allowing other people to get you where you need to be.
To realize that you are not God and some things cannot be fixed without God’s help and sometimes professional help.
God heals, God uses people in our lives and if we are going to be all that God intended.
We need to seek those things out and be determined that He will accomplish what is needed.
Word of prayer
