What Kind of a Missionary Are You?

                      What Kind of a Missionary Are You?

    You notice I didn't ask "Are you a missionary?", that goes without saying. As a follower of Christ we have the Great Commission which says:

      "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matt. 28:19,20

      And we have the Acts 1:8 version of it which goes:

     "  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

    Our  Biblical prototype for the type of missionary we are is seen in this passage in Mark 5:1-20:

 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. ² When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. ³ This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. ⁴ For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
⁶ When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. ⁷ He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” ⁸ For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”
⁹ Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
¹¹ A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. ¹² The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” ¹³ He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
¹⁴ Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. ¹⁵ When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. ¹⁷ Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
¹⁸ As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. ¹⁹ Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” ²⁰ So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

      I believe this is the only passage where someone asked to follow Jesus and he was turned down! I also believe that this man is the first recorded missionary in the Bible - and where was he sent? He was sent to his own people who knew him, knew what he was, knew his transformation, spoke the same language, and related to the culture.
      All of us are this type of missionary - we have been saved and transformed and we wish we could go to be with Jesus in Heaven but He says to us "No, be my witnesses here." Now that is not to negate the fact that some go to foreign unfamiliar lands if God calls them, but most of us stay.
      We see what type of a missionary we are once we are born again, but the question I was asking is "What kind of a missionary are you?" What I am getting at is are you a good one or a bad one or somewhere in between? Let me get at it this way - I'm sure you all have at some point in your life received a letter from a missionary you are supporting telling of how God is working in their called location or mission field. Pretend that you are a missionary from First Bapist of Paris, France. The congregation has sent you to Duluth, Minnesota (or substitute your home town) to a relatively unreached area to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and are investing in you $50,000 a year. Now it is time to write them a yearly support letter to convince them to keep supporting you. What would you write? What on Earth are you doing for/in the Lord? What difference are you making or have you made in the past year and what are your plans for next year?
      You see, most of us don't go through life intentionally like this or ask the question, "Why am I doing the things I am doing?" We take our kids to school, band or dance rehearsals, sporting events practices and games, go to work or serve at the school, go shopping, go to the gym, etc. all the while without asking, "How am I or how could I be using these things to advance the kingdom or as a missionary?" Instead of saying, "I spend 5 hours of the week taking my daughter to dance practice" our missionary support letter could say, "I am networking with a group of 10 parents of children who dance and I get to spend 5 hours a week with them, none of whom know Jesus, and am getting to know them and their needs. I am daily praying for them and one of them is having some medical problems and I have been able to take her to the doctor several times. We are getting close and she has let me pray for her and she has even agreed to go to a luncheon at our church.Please pray with me for her salvation." You see, suddenly a mundane event like standing for 2 hours watching your kid at soccer practice becomes a mission field. It all comes from living life intentionally with a missionary mindset and might I also add two other things.
       A missionary mindset is not only intentional but urgent. Why does the Bible speak of us being in the "Last Days" even though it was written 2000 years ago? Because God wants us not to get lazy or procrastinate because we don't know how long people have nor do we know how long the Lord will tarry. I remember a short term mission trip to Mexico and there were throngs of patients pushing in line to see me. The career missionary , not urgent because she would be there her whole life, yelled at them all and lined them up and said "If the doctor doesn't see you this time, the next time doctors come they will see you." She made sure we took an hour lunch break and quit right at 4. This drove me crazy because I was only there for 10 days and I wanted to see everyone I could because I wasn't there to rest, I could do that at home. 2 Tim. 2:4 says

    "No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs..."

      which to me means that you are here as a short timer, live urgently. In the example we are using, you have 1 year to make a difference or they will be calling you back to France and send someone else, so each day we need to try to make a difference.

      Lastly, a missionary mindset is that of an alien. 2 Cor. 5 speaks of us as ambassadors which means once we are saved, we are citizens of a foreign country, Heaven, and representing it here on Earth. Most of us in our example are so concerned about trying to make everyone in our town, USA think that we fit in rather than standing out, being different and representing our real home. It would be crazy for a missionary to start building a home and setting down permanent roots when he knows that his term is 5 years. He would use whatever budget he has, not to make himself comfortable but rather to spread the gospel. This is the meaning behind that bizarre parable in Luke 16 of the unjust steward where Jesus uses a scoundrel to portray a principle that money is not an end in itself but rather a tool to be used.
  
