4-7-13 Sermon

To listen to today's sermon, click here.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR A MIRACLE

04-07-13 Sermon

Mark 6:34-44  New International Version (NIV)

³⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.  ³⁵ By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”  ³⁷ But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”  They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages^[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”  ³⁸ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”  When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”  ³⁹ Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² They all ate and were satisfied, ⁴³ and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Miracles begin in the __________________________________.

³⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them

1.  I admit that I have ___________________________________. 

  ³⁵ By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”  ³⁷ But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”  They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages^[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

Three self-defeating behaviors:

We P_________________________

By this time it was late in the day,

We B________________________________

Send the people away

We W_________________________________

“That would take more than half a year’s wages^[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

2.  I assess what I ____________________________________________________. 

³⁸ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”  When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” 

3.  I give God ____________________________…. God will use _______________________. 

⁴¹ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21

4.  I expect Him to _____________________________________. 

⁴² They all ate and were satisfied, ⁴³ and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

“Whatever you sow you’re going to reap.”  Galatians 6:7

“All things are possible with God.”  Mark 10:27

HOW TO PREPARE FOR A MIRACLE

04-07-13 Sermon

Today we’re going to look at a miracle.  It’s one of the most famous miracles of Jesus.  In fact it’s so famous it’s the only miracle that He ever did that’s recorded four times in the Bible.  It’s found in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  It’s commonly called the miracle of feeding the five thousand.  But really there were far more than five thousand people there.  The Bible says there were five thousand men that were there.  Where we have five thousand men, you’ve probably got five thousand women and maybe another ten thousand kids.  So when Jesus took one little boy’s lunch and was able to feed all those people there was probably, fifteen, twenty thousand people at this event.  It was the most famous miracle because everybody saw it happen.  It was widely known.

Miracles begin in the heart of God.

Jesus never did a miracle to show off.  Just to say, “Look at this!”  Miracles always begin in the heart of God.  We have a God who loves us.  The biblical text here sys that Jesus looked at the crowd and was filled with compassion for them.  The fact that miracles proved that Jesus was God come in human flesh was a byproduct. 
The fact that miracles taught principles was also a byproduct.   God did miracles because he loves his people.  In what we call the Lord’s Prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.  So each time that God or Jesus or an angel did a miracle they brought a bit of the conditions of heaven here to earth.  There is no blindness in heaven so when Jesus healed a blind person he brought the conditions of heaven here on earth—because he loved that blind person.  And there are no demons in heaven so when Jesus cast demons out of people he brought the conditions of heaven here on earth—because he loved that demonized person.  And here in the miracle that we are going to look at today, Jesus was filled with compassion for the people, and he saw that they were hungry and no means of getting food where they were, and he knew that there are no hungry people in heaven, so he brought the conditions of heaven here on earth and fed all those people miraculously.

In this miracle we have the story of how to have a miracle in your own life.  How do you prepare for a miracle?  First you realize that God loves you and wants to help you in your situation. 

How else do you prepare for a miracle?  Someday you’re going to need one.  You may need one this week.  A financial miracle, a health miracle, a relational miracle in your family with your kids or your husband or your wife.  From this story we find four key essentials of receiving God’s miracles in your life. 

Mark 6 says, “When Jesus saw the large crowd He had compassion on them so He began teaching them.  By this time it was late in the day so His disciples came and said, ‘This is a remote place.  Send the people away so they can go and buy something to eat.’  But Jesus said, ‘You give them something to eat.’  They said, ‘That would take eight months of a man’s wages.’”

What we have here is a problem.  It’s a large very hungry crowd that’s been out in the middle of the desert all day to hear Jesus teach.  As the day wears on they get hungry and there’s no McDonalds in sight, they can’t order a pizza delivery.  There’s a real problem here.  When you have a problem and you need a miracle you need to do four things.  They’re all taught in this story.

1.  I admit that I have a need. 

That’s the starting point.  If I want God to work in my life I’ve just got to admit it: “God, I need Your help.”  But for many of us this is pretty difficult.  We don’t like to admit our problems.  We like to hide our problems.  We like to cover up our problems.  We like to blame other people for our problems.  We like to pretend our problems don’t exist.  But the first principle of this story is God doesn’t work in your life until you ask Him to.  He doesn’t save you until you ask Him to.  He says, “Ask and it shall be given.” Over twenty times in the New Testament we are commanded to ask.  So I come to Jesus and say I’ve got a major need in my life.  Because God won’t help until you admit you need help. 

