Thoughts on Discpline [really short, just thought i'd share]

To everyone who feels like life is getting the best of you right now, remember that God still loves you. You are still very much in the will of God. All is going according to plan. Trust that there is a bigger picture. Trust that life is indeed unfolding as it should. One thing that does help is to always remember to start each day by giving it to the Father.

-I just wanted to say that before i went into my thoughts on discipline.

moving on...
- In order to live a Christian life, one must have discipline

~A few rewards of discipline:
1) a lifestyle that is more orderly and less stressful
2) more productive
3) makes a positive impact on others
4) opens doors of opportunity
5) enables you to reach your goals (through Christ)

* discipline not desire determines our destiny. You may want to live right, but if you're not disciplined...
[and discipline doesn't just include what you do as flesh but also in spirit. Being discplined enough to ask God to step into your situation and help you resist temtation, for example, takes discipline]

Q: Name something of great value that doesn't take discipline to acheive it?
 - Do you practice discipline in your relationship with God? with your relationships with other people? how you dress? what kind of music you listen to?

~To develop discipline:
1) decide today to read a portion of the word every day
2) pray to God everyday; not just about your needs, but just to talk to him and get closer to him and praise him, and to learn more about him..
3) tithe your income
4) attend worship every week so you can deepen and strengthen your relationship with God.

Settling in

Last night was Faith Christian Center's Back-2-school bash and it was amazing!! Group1Crew performed songs from their newest album, while my friends and i were dancing and singing along in the crowd. It was awesome just being able to do me and praise God how i praise God, with everyone around me doing the same.Our youth group is just amazing. I'm glad i can say i'm a part of #TeamLifted :) 


 I really love the atmosphere of FCC. I don't want to put my former church down, but ever since i became a member of FCC, i have grown extremely closer to God. The youth have embraced me as if i had been a member my whole life and i love it! I plan on joining a lot of the same ministries i was a part of at my last church: nursery, bible study, praise and worship, and outreach. Of course, i won't be limited to just those few ministries listed. If something catches my eye, i'm sure i will check it out. ?I just love being there. I don't know everyone, but the group of people i do know are so on fire for Christ, and they encourage me to stay on fire for Christ. That's all i need. No need for more than that. 


I can see a lot of great things happening in the future as I grow more and more in my new faith familly. Please pray for our pastors, and youth leaders. May God give them the wisdom, authority, and vision to lead us into a new level in our faith. In Jesus' name, amen. 

Walking on the Stars ~ Group1Crew

I love this song so much! Jesus i'm leaving behind everything and i'm climbing the sky to get to you. 

The Doctrine of Imputation [notes taken May 22, 2011]

I pray that everyone who reads this sermon is convicted, challenged, and changed by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. 

Definition of the Doctrine of Imputation: 

-->Teaches that we are "justified," that is, declared "not guilty," we're justified in God's sight because while we we were sinners, God attributed (He imputed) --> attributed our sins to Jesus and inflicted on Him the just punishment we deserve. And God also attributed Christ's righteousness to us, bestowing on us every bless He deserved. That's Imputation. 

*What Martin Luther called, "The Great Exchange" --> I exchange my sins for Christ's righteousness!

*Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness just as I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine, and given me what is yours. You have taken upon yourself what you were not, and have given to me what I was not. 

--> This is the HEART of the gospel- it IS the gospel. 

I want to point out to you three (3) points: 

1) How the Doctrine of Imputation is under attack

2) Review the critical texts of the New Testament that teach the Doctrine of Imputation

3) Return to the point on the attack on Imputation, only this time I want to close by warning you of what I believe is the single most greatest threat to the Doctrine of Imputation. 

-The Doctrine of Imputation has been under attack, and the two (2) places from which the Doctrine has been assailed is 

          --> On the one hand, the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) 

          --> And on the other hand (on the protestant side of things) from the so-called "New Perspective" on Paul.

- From the Reformation Era forward, the RCC has repudiated this Doctrine. 

              *The Council of Trent is the best example. --> In Canon II, it says, " If anyone says that men are justified by the sole imputation of the righteousness of Christ, let him be anathema." 

*"anathema" --> means to be detested or loathed; a person who is accursed or consigned to damnation or destruction; a formal ecclesiastical curse involving excommunication. 

--> very clear in Catholic Catacism on the Doctrine of Justification as a whole. 

