Extreme Living In The Home
Extreme Living – part 2
I want to start off our time together with 2 passages of Scripture…
36One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to come to his home for a meal, so Jesus accepted the invitation and sat down to eat. 37A certain immoral woman heard he was there and brought a beautiful jar filled with expensive perfume. 38Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.
39When the Pharisee who was the host saw what was happening and who the woman was, he said to himself, "This proves that Jesus is no prophet. If God had really sent him, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!"
40Then Jesus spoke up and answered his thoughts. "Simon," he said to the Pharisee, "I have something to say to you." "All right, Teacher," Simon replied, "go ahead." 41Then Jesus told him this story: "A man loaned money to two people--five hundred pieces of silver to one and fifty pieces to the other. 42But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?"
43Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt."
"That’s right," Jesus said. 44Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You didn’t give me a kiss of greeting, but she has kissed my feet again and again from the time I first came in. 46You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. 47I tell you, her sins--and they are many--have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love." 48Then Jesus said to the woman, "Your sins are forgiven."
49The men at the table said among themselves, "Who does this man think he is, going around forgiving sins?" 50And Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." - Luke 7:26-50 (NLT)
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails. - 1 Corinthians 13:1-8
Prayer…
TODAY – is our second week in our new series, ‘Extreme Living.’ I really like the definition of Extreme that Ryckie gave us last week. Extreme; ‘existing in a very high degree, going to great lengths, exceeding the ordinary, the usual or the expected…’
LAST WEEK – Ryckie challenged you… AND – he challenged me to live EXTREME in the church. To live extreme right here at Central… NOW – I for one think that he was pretty clear in THIS challenge; for us to live extreme, to exceed the ordinary, the usual and the expected;
• In our hunger for the word
• In our unity (our hanging out together)
• In our giving (in sharing our stuff)
• In our showing up to build God’s church
• And in our prayer life
IMAGINE – what God is going to do here as each of us… AS [Tim…] – exceed the ordinary, the usual and the expected in those things! In this church! We serve an extreme God… WHO – has always done amazing-immeasurable things through the lives of extreme people… I for one say - let’s LIVE Extreme in our church! (thanks Ryckie, great job last week…)
MY TASK – this morning is to talk about living extreme in another important area of our life… In our home… QUESTION – what would it look like for you; to exceed the ordinary, the usual and the expected in your home? What would it look like for you to go to great lengths to make your home Extreme?
NOW – before we can really answer that, I GUESS we need to first talk about what is; ordinary, expected and usual in the home… Tuesday morning, I sat in my office grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper and reflected on that very question… What’s normal and ordinary in homes today across this nation? AND – to be honest what I saw wasn’t very pleasant…
What’s normal & ordinary in homes today…
It’s Usual & Ordinary;
• For husbands & wives to give up on their marriage when things get too tough
• For family members to be slow to listen, quick to speak & quick to become angry
• For family members to be takers and not givers (to make a lot more relational withdraws then they do deposits)
• For children to not; obey, respect and honor their parents
• For parents to exasperate their children (to drive them crazy) by being; demanding, inconsistent, unreasonable and hypocritical
• For there to be more harsh words of criticism spoken then gentle words of encouragement
• For husbands to NOT love their wives as Christ loved the church
• For children to NOT be taught; to do their best, work hard and that actions have consequences
• For parents (especially dads) to put their career before their family
• For family members to expect others to serve them rather then looking for ways to serve
• For step-parents to NOT love their children the way they should
• For family members to NOT talk about deep things and to just live on the surface
• For family members to act one way in church and another way at home
• For family members to (when things don’t go their way) – flip out, get angry and yell
• For wives to NOT respect and honor their husbands leadership
• For family members NOT to say; thank you or please…
• For past hurts, mistakes and pain to be used as a weapon
Told you it wasn’t very pleasant…
YOU KNOW – when I first started to put this message together in my mind… I felt pretty intimidated. YOU SEE – as I started thinking about what it would look like to live extreme in the home… I naturally had to reflect on my own home… AND – on my own life as a husband and a father. AND – to be honest there is a lot more ‘ordinary, usual & expected’ there, then I feel comfortable with…
AND MAYBE – you feel the same way. LISTEN – I think we all could pretty much agree on 2 things as we start at this morning… (raise your hands if you agree)
#1 – our homes need to be more extreme
#2 - we only need to look in the mirror to see where this quest for Extreme begins
NOW – contrary to how you may feel at this moment, my goal this morning is not to depress but to motivate you to live EXTREME in your home. AND UNDERSTAND – sometimes the very thing that motivates us may come as a surprise.