      So in conclusion, what kind of a missionary are you? What kind of letter would you write? Would the church back home support you for another year after reading your letter? What would you tell them are your plans for next year?  If you are like most of us, it would be a pretty weak letter but tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life - start now. I challenge you to get out a piece of paper and write a support letter. Be intentional. Be urgent. Be an alien!  

Studies Through 1 John- Lesson 7

            Studies Through 1 John- Lesson 7

                         Satan's Ploys

                                               1John: 2:15-17

     ¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

   How do we reconcile vs. 15 telling us not to love the world and if we do we don't have the love of God in us with "For God so loved the world" or God created the world in 6 days and it was good? Obviously it is understood by the different meaning of the word world. (Fortunately it doesn't have as many meanings as the word set) In the first case it refers to the population or people of the world and we are certainly to love them. The second case is the creation and we are definitely to love this and care for it. The meaning of the word world in verses 15 - 17 is Satan's system for opposing the work of Christ on the Earth. Therefore worldliness is being drawn into that system to the extent that you lose your enjoyment of the Father's love and you lose the desire to do the Father's will.

   Before we go into detail describing what these three ploys are, it is important to notice that Satan is using things inside of us - the flesh, the eyes, and our pride so it is probably more an internal problem than an external. Satan knows what is inside of us and from the beginning with Adam and Eve to the temptation of Jesus to our daily temptations Satan uses the same schemes he used 4000 years ago. James describes this in chapter 1 verses 14,15

  "  but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."

      I like to picture this as resonance. I learned about this phenomenon in physics class. Check out the videos below;

 

 

Picture Satan holding a tuning fork vibrating the lust of the flesh up to our chest. Inside our hearts the lust of the flesh starts vibrating and it starts us in motion. Jesus talks about this in Matt. 15:16-20 when He says,

 

 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. ¹⁷ “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? ¹⁸ But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. ²⁰ These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

 

There is something inside of us that irrationally is drawn to these devices of Satan as illustrated by the unexplainable need to go after squirrels in this clip from Up.

 

 

Lust of the Flesh

 

What is the lust of the flesh? First of all let's look at lust - what is this? It is basically an over-desire or a hyper desire usually for an acceptable thing that becomes a passion or something that directs our life rather than what should be which is Jesus Christ. The flesh refers to our lower or baser appetites such as sex, food, thirst, rest, comfort. These appetites are good until they start running our lives. The craving for sex drives us to immorality. The hyper desire for food drives us to gluttony. The over-desire for rest drives us to lethargy and so on. How does this show itself in our world? Have you ever seen a Hardees commercial?! Enough said. How is it demonstrated in the Bible? Probably the poster boy is Samson (Judges 13-16) driven by sex, food, fighting, his body - he reeked havoc on anyone who came in contact with him

 

Lust of the Eyes

 

Did you know the eyes have an appetite? Have you ever heard "feast your eyes on this"? The eyes are more refined than the flesh. They focus on sophisticated and intellectual pleasures. They plunge us into dissatisfaction and covetousness. The modern day examples would be car commercials where suddenly our car is a piece of junk. HGTV, I'm convinced is primarily geared toward this. People walk through houses and say, "Gross, wallpaper" or "Iiiishh, carpet" or, "No gas stove - deal breaker!" All this time we are watching and saying, "Oh no, we have carpeting, wall paper, electric stove and horror of horrors - dark cabinets". The Biblical example of this is Achan (Joshua 7). After being told by God to destroy everything in Jericho, Achan saw a Babylonian garment and 200 Shekels of silver and took them. Why? It can only be explained by the lust of the eyes. After all, he couldn't wear it -"Hey Achan, where did you get that awesome Babylonian garment?" "Umm, I made it?" Or where was he going to spend that money? They just destroyed all the Wal-Marts. It was just stupid but don't we all relate? Why? Because it is inside us all to varying degrees.