                      - says things like this: "justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the                     interior man." --> In other words, justification isn't just God declaring a sinner to be just, while they're simultaneously a sinner, but justification is that God declares them just because there's a sanctification, a wholeness, and renewal of the inner person. In other words, mixing sanctification with justification.

-Also from the Roman Catholic Catacism: "No one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification. Moved by the Holy Spirit and love, we can then merit for ourselves and others the graces needed for our sanctification for the increase in grace and love, and for  the attainment for eternal life." 

                  

                 --> That's saying: you get grace at your conversion which is infused to you (and this is usually vcv infant baptism). You have this grace, but it's not grace for sinners, who are yet sinners, it is grace given which results in us having the power to "earn" our salvation. 

- That's what the Roman Catholics are told. So for Rome, justification does not involve imputation at all- and more than that, from their perspective, justification includes sanctification. It includes our moral and spiritual renewal, and finally it involves our merit. 

*Threat #2: Over the last thirty (30) years or so, the Doctrine of Imputation has been eroded by protestants in what has come to be known as the "New Perspective on Paul." 

 

-Robert Gundry from Westmont College: "The doctrine that Christ's righteousness is imputed to believing sinners needs to be abandoned. The doctrine of imputation is not even biblical! Still less, is it essential to the Gospel." 

           --> This significantly blurs the line between justification and sanctification; effectively blends the two into one. 

** As soon as justification becomes more than God's declaration of our innocence on the basis of Jesus' blood and righteousness, at that point it ceases to be justification!! 

                     --> It turns Christianity into some system of works-righteousness, however subtle. where our participation with God through our obedience, effectively if not explicitly, becomes the ground of assurance of our acceptance with God, It drives me to say, "Well, what really gives me assurance? Is it the blood and righteousness of Christ, or is it my obedience?" 

                     - False teachers smuggle sanctification in justification and turns salvation into a product of human effort. --> This massively distorts the gospel and leaves Christians without hope.

*John Piper: "You may wonder if this apparent obscuring of the distinction between sanctification and justification really matters. It does. Our only hope of progress in gradual sanctification (that's growing in Christ's likeness) is that we already have a right standing with God by grace alone! If the battle of sanctification is made part of our justification, a great part of the foundation for triumphant warfare against sin is removed, and we are made to fight a battle that we can't win!" 

- Oh, there's a battle to be fought my friends, but what is distinctive about the Christian warfare is that we can only kill the sin that has already been killed when we were killed in Christ. OR, to put it positively: we can only achieve practical righteousness as a working out of the imputation of Christ's righteousness. 

**This is massively important! We have this battle to become more like Christ, and if you take justification out of the equation, if you take imputation out of the equation, you're not standing on a foundation anymore, and the whole thing becomes a house of cards and is reduced to works-righteousness. 

--> *Explaining those two threats leads to my second point: If we are going to defend this doctrine, [and we should] our only recourse is to the bible. Because are beliefs are only legitimately Christian to the extent that they're truly biblical, and so we have to make recourse to the scriptures. 

                        ***Six (6) Key New Testament Texts on Imputation***

#1: Romans 5 (and when you see these texts you'll chuckle at anti right when he says, "Paul never comes right out and says it!") --> okay, back to Romans 5, beginning at vs 15

                   --> What is righteousness? It's a free gift of salvation. * and it must be righteousness of Christ because we're talking about what is Christ's righteousness? It's his life! Perfectly lived. It is his life lived in accordance to all the commandment of God; the life we can never live. He was obedient, *and that obedience is what constitutes that gift of righteousness that if you're a Christian, you receive by faith. 

#2: Romans 8:3-4 --> Jesus NEVER sinned. So you can't somehow take this to mean that Jesus is a sinner. Sin gets "attributed" to Him. And by this, the Father condemned sin in the flesh in order that (vs 4) the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us. 

*You see both sides of imputation? Here's our sin being condemned in Jesus, and now here's the righteous requirement of the Law now being attributed to us. 

#3: 1 Corinthians 1:30 --> So no longer so i boast in my own record, no longer do i boast in my own achievements, no longer do i boast in my own resume, but instead i boast in the Lord who has become for me, through/in Jesus, my righteousness. 

             

 -imputation. 

