Hope Worth Having

30:02

What a Women Needs (Mothers Day)

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What a Women Needs (Mothers Day). He will be reading out of Proverbs 31:10-12. We don’t raise our kids so that they are with us forever, and I know some of you, maybe your children have some unique challenges, and I’m not talking about those situations, but I’m talking about your average person. Raise them up so they can fly for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Pastor Mike Sanders, Hope Worth Having. Thank you for joining us, and it is Mother’s Day. We’re in the book of Proverbs 31. You’re going to laugh at my title, What a Woman Needs. Not that I have figured it out, okay, but we’re going to look at the scriptures and try to understand it better, and we’re going to look at this classic passage, and I hope it’ll be an encouragement. Moms, thank you for all that you do for us sons and daughters, children, and the difference you make in the world, and so join me as we study the Word of God today. If you have your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in Proverbs 31. I’ve entitled my message, What a Woman Needs. Now, I know that you ladies are saying, Pastor, you don’t know what a woman needs, and I concur, and no man knows what a woman needs, amen, but I needed a good title to get your attention this morning, but I do want you to know that Jesus Christ knows what a woman needs. And when we come to Proverbs 31, I just want to begin reading in verse 10, it says, Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts in her, so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. Proverbs sets a very high goal for women, and that goal is that she be a woman of excellence. And it’s not just that she would be a woman of excellence, but that she would be a woman of moral excellence. By that, I don’t just mean that she is pure, certainly that would be included, but moral excellence speaks of knowing the difference between what is right and wrong, and conforming to a standard of right behavior that honors the Lord. Proverbs talks about some of these traits, and I want to highlight a few of them this morning with you. My first point is simply the five characteristics of the happy woman, and these are not only true for every lady present this morning, mother or not, but also even for us men. These are things that we can give attention to and can continue to work on in our hearts and in our lives. The first thing that I want you to see is grace. What we all need is grace. The scripture says in Proverbs 11, verse 16, that a gracious woman gets honor and violent men get riches. Now, when we look at this word gracious in the Hebrew, it’s the idea of being generous, kind, hospitable, or charming. These are the different ways in which the word is used in the Old Testament. The point is that she is not to be a woman who is hard and gruff, if you will, and this verse says that a gracious woman will be honored. Now, this is in contrast to what Proverbs 11, verse 22 says in contrast. That brings us to our second thing that a woman needs, not only that she needs grace or that she needs to be a gracious person, but discretion. In verse 22 of Proverbs 11, the Bible says that like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion. Now, the Bible is not calling women pigs, so please don’t misunderstand the Bible, and sometimes when you read the book of Proverbs, you have to understand what is going on and what he’s trying to say to us that you can’t just put a ring on a pig in their nose and all of a sudden they become this wonderful person. That’s not it. Rings of gold were worn by women in the Old Testament in their noses. I know it’s hard to believe, and I just wonder how painful that must have been to create that hole for that ring to fit in, but people wear these things as symbols of beauty or perhaps even sometimes they want to make some kind of a statement. Now, some I believe very innocently believe that this is something beautiful, but I am not part of this younger generation, and I still am trying to figure them out, and it seems to be appealing to them. But what the Scripture is saying here in Proverbs 11 is that just by putting a ring on a pig’s snout doesn’t make them beautiful within or without. But what it is is helping us understand is that what makes a woman beautiful is who she is within, and that not only that she is a person of graciousness in that she is hospitable, welcoming, and warming, and that she is a blessing to many, but she has discretion. When we see the biblical word discretion, it means discernment. It is certainly the ability to see what is right and wrong, but not just what is right and what is wrong, but to understand what is spiritually and biblically right and wrong. And so she chooses the right, and she advises the right, desiring more than anything to follow the biblical plan in what God has to say. And so the verse tells us that a beautiful woman without discretion is simply like putting a ring of gold in a pig’s nose. It really doesn’t change her within. It doesn’t change who she really is. So it’s not the outward beauty that is of most importance to a woman. Now, a lot of ladies are working hard on their outward appearance, and we’re not opposed to that, but we’re just simply saying that’s not the priority of your life, and that you gotta remember that the diligence that you give to make sure that you maybe hide those wrinkles or you make sure that everything is looking appropriately and beautifully, and I understand that, but I hope that you would give attention to your own heart, and that you would give attention to your own soul and your spirit and where you are at spiritually. So when a beautiful woman is compromising and she is living a life that is ungodly and unbiblical, it doesn’t matter how much makeup she has. It doesn’t matter how fancy her hair is and what the latest haircut is that she has. What really matters is what is in her heart. What is it in her life, in her spirit, and her heart for the Lord Jesus Christ? That is what brings most beauty to any lady, and again, in our text this morning in Proverbs 31, we are reminded at the end, the Bible says in verse 30 of chapter 31, that charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. When the Bible talks about a woman who fears the Lord, it’s not that we live in this state that we are afraid, that we can’t even move forward in our life because we’re dominated by fear, but it’s talking about a reverence and a respect for the Lord. It’s talking about the fact that a woman who prioritizes the Lord in her life, who makes Jesus Christ number one, that he is preeminent in her life, that he is more important, her relationship with him is more important than making sure that she’s all dressed up and fancied up, but that she makes it a priority in her life to walk with the Lord, and so she has this fear. The Bible says that she shall be praised. As a pastor doing funerals, you see many people come up and give tribute to their mother, they give tribute to the special people in their life, and what is always amazing to me is seeing the influence of moms and grandmas upon their children, their grandchildren, and even their great-grandchildren, but I tell you that grandchildren are great, all grandchildren are great, great-grandchildren are great, and every child and blessing that God gives you is a blessing, but listen, remember the most important thing is what you want them to remember is your legacy of faith in Jesus Christ, because when it comes down to the end of life, the only thing that matters is our faith and our family. All the other stuff is just sideshows, and all of that means nothing compared to knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and to having your family with you as you’re getting ready to be promoted into heaven, and so what is it that you want your family to say about you? What is it, ladies, that you want your children and your grandchildren and those wonderful great-grandchildren to say about you? And if it’s anything less than a woman of faith and a woman of great discretion and grace, then we are missing the target that God has for us. Proverbs 2 11 reminds us about discretion. Discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep or protect you. So these are important instructions that we’re given, and we need to ask the Lord to give us that discretion and that discernment so that we can continue to navigate through the challenges of life and the problems of life as we strive to influence our family and our friends and even those that God puts in our place that we might mentor and that we might encourage them and that we might help them to live a godly life, that God would give understanding and discretion to you ladies. God has designed you ladies with inbuilt intuition about things, and many times my wife has given me advice and I, being foolish, have not taken it. All of a sudden I find out that she is right and she looks at me and she just smiles and says, told you so. But I tell you that when you are walking with the Lord Jesus Christ, when you are in the Word of God, when you are on your knees praying, seeking the Lord’s wisdom and discretion, that is when you will be this discerning Christian and be able to honor the Lord Jesus Christ and leave a lasting legacy that will go way beyond your life here on this earth. And that’s the kind of lady that God is calling every woman to be this morning. We think about these characteristics of a happy woman. It is not only that she has grace and discretion, but she has virtue. Again, we know that the Scriptures teach us that who can find a virtuous wife? Some translations say a virtuous woman. Who can find this virtuous woman? If she is found, she is worth far above rubies. That is that she is more valuable than all the riches of the world. It is valuable to have a woman who is virtuous. The Bible says in Proverbs 12, 4, that an excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like the rottenness in his bones. A virtuous woman is a woman of moral character. A virtuous woman is someone who is not only pure in her heart, but her thoughts, and she always strives for the right thing. She does not believe the worst in others, but she believes in the best of God’s good work of grace in their hearts. She possesses a godly character, making her a great value to her husband and to her family. The Bible tells us that if a husband has a virtuous wife, he does not have to be concerned about her. He does not have to be troubled or stressed or anxious. He does not have to wonder what she is doing in secret. A virtuous wife is someone who is willing to give up for others, to sacrifice and deny self. Jesus taught us that if we are to be a true disciple, we have to deny self and take up the cross and follow him. And not just follow him for a day, but follow him for the rest of our lives. That’s what it means to be a disciplined, devoted disciple of Christ, and a virtuous woman is one who is dedicated to faithfully following the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want you to notice the second part of this verse in Proverbs 12, 4. It says, if she causes shame, it’s like rottenness in his bones. Think about that. That a wife, if she lacks virtue in her life, she is slowly, inevitably, she is destroying that family. She is little by little, drip by drip, destroying her husband and destroying her family. And you may not think, ladies, look, I don’t have that kind of influence. The truth is you do. And even though sometimes your influence is quiet, and maybe it’s not as bold, but it is there. And you’ve heard the statement that behind every great man is a great woman. Can you believe that? I do. And I want you to know that also that there are many men who have been destroyed because they have a very contentious and unhappy and ungodly wife, a wife who will not follow the Lord. And the Bible tells us it’s rottenness in his bones. And the idea is that there is this slow destruction that is taking place in their life. But I would go beyond just the husband. I would also say in the home. That’s why every mother and every woman ought to make the cause in her heart that she would be a virtuous lady. And whether you have a husband or you don’t have a husband, the most important thing is that you would honor Christ. And you don’t want to shame your family name, but you definitely don’t want to shame the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And so it is that all of us in our life, we should strive to not shame the name of Jesus Christ, that we strive to be virtuous in our hearts, that we might bring glory to God Almighty. Now, the next characteristic we find in the book of Proverbs is wisdom. The Bible says in Proverbs 14, 1, that the wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands. This quality of wisdom is about understanding and knowledge and being able to have a positive and fulfilling impact upon the family. This is what God is calling us to do. A woman of wisdom knows how to connect. She knows how to relate to her children, to her family members, and she understands her responsibility. She exercises care. There are times that she is firm. There is times that she is flexible. There is times that she ministers, and there are times that she has to discipline. There is times that she is training, and there is times that she is encouraging. But no matter what it is, she has the wisdom to navigate through those circumstances to influence her children, not only that they would be responsible adults someday and that they would go out and blossom for the Lord Jesus Christ, but that they would receive Jesus Christ as their Savior. Moms, please understand, you are the first missionary to your children. You should not wait for the preacher and the youth pastor and the children’s pastor or anybody else to try to evangelize your children. You as a mom should be the first to do it. But not just moms, grandmas should be right up there doing everything that we can implant into the heart and the minds of our children, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is important that we understand the impact of the home. When the home is a mess, it is going to have a fatal effect upon the children. We see this all the time as a pastor, as we’re working with people, trying to help people and help them to work through the different problems that they have, and it’s always that there’s an absent father, there’s an absent mother, and you say, well, I’m here. You may be there, but are you there? Are you engaged in the life and the mind of your children? Are you actively involved in their education? Are you actively involved in their development emotionally? Are you actively involved in helping those students, those children to become in a right relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? It’s very important. Moms, I want you to know that it’s not your job to hold on to your kids forever. You are doing a disservice to your children. You want to raise your children to make it without you, right? And there was a day that we had to say, it’s time to fly. And I fear that many mothers don’t want to give their children wings to fly. And the truth is, that’s not going to help them in the long run. And what you need to do is step into the life of your children, and you need to train them that they can function where they are dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ, but they are interdependent in their relationship with you, meaning not that they’re independent from you, but they have a relationship where they can function without you. That’s what the Bible teaches. We don’t raise our kids so that they are with us forever. And I know some of you, maybe your children have some unique challenges, and I’m not talking about those situations, but I’m talking about your average person. Raise them up so they can fly for the Lord Jesus Christ. Have that wisdom on how to impact your home and to build your family up where they can make the most for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how do you use God’s wisdom for your life? Well, just three things I jotted down that I thought would be helpful. The Bible tells us that wisdom comes from above, and we need to learn to seek that wisdom. So I would say, first of all, that we should research God’s Word to solve our problems. Now, there are always going to be problems, and your problem is not your problem, but it’s how do we react and handle our problems. And there are times we handle problems right, and there’s times we handle it wrong. And the thing that we have to remember is let’s research the Word of God. Now, I want to tell you something. The Word of God is our rule of life. What the Bible says is how we live. And people say to me sometimes, well, Mike, that doesn’t apply. My friends, the Bible applies to our life, amen? And I want to hear that garbage. And I want to handle the Word of God. I want to handle things like the Word of God says, and I’m willing to stand on that to my death. And I don’t care. People might say, oh, we want to do it our way. We want to do it this way. This is what this says and that says. What does the Bible say is what I want to know? Research the Bible. Research the Word of God to solve your problems. Second of all, allow God’s Word to guide you as you are dealing with the battles of life. So it’s not just that I have the knowledge of God’s Word, but I’m applying it and living by it. It’s one thing to have it up here in your head. It’s another to use it in your life. And that’s when we say that we’re to trust the Lord. We have to trust the Lord to use the Bible. We have to trust that His Word will work as we follow that Word. And moms, there may be times you want to retreat and you say, I’m not sure if that’ll work. And I want to try a worldly way, or I want to try my own wisdom way, or I want to try a fleshly way of how to do it only to find that it will fail. And we’ve all experienced those moments where we did not rely on God’s wisdom, but we trusted in our own wisdom. But we allow God’s Word to guide us every step, and then we turn from your wisdom and we seek God’s wisdom. And the Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 2 that we ought to seek it like gold. And people are seeking riches, and they’re trying to get wealthy, and they’re going to try these different bitcoins and other means of finances, and they want to get wealthy, hoping that this will be the time that they finally see their ship has come in and they’re going to be wealthy, only to find out that it’s a dead-end road. True wealth is God’s wisdom. And the Bible tells us that if we lack wisdom, what should we do? We should ask. If you lack wisdom, ask the Lord. And when’s the last time you asked the Lord for wisdom? When’s the last time that you sought Him? All right, let’s talk about prudence. When we talk about a happy, godly woman, she has prudence. Proverbs 19, 14 tells us, “…houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.” What a blessing to have a prudent wife. The dictionary defines prudence as the ability to govern and discipline oneself for the use of reason and management of affairs, to have good judgment in the use of resources. That’s quite a definition. But I want you to know that if God blesses you with a prudent wife, then you know it’s from the Lord. Proverbs 14, 18 says, “…the wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.” We desire prudence in our life because we want to handle and we want to manage and we want to have good judgment of what God has entrusted to us. God gives us resources, as we already stated. He blesses us with things. And so we want to make the most of it. When you go back to the Proverbs 31 lady, you notice there in verse 13, “…she seeks wool and flax and willingly works with her hands.” She is like the merchant ship. She brings her food from afar. “…she rises whilst yet night and provides food for her household and a portion for her maidservants. She considers a field and buys it from her profits and she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength and strengthen her arms. She perceives that her merchandise is good. Her lamp does not go out by night. She stretches out her hands to the staff and her hands holds the spindle. She extends her hands to the poor. Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for all her household is clothed with scarlet. She makes the tapestry for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple.” What I want you to see is that here this Proverbs 31 is a woman who is resourceful and she is not just someone who sits at home. She is out there purchasing land. She’s doing some real estate. She’s making products. She knows that her products are good and she sells those products. She provides and helps to make sure that her children are clothed and she not only makes sure that her family has what it needs but she is a woman who is always aware of the needy and the poor. And the Bible says that she is willing to extend her hand to the poor. She reaches out her hand to the needy. And what I want you to see there is that she is intentional. She takes the initiative to reach out to those who are needy. God has blessed her. He has given her resources and she wants to manage those resources not just for her family but she wants to manage them in such a way that she can help others. She is not just reacting to the needs of those who are poor but she is intentional in that she is reaching out to them. She is proactive and she wants to step into their life and provide something for them. Because God has provided it to her. The Bible teaches us to whom much is given much is required. And it is not just that we think about material wealth but it’s certainly things that we think about relating to the resources that God has given to us. And so we understand that these resources are to be used to be a blessing for our family and they are to be a blessing for those who are in need. Now I just want to point out a few things about the unhappy woman. The scriptures are clear about this. And these are things that we have to consider. The unhappy woman has one major characteristic. It is that she is contentious. In the book of Proverbs the contentious woman is referred to five times. The word for contentious can be translated in a number of ways. One is angry. Other is nagging. And the other is quarrelsome. And it comes from a word that means discord. It’s the same Hebrew word that the Bible teaches us that we’re not to sow discord among the brethren. It’s the same idea of a contentious woman. A woman who is always upset. She’s always in a bad mood. And she’s always mad about something. And her disposition is not one of grace but it is one of anger. And she is a person who is sowing discord. It is a contentious disposition. And that creates a problem in the family. What Proverbs is saying to us in a kind of a humorous way when it tells us in Proverbs 21 9 that it’s better to dwell in a corner of a housetop than in a house shared with a contentious woman. Think about that. Now in the Old Testament the Jewish people would build flat roofs. Unlike our roofs that are angled so the water, the snow, and all the weather can roll right off of it. They built flat roofs. And what they’re saying here that in the days of Israel it is better to live in the corner of a roof with all of its challenges than the challenge of trying to live with a contentious, angry, bitter woman. And again scriptures are filled with this and you can research it yourself. So what is the problem? What is it that makes a woman so contentious? That she’s unbearable and that you can’t even live with her? Well I think Proverbs 30 verse 23 puts its finger on the root of the problem. It reminds us that a woman who is unloved is the source of her contention. The most important thing a mother needs is true salvation. And so if you’re listening today and you’ve never trusted in Christ, Mom, it’s time to surrender your life and to repent of your sin and to receive Jesus as your Savior. And I want to remind you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post What a Women Needs (Mothers Day) first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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30:02

