October 12, 2008

Confidence during Troubled Times.
Part III of “Holier than thou” series.
By Pastor Rick Ives.

I am almost afraid to look at my retirement savings for fear of how much money I may have lost, already, due to the economic woes we are all facing.  My dad always told me that saving for retirement was a long term deal and I should not freak out when the market went down. That has been true up until now, but I am starting to wonder – is this the beginning of a total economic collapse in America?

So we see a downward spiraling economy which touches us all. We also see what a farce it is to proclaim world peace, the world is getting better, etc. There are many wars raging now, entire people-groups being exterminated, Iran threatening to destroy Israel.  Friends, apart from having a real God to rely on, I don’t know how people make it at all these days

But we do have a real God, and He is not shaken at all by what is going on. In fact, our God is using what is going on to SHAKE US!  God is shaking the world – believers and unbelievers alike. He is shaking governments, economic systems, traditions, denominations, militaries – He is shaking it all. And according to His word – those things that are of Him cannot be shaken and destroyed!

Heb 12:28-29 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our "God is a consuming fire."

As we approach the end of times, friends, what and/or who have you placed your confidence in? If you are trusting fully in the Lord, He can then establish His Kingdom in your heart and that Kingdom will not be shaken. If, however, your trust is in your money, your investments, in the next president, in the USA, in your church – then everything you hold dear is being shaken, will be further shaken, and will not stand up for long under God’s mighty arm.

Confidence during troubled times comes only by placing full trust in Jesus Christ as not only your Savior, but also as your Lord!

See you this weekend – be blessed!  Pastor Rick.   

October 8, 2008

Finances & Fear
By Pastor Grant Edwards

I have to admit fear.  I’ve caught myself watching the DOW and getting this sinking feeling concerning my 401k.  I even caught myself clicking the refresh button on MSN.COM money page as the DOW plunged hoping to see it come back up.  When that proved too tiring I just loaded the DOW average on a minute-by-minute update through Google.

Again fear.  The Bible speaks of Mammon in a very personal way.  We think of money as inanimate but the Bible speaks of Mammon as a god – something we can worship. I believe the personal references that you see in the Bible through the tenses used in Greek is indicative of the demonic personalities that work through Mammon.

It is something you can serve.  There is a big difference between a good steward and someone who worships Mammon.  A good steward places allegiance in God while a servant of Mammon trusts money.  Faith in God yields peace even when the DOW tumbles because God never lacks resources.  Serving Mammon brings fear because our 401k’s represent our very limited resources.

Serving Mammon yields fear while serving God and being a good steward brings peace.  I think it is easy to see which God is better.  Times of financial difficulty allow us to choose who we will serve and also reveals who we actually have been serving.

September 16, 2008

Garbage
by Grant Edwards 

Paul writes in Ephesians 4:26, “to not let the sun do down on your anger.” I noticed in the paper this week instructions for dealing with food left in the refrigerator after a power-outage.  Since many of us experienced a power outage this week, it was something that peeked my interest.

I guess that food left in a refrigerator longer than four hours should be thrown out. I was talking to nurse who works for the county health department and she said her job the day after the storm was calling grocery stores and restaurants to tell them that all refrigerated food left for more than four hours must be disposed of.

For good reason, no one wants to get sick. 

And yet, we allow bitterness and anger to accumulate.  Often I talk to people who experience problems that are really just unresolved anger.  They didn’t forgive, they didn’t seek peace and now they have a divorce, a rebellious teenager, even an addiction, or act of violence confronting them.

It would have been better to not let the sun go down on their anger.  Why do we allow garbage to accumulate?  Pride, perhaps.  Revenge, the flesh often demands it. Redress, we lose something and want it back or at least for the offender to suffer.  We don’t deal with the garbage of offences because we want something to be restored and someone else to pay. 

Of course,  most of the time it is impossible to get back what was lost and even more difficult to make the other person pay.  And so our bitterness festers – sometimes for years – often causing more distress than the original offense.

It would be best to clean it all out with forgiveness.  But forgiveness is hard, actually impossible.  We need help, supernatural help.  Jesus forgave us and so we must and can forgive others!

September 9, 2008

Celebration of Outreach.
Part II of “Christianity is not for the Timid or for Wimps” series.
By Pastor Rick Ives.

