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Good morning
This morning pastor Scott is going to talk about enjoying the good news that Jesus
Christ came to give us on a day-to-day basis
everyone wants to hear good news
and there is really no better news than the good news
that the great apostle Paul explains in our scripture passage this morning
it is good news to us and good news
to the whole world
please open up your Bibles pull out your message outlines and follow along as I
begin reading
first Corinthians fifteen verse one
let me now to remind you
dear brothers and sisters of the
Good news I preached to you before
you welcomed it then and you still stand firm in it
it is this good news
that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you
Unless, of course
you believed something that was never true in the first place
I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to
me
Christ died for our sins just as the scriptures said
he was buried and he was raised from the dead on the third day
just as the scriptures said
he was seen by Peter and then by the twelve
after that, he was seen by more than five hundred of his followers at one time
most of whom are still alive though some have died
Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles
last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time
I also saw him. for I in the least of all the apostles, in fact
I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way are persecuted
God's church
have you ever had someone walk up to you
and say
well I've got good news
and I've got
bad news
I always in a quandary when someone raises that
issue because well
I'm not sure if I want the bad
news first and then the good news
Or the good new then the bad, I don't think I liked that idea at all
what I would prefer somebody to walk up to me and say
I've got good news and I've got great news
Because I don't want any bad news
I don't seek bad news, none of us do.
what we'd like to hear what we'd
want to celebrate life is good news
in the gospel of Jesus Christ can be summed up in
two words
Good news
isn't that what Paul says that our scripture passage this morning
he writes I want you to remember the good news
that Christ died for our sins as the scriptures say
and that he was buried and raised to live on the third day
now that's good news
that's good news for anyone who
realizes that
the greatest fear that they have this death
I think as human beings our greatest fear
is that when we die it we're going to get bad news
That's it
that
now you're going to go someplace where
it's really, really hot
there's gnashing of teeth
and oh no, I'm going to pay
for all the things that I did wrong
said that were not right
thought
human beings worry more
And have a greater fear about
Death than anything else
Jesus wants to punctuated
the good news
that he defeated death
that he resurrected on the third day and that we too will spend eternity
With Him
that good news is not only for us but it's good news
for everyone everywhere
he says in Luke
two verse ten
I bring you a good news
he's a great joy that will be for all the people
all the people everywhere that's why missions is so important
it's our opportunity to share the good news everywhere to everyone
and we want to do that because that's God's desire, God desire is
for everybody to hear the good news
it's interesting
What allows us to
know and experienced the good news of Jesus Christ and what holds us back
From really enjoying that
good news that Jesus Christ has for us
life really gives us three choices of what we're going to focus on
we can either focus on our problems
Or our
potential
or our purpose in life
and simply I believe that our problems have a tendency dominate our life
in fact is as
I get older I get it now
when I was in my twenties and thirties I didn't get it
every time I hung out with older people all I heard about were problems
it's my lumbago
my stocks have gone down
I can't get my grass green enough in the hot weather
I understand it
better now that I'm a little old
Isn't it interesting our problems dominate our life more we think
we have to be the solution for all of our problems
our problems dominate our lives
when we think we are
limited
To just the resources at hand
the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that you're not alone
as you face your problems
and you're not limited to your own human resources
that there are divine resources that God wants to bring to bear
on the problems in our lives
Romans eight twenty eight
and we know that God causes everything to work together for good
I want youto underline the word
everything
because if if you are like me there are a few things
that I'm not sure on that list
I mean that intellectually I know better than that
but practically I struggle just like everyone else
and I realize that when I struggle with
a problem or a difficulty in my life it's because I think I'm alone
or I think I'm limited to my own human resources and given that, that's a
problem
and that problem is too great
too complex for me
to deal with
for me to solve for me to overcome
but isn't it interesting that Paul says that everything
everything works together for good, now there is a condition
for those who love God and called according to His purpose for them
the right positioning that we need for God to take the problems and
the challenges and the difficulties of life
And to use them for good in our life
and in the lives of those around us is that we have to be seeking to love God
because you know when you're seeking to love God
and you're seeking to live according to His purpose for your life
have you noticed a lot of the problems you don't have
Have you noticed a lot of the problems we have in our lives
are because we're not really trying to love God
Trying to love us
We want to be self-centered not God's centered
and we're not living according to His purpose we are doing whatever it is we
want to do
and what we're doing whatever we want to do and are very self-centered way we
shouldn't be surprised
If God finds it very difficult to do something good
in the difficulty and problems that we face
he promises
that he'll work it out for good
if we're striving to love him