Just before giving a lavish party at his estate, a very wealthy man had his swimming pool filled with poisonous snakes. He called the guests together and announced, “To anyone brave enough to swim across this pool, I will give the choice of 1,000 acres of my oil fields, 10,000 head of cattle, or my beautiful daughters hand in marriage.
No sooner were his words spoken than a young man plunged into the pool, a swam across the pool in a frantic, frenzy, he climbed out - unscathed but breathless. “Congratulations!” the tycoon said, “you have to be the bravest man I’ve ever seen. So what will it be, do you want my oil fields?” “No” gasped the guest. “Then do you want the 10,000 head of cattle?” “No!” The young man shouted. “Well, then you must want my daughter’s hand in marriage” “No!” Came back the reply. “You must want something,” said the puzzled host. “I just want to know the name of the guy who pushed me into the pool!”
LISTEN – I do not want to motivate you this morning by simply pushing you into the dangerous waters of Extreme living in the home and telling you; LOVE – your wives as Christ loves the church; SUBMIT – to your husbands; HONOR – your father and mother; DON’T – exasperate your children; USE – only words that build each other up; CONTROL – your anger… AND – out serve each… NOW – swim!!! (I don’t think that would be all that production – sure you may feel motivated to get across the pool… BUT – if you lack any real power to get you there… what’s the use)
YOU SEE – I think most of us already know or at least have a pretty good idea as to what Extreme Living in the home looks like… BUT – to get across the pool and really live it is another matter… NO – it’s not an easy task… AND - it’s a dangerous task… BECAUSE – we have a very powerful enemy who will do anything he can to stop us…from living Extreme, to stop us from exceeding the ordinary, the usual and the expected in our homes.
I THINK – that someday I’ll do an entire message series on the family… (NO – I know I will)… BUT – today I have just one message… SO – as I put this thing together my goal was to figure out what I could say, (what truths of God I could unfold) that would have the greatest impact on the way we live at home.
AND FRIENDS – the way you live at home is important… YOU SEE – as I have said many times before, life is all about what? Relationships… AND LISTEN – our style of relating is both forged and developed in the home… IN FACT – (like it or not) the home is where who we really are and how we really relate comes out…
OKAY – let’s get to it… There are 3 points in your outline… The power, the principle and the practice…FOR – living Extreme in your home…
The Power
When you hear the word ‘power’ what pictures come into your mind?
• The space shuttle lifting off the launch pad
• A bomb exploding
• A thundering waterfall
• A hurricane coming ashore
• Barry Bonds knocking a ball out of the park
• Shaq slam dunking a basketball
• Ray Lewis making a bone crunching tackle
• Kerry Walsh spiking a volleyball
• Justin Gatlin running the 100 meters
Power we all recognize it when we see it… Power it makes things happen. AND LISTEN – there is a power that makes Extreme living in the home possible… a power that makes…
• Controlling you anger
• Obeying your parents
• Being a giver not a taker
• Loving your wife as Christ loved the church
• Thinking of others first
• Getting past the hurt
…Possible
QUESTION – do you know what that power is? LOVE!!!
Love never fails NEVER WHAT? Fails… Now that’s some power.. I MEAN – powerful Hurricanes fade into tropical storms; Bombs fail to go off; Barry Bonds strikes out and Shaq gets stuffed… BUT – Love never fails!
LISTEN – love is the power that will enable you to live extreme in your home…. HOW – powerful is love… “For God so loved….”
