Friends Church Sermons

Finding the life that God has promised us. Let me clarify one thing here before we move on to chapter 2. Canaan this land of promise is not a place of health, wealth, and absence of conflict. It’s not a utopia where we have no problems to face – we are talking about Canaan not Eden. The land of promise represents a place where we are able to become all that we are created to be. A place where we can reach our God given potential. A place where God’s promises of peace, wholeness, joy, and blessing are real in everyday life. But this place is not without conflict or pain as you will see as we read further. Let’s look at chapter 2 together. Rahab is an interesting character. She is a harlot – a prostitute. She is likely a Temple prostitute given over to the worship of Baal the Canaanite Fertility God. Anyway she presents a very unlikely ally for the spies of Joshua. Here is a woman who is deeply involved in sinful brokenness and dedicated to a false God – perhaps if you will the worst of the lot in Jericho. In R

Let me set the stage for you. Israel has come once again to the borders of the Promised Land. Their fathers stood in this same spot 40 years before and refused to cross over and possess the land. Fear, frustration, sin, and brokenness kept them out of Canaan. For forty years this troop of merry fools marched and wandered in circles through the desert just a few miles from the land that flowed with milk and honey. They wandered until all of those who had rejected Gods invitation died in the wilderness – the last of whom was their great leader Moses. Now they come again to the doorstep of Canaan but a new leader has risen among them and his name is Joshua. Chapter 1

Pastor Matt leads in this discussion of faith in action.

The wall is re-built and the gates are hung. Nehemiah has faced many obstacles on the way to fulfilling the call of God but now the job is complete; or is it? Nehemiah calls the people of Jerusalem together in a large gathering inside the walls. They are surrounded by the evidence of God’s faithfulness and promise that has been accomplished through their hands and His strength. Nehemiah and Ezra the Priest stand before the gathered assembly and a hush falls over the crowd. Now the most important part of Nehemiah’s journey is about to be revealed. He has hinted at it but now it’s time. If you’ve been paying close attention throughout this series you might have caught it. Let me go back and pick out just a few hints.

Chapter 4 the wall is half way built. Chapter 5 the wall is almost finished. Chapter 6 the wall is finished only the gates still need to be hung in place to finish the project. Yet in this moment with victory so near at hand the enemy is not done with Nehemiah. Nehemiah has survived the battles from without with armies surrounding his half-built wall. Nehemiah has survived the battles within as the people turned on each other with the wall almost done. The greatest battle lies yet ahead. The greatest enemy is still to be fought. Nehemiah 6

In Chapter 4 the walls around the city are half way built and Nehemiah finds himself surrounded by enemies. In chapter 5 we find the walls almost completed but a new enemy raises its head and it’s more deadly than anything the world has to throw at Nehemiah. The Enemy Within – there arose a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brothers. This new enemy is far more dangerous than Sanballat or Tobiah ever thought of being. What the world cannot do from the outside the wall the people inside the wall can do for themselves. Outside enemies pulled the workers together but now the people themselves begin to turn on each other. How do we fight this internal scourge?

We are continuing our journey through Nehemiah as we talk about becoming Kingdom Builders as we share the heart and love of Christ with our community. We’ve talked about having broken hearts for people and what we can do and what only God can do. Chapter 3 is a description of the names of families who worked on the wall. As we move to chapter 4 we find that it doesn’t take long when you start making a difference for opposition to rise. Today we see that the battle is at hand.

. Five months have past from November to April between chapter 1 and chapter 2 of this book. We find Nehemiah again in the presence of the King and an amazing thing happens. I told you last week that Nehemiah isn’t allowed to speak to the King he is protecting. That is important as we read on now. As we think about the Kingdom work that God has called us to in leading others to Christ I want you to know that just like Nehemiah there are things that we can do and there are things that only God can do. We need to know the difference.

