What's On My Heart

Four of our leaders share what's on their hearts.

Ten

The Ten Commandments...do you know them? Do you keep them?

1. No other Gods, only me.

2. Don't make for yourself an idol of anything on heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; don't put those things above your worship of God.

3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God; that's in curses or silliness.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy; work six days and do everything you need to do but on the seventh day – do not work and set it apart as a holy day.

5. Honor your father and mother; so that you will live a long life.

6. No murder.

7. No adultery.

8. No stealing.

9. No lying.

10. No lusting after; or envying your neighbors possessions.

God gave these commandments to those that He saved from slavery in Egypt. He spoke in Deuteronomy 4:1, 2 Hear now O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it; but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

He was speaking to His faithful ones then but we know that His word is timeless and He speaks this now to us today. We are promised this land in Heaven but we have to do now what the Israelites were called to do then.  Follow His commands.

But a person cannot follow directions if they don't have them around or see them. Therein lays the problem. You just cannot see them like you used to.

Do you know them?

Could you recite them?

About 5 years ago there was a big commotion in the media about a Chief Justice named Roy Moore from Alabama who had placed a two ton monument of a bible in the courthouse that He ruled in. Carved into it were the Ten Commandments; but within 3 months of it being there; there were suits being filed to remove it on the grounds that it "sends a message to all who enter the State Judicial Building that the government encourages and endorses the practice of religion in general and Judeo-Christianity in particular." After a year at trial it was decided that the monument violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and was thus unconstitutional: and Judge Moore who had placed it there was told to remove it. Judge Moore appealed the decision and it was in court for about a year. The final decision was that the earlier judgment would stand and Judge Moore would be forced to remove the statue by August 20, 2003. Judge Moore defiantly announced his intention to disobey the judge's order to have the monument removed on August 14^th. Finally, within a few days of when the monument was to have been removed Judge Moore was also charged with an ethics violation and soon was immediately removed from his duties.

We don't see the 10 Commandments very much anymore.

They used to be in schools; but not anymore.

They used to be in public buildings; but not anymore.

Not only the Commandments but also prayer is banned just about everywhere you go publicly anymore.

There's a quote that I heard but don't know who to give credit to…that says, "we have removed prayer and the ten commandments from our schools and told the children they came from apes and then we're surprised when they act like apes."

Why should we care; why should people like Judge Moore be willing to lose his position on the bench to have them on display?

Because God put them in place for us to live by; His commands are absolute; which means that they are free from imperfection; they are complete and perfect. Sadly absolutes are just not tolerated anymore…everything is in the gray area. No one wants us to think in the black and white.

But God Himself thinks in the black and white. We are to live by His absolute truths; His laws and His commands. It is simply a prideful society that refuses to follow the rules that were set up by the God that gave them life so that they can be ruled instead by the court of opinion. Opinions are nothing but a belief or conclusion held with confidence but not actually substantiated by positive knowledge or proof.Have you ever entertained the thought that your opinions might be flawed; that there might be a better plan on which to live? God gave the Ten Commandments as the basic law to govern all people. Why did He do that?

Believe it or not – it was for our own good.

The 10 Commandments were written down by God Himself on two stone tablets and given to Moses and the Israelites. God's Word tells us that Moses brought them down to the people who were told to wait upon the God that delivered them but while Moses was up on the mountain for those 40 days and 40 nights getting those commands the people quickly began to demand false gods to bow down and worship to; with the help of Moses' brother Aaron.

God being God seen all this and told Moses when those days and nights were over that Moses needed to get down to the people immediately because they had already turned from what He commanded them.

When Moses saw with his own eyes the way that the people were so soon honoring those false idols – he angrily threw down the tablets and broke them in pieces. And he tells them in Deuteronomy 9:18-20 that he Moses had interceded for them because God had intended to destroy them for their disobedience.

Moses does for them what Jesus later does for all of us in the New Testament… he falls prostrate - which is to cast (oneself) face down on the ground in humility, submission, or adoration and he eats no food and drinks no water because of the sins of the people and prays to God that He would not destroy them or Aaron his brother.

He tells the people then and I tell you today that HELLO PEOPLE – YOU BETTER START TO FEAR THE GOD WHO CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH BECAUSE HE BROUGHT YOU INTO THIS WORLD AND HE CAN TAKE YOU OUT!!!!

These commands are a standard on which we are to live. They have just been removed from our sight and then forgotten by many.

But they are not unlike the rules in which society functions still today:

We are all expected to get a social security number.

We are to follow the speed limits.