UNDERSTAND – LOVE was the reason that God send His Son to this world to die… AND LOVE – is why Jesus hung on the cross… AND FRIENDS – that love on the cross changes everything…
21Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God. 22Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. So see to it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts. - 1 Peter 1:21,22 (NLT)
CIRCLE - Now you can have sincere love for each other…
OKAY - that’s the power… Now – for;
The Principle
Experience God’s Love
UNDERSTAND – the only power that will enable us to swim to the other side of the pool and live Extreme in the home is love… YES – [Tim…] - love is the power… BUT - before we can love others we must experience God’s love…
CHECKOUT - Ephesians 3:17-18,
"I pray Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves" [LB]
CIRCLE - the words, feel, understand & experience. LISTEN - if we are ever going to be able to live Extreme in the home, we must first know God’s love for us. WE – must feel it, understand it and experience it…
QUESTION – why is it so important to feel loved by God? BECAUSE unloved people are often unloving people. UNDERSTAND – when I don’t feel genuinely loved, I don’t feel like giving love. THEREFORE - the first thing we got to do in live extreme in our homes is to experience God’s love ourselves. Jesus said, “Love each other as I have loved you.” Jn 15:12.
Have you ever gotten a love letter? Aren’t they cool? I like to read them over & over again -- when you read those words from their ‘own’ hand - it makes you feel loved. Well, God has written you a letter that express His love for you....
“Not to us, O LORD, but to you goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness.” - Ps 115:1
“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. Jer 31:3
“...God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were sinners...” Rm 5:8
“Long before He laid down earth’s foundations, He had us in mind, and settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love.”
- Eph 1:4 (Msg)
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” 1 Jn 3:1
LISTEN – the only way that the power of love will be unleashed in our lives – such that it takes us across the pool to Extreme living in the home… IS IF - first experience God’s love ourselves. We need to on a regular basis reflect and chew on verses like the one I just read that speak of His love for YOU.
QUESTION – in the passage (from Luke 7) that I read as we began today, who was the more loving person, Simon or the woman? THINK – about it… Simon does nothing to make Jesus feel welcome. The woman, however, does everything that Simon didn’t. She anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume, she fell at His feet (wetting His feet with her tears)… AND – then she dried His feet with her hair…
NOW – you would think that Simon of all people would show Jesus love. AFTER ALL – he is a spiritual leader, a student of Scripture. BUT INSTEAD – he is harsh and distant. Simon’s ‘love’ is calibrated and stingy. Her love, on the other hand, is extravagant and risky.
QUESTION – how do we explain the difference between the two? Training? Education? Money? NO – because Simon has out distanced her in all three.
BUT LISTEN – there is one area in which the woman leaves Simon eating dust. Think about it. What one discovery has she made that Simon hasn’t? What one treasure does she cherish that Simon doesn’t? ANSWER - God’s love.
NOW – we don’t know when she received it. We aren’t told how she heard about it.
• Did she overhear Jesus teaching about how God is merciful..?
• Was she nearby when Jesus had compassion on the widow of Nain?
• Did someone tell her about how Jesus touched lepers and turned tax collectors into disciples?
• Did she travel through Samaria and meet the woman at the well?
NO – we don’t know when. BUT – we do know this. ONE DAY – she came to Jesus thirsty. Thirsty from guilt? Thirsty from regret. Thirsty from countless nights of making love but finding none. She came thirsty. AND – when Jesus offered her a cup of grace, she drinks it all, she drinks deeply…
NOW – Simon didn’t drink (I MEAN – he didn’t even take a sip)… BECAUSE - he didn’t even know he was thirsty. UNDERSTAND – it wasn’t that Simon couldn’t be forgiven he just didn’t ask. AND – therefore while she has ample love to give, he has no love to offer.
QUESTION – why does Simon have such a hard time loving people. THE ANSWER – is what Max Lucado in his book, “A Love Worth Giving,” calls it the 7:47 principle, we’ve talked about this once before… (Luke 7:47) “A person who is forgiven little shows only a little love..”
Lucado says; that just like the jumbo jet, the 7:47 Principle has wide wings. Just like the aircraft, this truth can lift you to another level. … “A person who is forgiven little shows only a little love..”
IN OTHER WORDS – we can’t give what we have never received. IF - we’ve never received love, how can we love others?