#4: 2nd Corinthians 5:21 --> He made Him who knew no sin (Jesus) to be sin- did he sin? No. He "attributed" our sin to Jesus. He made him who knew no sin to be seen on behalf of us, so that we (in the same way sin is attributed to Jesus) might become the righteousness of God through union with Christ. 

- what makes this text so important is that there's a parallel here: the same way that sin is imputed to Christ, the righteousness of God is imputed to us. 

- Double imputation. Our sin for Christ's righteousness. (The Great Exchange) 

#5: Galations 3 --> here we see the sin side of imputation. He's bearing in himself the penalty we deserve for our sins! 

#6: Philipians 3:3- 

--> *vs 7: what is he sharing with us? It's his resume! 

       **I want to be found in Christ not having a righteousness of my own (vs. 7): "but whatever gain i had, i count it lost for the sake of Christ.." 

--> As Luther called it, "Alien Righteousness," which means "righteousness outside of me." 

--> So then, it seems fairly clear even with these series of text, that we can say with some authority that the Great Exchange- our sins for Jesus' righteousness; the doctrine of imputation- IS biblical!! 

- This doctrine so central to our faith is under attack with the RCC on the one hand, and the protestant "New Perspective on Paul" on the other. 

Point # 3: There's another threat, far greater than the RCC and the protestant New Perspective--> 

*It's far more sinister because it is far more subtle--> the single greatest threat to the doctrine of imputation is YOU!! 

(threat level #1 = yellow) 

* The greatest threat to imputation is not from its obvious detractors, but from its most ardent supporters! 

           - The greatest threat comes from people like us, who give lip-service imputation, but we live our lives as if our salvation is by works!

--> We smuggle into our justification sanctification and we rely on our works to assure us of our acceptance with God. 

- We say, "That's not me man. I don't believe in salvation by works. My salvation is by the blood and righteousness of Christ. It's totally of grace. I would never say that salvation is by works. It is by grace alone, and through Christ alone, plus or minus nothing." (Ephesians 2:8-9) 

         --> To which i say- I'm not talking about your CONFESSIONAL theology. I'm talking about your FUNCTIONAL theology! I'm not talking about what you SAY you believe! I'm talking about the way you live!! Where the rubber meets the road, as justification- BOTH SIDES! Where does the doctrine of imputation worm its way into your daily life?! 

- The church of Jesus Christ, that is to say the church that affirms the doctrine of imputation, doesn't get it! I don't think we realize how much we're trusting in our own performance for a sense of assurance that we're accepted by God. 

         

                *demostrate: Take a bad day- and a bad day is a day where you've been especially disobedient to God. You know those days right? Well on a bad day, do you ever feel guilty when things go well for you? Like it's wrong for things to go so smoothly for you because you've been so bad? Or how about when things go wrong on a bad day? Do you ever feel like, "Well that makes sense. I wasn't very obedient." Let's take the flip side--> Let's take a good day: a day where you haven't had any outright  high-handed acts of disobedience. Do you ever feel like something goes well for you, you have the opportunity to share the gospel with someone and you feel totally awesome? And you're like, "well that makes sense. I got up early, had some private worship time or devotional- whatever you call that- and it went really really well. I was nice to my wife/husband, kids/parents, etc"  It makes sense! You were good... so good things should happen. Or how about this: you're having a good day and things go poorly for you. You ever feel angry about it?      [psalm 73] 

** The thing with this good day/ bad day approach is that on either side, you're looking to your own performance to gage the Father's acceptance of you, or the blessings he's pouring out on you in your life. 

**There is never a day when you were so good that you're beyond the need of God's grace, and there's never a day when you're so bad, that you're beyond the reach of God's grace! ~ (Jerry Bridges, 1994) - "The  Discipline of Grace" chapter 3.... 

- When you have sinned in a particular way, especially in a way you tend to sin repeatedly, do you feel like you want to make up for it? Like you were lazy for an hour, so you're going to get up an hour early tomorrow? 

               --> See what this is? That's performance mode. You know what you're doing? YOU'RE DISBELIEVING IN IMPUTATION!!! --. as soon as you move into performance mode, rather than robustly confessing and repenting of your sins, you've forgotten the doctrine of imputation. In fact, add to your list of sins the sin of self-righteousness, thinking that somehow you could make up for your sins by adding some good works to your resume!!  And Jesus says it's the pimps and prostitutes that enter Heaven before you, self-righteous person!! 

