The Kingdom Restored

And They Lived Happily Ever After” is a familiar statement that follows many of the romantic stories that Disney has produced over the years. It can be beautiful in putting our hearts at ease and at the same time it can be haunting.   I am reminded of one story where ‘happily ever after’ became redundant, monotonous and loathed.  My kids have been watching Shrek, the final chapter all week and the message rings true that you really don’t know what you have until you lose it.  However in the grand story of God, there are a lot of misconceptions that happily ever after in heaven will just be really long church service.  God has set eternity in our hearts and we know that there is so much to live for that goes far beyond this life.

Seriously now –even though we were given Eden as our paradise, this whole wondrous world of beauty, intimacy, and adventure, in the life to come we will be sent to church forever because that’s better somehow?  There is no hope in that.  That’s not what’s written on our hearts.

John Eldredge

Intimacy WITH your Heavenly Father  Revelation 21:1-5

In the glorious Kingdom restored, we will experience the most profound intimacy with God

David in Psalm 63 said, “Because your love is better than life, my lips will praise you…  My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods.”  These are incredible statements made by David and yet the burning questions that we face is can we really say this about ourselves?  All too often we have been swallowed up by a Christianity that focuses more on this life than the next. David writes with incredible passion and desire, a hope and assurance that consumes him more than life itself.  Just like the athletic imagery of Paul’s writings, we don’t run for the cups of water along the way, we run for the finish line. 

But unfortunately in this world, many people have been sold the lie that this world is the one that you want to be all consumed with.  We live in a consumer culture and we have to fight that addiction every day.   Some of you are sitting here right now and it is killing you to know that so many people are beating you to the sales, but it wasn’t always that way on Boxing Day.  My children were just asking me yesterday about where this day came from.  Some of them thought it was the day for an epic boxing match or boxing up your Christmas decorations.  The reality is that it was an old tradition that started in Commonwealth countries like England and our own Canada.  Money was put into a clay box over the Christmas season and on the 26^th it was broken open and the money was given to those in need.

 It all depends on what we are living for and what consumes us.

As for Act 4, we will be ushered into God’s presence like a bride on her wedding day.  We will be dressed in the brilliant, pure robes of our righteousness with Christ and as good as your Christmas dinner may have been yesterday, it will pale in comparison to the wedding supper of the Lamb! (Revelation 19:9) At this meal, it won’t just be about the food as amazing as that will be, but it will be about the One at the Head of the table, the one who will understand everything that you have gone through, the one who will embrace you and completely heal the scars, lavish His love on you.

Intimacy with God is all about the wonder of dwelling with God in real time!

The message is symbolic and it is seen in the perfect cube like dimensions of the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21. If we take 12 000 stadia literally that would be about 2200km long and wide and the same in height. However if we look at the OT, we will see the dimensions are a perfect cube and mirror the look of the tabernacle. The holy of Holies was the place designed for God to meet with His people and that is exactly what the heavenly city will be, a place where God dwells with His people for eternity. So the tabernacle becomes a picture representation and it is especially meaningful to the people who first read this because the temple that they knew was no longer, it had been destroyed in 69 AD.

So we come to  v22 of Revelation 21 and  now we are told that there is no temple because God is the temple.  The point of the temple was to create the reality of the living presence of God.  In the OT, it was an actual place and it was glorious.  In the NT, the focus changed as the reality God wanted to give us was that His presence was living in us by the power of His Holy Spirit.

We will reign with Jesus     Revelation  22:1-5

Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.  In the new Kingdom there will be those designed and created to serve the Son.  There will be new nations and we will be called to reign in the most amazingly designed world.  It is all being engineered by Jesus now.  I never forget Keith Green, a prophetic singer / songwriter who said something along these lines,

so Jesus has been preparing a place for us in heaven and it has been 2000 years… it took Him 6 days to create this world, so man, so as great as this world is, we are living in a garbage can compared to what it will be like there!

It will be a place of restoration.  Look at Jesus’ life.  When he touched the blind, the could see all the beauty of the world opened up to them and when he touched the deaf, they could hear laughter for the first time, children’s voices as they played and music.  He touched the lame and they had feet to dance and the dead came back to life and their families had the most amazing celebrations.

