Sermon Central
-
This Is Personal
Contributed by Pastor/Author: Terry Sisney on Sep 19, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: Jesus came as our high priest, not to substitute a relationship with God, but to facilitate a relationship with God. He is our way to a personal relationship with God.
How many knows that in every day life, the moment you say this is personal, everything goes to a different level. You may be casually visiting and joking around, and sharing things with little thought. But when someone says this is personal, the time for casual joking is over. Now it's serious.
This is exactly what I hear the Holy Spirit saying today. The time for casual conversation, and joking, and silliness is over.
This is personal.
I think the Word of God will put all of this into perspective.
When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? [14] And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. [15] He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? [16] And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. [17] And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. [18] And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. [19] And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
I know that what I am going to say will not be a surprise to you. "We are at war" there is a battle being fought for the soul of America, and the nations of the earth.
Right now hell has launched a full out attack to destroy our nation. And the devil is using right now, one of his greatest and most effective tools. It has long been one of the greatest strategies of war. It is distraction warfare. Distraction warfare works by the enemy zeroing on his target, but then throwing all kinds of activity and smoke screens in a different direction, to draw your attention and your energy away from his intended target.
We see this happening in the political arena with all this January 6th, and Mar a lago being raided, and certain conservative voices being attacked. And the FBI, and the DOJ, being weaponized, and the 87,000 new Irs agents.
But I submit to you that this is not really just about getting our attention off of the horrible, and destructive things the Biden administration are doing to our country. But the real objective of the devil is get our attention off of Jesus.
Satan knows that a distracted church is a fractured church, and a fractured church is a weakened church.
The devil knows that his greatest enemy, is a church that is unified in their focus on Jesus, and their committment to lift him up to the world.
Jesus didn't say if Trump be lifted up he would draw all men to him. He said... If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.
The devil doesn't really care which direction you look, or which distraction tactic works on you, as long as he can get your focus and your attention off of Jesus.
I want to say this again, this is personal, this is nothing but a loser who got kicked out of heaven, trying to steal the glory that belongs to Jesus alone.
I believe the greatest strategy of the church right now, is to turn our eyes on Jesus, and look full in his wonderful face.
Tell your neighbor, this is personal.
In our text Jesus asks his close disciples a very important question. He said... Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
So the disciples begin to rehearse to Jesus what they had heard others say about him.
And they said... Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
I have a pretty good imagination, so I can imagine Jesus as he listens politely as the disciples share their second hand information with him. Possibly nodding his head, and maybe even sounding like he was impressed at what people were saying about him.
Now I'm not criticizing the disciples at all. The truth is, this is fair. That was exactly what Jesus asked them for, second hand information.
But after they had finished telling Jesus what they had heard about him, Jesus drills down with them, and puts it to them directly. But whom say ye that I am? Or, today he would probably say, but who do you say I am?