-this merit mentality, this performance posture we adapt is far more pervasive within the ranks of people who say their hope is built on nothing less than Christ's righteousness than we may even care to admit. And the reason we have this tendency to slouch towards self-righteousness is because since The Fall, we have been towards ourselves to make up for the nakedness, shame, guilt, misery that we can't get away from. And you know what, we're so proud, i don't want the handout of the blood + righteousness of Christ from God. I don't want it! I don't want his covering for sin and failure, i want to establish my own. 

--> Mike Horton: "The Gospel Driven Life" : "Like the fig leaves that Adam and Eve designed to cover their sense of shame after The Fall, we search frantically for moral, therapeutic, pragmatic, cosmetic, and spiritual ways of making ourselves more presentable and  acceptable. Yet it is not until God strips us of our own fig leaves and covers us with his own garments of righteousness in Christ, that we find acceptance with God, and therefore the source of a stable identity. Everything else is cosmetic. It doesn't really address the source of our anxieties, stress, depression, and pride." 

 - He's right. 

**Until God strips you of your own fig leaves and covers you with his garments of righteousness in Christ, you're walking around in the world in self-righteousness and you see because we look to our own righteousness, rather than resting in Christ, our focus becomes not the glory of God, in the face of Christ, the focus becomes ourselves, and we rob Jesus of the glory he is due, which then has catastrophic effects for us!!

--> Richard Loveless (1979) "Dynamics of Spiritual Life" : "We all automatically gravitate towards the assumption that we are justified by our level of sanctification, and when this posture is adopted, it inevitably focuses our attention not on Christ, but on the adequacy of our own obedience. We start each day with personal security, not resting on the accepting love of God, and the sacrifice of Christ, but on our present feelings or recent achievements in the Christian life."  

****YOU CAN'T SAVE YOU!!!!!****

--> "It's been two (2) weeks since I acted like that!" etc. - These arguments can't quiet the human conscious. You know they don't work! And because of that, we are inevitably moved either to discouragement and apathy- what's the point? Or to a self-righteousness that falsifies the record to achieve a sense of peace. 

*Until you see yourself as someone who has inclined towards self-righteousness, you will continue to look to your own fig leaves to cover what only God can cover by imputation. 

--> Luke 18:9 -- Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. 

2 Things : 

#1: (vs 9) : Luke is the reason why Jesus tells this story. Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt. 

                    --> We're describing a person that trust in their own achievements, and their own attainments, and their own accomplishments to be right with God, and looks down on other people who haven't gotten with the program. 

#2: I want you to see how subtle it is- (vs 11&12) --> What's wrong with thanking God that i'm not sinful like that? I'm not taking credit for it- i'm thanking God that i'm not like that. Well according to Luke, Jesus has a big problem with this. He says that praying like this is evidence that you trust yoursef that you're righteous and look at other people with contempt. 

               - what makes the pharisees self-righteous is when he says, "i thank you that i'm not like the others..."   --what makes him self-righteous is that he thinks he's not like other people!! 

*** when you see a crack addict, a prostitute, a sexual abuser, a serial killer, etc, YOU ARE LOOKING IN A MIRROR!!! Jesus means to say, " what do you mean you thank God you're not like other people? You ARE like other people!" --> That's precisely your problem: you think that you're not like other people. You think that when you look at the tax collector, you don't see yourself, you see someone worse than you, but in fact it is you that is worse than he is because you don't see yourself as you really are.

So *What Jesus is saying is this: you want to know how/ when you're trusting in your own self-righteousness? What the sign that you're trusting in your own righteousness? 

Answer- Feelings of superiority. Looking down on people, treating them with contempt. We all feel superior to somebody, sometimes because without a growing relationship with Jesus, that's really what life's all about- I need to feel superior to somebody to live with myself and the more people that i feel better than, the better i'm going to feel about myself. 

-self-righteousness. 

-It's that very sense of superiority that demonstrates that we are seeking to establish a righteousness of our own, rather than the one that comes through faith in Christ. 

- In part, the reason why we feel superior (and feelings of superiority are signs of self-righteousness) is because the idea of righteousness isn't just walking rightly before God, or living in conformity to God's will, but the idea of righteousness is your record- it's your resume. (*Remember Paul's resume from Philippians)

 

--> look at how great, look at how wonderful, this is my resume. and so, i look to my resume, my righteousness is my record, and that from there, whatever kind of record i have amassed becomes the thing that for me, justifies my existence. --> So whatever you look to, to justify your existence is your righteousness! In other words- i might not be a,b,c, but at least i accomplished x,y,z. That's your righteousness. 

