Turning On the Lights! Tuesday June 25, 2024 The Gospel of Luke and the Kingdom of God!
Good morning, Good morning my brothers and my sisters! It is a beautiful Summer morning and we are in the church turning on the lights and talking about the Kingdom of God!
Let your light shine! Let your faith be made strong! Embrace the kingdom of God and the family of God of which (hopefully) you are a part!
Challenge yourself in the Word today and, as always, KEEP LOOKING UP!
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, June 18 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Oh good morning. Good morning. My brothers and sisters were walking into the church this morning. Note the hallway is clear. The church is a little messy still we’re working on it. Good heavens. What a weekend. Hey, we’ll see you all again. July 14 kids for our king. Oh, it’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be fun. Look at the garden that I better not show the kids faces. They’ve garden that they made very nice. Cool stuff. Lots of cool stuff going on around here. We are walking into the sanctuary of the Church Town Church of God. There it is. That’s what I get to look out and see every Sunday morning. We’ll go up here to the choir loft where all of our fabulous musicians come to play. We look out over here. Oh we had a good morning. Sandy. We had a fiasco Sunday morning. You know fiasco. I don’t know we had two different arrangements. We wanted to play I’ll fly away and we had the opportunity to have a mandolin two guitars and a fiddle. Now can you imagine I’ll fly away with two guitars, a mandolin and a fiddle. Let me get you on the tripod here so you don’t you’re not all just sick. There you go. There you go. Okay. You ready. There it is. Good morning everybody. So we’re very excited about that and we had one primary flaw is that the arrangement that I had and then I gave to all of the musicians was not the arrangement that the people the tech people had they were going right out of the hymnal. So it didn’t work. It didn’t work. We’re gonna try it again and we’ll try to get the arrangements together and I think that’s one of the things that we can do. Maybe we have these incredible musicians and you know we’re not we’re not the kind of deal that oh we’ve got to practice Tuesday and Thursday and very Sunday and everything’s got to be polished and wonderful. But I think when we get that many musicians together, maybe every four or six weeks, we’ll go ahead and practice it probably very beneficial. But as it was, we just distributed everything and then we had that disconnect Sunday morning and you know it is what it is. You don’t feel good about it, but it is what it is. It happened happened on the heels of a of a. Very strenuous four days Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Sunday morning, it was just like oh, please we got through the whole everything all of the setup for the bacon yard sale. We got through all the setup. We got through the event in 100 degrees got through all of the tear down. We did all of the things and Sunday morning we’re celebrating and this happens and I thought oh gee whiz why. But we did have if you listen to the sermon, if I may say so myself, I think that and I praise God that my brain, which was about medium well at that time, did put together the sermon the way that I wanted it and I thought that it came out pretty well talking about wisdom literature. What that what wisdom literature teaches us about. Us know teaches us about wisdom sort of, but it teaches us about God. Scripture teaches us about God and when we we went into wisdom literature and the the big theme of course was God is wisdom. God is love. God is peace. God is joy. These definitions. Yes, it’s a wonderful tune and we’re gonna get it right and we’re gonna we’re gonna we’re gonna get it right because that mandolin sounded so good and plus we had an issue a person was plugged in wirelessly. I didn’t see the plug so I thought well. I’m not going to overwhelm that person and be a and go and plug in and so we were we were kind of off kilter even though we had sort of independently practiced all week. We gotta bring it together. You know you get that that many folks together. But so remember what we talk about some of the premises that we operate here right. The Bible is not about you. It’s about God. If you want to learn more about you and slash or hopefully and your relationship with the holy God is made possible through that holy God. There you go. You look at scripture and you see and you learn and who God is and in so doing you learn who you are. You learn you who you are as a human because you are his image bearer and as you believe in your heart and you profess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord you become his son or his daughter. You draw even closer to him. And now we are really learning who we are now when we talk about things and these things are also of the world. Peace love joy wisdom right kindness the fruit of the spirit all this right all those things are also they’re reflected back to us from the world. But if we want to know what they are we need to learn who they are. They are attributes of our holy God Yahweh father son Holy Spirit and by the power of God’s Holy Spirit within us we learn and we grow and we become those disciples that he sees we know him more and in knowing him more we’ll know ourselves more and that’s the way the equation should work. Oftentimes whether it’s within Christendom or outside of Christendom the equation is flipped around. If we want to know God we should look at who we are and we can and the legitimate it’s a it’s not legitimate but it is a rational argument that can be made. Look we are his him is the same argument I make we are his image bearer. So if we want to know more about him we should look more to us and who we are. There’s a huge flaw in that ointment wait I’m crossing metaphors. There’s a huge fly in that ointment a huge flaw in that argument in that we are sinners at heart and he is not. So even in our redeemed state we still have this pressing in of the opposer of God’s will saying no don’t do that. No be selfish. No be self-centered. No you know all of these different