It is understanding that yes as great as winter is for most of us Canadians that spring is coming and He will bring the brilliance of the trees, the flowers back to life.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  Eccles. 3:11

When we share about our faith and what God does for us, we almost become apologetic about the fact about eternity in the list of what life has to offer for a believer.

Who Am I – A person destined for bliss beyond this life

Where Do I Belong – There, diving deep into my Creator’s lake of inexhaustible pleasures

Am I Happy?  Only when I embrace hop in a glorious mansion of many rooms prepared for me.  For now the Comforter will ease the pain of the Fall and offer many good blessings as foretastes of my inheritance.  The blessings and the gifts of this life aren’t the good news of the gospel. 

It is the hope of being in the presence of my Father fulfilling the exact purpose He is preparing for me right now.

Life is about heaven, about great ecstasy and great pleasure for God is in both of these. 

When and Then thinking is how a lot of people live today.  When I win the lottery, when I get a new job, when I get married, then I will give, then I will serve, then I will get involved.

As one person I listened to said, ‘God wants us to have Then and Now thinking!’  Since we know what will happen then, what about now?  What does this mean for my life now?

1 John 3:1-3  Everyone who has this hope purifies himself!

The new will be made out of the old and it will be marvelous.  The old will not be wiped out altogether.  All of creation will be redeemed.  Jesus is our perfect example because after He rose from the dead, it was the nail prints in his hands that He was recognized by.

It is not white puffy clouds!  It is a place of perfection….a perfect waterfall, ocean, forest, a perfect sunset.  The perfection of what is closest to your heart, family, parents that have gone on before you. The perfection of Jesus in all His glory now reigning forevermore.

When we invest in eternity, it will last!  In the light of eternity what difference is my life making now? 

The way I spend my life today determines my view of eternity and how real it is to me.  Where am I investing my time, my energy, my passion?

The greatest gift the HS can give us is hope. 

Also it is truly profound that when your eyes are opened to the riches of our inheritance, that the blessings of this life take on new meaning and become richer, sweeter and more wonderful because they are a foreshadow of what awaits us.  This isn’t it as good as it might get.  When we fix our eyes on eternity everything takes on a significant perspective.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3

Part of our challenge is rediscovering what hope means because for most people hope is just wishing for something good.  Do you remember the first day you were awakened to this hope and the scales fell from your eyes?  It’s difficult to describe.  But for the world around us, it just seems like foolishness. 

No one said that you would have health, wealth and success in this life if you came to Jesus.  Then why do we get so fixated on thinking that is all about what happens to me now?  It is the slippery slope into a deep slumber. 

Most people want to know what’s on the ticket for right now. There can be no mistake about the object of our hope.  It is not in what we see now.  It is not in the gifts of the Spirit.  It is not a large ministry or a thriving church.  It is not a good marriage or good health or good food.  It is heaven!

We must dump the loads of expectations for nirvana in this life along with the burden of finding ultimate meaning.  The bliss we seek for awaits us in the next life.

For to me to live is Christ and to die in gain.  Really it is only after we die that we will truly live with Christ 24/7 365 eternity.  The reality is if you are unable to think about death, chances are you won’t think much about the afterlife.

We know we can hang on to the love and happiness of this world, we know that our health cannot hold out forever, we know that age will eventually conquer us and that our work will at some point remain unfinished.

And if that is the end, then the story is a tragedy. 

Macbeth said, ‘Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, and as John Eldredge writes, ‘sooner or later life will break your heart’.  The final enemy is death and fear of death is Satan’s trump card.  Hebrews 2:14,15

We cannot live in fear of death, we need to conquer that fear.  1 Corinthians 15:54,55

Without a passionate hope for eternity with God, we will fall into a terrible slumber.

Romans 5:2,5  God wants to give us a hope that doesn’t disappoint us.

We live for the hope that lies within all of us.

Matthew 25:1 – In the parable of the 10 virgins, they were told to keep watch = HOPE

Only five applied themselves to a kind of preparation that protected them from a weakening resolve, from running out of oil.  The virgin’s responsibility was to secure oil.  How deep in your reservoir of hope?  The oil of hope is something that the HS gives as a downpayment for our inheritance.  The journey to a wedding feast is brightened by the hope for the wedding feast.

Is it only  the elderly and the terminally ill have this kind of hope?  No, we are obviously missing the point because we have crumbs right now compared to what awaits us.

