Pride

I have discovered that the sin of pride is the most devastating and influential sin a person can commit. The sin of pride is the first one of the biggest areas of idolatry in a persons life. When someone is prideful they have set themselves on the throne of their lives and they think they run the show, even in a religious way. The sin of pride takes Jesus out of the center of a persons life and puts themselves and even religion, in His place. The sin of pride leads right into selfishness and a self centered attitude which is a sin also. Pride is connect to selfishness. Pride will stop us from focusing on others and serving their needs but feeling like everyone should be serving us. Pride will stop the outward focus to those in the world who do not know Jesus. Pride stops us from loving the world and also from loving one another in the church. Pride hurts all those around us.

The sin of pride will stop us from worshiping God and Jesus. We are called in Scripture to be worshipers of God but when we are filled with pride we stop worshiping who we are supposed to and we end up worshiping ourselves because we are IT. Pride keeps us from truly worshiping God as the King of our life and Jesus as the Savior and passion of our hearts. Pride hurts God so to speak.

So the sin of pride hurts everyone we know even when we cannot see it. OUCH

Motivation for Obedience-Love Others

The other night I talked for a few minutes about obedience to Jesus. I discussed the fact that a big motivator to our obedience to Jesus is a love for Him and desire to please Him. Tonight I want to discuss a second motivation for obeying the words of Jesus. Loving Jesus should be the only motivation we need. If we love Jesus and desire to please Him, that is all that should drive us to obey His words. But there are many more motivations for obeying the words of Christ, and the next on the list down, should be a love for others.

Jesus commands us in Matthew 28 to go and make disciples, teaching others the words of Jesus and baptizing them in His name. If we have any love for other people we must do this command. Jesus said the 2 greatest commands are to love God with all our being and to love others more than ourselves. If we are to love others more than ourselves, we had better tell them about the greatest person and gift we know about. To obey the words of Jesus then is to tell others about Him and His greatest gift, salvation. So we must be driven to obey Jesus by the fact we love others. To love others we will show them the love of Christ, we will show them the grace of Christ, and we will show them the mercy of God. To love others will motivate us to tell them about the Gospel. To love others will move us to show compassion on them and care for them. To love others will allow us to show them, that we are no better off then them and we make just as many mistakes and sin just the same. To love others is to provide the generosity needed to give a bigger picture of our saving God. So to love others will move us to obey Christ in a fuller way. When we love others we are fulfilling all of these commands and words of Jesus.

I want to disclose though that to love others is a motivation by the Spirit in our lives and an action of those who have surrendered their lives to the control of God. Which when God controls our lives we have no choice but to obey, so in essence this motivation for obedience is a motivation from God within us.

First Hospital Visit

I will return in my next post to the topic of motivations for our obedience to God. I want to share some thoughts tonight on my first hospital visit, from today. I was sitting in my office this morning having my devotions and studying the Bible when I got a call from the local hospital. They called to tell me that a man from my church had been admitted to the hospital yesterday. This man is an older gentlemen with a great Jesus story, so I prayed and decided that he would love a visit from me, the new Pastor he has only ever met a few times (this man is older and serves Jesus many Sundays at the local mission so he only attends my church a few times a year when he is healthy and not serving in the mission). I called an elder and we decided together that we would go and visit him before lunch and hopefully catch him before he eats and takes a nap (I figured he would be taking an afternoon nap, since I know if I was in the hospital I would be taking an afternoon nap). So I picked up the Elder and we went in together to visit this gentlemen and experience my first time visiting a child of God from my faith community.

Let me tell you it was an amazing experience and a true blessing for me. My Elder and I prayed before we went in to see him that we would be an encouragement to him and bring him some joy. I know God heard our prayer because as soon as we walked in the older gentlemen was smiling at us. I went in to bring him some encouragement and I did, but he also brought me much encouragement. I talked with him for awhile as some nurses came and went and every time he was joking with them and thanking them. I prayed with the older gentlemen and we talked for awhile about what God is doing in his life and also what God is doing in my life and the life of the faith family. His lunch was coming in right after I prayed for him so I went over next to him and told him we were going to leave so he could eat his lunch and then take a nap. The gentlemen grabbed my hand and said, "Pastor Jeff, thank you for coming to see me. You made my day and you were a servant of God in bring me joy. I knew when I had the hospital call you this morning, you would come and see me". That is a line that I will not forget for a long time. I went in to bring him peace, joy, and love from God and in turn this man brought me peace, joy, and love from God. He ministered to me as much as I was able to minister to him.

I pray to God that every hospital visit is like that and I trust God that when He calls me to the hospital to minister, He will be ministering to me just the same.

Motivation for Obedience-Love

As lovers of Jesus, one of the biggest topics that He talks about in His word is obedience. Jesus calls us to obey His commands, teachings, instructions, life style, and worship. Jesus wants us to hear His words and go and do what He says. The world will know those who love Jesus by the fact of whether they obey what Jesus says and live the way Jesus wants them to or not. Obedience is also a gauge of our spiritual health and walk with Jesus. If we obey His teachings then we are close and in deep love with Him, where as when we disobey what Jesus teaches us, then we are distant from Him and not walking close with Him like He desires. But an important question to ask around obedience is what motivates us to obey Jesus. I want to spend a few post to start this week talking about 3 important motivations for obeying Jesus. Tonight we will look at the first motivation for obeying Jesus.

#1-We obey Jesus because we love Him.
If I love my wife it will motivate me to serve her, care for her, show affection to her, and stay faithful to her. The same is true and more important of Jesus. When we love Jesus we first will listen and take seriously what He is telling us about. When we love Jesus we will listen and take to heart and cherish what He is instructing us about. When we love Jesus we will desire to please Him. One of the biggest ways to please Jesus and worship Him is by obeying what comes out of His mouth. The Bible is filled with commands from God and Jesus to keep their words. "If you love me you will keep my commands" was a very common saying by God to His people Israel. It is still a common command to us today as the church and lovers of Jesus. Loving Jesus and keeping His commands today can be a positive thing, such as; do this and go there and talk about me to those people and love the world like I did. Keeping the commands of Jesus and loving Him can also be a negative command such as; do not do this, do not go there, do not commit that sin, and do not say that. If we truly love Jesus, desire to worship and praise Him, and want to fill Him with joy, walking closely with Him and obeying Him is one of the biggest parts. Surrendering our lives to Jesus is loving Him and surrendering our lives is a daily act of obeying Him. When was the last time we thought about the fact of loving Jesus and obeying Him as equal?


Tuesday and Wednesday we will take a look at 2 other motivations for obedience.
#2- We obey Jesus because we love others.
#3- We obey Jesus because we hate sin.

Gratitude beyond Words

Today I had the privilege to share in the joy of the Lord with all that are dearest to me in this life. Like I said today in the few minutes I was able to talk, I cannot express in words the joy and gratitude I feel. When we as humans realize that the all-powerful Creator God, that can do anything without our help, decides to use us for His mission and service, it is truly amazing and joyful. As I stood up after the commissioning prayer and I was able to look out over both faith families, Calvary Bible and Zion Bible, I was filled with emotion and joy at all the lives God has used to shape, mold and guide me. When we allow ourselves to be molded by God even though sometimes it is painful and not very fun, it in the process will also be joyful and praise worthy. Thank you to all who have loved and poured into my life and continue to make my service for God and His church a joy. Amen

Quotable Friday

"Everyone who is united with Christ, is a man who can never be conquered".~Richard Sibbes

We Believe

One more song this week about the amazing God we love and serve!