things. Well if God is love then love is love and we just love. There’s no definition really to it. There is no standard to it. There is no base or foundation to it. There is no cause of it. I.e. God just love is love love love man love and we lose that attachment to who love is thus what love is and how God loves thus how we love does that make sense is a lot on a Tuesday morning. But my point is that we learn who we are by learning who God is not the other way around. And so again whether it’s in Christendom or not people who who love you know atheist whatever you with secular progressives. They always wanna throw around a Bible verse or this or that and completely just randomly they talk about us weaponizing scripture weaponizing scripture and trying to create some sort of false argument false attribute of God all these different things and we never and and as such we get sucked into in discussions when we must be able to look at scripture as a whole who God is how the relationship with God and man has did begin and how it progressed all the things that are taught throughout the Old Testament about being holy and we talk about the behaviors and we talk about the morality and we talk about how can all of this be completed and that leads to the cross and it is completed on the cross and we thus again by believing and professing that Jesus Christ is savior and Lord of our lives. We become Brian Warner son of the most high God and as I have said before and I’ll say again in the modern vernacular the actual best version of me that can be on this planet is that of a son of the most high God. So that’s where we’re going and and and so wisdom. We opened up talking about that. That’s a part of that good morning. Mama D. Right God is wisdom. So we looked at Proverbs and Lady wisdom and we got that all out of the way and you know all and speaking into the life of the individual there in Proverbs and by proxy speaking into our lives. Accept me wisdom says what do you mean accept me? Why would God’s Holy Spirit personify wisdom? Well because God is wisdom. Good morning Rosie. That’s why and and wisdom says accept me. Dwell with me follow my lead. I am of God. Good morning Barry. And we’re going to learn how that plays out both through Proverbs and through Ecclesiastes. There is great wisdom in in Ecclesiastes. Sometimes it is in negative relief. Whereas Proverbs will say if you do this then this positive thing good morning Cheryl could happen could happen. Remember it’s not law. It’s not prophecy. It’s wisdom behave these ways. This is the leading of the Lord yet, but we do understand that human beings are free moral agents and will make their own decisions but behave this way by the leading of the Lord. Ecclesiastes do not behave this way. That is not the leading of the Lord and we’ll see the possible good outcomes possible bad outcomes with the understanding that again every human being is a free moral agent. This is why we don’t look at any of this wisdom literature as prophecy. As God’s law as God’s mandate. We look at it as wisdom. You’re trying to teach your kid well. How many people have taught their kid well and their kids still strays now we pray that by the power of God’s Holy Spirit and the fact that they have been given a good foundation in Christ that even if they do stray they come back understanding who they are. But like I said if it were prophecy that wouldn’t happen. So there’s where we were on Sunday. I felt that it came out very well on Sunday. Like I said, I. If you know my personality and and if you’ve if you’ve been with me for any time here at Churchtown, you’ve sort of experienced growth my own growth. If one small thing would have happened, let alone having the wrong arrangement for the piece of music and it being sort of a debacle. One small thing would have thrown me off and the Sunday pretty much it would have been boom two things are going on one. There is a foundation of prayer every Sunday morning that is lifting everybody up who is playing singing praying me preaching and that just doesn’t happen anymore to I’ve grown. I’ve opened and I’ve said look here I am. Church down here I am I was all geeked up on Sunday cuz I’m so exhausted Sunday night. I went to bed like 830. I slept till eight the next morning. I was just out. But here I you know this is it. We are people we are humans. We are not going to get together every day of the week and practice worshiping the Lord. Okay, Father, we pray your word will go out today as we take a look at the gospel, according to Luke a couple of parables here as you teach about yourself your kingdom and who we are in you in Jesus name. We pray that this word would penetrate hearts and minds and turn people toward repentance. That they may become children of the most high God. Amen. I wanna take a look. We’ve we’ve looked at the parables now this Sunday at church town. We’re gonna do a few parables before we get into Ecclesiastes because it is a celebration Sunday right shout out to the ministries that we will be supporting this Sunday Isaiah 61 his hands ministry community cares all local right here in the Harrisburg Carlisle area and New Hope Ministries, which is a little more regional but local as well that provide all kinds of Christian services for people. We’re going to be donating what we make what we make what people choose to give on Sunday is going right back out to those ministries with the the bottom with the the bottom line being 10% of our current bottom line. We’re gonna give that away. Money is not mission. There’s no doubt about that, but money is obviously the currency with which missions happen. We’re happy to be able to give no one lights a lamp. This is Luke eight verse sixteen and this is in Luke right after the parable of the soils and the the sower, you know the weeds and the wheat and all of that stuff. So Friday we did that with Matthew. We moved on and here we are moving on in Luke. Mark has some parables as well. John very unique that he has longer extended stories about Lazarus and about the woman at the well and about Nicodemus and things of that nature, but let’s take a look at our brother Luke here and what he has to say about who we are and what the Kingdom of God is