Find out what lights up a Christian’s eyes to know where their passions, dreams and hopes are about.  Talk about heaven and the bliss of glory and you will probably get a blank stare.  Talk about the Carribbean, Hawaii and people light up?  Why?  It is because they have a poor view of eternity

Take up your cross and follow me.  Christianity hinges on the resurrection, Christ’s resurrection and our hope of our future resurrection, but in the meantime we take up our cross and we were designed to obsess about our Creator

Dare to HOPE, to imagine!

Hope resides in the mind and in the heart where emotions reside.  We desire the fulfillment of a dream we have seen with our minds.  We see heaven with the eyes of our heart.  We need to understand the richness of heaven that will fuel our desire.  Paul’s plea was to envision heaven.

Appreciate imagination as a gift from God – a better definition – the God-breathed ability to consider something not perceived by the senses in our immediate reality.

Hoping is not dreaming.  It is not spinning an illusion or fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain… it (hope) is imagination put in the harness of faith. Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience.

Meditate on heaven….I know I’ve heard the same saying…they are so heavenly minded, they are no earthly good.  The problem with most Christians is that their descriptions of heaven are terribly vague. 

THE TAKEAWAY

In this great story of GOD, be consumed with the passion of being with God and being known by Him.

Remember this:

Things are not what they seem, realize you are at war against all that this world wants you to be consumed with…everything but God.

We are at war- there is a battle going on for the very souls and hearts of people

We have a crucial role to play!  We are called to be the intimate allies of the King…Revelation 17:14

The story of heaven is a story of redemption and ultimate reconciliation.  Lead the way by the power of the HS in everything you see and do.  Be the first to seek others out, leave the 99, go for the one.  Be the first one to seek forgiveness, be the first one to listen.  Fight the good fight of faith.

Check out Randy Alcorn’s book on Heaven for a great picture of it.

Also check out  Slumber of Christianity  by Ted Dekker

Take Evil Seriously

Every meaningful story has a villain. 

For Batman it was the Joker

For Frodo, it was Gollum

For Maximus it was Commodus

For William Wallace it was Lord Bruce Junior, the noble

For Luke Skywalker, it was his father Anakin

For Jesus, it was King Herod first – in the genocide of all boys that were two years of age and under. 

So what drives a villain?

-          Intense jealously, the desire for control, pride,   corruption of his target, to continually evade capture,

-          pride and self preservation.

We have a villain in our own story, Satan and he is all this to us.  The question remains whether we take the reality of that conclusion at face value or whether we try to downplay it.  The ramifications of our decision are serious in the battle that is being fought for the hearts of men and women.

It is the unseen world that is the most dangerous to us.

It was Anne Marie whose cardboard testimony read the following:

• Naïve 

flip

• Totally aware of the evil in this world

This is the spell that needs to be broken!  We need to wake up to the reality of coming against all that hides in the darkness and expose it and bring it into the light.

We know evil is all around us.  We see it in the news and we don’t have to look far whether it is the cholera outbreak in Haiti, another porn ring that has been uncovered here in Canada,  child bullying on the front pages of our newspaper.  So where did it come from.  Why do we encounter such brutal murders and child exploitation?  

The fact is that there is more to this world than meets the eye.  Something happened a long time before we hit the stage.  We are not alone and Paul makes that abundantly clear in Ephesians 6 where he reminds us that we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and spiritual forces in the heavenly realm.

It becomes even more real to us when we have to deal with it head on as Sharon and I had to deal with an evil presence in our former home.  We learned that a previous owner of our home had set up one of our child’s rooms as a shrine to her Hindu gods. 

We recognized that we had to act right away and prayed over every room in the name and being covered by the blood of Jesus out loud.

We certainly sing of angelic host during this time of year and there is certainly more popularity around the reality of angels, but have we got the picture right?

Daniel 10:4-8  Angels absolutely struck fear in their visitations because often they rose up in judgment and they carry out the justice of God

It all began with an angel who stood out and was captain to all angels.

The Origin of our Enemy

Ezekiel 28:12-17

We need to recognize that this battle began long before we entered the scene.  It began with Lucifer

He was the head of millions of angelic hosts, he had everything and was the commander of the armies of God.  Lucifer means ‘Son of the morning’ and he shined in the glory of God until he sought to become the glory of God in himself.

Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst.  Of all created beings the wickedest is one who originally stood in the immediate presence of God.  C.S. Lewis.

One of the things that surprised me when I first read the NT seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe – a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death, disease, and sin…Christianity thinks that this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong.  Christianity agrees…this is a universe at war.  

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity.

As we unpack this passage in Ezekiel 28, we learn that:

·         He comes in the form of pride v17  He was found to be full of violence, wickedness and completely self-absorbed. 

·         He is a master at betrayal.  He was the model of perfection, he was on the holy mount of God and he completely walked away from everything that he knew.

·         He is the incarnation of the very worst form of evil.  We see evil at its worst when self raises its ugly head  and demands worship.  It is seen in the Hitlers and Stalins.  As John Eldredge writes, ‘he didn’t want to play a noble role in the Story; he wanted the Story to be about him.

The Arsenal of The Enemy 

Understand his playbook

Genesis 3:1-7

·         The enemy comes to distort.   The lie that he often sells us is that God is holding out on you.   He is not delivering on what he promised you.  He didn’t come through, He didn’t show up.  I have heard so many stories of people who tell me they did all the right things and it never paid off and they throw in the towel.

Sin is the belief that God cannot meet my needs so I have to take matters into my own hands.  I don’t trust God to love me completely so I seek to find it in someone else

·         The enemy is our accuser.  Once we commit sin or walk away from God, from faith, lose hope, he is right there to tell you that you can never go back, you’ve lost your faith, you have no hope.

·         The enemy deceives.  Ultimately he wants us to believe that our decisions will not affect us, we will be perfectly fine and so the downward spiral begins.  He comes to manipulate our relationships, our circumstances

Going to War with The Enemy

Matthew 4:1-3; Ephesians 6:12,17,18

Going to war becomes more real when we face it head on for ourselves.

We had friends in Milton who became believers through the ministry there and it would be one of our friends Sonia who told Sharon about a dream that she had one night.   In that dream she described a villain type of character that had a cloak on that came over his head and covered his head and part of his eyes.  She shared how he came after our family but that the glory of the Lord surrounded me and he fled.  We didn’t think much of it until about 3 months later that Jordan opened up with us and described the same evil presence that came into his room and scared the life out of him.  It was insistent with us that this wasn’t a dream, but that it was a vision.  Sharon and I would also learn during this time that a previous owner of our home had set up Jordan’s room as a shrine to her Hindu gods.  The most recent owner who happened to my church secretary also asked about whether I heard footsteps in the house.   I thought to myself...you didn’t tell me that at the time I was buying the house!

At that point Sharon and I knew that we needed to pray over our house and every room for that matter and out loud because remember the enemy can’t read your mind.

·         Confess  out loud!  

The power over the enemy and sin for that matter is broken when we confess  (agree, admit, acknowledge)..  Do a study on the word confess in the Bible.

We realize that prayer is an offensive weapon,  it is a weapon that we use when we are on attack.  However, we need to remember that the enemy of our soul is a mind reader.  We need to fight bad thoughts with Scripture.  We need to pray out loud – the enemy cannot read your thoughts.  Jesus combated the enemy with Scripture.  We see this clearly during his extreme time of temptation.  We need to know the promises that we claim, we need to renew our minds.

Romans 12:1,2

·         Pray in the Spirit

All too often we are uncomfortable with the silence yet it in those moments of surrender that we claim back enemy territory.  As we listen and cry out to God, we ask the Holy Spirit how we should be praying and he will bring the verses, the thoughts, the action to mind.  Romans 8:26,27

The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.   I know a young man who is tortured by the belief that he has been predestined for hell and it was while we were praying for him that God dropped Psalm 35:3 into my spirit a few weeks ago.

Psalm 35:3 Brandish spear and javelin
   against those who pursue me.
Say to me,
   “I am your salvation.”

It became clear to me as I shared these verses with those praying with me that this young man knows Jesus, but has lost faith in the promises of God for him.

·          

CClaiming victory before  feeling victory

We need to affirm Scripture more than ever when the enemy fills our heart and mind with false thoughts and this is especially true when we don’t have any feeling of this in and of ourselves

It was the story of Paul’s faith that everyone on the ship would be safe that brought this truth to life for me in the importance of believing in faith.