Lucado goes on to say…”We preachers have been guilty of skipping the first step. “Love each other!” we tell our churches. “be patient, kind, forgiving,” we urge. But instructing people to love without telling them they are loved is like telling them to write a check with our making a deposit in their accounts. (or like pushing them into a pool of poisonous snakes with no power to get across) No wonder so many relationships are overdrawn. No wonder so many hearts have insufficient love.” (no wonder so many sink and drown before they get across the pool)…
NOW - the apostle John shows us the right sequence (in 1 John 4). NOTICE - he makes a deposit before he tells us to write the check. FIRST - the deposit;
“God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”
-1 John 4:9,10 (NLT)
AND THEN – having made such an outrageous, eye opening deposit, John calls on you and me to pull out our checkbook; “Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.” 1 John 4:11 (NLT)
LISTEN – the power for living Extreme in the home is love. AND – the principle upon which this love CAN become a reality in our lives is that you… MUST FIRST – experience, feel & understand God’s love for you!!! Remember Paul’s prayer? “May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love..” Eph 3:17
UNDERSTAND – just as a tree draws nutrients from the soil, we draw nourishment from the Father’s love. BUT – have you noticed what happens, when a tree has no contact with the soil….
NOW – we see an illustration of this every year, around New Years Day… YOU SEE – some where around the first of the year, families go over to their Christmas tree and they take off the ornaments & lights AND THEN – carry the tree outside (and if they are like me leave by the side of the house until June)…
QUESTION – where do a lot of the needles on the tree wind up, as you drag it out of the house? All over the place… WHY? BECAUSE – those 3 weeks rooted in a metal bowl rather then soil had a pretty bad effect on the tree – it became brittle, fragile and easy to fall apart… .
QUESTION – are you finding it hard to love? Has your love become brittle, fragile and easy to fall apart…? I MEAN – no matter how hard you try to love, your love seems to quickly fade away and fall a part. AND FRIENDS – if that’s the case… PERHAPS - your roots (life) are grounded in the wrong soil…
AGAIN – the first step we need to take to live Extreme in the home… is not toward the people we want to love, but toward God… The secret to loving is in the receiving; “We love because he first loved us…” The key - to living Extreme in the home; IS having our roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love
QUESTION – how can we love as God loves? How can we live Extreme in the home…? BY - living the 7:47 Principle: Receive first….Love second… UNDERSTAND – 1 Corinthian 13; describes God’s love for you….
God is patient, God is kind. He does not envy, He does not boast, he is not proud. 5 he is not rude, he is not self-seeking, Jesus is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs. 6he does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails…
LISTEN – rather than let this scripture, remind you of a love that you feel that you will never live up to – let it remind you of God’s love for you…
Lucado writes; Some of you are so thirsty for this type of love. Those who should have loved you didn’t. Those who could have loved you didn’t. you were left at the hospital. Left at the altar. Left with an empty bed. Left with a broken heart. Left with your question; “Does anybody love me?”
PLEASE – hear heaven’s answer; God loves you. Personally. Powerfully. Passionately. Others have promised and failed. But God has promised and succeeded. He loves you with an unfailing love. And His love – if you will let it – can fill and leave you with a love worth giving.
A – love that will get you across the pool… A love that will enable you to live EXTREME in your home…
The power for living Extreme in your home – LOVE…
The principle for unleashing that power -- 7:47 (Experience God’s love)
NOW – for the last point in your outline…
The Practice
OKAY - what I want to do as we wrap up is pull a few (we don’t have time to do them all) of the definitions of love found in 1 Corinthians 13… REMIND – us of how God loves us that way… AND – then challenge us to love those in our home with God’s kind of love…
AND LISTEN – when we do that… when we love that way… it WILL look pretty extreme. JUST LIKE – the woman in Luke 7… I MEAN – this lady was so full from experiencing God’s love… that she did some Extreme stuff…LIKE:
• Crashing a party where she knew she wasn’t wanted
• Kneeling at the feet of Jesus
• Wetting his feet with tears
• Kissing & pouring perfume on His feet again & again
• Drying His feet with her hair
GO AHEAD – picture that scene in your mind… THAT’S – Extreme! AND – in like manner when we really experience God’s love we will do some extreme stuff. NOW OBVIOUSLY -
We can’t go out and wash the feet of Jesus…
BUT – what we CAN DO… What we WILL DO (when we are so FULL from experiencing God’s love for us) IS – we will keep loving (over & over again) the people in our homes in Extreme ways… (and don’t be surprised if the world reacts to you like Simon did to the woman in Luke 7).
