Sermon Nuggets Week of Oct 26 Col 1:21-23
Sermon Nuggets Mon Oct 26
Theme- Amazing Love
Verses: Col 1:21-23 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Amazing Love
When I attended Bethel I became introduced to on of the great hymns of the faith, “And Can it Be”. I was surprised that I never heard it before, but it was a moving experience to hear the various parts sung in a testimony of praise of a large student assembly in the field house turned into a chapel. That song seemed to me to be best suited for a mass choir.
The wonder of the grace of Almighty God that would save him, a sinner so overwhelmed Charles Wesley he penned these words shortly after his conversion:
“And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain for me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
'Tis mystery all: th'Immortal dies: Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine.
'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore, Let angel minds inquire no more.
He left His Father's throne above. So free, so infinite His grace-
Emptied Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race:
'Tis mercy all, immense and free, for O my God, it found out me!
Still the small inward voice I hear, that whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near, that quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart; I feel the Savior in my heart.
No condemnation now I read; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th'eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.”
The questions he asks in his song are reflections on the truths in the passage we will think about this week. How can it be that the shedding of Jesus’ blood 2000 years ago is relevant to me today? How was it possible for the Son of God to have died for me? Why should our Lord empty Himself of all His divine glory and become a man, in order to save Adam’s helpless race?
Charles Wesley was the younger brother of the famed preacher, John Wesley. He has been ordinate into the clergy and was pastoring a church for three years before he joined his brother on a missions trip to America. He was quite disillusioned and returned home a year earlier than John. He had taken ill was recuperating in a home of people whom seemed to have a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. This testimony of the inner witness of the love of Christ seemed to elude him.
He was reading his Bible. The words became life to Him as the Spirit of God spoke to Charles of his need for confession, repentance and faith in Christ’s works on the cross. On May 20, 1738, around midnight, Charles Wesley was saved. His journal reads "I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ..... I saw that by faith I stood, by the continual support of faith.......I went to bed still sensible of my own weakness....yet confident of Christ's protection." On the following day, Charles strength began to return. He also commenced what proved to be the one of the first of some 6,000 hymns! He found the assurance of salvation that he never had before. It was the difference between a religion he followed, and a savior whom he now knew in a personal way. It is amazing that God would stoop to save each of us!
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Tues Oct 27
Verses Col 1:21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
Alienation
In a Peanut’s cartoon Lucy addressed Snoopy: “There are times when you really bug me, but there are also times when I feel like giving you a hug.” Snoopy replied, “That’s the way I am, huggable and buggable.”
We all have our huggable days but we may have more buggable days. Did you ever alienate anyone with your buggableness or by bugging them?
One of the thoughts that we were looking at yesterday was the way in which Charles Wesley saw his sin and his need of a savior. He know about Christ, but did not have a personal relationship with him. When he repented things changed dramatically. He was overwhelmed by God’s great love for him.
Paul also was aware of the life he lived apart of Jesus. In fact all people start there.
A couple I was visiting was trying to get some insights in the differences of their church backgrounds. After describing the importance of making a commitment to Christ, the man wanted to summarize what he heard as a difference between the two churches. He drew a box that he called “salvation” and a person outside of that box. He understood me to say in effect we start outside the box and need to make a commitment and confession before we are “in the box”. Whereas at this other church we start in the box as a baby and much make some decision or action that moves us out of the box.
I had not heard it shared that way before. I told him I couldn’t answer for the other pastor, (without getting into the argument of the age of accountability) I said we do begin with a sinful nature that separates us from a holy and righteous God. IT is only by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ whereby we are made clean from sin and acceptable to Him. When we apply by faith His work for us on the cross can we be born again.
All of us were alienated from God. We were his enemies. Alienation sometimes happens between people because of some action or words that were shared that resulted in people no longer having a relationship together. People are no longer friends. Some have become enemies.
It could be that you have done something against another person whereby they no longer want to have anything to do with you. Did you ever know someone that just irritated you to the point where you couldn’t stand to be around them?
We are all alienated God with our minds and actions. We all have sinned and do sin. And because God is totally holy and cannot sin, it’s hard for Him to be in our presence. We have alienated Him with our sins and sinful nature. But that’s where everybody starts out before the cleansing blood of Christ is applied. Can you imagine sinful people presented God as Holy? There is something in the Greek that we don’t see in the English there is an intensifier on the word now. You once where far away from God but now…it’s different – but now through God’s amazing grace you’ve been given a new position – now you’re not far away from God but you’re in Christ.