if we're seeking to live our life according to his purpose
if God is here to help and he has divine resources
problems should not dominate our life
our life ought to be dominated by our potential
and our purpose
God has placed a potential in you
that he wants to
bring to fruition in in your life except you will not bring it to fullness
completion on your own
because God created you incomplete for
A reason
so that you would have to rely upon him
rely upon the Holy Spirit
to complete what ever your potential and purpose on this planet are
listen to what Paul says in Ephesians
he says by his mighty power at work within us
he is able to accomplish infinitely more
infinitely more
then we would ever dare to ask or hope
now I can tell you that
I have experience to date in my life
infinitely more
that I ever thought
Or ever hope I would experience in my life
and that is because
God
created
Me incomplete and he's in the process of completing me as I yield to
Him
and things have happened that I
could never imagine
this Sunday is the start of my seventeenth year in Sequim and
I can tell you who would have ever thought it
I mean that's beyond more than I ever thought
more than I imagine
and God wants to do more than you think more than you can imagine or hope for
And He will
as you focused on
that potential but he has placed within you and you
the yield to his resource and is leading
in your life
so that you might complete
and fulfill that potential
that he has placed within you
if you don't know how else to do that just do the two things from Romans eight
twenty eight
just wake up every day and say okay today God I'm going to
make choices based on my love for you
I'm going to make decisions today based on what I do know about the Bible and
your purpose in my life and it's amazing how that leads us to places we could
never imagine
and things happened in our life that we should have hoped for but we
didn't even know we should hope for them
We didn't even know we could have them experience
in our life
our potential relates to God's purpose in our life
David says in Psalm thirty three His plans
“for us” you can add that
his plans endure forever but his plans for us endure forever because we're
going to live forever, aren't we? yea
his purpose lasts eternally
we often emphasize in our life the immediate problem instead of the future
potential and purpose of God
we get stuck in the here and now, the temporal and we forget the eternal
and when we remember that God's plan is for eternity wow, does that liberate us
free us
Unburden us in the present
now
the good news
is that that potential and that plan
that God has in store for you is a very personal one
it's designed specifically for you
and here's a great freedom that is good news is that you don't have to be like
everybody else all you have to do is be you
that's what Jesus says that
but if you can
if you're content to simply being yourself
your life will count for plenty
any therapist or counselor will tell you that
most if not all of the people that come into their office are coming into their
office because
they're not happy with
themselves
that they'll really they're having trouble loving themselves
and that they yearn to be like
somebody else we all want to live somebody else's life
from time to time don't we? Yea we do
I wish I could do, right?
but real contentment in life
really comes from realizing this is who we are these are the gifts
And potentials
and plan
that God has for us and now all we have to do is be us, isn't that a relief you don't
have to go seminary
you don't have to be
this or you don't have to be that
and we all idolized certain people even in our Christian faith oh, we
Could only be like, if I could only know what that guy does and
that's not what it's all about
it's not about like being like
anyone else
even though that might be good too
God has placed a personal potential in you he has a personal plan and purpose for
you and the good news is
It's for you and you can
enjoy it
and experiences it
how do we enjoy and experience
the good news
that God has for us
Two important things
number one is we've got to get in touch with what really ignites us
what fires us up
what's our passion
our God-given passion
because that passion that fire that
thing that ignites us in life that is what calls us to action
that's where the real meaning and enjoyment of life in faith are found
Now listen to how
Jesus puts this in Mark
he says all of those who will throw away their lives
Now that's an interesting little phrase to throw away your life
and what Jesus is saying is that you don't
you have to set aside
Your own self-sufficiency
your own ideas
so that God might
enter you
empower you
share direction with you so that you might enjoy your life even more
if you want to remain self-centered go right ahead and that that's what Jesus
is saying
you must throw aside your self-centeredness and you have to draw
into yourself a God centeredness
A yielding to my Holy Spirit
a desire to align
my purpose in life as you are purpose in life
only those who will throw away their lives for my sake and for sake of the
good news
will ever know what it means to really live I think
the people on this planet
who are the most fire up and enjoying life as it was meant to be lived are
those
who've asked Jesus Christ
to be the leader of their life
those that are seeking to love God and put his purpose in the play in their
life
and after this summer I'm more convinced of that
than ever
two things ignite us
Fire us up, short term goals
Short term payoffs
and long-term goals
simply what the Bible says is that you always want to keep the long-term
eternal goals in mind and let that
ignites you in the immediate
In front of all our short term
Payoffs and
goals and opportunities in life
don't forget that why does he say that listen to what Paul says
he says athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last
before I moved up here I threw away all my trophies and ribbons and metals that
I'd saved my whole life
I think they gave them away for bowling trophies
in Salinas
I don't have any of those crowns anymore not even the really big one that I had
that I really prized
It's a crown that cannot last but we do it for crown that will what?