So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Acts 27:25

The season that we are entering, Christmas and New Years can be one of the most difficult times for people we know.  We can choose to believe it or ignore it.  We all know what it is like to be surrounded by a lot of people and yet feel like we are all alone.

The Globe and Mail did a report yesterday and the ever increasing divide between religion and atheism or the lack of any belief in God.  Statistics have shown that it is now over 70% of Canadians who see this time of year purely as a holiday.  The paper made the comment that since church attendance has continued to go south that we have a whole generation of children growing up with no understanding of Christian beliefs.  It also mentioned that the Catholics are the # 1 religious group in Canada, but now #2 is Muslims and in the next 5 years they anticipate that Islam will represent 10% of Canadians. 

The Takeaway

The Enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy and we are called to battle for reconciliation, for healing, for everlasting life.

We are in a heated battle and it is time we take evil seriously in our lives and in the lives of others and pray against it in Jesus’ name.

Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good.  He came to make dead people come alive!

The Divine Art of Reaping

When I first started in ministry, it was all about the experiences that could take place...no money of course, just lots of opportunities and my brother Ralph was more than willing to oblige me.  He was a church planter in Nova Scotia and I could be his youth pastor... for free and work along the side with him in roofing and siding.  It all worked great until the business slowed down and I had to start looking for other work.  So, I'll never forget getting a job interview at New Minas Chev Olds.  They asked me about my sales background to which I replied, 'I sell Jesus'!  He smiled, I told him about Jesus and yeah, I didn't get the job.

On a serious note, I think some of us really struggle with this whole aspect of reaping because all too often we feel like this is ‘the sales job’

IJohn 4:34-38 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Reaping is challenging our friends to respond to the truth of God’s Word.  We should reap because it is the natural result of cultivating and planting. If we cultivate in love and plant God’s truth, the result will be the challenge and joy of harvesting.  In order to reap a response, we need to understand the difference between our job and God’s job in the reaping process. We will discover today how to share the gospel in a clear and compelling manner and understand that how a person responds to the gospel is connected to the condition of their own heart.  Cultivators, planters and reapers are all needed and some of us are better in place than another, but everyone is needed and everyone should know how to do all three. It is all about teamwork as we realize that every type of person is necessary and that every step of the process is hard work but the rewards of seeing someone come to know the Lord is what it is all about. The celebration party here and in heaven must go on!

t is my desire that we understand that leading someone to the Lord in terms of our focus is less about decision and more about transformation.  It is less about the individual and more about the community and it is less about the after-life and more about ‘mission-life’!

So, what is our job?  The human side of reaping

There are two skills that we need to develop

1. Clearly and concisely present the Good News

Have you ever tried to sell someone something they didn’t need, or in this case, didn’t realize they needed?  You need to be saved… what do you mean, I’m not drowning...

I'll never forget my first lesson in retail sales.  I asked my boss, "Should I ask them what they need?'  He responded, 'No, don't ask them what they need, they don't need anything!  Just tell them what they want."  So, with that I began to sell suits at Steel, a men's clothing store.  I learned the gist of sales ANPOCS - approach the customer, determine needs, make a presentation, overcome obstacles, close the sale and sell add ons.  I learned how to do the windsor knot backwards and make guys look amazing!!  I would sell suits to guys for every occassion knowing that for teenagers, they will probably wear it just once, their graduation. And here's the thing, telling people about Jesus is not a sales job.  It is the incredible life giving story of God!

Colossians 4:2-6

One of the hindrances to reaping is best expressed by this statement: “I would love to tell my peers about Jesus, but I don’t know the essential elements of a gospel presentation.”

Bad News / Good News

Romans 3:23; 6:23; Romans 10:9,10; Ephesians 2:8,9

On faith – it is not a cognitive assent, it is relational, it is complete trust in a person that moves us to act lovingly and with loyally to that person. 

2. Ask For A Response

Acts 2:40  Peter strongly urged all of his listeners

Acts 4:12  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

2 Corinthians 6:2 For he says,
   "In the time of my favor I heard you,
      and in the day of salvation I helped you."I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

There are questions that we can ask to determine where a person is at.

1. Which life best represents your current relationship with God?
2. What would keep you from beginning a friendship with God?