We don’t do this.  What we usually do is three self-defeating behaviors.    All three of them are in this story. 

         First the disciples procrastinated.  They put off dealing with the problem.  They delayed it.  Notice it says, “By this time it was late in the day.”  Anybody could have figured out these people are going to get hungry some time.  We’re out here in the middle of the desert.  There’s no place to eat.  No fast food chains.  What’s going to happen?  They just put it off. 

Typically, we do this with a lot of our problems.  We delay, we procrastinate, we pretend it doesn’t exist, we want to look the other way.  But the truth is procrastination only makes a problem worse.  It’s like putting your homework off until the last minute.  Or putting your taxes off till the last minute.  When you have cancer delay can be deadly.  Procrastination never solves any problem.  What it does is it makes the problems worse. 

Two, We blame other people.  We pass the buck.  We say it’s not my fault.  It’s all their fault.  Notice what the disciples said.  They said, “Send the people away.”  In other words, out of sight out of mind.  But basically they were saying, “Jesus we didn’t ask these people to come see You.  It’s not our responsibility to feed them.  They’re all hungry.  Tell them to get lost.  Tell them to go into the countryside, find a store and make themselves some food.  We didn’t ask them to come and stay this long.” 

We do this a lot with our problems.  We want to just kind of pass it on.  It’s not my fault.  It’s society’s fault.  It’s the environment’s fault.  It’s my parent’s fault.  We blame other things and other people.  But it’s not really their fault. 

Three, we worry.  We worry about our problems.  If you prayed about your problems as much as you worry about them, you’d have an awful lot less to worry about.  But we tend to fret and stew.  We get anxious and stressed out.  Look at what the disciples did.  They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages^[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

They said “Imagine the expense.  It would take eight months of a man’s wages.”  They did a little cost analysis.  Their anxiety goes into overdrive.  I can imagine Peter or some of the other guys going, “Jesus, how are we going to do this?  Feed five, fifteen, twenty thousand people.  How are we going to transport the food out here?  How are we going to keep it warm?  Who’s going to clean up the mess?  Who’s going to pay for the liability insurance?”  And all the other problems they could think of.  Their minds were going into overdrive.

What they had forgotten was who was there with them.  Jesus Christ the Son of God, standing right by them.  This was a guy who could turn stones to bread if he needed to.  He’s standing right there and they’re looking for a Colonel Sanders.  We do this a lot.  When we have a problem and we forget that God’s with us.  He said, “I’ll help you if you’ll just come to Me.”  But first, I have to admit that I have a need. 

2.  Step two when I need miracle, I assess what I already have to work with. 

I do a little realistic analysis of my resources and I ask myself, What have I got? And, How am I using it?  In verse 38 it says “Jesus said, ‘How many loaves do you have?  [How much bread is in the crowd?] Go and see.”  When they found out they said, ‘Five small loves of bread and two fish.’” 

Why did Jesus do this?  He’s God.  He could just rain manna out of heaven.  He’d done that before.  Why would He say, “Go see what you’ve already got.”  Because here’s the second principle when you need a miracle in your life.  First you admit you have a need.  Second, you assess what you have to work with.  The second principle is God always starts with what you’ve got.  You take the energy you’ve got and give it to Him.  You take the time you’ve got and give it to Him.  You take the money you’ve got and you give it to Him.  You take the relationship or the talent or whatever it is that you’ve got, you say, “God, here’s what I’ve got.”  And you do an evaluation of it.

Notice verse 36 Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.”  You feed them.  How would you like to be a disciple and have Jesus say that to you?  You’re standing there and saying, “Lord look at these fifteen, twenty thousand people hungry.”  And Jesus looks at you and says, “Why don’t you take care of this problem?”  The disciples’ responded, “Lord, this is impossible.”  It’s humanly impossible.  It’s financially impossible.  It’s practically impossible.  We can’t do this.  We don’t have the resources.  It is beyond us.

Has God ever asked you to do anything impossible?  If you’ve been a believer for any length of time I guarantee you He probably has.  Why?  God loves to ask Him children to do the impossible.  Why?  He wants to stretch your faith.  He wants to test you.  He wants you to see that He can be trustworthy. 