I think that if we look at all of the commands Jesus gives to us, they can be summed up into 2 simple words; Follow Me!  Jesus calls us to be saved by Him as savior, and then to follow Him as Lord.

Jesus is all about outreach, and He calls us to be all about outreach also.  Jesus when on the earth was always reaching out to people so they could be saved, and He always went beyond the initial connection to give the person something to do – to follow Jesus.  Outreach, that which we are to be all about, is in part helping people to know Jesus but also in part helping those who believe to then Follow Jesus!

Jesus said to His first disciples – follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Three times Jesus told Peter – follow me!  To the rich young man Jesus said – go sell your possessions and then come and follow me! To Matthew the tax collector Jesus said - Follow Me! To people He met along the road Jesus said – Follow Me!  Do you see a pattern here? If you confess Jesus as savior, then you must follow Him as Lord.

Those who confess Jesus as savior but refuse to follow Him as lord are spiritually timid (in a bad sense) and are in fact spiritual wimps.  My definition of a spiritual wimp is a person who says he/she is a Christian but who usually follows his/her own desires, takes the easy way in all situations, and refuses to sacrifice in any way in order to serve God. When you were saved, Jesus called you to follow Him, in simple obedience, all the remaining days of your life.  That is how Jesus reaches out – in love He saves us, then He calls us to a new life of serving and sacrifice.  Anything else is sin and the lifestyle of a wimp.

It is true – Christianity is not for wimps.  How are you doing in being all about outreach? Jesus has called you to share the Gospel, to invite people to church, to help unsaved people to be a good witness, to disciple new believers, to lead your family to love Jesus, Outreach is all about reaching out to the lost and helping the save to follow Jesus.

Are you a worker, a warrior, or a wimp?  When we reach out, we celebrate our new life in Jesus; we know real joy and contentment. There is no greater feeling in all the world than knowing that God has worked through you to impact the life of another.  Let’s celebrate together, more and more, as we prepare for the great harvest coming to our city!

August 18, 2008

The Lost Week
Pastor Rick Ives 

Have you ever lost something of value? Did you find it again or was it lost permanently?

In the Bible there is a time when an entire week is lost! It’s a very important week – the first week following the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  I call it a lost week because we know almost nothing about what happened during that week.

What did Jesus do during the lost week as He walked among His followers after His resurrection? Did He work more miracles? Did He preach more sermons? Did He raise more dead? Did he eat, sleep, drink? Remember He was no longer the wandering Rabbi from Nazareth but rather He had become the all-powerful resurrected Son of God. What was it like for the followers of Jesus during the lost week?

One of the people who was around during the lost week was Thomas. Thomas was one of the 12 main dudes Jesus had picked to follow Him and Thomas became an apostle of the Lord.  But Thomas did not do so well during the lost week. When Jesus appeared to the disciples, Thomas was not there. Later, when the disciples told Thomas that the Lord had risen, he refused to believe. In fact he said he would not believe unless Jesus appeared to him personally and showed him the nail holes in his hands to prove it was really Jesus.  Thomas really did not have much faith, did he? Or maybe he had faith, but it came with pre-conditions. What about you?

Sure enough, a week later Jesus appeared to Thomas, personally, and showed him the nail holes in his hands.  The story is told as follows in John 20…    26b…. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"  27 Then he said to Thomas , "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."  28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"  29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." 

At the end of the lost week, Thomas believed, but only because Jesus met Thomas’ pre-conditions. But Jesus, primarily for you and I, set Thomas straight. He said it’s fine that you believe now that you have seen me, BUT – the real blessings will flow to all who believe in me even though they have never seen me. That’s real faith – believing without seeing. That’s the message for you and me today.

Real faith has no pre-conditions! In these end-times, we need a faith that never falters – a faith in the invisible yet all present and all powerful God.  

July 29, 2008 

Opportunity Knocks Only Once
Grant Edwards 

Have you heard the saying – opportunity knocks only once.  In some ways it is true.  When something presents itself as an opportunity, it will only present itself in the same way perhaps only once.  Many of us rue missed opportunities in business, to purchase a home, in relationships, and careers.  It is easy to sit back and think what might have been when considering missed opportunities.