last forever
think about how liberating it would be today to live your life
in the immediate with the idea that
wow what's most important eternity
I told you, there's only two things you going to take from this life
to the next life and that's your character, right?
two things that you cannot do when you get to have, oh and those that you
take
those that you've influenced
towards eternity you'll take them with you to your Christian friends and
your character
when you get to heaven you know there's only two things you can do when you get
heaven
one is as you can't sin
and the other thing
is you won't find anyone to witness to when you get to heaven
so what should we be about
in this life
influencing people towards eternity
We only have that chance now
and that's what really matters
isn't it interesting now let's go back to the problems that dominate your life
all those problems are temporal
none of them our eternal
and so what does that mean
You're only going to have that problem for a little while
why let it dominate your life
Why let it dominate your life
when we focus on the internal that gets his focus on our potential
and God's purpose in our life
second thing we need to do
is we need to be aware of what restores our soul
we're not booster rocket when we get ignited that will just workout and
be
cast-off
God's idea is that we'll have a fire for him
our entire life
and for
us to have a spiritual passion and a fire to fulfill that
potential and purpose that God has for us
we need to have a stable, renewing, restoring
soul
we need certain balance in our life a certain perspective in our life we need
to stop and be renewed and restored
we need to be refueled so we can keep going, right?
God wants us to
have that restoring its easy to be going so fast that you never have any
time to
restore
David says restore the joy of your salvation to me and provided me with the
spirit of willing obedience. I'll help you out
you know you need to be restored when you don't want to be obedient
had never noticed when you're cranky
you don't want to be a obedient to any thing
I'm in a bad mood today I'm going to speed
I am in a bad mood today I don't care if I'm supposed to take out the trash I'm
not doing it
have you noticed you don't serve very well
when you're having a bad day
We're not very obedient
when we're burnt-out, worn out
God knows that
that's why he challenges us to restore our soul on a regular basis
it's a process
never worry about anything
but in every situation let God know what you need isn't it interesting we go to
God last and not first
then God's peace will guard your thoughts and emotions through Christ Jesus
it's the peace of God that we need
on an ongoing basis is it? that's what we don't have
when problems dominate our life what are we missing? the peace
and we often don't have that peace because we have not asked God for what we
need
we often don't have that peace because we're stuck in the immediate and we
forget about eternity
and if you're like me there's certain things I pray about and certain
things I think I got to fix myself all the time
learning to go to God first and not
second third or last. Ah, that's where the peace comes
remembering that it's only for a while
that doesn't last for eternity Ah,
that brings peace to us and peace is about trusting Jesus Christ, isn't it?
I've told you all this
Jesus says and John sixteen
so that trusting me you will be unshaken
and assured
deeply at peace
in this Godless world you will continue it to experience difficulties
problems
but take heart
I've conquered the world
yes
Jesus has conquered the world
there is not a problem or difficulty that you've faced that God
has not conquered
because he's conquered
the greatest problem of humanity
and that's death
And if Jesus Christ can bring resurrection
then he can bring resurrection to any problem that deadens you in this life
perhaps today's the day that you need to bring your problem and lay it down
set aside your self sufficiency
yourself centeredness
and become more God center
because often times when we feel are our mind our hearts in our souls
with ourselves there's no room for God that's when he goes, edging God
out
and today communion is all about inviting God in
instead of edging God out
he wants us to remember our potential
and his purpose in the midst of the difficulties and problems of life
that's why he said
this is my body
broken for you
this is why he said this is my blood
which I willingly
Shed for you
as we celebrate this meal we'll first pass the bread share these words
this is Christ body
broken for you
I'd ask you to take the bread individually because each of us must
respond personally
to God's invitation
to enter our life to be the leader of our life
and then after that we'll pass the cup and share these words
this is Christ blood shed for you
and I'd ask you to hold the cup because will take it together
because as I like to say we're all in this together
we're not only in this altogether today
But we're in together for all eternity
and many times God's resource
to the challenges and problems of our life
is someone else in the body of Christ
that when we're together is a little easier to
experience the peace of Christ and we feel like we're all alone
That we are out on a limb
By ourselves
Give God your problem today
take God's peace with you, today
let's continue to worship God
will those serving please come forward
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