- is my pedigree strong enough to get into that grad school? Is my economic status strong enough to be accepted by that woman? Is my appearance strong enough to land that job? 

**That's what righteousness is--> "What it takes" --> so what is your "What it takes?" - we all look to something: being qualified in your field of study, being attractive to the opposite sex, your scholarly or athletic accomplishments, being a good parent, being generous, being cool/stylish, funny, witty, you can find your righteousness in cleanliness and neatness, and orderliness; you can find your righteousness in your home of origin, or your race, or your state ("Go Florida!!") For you, it may be your sweetness, or your kindness, or that you don't shy away from a conflict. You can find your righteousness in your loyalty to your friends, there are thousands of forms of righteousness!! Thousands of places that we look to in order to define what our "what-it-takes" looks like. You want to know what that is? Maybe i didn't name it. *Here's an easy way to find out: "What makes you the most defensive?" -What do you get the most defensive about? 

  

Example--> Let's say you're a competent person (and a lot of husbands have this). And let's say the wife comes in and asks you, "hey babe, it's Wednesday. Did you take out the garbage?" And the husband is like, "Am I an idiot? How many years have we lived here and you bring the garbage out on Wednesday?!" 

 - She's just asking a question! Why am i getting so worked up in a lather? Because she's threatening my competence! And i'm banking my hopes on my resume which says, "This person is competent!" 

- and the reason why you have to defend your forms of self-righteousness is because deep down you know your own righteousness needs to be defended. It's not strong enough! Deep down you know that there is no record you could amass that would be sufficient to meet the standard of Jesus' righteousness! It's as if we get the resume of Jesus, and add "my competence" in the corner with a crayon. (Threat Level #2= Orange)

(Threat level #3: red) 

-John Piper wrote an article in 2007 issue of Christianity Today, and he was talking about how lots of young people are being lost to the cause of Christ's mission because of a knowing sense of guilt and unworthiness that they have over their sexual failures. The problem here is that we listen to the plausible lies of the devil, who after your 2 am encounter, whether TV or in bed told you "see, you're a loser. you may as well not even worship. No way you're going to commit your life to Jesus now, etc" 

---> Lots of kids get lost this way because they feel ashamed. The problem with this shame is that it forgets the gospel! Do we believe in imputation or not??! If you think your sexual sin somehow especially disqualifies you from a vibrant, sold out, revolutionary Christian life, you don't have shame, not real shame. You have inverted self-righteousness. It's inverse because you say this to yourself, " I should be better than this!" You're discouraged--> Listen to that: you should be better than that? Really? Then why did Jesus come??! Why did you need Jesus' blood and righteousness?? Yes, You really ARE that bad. 

--> Jack Dilly used to say, "Cheer up, you're worst than you think." For those of you who feel so unworthy because of your sexual sins, do you feel equally as unworthy to be a christian when you're impatient? or lack self-control? or gossip? Or are envious? My guess? You'd feel a ton more guilty and shameful about that sexual sin than you would about your gossip. 

- and if for the "respectable" sins you don't need Jesus all that much, then for this "un-respectable" sin you need Jesus and then some! Right? This isn't that bad, so i don't need Jesus that much. But that' really really bad so i need Jesus PLUS something else!

-hopelessness is a form of self-righteousness because when you're there, you say, " Jesus' resume isn't enough, i need something more!" 

- The puritan, Thomas Brooks says, "we need to repent for being discouraged by our sins." 

               --> because the discouragement "springs from refusing the richness, fullness, and everlastingness of God's love.  It springs from refusing the power, glory, sufficiency, and efficacy, of the death and sufferings of Christ. And it comes from refusing the worth, glory, fullness, and completeness of the righteousness of Christ. In other words, you're so discouraged because you say, "i don't want that!" your hopelessness is a form of self-righteousness pride, which is angry or not better than you are, by that hopelessness, you really wish you didn't need Jesus' righteousness and blood at all! You really wish you could have gotten there on your own!

--> That's why It's threat level red! Because this stuff is nasty and subtle. 