The Importance of Maintaining Fellowship When You Disagree Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Importance of Maintaining Fellowship When You Disagree Part 2. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:23-24. Because if it’s left up to our flesh, we would not want to forgive anybody who had hurt us. But the apostle says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Have you ever asked God to bestow his grace on somebody else’s spirit? Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and we welcome you to Hope Worth Having. We’re looking forward to what God has for us as we study the Bible together. We picked up on a very difficult topic last week, and that is the importance of maintaining fellowship when you disagree. We’re in the book of Philemon, and usually what Christians do is when they get mad, they run. They run from the church, they run for Christ, and God doesn’t want that. He wants us to be bigger, better, stronger. And so I want you to join me as we study maintaining fellowship when you disagree. Colossians 4.12 tells us that Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you always, laboring fervently for you in prayer, that you may stand perfect or mature and complete in all the will of God. There is no greater labor than you and I could do than to pray for one another. And I’ll tell you, true prayer is laboring prayer. True prayer is being willing to reach out to the throne of grace, to seek God on behalf of others, and bringing your supplications to God, and praying for the needs and the challenges and the problems that people have in their life, and bringing that all before God. Epaphras was that kind of a pastor. He was that kind of a man of God. He was that kind of a servant who went to God on behalf of others, and he sought them passionately. He was a man who was truly respected in the church. Philemon would have surely known him and been under his ministry, and heard him teach the Word of God. Then I want you to know that he introduces to us Marcus, or in the New King James, it says Mark. The word Marcus or Mark means a defense. Oh, this is powerful because you know him as John Mark. You remember that John Mark was the cousin of Barnabas. You remember in Acts 4 and Acts 5 that Barnabas was this encourager, and he became a quick leader in the church, and that he was a man of means who was able to help the church in its early days. He was able to be strategic in introducing the Apostle Paul, who was formerly known as Saul. He got converted, and he became Paul. Now the people were scared because Saul was a persecutor of the church, and they thought maybe he’s trying to spy, and maybe he’s trying to come in as somebody different. Maybe he’s trying to trick us, and Barnabas testified to the authenticity of the Apostle Paul’s conversion, and Barnabas played a valuable role. You remember that in Acts 15, the Apostle Paul and Barnabas were ready to go on their second missionary journey, and they wanted to go back to the churches, find out how they’re doing, and give updates, and begin to be an encouragement to them, and they wanted to take this young man. His name was what church? John Mark. Thank you. Appreciate that one person. Oh buddy, the pastor has so much to do, so much training to teach, but if you recall, and maybe I’m being presumptuous, and please forgive me, but Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement about John Mark. John Mark had quit on the first missionary journey. He stepped away and said, I’m done. I’m out. The Bible doesn’t tell us why. We don’t know if he got homesick. We don’t know if there was health problems. We don’t know that he just didn’t enjoy working with Paul because his personality was so strong. We don’t know, but for whatever reason, he said, I’m out, and he left them. High and dry, and so Paul was very frustrated about that, and when Barnabas said, hey, when we’re putting our team together, don’t forget John Mark, and Paul’s like, that ain’t happening. I know this is the Mike Sanders translation, by the way. Just want to let you know, but he said, that’s not going to happen, and Barnabas and Paul, the Bible says their disagreement was so strong, there was contention between the two, and they decided that they would each go their different ministry, and they started two missionary teams, and now look at this. We’re coming to the end of the book of Philemon, and there is John Mark. He’s back on the team. He’s serving God. God has restored him. The apostle, listen, why is this so important? Because the apostle Paul is asking Philemon to forgive, and let me tell you something, you can’t do, and you can’t expect or ask people to do what you are not doing yourself, amen, and so he’s saying, okay, I see John Mark, and we learn later in first Timothy that he’ll say, send me John Mark, because he is profitable or beneficial to the ministry. What I’m trying to say to you is that in the context of the church family, God wants us to continue to show grace and to show forgiveness as God is working in the hearts of people. Who among us has not failed God? Who among us has not mishandled something? Who among us has not made a bad choice and a bad decision, and it reflected upon the ministry poorly? The truth is we all find ourselves there, and this is why God is saying that there is restoration, and there is forgiveness and grace, and in the context of when you and I disagree, I know it’s hard to believe, but we just might actually disagree, but how is it that we’re gonna handle this? Are we just gonna run from one church to the next and thinking, oh, that next church down the street, they don’t have any conflicts. Everybody in that church agrees with everybody. They’re always working together, and they never have personality conflicts. Are we gonna be of that mindset? Is that the truth? Is that how it works? No. The truth is no matter where you go, people are different, and no matter where you go, you find these sandpaper people. You heard about these people? You heard about these people? They rub you the wrong way, and they keep showing up in my life, and I say, Lord, why are there so many sandpaper people everywhere I go? Try to say that fast, right? Sandpaper people, people eater. Anyways, just kidding. Oh, Mike, get back focused. Stick with your notes, right? But I want you to know that the Lord has a purpose, and the Lord has a plan, and there are many areas in Mike’s life that need to be smoothed out. They need to be dealt with those rough edges, and so God uses these sandpaper people to make me more like Christ. That’s why I’m saying to you the importance of maintaining fellowship when you disagree. Philemon can’t just abandon the church, and he can’t just say, I’m not gonna have anything to do with Onesimus. There has to be this restoration that God is at work, and Mark, John Mark, is a living example, and guess who wrote the Gospel of Mark? My questions are easy, church. John Mark, that God would use this young man who abandoned the first missionary trip, and then restore him through the mentoring of Barnabas, and reconnect him back into the church family, and get him back on the apostles team, and then he is used by God to pin down the inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God. My friends, the importance of maintaining fellowship when you disagree. You’ll note the next person that is listed, Aristarchus. His name means the best ruler. He was a Jewish believer. You can read more about it in Colossians 4. He was a native of Thessalonica, and he was a man who wouldn’t leave you when the chips are down. He was with the apostle at the riot in Acts chapter 19. He was with the apostle when they were in the shipwreck in Acts chapter 27. Church, we were just there in the book of Acts together, and we were studying the whole book of Acts, and it took us a long time to get through the book of Acts, but you remember that this horrible shipwreck happened, but what did Aristarchus do? He stayed. You know, it’s easy to run from problems, but it’s far better to work through problems. In the family of God, you’ll have more joy and you’ll have more strength when you don’t run from your problems and you don’t burn bridges and you don’t isolate yourself from others than to work through your problems. When I’m trying to help couples who are struggling in their marriages, I say it’s far better. The joy will be sweeter at the end of the marriage that you work through your difficulties rather than running from your problems. God’s anointing is in that place where we work through our issues and we don’t abandon each other in the tough times. I get so discouraged by members who run from other churches just because that church is having a season of difficulty walking through a valley and members begin to disperse and leave and say, we wanna go somewhere else. No, my friends, I love the people that are here and they’re here in the good times, they’re here in the bad times, they’re here when the pastor’s bringing his A game and they’re here when the pastor is miserably messing things up, amen? Now you can say amen better than that, can’t you? I wanna remind you, I know it’s probably hard for you guys to imagine, but I umpire softball and so when we start out the game, I pull the two coaches together at home plate and I do what they train me to do, preventive maintenance, preventive maintenance and I tell them up front, I want you guys to understand something, sometimes it’s ladies and I say, coaches, I know this is gonna be hard to believe, but I’m not perfect and they just look at me and startle, struck, they cannot believe it, I’m not perfect and I tell them if they have any doubts, just give my wife a call and she’ll let them know, amen? But I remind them, I’m probably gonna make a mistake in this game, but we can handle it like adults, we can handle it like mature people and what I’m saying to you is that what I love about Aristocrats, maybe everything wasn’t going great, maybe everything wasn’t like he thought it should be or maybe he felt like some of these challenges were tough, but he did not abandon the team or the apostle in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, which leads us to our next person, Demas, here at this moment as the apostle is writing this letter, apparently Demas is a faithful servant of God, but for Demas, who means governor of the people, he did not finish well, he did not finish strong, for we know in the scriptures in 2nd Timothy 4.10, the Bible reminds us that the apostle says, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world and has departed to Thessalonica. Goes on to describe where he’s at and what’s next steps, but point being is simply this, are you finishing strong for Christ? What is most startling for me as a pastor is to think about how many people who are still living their life in fear, who are still scared, who are still saying to themselves, well, during COVID, I didn’t go to church and I’m just gonna never go back, listen to me, my friends, it’s time to rise above, it’s time to give your eyes on Jesus Christ. If it’s your time to check out, God will let you know, if it’s not, you’ll overcome and you’ll continue to move forward, but what we can’t do church is be like Demas and fall flat on our face. It’s not enough for you just to begin for Christ. The question is, how will you finish for Jesus? What will be your legacy to your children? And what will be your legacy to your grandchildren? Will you finish strong for Christ? Will they be able to testify at your funeral service that grandpa and grandma or mom and dad would not retreat and they kept plowing forward for Jesus Christ and they finished strong for the Lord? Or will it be a testimony of embarrassment, a testimony of, well, they did a few nice things and they always bought me a candy or will your testimony of Christ shine through your life? I wanna challenge you church to be strong for Christ and the key is not to get distracted in this world, not to love the things of this world, not to be pulled by the things of this world. We all have within our human sinful nature a tug towards the world but the Bible teaches us that we are not to love the world nor the things of the world but we need to keep our love and our affection and our focus upon the Lord, Jesus Christ. And that’s the importance of fellowship. You might say, oh, Mike, it’s not a big deal that I come to church. It’s not a big deal that I’m fellowshipping with God’s people and that I’m connected into Sunday school or I’m connected into a Bible study. None of that matters, Mike. I just wanna live my faith in isolation and I wanna tell you, yeah, I’m not saying you can’t be a Christian and worship God by yourself but let me tell you something as I told the church on Wednesday is that I can eat Thanksgiving dinner by myself but it’s a lot better when family’s with me. I can eat dinner at night but it’s a lot better when my wife is with me. Do you understand? And some of you have lost your spouse or you’ve lost loved ones in your life and you know what it’s like to have an empty chair. And let me tell you, when we spiritually gather for the Lord, it means so much to see you here. And the importance of fellowship is that we’re all feasting on the word, we’re all feasting on the truth, we’re all feasting on what God has for us and we’re hearing the word of God taught and God is pouring into our life and God is transforming us and shaping our hearts for Christ and it is wonderful and listen, by me being here, if I’m not here, people are saying, where’s the pastor? Thank you. It’s nice to be noticed every once in a while. Where’s the pastor? You know what I’m saying? You heard about the guy who was all curled up and said he didn’t wanna go to church and his wife said, you have to go to church. He said, I don’t want to. She said, you’re the pastor, you have to go to church. Amen. But listen, not only does the pastor, you all have to be, you know what? When we don’t see our brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to say something. We need to pick up the phone and now you got this fancy phone that you could text people, you can email people, you could talk to people. Are you doing okay? Look, I know some of you like to move around. I know who’s here and who’s not here by where you sit. Did you know that? And I know that and I see empty spots sometimes and I say, where were you? And they said, pastor, we were there. And I said, well, where were you? I didn’t see you. They said, oh, we decided to move on the other side of the church auditorium. Now don’t be messing with my mind. I mean, it took me 20 years to get here to figure out who you are and where you’re sitting, right? And now you’re moving on me, playing tricks on me. I hear you. But listen, when our brothers and sisters aren’t around and we don’t see them, we need to be reaching out to them because there’s the importance of fellowship. There’s the accountability of each other and there is that we are members and if maybe if somebody’s struggling or needs help or something, we need to make sure and if they’re just on vacation, we can say, why didn’t you take us? Why didn’t you invite us to go on vacation? Well, they said, we don’t even invite our mother-in-law, much less you. I’m just teasing. Oh, we gotta hurry, church. We gotta hurry. I got like four pages here and I’m not even gonna get done with that. Can’t even get through these names. But I want you to see this last name, Luke. Luke. We know Luke. The word Luke means light giving. He was a Gentile Christian doctor and he was the author of the third gospel. He frequently traveled with the apostle and he helped care for the apostle’s physical needs and his ailments. He was tender. He was loving. He was caring to the apostle so that the apostle’s body could stay healthy in serving the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a loyal friend to the apostle. He was with him in his final days. In those final days, Luke was with the apostle. Second Timothy 4.11. Before the apostle would give his life as a martyr for the cause of Jesus, he wrote to Timothy and said, only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the ministry. Point being, only Luke’s with me. Final days. Final moments on this earth. Is it gonna be long before I face death? And there’s Luke, the physician. Always loyal. Always helpful. Always serving. The importance of fellowship. I’m sure that Luke and Paul disagreed. And like all of us, sometimes our doctor tells us to quit drinking Mountain Dew and we just totally disagree with them, amen? What’s up with them doctors telling us what we can eat and what we can’t eat? Well, I’m sure there was differences, but the love and the forgiveness and the grace that was bestowed upon them. I wanna give you my conclusion because I want you to note in verse 25. It says, the grace of our Lord Jesus be with your spirit, not the Holy Spirit, but your spirit, your attitude. Because if it’s left up to our flesh and our spirit, why we would just be mad at everybody and we would not wanna forgive anybody who had stolen from us, who have hurt us. But the apostle says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Have you ever prayed like that? Have you ever asked God to bestow his grace on somebody else’s spirit? Paul had the personal pleasure of having deeply committed and faithful people who helped him in the cause of Christ. It was also a wonderful thing to see him publicly recognize these individuals and appreciate and acknowledge him. But the book of Philemon does not end in this final verse. It’s not the end of the story, church. How did things turn out between Philemon and Onesimus? Well, there’s no doubt that Philemon did forgive Onesimus. First of all, we know that to be true because this book would be included in the New Testament canon. It seems that it would not have been very victorious or helpful had it been that Philemon never forgave, that he had chosen the path of anger and bitterness and resentment and burning bridges and isolation and refusing to be in the body of the fellowship of believers. But just the opposite is true. What we understand to be true according to church history, that later the church father Ignatius in Smyrna on his way to being martyred in Rome for Christ, wrote a letter to the church. And in this letter, he said, I received your large congregation in the person of Onesimus, your pastor in this world, a man whose love is beyond words. I wonder had Philemon not forgiven, would Onesimus be a pastor today? Would he have been a man who would be described as having love beyond words? The significance of you withholding forgiveness is not only your spiritual health. It’s not only that you’re an example to the church and to your own family, your children and grandchildren. But the significance is that if you withhold, it has a damaging effect upon the one that you are withholding forgiveness. But I pray that the spirit of God’s grace would be upon your spirit today. Would you pray with me? Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. And it’s so important that you and I choose forgiveness. The ramifications are many. And the question is, do you want to walk through life with broken relationships, damaged hearts, separated fellowship? Or do you want to live in the grace of his restoration and forgiveness and joy? Oh, there’s hurts and there’s challenges and there’s problems in this journey of faith. We’re complicated people and we’re flawed to the very core. But God calls us to be a forgiving people. And the only way that I can forgive others and you can forgive others is through the grace, the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has forgiven us. And I pray that you will reach out to God this morning and that you would ask him to bless you with his grace and to give you a spirit of forgiveness and restoration to help you to overcome the negative emotions and the separation. And to once again, build that bridge back. Back. It might be a person in the family of God. It might be a family member. It may be somebody in the past. There are many situations that we could share, but you be led of the spirit. You be led of God this morning. And if it’s time for you to take that initiative, swallow your pride, humble your heart and pray for the spirit of God’s grace to be upon your spirit. If you’re here this morning and you say, pastor, I don’t know about this grace and forgiveness. Well, my friends, Jesus Christ went to the cross for your sins. And I want you to know that if you would be honest enough with God this morning to acknowledge your sinfulness and your need for forgiveness, if you would just simply believe in your heart that Christ died on the cross, he rose again. If you would believe that he died for your sins and your past and rose again for your future and your hope, if you would call upon him even now where you’re sitting while we’re praying that whoever calls in the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is your moment and this is your time to call out to God and ask him to wash away your sins. There is no church that is more supportive to God saving your soul than in this moment at this time right now. And I pray that salvation will come to your heart. Father in heaven, when we talk about this difficult subject of forgiveness, we know that there are many complications and many things that have to be dealt with. But in general, Lord, we come and we’re just asking that you would help us because our flesh cries out revenge. Our flesh cries out separation and isolation. But God, we pray that your grace would be upon our spirit, that you would fill our hearts with true fruits of the spirit, that we would manifest what is truly your will and your way. I pray, God, that as we reflect on these truths, that you would give us a desire to research the scriptures and to see if these things are so, and that you would allow this to change our hearts and to live in obedience to you as we strive to honor you, not just in our life, but in our relationships with others. And I pray, God, that you will continue to show grace and that we can truly be a heritage of the Lord and a testimony of your great forgiveness to each of us. We thank you, Lord, for this time together as your people. And may you continue to help each of us to keep you first in our hearts. And we pray all this in the precious name of Jesus Christ. It’s easy to burn the bridge, cut people off, and just be done. But God wants us to do everything we can to maintain fellowship. I know that sometimes that’s not always possible, okay? And we get that. But we try, if possible, to live in peace with all men. And if God provides that opportunity where you can live in peace I think we ought to, by faith, embrace it. And so I hope this message has been an encouragement to you and is helping you to stay strong in your faith. Look, we know there are times that we’re not feeling well or maybe we are out of town. We want you to know that we have a live stream at HopeWorthHaving.com every Sunday morning at 11 a.m. And you’re welcome to join us. We don’t want to keep you out of your church. If you’re not in a church, we want you to get plugged into a church. But sometimes we need options because of our circumstances. And if that’s you, then join us, HopeWorthHaving.com. Click our live stream, 11 a.m. every Sunday morning. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you, in Christ there is hope worth having. The post The Importance of Maintaining Fellowship When You Disagree Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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The Importance of Maintaining Fellowship When You Disagree Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Importance of Maintaining Fellowship When You Disagree Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:23-24. God wants us to continue to show grace and to show forgiveness. Who among us has not failed God? The truth is we all find ourselves there. And this is why God is saying that there is restoration and forgiveness and grace. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and we are broadcasting from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. And this is Hope Worth Having, and we are honored that you have joined us today. We’re going to continue our study in Philemon. We’ve been studying it verse by verse. We’re down to verse 23 and verse 24. Here’s a tough one, the importance of maintaining fellowship when you disagree. So you’re not always going to agree with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And the question is, what are you going to do about that? So I want you to open your Bible and join me as we study the Word of God together. If you have your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in the book of Philemon. And I know sometimes it’s hard to find that book because it is such a small book in the Bible. But if you’ll go to the book of Hebrews, it’s right in front. If you can’t find the book of Hebrews, go to Revelation. You’ll bump into Hebrews as you go backwards. And there is Philemon as well. We come to the final few verses here of Philemon. Verse 23 and verse 24 and 25 that we want to share with you this morning. And as you are turning there, I want to talk to you about the importance of maintaining fellowship when you disagree. Now, remember the context of this book. Remember that Philemon has been implored and he has been instructed by the apostle that he should forgive Onesimus. Onesimus stole from Philemon, most likely money, perhaps maybe some things. And now the apostle has run into Onesimus in jail. And the apostle, not being a whiner, but a shiner, someone who does not pity himself, but makes the most of what his situation is. He, while in jail, witnesses to Onesimus. Onesimus becomes a believer. And now the apostle wants to restore this relationship. He wants to restore Onesimus back into the church family and back to Philemon. And so this letter was written with that understanding. We pick up in verse 23. The scripture says, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark, Aristocras, Demas, Luke, my fellow laborers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Christian living does not happen in a vacuum. As a matter of fact, the Bible reminds us in Ephesians 4, 25, that we are members of one another. We sometimes don’t see it that way because we’re Americans and we’re getting ready to celebrate Independence Day. That’s how much we love independence. But yet in the community of faith, in the fellowship of the church, we are called to be connected to one another. And not only are we called to be connected, but we are reminded that whether we believe it or not, or even behave in that way, we are connected. We are members of one another. So much so that the apostle would say to the church at Rome, that when one rejoices, we should all rejoice. And when one weeps within the family of God, we should all weep. That’s how interconnected we are as believers. The Bible knows nothing of solitary saints. It knows nothing of lone ranger Christians. I know that there are many Christians who are lone rangers. They’re not connected to a church. They’re not connected to a body of believers. They feel like they can live their faith by themselves. They don’t need other people. That only is a reflection of what is in their hearts. But I remind you today that it is not only beneficial for you and I to fellowship as brothers and sisters in Christ, but it is also mandated. It is mandated in the Bible. The apostle Paul reminds Philemon of his responsibility. And he brings up in these final few passages, having already implored and beseeched and instructed Philemon to be a man who forgives others. He reminds them of these five men that he has a responsibility to that are within the fellowship of the family of God. He is extending a greeting on their behalf to Philemon. It is no accident. It is not something that is unintentional or just kind of a afterthought, but rather it is very intentional that the apostle would bring up these particular men. For he is reminding Philemon in refusing to forgive Onesimus, he would disappoint the hopes and the expectations of the family of God. He is not only disappointing his Lord and Savior who gave his life for Philemon, who himself, meaning Jesus, sacrificially gave his life not because Philemon deserved it or that any of us deserve forgiveness. It is not like Philemon had somehow measured up to be this great person and now he was worthy of the forgiveness of God. But very much like each of us this morning, we are not worthy of grace, forgiveness, and salvation. But through great love that God has extended to us in that he sent his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Not only would Philemon disappoint his heavenly Father, his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but he would disappoint the church family if he were to hold on to grudges. If he were to hold on to anger and hate. So in this passage, the apostle brings attention at the end of this letter to these fellow servants. He refers to them in verse 3 as fellow prisoners. In verse 24, he calls them fellow laborers. They are not only serving with the apostle, but they are suffering with the apostle. They are not only helping him to advance the cause of Jesus Christ, but they are enduring the challenges of prison and jail. The sufferings of doing without. The sufferings of being unjustly thrown into jail. The suffering of being mischaracterized or even looked down upon by the world. And so the apostle wants them to be acknowledged. He wants them to be recognized in the church family, but he specifically wants Philemon to know that these men are with him. And these men are serving and suffering with him. And they are very much aware of the situation. It is perhaps that maybe one of them introduced Onesimus to the apostle. It is perhaps that they originally planted seeds and began to share the gospel. However it unfolded, we don’t know the details, but we know that the apostle had a team of laborers. Who came together and they served together with their passion of reaching others for the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle recognizes those who have faithfully stood with him. And they have not only stood with him, but they have stood beside him in ministry in the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a noble person who is able to share some of the limelight. Though many were very much aware of the apostle, they may not have been aware so much of this team or these people who were working behind the scenes. And so the apostle wants them to be acknowledged in Philemon’s life. And I like what Mark Twain once said, I can go for one month off of just one compliment. And I think that’s so important what we see in the apostle is that he is complimenting these men who have served with him. Who have served beside him. Who have walked through the tough times with him. And he wants them to be recognized. Let’s take just a quick understanding of who these individuals are. As he shows appreciation to them and he values them and acknowledges them. He begins to identify them. And the first person that we see is Epaphras. I want you to see that Epaphras. Which his name means lovely. Epaphras, you’ve heard that name before. If you’ve been with us, you know that in our study of the book of Colossians. That Epaphras was the pastor of the church. And remember that Philemon, it was in his home that the church gathered for worship. For Bible study. For prayer. For communion together. He opened his home to them. And so he would know Epaphras. He would know about Epaphras. Because he was a man who was deeply devoted to the cause of Jesus Christ. Most likely the founder of the church at Colossae. We know him to be a man of prayer. Epaphras was a man of prayer. Colossians 4.12 tells us that Epaphras, who is one of you. A servant of Christ. Saluted you always. Laboring fervently for you in prayer. That you may stand perfect or mature and complete in all the will of God. There is no greater labor than you and I can do than to pray for one another. And I’ll tell you true prayer is laboring prayer. True prayer is being willing to reach out to the throne of grace. To seek God on behalf of others. And bringing your supplications to God. And praying for the needs. And the challenges. And the problems that people have in their life. And bringing that all before God. Epaphras was that kind of a pastor. He was that kind of a man of God. He was that kind of a servant who went to God on behalf of others. And he sought them passionately. He was a man who was truly respected in the church. Philemon would have surely known him. And been under his ministry. And heard him teach the word of God. Then I want you to know that he introduces to us Marcus. Or in the New King James it says Mark. The word Marcus or Mark means a defense. Oh this is powerful because you know him as John Mark. You remember that John Mark was the cousin of Barnabas. You remember in Acts 4 and Acts 5 that Barnabas was this encourager. And he became a quick leader in the church. And that he was a man of means who was able to help the church in its early days. And he was able to be strategic in introducing the Apostle Paul. Who was formerly known as Saul. And he got converted and he became Paul. And now the people were scared because Saul was a persecutor of the church. And they thought maybe he’s trying to spy. And maybe he’s trying to come in as somebody different. Maybe he’s trying to trick us. And Barnabas testified to the authenticity of the Apostle Paul’s conversion. And Barnabas played a valuable role. You remember that in Acts 15. The Apostle Paul and Barnabas were ready to go on their second missionary journey. And they wanted to go back to the churches. Find out how they’re doing. And give updates and begin to be an encouragement to them. And they wanted to take this young man. His name was what church? John Mark. Thank you. Appreciate that one person. Oh buddy, the pastor. Has so much to do. So much training to teach. But if you recall. And maybe I’m being presumptuous and please forgive me. But Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement about John Mark. John Mark had quit on the first missionary journey. He stepped away and said, I’m done. I’m out. The Bible doesn’t tell us why. We don’t know if he got homesick. We don’t know if there was health problems. We don’t know that he just didn’t enjoy working with Paul because his personality was so strong. We don’t know. But for whatever reason, he said, I’m out. And he left them high and dry. And so Paul was very frustrated about that. And when Barnabas said, hey, when we’re putting our team together, don’t forget John Mark. And Paul’s like, that ain’t happening. This is the Mike Sanders translation, by the way. Just want to let you know. But he said, that’s not going to happen. And Barnabas and Paul, the Bible says their disagreement was so strong. There was contention between the two. And they decided that they would each go their different ministry. And they started two missionary teams. And now, look at this. We’re coming to the end of the book of Philemon. And there is John Mark. He’s back on the team. He’s serving God. God has restored him. The apostle, listen, why is this so important? Because the apostle Paul is asking Philemon to forgive. And let me tell you something. You can’t do and you can’t expect or ask people to do what you are not doing yourself. Amen. And so he’s saying, okay, I see John Mark. And we learn later in 1 Timothy that he’ll say, send me John Mark because he is profitable or beneficial to the ministry. What I’m trying to say to you is that in the context of the church family, God wants us to continue to show grace and to show forgiveness as God is working in the hearts of people. Who among us has not failed God? Who among us has not mishandled something? Who among us has not made a bad choice and a bad decision and it reflected upon the ministry poorly? The truth is we all find ourselves there. And this is why God is saying that there is restoration and there is forgiveness and grace. And in the context of when you and I disagree, I know it’s hard to believe, but we just might actually disagree. But how is it that we’re going to handle this? Are we just going to run from one church to the next and thinking, go that next church down the street. They don’t have any conflicts. Everybody in that church agrees with everybody. They’re always working together and they never have personality conflicts. Are we going to be of that mindset? Is that the truth? Is that how it works? No, the truth is no matter where you go, people are different. And no matter where you go, you find these sandpaper people. You heard about these people? You heard about these people? They rub you the wrong way and they keep showing up in my life. And I say, Lord, why are there so many sandpaper people everywhere I go? Try to say that fast, right? Sandpaper people, people eater. Anyways, just kidding. Oh my, get back focused. Stick with your notes, right? But I want you to know that the Lord has a purpose and the Lord has a plan. And there are many areas in Mike’s life that need to be smoothed out. They need to be dealt with those rough edges. And so God uses these sandpaper people to make me more like Christ. That’s why I’m saying to you the importance of maintaining fellowship when you disagree. Philemon can’t just abandon the church and he can’t just say, I’m not going to have anything to do with Onesimus. There has to be this restoration that God is at work. And Mark, John Mark, is a living example. And guess who wrote the Gospel of Mark? My questions are easy, church. John Mark. That God would use this young man who abandoned the first missionary trip and then restore him through the mentoring of Barnabas and reconnect him back into the church family and get him back on the apostles team. And then he is used by God to pin down the inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God. My friends, the importance of maintaining fellowship when you disagree. You’ll note the next person that is listed, Aristarchus. His name means the best ruler. He was a Jewish believer. You can read more about it in Colossians 4. He was a native of Thessalonica. And he was a man who wouldn’t leave you when the chips are down. He was with the apostle at the riot in Acts chapter 19. He was with the apostle when they were in the shipwreck in Acts chapter 27. Church, we were just there in the book of Acts together. And we were studying the whole book of Acts. And it took us a long time to get through the book of Acts. But you remember that this horrible shipwreck happened. But what did Aristarchus do? He stayed. You know, it’s easy to run from problems. But it’s far better to work through problems. In the family of God, you’ll have more joy and you’ll have more strength when you don’t run from your problems and you don’t burn bridges and you don’t isolate yourself from others than to work through your problems. When I’m trying to help couples who are struggling in their marriages, I say it’s far better. The joy will be sweeter at the end of the marriage that you work through your difficulties rather than running from your problems. God’s anointing is in that place where we work through our issues and we don’t abandon each other in the tough times. I get so discouraged by members who run from other churches just because that church is having a season of difficulty, walking through a valley, and members begin to disperse and leave and say, we want to go somewhere else. No, my friends, I love the people that are here and they’re here in the good times. They’re here in the bad times. They’re here when the pastor’s bringing his A game and they’re here when the pastor is miserably messing things up. Amen? Now you can say amen better than that, can’t you? I want to remind you, I know it’s probably hard for you guys to imagine, but I umpire softball. And so when we start out the game, I pull the two coaches together at home plate and I do what they train me to do, preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance. And I tell them up front, I want you guys to understand something. Sometimes it’s ladies. And I say, coaches, I know this is going to be hard to believe, but I’m not perfect. And they just look at me and startle, struck. They cannot believe it. I’m not perfect. And I tell them, if they have any doubts, just give my wife a call and she’ll let them know. Amen? But I remind them, I’m probably going to make a mistake in this game, but we can handle it like adults. We can handle it like mature people. And what I’m saying to you is that what I love about Aristocris, maybe everything wasn’t going great. Maybe everything wasn’t like he thought it should be. Or maybe he felt like some of these challenges were tough, but he did not abandon the team or the apostle in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Which leads us to our next person, Demas. Here, at this moment, as the apostle is writing this letter, apparently Demas is a faithful servant of God. But for Demas, who means governor of the people, he did not finish well. He did not finish strong. For we know in the scriptures in 2 Timothy 4.10, the Bible reminds us that the apostle says, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed to Thessalonica. Goes on to describe where he’s at and what’s next steps, but point being is simply this. Are you finishing strong for Christ? What is most startling for me as a pastor is to think about how many people who are still living their life in fear, who are still scared, who are still saying to themselves, well, you know, during COVID, I didn’t go to church, and I’m just going to never go back. Listen to me, my friends. It’s time to rise above. It’s time to give your eyes on Jesus Christ. If it’s your time to check out, God will let you know. If it’s not, you’ll overcome, and you’ll continue to move forward. But what we can’t do, church, is be like Demas and fall flat on our face. It’s not enough for you just to begin for Christ. The question is how will you finish for Jesus? What will be your legacy to your children, and what will be your legacy to your grandchildren? Will you finish strong for Christ? Will they be able to testify at your funeral service that grandpa and grandma or mom and dad would not retreat, and they kept plowing forward for Jesus Christ, and they finished strong for the Lord? Or will it be a testimony of embarrassment, a testimony of, well, they did a few nice things, and they always bought me a candy? Or will your testimony of Christ shine through your life? I want to challenge you, church, to be strong for Christ, and the key is not to get distracted in this world, not to love the things of this world, not to be pulled by the things of this world. We all have within our human sinful nature a tug towards the world, but the Bible teaches us that we are not to love the world nor the things of the world, but we need to keep our love and our affection and our focus upon the Lord, Jesus Christ. And that’s the importance of fellowship. You might say, oh, Mike, it’s not a big deal that I come to church. It’s not a big deal that I’m fellowshipping with God’s people and that I’m connected into Sunday school or I’m connected into a Bible study. None of that matters, Mike. I just want to live my faith in isolation. And I want to tell you, yeah, I’m not saying you can’t be a Christian and worship God by yourself, but let me tell you something. As I told the church on Wednesday, is that I can eat Thanksgiving dinner by myself, but it’s a lot better when family’s with me. I can eat dinner at night, but it’s a lot better when my wife is with me. Do you understand? And some of you have lost your spouse or you’ve lost loved ones in your life and you know what it’s like to have an empty chair. And let me tell you, when we spiritually gather for the Lord, it means so much to see you here. And the importance of fellowship is that we’re all feasting on the Word, we’re all feasting on the truth, we’re all feasting on what God has for us, and we’re hearing the Word of God taught and God is pouring into our life and God is transforming us and shaping our hearts for Christ and it is wonderful. And listen, by me being here, if I’m not here, people are saying, where’s the pastor? Thank you. It’s nice to be noticed every once in a while. Where’s the pastor? You know what I’m saying? You heard about the guy who was all curled up and said he didn’t want to go to church and his wife said, you have to go to church. He said, I don’t want to. She said, you’re the pastor, you have to go to church. Amen? But listen, not only does the pastor, you all have to be, you know what? When we don’t see our brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to say something, we need to pick up the phone and now you got this fancy phone that you could text people, you can email people, you can talk to people. Are you doing okay? Look, I know some of you like to move around. I know who’s here and who’s not here by where you sit. Did you know that? And I know that and I see empty spots sometimes and I say, where were you? And they said, pastor, we were there. And I said, well, where were you? I didn’t see you. They said, oh, we decided to move on the other side of the church auditorium. Now don’t be messing with my mind. I mean, it took me 20 years to get here to figure out who you are and where you’re sitting, right? And now you’re moving on me, playing tricks on me. I hear you, but listen, when our brothers and sisters aren’t around and we don’t see them, we need to be reaching out to them because there’s the importance of fellowship, there’s the accountability of each other and there is that we are members and it may be if somebody’s struggling or needs help or something, we need to make sure and if they’re just on vacation, we can say, why didn’t you take us? One thing is constant, Christians can’t agree. Are we going to run every time we disagree? Are we going to continue to live in hate, bitterness and anger? Or are we going to work through it emotionally, spiritually, through the grace of God? And I think the Lord wants us to do that. I don’t think that he wants us to run to another church. I mean, I understand there’s churches that don’t teach the Bible and that’s different, but I’m not going to run to another church. I’m talking about somebody hurt your feelings and now you’re going to run to another church. We got to be better and we got to be stronger and we know that God wants us to forgive one another. I think the scriptures are clear. And that’s what Paul’s saying to Philemon is receive this brother back into the fellowship, forgive him and let’s move forward together. I want you to think about what we’ve been teaching today and may it encourage you in your walk with Christ. Now, Hope Worth Having, believe it or not, we’re on social media, we’re on Facebook, X, Instagram. So check out these different platforms and like us and you can continue to see how we try to use these platforms to encourage us and our walk with Christ and to help us to be stronger for him. So I pray that you’ll take advantage of that. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having. The post The Importance of Maintaining Fellowship When You Disagree Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Faith, Philosophy and Spirituality 3 weeks

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30:02

Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness Part 2. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:22. Forgiveness is not based on what the offender does or deserves, but rather on giving the gift of grace and forgiveness to your offender. The real question is, do you want to be like Jesus? Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and I want to welcome you to Hope Worth Having radio broadcast. Thank you for dialing in, and we’re looking forward to what God has for us today. We’re still studying in the book of Philemon, and we’re still learning about prayer and forgiveness. So I want you to join me as we open our Bibles and begin this study today. The reason people hop to different churches all the time is because they can’t win this battle. They just run. The reason people get married six, seven, eight times or in one relationship after another is because they can’t overcome this battle. And that is forgiving others. And I’ll tell you why they can’t forgive, because they’re trying to do it in their own strength. They’re trying to do it in the flesh rather than in the power of the Spirit. And they’re not using the tool of prayer coming boldly before the throne of grace, seeking God to help them to be able to forgive others. The second thing I want you to see is the expectancy of prevailing prayer. You see, the Apostle Paul fully expected God to release him from his chains. He believed two things about prayer, and I want you to remember this, is that prayer moves the heart of God. Prayer moves the heart of God, and maybe you doubt that. But you remember that Hannah prevailed in prayer in asking God for a son. It was Moses who prevailed in prayer, asking God to not destroy the nation of Israel. It was Esther who prevailed in prayer, seeking God to protect Israel from Haman. It was Jonah, in his own mess, in his own choices and decisions that he had made, found himself in a great fish. And his life was out of sync and out of the will of God. But it was Jonah who learned to pray in this desperate moment that preserved his life. It’s the Apostle Paul who prevailed in prayer, getting Philemon to be able to come to that point where he would forgive Onesimus. And what I’m saying to you is prayer moves the heart of God. Prayer moves the heart of God. And God has chosen, he doesn’t have to, but he has chosen to work through the prayers of his people. All the great spiritual awakenings, all the great revivals in America, and yes, even in this world, have always been because of a group of people, whether small or large, have gotten together and they have prayed for God’s heart to be moved. But I also want you to know this, that prayer maneuvers the hand of God. Prayer maneuvers the hand of God. Heavenly prayer allows us to move God’s hand in human affairs. There are all kinds of things happening, not just on a world level, on a national level, but things that are happening in your life. And the antidote to your problems is not for you to always come in and micromanage it and fix it. And there are people with different things going on in their life. And the answer is not for you to micromanage those people. But the answer is for you and I to pray, to pray for that person. And I know you want to fix that person. And I would say great advice for your marriage is to quit spending your life trying to fix your spouse. And to spend your time praying for your spouse and with your spouse. Asking God to work in both of your hearts. And asking God to shape both of you in such a way that his hand would move so powerfully in your life that you could honor Christ. That your marriage could be a picture of the love of God that he has for all of humanity. That’s what’s important. The prayers that Paul had asked for the people of God to give on his behalf was that God’s hand would move the Roman government and release him from prison. So that he could go get this matter settled at the church at Colossae between Philemon and Onesimus. And so it was important. So when Paul prayed, he expected God’s heart to be moved and his hand to maneuver the circumstances to make things a reality. But I also want you to see the extent of prevailing prayer. The extent. It seems that the Roman government had full control of the apostle’s life. And that he was going to soon face death. But as the apostle began to mobilize people to pray, he appealed to a higher authority than the Roman government. Did you know there’s a higher authority than the president of the United States? There’s a higher authority than the governor of Pennsylvania. There is a higher authority than any political person on this planet. And there’s a higher authority than any government on this planet. And that higher authority is the Lord Jesus Christ. Can God’s people say amen? And I want you to remember that there is no government that can tell the church what to do. The head of the church is not a governor. It is not a president. It is not some bureaucrat in the government. But the head of the church is the Lord Jesus Christ. And friends, don’t forget that. Because all that was tested several years ago. It was all put on the line. And were we going to follow the head of the church and his commands? Or were we going to follow our fears and the edicts that came from the government? Friends, there’s no more important agenda than the agenda of a prayer warrior who is on their knees seeking God. For God to move in a powerful way. And that’s exactly what the apostle wanted. He wanted Philemon, who was a leader in the church of Colossae. And he wanted him to be a man of prayer. And he knew that if Philemon would start praying for Paul, guess who else he had to pray for? Onesimus. And guess what? If Philemon would pray that Paul would come back, he knew who he was bringing back with him. Onesimus. And that they were going to have to deal with this matter. And that they were going to have to move forward in this matter. And they were going to have to resolve this matter for the glory of God. And that’s what the apostle understood about prevailing prayer. That even in those hard cases, even in those difficult cases, in those extreme cases, that God can use prayer to change our hearts. And let me say something about that to you. Is this. The key to you understanding about