John tells us the same story.  Jesus asked this only to test them.  He already had in mind what He was going to do.  Jesus wasn’t sweating the problem.  He’d seen the need long before they did and He had a plan.  He obviously knew they were going to get hungry.  He knew what He was going to do.  He was just testing the disciples by saying, “Why don’t you do it?”  Asking them to do the impossible.

This next week, you’re going to have some problems come up in your life that you don’t have the slightest idea are going to come up.  A crisis is a crisis partially because it takes you by surprise.  Maybe some of you this week are going to get that phone call in the middle of the night that gets your heart racing and your adrenaline pumping.  You hear that there’s been an accident.  Or you hear that a loved one has been taken to the hospital.  Or has passed away.  Or you’re going to go into work and get one of those little pink slips.  Or you’re going to be told that the place is downsizing.  Or you’re going to be called up by your school saying, “We’ve got a problem with your child.”  On and on and on.  And you don’t know what those problems are.  That’s part of what makes them problems.  They’re going to come up.

But here’s the point.  God knows the answer before you even know the problem.  God knows the answer before I even know the problem.  He’s not going to be surprised by it.  He sees the beginning and the end.  He knows every problem you’re going to face the rest of your life.  He already does.  He’s not shocked.  He’s not surprised.  He’s not blown away by it.  You just come to Him and say, “God, You knew this was coming.  So obviously You know the answer even before I knew the problem.” 

I come to Him and say, “Here I am.  I admit I have need.  Here’s what we’ve got to work with.”  The little talent.  The little ability.  The little wealth.  The little time that I’ve got.

3.  I give God whatever I have.

This is the third step to a miracle – give God whatever you have.  In the book of John it tells the story that a guy named Andrew, one of the disciples, found a little boy in the crowd, who’d brought a sack lunch.  It wasn’t much.  It was just five little barley loves, five little muffins and a couple of fish.  Probably dried sardines. 

I am sure that in that crowd of fifteen to twenty thousand people somebody else had brought a bigger and better meal.  But this little boy got to be the hero not because he brought the best meal.  Somebody out there probably had wine and bree in their lunch.  Somebody else probably brought a real gourmet dinner, lean cuisine or whatever.  This little boy became the hero of the story not because he had the biggest meal or the best meal but because he gave it to God.  He gave what he had to Jesus.  He said, Here’s what I’ve got.  Five little rolls from Krystal and a couple of fish.  Here, Lord, You can have these.  So he gave God what he had.

This is the third principle.  That God uses whatever I give Him.  The Bible says, “Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish.  He blessed the food and He broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before the people.”  

This is interesting.  I don’t know how He did it but evidently as He broke the bread it just kept multiplying and multiplying.  He’d break off a piece and there was still a piece there.  He’d break off a piece and there was still a piece there.  He just kept on doing it and doing it and it multiplied and everybody could see it, the whole crowd.  That’s why it was recorded four different times by four different eyewitnesses.  And in church history and even today there are instances of God doing this miracle of the multiplication of food again. 

So, here’s the other half of the third principle.  God will use whatever I give Him. 

He’ll take it and He’ll use it.  God likes to use ordinary things to do extraordinary things.  God likes to use ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary tasks.  Notice the kind of giving that this little boy had that sparked a miracle.  He gave it willingly.  He gave it cheerfully and he gave it immediately. 

The Bible tells us in the book of Matthew that the little boy volunteered his lunch.  He said, Take mine.  Maybe he liked peanut butter and jelly rather than sardines.  For whatever reason he said, take my lunch.  He did it willingly. 

And he did it cheerfully.  He didn’t do it grudgingly or complaining or resenting or worrying (“I’ve got to think about what I want to eat.  What am I going to have to eat if I give my lunch away?”)  He did it cheerfully. 

And he did it immediately.  He didn’t hesitate.  He said, “Here!  Take my lunch!  Go ahead, Jesus.  Take my lunch!”  He didn’t know what God was going to do with it.  But he gave willingly, cheerfully and immediately. 

