“What have you done that you believe in and are proud of?” It’s easy to read a great verse like Luke 9:23, READ, and think being a Christian means to give up doing the fun things that I want and instead live a serious, disciplined life that God wants. That is NOT what it means. Take Riley Sanford for example… (Riley is a young man with YWAM that shared with us earlier in the service his experiences as a Trekker leader in Papua New Guinea.) “Do you [Riley] find yourself having any fun at all as you follow Christ?” To find the greatest meaning in life, choose the way of God. It is not an easy path, but it is the only path that gives ultimate purpose.
Instead of asking people what they do for a living when he meets new people, I read about a man that instead asks, “What have you done that you believe in and are proud of?” That’s a great question. The answer is a good indication of whether or not we have picked up our cross and followed Jesus. The question touches on something important in today’s scripture: what does it mean to make a full commitment to Jesus? To follow Christ means to be available for his desires for us… “deny yourself” ~ not what you want, but what God wants!
“What have you done that you believe in and are proud of?” It’s easy to read a great verse like Luke 9:23, READ, and think being a Christian means to give up doing the fun things that I want and instead live a serious, disciplined life that God wants. That is NOT what it means. Take Riley Sanford for example… (Riley is a young man with YWAM that shared with us earlier in the service his experiences as a Trekker leader in Papua New Guinea.) “Do you [Riley] find yourself having any fun at all as you follow Christ?” To find the greatest meaning in life, choose the way of God. It is not an easy path, but it is the only path that gives ultimate purpose.
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When I was in Junior High at Nooksack I was probably the only kid to ever be a bit embarrassed at times over his father! I can still hear the times at basketball games in the gymnasium when everyone would stand to sing the national anthem at the start of the games. My father would be at the top of the stands on the opposite side from me in his customary place, a little bit in the shadows. In a day and age when patriotism was taken for granted, I swear this is true. Yes the band was playing, but I could hear my father singing. I just wanted to melt. Why couldn’t my father just be like the rest of the crowd and treat the national anthem as a formality? There is such a thing as crowd think. The herd mentality. People will do things, or not do things, in a crowd that is contrary to their behavior if left to their own heart. Today I am proud of my father’s example. At the time I so often wished he would just go along with the crowd. Backstage. Do you have a curiosity to see behind the curtains? Last week-end in Portland Sally and I had the great privilege to see the Phantom of the Opera with a couple of our children. In one marvelous scene the actors are performing. As the scene comes to an end the background props shift, the curtain closes behind the characters, and you realize we are all backstage watching the action, the intrigue, trying to grasp the strange happenings, the legend of the Phantom. The story of the feeding of the 5000 is a backstage story. To follow Jesus Christ means to put your faith into practice. Faith with hands and feet. This message is the beginning of a series from Luke 9. The challenge of this chapter is to examine the claims of Jesus and ask if you believe. In Luke 9:20: Jesus says, “What about you? Who do you say I am?” The question is directed at Peter but it is also a question for me and you. If you believe he is who he says he is it shapes how you see yourself. A little later in Luke 9:46 it is reported the disciples were competing with each other about which of them is the best. They still did not understand the message of Christ, for if they did, they would know Jesus is saying to follow him is to break down the walls of competition, self promotion, and status, and instead become kingdom focused, putting others ahead of you. What you believe about Jesus shapes your own character, values and patterns.
The end. 62nd sermon over a 5 year period. When I started in June 2010 I intended a single series from one chapter, but for whatever reason, some very kind words from one of you got me to thinking, why not the whole book. That person: Kathy Kamphouse…. We come to the end. The book of Romans ends with a surprising warning, then a grand dedication with a purpose. The purpose: stand/ firm/ in/ Jesus/ Christ.
The surprise warning comes first: Rom. 16:17-20 is so different from the rest of the book. As we have walked through Romans, the message over and over has been to include as many people as you can into your circle ~ don’t include only people like you, proper behaved people, but messy people, people unlike us. Jesus loves people who you may not understand! The Salvation of God is for people of all nations, all backgrounds. All people need a place to be loved, accepted and find forgiveness. All are sinners and none has the advantage when it comes to God’s grace. I heard a story at the elders meeting this past week from Hope A.C. Church in Chicago. The question was how the Pastor of the church led the congregation from a struggling group of 30 people to several hundred people excited about ministry. One day the pastor found gang members tagging the side of the building. A large man with an imposing presence, he confronted them ~ “What are you doing?” As they stammered out a non-answer, the pastor said, “My favorite color is red.” Hesitantly they gave him a red spray paint can. He joined them defacing the building. Then they asked him who he was ~ he told them he was the pastor of the church. This made no sense! And he challenged them to show up the following Sunday. “We don’t do church” they responded. “I’ll tell you what,” the pastor said, “You come to church one time and tell me that afterwards.” Six of them showed up that Sunday. Today, I’m not sure how many years later, two of those six are in youth leadership and a couple are worship leaders. And the church has it’s finger on the pulse of the community.