Paul wants us to catch the gravity of our plight that we once were headed for doom, but through Christ we are headed for eternal bliss. If Christians could catch the vision of where they were headed and where they are now it would change the whole perspective of our Christian life. You were once hell bound. You were lost without any hope because you aliened God by your sin. You can justify yourself all you want, but until you saw your situation of standing condemned you will have a hard to appreciation the extent to which God went to change your direction. You once were doomed but you’ve been saved. You were not saved from loneliness, or hopelessness; you were saved from God’s wrath.
Even as believers we sometimes decide to live apart from Gods’ grace and truth and wonder where God is. We may be saved, but do not have the closeness nor love that we once had. We can again.
I think the opposite of alienation is united in friendship, close in love. That is God’s plan for you and me.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Weds Oct 28
Verses – Col 1:22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-
Reconciliation
Some of the thoughts for devotions on this passage have been with the help of Pastor Steve Shepherd’s sermon “The Cleaning Process.”
The teacher was checking her student’s knowledge of proverbs. “Cleanliness is next to what?” she asked. A small boy replied with real feeling: “Impossible.” Sometimes cleanliness does seem nearly impossible. I’m talking about soul cleanliness. Why does it seem impossible at times? Because sin is so strong, so never-ending. It appears that even once we are cleansed from sin it comes right back. It is so very hard to overcome certain sins: greed, lust, ill will, anger, gossip, etc. It is a never-ending battle. As a father came home from his work he saw his little daughter who had been playing in the mud. He said to her, “Honey, you’re pretty dirty.” In her childish way she replied, “Yes, I know daddy, but I’m prettier clean.” And we all are prettier when we are clean!
When Paul realized his lost condition there was nothing he could do about it. He was among the most zealous of religious men. He did all he could to be right with God but his sin separated him from God. But by God’s grace he was met in a dramatic manner on the road to Damascus and was reconciled with God by faith in Jesus Christ. We hope and pray that people will get reconciled to God through Christ death on the cross. Christ died to make it possible to come into God’s presence and have fellowship with Him. Christ died to cleanse us and make us pure in God’s eyes and unite us with Him.
One New Year’s Eve at London’s Garrick Club, British dramatist Frederick Lonsdale was asked by Seymour Hicks to reconcile with a fellow member. The two had quarreled in the past and never restored their friendship. "You must," Hicks said to Lonsdale. "It is very unkind to be unfriendly at such a time. Go over now and wish him a happy New Year." So Lonsdale crossed the room and spoke to his enemy. "I wish you a happy New Year," he said, "but only one." That’s not exactly what we would call full reconciliation. However, there may be some people that want that kind of reconciliation with God. I mean they may not want full or complete reconciliation and only want minimal fellowship with God and His church.
Frankly, some people just don’t want to get too close to God and go to church very much. Maybe they would be afraid that God will spoil their fun and plus it will cost them some money as well. Some people just don’t want to get too religious!
True reconciliation means that we believe in Christ and trust in His death on the cross to save us from our sins. We believe, we trust and we surrender by faith and obedience. We do what Christ asks us to do: repent, be baptized, seek His will in life, and commit to serve Him. And some people don’t want to do these things. Some people don’t want that kind of reconciliation or commitment.
The cross of Jesus brings us together with God for all eternity. With reconciliation also comes cleansing from all our sins, or reconciliation would not be possible.
Pastor Dale
Sermon nuggets Thurs Oct 29
Verse- Col 1:23 “If you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.”
Perseverance
Paul speaks of becoming holy in V. 22 and then he says, “If you continue in your faith…” Continuance is vitally important. Perseverance is part of being saved. Real faith is always a faith that is tested. This is not to be misunderstood as works salvation. It is rather the fruit of faith.
When Abraham was justified by faith there was nothing he did to earn grace. God initiated goodness upon him. But it is a mistake to think the path of obedience is without struggle. He was called upon to give God commitment of heart, mind, soul and spirit. He was tested through obedience to give up his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. God provided a substitute. Abraham did not put something of lesser value on that altar than what God told him. His walk was a faith walk believing that God would do what is best. It is active trust, not passive trust. Do we really believe?