What is God’s Job?  The divine side of reaping

1. He convicts the spiritually lost of sin and convinces them of their need for Jesus Christ.  John 16:8
2. He draws the spiritually lost to Himself  -  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.  John 6:44

The heart of reaping  Mark 4:1-20

It is not so much that these are four different types of people, but that these conditions can really reflect our heart at any given time and how effective the Word of God will reach us

First, there is what we can call the callous heart. The seed is sown upon the beaten, trodden-down pathway. This represents people whose hearts are busy, who are not open, who have been beaten down so many times they have grown cynical, hardhearted, callous to truth. When the seed hits them, the birds come and gather it up immediately. (Perhaps there are people like that here this morning. You are here not because you wanted to hear the Word but because coming to church is the "right" thing to do. Your hearts are callous and unresponsive, and the Word falls on them as on asphalt.) What does Jesus say about that kind of a life? He says it is strictly for the birds! The seed will be snatched away by Satan before you even have a chance to hear it.

Then there are the impulsive hearts. The seed falls upon them and they immediately respond with joy. The seed takes root and grows up quickly. The trouble is, they respond like this to everything -- food fads, new books, political leaders, whatever popular movement happens to be abroad at the time. As a result, their lives are so shallow that the seed of the life-giving Word cannot take deep root and change them.

The third condition of heart is represented by the thorns. These are those who hear the Word, but thorns spring up and choke it. This is what we could call the over-involved heart. There are three things Jesus details here which are thorns that choke the life-giving Word:

First, there are cares, i.e., worries concerns. These are people who are concerned all the time over what is going to happen next, worried about the situation they are facing -- fretful, anxious, troubled people who do not know how to rest, how to leave things in God's hands but are constantly trying to work it all out themselves. These people Jesus says, are losing truth. The seed has fallen upon their hearts, but it does not take root because it is choked by the thorns, and they soon lose it.

Second, there are those who delight in riches, who are caught up in the pursuit of wealth, Then there is what Jesus calls "desire for other things," or what we might call "restlessness." These are people who are always shifting from one thing to another. But then there is the receptive heart, the one ready to receive -- open and responsive immediately.

Spiritual Awareness In Reaping

Acts 8:26-40

Because the seed of spiritual life grows by the power of the Holy Spirit, we do not need to badger, dictate, cajole, or force people to believe. In fact, we cannot. Belief requires voluntary acceptance. Anything that looks like a threat or a bribe spoils true belief. Anyone who truly believes is drawn by God himself. We may plant the seed of faith by our witness; God alone makes it germinate, sprout, and blossom. We need to faithfully minister to others and trust God for the growth.

Sin – Let’s face it, when we use this word, the thing that jumps into people’s mind is a deed.  We need to make it clear that this is not just an accumulation of action, but that it is a disease of the human condition.  Isaiah 1:5,6; Proverbs 10:23, Romans 3:23.  It is a natural inclination and we are all suffering under its consequences.

Salvation – most people think “saved from what?” We need to stress the fact that faith in Jesus protects us from the defeats in every day life. It gives solutions to the problems in our lives. It does much more that merely improving our life however, because it saves our life from the effect of a terminal illness.

Saviour – faith in Jesus is the only effective cure. The Messiah took the disease upon Himself and let it be transferred upon Himself. He transferred it upon Himself and died, but He didn’t stay dead. The cure is something we have to appropriate upon ourselves like medicine. We have to take it to be cured.

1. Do not promise heaven on earth. John 16:33; Phil. 1:29
2. Be sensitive to your own forcefulness– know when to press and when to let up – ask the person if you’re coming on too strong. You can pray for God to reveal to them the truth of the Gospel. God wants a decision based on repentance and faith not intimidation and fear.
3. Game of 20 questions. Don’t allow yourself to get lost responding to many questions. You’ll get sidetracked and won’t get to the important questions.
4. You preach the wrong mountain. We’re saved not on the promises of what He’ll do when He returns. We’re saved based on what He did first time.
5. The missing Gospel – Jesus is the promised Messiah. However, we must never make the mistake of talking about Jesus without explaining what the purpose of His Messiahship and His first coming was. (1 Cor 15) He came to pay for our sins. Do not present His credentials without talking about His atoning sacrifice for our sins

The Joy of Reaping

Reaping is very exhilarating, to have the opportunity to lead someone to the Lord, to pray with them and welcome them as a brother or sister in Christ.  It is the greatest miracle of all, a new life, a new creation, born again, a brand new Christian!