We are expected to pay taxes.

If we do not do these things – we will be singled out and punished.

If we do not do the things that God commands of us – We also will be singled out and punished. But sadly for a lot of people they don't fear God enough to care; because God doesn't single us out and punish us in the way or in the time that it happens with society. We think because we don't get knocked down by God right when we sin that we've outwitted, outlasted or outplayed Him. God is god and He won't be mocked; by little punks with nothing; or by the rich and famous that have it all. So, God gave us the commands for us to have a standard in which to live. He also gave us the commandments so that we can live a life of victory.

When we do the things that He commanded us to do – when we honor our mother and father, when we don't hate, when we don't steal or lie or covet or curse or put anything else in God's place we walk in freedom of His punishment and our own guilt. Just like this boy at the beginning of the video shows…the law and our failure to keep it show us how far away we are from God, it shows us that we need something more to get us back in right thinking and just like Moses was chosen to be the Israelites mediator in those days to speak to God on their behalf; we still now need that mediator Jesus to intercede on our behalf.

It's jaunting to come face to face with the living God and see our failures and flaws in His mirror… it's a lot less forgiving than the mirror of society and your friends and family hold up.  

Could you do me a favor?

Could you possibly entertain the thought that you might not be as great as you think you are. Could you possibly see that we stand in wait of a God who will ultimately stand and judge us when we die?

Just like Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron say in the Way of the Master…if we take a look at the absolutes that God put into place and judge ourselves in the way that God actually judges us; how will we ever make it?

Yes, we do have a God who will punish us.

No, we do not have a God who desires to punish us.

It is the ultimate parental relationship…just like our mothers and fathers on earth – it is for our own good that we receive punishment. I can tell you as a mom – I have NEVER enjoyed having to punish my kids…. But I also know that if I don't ultimately they will have way more problems in the future.

In Deuteronomy 5:29 Our God says the very same thing…Oh that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always so that it might go well with them and their children forever.

He is our Heavenly Father.

God longs to have things go well for man and his family.

This though is a result of obedience to God. There are 20 references in the bible to the commandments and there are 178 in regards to commands.

We are to obey and when we do - things will go far better for us.

Romans 8:28 All things work for good to those who love and obey God.

When we obey God He gives us a full and victorious life; we have the confidence and the assurance to be who we are called to be. We know our God will see us through all troubles and trials and even death itself.

Obedience is better than sacrifice I say to you again and again.

Sadly, that is really hard for some people. They instead look for a loophole; they want to know which is instead the most important commandment so that they can just do that one thing and make it in by the skin of their teeth when that's not how God works. The rich young ruler asked Jesus in Matthew 19:16 and then the teacher of religious law asked Jesus the same question in Mark 12:28. So I think the answer to the question which one is more important is really – Which one is more important to you; which one would trip you up?

Jesus basically says that we need to love the Lord our god with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength and then we need to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. The interesting thing about that is that His statement didn't throw out the commandments – it just tied them up in a compact package.

Because we will do the first 4 commandments when we love God in the way in which He wants us to love Him and we will do the next 6 commandments when we love others as we love ourselves. So, like I said we don't see the commandments written down in public places like we might of in the past but that's definitely not how God wants us to live… He wants you to know them and He wants you to think about it when you don't live them.

Deuteronomy 6; 6-9 Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God, The Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you get up again. Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Have you lied?

Have you stolen?

Have you treated your parents badly; to their face and behind their backs?

This is a reminder to you then of the call in which we as Christ followers should live; know them and live them.

The NaCl of the Earth

Are you worth your salt? Do others thirst for Christ because of you? How salty are you?
 

Matthew 5:13 you are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. This scripture is from what people say is the greatest sermon ever preached. Jesus Himself spoke it from the sermon called the Sermon on the Mount. His point was to tell the disciples and the others who were following Him; whose true home is in heaven how they should live while on this earth.

So, again we see that Jesus uses something that is well known and understood at this time. It's how He did things.

Salt is made up of two things; sodium and chloride.

Chloride and sodium ions, the two major components of salt, are necessary for the survival of all known living creatures, including humans, but the really interesting thing about it though is that if you ingest either of them alone you can die because they are poisonous… but when they combine they come together to form good old common everyday table salt.

How many of you have ever heard the phrase "they're not worth their salt." It comes from the time when Roman soldiers were paid for their work in salt because it was so valuable. In fact, the word salary actually comes from the word salarium which refers to payments made with salt.

What Jesus was telling those that were following Him was that they were special. He was giving them a great compliment.

