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Your Sacrifice is Hiding Behind Your But...

7/26/2018

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1And so, dear brothers and sisters,a I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. 3Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. 4Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. (Romans 12:1-5 NLT)
 
It is an amazing thought to have that we are called to sacrifice ourselves as a part of the New Testament church. Under the Old Covenant followers were called to present unblemished sacrifices at the altar – Under the New Covenant, fulfilled by Jesus Christ, we are called to BE the sacrifice and LEAVE the altar! We are made holy, unblemished, by the blood of the Messiah and, as scripture then teaches, we are called to sacrifice ourselves to His body. See what happened there? He sacrificed himself for our sakes – now we are called to sacrifice ourselves for HIS sake.
 
Oh but that is hard, isn’t it? See what I did there? But, But, But – as in when God shares His will with us – his “good and perfect will” with us – and our first response is, “but…” “But I don’t have the time.” “But that is not what I had planned.” “But my kids need to be in a youth group.” “But I don’t have the training for that.” Our selfish nature rears its ugly head and we begin to stammer and stumble over all of the reasons why God is wrong and we are right and how what we are perceiving as His will is impossible and won’t really lead to anything that is “good and perfect” with me – and so on, and so on, and so on.
 
First of all, DUH! If it was possible in our own strength then we wouldn’t even need God. Secondly, it must be an intentional decision made of our own free will. The challenge, of course, is to set aside ourselves and our own free wills and TRUST our savior. Oh my, there’s that word again – the “T” word – Trust. Nobody is ever perfect in their submission, this is true, but ask yourself, “Do I trust? Can I possibly trust? Or do I trust God only when it seems to suit me or benefit me?” Good questions that only we as individuals can answer. Actually, we spend our redeemed lives answering them, don’t we? 
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Stand on the Word ALONE!

7/9/2018

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Sit down and Be Quiet Brian....

7/5/2018

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8“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are 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. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” (Isaiah 55:8-11 NLT)
 
Confession time… I had to be reminded of this last Sunday. I went into the service with a rather bad attitude – not expecting much and, quite frankly, not expecting to do much. My intention was to wrap up the sermon from last week, maybe 10 minutes, and move on. I had a negative attitude and I allowed it to dictate to my thoughts and my behavior. I’m sorry. I have repented. Actually, I repented on Sunday as I felt the rebuke of the Holy Spirit as HE took over and did what HE wanted. It was amazing how the Word of God went out Sunday and in spite of my negative attitude and energy, was used to inspire more than a half an hour of confession, discussion, testimony and prayer! I sat on the stool, worrying about how long it was all taking, STILL not understanding or submitting to the power of The God as He manifested Himself among us. Shame on me. Lesson learned. Of course, like the imperfect human being that I am, there is no doubt that I will have to “learn” it again sometime. 
 
Scripture teaches us that in our weakness, we are made strong by the Lord. (Re: 2cor. 12) Sunday I realized the fundamental fact of church – I and/or WE are not in charge, HE is. We are weak and left to our own devices will give into that weakness and purposely stand in the way of the will of God. We sorta can’t help ourselves given our selfish natures; but knowing that, honestly, is half the battle. Submit your weakness to the Lord. Understand that HE is in control and that HIS purposes will be se4rved REGARDLESS of how we feel or what we think or even if we intentionally stand in the way of THE WAY.  Sunday, God sat me down, told me to be quiet and showed me what it means, once again, to be submitted. Thank You Lord. 

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    Pastor Brian is the senior pastor of Churchtown Church of God and regularly shares his thoughts & insight here - he invites you to join in the discussion of life & faith!

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