LIKE – I said I only have time to pull out a few of these… BUT – if you PRACTICE them they will make a HUGE difference in your home. (AND – please take not of the little graph and question under each quality of extreme love in your outline)
OKAY – the FIRST way that you can live extreme in your home… IS BY;
Living Patiently…
God says that, Love is patient… NOW - the Greek word for patience is pretty descriptive. It means taking a long time to boil… QUESTION – does that describe the way that you live in your home? (you take a long time to boil?)… NOW – I believe that most of us tend to boil quicker at home and with our family, then we do anywhere else…
QUESTION - when was the last time you lost your patience at home… What was it that made you boil?
• Was it when someone interrupted what you were doing…
• Was it when you had to stand around because someone wasn’t ready to go when you were.
• Was it when someone just couldn’t get what you were saying… OR – they couldn’t get it fast enough.
• Was it when they didn’t appreciate or say thank you for what you did for them
• Was it when someone for the umpteenth time (very many, indefinitely numerous) did what you told them not to do (leave their stuff laying around, take a 30 minute shower) OR was it when someone didn’t do what you told them TO do (put the toilet seat down, clean their room, come home on time)
YES – for most of us to ‘really’ live with ‘patience’ in our homes would be Extreme… NOW UNDERSTAND – patience isn’t naïve. It doesn’t ignore misbehavior. It just keeps the flame low. It waits. It listens. It’s slow to boil. AND [Tim…] - this is how we are live (especially in our homes)… BECAUSE – patient is how God is with you…
DID YOU KNOW – that Jesus only used the word patient 2 times… AND – both times are in a parable that Matthew records for us in chapter 18 of his letter… Most of you have heard this story… A man owed the King a huge debt and one day the king said, ‘dude it’s time to pay up..”
He fell to the ground…before him, saying, ’Have patience with me and I will repay you everything. – Mt 18:26,27
AND – the king did…
So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ’Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ "But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. – Mt 18:29,30
LISTEN – when we REMEMBER how patient God is with us… I MEAN – aren’t you glad that He does not boil over;
• Every time you forget to thank Him for all he’s given you
• Every time you don’t do the things he asks you
• Every time you interrupt Him when he is trying to talk to you
• Every time you break a promise
• Every time you doubt him or what he says
• Every time you forget to hang out with Him
QUESTION – in the average day, how many times do you think that God has to be patient with you…?
In Exodus 34 Moses tests God’s patience a little… He asks God if could see Him. God says, ‘ can’t really do that dude, by here’s what I’ll do… you hide behind this rock and as I pass by I will cover your face with my hand until I pass by. Then I will remove my hand and you can see my back…’
SO – God does just that and as he passes God says; "GOD, GOD, a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient--so much love, so deeply true-- 7loyal in love for a thousand generations…”
FRIENDS – God is endlessly patient--so much love… Thank him for His patience. Praise him for it… Rejoice in it… Accept it… AND THEN – go live patiently in your home…
Being Kind…
love is kind QUESTION – is kind a word that would be used to describe how you live in you home? Would ALL your family members say that you are kind to them?
Where patience is living Extreme by not doing something (boiling over easily)… Kindness is living Extreme by doing something… by being kind. AND – let me make this clear, kindness is not just a thought – it is an action…
AND UNDERSTAND – God kindness to us was much more than just a mere thought…
So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
– Eph 1:6-8
WOW – that some serious kindness…. Poured on us… showered on us… LISTEN – you & I need (if we are live Extreme in our homes) Reflect on the Lord’s kindness… BECAUSE – as Paul says in Romans 2; God’s kindness leads you toward repentance - Romans 2:4 (NLT) QUESTION – repentance from what? Obviously from sin & rebellion… BUT – I can’t we also say that God’s kindness leads to repentance from, unkindness…
How are you doing on being Kind in your home…? Do you lean more to usual or extreme?