Salt was a necessity of life in those days because it had great value.

It was like Jesus telling us today that we are worth much $$.  

Obviously, things have changed – we no longer get paid or purchase things with salt but we still do consume it every day. Some people consume much too much of it….But to us today it's become common place;  it sits on nearly every table in restaurants and we grab handfuls of packages when we pick up our McDonald's, Hardees, and Wendy's and we usually just throw away whatever's left without thinking about it.

Our Society doesn't really value salt like it did in the old days but God (who is AMAZING!) picked something that is quite valuable still today, but in different ways.

Salt is used as a preservative. We may not count on salt to keep our food from going rancid like they did in old times before refrigerators and freezers but we still eat ham, corned beef, pastrami, bacon and pepperoni that is preserved in this same way. Meat obviously will decay over time if it is not preserved.

Salt stops the growth of spoilage, killing microorganisms by drawing water out of the cells through osmosis. You take a piece of meat and pour salt all around it and on top of it and salt will keep it preserved.

Jesus tells us that He preserved us; that He stopped our decay; our death and now it's our job to do the same for others.

Jesus is telling us that we need to be the salt and it is the follower's job to show people that they need Jesus and to stop the worlds decay as much as possible.

God's word tells us that in end times when the faithful followers of Jesus (aka the salt) is taken away then the world is really going to break down. It is the salt; the Holy Spirit living inside of us that keeps this from happening.

Salt is used to season food. Job says himself in Job 6:6 … Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg, I refuse to touch it, such food makes me ill. We do not want to tell others about the good news by giving them a bland, boring message. We have something that makes this life taste good! It takes all that it is and it gives it flavor.

Salt just by itself is not that great but when we use it in the right proportions it makes things taste all the better. Life can look great, but to have a taste of it – it may be lacking in flavor until we as followers tell people of God's love for them and tell them of the dangers and distractions of this world and suddenly just like a juicy, ribeye that has been seasoned with just the right combination of pepper and salt becomes delicious.

Salt is used as an antiseptic. How many of you have ever gargled with salt water? A lot of people do it because it kills germs; we as the salt of the world need to keep sin out of our lives by living faithfully to God, and when we do that we will be shown to the world that this was God had planned for us.  People around us will begin to see that living a life of faithfulness to God makes for a much better healthy life. Ephesians 5:1-4 The Message - Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with Him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of Himself to us. Love like that. Don't allow love to turn to lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed. Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, Christians have better uses for language than that. Don't talk dirty or silly, that kind of talk doesn't fit our style.

Salt causes thirst. And who is it that is called the living water? Jesus. There should be something so genuine, so real about us that we make people thirst for a living God. John 4:14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." We should be making people thirsty for God. If you don't maybe you should examine just how salty you really are.

When Mahatma Gandhi who was the leader of India was asked by some missionaries "what is the greatest hindrance to Christianity? He replied Christians.

I think it's the Holy Spirit that lives inside of me that gets so frustrated with that thought. We are known all over for our lack of flavor. 

How salty are you? It's a good question to ask yourself tonight.

Do you not like to make waves with your friends, don't want to come on too strong? Let me point out to you too that:

Salt also irritates a wound. Those that don't know the life and forgiveness of Jesus Christ are the walking wounded whether they know it or not…it is your job to irritate them a bit. If we are not salty enough then we need to change ourselves on the inside. We need to repent and submit; let God change our character –because our saltiness should be evident to everyone around us.

True salt – sodium chloride never loses its saltiness; there is no such thing as unsalty salt; but in Jesus' time they got their salt from the Dead Sea which was not pure; it was mixed with other materials that would affect its flavor, and over time it could become tasteless… it was then that it would be good for nothing except throwing it out. And then trampled upon by man.

Basically what Jesus was saying is that it's no use for Him. You're no longer useable….Just like those branches that I told you about in another message; they are gathered up, thrown out and burned up.

Jesus when He says the simple statement YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH, He is saying that it is our job and up to us to do the things that He came to do. If we as followers are going to change our world; then we have to be the real thing. Our lives CANNOT be mixed with all different kinds of impurities.

Long ago the Romans used to think that salt was the purest of all things because it came from the purest of elements – the sun and the sea. They might have been a bit confused believing in the creation and not in the creator but it makes a perfect point that we as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ need to be an example of purity to this lost and dying world that is not our home.

We ourselves need to be noticed (shaken out) because we notice when salt is in something, don't we? We especially need to be noticed for our purity in our speech, conduct, thoughts and actions. It's hard to influence others by our words when our actions don't back them up. 