Check out what brings Jesus joy -  Luke 10:21  Ministry that is done in Jesus’ name

Jesus knew that talking and training vs action could be the tendency of his young followers.  So Jesus actually sent them out to learn, to discover as they shared the good news.

God promises that his harvest will be magnificent and prolific—the best fruit ever grown. Our witness may be weak and our efforts may seem to influence so few, but the Word of God is a powerful growth agent. We should keep our eyes on the great harvest to come and not let bad soil or weeds discourage us from faithful service and witness.

Start with compassion that is born in prayer

The word for compassion here is ‘splankna’.  The meaning of the word is a physical all body response of mercy and compassion – He see them violently pinned by the enemy, the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy.

Go to where the people are with the power of His presence and seek out the receptive.

Focus on being faithful at proclaiming – that is our job

Prayerfully depend on God to do the work of convicting – that is His job.

Why do we do what we do? Why is it so important for us to get the good news out there? Because when you really think about it, it is incredible to know that God loves us, His children, that much.  He is a Father to the fatherless, no matter what you have done and how far you think  you’ve gone,  He longs for you to come home to experience his unfailing love and forgiveness.  If you know Him as your dad, Your picture is in His wallet.  So, what does He expect of us?  First and foremost to believe who He says we are and then to be compelled by that love to share that incredible freeing truth with others.  I guess that is what makes Christianity stand apart.  It is not a religion, it is a relationship.

Check out James Chong's presentation of the gospel at

http://www.jameschoung.net/big-story-training.pdf

Planting on A Wing and a Prayer

In our journey through Mark 4 we come to a very familiar story of Jesus and His disciples who find themselves at sea in the midst of a furious squall after a long day of ministry.  As I read this passage, I found some key statements made by both Jesus and the disciples which really stood out to me and what it can mean for us today as it relates to planting our spiritual story.

Learn when it is time to leave the crowd behind v35,36

This passage teaches us that there are seasons in our spiritual life when we learn to ‘leave the crowd behind’.  We are not meant to fill our lives up with opportunities.  There is a recognition of the call to ‘steal away’ time with Jesus.  We have to be with Jesus in order to share about Jesus.

Going through seasons of desperation v37,38

There is also a ‘season of desperation’ when we do feel like we’ve been left behind, forgotten and are drowning in our desire to follow Jesus.  It in the midst of these storms when we are real and honest with others that we can have incredible opportunities to plant our story.

Isaiah 43:1-3

Identify your ‘defining moments’ in your faith journey v39-41

Finally, there are seasons in our life when we really sensed that God came through, defining moments, when we know that He answered our prayer and we have experienced the peace of God that transcends all understanding and God increases our faith.

Too much evangelism is an attempt to answer questions people are not asking.  Let the experience the life of the Christian community.  The church is the home in which God dwells by His Spirit.  And do not worry if life is sometimes less perfect than it should be!  We do not witness to good works but to the grace of God.  Tim Chester and Steven Timmis in Total Chuch

Plant In Season

To plant ‘in season’ means that we speak the truth in love. 

Ephesians 4:15… speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

Psalm 40:10  I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly.

It was said of Jesus that He was full of grace and truth. John 1:14

There are 3 types of planters:

As a chameleon – we over emphasize on the love side which gains a receptive audience but there is no mention of truth  so people know us a good human, a humanitarian.

Romans 3 states that we have to be honest with people and press them to their need. 

v10,11a  As the Scripture say, “No one is good, not even one, No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God.  All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong  NLT

As a cactus – we overemphasize the truth of the message, it clear, but it is not received because we are not compelled by love, we are only convicted by truth. 

1 Corinthians 5:13 If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

As Buckleys – a true friend will tell their buddy something even when they know what they might say will hurt,  Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.  Proverbs 27:6  A contagious friend have a receptive audience and a powerful message.  They love their friend too much to let them stay where they are, without hope, awaiting judgement without knowing God’s unfailing love.

Recognize The Field You Are Planting In

There are different types of audiences –

Antagonistic –  They are people that mock you, that belittle your faith, sarcastic with you Matthew 7:6  "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

Uninterested – There are people that just move on to another subject in the conversation.  In Acts 26:28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?"

