It's ALL about JESUS!

Psalm 63:1-8;  1O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. 3Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 4So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. 5My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, 6when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 7for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. 8My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

Do you have that kind of Love for Christ? Do you have the kind of love that would drive you to travel hours just for a glimpse of Him? Do you have the kind of love or sense of awe and worship that the teeny-boppers had for the Beatles back in the '60's? Remember how crazed the youth were every time they would step off a bus or a plane? So enamored with them that there would have to be a full medical staff constantly in wait for all those who fainted when they just saw a glimpse of them through a fence?

This kind of love is so over the top that nothing else matters, not food, not drink not any one thing, because our heart is speaking to us. There is no rationale here. Only a driving purpose to see the object of our desire.

So what happens to the church when we as Christians take that approach towards our Jesus? What happens to worship on Sunday mornings when we put Him on the top of our list of priorities? An outpouring of the Holy Spirit like none of us has ever seen, that's what will happen!

People will no longer be making plans for lunch during the worship service. If we come to church prepared to encounter the Holy God, setting our alarm early so that we can be PRAYED-UP before we ever enter the doors of the sanctuary! If our desire to encounter Him is true, then we will be willing to make the sacrifice of the extra sleep. I know in my family, the evil one tries to use Sunday mornings before church as an opportunity to disengage us from the Lord through petty arguments about clothing or coffee or_________, and we struggle with it weekly.

Even though we have read the 'ending to the story' and 'know the victory is ours' why do we allow him to come in and get us off track? And now for the even tougher question, If we allow him to do that on Sunday when we choose to worship corporately as a family, how much more disruptive have we allowed him to be in our daily personal worship?

That is a tough questions that many of us, like me, have a quicker answer to than we want to admit. So I urge us all, this New Year, this new day, this new minute to seek Him.

Over the last week we did a VBS with the children of a small church in Piedras Negras, Mexico. They played a song that had the words, (English) Christ is my Super Hero, about 900 times. I heard it so many times that the words became bland to me, but this morning God woke me up with those words in my head, and it dawned on my, is Jesus my super-hero? Is He the object of my desire? Do I put Him in front of everything else or do I just tune Him out like the song?

So let's make it our mantra that Jesus is our Super-Hero, that He truly is the one that we seek out and search for in all circumstances and in all things, going out of our way to find Him and hear Him!

Romans 15:1-5, 1We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me." 4For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Example, that's what Jesus was to us. A shining example of who we should be. Let's look at a few things he did:

Luke 2:6-7, And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Philippians 2:8, And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Matthew 26:39, And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."

John 6:38, For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Luke 5:13, And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him.

Going through the Bible we find a multitude of examples. I've listed a few above that stood out: He left heaven to be born to a lowly family in a barn using a food trough as a bed. He always put God's will in front of His own. He touched the untouchable. He ate with the despised. He was obedient to the point of death.

We all know that we could go on for hours, but the point is easily made, He was the ultimate example. Most days it is impossible for me to fathom just what He gave up to do this for me, because He was more concerned about me and you than Himself. His only desire, do the will of the Father and save me and you from God's wrath.

So the question is, what do we do with His example? Do we take His teachings to heart? Are we the shining example to our children? Our friends? Our co-workers? The world? Do we? Or, are we so self-absorbed that we miss out?

Are we the parents that we dreamed we'd be? Do we put ourselves aside to see our children grow? Are we willing to give up the life we THINK we deserve to see others grow in Jesus?

This is the time of year when we celebrate the greatest gift ever given, and doesn't it seem like some attempt to compete with that gift? Bigger, better, stronger, faster, more technical, louder, softer, MORE, MORE, MORE…..

It is not in vain. Even Paul, Romans 7:13-24, dealt with it. He goes into a rant talking about not understanding his own actions, doing the very things he doesn't want to do, the very things that he hates! He blames his actions on the sin that is within him. Paul continued to battle sin, as did all the other disciples, James 4:1, 'What quarrels and what causes fight among you? Is is not this, that your passions are at war within you?'

So how do we defeat it? How do we set a genuine example, not just play church in front of the world and do the things that we hate in private? The answer is Jesus. When our main passion, our main focus, our main goal is to do the will of the Father, regardless of where He sends us or how much we sacrifice or do without, the sin that once owned us, though always lying in wait, will be replaced with a desire for Him.

John 3:30, He must increase while I must decrease.

What a simple verse. As a Christian, this simple verse, that was spoken by the most religious man of his time, John the Baptist, sums up what it means to follow Jesus. Yet, as simple as the verse is, could there be a more difficult thing to do?

To use a military analogy, we have been 'parachuted' behind enemy lines, and we are expected to be relevant to the culture we've dropped into, however, our relevance as Christians to the culture should never mean compromise of our values or beliefs.

He must increase. When we read about John the Baptist, we see that his entire life was one that was meant to point out Jesus. He made such statements as, 'I baptize with water, but there is one coming that will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'

So how is John the Baptist relevant to our lives today? A man who lived as the most religious man of his day, following the law to the letter. Here is a man who by anyone's standards, then or now, was weird. He walked around constantly yelling at the religious because there was no Heart in their actions. He wore weird clothes, a garment made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and ate only natural foods, locusts and wild honey. Yet even though he was weird to all who saw him, people came to him in droves to be baptized in the Jordan River.

Why? Why would so many people want to be around someone who was so weird? Could it be because of his anointing? Sure, undoubtedly, but could it also be that all he ever thought about was pointing the people who came to him towards Jesus? He saw himself as a pass through. All the time he's preaching to them, 'move along, nothing to see here, the thing you're looking for is over there!'

We must decrease. You see, his sole purpose in life was to point others towards Jesus. He didn't get caught up in the trappings of this world. He wasn't concerned with wearing the designer robe, or eating at the newest restaurant. He didn't care so much about what people thought of him, only WHO he could point them towards.

Do we do that? Do our actions point others towards Jesus? Or, do we get caught up in the latest and greatest?

Are we so concerned about increasing our own kingdoms, that we forget what is important, seeing His kingdom increased? For years I've been tagging this simple verse at the end of letters and email. I've adopted it as my 'life' verse, one that I aspire to daily, yet fail miserably. I don't see myself donning a camel hair suit any time soon, but it's kind of sobering when you think about it.

How great is it that we have a savior that sees us right where we are, and where we're going to be. A Savior whose love for us does not have any preconditions.

Can we do anything but point people towards him?

1 Peter 1:18-21; 18knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

Ransomed. Peter takes great steps to make sure that the reader understands what the ransom was for our freedom. He went through great pains to lay it out and keep the focus where belonged. Most of us think we were Ransomed or Saved from Hell, Sin, the devil, _______, but have you ever taken the time to realize that the biggest thing that God saved us from was Himself? Cursed is the person that falls in the hand of an angry God.

Romans 5:9, 9Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

God used Jesus to ransom us from the fate that we deserve, His wrath, and put us in the realm of His grace. So He paid for us to be Ransomed from Him. God is the owner of souls, and we don't need to fear the one who can destroy the body but the one who can destroy the body and the soul! Only God can do that!

So we were ransomed. Ephesians 2:1-11 tells us that while under his wrath we were under satan's influence, but the ransom brought us out of that and into the present state of grace. We don't need to look back to our lives before Christ with a 'good old day's' mentality, because the place we are in now is the good old days.

Peter is motivating us to remember why we were ransomed in the first place. Why were we chosen to be a utensil of the King? Not because of our looks, our golf swing, our hair style, our ______, but because of His ransoming work on the cross.

'18Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,' He ransomed us from our culture, a way of thinking that was systemically put together by sinful people for generations that we were nurtured and raised in that was making us what the world calls 'normal'. In Christ, our life is never going to be 'normal' again. We are not called to be normal; we're called to be a consistent 'exile,' we're called to be abnormal.

We were ransomed from normality. It's normal to be prideful, to be hedonistic, to be greedy, to be unwilling to submit to authority, to be controlling, to be _______. We are no longer normal, because in Christ our lives change. Our old friends and neighbors will look at us like we've gone of the deep end. We're no longer attracted to futility, we don't laugh at the same jokes anymore.

As missionaries to our town, our state, our country or our world we have to recognize that in order to bring change it takes something abnormal to infiltrate the normal. It's important that we take in this philosophy that God has redeemed us from the futile ways of what everyone else is doing. Just because everyone is doing it doesn't mean that it's the Christian thing to do!

He's called us to bring REDEMPTION because we've been Ransomed!

'18…Not with perishable things such as silver or gold', As Christians don't we miss that? Our culture sees $$$ cash not Christ. Listen to the radio, any, any Rap song, nurturing the idea of silver and gold, but what God wants us to do is to realize that those things are what the common people see as worth. Peter is telling us that not only did God redeem us from that, but He didn't even redeem us for that, because when we go from commonality to consecration it is beneath us.

So the question is, knowing that we've been ransomed, not by silver or gold, but by Jesus Christ himself, and we're called to be abnormal by the world's standards, are we? Do our old friends see us or the things we're doing and call us abnormal? Do we fall into the standards that the world has set for us, or are we proud of our abnormality?