prayer and praying for others. Is that in prayer, God is not always interested in changing your circumstances. And he’s not always interested in changing people in your life. As much as he is interested in changing you and me. And you see, prayer gets you to that moment of vulnerability before God. The reason some people don’t pray is because they’re too prideful to be vulnerable before God. They haven’t got to that point where they could trust. They say, I can’t trust God. I can’t believe in God. But friends, when you get to that moment where you by faith step out and say, Lord, I’m going to pray. And I’m going to pray for this person. But Lord, more than anything, while I’m praying, would you change my heart? That’s why prayer is important. I mean, God is sovereign. You’re not informing him of anything he doesn’t already know. You’re not like, hey, God, I got a story to tell you that you may not have heard. There’s no breaking news with God. There’s no surprises in heaven. There’s nothing that’s stunning to God. He is all knowing. So you might ask, why do we pray? Well, because God has chose to work through prayer. But also God uses prayer to change me. To change you. To bring us to that moment where our heart is aligning to the will of God. To the will of God. And sometimes part of the will of God. I know this is going to be hard for you. And you may not agree with it. But I’ve had to learn this over 30 some years of pastoring. Sometimes it’s God’s will that you adjust. And learn how to handle and respond to difficult people. Are you with me? There’s difficult people. I call them sandpaper people. They rub you the wrong way. Amen? But every time God keeps bringing those people in my life. And I try to run from them and hide from them. But everywhere I turn, they keep showing up. I thought when I left Indiana and come to Pennsylvania. There’d be no difficult people in Pennsylvania. Little did I know. That central Pennsylvania, there’s a lot of stubborn people. You guys are struggling, aren’t you? It’s okay, hang in there. But let me tell you. I learned that there’s some stubbornness in Mike. There were things Mike needed to change and do better. And so it was through prayer that God changed me. And will change you. Now, I want to finish out our sermon on the example of prevailing prayer. Jesus taught us how to pray. And you read some of that earlier. But I want you to note in Matthew 6.12. That Jesus gave us the template or the model as part of what we pray for. He put an example before us. And he said, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Can I just take a moment, if you will. Because I think it’s critical to just help you understand how important it is for you to pray. Forgive us our debts. I’m reminded of a story of an unusual epitaph on a large headstone in a cemetery just outside of New York City. The name of the person in the grave is not on the headstone. There is no mention of when the person was born or when the person died. Nor does it indicate anything about the person being a beloved mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister, son or even daughter. There is just one word on the headstone. Across the headstone stretches this word. Forgiven. Forgiven. Clearly the most significant fact of anyone’s life is the truth of knowing that you are forgiven by God Almighty. For that person, that’s all they wanted. That’s all they wanted on their headstone was forgiven. And that’s why I try to say to you, church, that you’ll never achieve forgiving others if you’re not right there back at the center. And making sure that A, you have experienced the forgiveness of God. In that you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior. That there has been a time and a moment in your life where you were honest and humble before God. And you asked Him to forgive you of your sins. That you came to God and you recognized that you’re a sinner in need of a Savior. And you reached out to God to save your soul. But I also want to tell you that if you have experienced that moment and you say, I am a believer, Pastor, and I have been saved. I want to ask you, are you continuing to experience His grace and forgiveness in your life? I know you’re forgiven. I know that when you leave this world, you’ll be in heaven. I believe that 100%. But I’m telling you, you can’t function in this world effectively for God in any of your relationships. And all that God is calling you to do unless you are consistently under the fountain of God’s grace and forgiveness daily in your life. Asking God to forgive you. Because guess what? There is flesh on these bones. And we are not perfect people. We are flawed people. We have insecurities. We have issues. We have weaknesses. We have things coming in at us at many different directions. And friends, sometimes we don’t handle things the way they ought to be handled. And sometimes we don’t deal with things as they ought to be done. So what’s the antidote? Let all that build up? Let all that crush you? Let all that become rooted in your heart that you’re bitter and angry at every person? Or come to God daily and ask him to cleanse you. And ask him to forgive you. And to even in those times that you recognize exactly what you did was wrong. A thought, a deed, a motive that violated the word of God. That you are honest enough with God to say, Lord, forgive me of my debt to you. Because that’s what sin is. It’s a debt to God. A person with an unforgiving heart towards others is simply showing that they are not taking their own sin seriously. Are you with me? I’m trying to tell you, church, that it is in prayer. That while you’re seeking and dealing with your own sin. And my sin, I’m not pointing a finger. There’s three coming right at me if I am. I want you to know, I’m right there with you. That the only way Mike can forgive others is because he’s dealing with his own sin in his own heart. And I know you thought you had a perfect pastor. I throw these things out there. I think you guys will wake up. But I’m not perfect. And so it is. I got to live under the fountain of his grace and forgiveness. But if you’re a person, hear me, who won’t forgive others, it means you’re not taking your own sin seriously. You have put yourself on a pedestal that somehow your sins are less than the sins of others. That somehow your failures and weaknesses are not as bad as everybody else’s. And that God has put you in a position. And I’m speaking sarcastically, please. But you think that God has put you in a position to judge and measure everybody according to your standard. To who you are. When the truth is, Jesus taught us, take care of the beam in your own eye. Before you take care of the speck in someone else’s eye. So what does it mean to forgive others? The verb that Jesus uses here means literally to hurl away. When Jesus says that we’re to forgive others of their debts. It means to hurl it away. Throw it away. Get it out. Get it out. And really that’s what you want to do. You don’t want it to be something that implants upon your heart. You don’t want it to be something that stays with you and beats you down emotionally, spiritually, and physically. But you want to hurl it away. You want to give it to God. You want to give that person to God. You want to pray for that person. You see, it’s hard to be upset with someone while you’re praying for them. And what has helped me is that if I’m mad at you, that I start praying for you. And God softens me. And God works in me. And I’m kind of just throwing it out there, away from me, onto God. And giving it all to Him. So, the Bible says, bear with one another. Forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. And the point is this. God has forgiven you. And so your complaint against everybody in this church, or everybody in your family, or everybody in this society. Your complaint must lead you to forgive them. Because of the cross of Jesus Christ. We forgive even when the individual does not deserve our forgiveness. You see, friends, here’s what you’re doing. God forgave you. And He forgave me. And none of us deserved it. We didn’t get to walk into the presence of God and say, Lord, I deserve to be forgiven. You’re lucky to have me. It was just the opposite. Despite us, God reached out to us. He called us. He drew us. He saved us. And He has forgiven us. And you say, well, they didn’t do A, B, or C. Or they don’t deserve my forgiveness. Well, do you think you deserve God’s forgiveness? And are you the arbiter of who deserves forgiveness and who doesn’t? And you’re right. No one deserves forgiveness. You see, forgiveness, look at the word. It’s a gift. It’s given. It’s not something earned. It’s not something deserved. So the question is, how can I forgive someone who’s not apologized to me, Pastor, or they have not shown any repentance in their life? Forgiveness is not based on what the offender does or deserves, but rather on giving the gift of grace and forgiveness to your offender. A gift, again, that is not deserved. The real question is, do you want to be like Jesus? Do you want to glorify God? Do you want the world to see a community of believers that forgives one another? Or do you want the world to see a church that fights with each other and tears one another down and attacks one another and devours one another? What is the picture that you want the world to see of the church? And let me go deeper. You say, well, my spouse doesn’t deserve. I want to ask you, what is the picture that you want your children to see of your marriage? A forgiving relationship that glorifies God or a relationship that is always attacking each other, destroying each other? Do you know why so many young people don’t want to get married? I’ll tell you why. Because they saw a picture of a broken marriage. And they’re like, we don’t want that. Church, we’re to send a different message to our children and grandchildren. We, as a collective body of family of God, are to send a different message to the onlookers. And we must remember that when Jesus was crucified on the cross, his enemies neither apologized nor repented. And yet he extended his heart of forgiveness by praying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. We are forgiven to forgive. Jesus said, if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive you of your trespasses. What a powerful message. It’s not that you’re not saved. It’s just that you’re going to live in this state of where all your offenses and all your hurts and all your sins and all your weaknesses are going to build up in your heart. And you’re going to be so messed up because you came at a crossroads. And that crossroad was, would I choose to forgive or hold on to the anger and the hate and the disappointment? There should be no limit to your forgiveness. There should be no end to your willingness to forgive. Because when I think about how many times I’ve had to get back on my knees and say, God, I messed up again. I need your grace and forgiveness. It’s hard for me when others come to me and say, would you forgive me, Mike? Or even if they don’t, to withhold that forgiveness. Because I desire to send the right picture out there and to my children and to my family, I desire and choose to be forgiving. Now, someone says, and I’ll close with this question. If I forgive those who offend me, will I be an enabler of their sin or their behavior or their issues? Forgiveness is not enablement. If a man borrows money from you and he refuses to repay you. And I’ve told you this story before. Should you forgive him? Yes. Release him. Give the offense to God. Let God settle it. Don’t become bitter. But you don’t have to trust. There’s a lot of people that we can’t trust in certain areas. Because they haven’t shown themselves to be trustworthy. We think about 2 Corinthians 4. It tells us that a steward should be found what? Faithful. But when you study the Greek, it actually means that a steward or a manager should be found trustworthy. Are you worthy of God entrusting you with ministry? Are you worthy of God entrusting you with riches? Are you worthy of God entrusting you with responsibility? A good steward is trustworthy. When you go through the journey of life, you will find that there are times that you’re called to forgive someone. But you may not particularly trust that person in a particular area. Early in our marriage, Terry and I learned that there were things that she should not trust me in. And I know that’s shocking to you. But when we first got married, we bought our first house, I should say. The bathroom sink was leaking water. I said, Terry, don’t worry, I got it. So I went in there with tools that I didn’t even know what they were called. They were given to me by her father. The first Christmas we had together, her dad bought me a toolbox for Christmas. And I asked him, what should I do with this? But when I began to work on this sink, I failed the number one rule. I did not turn the water off. I began to take this sink apart and try to fix these problems. The next thing you know, water is flying everywhere. It’s all over the bathroom. I’m screaming and hollering. My wife comes in. And the first thing she does is what? Turn the water off. And she learned, do not ever trust Mike with a tool or plumbing. Now, I say that hilariously. It’s true. She’s never asked me to do any plumbing since then. You wouldn’t want to trust Pastor Mike with electricity, amen? It would get bad. So what I’m trying to help you understand is that emotionally and spiritually, there are things in reality that, yes, I forgive you, but I can’t trust you because I don’t want to, A, enable you because maybe you’ve got a bad behavior. But I forgive you. I’m not holding on to it and let it fester in me and destroy my life. But I may not be able to trust you in a particular area. And so it is that the key for you in understanding forgiveness is to make sure that you grab onto that tool of prayer and that you understand that God’s not asking you to trust that person, especially if you’ve been abused, especially if you have been physically harmed or emotionally damaged. I’m not asking you to go back into that mess. But I am asking you for the sake of Christ and the gospel and what the world sees and what your children see, that you would choose a path of forgiveness and that you would go down that path seeking to glorify God in your choices, in how you handle and respond to others. Let’s pray. Let’s pray. Prayer plays a vital role in us being able to forgive one another. And I think the apostle makes that clear in this letter. And the key that Jesus taught us is one of the evidences that we truly are forgiven is that we can pray for our enemies. And there might be somebody in your life that has mistreated you, been mean to you, or disappointed you. And here’s the kicker is that God wants you to put them on your prayer list. And as hard as that is, Jesus says we are to pray for our enemies. So I hope today in this difficult moment that you could surrender your heart to God’s will and take that step of faith and start praying and forgiving as God works in your heart. I want to remind you that Hope Worth Having has a YouTube channel and you can hear the full entire sermon on prayer and forgiveness. In addition, you can check out other programs. We’ve been putting together playlists of different books of the Bible. So if there’s a Bible book that you’re studying and you’d like to hear what we’re saying about that and kind of an exegesis on that text, then pull up those playlists and you can begin to study them together as we learn God’s Word together. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is Hope Worth Having. Thank you. The post Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:22. If you’re struggling and you’ve ran into a wall or a lid in your ability to forgive others, you must be that person who’s on your knees asking God to purify your heart and to help you pray for the blessings and the benefit of others. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and we’re excited to be with you today, looking forward to studying the Bible together. Now, we’re back in the book of Philemon, and here is a letter that was written to a man who was a slave owner, and that certainly brings a lot of questions to it. But the main point of this letter is teaching us to forgive. And so this morning I have titled the sermon, Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness. So join me as we study together. I want to talk to you about prevailing prayer and forgiveness in your heart. Prevailing prayer and forgiveness. We come to this text in Philemon. We remember that Onesimus had stolen some money, perhaps property, possessions from Philemon. Onesimus was a slave, and he had taken things away from Philemon and ran away. And so the apostle is writing this letter to Philemon, and he wants to restore Onesimus and Philemon. And of course, Onesimus in his journeys would come across the path of the apostle. And that path that they would meet is in a jail, a prison, if you will. And they have met together, and now Onesimus has received Christ. Because when you encounter the apostle, you know what he’s going to do. He’s going to tell them about Jesus Christ. And that’s exactly what he does. He tells Onesimus about the plan of salvation. Onesimus’ heart is humbled before God, and he receives Christ as his Lord and Savior. And so the apostle is saying, Onesimus, you got to go back and make things right with Philemon. And of course, he’s like, there’s no way the guy’s going to ever receive me back. Well, Philemon was an important man in the church at Colossae, and the church actually met in his home. And so the apostle addresses this letter to him, Philemon, and he wants him to make things right with Onesimus and to have forgiveness for Onesimus. Forgiveness is hard for us as God’s people, because it’s not natural. It’s not what the world would teach us. The world would say, get revenge, burn the bridge, and destroy others who have hurt you, let you down, and disappointed you. But the apostle calls us to a higher level of living. He calls us to take the high road and to choose the path of forgiveness. But in this process of learning to forgive others and to have the motivation, to which we’ve already studied, of why we should forgive others, the apostle puts within our hands a tool that helps us to have a forgiving spirit, and that is prevailing prayer. I want you to pick up with me in verse 22, as the apostle is bringing his short letter to a close. He says to Onesimus, but meanwhile also prepare a guest room for me, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. I want you to underscore that phrase, through your prayers. You read this quickly and you probably assume, what is the significance of this verse in forgiveness and what does it mean that it would impact us to be able to be useful to help us to forgive others? Well, I want to again bring you into context that when the apostle is saying to Onesimus, prepare a guest room for me, he is under the anticipation and the hope that he’ll be released from prison, and that not only will he be released from prison, but Onesimus will be released. And he is saying to Philemon, I want you to prepare a guest room. I want you to prepare because by faith I’m believing that God is going to get me out of this place. I’m coming back to Colossae and I’m coming back to the church and I want to have this opportunity to interact with you and to help put the final explanation point on the restoration of this relationship between Philemon and Onesimus. But the apostle not being presumptive on the will of God, understood that he would take the tool of prayer and he says to Philemon, I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. That is that God would use prayer to not only bring about the release of the apostle to have the purpose of reconnecting with the church and with Philemon and also bringing about the restoration of Philemon and Onesimus, the apostle understood the great value of prayer and he places great emphasis upon the power of prayer. And in this passage he is helping us to understand that we need to embrace prevailing prayer. The one tool that God is giving to you to be able to restore relationships and to be able to have the ability to forgive others who’ve offended you, hurt you, disappointed you and let you down is prayer. I don’t want you to forget that. You may not remember anything else I have to say today and you may be asked at dinner what did the pastor preach on and you may quickly forget, but please don’t forget this. The tool that God has given you and me to be able to forgive others is prevailing prayer. Now let’s understand prayer a little bit because it’s important for us to be reminded of basic truths about prayer and the process of prayer of God answering our prayers is very important because sometimes people say to me well God hasn’t answered my prayer. Well God always answers prayer and that’s a wonderful truth for you to hold on to that God does answer prayer. Now sometimes his answer is very direct and he says yes and he just kind of waiting on us to ask and we miss out on great opportunities and great movements of God because we are not praying as we should. But we also have to remember that sometimes our answer from God is delayed because the timing is not right and so we are seeking God, we’re praying to God, we’re asking God to change something, a circumstance, a problem, perhaps even a person, but God has delayed that answer. Sometimes God’s answers are different. They’re different from what we want. How many times can you remember that your children came to you and wanted something and you knew that if you answered that request well that would make a mess of their life and you know I want you to know that there are times that you and I come to God and we bring our requests to him and God knows that if he were to give us that request it would make a mess of our life. Oh it may make you more wealthy and it may make you more prosperous in the eyes of the world but what would it do for you spiritually? Some of you have been praying for a job promotion. Some of you have been praying for a different job and some of you have been praying for certain things to come together for you financially and God has not answered it the way you want it to be answered. I’ll tell you why. Because God knows that you will no longer depend on him and you will look to money and you will look to your job and the things of this world instead of trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. The other thing is that God sometimes doesn’t give you the answer that you want is because he knows that if these things were to come into your life that you would take a step back spiritually. That you would retreat in your passion and your love for God and that God would begin to see a backsliding in your life. And so sometimes the answers God gives us are different than the requests and the answer that we desire. But also I want you to remember that sometimes God denies our requests. Did you know that? I know it’s hard for you to believe because all your life maybe your parents told you yes. Maybe your grandparents continue to tell you yes and yes. But I want to tell you that God sometimes says no. And he does it not to crush you, not to destroy you, but he denies your request because it is not spiritually healthy for you. It’s not something that would draw you closer to God. And so we trust in his wisdom. We trust in his ways which are higher than ours and beyond our own understanding. And we put our faith and trust in God. And we do not trust God and we do not believe God and we do not have faith in God just because he always says yes to our requests. But we trust him because of who he is. He’s holy. He’s righteous. He’s sovereign. He’s almighty. He’s greater. He’s far beyond what you and I could ever comprehend. And we know that God is always going to do what is right for our life. The hope of prayer, when you and I pray, we certainly want a response from heaven. And many times when we are praying, we are looking for resources from heaven. And I think this is what I see in verse 22, is that as the apostle is anticipating by faith that God’s going to open the door for him to get out of this prison, but he recognizes that prayer has to be a part of this. He says, I trust that through your prayers, I shall be granted unto you. He is praying that Philemon and the church at Colossae will band together and pray for the apostle. That they will pray not only for his strength and for his stamina and his faith, but they will pray for his release. They will seek God in heaven. You remember that the early church prayed for the apostle Peter. And they prayed and they met together and they prayed. Some people say, well, I can pray by myself. Why should I go to church to pray? Because there’s great power in prayer. Amen? And God has called us not just to pray individually, which we should do, but he’s called us to pray collectively and to pray together as the church family. And there’s nothing wrong with us coming together and praying together. And that’s what the early church did. They prayed together and they prayed that God would release the apostle Peter and God sent an angel and released Peter from jail. And Peter showed up at the church and he was knocking on the door where they had gathered. And a little servant came to the door and said, Hey, it’s the apostle Peter. And they didn’t believe the little girl that it was the apostle Peter. Can God send his angels and resources to you and me to assist us in the challenges of life? Absolutely. And so when we pray, that is our hope that the hand of God will be moved. It is the hope of the apostle here in this text that God will work through the prayers of his people. And when it comes to our ability to be able to learn, to forgive others and to act upon that, it is going to be through our own personal prayer. And it’s also going to be through God using the prayers of his people in our life so that we can get to