Inquisitive –  There are people that spark the discussion.  In John 3, we see the example of Nicodemus who was quite taken with Jesus’ explanation of being born again.  “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb… In Mark 10, the rich young ruler who came running up to Jesus and asked what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Receptive -  They have come through an experience, a wake up call or they just know there is a God shaped hole in their heart.  In Luke 19, we discover Zacchaeus  who was so intent on being able to see Jesus.  He was a believer waiting to happen!

 Can you discern your audience?  It is so important to understanding how much impact you will have.  Probably even more important is really understanding the leading of the Holy Spirit because as Romans 8:14 states

those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God

and John 16:8

When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:

Remember you are not the Holy Spirit, He ultimately will convict people of their need for the Lord,  our job is to sow the seed.

Plant Truth With Believers

Hebrews 10:23-25

23  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
24  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
25  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.  – we were designed for community

For the next 30 days, every time God teaches you something, share it with a Jesus follower. This is really the best place to start because we already know that we have a receptive audience.  Your Christian friends should get excited to hear what God is doing and if they don’t then find some other Christian friends who will rejoice with you in your walk with Christ.  If we start here and begin with people who already know the Lord, you will see that it will soon become more natural to share those same things with those who need to know the Lord

Now let me say this of the flipside.  If we are on the receiving end, you have a responsibility to receive it well.  Try not to be demoralized by what is happening in their life, but let it inspire you to search and think more about what God is doing, little or big, in your life.

Plant In The Right Light

Acts 17  Paul In Athens

This passage teaches us a lot about Paul’s awareness of the people he was ministering to.  He recognized that they were spiritual and was able to speak to their belief and captured the truth found in the statue to the unknown God.

Look for the rays of light, the window of opportunity in your conversations.  This takes sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  As you are listening to them, as you hear how they are feeling, look for similar things that have taken place in your own life or when you have felt the same way.  Now, you have an opportunity to bridge the conversation by sharing the difference in your life now by sharing what Christ has done for you!

Your friends don’t know what they don’t know.  Unless you can go beyond just identifying with them, then you haven’t given them any answers or hope which deep down in their soul is what they are craving.

What about when they ask questions of you?

Take a deep breath, pray and ask God for wisdom and share from your heart.  If the answer doesn’t come, then be honest.  People appreciate the fact that we can explain it all because if we could we would be God.  Another good thing to do is to say “That is a really good question, can I get back to you on that one.”  It allows another opportunity to follow up.

Plant With Your Own Story

John 4:39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.

They overcame (the accuser) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.  Revelation 12:11

Why?

When you share your life story, you share part of your life.  Your friendship can deepen as you talk openly about your best friend Jesus.  The deeper your friendship, (both with Jesus and with them) the greater the impact of your story. 

Your story shows how Jesus is real in your everyday life and this helps people understand how God can work in their life and be their friend too.

Your experience cannot be argued with because it happened to you.  Your story creates interest in the gospel and will help your friends to want to know more.  Once learned, your testimony will always be with you. 

• Understand that not every seed bears fruit right away, let it take time to germinate.
• Know this up front that you will probably get more people that will just nod their head and then move on to a new subject then turn to the Lord right there on the spot, but don’t let that discourage you, you have planted a seed for the Lord, don’t lose sight of that. 
• Know that you are making a difference.  Every God-inspired word is planting a seed… which leads to my final point…

Planting With An Expectant Heart!

There is something to be said about planting with expectancy.  We really need to believe that God‘s Word will take root in people’s lives, believe that the Word of God will not return void.  There is no greater power than the power of invitation.  When was the last time you invited someone to really know God?

Listen to the prophet Isaiah testify of life with God!

Isaiah 55  NLT

Invitation to the LORDs Salvation

 1"Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink--even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk--it's all free! 2Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen, and I will tell you where to get food that is good for the soul!

    3"Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, for the life of your soul is at stake. I am ready to make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the mercies and unfailing love that I promised to David. 4He displayed my power by being my witness and a leader among the nations. 5You also will command the nations, and they will come running to obey, because I, the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious."
    6Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. 7Let the people turn from their wicked deeds. Let them banish from their minds the very thought of doing wrong! Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
    8"My thoughts are completely different from yours," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
    10"The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. 11It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit.(The NIV states it will not return empty) . It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. 12You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands!