Annie Armstrong Week Of Prayer - Song and Fanny Kim

Today please pray for Song and Fanny Kim (click on their picture to read about them).

If you'd like to read more about the North American Missions Emphasis please click on the logo below...

Annie Armstrong Week of Prayer - Brenda Crim

Today please pray for Brenda Crim(click on her picture to read about her).

If you'd like to read more about the North American Missions Emphasis please click on the logo below...

Matthew 23:1-12 Part Four (Verse 4-Compassion)

Matthew 23:44“For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

What’s the burden that the Scribes and Pharisees bind on men’s shoulders? The Pharisees taught that it was only by doing good works that you were acceptable unto God. The only way that God will love you and bless you is if you are good, legalism in its purest form. If you’re good you get a cookie, if you’re good here’s another cookie, if your good here’s another cookie. The problem with that though, is that it lays a heavy burden on the person waiting for the cookie doesn’t it?

Why does it lay a burden? If I’m good I get a cookie right? What happens when the cookies stop however? Did they stop because I was bad? Did they stop because my wife was bad? Did they stop because my nation is bad? How much good do I have to do now until the cookies start again? How many good deeds can I store up so that I can keep receiving cookies? Do you see how this could spiral downward? Do you see that a relationship with God based purely upon deeds is no relationship at all?

The problem with legalism is that all it does is continue to weigh you down. You’re weighed down with the guilt of your sin and you keep trying to do things to bring yourself back up but then you sin again and it brings you down even farther. The Pharisees were agents of that guilt because anytime someone would come to them with an issue they would give them some task to “remove” the burden. Heaven forbid you had a victory in that area because then they would simply give you something else to do and at the first sign of failure you would be blamed for your lack of righteousness and the burden would continue to be stacked on. Sounds like fun doesn’t it?

The word for burden here comes from the Greek word for overloading an animal (at least that's what my commentary says). The word picture here is that you would load an animal up so heavy that the only thing it could do was stand there and bear the weight. You would then begin to beat and yell at the animal because it cannot move. If you can convince the dumb creature to move under its burden you follow behind it yelling and beating it for its inadequacy in carrying the load. Gee, that’s a great picture of compassion isn’t it?

That’s what the Pharisees were all about, keeping the people beat down in their sin and not offering them any hope or any compassion. That’s why Jesus’ message was so upsetting to them because Christ’s message was all about grace. Christ’s message was all about mercy. Christ’s message was all about forgiveness. And grace, mercy and forgiveness cut legalism right at the knees. Our relationship with God is never based on what we do, it is based entirely upon God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.

Jesus is never about increasing our burden, as a matter of fact he tells us the opposite. Look at Matthew 11:28-30:

28“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Jesus says ,”You take my load and I’ll take yours”. That is the burden that Christ bore for us on the cross. He has already carried that load and there is no need for us to pick it up again.

Isn’t grace wonderful? We don’t have to work off sin! We don’t have to do things to “get our cookies”. We simply respond to God in faith and ask Him to forgive our sins! How amazing! Look at 1 John 1:9:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Do you see any burden there? Christ says that He will forgive our sins if we will repent of them. He never tells us that we have to work our sins off. That message is horrible to a legalist because it strips away all of their righteousness and works. They hate that thought of grace, mercy and forgiveness because it is freely given.

We need to make sure that the message of the people that we listen to is smothered in God’s grace. We must make sure that they are consistently talking about the mercy, grace and forgiveness of God. We must make sure that they teach that human merit means nothing and that we are all under the grace of God. Look at 1st Peter 5:5-6:

5Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”6Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,

Did you catch that? “All of you be submissive to one another”, that’s a tough thing to do isn’t it?

Peter would not command us to do this if the Holy Spirit would not equip us to accomplish it. We’re supposed to submit to each other aren’t we? We’re supposed to walk around in all humility. We must look at each other with grace and compassion realizing that all of us at one point or another had a burden to carry that we could not bear. The person who understands that he had been carrying a heavy load, and that load has been taken away from him by nothing but God’s grace and mercy, is not going to lay another burden on someone else. He instead is going to come along side and say, “Brother, turn to Christ. Brother, repent from that sin. Brother, let Him carry that load”. He’s never going to come along side and say “Try harder”

So when we are counseling with each other what do we do? When we are dealing with other people make sure that our message is bathed with mercy and grace and forgiveness. We must always remember the truth that our merit did not save us, God’s grace did.

Be compassionate to those who are struggling. Love those that are hurting. Some of us are hurting right now. I guarantee somebody is carrying a load as they read this that they shouldn’t. I’m also going to go as far as to say that some of us know that this person is hurting. What are we going to do? Are we going to be compassionate? Are we going to come along side of this person and show them grace? Are we going tell them of God’s mercy and tell them that Jesus loves them? Or instead are we going to come along side of them and be judgmental and tell them they should try harder.

Hear me well on this, I’m not saying that we are to accept the sin of our brothers. We are to point it out and help them to deal with it. We are always to point them toward the Christ. We are always to show them grace and mercy because One greater than us all has already demonstrated the same to us.

Grace and Peace to you all…

Annie Armstrong Week Of Prayer - Daniel and Kim Goombi

Today please pray for Daniel and Kim Goombi (click on their picture to read about them).

If you'd like to read more about the North American Missions Emphasis please click on the logo below...

Matthew 23:1-12 Part Three (Verse 3b-Integrity)

Matthew 23:3b…but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.

Integrity is not only the way one thinks but even more the way one acts. Simply put, integrity is doing what you said you would do. It is as basic as keeping your word, fulfilling your promise… Ted Engstrom, Integrity

We continue on in our discussion of the Scribes and Pharisees and how their example should influence the way that we look at those that lead us. Yesterday we talked about the responsibility that we have to know God’s word so that we can identify when we are being led astray. Today we’ll talk about the character of those that deliver the message.

Christ tells us to do what the leaders say as long as they are true to God’s word but to not model their life if they are not God’s man. It is the example of the life lived that really shows us if someone is a true leader, that’s how you can tell if someone is really God’s man. What kind of person are they when they are out of the spotlight? Do they hold to the same truths that they espouse from the pulpit or do their actions fly in the face of what they say?

Look with me at Matthew 21:12-15:

12Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” 14Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. 15But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant

I know the focus of this verse is the driving of the money changers and vendors but look a liitle closer. Who came into the temple once it had been cleared - the blind and the lame. Why is that significant? Did these people suddenly appear out of the vapor? Nope – they were there, right there outside of the temple hoping someone would show them compassion. In my opinion, those coming to worship in the temple that day had literally stepped over those that needed God the most.

They knew what the greatest commandment was didn’t they? They knew that the greatest command was to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and all your strength. They also knew what the second greatest command was to love your neighbor as yourself. Who was outside of the temple? The sick, the poor and the blind and they were not being ministered to. What were the religious elite doing? They were stepping over these people to go to worship weren’t they? Its as if there were someone laying on the steps of our church in obvious need and we looked down and said “Oh poor soul, I wonder what the offertory reading is going to be today?” and we just walked on by.

What should the Scribes and Pharisees have been doing? They should have ministered to those people that were lying outside of the temple. They were instead more concerned with being seen inside. They were more concerned what people thought about them. They had no compassion and no integrity. Contrast that with what Jesus did. He cleansed the temple and then ministered to those that were seeking God.
The Pharisees revealed their hearts by their actions, no matter what words they had to say. Look at what Jesus says about them in Matthew 23:27

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

Jesus says look at you. You look beautiful from the outside, beautiful like a mausoleum. It’s pretty, its white, its ornate, there’s cherubim and angels and all kinds of things printed on these things. But you know what’s inside of them. Death, decay, destruction. He says that’s the way that you are. You look good on the outside, you’re very pretty. You’re very spiritual looking on the outside. But inside, you’re dead. You got nothing. They lacked integrity.

Let me share a thought with you here. Remember the account of the woman caught in adultery? A group of Pharisees bring her to Jesus and ask Him what should be done? Jesus agrees with their condemnation of her and asks the one of them without sin to cast the first stone. We know how the story ends, right? Jesus doodles in the dirt and one by one the men walk away and Jesus sends the woman away with a command to sin no more. I heard a preacher a few years ago posit an interesting thought about one of the men in the crowd. He felt that the man who was caught in the act of adultery was in the crowd also standing there with a rock. How would you catch somebody in adultery in the middle of the day? Are you going along peeking in windows? Remember – the goal of the Pharisees was to discredit Jesus, if they can catch Him in a trap they can have Him removed. It’s not too far out of the realm of imagination to think that perhaps one of the religious elite that wanted Jesus to be removed “took one for the team” as it were and committed this adulterous act.
They did not know who God was. They did not have any integrity. They were only concerned about themselves. So what do we do with that truth? How can we apply that to ourselves today?

Aren’t all of us, as Christians, teachers of the Word? Isn’t the Word supposed to be in our mouth at all times and aren’t we supposed to be ready to share it with those around us? All of us may not be called to step into the title of teacher but all of us are called to teach.

The admonishment here for us is for us to be the same all the time. Are we the same person we are in the church building as we are on a Tuesday night when it’s just us and hammer and a nail doing whatever it is we’re doing? Do we have integrity? Are we real in our relationship with God, or are we just real good at playing the part of being a Christian. It’s real easy to play the part on Sunday for a couple of hours. We can all clean up real nice and dress real pretty and come to church can’t we? We can shake each other’s hand and we can bow our heads and pray and either mouth or sing the songs and we can put some money in the plate. We can get real good at playing the part for a couple of hours can’t we?

But when we leave this place what kind of person are we? Are we Christians all the time?

Please take some time to reflect upon your relationship with God today – is it real? Are you the same all the time?

Pray for me, pray for each other, pray that we will all be broken in our pride and will turn from our hypocrisy and toward the Christ.

Grace and peace to you all…

Annie Armstrong Week Of Prayer - Al and Noemi Fernandez

Today please pray for Al and Noemi Fernandez (click on their picture to read about them).

If you'd like to read more about the North American Missions Emphasis please click on the logo below...

Annie Armstrong Week of Prayer - Gary and Sue Smith

Every year around Easter, Southern Baptists focus on the North American Missions Emphasis or as we call it in our church the "Annie Armstrong Offering".

In our church we take the month before Easter and reflect upon how Christ has moved in our lives. We spend time looking at the work that Christ is accomplishing in North America and pray that He will spur us on to do great things in His name as well.

The emphasis kicks off with a week of prayer for Southern Baptist missionaries. Today please pray for Gary and Sue Smith (click on their picture to read their story).

If you'd like to read more about the North American Missions Emphasis please click on the logo below...