that moment that we have the resources from heaven, that God’s spirit is so filled us and that we so desire to emulate our heavenly father and to live in step with the spirit that we would choose the path of prayer. So let’s learn more about prayer this morning. First of all, the expression of prevailing prayer, the word of God encourages us to pray and pray much, but not just platitudes. We are called to have heartfelt prayers, prayers that come from our heart to heaven. If we understood the value of prayer, I’m telling you that you and I would take on hell with a water pistol and we would be more motivated than ever. I want you to take your Bible to the book of James. Now the book of James is not too far from Philemon. You go to Hebrews, just get to the end of Hebrews and right there you’re in James. I want you to look at James chapter four and in James chapter four, he is speaking about prayer to us under the inspiration of the spirit of God. In James chapter four, verse two, he says, you lust and you do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Now James is confronting. James was a, he was a fireball for God. He was a true, strong willed apostle. And you remember that James, he was okay when people were criticizing Jesus to call down fire from heaven. James was also a man of great prayer. He was known in the early church as having camel knees because his knees were so worn out from him praying. He was a dynamic servant for God and he did not have any fear to proclaim the word of God and the truth of God. And he comes right out and he says, it’s because of your lust. It’s because of your desires that you don’t have, meaning you don’t have the right desires. You have desires that are of the world. You are coveting things that are not godly and are not righteous. And he says, you don’t have because you do not ask. And he goes on to say in verse three, you ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, meaning that you are asking with the wrong motives that you may spend it on your pleasures. We need to remember that as we are expressing prayer, that we have the right motives from God. And many times we have to ask God to help keep our motives in check, that when we pray, that we don’t just want it for our own pleasure, for our own selfish reasons, but we desire it so that a God would be glorified. That ought to be the ultimate desire of your prayers is that God would be glorified. Your will be done in heaven, Lord, as it is on earth or your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Forgive me, getting it backwards there. But I want you to understand this, that that should be the first motive of your prayer is that for the glory of God. But the second motive of your prayer is whatever is best and good for your life, meaning within the context of God’s will, within the context of God’s will for your life. Now, when you are praying for someone who you desire that God would help you to forgive them, it’s important that you have the right motivation. Amen. Some of you are like, I’m okay to pray like David did in the Psalms. He prayed that his enemies would be destroyed. And he prayed that they would be defeated. And he prayed what is often referred to as prayers from the heart of David as he was sharing his heart. And yes, that’s how we know that God’s word is God’s word, because it shows the strengths and the weaknesses of his servants. And David sometimes wanted his enemies to be destroyed. But we are called to be a people who desire that God works effectively within us and in the other person. So how is it that I’m going to be able to pray in such a way that I can not only be able to forgive, but that I would be able to pray in such a way that my motives would be pure before God. And that is that I have to ask the Lord to help me not to pray for the demise of my enemies or those who’ve hurt me, but that God’s will and God’s work and God’s blessings. You heard the scripture reading, bless those. We want God’s blessings. We want to be able to speak well of others. And so we must pray this way, church. If you’re struggling and you’ve ran into a wall or a lid in your ability to forgive others, you must be that person who’s on your knees asking God to purify your heart and to help you to pray in such a way that you could honestly pray for the blessings and the benefit of others. Now, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 4, 16, to let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Now, I know that you’ve always thought of this in relation to your physical needs. And I’m not saying that that’s wrong. But what if you have the need to forgive? What if you have the need to not let bitterness take root in your heart? What if you have the need that you would be able to have the need or the ability to pray for this person who has let you down? Well, the Bible says to come boldly. That means to come with confidence. You and I can come with confidence. Why do we come with confidence? Not because of who we are, not because of our skill sets, not because of somehow we’re more righteous than the person that offended us or hurt our feelings. But we can come boldly because Jesus Christ went to the cross and he died for our sins and he tore the veil that kept us out of the holy of holies. And to be able to come into the throne of God, Jesus tore that veil from top to bottom. He gave his life for our sins and he died on that cross so that we could experience forgiveness. And now we can come into the presence of God and the throne of God and we can come with confidence because of what Christ did, not what I did, but what Christ did. And we can ask the Lord to give us the grace, the mercy, the strength to be able to forgive other people. Are you there? You can come boldly to the throne of grace. You can direct your prayers to heaven and you can be intentional in your prayers and say, God, I need help. You know, it’s okay to be honest with God. Did you know that? I mean, I don’t recommend it the other way. But to be honest with God, and what I’m saying is that you may be struggling in your emotions and your feelings towards someone, and it may be your own spouse and it may be your children. It may be your grandchildren. It may be somebody that you work with or somebody even within this church. You know, you’re at the open door church, right? And you know, we’re a perfect church, right? You know, I’m being sarcastic, right? But all I’m trying to say is this. There are no enduring relationships without forgiveness. The reason people hop to different churches all the time is because they can’t win this battle. They just run. The reason people get married six, seven, eight times or in one relationship after another is because they can’t overcome this battle. And that is forgiving others. And I’ll tell you why. They can’t forgive. Because they’re trying to do it in their own strength. They’re trying to do it in the flesh rather than in the power of the Spirit, and they’re not using the tool of prayer, coming boldly before the throne of grace, seeking God to help them to be able to forgive others. The second thing I want you to see is the expectancy of prevailing prayer. You see, the Apostle Paul fully expected God to release him from his chains. He believed two things about prayer, and I want you to remember this, is that prayer moves the heart of God. Prayer moves the heart of God, and maybe you doubt that. But you remember that Hannah prevailed in prayer in asking God for a son. It was Moses who prevailed in prayer, asking God to not destroy the nation of Israel. It was Esther who prevailed in prayer, seeking God to protect Israel from Haman. It was Jonah, in his own mess, in his own choices and decisions that he had made, found himself in a great fish, and his life was out of sync and out of the will of God. But it was Jonah who learned to pray in this desperate moment that preserved his life. It’s the Apostle Paul who prevailed in prayer, getting Philemon to be able to come to that point where he would forgive Onesimus. And what I’m saying to you is, prayer moves the heart of God. Prayer moves the heart of God. And God has chosen, he doesn’t have to, but he has chosen to work through the prayers of his people. All the great spiritual awakenings, all the great revivals in America, and yes, even in this world, have always been because of a group of people, whether small or large, have gotten together and they have prayed for God’s heart to be moved. But I also want you to know this, that prayer maneuvers the hand of God. Prayer maneuvers the hand of God. Heavenly prayer allows us to move God’s hand in human affairs. There are all kinds of things happening, not just on a world level, on a national level, but things that are happening in your life. And the antidote to your problems is not for you to always come in and micromanage it and fix it. And there are people with different things going on in their life, and the answer is not for you to micromanage those people, but the answer is for you and I to pray, to pray for that person. And I know you want to fix that person. And I would say great advice for your marriage is to quit spending your life trying to fix your spouse and to spend your time praying for your spouse and with your spouse, asking God to work in both of your hearts and asking God to shape both of you in such a way that his hand would move so powerfully in your life that you could honor Christ, that your marriage could be a picture of the love of God that he has for all of humanity. That’s what’s important. The prayers that Paul had asked for the people of God to give on his behalf was that God’s hand would move the Roman government and release him from prison so that he could go get this matter settled at the church at Colossae between Philemon and Onesimus. And so it was important. So when Paul prayed, he expected God’s heart to be moved and his hand to maneuver the circumstances to make things a reality. But I also want you to see the extent of prevailing prayer, the extent. It seems that the Roman government had full control of the apostle’s life and that he was going to soon face death. But as the apostle began to mobilize people to pray, he appealed to a higher authority than the Roman government. Did you know there’s a higher authority than the president of the United States? There’s a higher authority than the governor of Pennsylvania. There is a higher authority than any political person on this planet. And there’s a higher authority than any government on this planet. And that higher authority is the Lord Jesus Christ. Can God’s people say amen? And I want you to remember that there is no government that can tell the church what to do. The head of the church is not a governor. It is not a president. It is not some bureaucrat in the government. But the head of the church is the Lord Jesus Christ. And friends, don’t forget that because all that was tested several years ago. It was all put on the line. And were we going to follow the head of the church and his commands or were we going to follow our fears and the edicts that came from the government? Friends, there’s no more important agenda than the agenda of a prayer warrior who is on their knees seeking God, for God to move in a powerful way. And that’s exactly what the apostle wanted. He wanted Philemon, who was a leader in the church of Colossae, and he wanted him to be a man of prayer. And he knew that if Philemon would start praying for Paul, guess who else he had to pray for? Onesimus. And guess what? If Philemon would pray that Paul would come back, he knew who he was bringing back with him, Onesimus. And that they were going to have to deal with this matter and that they were going to have to move forward in this matter and they were going to have to resolve this matter for the glory of God. And that’s what the apostle understood about prevailing prayer. That even in those hard cases, even in those difficult cases, in those extreme cases, that God can use prayer to change our hearts. And let me say something about that to you. Is this, the key to you understanding about prayer and praying for others is that in prayer, God is not always interested in changing your circumstances and he’s not always interested in changing people in your life as much as he is interested in changing you. No one wakes up and says, I can’t wait to forgive. It’s a emotion that is not there, but forgiveness is a choice that I make. And where and how could I ever make that kind of a choice through the grace of God? And how does that grace get to me? Prevailing prayer is the conduit that God uses to fill your heart and mind with grace, to show grace, and to give forgiveness. And so when we neglect prayer, then we are not going to be able to practice these principles that Jesus has commanded us to, like to forgive one another. And so we hope today’s message has been an encouragement to you and to help you to understand the significance of prayer and forgiveness. I want to encourage you to make sure that you check out our website, HopeWorthHaving.com. I want to also thank you for your support for Hope Worth Having Ministries. Through your contributions, we’re able to stay on the air. And if we’ve been a blessing to you, I hope that you’ll continue to support this ministry and help us in every way that you can. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having. The post Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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The Evidence of the Resurrection of Christ (Easter Sunday)

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Evidence of the Resurrection of Christ (Easter Sunday). He will be reading out of Luke 24:1-12. Remember that Thomas had his doubts, but Jesus appeared to them, and he said to Thomas, look at my nail-scarred hands, feel the wounds in my side, and then you’ll know that it is truly me. And when Thomas did that, he said, my Lord, my God. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders broadcasting from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. This is Hope Worth Having, and we’re delighted that you’re with us today. And we’re looking forward to what God has for us. And let me just say, Happy Easter. And we certainly are celebrating the resurrection of our Savior. And as part of that, we’re going to be in the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, and we’re going to learn about the evidence of the resurrection of Christ. So join me as we study the Bible together. If you have your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in Luke chapter 24, in the Gospel of Luke, the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, and then Luke. But in the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, verses 1 through 12, will be the text of our message this morning. As a believer, the most wonderful thing about Easter is the resurrection of our Savior and Lord. Yes, he has risen, and we stand here today to affirm to each of our hearts that God has raised him from the dead, and the horror of the cross is laid to rest. And Jesus has come forth in glorious triumph. And this is truly a glorious day. And that is the focus of our hearts this morning. This was no ordinary day. And we take time, and we take this moment to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why? Because the resurrection of Christ is important. It is the heart of our salvation. You remember that the Scriptures teach us in 1 Corinthians 15, that the resurrection of Christ, that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus. The good news is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. The good news is that he was buried, but three days later, he arose again. He died to take care of our sins and to take care of our past, but he has come forth out of that tomb to take care of our future. The highlight of the Christian faith is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul taught us, And if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain. You are yet in your sins. That is, that if Christ had never been risen, then we would still be in our sins. The early church understood the importance of the resurrection, and they demonstrated that by regularly meeting together on Sunday morning to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. We see this throughout the Scriptures again in Acts 20, verse 7. It says, Wouldn’t that be awesome if Pastor Mike spoke to you today until midnight? Buddy, I would be so thrilled, but I know that you couldn’t take it. It’d probably be just me. I don’t even think my family would stay. The Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 16, Revelation 1.10 says, The early church started this practice of gathering together on Sunday. Why? Because it was the day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, they gathered on Saturday, which was the Sabbath, the end of the week. It was to commemorate the resting of the believer. It was to be a day of rest. It was to be a day where there would be no work. But now that has all been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And our rest is not physical, but our rest is spiritual in that we find our rest in Jesus Christ and put our faith and trust. It doesn’t mean that you don’t need a day of rest, and it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to take time to retreat and relax and kind of re-energize and renew yourself. We’re all for that, but it doesn’t have to be on a Saturday. It could be any day. But for the believer, we begin the week on Sunday. It is the first day of the week. I know the world calls it the weekend, but for us as believers, it’s the first day of the week. It is the day that we give to God. It is the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that’s why we come together. For the believer, because of Christ’s resurrection, death has become a doorway into eternity. Death’s grip is finally conquered. Death is not the end when we meet at the grave to commit the body to the grave. It’s not final. It’s not the finish line. But for the believer, it is just the doorway, the gateway, if you will, into eternal life with Jesus Christ to be with him forever, ever, and ever, and ever. And we’ll never be separated. To be reunited with our loved ones, to once again recognize that Jesus has paved the way for us to have eternal life. We’re no longer stuck in our sinful bodies. We’re no longer stuck in this flesh, but we have been granted a new body that the Bible describes as being immortal, incorruptible. That is, that it will never decay, never fall apart, and it will never experience disease or sin ever. That is something to rejoice. When we come to the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, on this glorious day, Luke begins to describe to us the evidence of the resurrection. That if this resurrection is so profound, and it is so important that the church would gather every Sunday, and think about this, that you are a part of an assembly of believers literally around the world that are gathering on Sunday to worship Jesus Christ and to celebrate his resurrection. Luke begins to describe what the evidence of this resurrection are in that he begins in verse 1 and says of chapter 24, Now on the first day of the week, that is Sunday, very early in the morning they and certain other women with them came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. And then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this that behold the two men stood by them in shining garments. Then as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words. And then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to them like idle tales or we might call it crazy talk. And they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb and stooping down, he saw the linen clothes lying by themselves. And he departed marveling to himself at what had happened. The first evidence that Luke gives us is the empty tomb. Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb. And the location of this tomb would have been known to not only those who loved him and followed him, but even to those who were not Christians or unbelievers. It was not a secret to where Jesus was buried. But the women went to the tomb and they were coming to finish out the embalming of Jesus. If you jump back to chapter 23 and verse 53, you can see that very quickly. The Bible says, Then he took it down, meaning they took the body of Jesus down from the cross. They wrapped it in linen and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of a rock where no one had ever lain. That day was the preparation and the Sabbath drew near. There were limitations to what they could do in the preparation of the burial of the body of Jesus Christ. And so verse 55 of chapter 23 says, The women who had come with him from Galilee followed after and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices, fragrant oils, and they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. So because activity was forbidden, the women would come and they came again on Sunday morning because they wanted to be able to finish up putting the spices and ointments upon the body of Christ because they so treasured who Jesus was and who his body was and what it represented to their hearts and the meaning of his life and the significance of his life to them. As God’s Word presents us with these facts concerning the fact that Jesus was buried and that he rose again, we are presented with something that is very important. And that is that when the women showed up, verse 2 of chapter 24, they found the stone rolled away. They found that it was rolled away from the tomb. Now most likely the women did not even know that the tomb had a large stone in front of it. It would have been impossible for them to even move that stone but not only was it in front of the opening of the tomb but the stone was sealed. We learn from other gospel writers that the Roman soldiers sealed the tomb because they didn’t want anyone to come in and take the body of Jesus Christ. And so the women coming thinking that they’re going to have access but do not have access and they find that the stone in front of the tomb has rolled away. And then they went in in verse 3 and they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. The stone was not rolled away to let the Lord Jesus out but the stone was rolled away by the angels so we could have access to the tomb. To see that our Savior was not there. To give evidence that he is risen, that he is alive. The stone was there, rolled away and then the people could come in. Later Peter would come in and he would find that Jesus’ body was gone. The soldiers that were there were told to guard the body of Christ to make sure that nobody stole it. But now all of a sudden the stone is rolled away, it was sealed and now all of a sudden the body is gone and the women were puzzled about the disappearance of Jesus’ body. But the empty tomb provides evidence for us this morning. The proof that we need of Jesus’ resurrection. Now there are those who say that Jesus did not die that he just simply swooned on the cross but this is refuted because the spear went deep into his side and Joseph and the women witnessed his dead body. Others say that the disciples stole the body of Christ from the tomb but they forget that the Romans sealed it. They sealed the tomb and they were instructed not to let anyone steal the body. And if they did, it would mean death for the Roman soldiers. The only explanation that you and I have this morning about the resurrection of Christ is that the empty tomb explains that Jesus is alive. That he has risen again and that he is not to be found among the dead but he is to be found among the living. And the empty tomb testifies to us this morning that Jesus Christ has risen again. The resurrection, this story, those skeptics who would say it’s just a theory, Mike but it would not have lasted in Jerusalem. For a single hour, if the authorities could have found the body they would have been able to say, here is his body. Somebody stole his body and so there is no resurrection. It would not have lasted for even an hour but my friends, there was no body to be found because our Savior was risen again and he is alive today. The holiness and the love of God was seen on the cross when we saw our Savior suspended between heaven and earth. But forgiveness and grace is seen in the empty tomb. If Christ would not have been raised from the dead he would not have been able to forgive us of our sins. What I want you to recognize this morning is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the affirmation that the Father has accepted his sacrifice for your sins and my sins. And it is through the resurrection that we rejoice in the culmination of the grace and forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ. The first evidence that Luke presents to us is the empty tomb. The second is the prophecy of Christ. We come down to verse 5 and the Bible says, Then as they were afraid and they bowed their faces to the earth that is the women. Why are they afraid? Because they saw these two men that least looked like men stood by them in shining garments. We know that they were angels. They were so overwhelmed with their glory and brightness that they began to bow their faces to the earth. And the angels said to the women, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee. And the angels began to share the prophecy of Jesus Christ that Jesus had been teaching his disciples for three and a half years. He had been teaching them verse 7, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again. Now we are in quite the quandary here. Jesus Christ is claiming to be God. He is claiming to be Lord. And he is boldly and confidently telling his disciples long before ever his crucifixion and resurrection that he will be crucified and that he will rise again. And all of a sudden in verse 8, the women they remember those words. They remember. Now if Jesus is making these kind of claims, you’ve either got to determine logically this morning that he is a crazy person, a lunatic, that he’s kind of lost it. That he is on this death mission. Or you have to say to yourself, he’s lying. He is intentionally deceiving people. He is leading them astray and that he is a cult and he is a religious leader who is taking people down a path to their own destruction. Or thirdly, you have to say that he is the Lord. Now those three options that have been presented to us by C.S. Lewis who was a great philosopher and theologian and thinker of Christianity and that’s what he teaches us here. The women had forgotten the prophecy of Jesus. They had forgotten that he said he would rise again. The angel said he’s not here but he is risen. Jesus said in Matthew 12 verse 40 long before he was crucified long before he resurrected he said for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. God’s word is always true and what he says will always happen. It always comes to pass when Jesus showed up to the tomb of his dear friend Lazarus. The funeral service was already over. He came four days after he had been petitioned to come. Lazarus was already in the tomb but when Jesus showed up he said to the family I am the resurrection and the life and he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and foreshadowing not only our resurrection but also foreshadowing his resurrection and reminding the people that were present as they were mourning and grieving over the loss of Lazarus. Jesus called forth Lazarus out of the tomb telling us that he has power not only of diseases and nature and sickness but he has power over death and to put a final explanation point on the power he has over death Jesus himself rose again in Matthew 16 verse 21 the Bible says from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. I want you to understand that the resurrection of Christ proves that his sacrifice for sin was accepted by God the Father and that everything that Jesus said would happen did happen and he is alive today. Again where are you? Are you in the camp that says Jesus was a crazy man? Are you in the camp that Jesus was lying and deceiving people or are you in the camp? Yes, what he said came true and he is Lord. There is no other explanation for the empty tomb. You can’t say that his body was stolen. You can’t say that Jesus never died he just went through kind of a swooning and a fake death. All you got to do is read about all that he endured on the cross there is no person that could have gone through what Jesus did and it’s not only that he bore the sufferings from mankind but the suffering of all the weight of sin placed upon him, upon our Savior, your sin, my sin placed upon Jesus Christ on that day. It is no wonder that the sun hid its face. It is no wonder that the earth shook for not even creation could watch the Son of God bearing the sins of the world. But yet Jesus fulfilled the prophecies that he spoke of. The third and final evidence that I want to share with you this morning is the witnesses. We look at them in verse 9 through 12 and again we see that the Bible teaches us that they returned from the tomb and they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Meaning the women went and hurried where were the disciples? They were huddling in Jerusalem afraid, fearful couldn’t understand what was going on. That’s what grief does sometimes. We lose perspective. We can’t see the big picture. But these women the Bible says they returned and they told all these things. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna Mary the mother of James and other women with them who told these things to the apostles. What is so phenomenal about what Luke is writing to us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God is that in the Roman culture, hear me, women were not allowed to give a witness or a testimony in the court of law. But Luke, he elevates the ladies because he knows that they would be truthful. Where are the men at the foot of the cross? They’re not there. They’ve all scattered and ran away, right? Where are the men that are helping Jesus’ body to be prepared for the final burial? Where are they? It is only the women that are there and it is the women who witness the angels. It is the women who hear the words of the angel and say, why are you looking for Jesus among the dead? He’s not here. He is alive. And so having experienced all that, they run to the disciples the apostles and they share this incredible story and look in verse 11, it says their words seem to them like idle tales, meaning like crazy talk. What these women are saying cannot be true. They disbelieved them. They did not trust in the story of the women and that is why Peter took off and he goes and he runs to the tomb. He wants to see for himself and what does he find? Verse 12, the Bible says he arose and ran to the tomb and stooping down, he saw the linen clothes lying by themselves and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened. Now the witnesses are evidence that Jesus truly is risen again. When we think about the witnesses, we certainly have the angels from heaven who witnessed. We have the women at the tomb who witnessed the resurrection of our Savior and we learn in the other gospels that Jesus disappeared to those women. We also have the witness of those who had died and were resurrected during the crucifixion of Christ. In Matthew 27, we learn that while Christ was being crucified, that as the earth shook, that literally the Old Testament saints rose again. That there were those who were looking forward to the Messiah, they resurrected. Can you imagine what it was like to have one of them show up at your door and say, hey, just wanted you to know I resurrected. And I’m sure this story that they had to tell of what it was like to die and the incredible joy and the peace that they had in their heart as they knew that God was with them, guiding them every step. But my friends, they were also testimonies. They were witnesses to the truth that this truly is the Son of God, the centurion. It wasn’t the apostles who stood at the foot of the cross. It wasn’t any great religious leaders that stood at the foot of the cross. It was a Gentile, a centurion who witnessed the endurance of the suffering of Christ on the cross who said, truly this is the Son of God. Because he’d never seen anything like that before. And so there they are, these resurrected bodies testifying that truly this is the Son of God. We also know that the apostles were witnesses because 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that Jesus appeared to the apostles. And we go on to read in 1 Corinthians 15 that more than 500 people were witnesses to Christ. He appeared to over 500 people after his resurrection. It wasn’t like Jesus just disappeared and never showed himself again. But we know that very evening on the resurrection day, according to the gospel of John, that Jesus Christ appeared to the disciples. Remember that Thomas struggled? Remember that he had his doubts? Remember that he wasn’t sure? But Jesus appeared to them and he said to Thomas, look at my nail scarred hands. Feel the wounds in my side and then you’ll know that it is truly me. And when Thomas did that, he said, my Lord, my God. Because only God can rise from the grave. And so we have the witnesses that Jesus again appeared for 40 days after his resurrection. For 40 days, he’s showing himself to people, over 500 people, the apostle Paul said, who gave testimony to the fact that he is alive. And this is incredible. So Christ’s resurrection rests on the evidences of many witnesses. Twelve appearances Jesus made in those days after his resurrection. He appeared to over 500 people in the span of 40 days. That is why Luke would write later in Acts chapter 1 verse 3, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion or his crucifixion by many infallible proofs being seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. The foundational truth of Christianity is the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And without it, our faith is in vain. And thus we stand before you this morning to bring to you the very evidence that the scriptures give us about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And you say, what does that mean to me, Mike? I want to remind you that the power of the resurrection that raised our Savior has the power to change your life. That’s what it means to you. When you find yourself stuck in sin, stuck in guilt, stuck in a trap of a life that is meaningless and without purpose, you have a Savior who has risen again. And if you will turn to him and you will receive him as your Lord and Savior, he, my friends, will not only wash away your sins, but he’ll give you a life of significance, meaning, and purpose. That is the power of his resurrection. He bursts within you a new beginning, a new start. How many people in this world need a brand new start? Many of us, we find the complications of this world are more than we can even deal with in our own lives. But friends, we have the confidence of this, that just as Jesus changed people in the scriptures, just as he changed and transformed the apostle Paul from a persecutor to a preacher, my friends, he can change your life. He changed a man named Peter who lived in fear, who denied him and wanted nothing to do with him, to a man who stood boldly before millions of people, preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, and thousands came to believe in Jesus. He changes people. That’s why the resurrection means so much to you. It’s not just this great theological doctrine that Pastor Mike’s trying to teach you. It’s not just that I’m trying to help you understand the scope of how the evidence is so clear and obvious, but I want you to know it personally. And that on this beautiful day, this glorious day, the resurrection that we celebrate, the resurrection of our Savior, we are blessed and have the opportunity to renew our faith and to restore our love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and to once again begin a journey of faith in where we follow Christ and we live a life of purpose and forgiveness and grace in this world that we are called. So I challenge you this morning, consider the evidence of our Savior. And there’s only three areas that you can fall in. He’s either lying or he’s crazy or he is truly the Lord. When you think about the resurrection, it is a very significant event in the history of the church and it’s very foundational to the message of Christ. And the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what we present to you are evidence and wanting to help the skeptic, the doubter, to be able to understand that we are not asking you to take a blind leap of faith, but to take a step of faith on truth. And then for you as a believer, we’re equipping you to be able to articulate that evidence that God has already given us and helps us to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the ends of the earth. We want to continue to encourage you as our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we try to do that. You can check out our website, HopeWorthHaving.com, and there’s a lot of materials, a lot of information, and you can sign up for our daily devotions. You just go to the website, HopeWorthHaving.com, and just click on the pop-up button that says, Sign up for our devotions, and write to your email box every day a devotion to encourage you, challenge you, and strengthen you in your walk with Christ. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having. The post The Evidence of the Resurrection of Christ (Easter Sunday) first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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30:02

The Motives for Forgiveness Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Motives for Forgiveness Part 2. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:19-21. That’s what Christ did on the cross. He took the pure wrath of God, the punishment of sin for you and for me so that God could receive you and you would be in the family of God and have a brand new start in Jesus Christ. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and we want to welcome you to Hope Worth Having Radio Broadcast. Thank you for tuning in today. As you get your Bible, we want to turn to Philemon chapter one, and we’re going to continue our study on the motives for forgiveness. So let’s get right into our study today. All of us have a debt of sin that could never be repaid by ourselves. There isn’t enough goodness in your life, and there isn’t enough activity in your life that could ever forgive your sins before a holy and righteous God. It is Jesus who stood up for us. It is Jesus who stood in for us. It is Jesus who took our place. We should have been on that cross, and we should have endured that suffering, and the wrath of God should have been poured out upon us, but Jesus took our place, and he did it. Why? Because he loves you, because he wants to reach you. What kind of love? If people doubt that God loves them, I tell them, get to the cross, because when you get to the cross, you see not only the holiness of God, but you see the love of God that he has and the passion that he would give his very son for you and for me so that our sins could be forgiven. The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus took on the debt of sinners, and he paid it full on the cross. Think about that. You see, that’s why I’m a big believer that once God forgives you of your sins, that he has taken care of the full debt. I don’t believe that I can come in and help God with the debt. I don’t believe that I can add and do anything better with the debt. I believe that Christ’s payment for my sin was more than sufficient on the cross, and my motivation for holiness is not that I’m trying to pay back Jesus. My motivation for holiness is not that I’m trying to forever pay back God for my sins, but my motivation is an expression of gratitude to Jesus and a gratitude to God that my sins have been washed away. And the Bible says that my sins are cast as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more. Psalm 103, verse 12, as far as the east is from the west. Can God’s people say amen? Amen. So we are thankful today that Jesus triumphed over death. He triumphed over sin. He triumphed over Satan, and he reached out to me for salvation. And so my life is not a life of trying to pay back. That debt has been paid by Jesus Christ. Now, this is profound because we must realize how fully we have been freed from our sin. We must realize how much God has done for us to wipe away the guilt and to shake off the shame and to leave behind all the negativity and the sinfulness in our life. And now God has given us a brand new start in Christ. And when you come to grips with that, that you have a debt that could never be paid apart from Jesus Christ, that becomes a motivation in your heart to forgive other people. Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer, and forgive us of our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now, the motive for forgiving sin is in the heart of God for who he is, and he forgives us not because any of us deserve it or that somehow we earned it, but he forgives us because he loves us. Now, here we are, and we are very much like the story that Jesus told. And he told about a man who was indebted to a king, and this king demanded that he pay his debts. And the man went before the king, pleaded for forgiveness, asked for grace, and asked him that he would forgive him of his debt. And the king generously, kindly, compassionately forgave this man of his debt. And then the man went out, and he began to demand all the people that were indebted to him to pay up. And he was harsh, he was hateful, he was rude, and he refused to forgive anybody’s debt as people could not pay their debt to him. The word got to the king, and the king was furious because this man had received so much but gave so little. This man had received so much forgiveness in that his debt, which was greater than all that people owed him, and he was forgiven of that debt, and his slate was wiped clean. And now he had a new start with the king, but he refused to do it to others. He refused to show forgiveness to others. Hear me, my friends, the king was angry and had this man thrown into prison because he would not show the kindness and the grace that the king had bestowed upon him. I need you to think deeper than your emotions about forgiveness. I need you to understand that when a debt is incurred, that we must remember when we are offended, when we are hurt, when we are disappointed, that we have a responsibility because of what we have received, that for two reasons of what we have received. We have received this forgiveness, and therefore, we have a responsibility to forgive others. And that when we choose to withhold that forgiveness, we are reflecting something that is untrue of our God. When you choose not to forgive, you are shaming the name of Jesus Christ who forgave you so much. You are now letting everybody know in your relationships and in your life that your God is not a forgiving God, and that your God works on the basis of works, and that you must earn your forgiveness with God. When you know in your heart that God has generously paid your debt, he has wiped it away, he has given you a brand new start, but yet what you’re projecting in all of your relationships is if you don’t live a perfect life, then I will have a bitter spirit towards you forever and ever. So our motive for forgiving others, it goes deeper than our feelings. We recognize that we have an unpayable debt. We recognize that people have an unpayable debt to us. There are times that people will hurt you, even in the family of God. There are times within the people of God that we are so deeply offended and hurt. Let me just give you a newsflash. Sometimes the people that are closest to you will hurt you the most. And the reason that they hurt so much and it’s the most is because you trust so much. Your heart is so open to fellow believers, and when that has been mishandled and when that has been hurt, the wound is deep. The psalmist talked about those who had betrayed him, that they even sat and ate bread with him. Those you’ve invited to your homes, those you’ve been to their homes, those you’ve opened your home to and you’ve sat down and you fellowship with them and you have eaten with them, many times can hurt you the deepest because of your trust and because of your love and because of the openness of your heart. But yet you still have this responsibility to recognize that even though they could never repay the debt of the hurt that they have placed upon you, that in comparison to what God has done for you, in comparison to how much God has loved you, who are you to be out there ranting and raving and claiming your unwillingness to forgive anybody? It really strikes at the heart of your theology. It strikes at the heart of what you believe about your relationship with God. Now some of you may have grown up in a relationship where the only way you were appreciated or that you were praised or you were acknowledged or encouraged was based upon performance. It was based upon what you did. But I want you to know that the Bible teaches us in the relationship because of Christ, in our relationship with God because of Christ, we are accepted in the beloved. Even if we’ve made a mess of our life, even if we have made some bad choices in our life, we are accepted in the beloved. And you say, how can that be, my friends? That’s what Christ did on the cross. He took the pure wrath of God, the punishment of sin for you and for me right there on that cross so that God could receive you, he could accept you, and you would be in the family of God and have a brand new start in Jesus Christ. My second motivation for forgiving others is to make sure that I understand that it’s benefiting me and it’s benefiting others. Let’s look at verse 20. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. The apostle is appealing to Philemon to be forgiving to Onesimus for the purpose of benefiting or blessing not only Paul, certainly Onesimus, but Philemon himself. We taught you at the beginning of this series on forgiveness from the book of Philemon. Onesimus is a word that means to benefit or to be useful. So when the apostle again uses this word here in verse 20, and he says, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord and refresh in my heart. He is saying to him, I want you to live up to your name. I want you to live up to who you are and your character. How did the apostle know his character? Go back to verse 7 of Philemon. Again, there it is. We have great joy, consolation, or encouragement in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother, meaning Philemon, you have been a person who has been useful to the kingdom of God and you have been a benefit to the kingdom of God. You have brought great joy and encouragement to other, to the hearts of the saints. You have been a Christian who refreshes others. Now jump back down to verse 20. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. Here’s what he’s saying. He’s saying, Onesimus, you’ve been a useful man for God. You have been a benefit and a blessing to so many in the family of God. And he’s saying, Onesimus, let me experience that joy. Let me experience that refreshment just like you have done for others. I need you to be a man who forgives so that you can benefit others. The apostle wants to experience that joy. It would mean so much to the apostle that Philemon would keep the unity at the church. We’ve shared with you before that the church of Colossae was where Philemon worshiped. They met in Philemon’s house and the people knew Philemon. He was a man who was influential in the church. He was a man who brought great joy and he was a man who refreshed. You know what I’m talking about. There are Christians like that, aren’t there? That every time you see them, they’re so filled with joy. They’re so filled with the happiness of the Lord. They are not critical saints. They don’t drain you. They don’t drag you down into negativity, but they fill your heart. And once you’re done talking to them, you feel refreshed. Paul is saying to Philemon, be that guy again, be that guy, Philemon. And you see, church, when we come together as God’s people, we have to remember that choosing to unforgive will only create discord in the family of God and disunity. And this is true in your own family. This is true in all of your relationships. Believers should be motivated to forgive one another by the knowledge that forgiveness brings joy and it brings blessings and it benefits the family of God, the kingdom of Christ, and it benefits not just others here, but it benefits the testimony of God among the community. When you talk to unbelievers, sometimes they’ll say to me, well, I don’t go to church because all they do is fuss and fight. All they do is attack each other. And you know, it’s sad that that would be the testimony of a church family, isn’t it? Like I told you at the outset of this sermon, so many different preferences, personalities, things that we’d like to see done or not done. And it’s no wonder it seems inevitable that the church would collide and have so much conflict. Why didn’t God just make us all alike? Why didn’t God just make a bunch of Mike Sanders? Wouldn’t that be awesome? I’m just teasing. I mean, the Lord knew you can only handle one, amen? But he created us all distinct. You have children or you have people in your family, they’re distinct in their personalities and preferences. It’s okay. God loves creativity and he loves variety. But here’s the key that we have to choose that even when those personalities rub us wrong and those preferences we disagree with, that we have to choose for the sake of others and for the testimony of the Lord, for the benefit of others, we are going to forgive one another. So let’s say a husband and wife who have children decide they’re not going to forgive each other and that marriage can become a wreck and they can end up destroying one another, hating one another, and end up divorcing one another. And they may think, well, it’s only me. It’s only my husband or spouse that was hurt. But the truth is it’s a ripple effect through the family. It touches every life. The wound is deep in the children. The wound is deep in the life of the church. Sometimes I think that because divorce is so common today that we think it’s not a big deal anymore, but it is, it is. And when you get down to that moment where you’re ready to leave your spouse, I guarantee you it’s because you did not choose to forgive. You did not choose to forgive. Now, when we think about its benefit to me, meaning you personally or to others, you must remember that you have a responsibility to resolve the issues within your own heart. You have to resolve the issues. Philemon had to come to grips with his frustration, his anger, and his emotions about this guy taking property that was his. So I wanna lead you through a series of questions that’ll help you because as a pastor, so many times I see it, unresolved issues in the heart, continually to stir up, continually to boil, and drinking that poison, hoping that somebody else dies. It’s only destroying you. How do we resolve this? How do we get to that place in my life that I am full of joy and I am refreshing to others and I am blessing and benefiting the church? How do I get there where I can, Pastor, forgive others? Well, first of all, answer this question, not out loud this morning, okay? But within your heart, am I truly seeking resolution? Now think of this in two angles. Am I seeking resolution with those or the person that I am upset with? And am I seeking resolution within my own heart? Now, confrontation is difficult. Everything in my life that somebody has done to me, said to me, or neglected doesn’t always have to be confronted, or I honestly would be confronting 24-7. And I know that’s how some of you feel, but I wanna take you to a biblical proverb that says love covers a multitude of sins. Don’t misunderstand that passage of Scripture. It doesn’t mean that you and I are to compromise, that we’re to overlook sin. It doesn’t mean that we’re to avoid dealing with sin in our own hearts or in the hearts of others. It’s talking about those little things in life, those little interactions, those things that sometimes nip at us, at our hearts, and then they build up. You see, friends, Terry and I, today is our 34th anniversary. 