Wide Awake

–        It’s important to live awake and aware of the presence of God at all times. He is with us in the Valleys and He is with us at the Mountain Tops.

–         God will never leave us nor forsake us

–         The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us

 

–        The fruits of the Spirit are a product of a life that is awake to the constant presence of God in our lives when we keep our gaze on Jesus

 

–         Galatians 5:16-26 “My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

 

–         Living wide awake to God does not just happen automatically, it is a choice, a decision that you have to make for yourself.  The bible tells us to put on our new nature. Just like when you get dressed in the morning, you make a decision to put on that favorite shirt of yours or to put on those shoes because they look good on you. When you became a Christian, a certain way of living looks a lot better on you than the way you did before. The way you lived before is comparable to old raggedy clothes and the new way of living is like putting on some fresh new gear everyday. When we are wide awake, we wake up and decide to put on our new nature. We give the day to Jesus in surrender. No matter how we feel, we say today I will be awake to your presence and that leads to a life that walks in the spirit, a life that walks in God’s way and direction.

 

–         Col 3:10-17 “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,[c] circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,[d] slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

 

–         The more time you spend with God, the more you get to know him and the more you become like him (spending time worship, reading your bible, church, bible study, fellowship with other believers)

 

–         When we live wide awake and aware that God is always with us and we welcome Him in into our lives throughout our days, we begin to see with his vision of love, we hear his still small voice speak to us and lead us, we begin to change and become more like Christ daily. We begin to act upon what he has truly called us too

–         We see with his vision of love – we begin to look at the world around us differently, all of the sudden rockstars and celebrities become less appealing. We see rather eternal things as opposed to natural. We begin to seek to please God rather than to try and be relevant and please people. When you are awake to his love, you start walking in his love –kindness, forgiving, patient

–         We hear his voice speak subtle to our hearts and lead us to action to be a light to somebody who is need of encouragement, to tell that person about God’s gift of life Jesus, to help that person who looks like they are dealing with a lot right now.

–         When we live wide awake to God’s presence, all of these things begin to take place in our lives and in which case, we find ourselves changing more and more into the person God has called us and wants us to be.

–         Gratitude and thankfulness becomes part of our lifestyle because we are aware that God is helping us in hard times

–         Love becomes part of our life because we realize that God loved us when we didn’t deserve it, so we are to love others well even if they do not deserve it. We don’t know why people are the way they are. Everyone has a story, and because Jesus died for our sins and rose again to make Salvation and forgiveness available, they too should have the chance to experience the love of God and to know His grace. We can love and speak to them and be that light.

–         Worship becomes a part of our lifestyle, because we are aware of how big and awesome our God is and that He is so loving.

–         Keeping our focus on Jesus leads to peace

–         Putting our trust in God leads to miracles

–         Giving our lives in surrender to his purpose gives us vision

–         Using what God gave you, ability to speak life into others, leads to a living faith

–         I challenge us to live more aware and awake to God’s presence daily. A lot of times we can be forgetful of that. If we come to church or bible study and it doesn’t change who we are or what we are doing throughout the week we are missing the point. Daily make a decision to remind yourself of God’s presence with you where ever you go. Look for opportunity to be a light to people.

–         Wake up on purpose, your life is filled with purpose, to be a light to the world. (God has a plan for you every single day, it is up to us to be still and listen, to make a choice and follow

Perception

Today I want to talk to you about perception. About the way we look at life and what our mindset is going into life and all it’s different situations. Are you a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of person. I think it really is an important thing and the Bible the tells us so as well. Think about the kind of people you like to be around. Do you like to be around someone who is always complaining, dragging their feet, and someone who knows how to turn a typically normal situation into this big drama, or something negative to complain about. Or do you want to be around someone who is always looking for the best in people, someone who is looking to spin a bad situation into something that really isn’t that bad after all if you look at it a certain way. I mean you can take both of those to extremes and a lot of times extremes can be dangerous and unreal. You want the positive person, unless you are one of the negative extremes people. Of course be sympathetic to someone who may be going through a hard time and try and relate to them, but don’t let them bring you down or drag you into negativity. Do your best to look at life with the eyes of love and the way God looks at people.

Phillipians 4:6,8 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God…….Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Proverbs 17:22 “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

Matthew 15:11 “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

I could go on and on with verses that God is telling us to look at life positively and with love and kindness. These are just a few encouraging verses to you on just that. We need to really take a look at our heart life and our mind life, what kind of voices are talking to us in any and every situation? Are they voices that scream negativity, doubt, fear, hate, and so on or is it a voice of peace, love, kindness, forgiveness, and positivity? One of them is the right answer, the second one is the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us and the negative one is either your own negative attitude that you have adopted as your own, or it could be the devil and his evil temptations that are sly and may come off as a normal response, but are just temptations to give in to those negative attributes that we talked about. I’m not saying that any time you are negative, it’s the devil, but watch out for it. And plain and simple, looking at life one way or the other is a choice. You have the power to change and to be a light and to walk in love.

A lot of times when you fill your heart and your mind with negative thoughts, that is a direct line to what words come out of your mouth. If your heart is filled with God’s word and his direction and love, you’ll find that his word and love are the type of words that will come out of your mouth in conversation. Same with that dirty negative attitude, if you are always dwelling on the negative of life, those are the type of things that will flow from your mouth in conversation.