But not every opportunity is a blessing.  Of course, we all wish we had purchased Apple stock at $5 twenty five years ago but perhaps you are also glad that you didn’t marry that high school sweetheart – especially after seeing her at the ten year reunion.

So what is an opportunity and what is not an opportunity, your success in life will often ride upon making the right decision. I would suggest a guideline: understand God’s calling in life and realize those opportunities that will help you further that calling. 

The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4:1, “I want you to live a life worthy of the calling to which you were called.”  The Bible teaches that you were created for a purpose from the beginning of time. And living a life worthy of this calling means making decisions with this end in mind.

Opportunities are either just that or distractions, temptations, or threats.  Some of the things knocking would take you completely away from your calling, others would cause so much distraction that the calling would not be a priority, and others would completely destroy it.  Think of sensual temptation, wrong relationships, greedy decisions and you can see my point on how opportunities based upon these would not be worthy of your calling.

Is an opportunity an opportunity or a threat, distraction, or temptation – keep the end in mind – what is your calling!

July 23, 2008

"The End" 
Grant Edwards

“The End” is the title of the next message series.  Strange title isn’t it.  Perhaps you guessed that I will be talking about the Second Coming.  Not really, though it will be mentioned.

I am going to focus on keeping the end in mind as you live your life.  Yes, the end of time is the second coming but we are to orient our lives more toward our calling.  Paul writes in Ephesians 4:1 that we are to walk in a manner worthy of our calling.  Calling is the “end” that I have in mind.

I believe that from the beginning of time God has created each person for a distinct purpose.  This is our calling. He has given us the temperament, the spiritual gifts, the connections, and the resources to accomplish this calling.  This calling is God’s calling and is beyond our ability.  We learn to trust God as we find ourselves stretched to the limit to accomplish His calling.  But we also find that when we pray in faith He is able to supply all of our needs.

Considering the end allows value in life, purpose, and also endurance.  As to value, consider the meaninglessness of life without a goal; as to purpose, how is it possible to be effective without an end in mind upon which to focus effort and resources; and anyone would soon quit if the intended goal was thought impossible.  It would be like playing football without a Super Bowl, college without graduation, or dating without a hope of marriage.

Keeping the end in mind … or having an end … makes meaning, purpose, and effort worthwhile.  And, only Christ gives us an appropriate ending.

July 7. 2008

Lead Them to Jesus!
by Pastor Rick Ives

I had really good parents.

Mom and dad were not Christians, but I felt loved, well cared for, and supported as I grew up.  I know that I was blessed to have the parents I had.

God gives instruction to us as to how to raise our children. But He does not give a lot of instruction. Rather, He shows us examples of men and women in the Bible who lived in the real world, struggled with real issues, and raised families, worked jobs, etc. The Bible is very honest in showing us that not everyone who believes in God will be successful in all areas of life – including parenting.  But we also learn that we CAN be successful more and more as we follow God more closely.

Consider King David who God loved as a man after his own heart. David was a very poor parent in many ways.  The same is true for David’s predecessor King Saul.  These men are famous as leaders and kings and yet the biblical record of how they raised and cared for their children is a very poor legacy – David ignored a son and lost his throne because of it, Saul tried to kill his son over a foolish vow he imposed.

The most important thing for parents is to simply do what we can to lead our children to Jesus. We cannot protect our kids from every evil in the world – but Jesus can. I know that with my daughter, when she sees “Jesus in me”, it makes her want to draw closer to the real Jesus.  I make a lot of mistakes as a parent – but Jesus never does.

The one big thing my parents did not do was lead me to Jesus. They could not since they were not believers.  The biggest problems I had in life were all due to the fact that I did not know Jesus. My parents were great, but what they could do for me did not compare with what God could have done for me.  Guess what – even as a Christian, you can never do for your kids what Jesus can!  So we above all are to lead our children to Jesus! Never too late!  I once preached on this topic and a very frustrated parent asked me “what about we who have already raised our kids and they did not turn out well. What do we do?”  The answer is very simple – pray for them. What else can we do? And remember, no child, regardless of age or attitude, is beyond God’s power. Prayer changes people – pray for your children, your grand children. The children in your life. Lead them to Jesus, pray for them. Be the parent God has called you to be, starting today! 2 John 5: 4  It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.