That’s the kind of giving that sparks a miracle.  I saw a bumper sticker a long time ago.  It said, “God loves cheerful giver but He accepts from a grouch.”  That’s funny but it’s not true.  God does not accept from a grouch.  Why?  Because God doesn’t want your money if you give it grudgingly.  He doesn’t want your time if you give it grudgingly.  He doesn’t want your talents if you give it grudgingly.  Why?  Because God doesn’t need it.  He wants what it represents – your heart.

God is more interested in the attitude of your gifting than He is in the amount of your giving.  So if you ever feel pressured to give or feel pressured to do this or that, or you feel grudging ,let me tell you up front-- God says don’t even bother.  I don’t need your money.  I don’t need your talent.  I don’t need that.  What I want is your life.  The Bible says, “Where your treasure is your heart is.”  If you can’t give it with the right attitude God says forget it.  Don’t bother.  It doesn’t count. 

Having been a pastor for many, many years I’ve discovered that the most miserable people are the people who feel guilty when they’re not generous.  Then resent it when they do give.  Either way, they’re miserable.  It is not by accident that the root of the word “miserable” is the word “miser”.  When I hold onto things and I’m not generous with my life and my time and my talents and my money, when I am a miser then I’m going to be miserable.  Yet the more generous you are with your money, with your time, with your life, with your talent, with your encouragement, the more God is going to bless it. 

That leads us to the fourth point.  That is after I’ve admitted I have a need and I access what I have to work with and I give whatever I’ve got to God, then…

4.  I expect Him to multiply it. 

I expect God to multiply whatever I give Him.  Notice what happened in verse 42.  This little boy brings his lunch of just couple loaves and five fish and it says, “Everyone ate and had enough.”  What do you not have enough of in your life?  “I don’t have enough time.”  That means you’re not giving it to God.  “I don’t have enough money.”  That means you’re not giving it to God.  “I don’t have enough relationships.”  You’re not giving that area of your life to God. 

Whatever you give totally to God, He multiplies it and blesses it in return.  “Everyone ate and had enough.  And afterwards they collected twelve baskets full of leftovers.”  Can you image this kid going home with a whole bunch of leftovers and his mother says, “Johnny!  You did what?  And Jesus did what?  Johnny, what were you smoking at that concert?”  Would you believe your kid?  I gave my sack lunch to Jesus and He multiplied it and fed twenty thousand people.  And by the way here’s the leftovers mom.”  Kind of far-fetched really.  Yet God had multiplied it.  God makes sure of that. 

God has set it up this way in the world there’s a principle called sowing and reaping.  The Bible says “Whatever you sow [whatever you give away] you’re going to reap.”  If you give away criticism, you’re going to get back criticism.  If you give away encouragement you’re going to get back encouragement.  If you give away your time to help others you’re going to find you have more time than if you saved it all for yourself.  Money, reputation, anything.  God, set it up his way.  The universe runs on the principle of sowing and reaping.  Why?  Because God wants to teach you to become a giver.  You can’t be like God unless you learn to be generous.  God so loved the world that He gave.  God wants us to give so He wants us to learn to be like Him.

Here’s the principle.  You always reap back more than you sow.  If you criticize other people, guess what.  You’re going to be criticized back.  If you judge other people you’re going to be judged back.  If I take one kernel of corn and I plant it in the ground will I get one kernel back?  No.  I’m going to get a stalk of corn, several ears of corn, many kernels.  You always get back more than you put in.  Either positively or negatively.  That’s just a law of life, a law of the universe. 

So God says give Me whatever you need more of and watch Me multiply it.  It’s the principle of sowing and reaping.  Mark 10:27 says, “All things are possible with God.”  Here’s the key to this verse.  The key is that God likes to do miracles through people.  God could have just rained down bread on those people or turned a bunch of stones to bread or dropped flocks of quail on them, He could have done any kind of thing that He wanted to.  He had done some of these things in the past.  But instead He worked through people.  He worked through the little boy who gave his lunch.  He worked through the disciples who passed it out.  What we often wait for God to do for us God is waiting to do through us.  Does that make sense?  What we’re waiting for God to do for me He wants to do through Me. 

So will you realize that God loves you and wants to meet your need?  Will you ask him for what you need?  Will you assess what you DO have to work with?  Will you give him what you have?  And will you trust him to multiply it?

Then you are prepared for a miracle!

Easter Sunday 2013

To listen to the sermon from Easter Sunday 2013, click here.

THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF EASTER

1 Peter 1:3 (NLT)

03-31-13 Sermon

”Now we live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ rose again from the dead.”

1 Peter 1:3 (NLT)

1. GOD HAS A P______________________ FOR MY LIFE

       “God has made us what we are in Christ.  God made us to do good works, which He planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.”  Eph 2:10 (NCV)

       “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you.  I will give you hope and a good future.”  Jer. 29:11 (NCV)

“And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into His plans.”  Rom. 8:28 (LB)

II.  GOD HAS A P______________________FOR MY LIFE

“I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power.”  Phil 4:13 (LB)

       “God will strengthen you with His own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come.”  Col. 1:11 (NCV)

       “God never grows faint or weary… He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; those who wait on the Lord will find new strength.  They will fly high on wings like eagles!”  Isa. 40:28-3 (NLT)

“Some people have missed the most important thing in life – they don’t know God!” 

1 Tim. 6:21 (LB)

How Will I Respond?

       “Give yourselves completely to God… to be used for His good purposes.”  Rom. 6:13 (LB)

       “We can come before God’s throne where we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it.”  Heb. 4:16 (NCV)

What Are Your Next Steps?

   ESTABLISH A SPIRITUAL BASE FOR YOUR LIFE

Believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for me and showed He was God by coming back to life.  1 Cor. 15:2-4

Accept God’s free forgiveness for my sins.  Rom. 3:22

Switch to God’s plan for my life.  Mark 1:15, Romans 12:2

Express my desire for Christ to be the director of my life.  Rom. 10:9

If you are willing to take these four steps, then pray this simple prayer:

“Dear God, I believe You sent Your Son, Jesus, to die for my sins so I can be forgiven.  I’m sorry for my sins, and I want to live the rest of my life the way You want me to.  Please put Your Spirit in my life to direct me.  Amen.”

THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF EASTER

1 Peter 1:3 (NLT)

03-31-13 Sermon

Easter was the greatest event that ever happened.  In fact, it’s the focal point of history.  What makes it so special?  Why is it such a big deal?  Why will over a billion people celebrate Easter this weekend around the world? 

Because it proved who Jesus was.  Jesus made some really outrageous claims when He was here on earth.  He said things like, “I’m God.  If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen God.  I’ve come to the earth in human form so you can get to know what God is like.”  Things like, “I’m the only way to heaven.  I’m the way, the truth, and the light.”  Then He said, “I’m going to prove that what I said was true by letting them crucify Me on the cross and I’ll die for your sin and three days later I’m going to raise Myself back to life.”  That’s exactly what He did on Easter.  He came back to life.  He walked around the streets of Jerusalem for a while and people said, “He’s back….” 

But the big issue is, So what?  What are the implications for me 2000 years later in Joelton, Tennessee?  Why should I care?

The Bible says there are some wonderful benefits for what happened at the cross at Easter, 2000 years ago.  1 Peter 1:3 “Now we live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ rose again from the dead.”  Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, we have a wonderful expectation.  We have a hope.  In other words, it’s good news.  Why?  Because …. 

First God has a PURPOSE for my life.  We can know God’s purpose and His plan, His reason for making us.  God has never made anything without having a purpose for it.  You see a tree, there’s a purpose for it.  You see an animal, there’s a purpose for it.  The very fact that you’re alive means that God had a purpose in creating you.  I don’t care what the circumstances are around your birth.  Your parents may not have planned you but God did.  And God knew just who would get together to form just the right genes to make you. 

The Bible says, “God has made us what we are.  In Christ, God made us to do good works which He planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.”  The Bible says that you were put on this earth for a purpose.  He made you for a reason.  Even before you were born, God designed you.  If you don’t get anything else get this today: You were made by God and you were made for God.  Until you understand that, life isn’t going to make sense. 

You can’t make sense of your life without God.  If there is no God, if you’re just a freak, random accident of nature, then your life doesn’t matter, you’re worth nothing.  Without God you have no value and if you get blown away by some drive by shooter, too bad, but it’s not going to matter any way. 

But the Bible says exactly the opposite.  God thought you up before you were born.  He made you for a purpose.  You were created for a reason.  You were valuable.  God would not have sent his Son to die on the cross for junk.  But he died for you.  Not just for the whole world, but for you.  If you were the only person on the face of the earth who needed a savior, Jesus would have died for you.  You are that valuable in his sight.  You are that precious to him.

You may not have learned that when you were growing up.  Maybe you were told that you were worthless or stupid or that you would never amount to anything.  Maybe you were told that you would never be as good as a brother or sister.  Maybe you were told that you were dumb, or ugly, or clumsy, or some other negative label.  But God loves you.  He loves you just the way you are.  Nothing you have ever done or not done can change your value in his eyes. 

You were created with a God shaped hole in your heart and nothing else can fill that except a relationship with God.  We try to fill the emptiness in our heart with other things.  We try possessions: If we just get a certain amount of money, then I’ll be happy.  Or we try popularity: If I can just get enough people to like me, then I’ll be happy.  We try pleasure: If I can just travel around the world, experience different thrills, get high and do certain things, then I’d be happy and fulfilled and satisfied.  Or we try other people: I’ll just get married and this person will meet all my needs.  But there’s no person who can meet all your needs.  Only God can do that.  So many relationships break up.  You try to make other people do what only God can do in your life.  There’s that hole and when we try to fill it with anything else, it doesn’t fit.

Most of us spend our lives pretending that things are better than they really are.  We pretend that we’re more successful than we really are.  We pretend that we are happier than we really are.  If you ever want to see a bunch of unhappy people, go to a Happy Hour.  Only really down people go to Happy Hours.  They’re desperately trying to appear happy.  But they’re not happy.  We try to pretend that our marriage is more fulfilling than it really is.  Then inevitably the crisis comes along and puts a little crack in that wall of denial when we’re trying to pretend that it’s all so great, that our life is wonderful when it’s not.  These feelings bubble up – feelings of dis-satisfaction, despair, disappointment.  We don’t like those feelings and we very hurriedly try to patch over the crack in our lives.  We don’t want to admit that life just hasn’t turned out the way we wished it had.  Life without a purpose is motion without meaning.  It’s activity without direction.  Life without knowing God’s purpose is trivial, petty and pointless.  You were made to know God.  You were made to know His purpose.

Jeremiah 20:9 “God says, `I have good plans for you.  Plans not to hurt you.  I will give you a hope and a future.’”  What kind of plans does God have for your life?  Good plans.  Plans to give you a hope, a future.  Some people think God is some kind of cosmic grouch, sitting up there in the sky waiting to deal you a bummer, waiting for you to make one wrong move and splat!  But the fact is, God says, I have plans for you that are good.  God knows what will make you happy more than you do.  He has a plan for your life.

There’s only one problem.  We make our own plans.  God says, “Here!  I have this purpose  and plan for your life.”  We say, “Thank You, God, but I’m already busy.  I have my own plans.  I have my own goals, my own dreams, my own ambitions.  Thanks, but no thanks.”  We go out trying to fulfill our own plans in life, which inevitably causes all kinds of problems.  The main reason for problems in your life is you’re following your own plans rather than God’s.  It doesn’t fit.  It’s going against the grain.  Any time I try to do my plans instead of God’s plan I have insecurity, I have fear of failure, I have depression.  Sometimes, boredom, guilt, resentment.  I certainly have stress.  I’m not being what I was made to be.  If you try to use a pencil as a screwdriver, it puts stress on the pencil.  It doesn’t work.  When you’re not being what God meant for you to be, it causes all kinds of stress. 

How do I discover my purpose in life?  How do I discover why God put me on this earth?  That’s why we have the church.  There are really only three alternatives.  If you want to know your purpose in life, if you want to know why God put you on this earth, you have three alternatives:

         1.  You can consult a human expert.  (Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey, Leno or Letterman) Ask, “What do you think the purpose of life is?”  You’re not going to get a reliable answer. 

2.  An even more popular way that is in all kinds of books and novels and movies is “Look within yourself!”  I don’t know if you’ve ever tried this one or not.  When I’ve had a major problem and tried to look within myself, I didn’t find the answer, I found more problems.  If the answer was in you, you would have had the problem solved a long time ago.  That one doesn’t work.  That is just New Age nonsense.  It sounds so great:  “Look within yourself!”  You don’t have the answers and you know it.

3.  There’s only one place you can look and that’s to look to God.  Look to your creator, your maker.  Read the Owner’s manual of life.  That’s a whole lot more reliable.

You will discover who you are when you finally discover Whose you are.  You were made by God and for God.  Until you understand that, life will never make sense. 

Finding your purpose in Christ, finding yourself in Christ, that’s important but that’s not all.  You not only need to make it in life a purpose to live for you need  GOD’S POWER to live on.  God has a power for your life.  The reason you need a power to live on is because life is tough.  Nobody just coasts through life.  Nobody has it easy all throughout life.  There are bumps in the road.  You don’t put your life on auto pilot and kind of cruise through it.  It takes energy, effort, stamina.  It takes power.  You need a power to live on and a purpose to live for.

There are two kinds of power you need in life.  You need power to control things and energy to get through things.  Your personal power probably peeked the first month of your life.  At that point, the entire world revolved around you and you weren’t even fully aware of it.  But anytime you made just a little whimper in the first month of your life, all these big adults rallied to attention.  You were fed, you were burped, you were changed, you were cuddled, rocked.  You were given attention.  And in your little infant mind you figured out, “This works!  When I cry I get attention.”  That’s called power.

As you grew up, two things changed.  Two very awful things happened.  One, the world got harder and two, people stopped paying attention to your whimpering.  Part of growing up is realizing how much of your life is really out of your control.

When you are young you think you can control everything.  I was kind of like that great theologian, Leonardo DiCaprio, in the movie Titanic “I am the king of the world!”  But the older you get the more you realize how much is out of your control.  In fact, most of your life is out of your control.  You cannot control much of anything.  But with our human nature, we try to do it anyway.  We try to control the uncontrollable all on our own power and how do you know when you’re doing that?  You’re tired all the time.  You get fatigued.  You get emotional fatigue.  You get physical fatigue.  You even get spiritual fatigue.                  

It’s interesting in our culture, since we like to control things in America, the terminology that we come up with for this chronic power shortage in our lives, this personal energy crisis.  We say, “I’m worn out… I’m played out …  I’m stressed out…. I’m burned out… I’m run down…. I’m used up…. I’m bushed… exhausted… frazzled… bone weary… dead tired… I’m on my last leg… I’m at the end of my rope… I’m about to come unglued… I’m ready to throw in the towel…”

Regardless of the phrase you use, it represents a power shortage.  Why did God make life so tough?  So we’d depend on Him.  So we’d learn to trust Him.  Jesus has all the power you need.  Jesus demonstrated that He was God by showing His power while He was here on earth.  He healed the sick (power over illness).  He calmed storms (power over nature).  He came back to life (that’s ultimately power over death).  The good news is He says, “I will offer you the same kind of power if you’ll get in relationship with Me.” 

What kind of power does Jesus Christ offer you?  He offers you the power to change your life, the power to change the unchangeable, those things you’d like to change about yourself but you can’t.  You’ve tried but you can’t.  Habits, hang ups, hurts that just keep messing up your life. 

He gives you the power to let go of guilt, to let go of grief.  The power to let go of grudges that keep you stuck in the past and keep you from getting on with your life. 

He gives you the power to forgive yourself and forgive others.  He gives you the power to start over when you’ve really made a mess of your life and you feel like you’ve failed. 

He gives you the power to keep going and you’re discouraged and you think, “I can’t take another step!”  He gives you the power to become what you were always meant to be in the first place.  That kind of power is available.

Look at these promises.  The Bible says this: 

“I can do everything God asks me to do with the help of Christ who gives me strength and power.” 

         “God will strengthen you with His own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come.”  In other words He not only gives you starting power, He gives you staying power. 

“God never grows faint or weary.  He gives power to those who are tired and worn out, those who wait on the Lord will find new strength.  They will fly high on wings like eagles!”

If you’re tired, you just need to get plugged into the power source.  Of course you’re tired.  You’ve been trying to handle life all on your own power.  No wonder!  How do you get that power?  By developing a relationship with Jesus Christ. 

One of the great themes of the Bible is this: God made you to love you.  You were made as an object of His love.  God made you to have a relationship with you.  That’s hard to see.  It’s mind boggling that the creator of the universe would want to have a relationship with me.  But He does.  That’s why He sent Jesus Christ so I could see what He was like and get to know Him and relate to Him.        

How do you get to know God?  Not through religion.  Not through rituals.  Not through regulations.  Not through rules.  You get to know God through a relationship.  A relationship with Jesus Christ.  That’s what Easter is all about.

The Bible says, “Some people have missed the most important thing in life.  They don’t know God!”  Do you know God?   I’m not talking about knowing about God.  You may have learned about God as a little kid in Sunday School.  You learned about God.  But do you really know Him?  You see, I know about Michael Jordan, but I don’t know him.  I don’t have a relationship with him.  God wants you to know Him.  When you get to know Christ, you will have His purpose to live for.  You will have His power to live on. 

Everybody in the whole world knows that one of the most expensive and the most successful films of all time wasTitanic.  The estimates are that they spent 300 million to make the movie and it’s already grossed 1.3 billion in profits before it is re-released in 3D..  If you’ve seen the movie, you know that it’s a story of the difference between classes, the distinction between the rich and the poor.  A big deal is made about this in the movie – those who are on the first class deck and those who are down in steerage.  It highlights the differences between the famous and the not so famous, the young and the old, the educated and the non-educated.  On the Titanic there were a number of different distinctions.  There were immigrants and there were non-immigrants.  There were rich and there were poor.  But you know what?  When the Titanic did sink, in newspapers all around the world, they printed two columns side by side and those were the only distinctions that mattered.  It said, “Those known to be saved” and “Those known to be lost.” 

And those are the eternal categories.  Saved and lost.  James Cameron says, “The Titanic is a metaphor of the inevitability of death.  We’re all on the Titanic.” 

I don’t know if you’ve checked recently, but the mortality rate in America is 100%.  We’re all going to die at sometime, just different times.  When someone tells me, “She’s terminal.”  “He’s terminal.” I say, “We’re all terminal.”

Only a fool would go all through life totally unprepared for something you know is going to happen.  One day you’re going to stand before God.  You life is going to end.  He’s going to say, “Did you get to know My Son, Jesus Christ?  Did you follow the purpose that I put you on earth for?  Did you accept Him as your savior?”  The only categories that are going to matter at that time are, Were you saved by Christ?  Or, Were you lost without Christ? 

One day when you stand before God, it’s not going to matter whether you’re rich or poor, educated or uneducated, famous or not so famous.  The bottom line, the reason why Easter is so important is: You were made by God and for God.  God wants to have a relationship with you.  He loves you.  He’s seen every day of your life and He still cares about you.  He came to earth in the human form of Jesus so you could get to know what He is like.  God wants you to learn to love Him like He loves you.  And God wants you to learn to trust Him.

In order to do that, you’ve got to get to know Him.  You don’t trust people you don’t know, so you’re certainly not going to trust a God you don’t know.  How do you get to know Jesus Christ?  By opening up your life and saying, “Jesus Christ, I want to get to know You.”  It’s that simple!  God made it so simple nobody could say it was too hard to understand. 

In a crowd this size, I can guarantee you that many problems are represented here today.  But I also know that God has a purpose for your life that is greater than the problem you’re going through right now.  And God has a power for your life that will help you through the problems you’re going through right now. 

You’re not here by accident.  Long before you were born, God knew you would be here in 2013 at Easter in Forest Grove church so He could get your attention long enough to say to you, “You matter to me.  I love you.”  Jesus Christ says to you today, “I see everything you’re going through.  I know it all.  I see the ache in your heart.  I see the pressure in your mind.  I care about it.  And I can help you.”  God has a purpose for your life that is greater than the problem you’re going through right now.  And God has a power for your life that will help you through the problems you’re going through right now.  If you’ll just open up and let Him come in.  Ask Him.  Say, “God, I need Your help.  Jesus Christ, I want to get to know You.  I want to put my faith in You.”

Why don’t you do that this Easter?

Prayer:

      As we close, I want to pray an Easter prayer.  You might pray it along yourself.  You don’t have to say it aloud.  He already knows the very thoughts going across your mind right now.  Just pray--“Dear God, I want the rest of my life to be the best of my life.  I want to make my life count.  I want to get to know You and Your purpose for my life.  I want to follow Your plan, not mine.  Would You please forgive me for going my own way?  I want to get to know You and Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus, I don’t understand it all but I thank You for dying for me and I realize I need You in my life.  Please help me to understand it more.  From this day forward, I want to follow You as best I know how.  Please come into my life and help me to become the person You mean for me to be.  In Your name I pray, Amen.”