Reconciliation came at a price. Christ’s physical body went through suffering and through death. What Paul is saying here is that salvation; even though it’s free it came at a great cost. Faith is the opposite of what health and wealth preachers teach. Instead of demanding more from God we are pleased to follow wherever and however He leads and that path will be through the valley of the shadow of death. That death will not only be physical in order to gain the glories of heaven, but it is the death of ego, self, greed, lusts, pride, desires that are focused on the counterfeit pleasures of this world.
Abraham was rich. But yet the Bible said he possessed nothing. There was nothing that was his, it was all God’s and so he could freely give up anything since it wasn’t his anyway.
I get very upset over the teaching of liberal pastors. Ralph Milton helps many pastors in his writings and teachings. Concerning the sacrifice of Jesus he wrote, “I don’t pretend to understand the Hebrew sacrificial system. The whole culture seems to have been living with a huge sense of guilt. Maybe we could do with a bit of that – a sense that we do carry the blame for what is happening in the world especially the suffering from several diseases and starvation n Africa. And I’m quite sure, if we really wanted to, we could find a better solution than killing an animal or a human, even if the human was Jesus of Nazareth.”
He teaches pastors that the cross was really a faulted system. When we bear the guilt of not feeding Africa, guilt is appropriate, but not the guilt that most of us carry for sinning against our brothers and sisters and against God.
Ignoring the poor is corporate sin. Discrimination is corporate sin. Pollution is corporate sin. All of which should be addressed in individual ways, but lying, stealing, sex outside of marriage, covetousness, ignoring God’s lordship in our personal lives are individual matters that also required the death of Jesus in order to be cleansed from all unrighteousness. Now we need to continue in order to “take up your cross daily and follow me.”
When God called Paul to go to preach in unreached lands there was persecution, hardships, beatings, hunger, and discouragement. But the gift of this pearl of great price was so valuable that his passion was to share it at no personal advantage to himself from an earthly perspective but amazing value to his heart and soul in relationship to God and in the strengthening of his faith. He was full of joy in jail. He was full of praise in prison. He was singing in suffering. He was persevering in persecution.
Why? He tells us in II Tim. 4:7-8 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
The lies of Satan are to give up. The strength of the Spirit is to look up. If you are going through hardships, difficulties, discouragement then exercise the faith given to you. Trust in the one who promises to sustain you in your obedience.
The hymn writer said it well. “Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.”
Pastor Dale
Sermon nuggets Fri Oct 30
Verses- Col. 1:22 “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”
Glorification
Do we understand that from which we have been saved?
Last Tuesday at the Grindstone semi-annual meeting, Pastor Ivan Fiske spoke on the importance of two paths, two people, and two destinies from Matt 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
There is a broad path. The gate is popular; it is pleasurable; it is man-pleasing. There is a narrow gate that is hard, difficult, and unattractive from an earthly point of view.
There are two types of people- The many and the few. Multitudes of people follow the wide path. They seek the journey that is easy. It has little demands and little responsibility. It is self fulfilling. It is about the good life and uses religious ways to accomplish that. The are not many who are willing to give up the control and priorities of their life to another, Jesus Christ. They want to decide what to do and when to do it for the Lord and the concept of servant hood is unattractive. There are those who love sin and others who seek holiness. Those who want God and live however they want, and others who love God and delight in pleasing Him in all they do and say.
But the bottom line is destruction, devastation, and eternal suffering. You cannot sugar coat hell. It is real and it is where most people go. The second destination is heaven with glory and pleasure, peace and fulfillment forever more.
We tend to lose those eternal truths when only half of the story is told. When people find this journey is hard, they quit and go down the wide path. When people see the destination as heaven and hell and the unbelievable difference, there is joy and peace in the security knowing they are bound for glory and all their sin and condemnation has been taken away by the blood of Jesus. We are not holy and without blemish. There is no reason of holding anything against us for Jesus saved us from damnation.
The destiny of everyone who has put his or her faith in Christ has now been radically changed. Our salvation came at a high cost. Now you are presented to the father as a bride prepared for her husband, pure and holy in his sight. It is a love commitment in which there is joy and fulfillment forever more.
Now there are a lot of things you could accuse me of and rightly so, and not only that but the devil is the accuser of all Christians. But because of Christ death on the cross I have been acquitted of all charges, and no accusations will hold up. Now there awaits us the joy of our salvation. By grace we inherit all that God has prepared in glory. This truth so excites Paul that many commentaries say much of what he is writing is a hymn of praise for the hope that is our in Chirst. Glory is a place of great reward. It is that hope that kept him going. It is also ours, all because of God’s amazing love!
Pastor Dale