How many of you have ever had something to eat like a delicious sandwich or fries when you didn't have the salt to put on it?

Not as good is it?

When salt's not there we miss it.

You have to be worth your salt my friend!

Right before Jesus tells those that they are the salt of the earth He tells them the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount.

READ: Matthew 5

To continue to stay salty we need to stay humble before God and others, we need to use our God given strengths carefully and it will increase, we need to develop a greater appetite for what is right, and we need to show mercy to others who are in need of our help, and be patient with the weak.

It's those things that will keep us salty.

If you think about those things and see that you are losing your flavor then you better do something about it. To make it we need to be salty.

Isn't it amazing that all humans need salt to survive; it's like God telling us in another way that this message of salvation is for all mankind!

If you've never thought about it before…

Psalm 34:8 taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.

Remember; for salt to have its effect it must come into contact with whatever it is to affect it.

Pour yourself out – give this world some flavor!

Stay salty man!

Are You Going To Heaven?

Five simple questions to ask yourself so that you can be sure your going to heaven

1 John in the bible was written by John who was one of Jesus' original twelve disciples. John also wrote the gospel of John, this letter and the two other letters called 1, 2, 3 John and also Revelation. This letter was written to believers but there was no specific mention as to a certain person, place or time. It is thought that this letter was written with the intention to pass it around to many areas of believers to encourage and direct them in their faith. The primary issue in this letter was that the problem of false teaching regarding salvation through Christ and how it worked in a believer's life. Certain people at that time had left the church but not before the results of their false teaching had distorted the message of Christ and confused the believers as to how they might "know" that they had eternal life.....

These things that they had a problem with were:....

1. The doctrine - beliefs and teaching.....

2. That Jesus is the Christ, Messiah, Savior and Son of God.....

3. That He came in human form. ....

4. They had a problem with ethics which is the moral standard of behavior.....

5. They had a problem with obeying God's commands.....

6. And they didn't think that a person needed to overcome worldly desires or avoid evil to have spiritual salvation. ....

Their false teaching was an early form of Gnosticism which is defined as beliefs and teachings that contradict the proven and established truths of God's Word.....

Their teaching was that the spiritual realm is entirely good, while matter or the physical world is entirely evil and basically that our bodies are kind of a trap that we need to escape. This teaching led to the idea that salvation could be achieved by escaping the body which came not through faith in Christ but by achieving more knowledge of things to do this. Because of this teaching people began to do one of two things – either they were treating their bodies badly; and even punishing themselves since the body (matter) was considered evil OR people were becoming more and more promiscuous and indulging their bodies in whatever they desired because they didn't think it really mattered what they did with it as long as they had the right knowledge or beliefs to back them up.....

So, Johns wrote this letter to those followers to: show them the truth and disagree with the errors of these false teachers and also to challenge those people who claimed to be God's spiritual children to pursue a life of purity and companionship with God because that if the kind of life that is filled with joy and assurance. It comes from an obedient faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit takes over in a person's life. ....

So, let's talk about this assurance…One thing I've noticed when I've shared the message of Jesus with people is there is usually one of two responses; one that people believe that a person can just be good enough to make it to heaven or two, that people just don't seem to know for sure if they are going to make it… it's just a big question mark to them if they will get there. Both of these ideas are wrong! ....

Every true Christian desires to have the assurance of salvation; the certainty that when Christ returns or when death comes that they will be with Jesus in Heaven. John's plan was to let those people know that they can have that assurance without any doubts that they are in right relationship with God and are headed for Heaven. What's your answer? Take the test, look up the scripture references and find out. ....

Are You Going to Heaven?....

1 John describes for us 5 specific tests by which believers may know with assurance that they have eternal life. ....

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Do you truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God; Our Messiah and Savior?....

Read: 1 John 1:1-3, 2:21-23 4:2-3, 15 5:1, 5, 10, 20....

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Are you faithfully living a life of obedience to God's commands?....

Read: 1 John 2:3-11, 5:3, 4....

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Are you turning away from sin towards a life of companionship with God?....

Read: 1 John 1:6-9, 2:3-6, 15-17, 29, 3: 10, 5:2-3....

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Do you truly love God and other believers?....

Read: 1 John 2:9-11, 3:10-11, 14, 16-18, 4:7-12, 18-21 ....

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Do you have the witness of the Holy Spirit in your life?....

Read: 1 John 2:20, 27, 4:13, 5:7-12....

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John concludes in his letter that people can know with confidence that they have eternal life. ....

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1 John 5:13....

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.  ....

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