here on Earth. No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand so that those who come in can see the light for there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore, consider carefully how you listen whoever has will whoever has will be given more whoever does not have even what they think they have will be taken from them. What? Don’t let it be confusing to you. It is actually rather simplistic in its nature. Those who have been given a light the light of Christ through your salvation made possible by the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You’ve been given this light. What do you do with it? Well, you obviously hide in a church under a pew and wait to die so you can go to heaven. Well, we’ve talked about that. No on a couple of different levels because all throughout scripture when Jesus is teaching and Paul and Peter and John and all of those guys we’re called to go out and be the light. Jesus says go be the salt and light. You are the light unto the world and we talked about light and darkness. Light overcomes darkness. Darkness never overcomes light. It’s a beautiful image. So we’re called we don’t hide our light. We don’t hide the joy of Christ the peace the love the kindness all those things. We don’t hide it from the world we go and we live it. We are called to be disciples that means be we’re going to be disciples. We’re going to go wherever you are whatever your job may be or wherever you are traveling or you’re you’re a parent. You’re a grandparent. You’re a great grandparent. Whatever wherever whomever we are called to be disciples of Christ and not hide that light. Well that people that I’m around now. They’re not Christians and they don’t like Christians. Sorry doesn’t say hide your light. If you don’t feel comfortable. It doesn’t. It says trust me. Trust God be the light trust God and it may go very well and it may not go very well, but trust God cuz you’re there and those non believers antagonized and antagonistic people are there. They’re you’re that God knows that. I’m not I used to cower. I used to say okay well then even as a Christian pastor, I’m just gonna smooth around the edges here. I have no reason to cause any stir nah man. This is another area in which I have grown and helped the Lord has helped me along with many many people and godly conversation godly support and prayers have learned. I have learned to to have my voice to grow my voice as a Christian pastor and to not be afraid and to trust God. I want to be able to actually preach from a position of you know non hypocrisy. So go be that light and you understand that as you are a child of God, what you have been given you will be given more if you respond to God’s calling, he will continue your his leadership. If you are unwilling, even what you have will be taken away from you. Oh, that’s scary. That’s the scary part. Not the part about the play the that I might be placed in a position of being uncomfortable or even persecuted or as Paul says even unto death. That’s not scary because my life with Christ is secure. The scary part is not having life with Christ. The scary part is having that taken away. Can’t does that mean you lose your salvation? Let’s let let’s put that one in another category. We talked about we’re gonna talk about heaven. We’re gonna talk about we can talk about eternal security. Is that what this means? Who have therefore considered carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more whoever does not have even what they think they have will be taken from them in the new living translation, which is more concept for concept. So pay attention to how you hear this to those who listen to my teaching more understanding will be given, but for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them. So no, it’s not talking about your eternal security. It’s talking about your investment in the word, your understanding of the word, the power of God’s Holy Spirit within you. And again, I said it on Sunday and I think it applies here. There is an eternity of difference between what you say you believe and actually believing it and that’s what we’re talking about here. You actually believe it. You are a son or a daughter. You’re living in your calling. You’re being led by Christ. You have complete trust then more will be given and sometimes we don’t like that people will come to me and say people talk to me. They come to me and they wanna talk to me and you know it’s about the tragedies in their lives or their difficulties and stuff. It’s like I have this thing on my forehead that says please come and talk to me. Well, you kinda do because you’re a Christian man. You kinda do because you’re a Christian woman and God is going to use you to demonstrate the love of Christ, the compassion, the empathy, the joy of the Lord regardless of circumstances to those individuals who are being brought to you. That’s your ministry. That’s part of every Christian’s ministry. More will be given to you. I don’t want it. Well, you can make that decision. Or you can say thank you, Lord and and this is where I’ve come because I’ve said this before we’ve been talking about my growth as a pastor before I would be like man. I’m nothing but a garbage bag right people just come to me all the time and just dump all of their garbage on me and I just feel like a garbage bag. Where’s the joy in that? Well, here’s the joy in that the Lord trusts me with these individuals. The Lord trusts me to hear and to respond the Lord trusts me when a marriage is in crisis or a relationship is going sour. The Lord trusts me with that. And he’s brought those individuals to me and I’m like, oh, once you change your thinking on that, you’re like, oh, okay. The Lord trusts me to do this. That’s a powerful feeling and again, changing your thinking on that can be like, thank you, Lord from what’s up, Lord like is this the life that I’m supposed to lead to thank you, Lord. What a blessing. I mean I am being utilized by the Lord for the benefit, hopefully of these individuals that they may receive godly counsel. That’s powerful stuff. But for those who even they say they believe. Even what they think they have will be taken away even what they think they believe will not