**The bottom line is that we threaten the doctrine of imputation everyday by living as if Jesus' blood and righteousness are not enough. 

--> Living Waters talks a lot about repentance - i commend you for repenting of your sins, but how often do you think about preaching about repenting from your self-righteousness?? 

-Oh, we're guilty of sin, as the church, but i think we're way more guilty of self-righteousness. Jesus says the holy spirit will come and he's going to convict the world concerning sin, and concerning what? Righteousness! Convict concerning righteousness? Yes! Convict concerning your self-righteousness! Your self-salvation project! And just like you don't repent of your sin once when you become a Christian, but that the whole Christian life is a life of repentance from sin, don't you think you would have to continue to repent from your righteousness??! The doctrine of Imputation is under attack...and we're the main culprits. 

--> I encourage you to put down your weapons. The great part about this: Jesus' blood and righteousness is big enough to envelop and destroy all your self-righteousness!!

- yes, we're all self-righteous, all hypocrites! BUT Christ is bigger than our hypocracy!! 

           

Hard Hearts, Stiff Necks

Hebrews 3:7- 

-obedience is better than sacrifice. 

-every time you delay in God's instruction, you put yourself into a position where you murmur and complain. When you murmur and complain, you put yourself into a position where you can be subject to disbelief

-in church, you're shouting "hallelujah" and "Thank you Jesus," but when you get home--> you're not always shouting "thank you," but maybe something along the lines of  "God, when are you going to move this mountain from in front of me?!" 

*It's easy to shout & praise God when you're in the midst of a congregation. Can you do it when you're isolated? 

-  sometimes when you're continuously murmuring and complaining, you get an attitude. You forget about everything God has done for you already. 

-when you open your mouth and speak things contrary to the word of God, you're really saying, " God i don't trust or believe in your ability to move.."
-when you don't submit to the ways of the Lord, you're submitting to the ways of the devil
-don't lose focus of the provision God has already placed on your life
-your way out, meaning your breakthrough out of your situation is your testimony. When you acknowledge God for what he's done. 
- no need to murmur or complain about what God hasn't done for you because everyday he makes a way
-(reference scriptures: Phil. 3:3; Hew10:3; Is1:19; 1John1:9) 
- stand in faith no matter the instruction/ assignment, and don't get into a position of fear. *The enemy tries to get you to doubt the power of God. 
-Consistency & Faith are two words that must go hand-in-hand
-God didn't bring you this far to leave u stranded
- when you don't respond to the moving of the holy spirit, you harden your heart
- when you don't respond & you're not obedient, you may be hindering someone else whose blessing is connected to YOUR obedience to Christ. 
-Just because YOU are saved doesn't mean YOUR flesh is saved. Your flesh is not saved and will cause you to get sidetracked and forget that you are indeed a child of God and should act accordingly. Sometimes you have to remind yourself; tell yourself, "i am a child of God." --> But if you just sit on it, and never open your mouth to declare victory over any demonic influences you face through your flesh, don't be surprised if you find yourself in ungodly circumstances. You didn't claim authority over it in the beginning. 
- while you are in your situation, you have to come to the realization that it will NOT kill you! You will come out of it! The problem is that you begin to get a bit impatient because your flesh doesn't want to be there! Your flesh doesn't want to hurt like that, or lose like that. But sometimes God has to take us out in order to put us back in, in a position better than where we were before; to draw us closer to him. 
- delayed obedience leads to delayed results.

There Is Nothing That God Can't Do ~FCC pastor from Orlando, Fl

*You can't expect loyalty without relationship (that's why God wants relationship with us)
-->Mark 9:23 = reference scripture
--> Ephesians 3:20 = reference scripture

- Don't ever take a preacher's word unless he is willing to show it to you in God's word.
- Luke chapeter 1: we normally read this story around Christmas time to talk about the birth of Jesus. But look at it this way for a second- In Luke 1, God is sending Jesus into the world to fix the biggest problem known to man! The fall of mankind. If God can fix that, whatmakes you think he can't fix your little problem? 
-WE may not be able to do something about everything, but God can do anything about everything.

*Are you willing to trust in God's charater?

-the word "possible" literally means "to be able to," and we know God is well able to do anything He pleases. 
- Get out of God's way, and get into position to experience the impossible
--> 2 Kings 4:4-7
             - the bible is the book of revelation, the book of inspiration, but it's also a history book. EVERYTHING in it actually happened! If God could do it back then, why do you feel as if He can't do it for you now? (God is the same yesturday, today, and forever more)
-the fuse thatignites our progress is our expectation
-when you cry out to God, you're saying, "God, I acknowledge the fact that I can't do this on my own."
-sometimes God will tell us to do something that seems ridiculous to us, but God can see a different view than what we see.
         --> ex: football. In a game, you can watch from the field, where you only see what's in front of you, or you can watch from a blimp, where you can see the entire field. It's a bit like that in faith. We are on the field, and we can only see the bad situation that is in front of us. However, God can see the entire field. He sees the storm that's before us, but he can also see the storm that is coming later on down the field..God can see all the complexities of our situation
              --> another ex: buzz lightyear rocketship. A 2 year old child gets a buzz lightyear rocket ship for Christmas. He loves buzz lightyear so he doesn't even bother to open his other presents. He wants his dad to put that rocket ship together right then! He keeps yelling, "daddy, are you going to put the rocket ship together yet? Daddy is it together yet? Daddy, daddy, daddy!!" Well, eventually dad is going to put that rocket ship together. (a few hours later) The two year old come into the room crying as he holds up the cone tip of the rocket ship. "It broke, daddy!" Well, dad is saying, "i know where that goes.." and he goes and puts it back on. (Just like God) God put US together! Everything that breaks us, discourages us, etc. But we have to first admit that it's broken, and go to him for help before he can step in to our situation.

- Disobedience: there are two definitions for disobedience--> "Delayed" disobedience and "partial disobedience." Delayed disobedience is not doing what God says right away, or when he says to do it. Partial disobedience is only doing 85% of half of what God says to do.
*our blessing is tied to our obedience.
(reference scripture: Matthew 9:29)
-You hear the phrase, "be that unto you according to your faith." However, it is also scripturally accurate to say "be that unto you according to your obedience." --> In this story, the lady was able to pay off her debt and provide for her family for the rest of her life. Whereas in Luke 5, Simon only put down one net, when Jesus told him to put down his nets (partial disobedience)--> the nets began to break. He missed out on his blessing because he did not follow Jesus's directions in full.

*In scripture, right after you see obedience, you'll see the phrase "and it came to pass.." - We tend to look at stories in the bible and think, "well those stories are great, but that can't happen to me."
-->(reference scriptures: John11; Proverbs 23:7; Romans12:3)
-Think according to your faith. Faith comes from hearing. How do you hear God? Through his word. --> Stay in the word of God.

~Ways To Get Out Of The Way~
#1: Don't blame God for your situations
     --> James 1:13 God is never tempted to do wrong, and he doesn't tempt us to do wrong. He doesn't cause sickness, poverty, evil, etc. so that he can "teach us a lesson." That's erroneous teaching and thinking. However, he'll allow us to act out our faith when situations come our way. God is right there, he won't let you fall, but he wants you to believe in the power that is within you. If God always has the "grace dial" turned on high, always protecting you, you'll never have an opportunity to grow in your faith in Christ.

#2: Accept responsibility for your own mess.
--> (Proverbs 20:8, 1John1:7-9; 1 Kings17 = reference scriptures)
       - if you don't admit it, God can never fix it! God is not looking for perfect people. He is looking for perfect hearts. He knows you're going to mess up, but you didn't do it on purpose. He still loves you. When you are mature enough to admit when you're wrong and go to him and say, "you know what God, I messed up. I'm sorry," he acts like it never happened in the first place!

#3: Always be listening
--> Genesis 20. When we are going through a situation, God needs us listening. God could have told him where Mt. Mariah was, but God wanted him listening.

#4: Believe God can do anything
--> Mark 9:23 You can't get away from faith. At the end of the day, that's what it all boils down to.
*Faith never denies the facts, it changes the facts.
   - Faith doesn't neglect the fact that you're jobless, or you have cancer, etc. However, God can show you answers you never knew was possible.
- The only thing that limits God is our disbelief. If you don't believe he can do it for you, he is still able, but he won't [unless he wants to show mercy and grace on you] because you don't have faith in him. ("all things work together...")

