Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Dec 3rd, 2010 True Love

Today’s Passage – 1 Corinthians 13 – 14

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1)

“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” (Matthew 5:44)

“And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” (1 John 3:23)

“This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12 & 13)

The Bible speaks much about love. In our passage today the word “charity” is used, which is the same word that is translated “love” many other places in the Bible. It means to love unconditionally; to have a deep abiding love that goes far beyond mere affection. This is the kind of love that God has for us. It was what He demonstrated (commendeth – Romans 5:12) when He died for us sinners. Why God loves us I do not know, but the Bible tells us He does.

This kind of Bible love spoken of here in our text and some of these other passages as well is something people often claim to have for others, especially in word. In other words, we often say that we love certain individuals or people in general. However, in practicality, I don’t think that we are being entirely truthful. Love is clearly more than just words, and it is even more than just feelings. Love is action. Love can be seen in the things that we do as well as say. In vv 4 – 7 of 1 Corinthians 13 there are listed practical examples of how love is put into action. Let me list them for you here:

Charity:

suffereth long, (patience)

and is kind;

charity envieth not;

charity vaunteth not itself, (does not boast)

is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly, (inappropriately)

seeketh not her own,

is not easily provoked,

thinketh no evil;

Rejoiceth not in iniquity,

but rejoiceth in the truth;

Beareth all things,

believeth all things,

hopeth all things,

endureth all things. (is able to survive anything, unconditional)

There are 15 practical applications of real love in those four verses. Take a good look at each one of them individually. Now ask yourself honestly: Do these demonstrations of love show up in my love for others? Or am I falling short? I think we both know the answer to that question. We all fall short, don’t we. I am not trying to make you feel bad, but I am trying to get you to realize how much needs to be done in our lives in order for us to truly represent Christ as His ambassadors. Remember, the Bible is clear that people will only see Jesus in us as we demonstrate love before them and to them. Now, here is the exciting part: You can’t love people in the flesh. It is not something that you can do on your own. You see, God is love; and you can only love people if the Holy Spirit of God is in you and is not being quenched (hindered from working in and through you). We must yield to the indwelling Holy Spirit of God inside of us. We must allow Him to love people through us. We must somehow get ourselves: our feelings, our hurts, our desires, etc. out of the way.

Do you want to love people as Jesus loves people? The world has love, but it is a conditional love. Some people are easy to love, but most people are not. Jesus died for a bunch of unloveable people. We must take our love up another notch if we are truly going to be His disciples.

Dec 1st, 2010 Bought With A Price

Today’s Passage – 1 Corinthians 6 – 9

“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:20)

I apologize for the late post. I overslept this morning listening to the rain and wind beating against the windows and roof of the house. It was an easy day to stay in bed a little longer.

Let me give you a parallel verse to the one listed above:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)

God says that we are bought with a price, meaning we no longer belong to ourselves. Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price by shedding His blood on the cross of Calvary. The context of 1 Corinthians 6:20 has to do with committing sin, which we have no right to do as believers, but I believe this verse tells us much more than to not commit sin. It deals also with our desires, our will. We really have no right to do with our lives that which we desire to do, unless those desires are God-given desires. Romans goes on to tell us that it is reasonable for us to yield our will to the will of God. I often quote another verse from Romans:

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” (Romans 7:18)

Notice that the “no good thing” that Paul refers to in this verse is his will; and “that which is good” is the will of God. This tells us the same thing that our text tells us. We have no right to do with our lives that which we desire. Our desires need to be surrendered to God. He owns us. He purchased us on the Cross of Calvary. This does not just mean that we shouldn’t commit sin, it goes way beyond mere obedience to His moral laws. Our goals, desires, and especially our passions need to yielded to the control of the Holy Spirit of God.

God desires to mold us and shape us to perform an ordained work (Ephesians 2:10) for Him, He has the perfect plan for our lives; and His plan will bring us the most fulfillment, and the most happiness. We may think we know what we want, but we must be very careful to determine that the thing which we want is what God wants for our lives. We often sing the song, “This World is Not My Home”; but really when you think about it, we could sing, “This Life is Not My Own”. We belong to God. He has purchased us, and it is our reasonable service to give our lives completely to Him.

Nov 30th, 2010 Grow Up

Today’s Passage – 1 Corinthians 1 – 5

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. (1 Corinthians 3:1 & 2)

The church at Corinth was a church that had many issues which we could sum up into one main category, carnality. They were a very carnal church. Paul says here in the verses above that they were babes. The symptoms of their carnality can be seen throughout these chapters. For instance, they had a problem with unity; they were divided. Some of them were following Paul; some Apollos; some Peter. They ought to have been following the Lord; this way they could also get behind anybody else that was also going the same direction. Man worship seems to be a symptom of the carnality in our churches today as well. We love to pick out a spiritual guru who will do all of the work for us. He will get to know God and study for us, and he will tell us what we need to know. You see, this way we won’t have to get to know God ourselves. I praise God for the many different men that God has used in my life, but they were all just men. I still needed to follow God on my own, just in case one of these men ahead of men decide to take a detour away from God.

Another symptom of the church in Corinth which revealed their lack of spiritual maturity, and their carnality, was immorality. There were many within the body of Christ there that could not control their passions. They were committing some of the worst types of sin including fornication, and unfortunately, it did not appear that the church was dealing with it. They did not seem to be too upset about it. Our churches today are much the same way. It is almost as if we have given up trying to fight immorality anymore. The world we live in has certainly become a cesspool of immorality, so we figure that as long as we are not as bad as they are, we are doing ok. I don’t think God sees it the same way.

How can we reverse this trend? How can we try to conduct our churches in a way where we are still loving and reaching people with problems, yet we are maintaining a mature, separated walk with the Lord. I believe if a church is going to be able to pull its people away from the world, and lead them into a separated lifestyle of service, it will have to have these three ingredients:

1  There must be some shining examples – The leadership of the church, beginning with the pastors, must be men of God that are excited and passionate about serving the Lord. These men and women do not see separation as something to endure, but rather a lifestyle that they enjoy. These people don’t have to do what they do, they love it.

2  There also needs to be strong exhortation – Bible principle must be preached and taught with a conviction that can only come through the power of the Spirit of God. Messages need to be flooded, not with the philosophies of men, but with the principles contained in the Word of God. The people need to hear, “Thus saith the Lord”.

3  There also needs to be service exercise – People need to have a purpose, and they need to be busy serving the Lord. Let’s plug people in to some type of service that enables them to use their gifts for the glory of God.

4  There also needs to be a spiritual excitement – We get beaten down by the world enough. Our people need to see God working. They need to be convinced that this is real, that we are really on the wining team. There needs to be some spiritual victories that will motivate the people to keep going. Nothing is more motivational than seeing people saved, and seeing peoples lives changed.

Carnality will be less of a problem in a healthy, vibrant, excited, motivated, and growing church. People will be able to resist the pull of the world if there is a stronger pull coming from within the walls of the church.