 

Pride of Life

 

The pride of life seeks to elevate ourselves over everyone else. I like what Warren Wiersbe says about it in his book "Be Real" a commentary on 1 John which I have gotten many of "my" thoughts from. "The Greek word for pride was used to describe a braggart who was trying to impress people with his importance. Why is it that so many folks buy houses, cars, appliances, or wardrobes that they really can't afford. Why do they succumb to the travel now pay later advertising and get themselves into hopeless debt taking vacations far beyond their means? Largely because they want to impress people with their pride of life. They want folks to realize how affluent or successful they are." Nebuchudnezzer is the prototype of this. One day he looked out on "his" kingdom and stated how wonderful he was and God caused him to crawl around on all fours like a wild animal until he admitted that God was the one in control not him.

 

These three temptations are nothing new; Satan has used them from the onset. In the garden, when he tempted Eve with the fruit in Genesis 3:6;

 

 "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it."

 

You see the lust of the flesh - "good for food", it met the bodily needs.

You see the lust of the eyes - "pleasing to the eyes". It brought dissatisfaction with all the other fruits that they were eating day after day.

You see pride of life - "desirable for gaining wisdom" I can be as wise as God.

 

Also we see it in the temptation of Jesus in Luke 4:3 - 12

 

³ The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’
⁵ The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶ And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷ If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
⁸ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’
⁹ The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. ¹⁰ For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you carefully;
¹¹ they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’

¹² Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.

 

          You see the lust of the flesh - feed yourself

          You see the lust of the eyes - look at all these kingdoms you could have

          You see the pride of life - jump off and show everyone how amazing you are

 

      Lastly, how do we fight against these? With the Word of God. Jesus quoted three passages in Deuteronomy to fight off temptation in these areas. How would one stop the tuning fork in the second video from resonating with the one beaker? Fill it up with water! Change your frequency. Abide in the Word of God and fill yourself up with Him and His truths and the devil's schemes wont have quite the attraction to us.

                            

Teaching Your Kids to Defend the Resurrection

                    Teaching Your Kids to Defend the Resurrection

       Our kids at some point will be released into the wild of College and secular thinking that denies the transcendence and innerency of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, the miracles of the Bible, Creation, the flood, and the resurrection and unless our children are able to defend why they believe what they believe, they will quickly lose their faith. "My parents say it is true" or "The Bible says it" will rapidly be laughed out of existence. To aid you in teaching your kids how to defend the Resurrection, that Jesus bodily rose from the dead, here are 6 easy points that you and your children can use.

   A. Apostles

         All the apostles except John died horrific deaths for proclaiming Jesus rose from the dead. You can make up a story about Jesus rising from the dead but you aren't going to die for it. Charles Colson talks about after Watergate scandal broke, they planned to all keep quiet and deny but within 18 hours everyone was squealing on the others plea bargaining to stay out of jail. Could 12 disciples really keep a conspiracy like that quiet for the rest of their lives and through torture and death. No! These cowards who all fled when Jesus was arrested soon boldly proclaimed the gospel unto death. The reason - they met the resurrected Lord.


  B. Bible

        Now I know I said how do you use the Bible as proof when people increasingly don't believe the Bible to be true. All I can say is that we have manuscripts of portions of the apostles letters that are dated to the lifetime of the people who would have around at the time of this supposed resurrection. What if I wrote a book that Elvis didn't really die because I saw him in Pigeon Forge. I would probably be ridiculed severely because the coroner, pall bearers, his wife, his children would say, "That's not true - we saw his body. We saw him put in the ground and he isn't alive." Now if it was written 100 years from now when all the eyewitnesses are dead, I might have better success. You see, as these letters were circulated about the resurrection, if they weren't true this claim wouldn't have gotten off the ground. People would have said, "No he didn't, here is his tomb and he is still in it.
       One other factor is often used to discredit the resurrection but actually supports it. The four accounts in the gospels all have variances which shows they didn't collaborate to make up a lie. Testimonies that are somewhat different in minor details but are in agreement on the main event are more acceptable in a court of law than testimonies that look like they have been rehearsed, copied, or memorized.

  C. Calendar

       Did you know that B.C. means before Christ and A.D. means in the year of our Lord in Latin. The calendar used by most if not all of the world was rearranged on the basis of Jesus Christ. There have been a lot of famous people to die in history and a lot of people to get killed unjustly or for a noble cause. But only one shaped history so much that he affected time. What was different about him? How about the fact that he rose from the dead. No one else has ever done that. Every great and famous person that ever lived, died and stayed dead.