Do You ~ Pastor Garrett [FCC Tampa, Fl]

- we are God's handy work; the salt of the world. Do good works so that man will glorify God! 
- God wants you to embrace the unique personality He has given you so that you can reach your full potential & purpose that he designed for your life (Matthew5:13-18 & Ephesians 2:10) 
        3 points: 
             -Point # 1: why you should do you
             -Point # 2: how to do you 
             -Point # 3: what it means to do you


-Psalms 139:18 --> God thinks about you! When he thinks about you, He is not thinking about all of the reasons you're not qualified to be in His presence.. he's thinking about his plans for your life! His thoughts of you are precious. It doesn't say that they are "evil"


POINT 1: Why should you do you??
     -reason #1: Because everyone else is already taken! (John 21:15-23) 
               For every time Peter denied Jesus (3 times), Jesus restores him saying "you loveth me.." 
               *If you try to be someone else, you can only be second best! 
               *You can lose so much time worrying about what everyone else is doing!! Do what God told YOU to do and stop worrying about what he's doing with everyone else. 
--> 2 Corinthians 12:14- 
      -reason#2: when you DON'T do you, you rob yourself of the fulfillment of what God has called you to have, and you rob the world of the gift God has placed in you for his glory. 
*We need everyone, every person, to do their part and DO THEM so that the kingdom of God can have the impact it's supposed to have. When we understand this, it frees us from insecurities and jealousy! 
           ex: your body. your nose isn't looking at your feet saying, "look at them. they think they something just because they carrying this body around.." or your ears to you eyes, "they think they can see? that's not so great. I can see better than they can!" --> NO YOU CAN'T! you're an "ear" --> just like in the body of Christ! It seems pretty silly for your body parts to be competing with one another right? This is the same in Christ's body. We are all members but we all have our own distinct styles and personalities for a reason.. we serve a God that loves diversity! Even identical twins have different fingerprints. What you do, and how you do it is distinctly you! Don't be jealous or compare your style to someone else's 


*The only reason a born-again believer of Christ can be jealous is because they don't fully know and understand who they are! Because if they did, if they thought about all the thoughts God has of you, you'd be too busy trying to receive what he has for you than worrying about someone else! 


          Reason#3: --> Matthew 5:14- 
    - be who you are in the presence of other people because when you shine, God shines! 
*John 1:18 says Jesus is the light of the world, but here in Matthew, he says that i'm the light. Are we both the light? Jesus says yes. 
              --> ex: The moon. A body that has no light of its own, but shines from the reflection of the "sun's" light- when you embrace who you are in Christ you shine your light unto the world and allow the "son" to be seen, even when the "sun" isn't. 
(referenced: 1 Corinthians6:17) 
This goes far beyond your physical needs- the new job, etc. 


Reason#4: -->Romans 8:19
  - the most creative person lives IN you AND he's your dad!! You have enough power to change the whole world! There's enough ideas, solutions, etc. in first service alone to change the world in 24 hrs, but we've suppressed it. 
--> It comes down to this: everyone wants to be "liked," to fit in! but what happens is that you try to fit in so much to the point where you suppress the person god has called you to be, not just to be a blessing for yourself but to be a blessing for someone else [basically you're hindering someone else from getting blessed when you aren't yourself! wow!] 
-sometimes we don't reach our full potential because we feel like we're so different [wrong size, shape, skin color, personality, etc] that people won't accept us, etc. 
POINT #2: How to do you (ref'd scriptures: Isaiah 43, Daniel 32) 
1) prayer (Luke 6:12) --> You can't do you (in Christ) if you don't have a prayer life. Throughout the bible you see Jesus praying.. later you see Jesus saying he has to go to a certain town or city. HOW does he know he's to go there? Because he's in connect with God. You'll never know what you're supposed to do if you don't pray to the one who does know!
2)find yourself in the word of God (john1:19-23)
3)Get rid of limited thinking (Luke 37) 
4)step out on faith--> Well, God didn't save you for security! You're not always going to be comfortable. Sometimes to follow God, you are going to have to take some risks! *It may seem like a risk to you, but to god, it's a sure thing. 
5)Learn to keep a secret (Matthew 6:5-6) --> there are times where you can't tell everybody everything God is going to do in you
6)Let go of the weights that beset you (doesn't always have to be sin, although that is included)
         ex: you want to be a millionaire but can't balance a check! Hebrews 12:1-2; Proverbs 7:17
7)Understand your need for divine connection with others (Ephesians 4:16)