Matthew 12:34 “You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say.”

My challenge to you today is to try and see what kind of heart and mind you have taken on as your own. Do you find yourself thinking negative a little too often or do you find yourself full of positivity and God’s word? Be honest with your self evaluation, if you want, ask others which category they would put you in. Once you have determined what you were, now you have the choice to make a change, now you can determine what kind of person you want to be. Learn to fill your heart and mind with God’s Spirit and direction, and then choose to put away any negative thoughts that may want to overwhelm you and give them to God, for he cares for you. I challenge you today to start thinking positive and start speaking positive no matter how bad life may get, it’s only worse if you let it be, by your outlook and perception of it.

Jesus Community

Jesus set an example of how we should live out our lives. What I am going to talk about is 3 key staples of Jesus’ community life. Here is a look at 3 different kinds of relationships that Jesus had. 1st is intimacy with God, he would always draw himself away to spend time with God. That is a relationship that we need to develop in our own lives, it is the most important relationship that we have in our life. 2nd was Jesus’ community with insiders, those who were his disciples. They would spend time eating together, in fellowship together, and were very close. In our church this is the example that we need to live by. Us as a church or a community of believers need to have authentic relationships. 3rdly in Jesus’ life, he had influence with outsiders. Those outside the church, the non-believer. For us, same thing, a relationship with those outside the church.

Luke 6:12-19 is interesting and kind establishes what I just told you with Jesus’ relationships.

¹² One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. ¹³ At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names:¹⁴ Simon (whom he named Peter),Andrew (Peter’s brother),James,John,Philip,Bartholomew,¹⁵ Matthew,Thomas,James (son of Alphaeus),Simon (who was called the zealot),¹⁶ Judas (son of James),Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).¹⁷ When they came down from the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers and by the crowds. There were people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon. ¹⁸ They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those troubled by evil^[b] spirits were healed. ¹⁹ Everyone tried to touch him, because healing power went out from him, and he healed everyone.”

If you look at it closer, you see kind of a pattern, Jesus went off by himself to have intimacy with God and spent the night praying. At day break he picks his disciples and has community, he chose some guys that he was going to do life with, to do ministry with, they then come down from the mountain and do ministry to other people. You’ll see this over and over in Jesus’ life, those 3 main relationships.

Why was Jesus’ so concerned with community? Did Jesus really need them? They a lot of the times didn’t even get what he was talking about. They would get in to stupid fights over who was the greatest of them, which is completely the opposite of what Jesus taught, When Jesus told them to stay awake in the garden, they fell asleep. When he told them to go to sleep on the boat, they woke him up and asked him to pray. I mean Thomas was a doubter, Judas was a Traitor, Levi was a tax collector, Peter cut a guys ear off. They told Jesus they would never leave his side, but when Jesus faced his biggest trial, they all scattered. Did Jesus need their community. Maybe he did, because of the value of love.  Jesus needed a group of people that he could do life with. That he could love. So that he could give us an example of how us as a community of insiders, as a church should do life together. (Matt 22) Love God and Love People.

John 13:34-35, Jesus says  “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. ³⁵ Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Jesus is telling us right now, that we don’t have to be the prettiest, smartest, most awesome people in the world. But what we do need to be, is a people of love, and a people of close community. Jesus stamp on us, is the way that we love one another, that is how people will know we are his.

Here are 3 principles that Jesus tried to establish as biblical authentic community. Here is the first,

1.Everybody is Welcome – it didn’t matter who they were or where they came from. He would accept them, embrace them, include them, ANYBODY who would come up to him. Prostitutes, Tax collectors, etc.This is what Jesus was about. This is how us as a church should be. A lot of people may never again want to go to church because they didn’t have a good experience when they went, maybe they got judged or didn’t feel welcome. We need to be a community and church where everybody is welcome.

2.Nobody is Perfect – We are all on the same level (Romans 3:23). None of us deserved salvation. We all stand in a place at the foot of the cross in desperate need for the bloodshed of Jesus Christ. Everyone of us stand in a place in need the forgiveness of God. There is no room for judging one another. Matt 7:1 – Jesus wasn’t saying that we shouldn’t  make moral discernment to one another. He wasn’t saying there isn’t a time where we should go to a loved one and say “you are screwing your life up”. What He is saying is that there is no room for I’m up here and your down here.We all come from the same place, and we should look at people through the eyes of love.

3.Anything is Possible – Transformation is possible. Jesus took a man by the name of Simon, and called him Peter which means “Rock” and knew you will stand before thousands, who was at one point was scared and ran from Jesus, but then one day he came to a place where he would die for Jesus. Saul was a hater and killer of Gentiles, became Paul who became a man who gave his life to love the gentiles. This is something that we have to get as a Church. Jesus set the example for us. We are to look at one another and say I see something different about you. You have a “New Name”. You are not who you used to be. You can become something different. The old is gone and the new is come. You can become someone new. We should look at people and say I see a new name in you, I see what your life would look like if you just surrendered your life to Jesus Christ. Yet sometimes we don’t treat each other as if anything is possible. We may gossip, or judge inside ourselves, instead of seeing the best in one another. Not looking with the eyes that say anything is possible. We should believe the best in people. God can still transform people. Anything is possible.

Jesus community – Everybody is Welcome, Nobody is Perfect, Anything is Possible