34 years, amen. Thank you. Now, thank you. You don’t have to give credit to me, but you give credit to my wife. How could she endure and put up with Mike for 34 years? I hear you, because there’s times Mike can’t even put up with Mike. You understand that? That I’m frustrated with myself, but how is it? It’s because love overlooks a multitude of sin, that my failures, my weaknesses, my shortcomings, the things that are wrong with Mike. We’re not talking about big issues. We’re talking about small issues, that we’re not willing to make those issues to be burning the bridge, or I’m done with you, or I’ll never have a conversation with you again. And so that’s the key, is that somebody says something, somebody forgets something, somebody neglects something, you’re hurt, you’re offended. What are you gonna do about it? Are you gonna seek resolution with that person? Maybe you don’t need to. Maybe it’s something you say, well, I love them. I’m not gonna make a big deal about it. It doesn’t seem to be a big issue. Or are you gonna seek resolution in your own heart? Has that become a brick in your heart, where you’re building this huge wall in your life? You know, I did a wedding back in Indiana many, many years ago, when I was pastoring there. And this couple had come in, and of course, they’re over the top about how much they love each other, and I was trying to teach them how to do conflict resolution in their marriage. And they said, don’t worry about that, pastor. We never fight. And I said, well, once you get married, you’ll fight every day. Amen? Just get married. That’s what solves that. But anyways, they didn’t wanna hear the lesson. They didn’t really care about it. Two years later, they’re on my phone, and the wife is saying, I hate him. I can’t stand him. I can’t believe that I ever married him. And so again, we begin the process of trying to help this couple. But how does that happen in two years? Because there were little things that she never, out of love, forgave, and out of love, moved forward and resolved. But she let them fester in her heart. She let them become a brick in the wall that she was building towards her husband, to where she no longer had any emotions towards him except hate and anger. And that’s what I’m trying to tell you. And that’s what I’m encouraging you to do this morning, is seek resolution, if not with others, definitely with your own heart. Am I observing the golden rule? That’s a second question. You see, I feel like sometimes we hold standards for people that we don’t even hold to ourselves. And we’re all offended about this person and that person when we have this standard that they have to live by, a perfection standard, and you’re not even living up to it yourself. Are you treating people as you would want to be treated? I hope that you would treat other people. If you messed up, how would you like to be treated? Compassion, mercy, and love? Or would you like judgment to come quickly and swiftly upon your life? I hope that you would have the same standard. Maybe you don’t know everything. Maybe you haven’t figured it out. That’s what Jesus meant in Matthew chapter seven. Judge not lest you be judged. He’s not saying we can’t judge. He goes on to teach us how to have discernment and judgment. And that one of the things we need to remember is we don’t know everything. And so let’s not be quick to judge. And let’s not come to conclusions because there may be more to the story than you realize. And are you allowing what you want to receive relating to your relationships with others? Here’s a newsflash. People aren’t perfect. Did you know that? People aren’t perfect. And I know this is a shocker. You’re not perfect. And there’s no perfect church out there. You’ll never find a perfect church. And so we gotta remember this, that we live in a flawed world of imperfect people. And the question is, are we gonna let that ruin us, destroy us, and cause us to become bitter and angry and hateful people for the rest of our life? Or are we gonna continue to navigate this minefield and understand that there’s gonna be people who have shortcomings? But it’s okay because we’re going to extend grace to everybody. We’re gonna extend grace to people’s faults and we’re not gonna live our life angry and hateful. The third point real quickly is my last point that I need to get across to you as far as our motivations. It is our obedience to God. Look at verse 21. Why should I forgive? Well, because you’ve been commanded to. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say. You see, we are forgiven to forgive. The Bible says in Matthew 6, 15, if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. There’s a lot at stake here. If I choose the path of unforgiveness, I am not only doing that in relation to my relationship with others, but I am bringing that into the relationship that I have with God Almighty. An unforgiving Christian is a proud person who has forgotten how much they have been forgiven by God. Forgiveness is a choice. It is a choice to do what God tells you to do. And you say, well, I’m waiting for that feeling. It never comes. I never have woken up and said, I feel like forgiven today. I feel like that every person that cusses me out, I’m just gonna be forgiving to them. You never feel it, but you choose it in your life. And why do you choose it? Not because of your emotions, you choose it because God told you. The church at its core is meant to be a community united in faith, purpose, and love. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of diverse personalities, preferences, and backgrounds, and achieving true unity can be an uphill battle. But the way that is accomplished is through God’s people being forgiving when they have disagreements. And that’s what the apostle is trying to help Philemon do, is that yes, he’s been disappointed, hurt, let down, but God is calling him to a higher plane of living, and that is to be forgiving. And the motivation for his forgiveness is not that anybody’s worthy, but that Christ forgave him. And so because of what Christ did on the cross is what mobilizes us to show grace and forgiveness to others even when they let us down or hurt us. So this book on Philemon is a very challenging book and one that requires us to reflect, study, and think about a lot. And I hope you’ll do that. And if you’d like to get the message in its entirety, I want you to go to our website, hopeworthhaving.com, hopeworthhaving.com. And there you can go to our archives and just look up the book of Philemon. And as well, you can go to our YouTube channel and you can check out our playlist on Philemon, and you can listen to the full message on forgiveness. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having. Thank you. The post The Motives for Forgiveness Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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30:02

The Motives for Forgiveness Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Motives for Forgiveness Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:19-21. It is Jesus who took our place. We should have been on that cross and we should have endured that suffering and the wrath of God should have been poured out upon us, but Jesus took our place and he did it, why? Because he loves you, because he wants to reach you. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and we are broadcasting the gospel around the world and we are grateful that you are with us in sharing these wonderful truths. Join us as we are in the Book of Philemon today and we are going to study the motives for forgiveness, a very powerful truth. Join me as we study together. Your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in the Book of Philemon. Several weeks ago, our church began a study in this very small book, often referred to as a letter. And I know it’s sometimes hard to maybe find a certain book in the Bible, and so just to help you out, it’s in the New Testament and it’s right before the Book of Hebrews. If you go to the back of your Bible, kind of just track backwards and you’ll see Philemon right before Hebrews and you’ll be able to follow along with us today. Philemon chapter one and verse 19 through 21. The Bible says, I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay, not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say. The church at its core is meant to be a community that is united in faith, purpose, and love. Yet amidst diverse preferences and personalities and backgrounds, achieving true unity in the church can feel like an uphill battle. Many times there are divisions, disagreements, and these things are sometimes inevitable, but they can threaten the very fabric of a church family. So how do we navigate the complexities and cultivate a sense of unity within the church family? There is one key word and it is the theme of this book. It is the word forgiveness. I want you to remember that the book of Philemon is about forgiveness and we have been learning about forgiveness, what that is, what it’s not, why is it that some people forgive and others don’t, and why is it so difficult for us to forgive? Well, I wanna talk today about the motives for forgiveness. As the apostle is writing this letter, it is one of the shortest letters or books in the Bible, and the letter is suggesting that the apostle is writing it from being in prison or in chains, and he is trying to help Onesimus to understand his responsibility to be able to seek forgiveness from Philemon. And not only is he appealing to Onesimus to be a person who would own up to his sin, but to be willing to have Philemon come to that moment where he is willing to forgive Onesimus. Onesimus is a slave. In the Roman culture, as we have mentioned to you many times, slavery was pretty much a part of the culture. And I will address the issue of slavery and I will teach on that later, but I want you to just put that aside but understand the context of this letter, that as Onesimus was a slave, he had taken some money and property from Philemon and he ran away. Philemon is upset. He is frustrated. Onesimus, the runaway slave who had stolen money and property, runs into the apostle. Most likely, he got in trouble himself and was thrown into jail right next to the apostle Paul. Why was Paul in prison? Well, it was because he was preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so those who were hearing the apostle were upset that he was teaching the gospel, so they threw him into jail. Wherever the apostle went, it was either a great revival or there was a great riot. And unfortunately, many times, people were upset at the apostle for teaching the truth of Jesus Christ. So Onesimus and the apostle have met together and what does the apostle do? Rather than whining, complaining, and crying about his circumstances under the sovereign hand of God, Onesimus is encountering the apostle who is bold, who is grateful, who is full of joy, and who is ready to share Christ with this individual named Onesimus. And so in the process of sharing Christ with him in perhaps a very difficult circumstance, Onesimus responds to the gospel. He receives Jesus Christ as his savior. He repents of his sin and he turns away from the world and turns towards Christ and becomes a devoted follower. In this process, the apostle is discipling Onesimus and he learns about the fact that Onesimus had stolen property and money from Philemon. And so the apostle is saying, hey, part of the evidence of your repentance, part of the fruit of your true salvation is that you need to make it right with Philemon. And of course, Onesimus is like, there’s no way. He will probably have me killed or I will have to endure so much suffering if I ever went back. So the apostle begins to write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, this letter, this book, if you will, to Philemon. And he begins to make the case to Philemon that he should forgive Onesimus. Onesimus is a believer now. He is a follower of Christ. And what the apostle wants Philemon to do is to forgive Onesimus. In this, we learn some great principles about forgiveness. We learn how you and I, in all of our relationships, need to practice forgiveness. Now, refusing to forgive in your life will only imprison you. And when you choose that you will not forgive, you will be stuck in your past. And unforgiving people are always keeping their pain alive. And therefore, they are, as we have often heard, they are hurting people who are hurting people. And you sometimes wonder, what’s the matter with that person? What is it that makes them such a divisive person, a hateful person, a person who wants to hurt so many other people? What is it that causes them to throw nuclear bombs into our family and our relationships? I guarantee you it is because there are some unaddressed issues in their life, and they are holding on to some things in their heart that they have never got to the point where they have been able to forgive people in their life. Choosing not to forgive is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. But the truth is, within you, you are slowly and surely dying. So as we’ve been learning about forgiveness, we talked about the steps of forgiveness. Today, I wanna talk to you about the motivation for forgiveness. And I want you to follow along with me, take notes, because I know you don’t need it, but you have a friend that needs it, amen? And so make sure you tell your friend. And in the process of telling your friend, you may pick up a few things that will be a blessing to you. But the first reason that we should be a forgiving people is because we have an unpayable debt. Now, I want you to jump back with me to verse 19. And I want you to see the apostle says, I’m writing with my own hand. Now, why would the apostle say that? Many times, because of some of his physical challenges that he had, he had a lot of ailments with his eyes, and he talks about that in Galatians and the book of Colossians a little bit. But he would dictate his letters. And so there were those that would write that. But how passionate is the apostle about this? He is letting Philemon know, I am writing this with my own hand. You can trust what I’m saying, Philemon. I will repay. Not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. The apostle is introducing something that Philemon already understands. And that is that the apostle was saying, I will cover all that Philemon owes you. Onesimus was unable to repay Philemon. He could not pay him back. He did not have the means. He did not have the ability to pay him back. And so when you jump back to verse 18, look at verse 18 again, he says, if he has wronged you or owes you anything, the apostle says, put that on my account. I will repay. I’ll repay you. So he is, the apostle is taking responsibility for the debt that he owes, meaning not that the apostle owes, but what Onesimus owes to Philemon. Why would the apostle use these kind of terminologies? Because that’s what forgiveness is. It is a debt that we owe, meaning this, we offend somebody, we hurt somebody, we disappoint somebody, and we are in a sense indebted to them. And that’s what the Bible teaches us when we learn the Lord’s Prayer. We are taught to ask the Lord to forgive us of our debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us, reminding us always that you cannot give what you do not have. If you are not consistently and constantly in prayer with the Lord under the fountain, receiving his forgiveness because of the debt that you owe to God, you will never be in a position to be able to be a forgiving person to others because you cannot give what you do not have. And if your forgiveness tank is low, then you need to get back to the Lord and recognize that you have an unpayable debt, just like Onesimus had an unpayable debt. He could never repay Philemon. So the apostle Paul steps in in a huge way, and he says, charge that to my account. And he says, I want you to know that I will repay you, Philemon. And this is so true in each of our hearts. And I want you to think a little bit deeper about forgiveness, because most of us, the reason that we do not forgive is because it’s based upon our emotions, it’s based upon our feelings. We’ve never engaged the mind in relating to learning how to forgive. We have this emotion, we have this feeling in our heart, and so we throw up the walls, and we begin to let that bitterness take root in our heart and to poison us, destroy us. But here the apostle teaches us that we need to think about this deeper. And we need to understand that when it comes to our relationship with God Almighty, that we are separated from God because of our sin. And we have a sentence upon us because of our sin, and that there isn’t any person who is under the sound of my voice that is worthy of God forgiving them. There is no person on this planet that can say, hey, I am such a great person, it’s no wonder that God would forgive me. Because the Bible teaches us very clearly that our righteousness is as filthy rags. That means simply this, that the best of Mike Sanders and the best of you is nothing more than a filthy rag in the presence of God. Now, you say, there’s no way, I’m so much better. Here’s the thing, you’re trying to compare your righteousness, your goodness, your acts of benevolence to the other acts of benevolence or righteousness. You’re comparing people with people. And you look around and you say, hey, I’m better than that person, and I know where they were, and I know what they do, and I know how they talk, and therefore you begin to pound your chest, and you’re like the man that Jesus talked about who went to the temple, and he was at the altar of God, and he looked up to heaven, and he looked across the altar, and he said, God, I’m glad I’m not like that person over there, and he began to brag about all that he did for God. He tithed, he helped the poor, he was engaged and active in the temple, but there was another guy across the altar who was on his knees, and he was so humbled and humiliated by his sins, he wouldn’t even look up to God. And he was praying for God to forgive him, and here’s what Jesus said, and this is what rocked the world of the Pharisees. He said, the man on his knees was more justified than the man standing bragging about how good he is before God. And what I want you to recognize at the heart of your motivation of forgiving others is the forgiveness that you have received from Jesus Christ. You have a debt, all of us do, I’m not just pointing fingers, all of us have a debt of sin that could never be repaid by ourselves. There isn’t enough goodness in your life, and there isn’t enough activity in your life that could ever forgive your sins before a holy and righteous God. It is Jesus who stood up for us. It is Jesus who stood in for us. It is Jesus who took our place. We should have been on that cross, and we should have endured that suffering, and the wrath of God should have been poured out upon us, but Jesus took our place, and he did it, why? Because he loves you, because he wants to reach you. What kind of love, if people doubt that God loves them, I tell them, get to the cross, because when you get to the cross, you see not only the holiness of God, but you see the love of God that he has, and the passion that he would give his very Son for you and for me, so that our sins could be forgiven. The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus took on the debt of sinners, and he paid it full on the cross. Think about that. You see, that’s why I’m a big believer that once God forgives you of your sins, that he has taken care of the full debt. I don’t believe that I can come in and help God with the debt. I don’t believe that I can add and do anything better with the debt. I believe that Christ’s payment for my sin was more than sufficient on the cross. And my motivation for holiness is not that I’m trying to pay back Jesus. My motivation for holiness is not that I’m trying to forever pay back God for my sins, but my motivation is an expression of gratitude to Jesus, and a gratitude to God that my sins have been washed away. And the Bible says that my sins are cast as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more. Psalm 103, verse 12, as far as the east is from the west. Can God’s people say amen? Amen. So we are thankful today that Jesus triumphed over death, he triumphed over sin, he triumphed over Satan, and he reached out to me for salvation. And so my life is not a life of trying to pay back. That debt has been paid by Jesus Christ. Now this is profound because we must realize how fully we have been freed from our sin. We must realize how much God has done for us to wipe away the guilt and to shake off the shame and to leave behind all the negativity and the sinfulness in our life. And now God has given us a brand new start in Christ. And when you come to grips with that, that you have a debt that could never be paid apart from Jesus Christ, that becomes a motivation in your heart to forgive other people. Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer, and forgive us of our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now the motive for forgiving sin is in the heart of God for who he is. And he forgives us not because any of us deserve it or that somehow we earned it, but he forgives us because he loves us. Now, here we are. And we are very much like the story that Jesus told. And he told about a man who was indebted to a king and this king demanded that he pay his debts. And the man went before the king, pleaded for forgiveness, asked for grace and asked him that he would forgive him of his debt. And the king generously, kindly, compassionately forgave this man of his debt. And then the man went out and he began to demand all the people that were indebted to him to pay up. And he was harsh, he was hateful, he was rude, and he refused to forgive anybody’s debt as people could not pay their debt to him. The word got to the king and the king was furious because this man had received so much, but gave so little. This man had received so much forgiveness in that his debt, which was greater than all that people owed him. And he was forgiven of that debt and his slate was wiped clean. And now he had a new start with the king, but he refused to do it to others. He refused to show forgiveness to others. Hear me, my friends, the king was angry and had this man thrown into prison because he would not show the kindness and the grace that the king had bestowed upon him. I need you to think deeper than your emotions about forgiveness. I need you to understand that when a debt is incurred, that we must remember when we are offended, when we are hurt, when we are disappointed, that we have a responsibility because of what we have received. That for two reasons of what we have received, we have received this forgiveness and therefore we have a responsibility to forgive others. And that when we choose to withhold that forgiveness, we are reflecting something that is untrue of our God. When you choose not to forgive, you are shaming the name of Jesus Christ who forgave you so much. You are now letting everybody know in your relationships and in your life that your God is not a forgiving God and that your God works on the basis of works and that you must earn your forgiveness with God. When you know in your heart that God has generously paid your debt, he has wiped it away, he has given you a brand new start, but yet what you’re projecting in all of your relationships, if you don’t live a perfect life, then I will have a bitter spirit towards you forever and ever. So our motive for forgiving others, it goes deeper than our feelings. We recognize that we have an unpayable debt. We recognize that people have an unpayable debt to us. There are times that people will hurt you, even in the family of God. There are times within the people of God that we are so deeply offended and hurt. Let me just give you a newsflash. Sometimes the people that are closest to you will hurt you the most. And the reason that they hurt so much and it’s the most is because you trust so much. Your heart is so open to fellow believers. And when that has been mishandled and when that has been hurt, the wound is deep. The psalmist talked about those who had betrayed him, that they even sat and ate bread with him. Those you’ve invited to your homes, those you’ve been to their homes, those you’ve opened your home to and you’ve sat down and you’ve fellowshiped with them and you have eaten with them, many times can hurt you the deepest because of your trust and because of your love and because of the openness of your heart. But yet you still have this responsibility to recognize that even though they could never repay the debt of the hurt that they have placed upon you, that in comparison to what God has done for you, in comparison to how much God has loved you, who are you to be out there ranting and raving and claiming your unwillingness to forgive anybody? It really strikes at the heart of your theology. It strikes at the heart of what you believe about your relationship with God. Now, some of you may have grown up in a relationship where the only way you were appreciated or that you were praised or you were acknowledged or encouraged was based upon performance. It was based upon what you did. But I want you to know that the Bible teaches us in the relationship because of Christ, in our relationship with God, because of Christ, we are accepted in the beloved. Even if we’ve made a mess of our life, even if we have made some bad choices in our life, we are accepted in the beloved. And you say, how can that be, my friends? That’s what Christ did on the cross. He took the pure wrath of God, the punishment of sin for you and for me right there on that cross so that God could receive you, He could accept you, and you would be in the family of God and have a brand new start in Jesus Christ. My second motivation for forgiving others is to make sure that I understand that it’s benefiting me and it’s benefiting others. Let’s look at verse 20. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. The apostle is appealing to Philemon to be forgiving to Onesimus for the purpose of benefiting or blessing not only Paul, certainly Onesimus, but Philemon himself. We taught you at the beginning of this series on forgiveness from the book of Philemon that Onesimus is a word that means to benefit or to be useful. So when the apostle, again, uses this word here in verse 20 and he says, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord and refresh in my heart, he is saying to him, I want you to live up to your name. I want you to live up to who you are and your character. How did the apostle know his character? Go back to verse seven of Philemon. Again, there it is. We have great joy, consolation, or encouragement in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. The apostle Paul makes his appeal to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus and he is calling him to forgive Onesimus and the motive to forgive is not that Onesimus deserves it or that somehow there’ll be a special reward for Philemon, but rather our motivation to forgive others is rooted in that Christ has forgiven us. If we are unworthy of his forgiveness and yet God still forgave us, how much more should we forgive others? For we have offended God more than anyone has ever offended us. Let us cry out to God that he would grant us hearts that are motivated to forgive and that we understand the true reason behind forgiveness and I pray that you’ll be blessed and excited as you are growing in your faith. We encourage you to reach out to us and let us know how God is working in your life. Go to hopeworthhaving.com, hit the contact button, let us know what station you’re listening and let us know how God is working in your life. Let us know that God is doing something special. We are blessed and encouraged by these emails. So I hope you’ll reach out to us. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post The Motives for Forgiveness Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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30:02