What will you do to practice kindness in your home?
Being Selfless…
QUESTION – in your home is it all about you? Is it all about your needs and your wants? Is it always your way or the high way? Are you selfish and self-centered?
Are you the one who…
THINK ABOUT – the last 7 days in your home… Were you more selfless or more selfish? Did you do the ordinary, the usual – the expected OR were your Extreme?
LISTEN - God says it about as clear as it gets… Love is not self-seeking… THEREFORE – if we are self-seeking in our homes… we are not living in love.
Jesus Christ was the most selfless person who ever walked the face of the earth. IN FACT – God the Son has always existed and He has always been thinking of others… of us, of YOU… UNDERSTAND – when God created the world... when He left heaven and put on flesh… When He prayed in the garden… AND - when He hung on the cross… God was thinking about you.
I GUESS – what I am trying to say is that you don’t have to be so concerned about yourself…BECAUSE – God is watching over you… LISTEN - you don’t have to worry about promoting yourself, providing, for yourself, protecting OR looking out for yourself (for number one)… BECAUSE – the One and Only God is looking out for you…
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
That’s awesome God has your back… He will lift you up…
1If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care--2Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose.3Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. 4Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. 5Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. 6Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. 7He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave. – Phil 1-5 (Msg,NLT)
God is always thinking of you…. Always putting you first… AND – if God is going to treat you that way surely you ought to treat the people in your home the same way…
WRITE – down some ways that you will begin to live selfless this week…
Forgiving…
QUESTION - How do you respond when somebody hurts you (and we’ve all been hurt)? Do you hold a grudge? Do you get resentful? Do you get full of bitterness? Do you get even? How do you handle it when somebody hurts you? The bible says; “Love keeps no record of wrongs…” 1 Cor 13:5 In other words, love doesn’t store up hurt. Love doesn’t keep a grudge. Love forgives. Love doesn’t keep score. Love does grow bitter – it grows better… Do you?
QUESTION - do you have a score sheet in your heart…? My mom did this? My kids did this to me? My dad said that, forgot that? My husband broke that promise? My wife betrayed me?
LISTEN – I don’t have to be a mind reader, to know that everyone single home represented in this room this morning has some hurt. There are probably people in your home who have wronged you?
AND – the question is, what are you going to do with it…?
NOW BEFORE – you answer that question… LET ME – remind you of what God does with the hurt that you have cause him…
He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Ps 103:10-12
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.
- Heb 8:12
If you are a Christian – you are forgiven… ALL – your sins forgotten… removed from you as far as the east is from the west… Every wicked thought or deed is gone… forgiven.
47I tell you, her sins--and they are many--have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love."
Someone has said; ‘We are most like beasts when we kill. We are most like man when we judge. We are most like God when we forgive..”
Scripture – says ‘freely you have received - freely give…”
AGAIN – where are you on the graph?
How will you practice forgiving this week….
OH YEAH – one more thing…
“…forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Col 3:13 (NLT)
[fully & completely…not requiring that you earn or deserve it… in fact you didn’t]
Believing In…
Love believes all things… (NASB)
UNDERSTAND - there is power in belief… There is power when someone believes in you. Robert Schuller said, ‘I am not who I think I am. I am not who you think I am. I am who I think you think I am…’
Right or wrong, we define ourselves through the eyes of other people. Tell me enough times that I’m stupid and I’ll believe you. Tell me enough times that I’m smart and I just might surprise both of us. A German poet put it this way… Treat a man as he appears to be, and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be…”
Back in 1968 a study was done by Robert Rosenthal on a group of elementary school kids. They gave the kids some tests then told the teachers that several of their students seemed to have exceptional learning ability. NOW – it wasn’t true… the students they named were just average students. BUT – the teachers believed that they were really smart… AND SO THEY – began to treat them that way. AND – guess what? At the end of the year those ‘exceptional’ students actually were brighter. They tested well above their peers and gained as much as 27 IQ points. ‘treat a man as if he were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be…” The power of believing IN.