come to pass. They’re actually faking their light right instead of the light of Christ. They’ve got a little flashlight going right they can instead of instead of the light of Christ. They got a little flashlight going and just sort of like the parable of the sower and all of that stuff when troubles come that light goes off and they actually do hide their light. I don’t want any of that. I don’t want any of this Christian life. Well, God says then get behind me cuz I never knew you. I don’t wanna hear that. Then Jesus’s mother and brothers came to see him, but they couldn’t get to him because of the crowd. Someone told Jesus your mother and your brothers are outside and they want to see you. Jesus replied. My mother and my brothers are all those who hear God’s word and obey it. There you go. Family of God, I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God. This is a simple very simple, very short passage and it directly relates to what we just talked about in being the light instead of just saying it. What does Jesus say here? Those who hear the word of God and believe it. There’s an awful lot that we miss when we read scripture and it was like wow. This is all talking about faith. Yeah, pretty much it’s all talking about faith. Faith trust. And and and we don’t we’re not hung out to dry saying well, I just have to have faith. God’s Holy Spirit empowers us to have faith. Faith is one of the gifts of the spirit. Embrace him embrace it. And when you are confronted and and the opposer of God’s will is saying, well now you really should hide that light. Now you really should duck and run now you really should say no way man. I’m embracing this when that fifth person this week comes up to you and says, can I talk to you man? Can I talk to you and you say oh gee whiz. I’m so done. No embrace it embrace him. Embrace the faith that you have in Christ and trust him. He’s trusting you. He’s trusting you in that situation with the non believers. These are the two that we’ve been metaphorically working with today. He’s trusting you in that situation with non believers and he’s trusting you in that situation with this person or people who have this issue. He’s trusting you, but you turn your back and you say no I can’t. Now we can have a conversation about healthy boundaries and all of these different things and how even the opposer of God’s will can take this great strength and say oh, I think I can work with this and I can wear this person down discernment and prayer and having a close group of Christian people upon whom you can depend and rely all of that goes with the territory, but it begins with the author and the perfecter of our faith. And and you’re talking about those who will embrace it more will be given to them. Those people will be given to you that support system will be given to you. A chamly will be given to you. People who love God and love you will be given to you. All this will be added to you. You’re not alone man. This is a team sport, not an individual sport. Finally this I’m gonna leave you with this because we’re talking about how Jesus right God Yahweh is sovereign over your spirit. Now let’s talk about how Jesus Yahweh father, son Holy Spirit is sovereign over all. And I’ll just leave you with this one day, Jesus said to his disciples, let’s cross to the other side of the lake. So they got into a boat and started out as they sailed across Jesus settled down for a nap, but soon a fierce storm came down on the lake. The boat was filling with water and they were in real danger. The disciples went and woke him up shouting master master. We’re going to drown when Jesus woke up. He rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm. Then Jesus then he asked them where is your faith? The disciples were terrified and amazed. Who is this man? They asked each other then he gives that when he gives a command even the wind and the waves obey him here, we see those two things coming together. Jesus is sovereign over the physical. He’s sovereign over the laws of physics. He’s sovereign over the universe. He rebukes a storm and it goes away. At his will. He is sovereign spiritually and he’s trying to demonstrate that they have Jesus who is the Christ of God, savior of the world in the boat and he’s just going to let everybody die, including himself. No faith. Where’s your faith? He says sovereign over the physical sovereign over the spiritual demonstrating through this storm his sovereignty over both and asking you today to go look in the mirror and he asked that simple question. Where is your faith? Where’s your faith? Savior of the world is with you. The power that raised Christ from the dead is with you every moment of every day. Where’s your faith? Believe me, I’m the first one to get in front of that mirror when crisis hits when things are happening when I’m getting emotional. I that where’s your faith? Preaching that the power of of God that raised Christ from the dead dwells within you preaching the gospel every weekend and every opportunity I have where’s your faith? I have to say to myself when we go back, I go back into the word. I go back into prayer. I go back and I’m walking with him again. I’m like there it is. I Lord forgive me. Father, we pray that faith in you through Jesus Christ that is empowered by your Holy Spirit within us will absolutely dominate who we are that when people look at us, they will see and experience who you are because that light is beaming through our faith. We turn and we hear those words of Jesus. Where is your faith Lord make them so real to us? The power of answering that question is the power of transformation of the human soul in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Good Lord willing and the river don’t rise. We’re going for a motorcycle ride tonight with the boys. I’m going to go play with my friends and then. Good Lord willing in the river don’t rise Creek don’t rise. I mean we’re really it’s such a weird weather right now around that big dome. There’s floods everywhere and under that big dome. There’s nothing but a heat wave. God is sovereign. I know he is he’s got this. We’ll see you Friday morning for Turning on the Lights.
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