   D. Dead Body

        Every murder or crime show has a dilemma, what do the perpetrators do with the body? We have a body dilemma in the killing of Jesus, too. Where did His body go? The myth circulating was that the disciples stole the body. How? There were armed guards stationed at the tomb with the royal stamp saying if you break this seal you die or if you soldiers fail your duty you die. As we have seen , the disciples were cowering in fear when Jesus was taken and there is no way they could have moved this huge stone without the guards hearing it. Also they wouldn't start a legend when all that was in it for them was poverty, hiding, and death. What about the Romans? If they took the body they would have just produced it to squelch this new religion which was a nuisance to them. There is no logical explanation for where the body went

    E. Empty Tomb

        All great people of history have grave sites that you can go visit. Jesus has an empty tomb but the surprising thing is that they aren't positively sure this is the right place. Why? Because the point was he was only there for a few days. The grave wasn't the focus because he wasn't there. He was and is alive.

    F. Females

      When you look at the Easter story, women are prominent. They are the witnesses of the empty tomb, they are the first to see Jesus, and they go tell the disciples who don't believe them. Why is this significant? Back in these days women were considered second - class citizens. Their witness was not acceptable in court, yet these are the witnesses of the resurrection. If you were making up this, you would have men be the witnesses not women. The only plausible reason for including women is that this is how it actually happened. The only reason that the authors, the founding fathers of the church would have the women as the heroes and themselves as having no faith is that this is what really happened.

    G. Galilee 

      The resurrection account started in Galilee and spread out from there. If a fictitious rumor about something paranormal was to begin, certainly it wouldn't originate in the location where it could most easily be proven false. The world today has become very small with technology. For example, if a false account of a massive earthquake in California was reported by the New York Times, within seconds Californians could post that this wasn't true. In Bible times this wasn't true. People could fabricate stories in faraway places without the fear of scrutiny. The fact that this "rumor" began at the very locale where it could be proven to be untrue is highly significant and testifies to its veracity.

Studies Through 1 John - Lesson 6

             Studies Through 1 John - Lesson 6

          How Do I Know That I Am Saved - Part 2

  Last lesson we looked at the internal evidence that we are saved - those things that if we honestly examined ourselves on the inside would assure us of our salvation. However, this alone can fool you. Even Paul did not trust his conscience. And sometimes, due to insecurity or non-loving upbringing, we might even feel insecure even though we are saved. Today we will look at the other evidence that we are saved - the external evidence - that we can see and that others can see. In fact, this may be more apparent to others than you just as the internal evidence is hidden from others but apparent to you.
                                     1John 2:3-14
³ We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. ⁴ Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. ⁵ But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
⁹ Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. ¹⁰ Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. ¹¹ But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

¹² I am writing to you, dear children,
    because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
¹³ I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁴ I write to you, dear children,
    because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
    because you are strong,
    and the word of God lives in you,
    and you have overcome the evil one.

 

  We see in verses 3 and 4 that someone can have the internal evidence that they are saved but they aren't if they don't have the ...

 

                             External Evidence

 

   So what is the external evidence that someone belongs to Christ? From this passage, I would say the evidences are love and growth.

 

   1. Love - it's not surprising that love is one of them as John mentions love 104 times and calls himself the "disciple whom Jesus loved" and is referred to as "the disciple of love." Notice verses 3 and 4 talk about "obeying His commands." What are those commands?

 

                                     Matt. 22:35-40

 

      One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

       The commandments are summed up in one word- Love. Commandments 1-4 are Love for God - worship Him alone, don't have idols, don't take His name in vain and set a day aside each week to honor Him. Commandments 5-10 are Love for others. If you love people you won't lie about them, murder them, steal from them, take their spouse, or wish they didn't have something so that you could. John says that if we are a believer we will make love complete (vs.5). What does he mean by that? I think he is saying we complete the cycle. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him..." This is the first part of the cycle - God loves, He gave, we believe, but like the Dead Sea that receives without giving out, the cycle stops and is dead. However if we then love others glory goes back to God and the cycle is completed.
       Have you ever lead someone to the Lord and wondered if it "took"? How can you tell? The apostle Paul had the same dilemma. He, quite often had to do "hit and run" evangelism and he had to wonder if people were truly saved. You know how he knew? He gives us some insight as he wrote to Collosse and Thessolonica. Paul looked for their internal - their faith, and their external - their love.

                                2 Thes. 1:3,4

 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. ⁴ Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith

                                  Col. 1:3-5

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— ⁵ the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel

      And this love that is proof of salvation is something as old as Lev. 19:18 ... "but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord" to something as new as Phil. 2:3-8

      Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

 

     The Old testament gave us laws to love people as ourselves. The new command is to love people more than yourself. The Old command is love God's people and hate the evil ...

 

     When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices;
    when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy Prov. 11:10 

... and the new command is love your enemies. Not only do we have a new command but we have a new example... "It's truth is seen in Him and you" vs. 8 We have the example of Christ and the evidence in our lives of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said "Father forgive them as they mocked Him on the cross". Jesus died for those who rejected and hated Him. But what was the full extent of His love? It is something that we don't usually think about.

                   John 13:1-5 (NIV '84)

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of His love.
² The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet

     Jesus, the King and creator of the universe, put Himself beneath people and served them. Why is service such a big thing? At work this week I overheard someone saying "I was doing 5 things and she told me to do another thing and she wasn't doing anything. What- does she think I have an "S" written on my forehead for "Stupid"? I told her to do it herself." At this point I interjected, "Maybe the "S" stands for servant." In an unforeseen answer she said, "Yah, does she think I am her servant? Does she think I am her slave?"  So interesting. From the Christian's perspective, servant and slave are a good thing but to the unsaved or those without the Holy Spirit transforming them from the inside out it is a bad thing. Why? Lets look at the definition of Love that Tim Kimmel gives in his books;

   "Love is commitment of my will to your needs and best interests regardless of the cost"

Lets look at the opposite of that -
       "Love is commitment of my will to my needs and best interests regardless of the cost"     You see the opposite of love isn't hate. It is selfishness! And this is the condition we are born in. This is the root of sin. Therefore, when you serve or see someone serving, it is going totally contrary to their nature and showing signs that they are being run by a new person, the Holy Spirit. In fact when you look at the fruit of the Spirit you can see that the "greatest of these is love" as they all stem from love. Take Joy for example. As we said a few lessons ago, the Bible gives us some ways to increase our joy - fellowship, discipling, serving, worshipping. How about peace? When you find yourself filled with anxiety, chances are you are preoccupied with your safety, your comfort, and your needs being met. Longsuffering? "That person is irritating me to death" Gentleness - "I work hard for my money; they can too!" Faithfulness - "I know I promised but this is really starting to take a toll on me." And so on. You get the point.

 

    The external evidence then is love. We should be asking the question, "What does love require of me?" and then doing it. Will we fail? Yes, but as seen in verses 12-14 it is a growing process. We begin as children and progress to adults. We start out with our sins being forgiven and entering a relationship with God and progress to battling Satan and knowing God's word, to finally becoming a spiritual adult. Quite often it is 3 steps forward and 2 steps backward but when we take a spiritual inventory, we should be looking more like Jesus this year than last.

 

   A few questions to reflect on would be

    1. Who can I serve this week?

     2. Do I look more like Jesus this year than last?

    3. What does love require of me in that situation that I am going through?

Studies Through 1 John - Lesson 5

                                Studies Through 1 John - Lesson 5

            How Do I Know That I Am Saved? (Part 1)

     This is a topic that John deals with a lot through 1John and in fact is one of the main reasons that John writes this epistle. John's ultimate desire is to disturb the comforted - those with false assurance, and comfort the disturbed - those who lack assurance but are saved. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 13:5

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? "

     There must then be some tests that we can use that are given in scripture that we can use to examine ourselves and I believe there are. I believe there are some internal tests and there are some external tests of our faith. First lets look at the passage in 1John.

"We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. ⁴ Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. ⁵ But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
⁹ Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. ¹⁰ Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. ¹¹ But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them."

     The first word I highlighted is "know". The Greek is "epignosis" which means to know a person not just know about.
           

                            

 I could say I know about Lebron James because I have his whole trading card memorized but his number is not in my cellphone. He does not follow me on Twitter. I do not know him personally and neither does he know me. A lot of people know about Jesus but they do not know Him personally. Some examples are 1John 1:6, Matt. 7:21-23, Luke 13:24-27, and John 8:31-59. The latter passage is one people usually don't think about in regards to this topic but it starts with "To the Jews that believed Him Jesus said..." and ends with "they picked up stones to stone him" This passage gives some insights into what it truly means to be saved that we will be referring to throughout this lesson. So let's look at the internal evidence that we are saved.

                                Internal Evidence

     This is the proof that only you can see. You have access to the inner regions of you that no one else has except God. Sadly, He sees it clearer than you do. (1 Cor. 4:4,5 , Jer. 17:9,10) With the access you have, you can look for these 8 signs that you are truly saved or more precisely that the Holy Spirit lives inside you. John alludes to this line of questioning in the above verses in 1John. I highlighted the times when "in Him" is used. Whenever you see "in Him" think of the life being run and controlled by or in the power of the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do inside us before the evidence makes itself outside?

     1. Inner confidence - I know this can't be completely trusted as we have seen above but if you have received Christ..

And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Rom. 8:16
 
    "  Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. " John 3:33, 7:17
           When the Holy Spirit comes in, you know deep inside.

     2. Conviction of sin -  It isn't just a sorrow for getting caught. It is Godly sorrow for hurting the One we love and giving the accuser of the brethren some ammunition against us. It brings about a resolve and plans to never do that sin again. This is what the Holy Spirit does inside of us. Prior to this we would have said, "Oh well, I'm only human"

   " And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin..." John 16:8a   

    3. Conviction of righteousness - Now we have a chooser inside of us directing us to make the right choices; hard righteous decisions that we couldn't have made before and wouldn't have wanted to. For example, a friend has a financial need but you are saving up for a new bass boat. You choose to give him the money. See, it wouldn't have been a sin not to but it was righteous behavior to. Or the wives want to rent a cabin and have a girl's weekend but you choose to spend it with the family. It wouldn't have been a sin to do that but it was righteous behavior to spend it with your husband and kids. In the past you might have thought "all I do is give, give, give". I need some me time. Now you are thinking, "all Jesus did was give, give, give. I guess I desire to be like Him"

      "And when He has come, He will convict the world... of righteousness " John 16:8b

   4. I am understanding the Bible and God is speaking to me through it!!  - Do you remember those days prior to salvation or even early on where the Bible made no sense? Jesus illustrates that when He talks about parables being closed to unbelievers but open to believers. This is the way the Bible is. The Holy Spirit makes it come alive to us. I heard a cook once describe it as his blueberry muffin mix. It is inedible until you add water but then it comes alive.

       " when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.  He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you"  John 16:13,  14:26

    5. I am starting to put Jesus ahead of myself and giving Him the glory  - We are all born living for our own glory and making our name great. Gradually, only through the Holy Spirit, we are now starting to think about how He can be magnified not us. We are thinking of ways to use our abilities to share His greatness. The Holy Spirit, even though He is God, has the job of glorifying the Son. How much more should we!

      "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. " John 15:26

    6. I am starting to crave God - the last 3 are taken from Psalm 42:1-8. The Psalmists in verse 7 say "deep calls to deep". I see this as deep inside our heart lives the Holy Spirit and He is calling out to the Father through us. I picture E.T. and his overriding desire deep inside him to phone home and reach out to his father.

                                       

 The sons of Korah say in verses 1&2

   As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?

      When the Holy Spirit is residing inside of us there has to be a craving, a thirsting for spending time with God. Having a quiet time where we meet with Him. I can't understand professing Christians who don't read the Bible, long for Heaven, and their prayers are limited to blessing the food and memorized bedtime prayers with the kids. Deep is calling to deep if He is inside you.

   7. I am desiring fellowship - we talked about this 2 lessons ago so we won't go into detail. One thing God revealed to me this week as I was preparing a men's study was from Genesis 2:18

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

  From our study on the names of God we see that Jehovah, the personal God that relates to mankind said to Elohim, the triune God, "It is not optimal for man to be alone". Here is the triune God, who existed in threefold fellowship throughout eternity saying basically here we are the 3 of us and here he is the one of him. That is flawed. Therefore as deep calls to deep, the spirit is making us feel incomplete being out of fellowship. Those "believers" that don't desire church I have to question.

⁴ These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One
with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng
   
  8. I am desiring worshipping God - Everyone worships something - what are you worshipping? What kind of music are you listening to. Are you critical of people who get emotional in worship at church. Does worship move you like the Spirit is compared to the wind moving things in John 3? Would you just as soon skip the singing and get straight to the message? I remember feeling all these things early in my walk but over time I crave praise and worship because deep is calling to deep.

with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.
⁷ Deep calls to deep
    in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
    have swept over me.

⁸ By day the Lord directs his love,
    at night his song is with me—
    a prayer to the God of my life

Studies Through 1 John - Lesson 4

                         Studies Through 1 John - Lesson 4

                            You Need A Lawyer!


   ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father (or- "we have One who speaks to the Father in our defense" NIV 84)—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ² He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.   1John 1:6-2:2

      Who retains a lawyer? Someone who needs a lawyer! "I don't want to hire a lawyer; it makes me look guilty"! Have you ever heard that one? Have you ever said that one? As we look at this passage we see Jesus as our defense attorney. He is our advocate or paraclete which is someone who comes along side you to represent you. He defends us against the accusations of Satan, the accuser of the brethren, to God the Father the judge which we will go into more detail about but it is important to realize that, like an earthly lawyer, you won't have Him as your advocate unless you admit you need Him.
      Verses 6,8,10 all start out "if we claim". Verse 6 states the scary thought that people can claim to be in a relationship with God but aren't. How does that happen? Self deception always begins with a misunderstanding of sin as seen in the other two "if we claim" verses. Verse 8 says first of all people deceive themselves by thinking that they don't have sin (singular tense). In other words they don't believe they have a sin nature but are basically good people. They don't understand that inside us is a nature that wants to be god rather than to be under God. We have a nature that lives for us first. At our very core is the whole disposition of our character to be me centered not God centered. Yet the world denies this and thinks that man is basically good. They must not watch the news. This leads to verse 10 which says therefore we will deny we have sinned. When is the last time you heard a public figure confess that they sinned? No, it is always a moral failure, a mistake, something that hurt a lot of people that they are sorry about. This is why they don't believe the good news of Jesus Christ because they haven't received the bad news that they are sinners to the core.
       The divine defense attorney, Jesus, is for us who admit that we need an advocate because we are in trouble. This is prophesied several times in the Old Testament

       Because I have sinned against him,
    I will bear the Lord’s wrath,
until he pleads my case
    and upholds my cause.
He will bring me out into the light;
    I will see his righteousness  Micah 7:9

   “He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him,
    that we might confront each other in court.
³³ If only there were someone to mediate between us,
    someone to bring us together,³⁴ someone to remove God’s rod from me,
    so that his terror would frighten me no more.
³⁵ Then I would speak up without fear of him,
    but as it now stands with me, I cannot.  Job 9:32-35

Even now my witness is in heaven;
    my advocate is on high.
²⁰ My intercessor is my friend
    as my eyes pour out tears to God;
²¹ on behalf of a man he pleads with God
    as one pleads for a friend  Job 16:19-21

 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord (Jesus), and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. ² The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” Zech. 3:1-2

   Also, as we look at Jesus, a prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15) we see Moses interceding for God's people in Exodus 32:11-14 and in Numbers 14:13-20.

     But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. ¹³ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” ¹⁴ Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

    We see Satan accusing us before God in Job 1 and 2, Zech. 3:1,2 ,1 Peter 5:8, Jude 1:9, Luke 22:31,32. Jesus, who sits on the Father's right hand (Matt. 26:64, Luke 22:69, Eph. 1:19-22, Col. 3:1, Heb,12:2, Ps. 110:1) defends us to the Father who is the judge. Now lest we think that Jesus is nice and the Father is hateful, remember this - the Father sent the Son to die for us out of love (John 3:16) The problem is really one of conflict of interest - how can justice be served when someone God loves is being judged? I remember being asked to referee a basketball game that my brother was playing in, in elementary school because the referee couldn't get there because of snow. I had all the fans yelling at me because I kept calling fouls on the other team whenever my brother got touched. I was not a fair judge. Therefore we need an advocate to remove us from the equation. He does this in two ways - by being our proxy and our voice.
       Jesus is our proxy; we give Him our power of attorney. What He accomplishes before the judge is applied or imputed to us. In fact He is sort of like our federal head. In the old days a champion could be chosen for two sides going to war and the champions could battle in place of the army and whoever won would impute victory to that side. We can see this in David and Goliath where Goliath says,  “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. ⁹ If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” 1 Sam. 17:8,9   Paul talks about this in Romans 5 - " But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!" Paul says that Adam was our federal head who gave us all sin (1john 1:8) and Jesus is our champion who defeats sin and death and imputes that victory to us.
      Our advocate speaks for us. (NIV84) After all, isn't that what attorneys do? They have the gift of gab! But not only that, they speak the language. It is a terrible idea to represent yourself in court. Why? Because you don't speak the language. I am reminded of the time I had to hire an attorney when twins died at 32 weeks when their cords wrapped in utero and I was sued because the plaintiff said I could have prevented it. I remember giving advice to my attorney. The conversation went something like this;

     Me   " She smoked, lets use that"
     Atty  "Did you tell her not to smoke?"
    Me     "Of, course; I say that to everyone!"
     Atty   "Did you document in your notes that you told her?"
    Me     "Well, no"
     Atty    "Then it didn't happen"
     Me     " The babies didn't move for a week before she called. I tell everyone to call me if the baby moves less than 10 times a day. Lets use that"
     Atty  "Did you document that you told her that?"
    Me  "No, I don't treat records as if I am a future adversary with this patient!"
     Atty  "Then it didn't happen"
    Me   "I hand out an informational book at the beginning of pregnancy that talks about fetal movement and when to call"
     Atty  "What if she says you never gave her the book? Do you know if she can even read?"
     Me   "Here is a card she sent me thanking me for my care. Lets use that"
     Atty  "She was not thinking clearly at that time"

   And so it went and I was convinced I had the worst attorney ever until he won the case because he knew just what to say. Here is what Jesus would say to God. He wouldn't beg and plead for the Father to have mercy and pity on us like a lawyer who had no case. He would probably plead that it would be unjust for the Father to punish us for a sin that has already been punished for. Jesus has taken the punishment for us so he would probably plead Double Jeopardy (1999 Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones) where you can't punish for the same crime twice. Where do we get that? (we being me and Tim Keller) Three places; 1John 1:9 says "He is faithful and just to forgive our sins", not faithful and merciful or longsuffering or patient or empathetic - but just. It is out of justice that we are forgiven. Secondly 1 John 2:2 says that He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins - His blood covered over our sins so the demand that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins" is paid for. Also if we go several verses further in 2:12 we see that our sins have been forgiven on account of His name. In other words, as our federal head, Jesus paid for our sins in court and we just go before God using His receipt.
       So what practically can we take away from this?
  1. We don't have to fear losing our salvation or forgiveness of sins. Jesus blood is sufficient not only for us but also the whole world. He has satisfied the Law and we can rest in that. There is no sin you can commit that His blood won't cover
   2. You don't need to fear going into God's presence. You are going in in Jesus' name and you are clean
   3. You don't need to judge others or feel judged - they/we have an advocate and a judge and it isn't you and it isn't me.

   Lastly in Acts 7 we see Stephen before the Sanhedrin giving a message which wasn't well received so he is about to get stoned to death.

       But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
⁵⁷ At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, ⁵⁸ dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

      Why is Jesus standing? He is our High priest that unlike all the earthly high priests who could never sit in the Holy place because their work was never done, Jesus sat down at the Father's right hand because "It is finished"! However, here we see Him standing. Why? Maybe because He is serving as Stephen's defense attorney before the Father. The devil is making his claims for Stephen's eternity just as he did for Moses' in Jude. I can picture Satan in Moses' case saying, "He didn't make it to the promised land because of sin. He struck the rock. He murdered an Egyptian. When you told him to go back to Egypt he refused. He's mine"  In Stephen's case and in ours there are plenty of things we have done against God and Satan the accuser of the brethren was accusing Stephen. However, Jesus his advocate had approached the judge and was saying "It would be unjust to hold his sins against him because I have already paid for them." Satan's accusations are overcome by our testimony- that we have received Christ, and the blood of the lamb - that He paid for our sins.

     For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
    who accuses them before our God day and night,
    has been hurled down.
¹¹ They triumphed over him
    by the blood of the Lamb
    and by the word of their testimony;  Rev. 12:10,11