I want to share them with you to encourage you to make a difference; that you can make a difference in the world around you. I want you to think about being Kingdom Builders, Change agents, transformational leaders, and most of all disciples of Christ. I want you to see that we are not only called to build the kingdom of God but that we are equipped to do it. For the next several weeks we are going to get a glimpse into the life of Nehemiah and his journey to make a difference and find that we can make a difference too. Nehemiah is a slave in Babylon. For 70 years the Jewish people were in captivity (Daniel and Jeremiah) in Babylon. Over the next 90 years the Jewish people trickled out of Babylon (Ezra) back into the promised land and Jerusalem. The story starts as a few men of Judah came and brought news to Nehemiah of the happenings in Jerusalem.

This week of Thanksgiving leads us directly into the season of Advent as we celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world. I think it’s so appropriate that the season of the year when we celebrate God’s greatest gift to mankind is begin in a season of Thanks. Psalm 95 is a call to thanksgiving. It’s a call to worship.

Perhaps CS Lewis puts it best when he writes this: An “impersonal God”—well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads—better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap—best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband - that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (“Man’s search for God”!) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?

In Mattew 25 Jesus is talking to His disciples about eternity. He is talking to them about the way they spend their lives. Read Matthew 25:31-46. It appears to me that Jesus says that how we treat people in Our Town really does matter to Him. Do you agree? How we invest our lives has eternal consequences for us and for others. What kind of consequences does Jesus give us here for how we treat others? Now lets look at the passage that precedes this one. It’s a great lesson about how to be a sheep not a goat. Matthew 25:14-30. There are three things that I want you to think about today:

Fathers Day 2013

Jesus sees the need of the people and begins to heal their sick. He meets a physical need so that He can then meet the deeper need in their hearts. All afternoon He speaks to this now attentive audience. No one leaves – everyone hangs on His every word. Except it seems His own disciples. They are standing in the wings becoming anxious. When is this going to be over. Doesn’t Jesus see what’s going to happen here? These people are going to need to eat. I want you to see three contrasting pictures here. 1) Jesus who is eagerly feeding a spiritually hungry audience. 2) The Audience who is wrapped in the folds of God’s love and embrace. 3) The disciples who are anxious and looking at the sundials on their watches. You know something tells me that many in today’s churches would walk out angry with Jesus because he didn’t stick to the 1 hour worship format. That’s beside the point. The disciples come to Jesus and say – “Master ummm its time to wrap this up, people are going to be hungry and then there is going to be

Easter Changes Everything! What a wonderful theme for a new start. The resurrection makes all things possible because we serve a risen Savior. We preach no dead religion or stale moldy doctrines. We preach Jesus Christ alive, active, and interested in our daily living. On this Sunday morning that we celebrate new beginnings, new life, new opportunity, fresh inspiration, and a living faith I want to begin a dynamic series on Living Your Dreams – about Finding God’s Best for Your Life.

What is the real Question?

About a month ago after a pretty long layoff because of pain and injury I started working out again. In some ways it’s been difficult – starting from scratch and working through those early muscle pains that go along with training. In other ways it’s been very fulfilling – helping with stress levels and making me feel more in control of my own body and health. Frankly it’s been good for me. In fact you can pray for me – I’m reaching for a very difficult goal – training this spring to try to run a half-marathon in the fall. That’s my goal reach it or not. I decided if I was going to do this I had to have a goal or it wouldn’t work. That’s kind of what Paul is saying to Timothy in this passage of scripture this morning. Over the next few weeks I want to share with you how 30 minutes a day can transform your life.

I used to think that the problems we see in the world and the church around us were cause by a lack of breadth. Our cultural decline and struggle caused by a lack of outreach and drawing people to Christ. What I have come to believe is that our real problem is not a lack of breadth but a lack of depth, a lack of depth within the Christian experience. We live in a day where the church is dominated by momentary fads, fashion, and entertainment.

Last week we looked at the prophets and angels as the words changed from He is coming to He is here. This morning we look at the shepherds and the Magi who are among the first to respond to the message He is here.

In the messages of Prophets and Angels we hear the message that God is with us. From the moment of Adams sin the world lay in brooding watchfulness for the moment when God’s plan for the redemption of man would be fulfilled. Adam, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Jeremiah, Isaiah on and on goes the list of heroes of our faith who walked in the darkness waiting for the dawn. For a thousand years prophets looked for the day when Immanuel (God with us) would stand upon the earth. He is Coming!