BACK – on July 23rd 1996 in Atlanta… We saw another example of the power that believing in someone has…. Kerri Strug was about to make her final vault in the women’s gymnastics finals… America was going for the gold. That’s a lot of pressure on an 18 year old. AND – what made it even worse was that Strug had felt a pop in her ankle on her first vault and could barely walk, let alone sprint down the runway – let alone fly over the fault and stick her landing. That’s was 8 years ago… AND – we all know that somehow Strug gritted her teeth, thinking that the team’s gold medals all depended on this final vault and got the job done with a solid landing before collapsing in pain onto her hands and knees.
HOW – did she do it? Kerri says it was what her coach said… Just before Kerri vaulted her coach Bela Karolyi looked into her eyes and said; ‘Kerri listen to me, you can do it…’
IN FACT – the entire time she stood there waiting to make her vault you heard… ‘you can do it Kerri”
AND LET ME TELL YOU – believing in the home would most definitely be extreme living. BECAUSE – what’s normal… what’s ordinary in most homes is just the opposite.
• You’ll never amount to anything
• You don’t have what it takes
• Your not smart enough to go college
• Can’t you do anything right
HEY [Tim…] - God believes in you!
He believes that…
• You are the light of the world
• That you do all things through him
• That you are a new creation
• That you can find joy in the face of hardships
• That you have what it takes to do great and awesome things
• That you are his workmanship created anew to do good works
UNDERSTAND – you have the power to do in your home… What the teachers in that Elementary school did for those students; what Bela Karolyi did for Kerri Strug and what God does for you… you can show them that you believe in them… BY - the things you say, the way you treat them, they way you listen to them… AND – by the way you dream with them.
Never Quitting…
There is a lot of quitting going on in homes today… Husbands and wives quitting on their marriages… Parents giving up on their kids… Kids given up on their parents… BUT – God says; Love never gives up… Love endures through every circumstance.
AND LISTEN – the next time that you feel like giving up…JUST REMEMBER – that He could have given up. No one would have known otherwise. Jesus could have given up… UNDERSTAND AT – any step along the way he could have called it quits.
WHEN – He who has never been bound by time, all of the sudden become limited by the clock, he could have said, ‘on second thought, I don’t think so…’
WHEN – He saw the size of the womb, he could have said, “no way, I’m not going in there..”
WHEN – He saw how tiny His hands would be, how soft his voice would be, how hungry his stomach would be, how sore his feet would get, he could have stopped.
AT – the first whiff of the stinky stable, at the first gust of cold air. The first time he scarped his knee or blew his nose or tasted some really bad food he could have turned and walked out.
WHEN – he saw the dirt floor of his small Nazareth house. WHEN – Joseph gave him a chore to do OR chewed Him out for something he didn’t do. WHEN – his friends goofed off or slept when ‘His word’ was read in the synagogue. WHEN – his neighbor used his name in a curse.
WHEN – the lazy farmer blamed his poor crop on Him… Jesus could have said, “alright I’m out of here…” – but he didn’t…
Love never gives up… Love endures through every circumstance.
UNDERSTAND – He didn’t have too, the choice was his the whole time. AND – Christ could have stopped. He could have given up… BUT – he endured for you….
WHEN – those who should have treated Him best, treated him worse…
WHEN – the crowds left because His teaching became to hard.
WHEN – they accused him of being a drunkard, a glutton and a friend of sinners; he could have just thrown up his hands and went back home… but he didn’t…
AND WHEN – his disciples fell asleep in the garden
WHEN – the temple guards arrested and beat him
WHEN – the roman soldiers shredded his body with the cat of 9 tails
WHEN – crowd shouted crucify him
WHEN – he carried that cross through those streets for 2 miles
WHEN – both his hands and his feet were nailed…
AS – he hung suspended between heaven & earth…
He could have given up but he didn’t…
QUESTION - How did Christ endure treatment like that? BETTER YET – why did Christ endure treatment like that? I MEAN – at any point he could have said, “I quit. That’s enough. I’m out of here.” BUT – he didn’t. Why didn’t he? BECAUSE – of love… BECAUSE – of His LOVE for you! BECAUSE – his love for you and for me was greater than the pain of the journey…
Love never gives up… Love endures through every circumstance.
YES - the next time that you feel like giving up…JUST REMEMBER
14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. – Matthew 5:14-16