1 Peter 1:

ESV; 13-16 13Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as He who called you is Holy, you also be Holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, "You shall be Holy, for I am Holy."

Message; 13-16So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, "I am holy; you be holy."

As we prepare to lead a team back to Mexico on the 26^th, I look into the faces of the little ones who are going to experience God in a way that they never have before. They are going to see their parents, and siblings and college students and retirees taking time out of their lives to engage the living God in a new and exciting way. The look in the little girl's eye when she watches her daddy tell someone about Jesus or pour concrete for a school in the middle of a desert that has its bathroom outside is priceless. The memory of serving that a 40 year old man has that transforms the rest of his life. Hearing someone say, 'you really did come back,' when someone realizes that people can be trusted.

These random thoughts led me to the verses above. I tend to be a lot like Peter, so his words really speak to me.

Let's dissect the Message: Roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. When we first recognize the revelation of Jesus and how lost we truly are without Him in our lives, everything changes. For most of us, it doesn't change immediately, at least not in our 'right now' culture, but our eternity will changed nevertheless. No longer do we have the ignorance that we once had. We now know what it is that's always bugged us and because we chose the red pill rather than the blue, now we're informed, and we can't just go back to bed, expecting to wake up tomorrow oblivious to it all. (Sorry for the Matrix reference).

As stated before, with the knowledge of the One True God and His Son now taking root in our heart, we must safeguard ourselves from falling back into our old ways, not for some legalistic reason. Not just to follow a scripted set of rules, but now we do so because of the Love we have for our Savior. That word 'Love' is so misused in our society. How can the same word be used to describe how we feel about ice-cream and in the next sentence describe what it took for Christ to die on a cross or us? The Greeks had (17), seventeen, different words to describe the different types of love, while the Israelites had 11.

But Love is what it's all about, the kind of Love that you'd live and die for. The kind of Love that wakes you up at night thinking about that guy you saw at the end of the off ramp, the kind of Love that makes a family choose a mission trip over traditional holiday festivities, the kind of Love that makes a family live in a hotel for months waiting for an adoption to go through, the kind of Love that makes a two women wake up from surgery and immediately ask if they will still be able to go on a mission trip in a week (that last one happened this afternoon).

I'm talking about the kind of Love that God has for us that would make him choose to leave His throne in heaven to come and be mocked and ridiculed and spit upon and deserted and nailed to a wooden post, all the while asking His heavenly father to forgive insert your name because insert your name doesn't understand what that kind of love is.

But because of Him we now have a chance at understanding that kind of Love. Verse 15-16 reads, 'but as He who called you is Holy, you also be Holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, "You shall be Holy, for I am Holy."

Holy: 1.Set apart to the service or worship of God; hallowed; sacred; reserved from profane or common use; holy vessels; a holy priesthood. 2. Spiritually whole or sound; of unimpaired innocence and virtue; free from sinful affections; pure in heart; godly; pious; irreproachable; guiltless; acceptable to God.

In the Old Testament, when God called something Holy, then no longer is it to be used for common uses, it is consecrated, set aside, no longer to be used as everyone else uses it.

If we are in Jesus Christ, we are not common anymore! We are not common anymore!

Peter wrote in vs. 15, 'but as He who called you is Holy, you also be Holy, because Christ calls us based on who HE is. You see, our use is now defined by Him, and He is Holy, therefore we are to be Holy. He defines who we are. Nothing else matters, not your job, not your degrees, not your ________, we are defined by Him.

But He called us to BE Holy, not DO holiness. He didn't just say Do stuff, He said BE. Every area of our life should be marked by God taking it from commonality to consecration, everything! From the way you date, do your finances, your marriage, your job, your friends, your life. Is it common or is it consecrated? Is it Holy.

God has made us Holy therefore everything that we DO is to be based on that. There is a difference because, if we just DO holiness, then it's religion, but if we ARE Holy that's relationship. We all know how to 'Play-Church' but what happens when we live out what we are?

Is everything in our lives marked by Holiness? Is your _________ common or consecrated?

Ask yourself the question, list it out in your life, is it common or is it consecrated? God did not call us out to be common; He didn't call me to be regular, He didn't call us to be just like everyone else, but what He did was call us to show the fact that HE IS UNRIVALED IN HIS ATTRIBUTES IN EVERY AREA IN OUR LIVES. Can people look at our lives and say, there is nothing rivaled to God in our lives? Why are we always fighting for Jesus to be center of our lives?

You shall be Holy, for I am Holy. Tough stuff for most of us, but regardless, He called us and he will make a way. For me, it's like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.

Reference: Eric Mason, Epiphany Church, Philadelphia, Live His Life sermon.