Welcome to the crazy family called the church. Living a Jesus Christ Life: Self-Control ~ selections from Proverbs ~ Apr. 26, ’15 ~ CCrouse4/27/2015 What a joy it’s been to go through each of the nine Fruit of the Spirit as found in Gal. 5 ~ Can you say them? ____ Each is most fully demonstrated by the life of Jesus. Today we finish with the Fruit of the Spirit that many people don’t want: self-control. Consider Chocolate!/// Isn’t it fun, every now and then, to indulge!
Today, I thought it fun to choose select sayings from Proverbs to learn what it means to have self-control… Self control is a major theme of wisdom. (I am choosing to use primarily the NLT). A key saying: "A person without self-control is as defenseless as a city with broken down walls". (Prov. 25:28). Oh, how we need self control, the discipline of restraint… When I was in my teen years, Jim and I spent a few Summers with dad hiking the Washington section of the Pacific Coast Trail. I remember meeting a woman named Teddy, who was walking the entire trail with her husband, a second trip for her. She told us about her first trip that she did all by herself. She described starting early in the season starting at the Canadian border and heading towards the Mexican border. The journey south was lonely, early on she met very few people. What has always stuck with me is when she summarized her experience, “It took me all the way walking through the state of Washington before I could stand myself.” Living a Jesus Christ Life: Gentleness ~ Is. 40:1-5, 10-11, 25-31 ~ Carl Crouse ~ Apr. 19, ‘154/21/2015 Here are some books from a box in my office waiting to be passed on… [show some…. Do they look like something you’d read?] Some books make me cringe, such as the cover of a harlequin romance… I shy away from books with blood and guts on the cover, or demons, or darkness. It is said, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but we do…. If your life were a book, what would be on the cover? The first impression? Would they be intrigued enough to go beyond the cover? We’ve been going through the Fruit of the Spirit in Gal. 5. Today ~ gentleness. Gentleness would make a wonderfully intriguing cover of a book. If people see a gentle person there is something inviting, something good…. In today’s fast paced impersonal world in which people feel used, abused, and confused, a gentle person crosses their path and they sense this is a book worth their time, somebody to listen, caring, considerate. Living a Jesus Christ Life: Faithfulness ~ Heb. 11:1, 13-16; 11:39-12:3 ~ Carl Crouse ~ 4-12-154/13/2015 The Fruit of the Spirit are those wonderful character traits that are promised by God when we give our lives to him. Through the Holy Spirit working in us, we become like Christ. The 9 fruit of the spirit from Gal. 5, as shown on the front of the bulletin, are specific traits of how the Holy Spirit matures our faith and Christian character. If somebody tells me to go build a house I would be absolutely overwhelmed with how to make it happen, but if the person breaks it down into the foundation, the floor, the walls, the roof, the wiring, the plumbing, the wallboard, the paint…I have a much better chance. “Now that you are a Christian, become like Christ!” Gulp! That’s an overwhelming task. But to tell me, the Holy Spirit is going to transform me from the inside out with a loving spirit, a joyful heart, the patience of Job, an attitude of Kindness, a Christ-like goodness, God honoring faithfulness, a gentle nature, restrained by self-control… that is easier to imagine…. One of my great honors as a pastor is to see people in their homes. I learn so much… A few months ago I saw Bob and Betty Binder. They have a story (about 100 kids as I recall) ~ I’ve asked Betty to come and share one of her joys/gifts because it is fitting…. [Fruit of the Spirit quilt] Isn’t that great! The Holy Spirit will wrap you in the Fruit of the Spirit! Thank you…. Living a Jesus Christ Life: Love ~ Easter Sunday, 4-5-15 ~ John 20:11-18; 1 John 3:1-6 ~ Carl Crouse4/7/2015 What does love mean? It’s the first Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22, some say it is the only Fruit and the rest …joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control are expressions of love. I am not sure how to define love, but we can learn something from children:
Love is a verb. Not long ago I gave a couple an assignment to choose two days in which they were not allowed to say, “I love you” but had to figure out ways to show they loved each other. Love is an action: “For God so loved the world that he GAVE his one and only son….” Studying the Fruit of the Spirit could be subtitled, “How to put out the fire.” A building on Chicago's Southwest Side that contains a fire extinguisher manufacturing business went up in flames late Thursday (3/19/15), prompting a hazardous materials response that required more than 150 firefighters. A portion of the building…collapsed under the intense flames. The fire ultimately elevated to three alarms, requiring the help of 156 firefighters and 26 pieces of equipment. …A fire official said getting enough water to the structure proved difficult. "We had one engine feed another engine to another engine until we got water on the fire," said 1st Deputy Fire Commissioner Charles Stewart. (NBC News Chicago) The irony is great--a building designed to manufacture fire extinguishers made no provision for putting out its own fire! The Bible says something similar about our own spiritual condition. READ Ga. 6:1. “Watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.” Let's take a few minutes and turn our attention to God's Word as we continue in Pastor Carl’s series on the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. This week we will turn our attention to the topic of kindness. As some of you know I often speak at the Clearbrook Lutheran Church. Lutherans like short sermons. They start squirming in their seats after about 17 minutes. Anyway, my mother used to say that, "If you can't say it in 20 minutes, you can't say it." In fact, I'm getting pretty good at saying what I have to say in 20 mins. The spiritual fruit of kindness is smack dab in the middle of the list of these nine characters of the life that is changed by the Holy Spirit. An Apple Tree produces…. [apples] A Banana Tree produces…. [bananas] An Orange Tree produces…. [Oranges] What does the Holy Spirit Produce? [Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control ~ Ill. a mirror] Today Patience… You know what patience isn’t: A man in Los Angeles was arrested for negligent discharge of a weapon after taking his 38 caliber handgun and shooting his toilet bowl five times. He says that he just got upset. He couldn't take it any longer. His daughter had flushed a hairbrush earlier in the day and clogged the pipes. So he shot the offending toilet. That is called “not patience.” Jesus is a model of possessing patience: from Julie Nolan ~ “Jesus exercised patience when dealing with people, specifically the religious leaders of His day, and His disciples. Every time He told a parable, and tried to teach them something they needed to learn, one of the twelve would say they didn't understand. They were confused. He would have to explain it again, and again, in different ways. He must have been frustrated with them time and gain. But He was a patient man.” Inner Peace. It’s a gift from the Holy Spirit of God. Peace is one of the nine Fruit of the Spirit listed in Gal. 5:22: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22). These are traits given by the Holy Spirit to those who seek to live a Jesus Christ life.
Many people feel stuck in the patterns of their life. They don’t know how to make changes. They aren’t sure which way to turn. By studying the Fruit of the Spirit in this series of messages, my prayer is that you will be able to identify specific ways to allow the Lord to change you from the inside out. Peace does not depend on your world changing, but rather adopting godly attitudes, the way you respond, the values of Christ. It’s tempting to seek peace in the wrong places. Here is one person’s silly story: By following the simple advice I read in an article, I have finally found inner peace...The article read: "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you've started." So I looked around the house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished....and before leaving the house this morning I finished off a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, the Prozac, some valium, some cheesecake and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how good I feel.... //// (Unfortunately, too often this is no joke, grasping for peace by checking out of reality, but guess what, after spending half the day foggy brained the same situation is present the next day.) Here’s a crazy story from a Pastor: “A man once appeared at my office door, and in so many words, he said, ‘I’m very busy and very successful and don’t really have time for this, but I wonder if we could talk for five minutes.’ ‘By all means,’ I said. ‘Well,’ he went on, ‘my wife has been attending this church and now at dinner she’s talking about Jesus, and I don’t know anything about Jesus, so I thought I’d come by for a few bullet points about Jesus.’ ‘Wow, I’m not sure I can help you. For one thing, I’m not good with bullet points, and for another, even if I could give you some good bullet points about Jesus, I’m afraid it could have a way of getting into your life that would cause you to rethink your power, your success and your money and your marriage and your family – and everything.’ ‘Oh, I don’t want to do that. Not at all! I just want some bullet points about Jesus.’ [I suggested to him], ‘How about changing the subject matter at dinner...’” (Mark Labberton). Ready for everything to change? A little bit of Jesus isn’t enough. The Lord Jesus Christ is waiting for your invitation to change you completely. The world does not need a little bit of religion, a bullet point list of Jesus. The world needs a lot of Jesus. Today begins a series using an outline from the Fruit of the Spirit found in Gal. 5. The first fruit is love, followed by 8 more. (challenge to memorize) Some think love is the only fruit, each of the 8 that follow are expressions of love… That is possible. The Power of Prayer. All for ONE and ONE for all. Through prayer comes a face to face with God, and through prayer unity of those who are seeking God. Through prayer we each seek the Lord, and through prayer the Lord descends upon each one, so that there is a unity of spirit. All for ONE and ONE for all. Amen. The power of prayer. As I prepared for this message I happened to come upon a live camera of the Western Wall in Jersualem, as day turned to night…I kept the live camera going in the corner of my computer. I noticed a gathering of men perhaps 30 in number jostling together and soon the guys broke out into a circle holding hands, spinning and singing, and then I noticed in another corner of the wall the women were doing the same thing… Prayer and worship at the Western Wall. RIP for this message does not stand for Rest in Peace. It stands for Respect, Integrity and Purpose. All three of these ingredients are needed to fully accept one another the Bible way. I love the t-shirt I read about that one church gives to people when they are baptized: “Made for more than just me.” We are made to be with others, to accept others, to be in a community.
There is a contrast in this scripture ~ what we are vs. a vision for what we become. I start with the vision for what we become ~ where we are headed. If Sally and I are planning a vacation, we start with the destination, then later we figure out how to get there. Some people love road trips in which they just start driving. Not me. I want to know exactly where we are going.
The vision of the Lord is that we become people of HOPE! READ Rom. 15:13. Joy and peace sprinkled with trust results in overflowing HOPE. Abundant HOPE. HOPE is the destination…. Hope is a deep optimism rooted in a realistic view of God, far more than wishful thinking in which I cross my fingers and hope everything works out. Here’s a fun little story that is getting at the meaning of hope as a way of life: A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was. The boy responded, "Eighteen to nothing--we're behind." "Boy," said the spectator, "I'll bet you're discouraged." "Why should I be discouraged?" replied the little boy. "We haven't even gotten up to bat yet!" ~ Unknown. Underline Rom. 15:5-6: this is, I believe, the bottomline purpose of the entire book of Romans. READ. A Spirit of Unity: the church that is united in one heart is unstoppable. Ps. 34:3 says it this way: “Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.” True unity does not just happen, but it comes from the desire and deliberate decision to submit to Christ and work towards building others up. There is nothing worse than disunity ~ is not that a primary criticism of the church? Is that not the reason more and more Christian people are declaring in some form, “I love Jesus, I just don’t like the church?” I think we have a measure of momentum here at SACC…. Let’s build on it. Although, in a few moments, I will reluctantly tell you about one internal squabble that is festering here among us. A woman was driving home one night. Rain was coming down in buckets and visibility was poor. Seeing taillights ahead of her, she followed the car in front. All of a sudden the lead car came to a stop. “Perhaps a deer had been hit” the woman thought. She began to panic thinking it could be dangerous being stopped in the middle of the road in poor weather. The man in the first car got out, walked back to her in the pouring rain, and knocked on her window. She cracked the window open and asked the man what the problem was. “That’s my question to you” he said, “why did you follow me into my driveway?”
While the whole world urges us to rise up and be a leader, to be independent ~ be the one to machete your way through the jungle of life, be a man of strength, a strong woman, a confident path-setting teen, the entire response to the Bible can be summarized in two simple words. Jesus says, “Follow Me.” Leadership is an important topic, but the truth ~ the depth of life is defined more by what and who you choose to follow. Everyone follows something. The woman in the car on the rainy night was kept safe by following closely the car in front of her, but she was taken in the wrong direction. One of my dream books to write someday has the working title of “Followership.” Carefully hoosing who to follow and how to be a good follower. |
Carl Crouse, Pastor
At SACC we believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Every Sunday the worship service includes a message from the Bible. My words are an attempt to understand and apply the Bible to our daily living. I post weekly sermons and other biblical messages on this page. May you find meaning and hope as you read through each message and seek to hear God's voice. Leave a comment to ask questions or inspire others with your insights. Categories
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