The Steps of Forgiveness Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a The Steps of Forgiveness Part 2. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:8-18. Because God has forgiven you, that I must forgive others. And the options and the alternatives of not forgiving are destructive to my own self and my own family. And therefore I must learn as hard as it is to move forward in my faith and to forgive. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders. This is Hope Worth Having radio program. And I am glad to be able to share with you the word of God this morning. And I pray that God will work effectively in your life. Join us as we look at the book of Philemon. And we’re gonna continue our study in the steps of forgiveness. The book of Philemon is found in the New Testament. And I want you to join me as we study together. Being maybe a prisoner, like the apostle was a prisoner for preaching the gospel, for teaching the word of God. And now the apostle led him to Christ. And the apostle says, I want you to go back and make things right with Philemon. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him, to receive him back in to the fellowship. Now the apostle is not trying to get Philemon to perform the correct action on the outside. But he’s trying to awaken Philemon’s heart to understand what a good relationship is that is rooted in biblical love. Look at verse eight. Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love’s sake, I rather appeal to you. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him back because of this great love that we’re to have. And he is making the case to him that Philemon, listen, Onesimus is a different person. He’s not that same person who took some of your money, who took some of your property. He’s not that same person. He’s had an encounter in which he has received the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior. Why is it that the apostle should receive Onesimus first because of repentance? He says in verse 10, I appeal to you for my son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains. To Paul, Onesimus was a son in the faith. He came to Christ while Paul was a prisoner at Rome. Paul personally led him to Jesus Christ. And therefore he is saying because he has been willing to repent of his sins because he acknowledges them. The key principle for us as we are receiving others back into our life who maybe have hurt us, disappointed us, let us down is that when they take that step of repentance, we as brothers and sisters in Christ, as spouses, as parents, as children, we have this responsibility to recognize that God can change a heart. It’s easy to hold the past over someone, but when someone truly repents, that is repentance is turning away from your sin and turning towards Christ, we have that responsibility. And I know what you’re saying to me, this is very hard for me, pastor, but I want you to put your confidence and your trust in Jesus Christ. Now, the second reason is not only that he should receive him, but because of the transformation. By Lehman, truly was changed. The very fact that he would show up back into the church was proof that Onesimus had changed. Look at verse 11. He says, who was once, meaning Onesimus was once unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. The word Onesimus means useful. And really the apostle was making a play on words here because this word translated unprofitable and profitable could be useless and useful. Some translations of the Bible use those very words. In essence, what Paul is saying to them is that Onesimus, useful. Useful was formerly useless, but now useful is useful. God had his hand on Onesimus and he had a plan and he was calling him to be in a relationship with God. And once he made things right with God, now Paul says, you’re on this journey of making things right with others that you have hurt. Those you have taken advantage of, those you have let down, you have this responsibility. And Paul’s point to Philemon is that Onesimus has been radically transformed by the grace of God. You and I should never look down upon the transforming power of the grace of God. That we should always make that effort. Look at verse 17. If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. The second step of forgiveness is restoration. We come down to verse 15 and he says, perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose. That you might receive him forever. Paul is trying to say, look, God is at work even in our hurts. God is at work even in our disappointments. When people have let us down, God is using that for a purpose. And maybe that God allowed all this to unfold with Onesimus so that A, Onesimus would come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your troubles are not without purpose. Your pain is within the scope of a sovereign God who has a plan. We are reminded of that great passage of scripture in Genesis about Joseph. You know the story so well, how he was betrayed by his own brothers, how he was forgotten in prison, how he was falsely accused and stories and lies were made up about him. He was thrown into prison. He was finally elevated by God because in his heart, he never let it destroy him. And his brothers came because they were in need. And he said to them, but as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about as it is this day to save many people alive. It’s not that God causes our pain. It’s not that God causes our horrible experiences and our tragedies and abuses that we might experience. But I want you to remember that even in all those circumstances, God can turn it around for his good. He can turn it around for his glory. He can create restoration in our hearts. We’ve been talking a lot these last few weeks about why should I forgive? Because a lot of people aren’t motivated to forgive. And I told you last week, your motivation to forgive begins with the cross. Jesus forgave you. You and I have offended Christ. We have sinned against God for all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. And because Christ gave his life and put no strings upon it, and he gave his life for us and he went to the cross and bore our sins and he took our punishment. And that if we’ll just simply repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that we can have eternal life. Our sins can be washed away and we can experience the genuine forgiveness of God. But let me tell you two other reasons why you should forgive. Number one, to be set free from your past. You see Philemon was a Christian man who had been wronged and God was calling him to put it all behind him, forgive and move forward. The apostle put it like this, forgetting those things which are behind. Some of you are still stuck in your hurts, your griefs, your grudges. You’re still stuck and you can’t seem to move forward in your faith and you can’t seem to get to the next level in your maturity. And I’ll tell you why, because you’re looking back. Wherever you are looking is where you’re going. That’s not only true physically, but it is true spiritually. You say, but pastor, you don’t understand. And here’s my long list. I get it. And we all got our list. And I know that some are worse than others, but here’s my point. What are your options? You wanna continue to deteriorate spiritually? Do you wanna continue to go in a direction that you are not only personally struggling and limiting your spiritual life, but as well as others? You see, you have to make a choice because forgiveness is not a feeling that you float into. It is a choice that you make. Again, the apostle says in verse 14, without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion as it were, but voluntary. And let me tell you something about choosing to forgive. You don’t just choose once and then it’s done. Every time those emotions come back, every time that memory floods your mind, every time that you encounter that person, you have to make a choice by the power of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the word of God, choosing to forgive that person and moving forward in your life. What is the alternative? Bitterness, anger, hate? You see, carrying around unforgiveness is like carrying a sack of cement all day long. If you hold unforgiveness in your heart, you are walking around with a weight that God never intended for you to carry. Why should I forgive? I would say also to avoid bitterness. You see, the price of refusing to forgive is high. Unforgiveness produces hatred, bitterness and anger in your heart. The Hebrew writer said this, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it, many become defiled. There’s a lot to unpack in this verse, but did you know, he says, make sure no one fails to obtain the grace of God. You wanna put a lid on the grace of God flowing in your life? Be bitter, be angry. He also says that the root of bitterness, you see, bitterness is something that can take root in your mind and your heart. And once it takes root into your heart and mind, it is hard to get it out. It’s like those weeds in your garden, in your lawn, those beautiful dandelions that have been popping up lately. Have you noticed those? I’ve come to say, I like dandelions. I can’t keep up with them, but you gotta go in there and root them out. Notice what he says, many become defiled. You see, it’s not just you. When you’re a bitter person, you’re impacting your children. You’re impacting your family, your grandchildren. You’re impacting your church family. When you become bitter, it’s contagious and it just begins to spread like wildfire and many become defiled all around you. As a matter of fact, some people will start saying, hey, I don’t wanna be around that person because all they do is vomit bitterness every time I talk to them. So it’s something we want to avoid. And the antidote to bitterness is forgiveness. Now let’s talk about restitution, my final point. I told you it’s gonna be short. Verse 17 and 18, these are the steps, not only that the one who is offended has to take, but the one who has done the offending. If then, verse 17, you count me as a partner, the apostle is saying, receive him as you would me, but if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. Restitution is taught in the Old Testament, New Testament. If you and I have ever found ourselves offending someone, we have a responsibility to make it right and to create that opportunity of restitution. Sometimes that restitution is something physical, tangible, perhaps even financial. Maybe you destroyed somebody’s property accidentally or purposely, I don’t know, but you have a responsibility to not only apologize for it, but to restore it to do restitution. Paul was offering to step up in a big way. Onesimus, who had a troubled life, found himself in prison again. He had probably been stealing. He had probably been a thief. He had probably done many things that led him to be in prison. But then he encounters the apostle. The apostle shares the gospel with him and disciples him. His life is transformed by the grace of God. And now he’s saying, look, your next level of spiritual maturity is you gotta go back and make things right. And so in this process, knowing that Onesimus maybe did not have much financial means, Paul is saying to Philemon, I’m willing to help him make it right. Put that on my account. It’s a beautiful picture because really the apostle was following the example of Jesus Christ who reconciled sinners to him and to God. And Jesus said, put that on my account. And friends, that’s where we have to remember is that we have been forgiven to forgive. Is there any sin that you and I have committed that was greater against God Almighty? Is there any sin that we can say, hey God, would you forgive me for all my sins? But God says, I’m only gonna forgive you for 90% of them. No, we are called to forgive one another. We are to understand the great example of our Savior. Now, let me just conclude with these thoughts, the danger of unforgiveness. There’s a lot, but I just want to give you two because of time. And the first danger is that if you choose not to forgive, you are giving Satan a foothold into your life. The Bible says, be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity. The devil would like to get a foothold in your life. He would like to destroy your life, your family’s life. He would like to break up your family. He would like to see it all crumble. He does not want the community, the church, your family to see the effective work of God’s grace in your heart as well as your family. He wants to blow it up. The Bible doesn’t tell us we can’t be angry because certainly there are things that we can be angry about because we are people and we are emotional, but we can’t let it lead us to sin. The question is not are you angry, but what are you doing with your anger? Are you channeling it in a godly way, in a positive way, in a biblical way that motivates you? To be a better Christian and a better follower of Christ and a better husband and a better wife and a better child or a better parent, whatever the relationship may be. Are you letting the sun go down? Are you going to bed every night filled with anger and bitterness in your heart, holding onto the past and becoming even more angry as you go through life? Are you building walls, separating yourself? That’s the danger of unforgiveness. Another one is hindering your fellowship with God. That’s the second danger. You see, when my heart is filled with so much junk and stuff, then it limits my fellowship with God. It limits my connection with God. It limits my opportunity to experience the presence of God in my life and the power of God in my life. It puts a lid on my prayer life. That’s why Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer that we ought to pray, that we ought to pray that God would forgive us of our debts and that we would forgive those who are indebted to us. I mean, you can’t go long and far in life without being hurt and offended and upset, right? When our new members join our church, I always remind them, if you’re expecting to come to a perfect church, you’re at the wrong place. If you’re expecting a perfect pastor, staff, elders, deacons, and those who have served here, then you’re at the wrong place because somewhere down this journey, we will offend you. Some of it is most likely unintentionally, but you’re gonna get upset. You’re gonna get upset. And the question is, how are you going to let that affect your fellowship with God? Now, people say, pastor, it’s just so hard. I get it. It’s a process. It’s steps. It’s a journey. And you keep moving forward. And I think the reason some people have a hard time to forgive, and I want you to hear me because this is so important to your steps to forgiveness, is that they confuse forgiveness with trust. And that is, yes, there are people who are abusive. There are people who have done said things that it’s just hard to forgive. I’m not asking you to trust them again. I would never, if a young lady came to me and said she’s in an abusive relationship, my first goal is to get her out. I wanna protect her. If there’s any children, I wanna protect the children. I would never say go back into that abusive relationship and continue the abuse. I would never say that, but I would wanna counsel them both. And I would want to lead her, no matter what the relationship ends up being, is for her to learn to forgive. But I would say to her, it doesn’t mean you have to trust. And if you could learn that, that because God has forgiven you, that I must forgive others. And the options and the alternatives of not forgiving are destructive to my own self and my own family. And therefore I must learn as hard as it is to move forward in my faith and to forgive. But it’s okay. There’s nothing in the Bible I’ve been looking that says trust is earned and forgiveness is a gift. And we see this over and over again. And I’ll give you a quick example and then we’ll close. Is that if I came to you and I said, hey, I’d like for you to loan me $500. Could you loan me $500? I mean, there’s this great opportunity for me to go golfing in Myrtle Beach. And if I could just get that $500, I’m just 500 short. I know you gotta have more than 500 to go down there. But, and you said, all right, I’ll give the pastor $500. And you said to me, pay me back in a year, Mike. I said, gotcha. A year passes, I haven’t paid you. You’ve been texting me like crazy. You’ve been calling, I don’t answer your calls. You finally sent a certified letter and say, hello, you owe me $500. And I begrudgingly tell you that I can’t do it. I can’t give you the 500. You’re tired of messing with it. So you say, you know what, pastor, I’m just gonna forgive you of that debt. I’m gonna say, thank you so much. Oh, by the way, there’s another trip to Myrtle Beach. And I was just wondering if you’d loan me another 500. You see, you can forgive me for the past, but you don’t have to necessarily trust me for the future. And that would help you because it would help you be spiritually healthy and it would help you to take positive steps. And if I would come down later in our relationship and our friendship, and I would once again, earn that trust that you could trust me again, great. But just because you forgave me, doesn’t mean you have to trust me again and slap over 500 more dollars. So it is true in your emotional life, your spiritual life. And I wanna encourage you to remember that the apostle is not saying to Philemon, put him in charge of all your money again, put him in charge of your household again. He’s just saying, receive him as a brother in Christ and forgive him so he can continue to make things right with others. Just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Would you pray with me? Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. And at the Open Door Church, we always feel like this moment is the most critical and important because it’s our response to the gospel. It’s our response to the word. In these few short moments, while our heads are bowed and eyes are closed, if you’re here this morning and there’s someone you need to forgive, would you make a commitment in your heart to start down that journey of forgiveness? If there’s someone you need to make things right with, you have hurt, you have let down. Maybe things will never be quite the same as it once was, but you failed. And maybe you need to make that call, that email or that text. You need to reach out to them and start that journey of restitution. Would you commit right now in your heart to take those steps? What’s so ironic about forgiveness is you can’t give what you don’t have. And if you’re a person who has never received the forgiveness of Christ, we invite you this morning to acknowledge that you’re a sinner in need of a Savior and to recognize that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. Out of great love, He is offering salvation, eternal life and forgiveness. But you’ve got to have that courage and you’ve got to take that step and say, Lord, I acknowledge it because you can’t change what you won’t acknowledge. And Lord, I ask you to forgive me of my sins. You got to believe that He went to that cross for you. You got to call on Him in your heart for it is with the heart man believes unto righteousness. And whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I pray that this will be the beginning of a new journey for you. And like Onesimus, you would receive the gospel, receive the forgiveness of God, that you would look to the cross and see the incredible love that Jesus has for you and that you would turn your heart towards Him. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for the powerful principles of forgiveness and your word. And we just ask God that you will effectively work within us because we understand Lord that life can be messy and relationships are difficult. But we’re praying for your grace and your forgiveness. And we’re asking Lord that you would grant us the wisdom the courage, the power to come to you and make things right and to go to others. We pray Father that we would be a channel of your forgiveness in our hearts to others. We know it’s hard and we know people have been in some very hard situations, but I pray that you would just wash them with your mercy, uphold them with your loving kindness, that you would embrace them with your grace and that they can move forward for your glory and for their good. And we pray all this in the precious name of Jesus Christ. The gospel can not only change our broken relationship with God, but it changes and heals our broken relationships with one another. That’s the power of the gospel. And that’s what the Apostle Paul’s appeal is as he is inviting us to be able to practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is not something that you feel. You never wake up saying, I feel like forgiving today. But forgiveness is a choice you make based upon the truths and promises of God. And sometimes we take steps and choose what is right, even though we don’t feel it. Some of you are waiting for that feeling. It’s never going to come until you first choose the path and the steps of forgiveness. May God bless you and grant you the gift and the blessing and ability to have a forgiving heart. I want you to know that in order for us to nurture this forgiving heart, we have some daily devotions. And you can sign up for Pastor Mike’s daily devotion to come right to your email box. Go to hopeworthhaving.com and just sign up for the devotions. Click the devotion button and you can sign up for a daily inspirational lesson on how to stay close to Christ and to grow in your faith. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post The Steps of Forgiveness Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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30:02

The Steps of Forgiveness Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a The Steps of Forgiveness Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:8-18. Even in our hurts, God is at work. Even in our disappointments, when people have let us down, God is using that for a purpose. And maybe that God allowed all this to unfold with Onesimus so that, A, Onesimus would come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from The Open Door Church, and we’re excited to be able to share God’s Word with you today. And thankful for the opportunity to open the Bible up. Thank you for tuning in. And we’re continuing our study on forgiveness in the book of Philemon, and we’re going to learn about the steps of forgiveness. So join me as we study together. I want you to take your Bible this morning to Philemon. Now, Philemon’s a tough little book in the Bible. It’s tucked in there. It’s hard to find it. It’s in the New Testament. It’s right before the book of Hebrews. If you go to the book of Revelation and kind of just back up, you’ll run into Philemon. Be careful, because if you’re like me, sometimes my pages get stuck, and there I am. I missed over Philemon. Last week, our church family started a new study on forgiveness. The book of Philemon is a book about forgiveness. This morning, I want to talk to you about the steps of forgiveness. I won’t be able to drill down deep, but I want to give you some guidelines that will help us as we’re working towards forgiveness. There are no enduring relationships without forgiveness. There’s no way that you can be a part of an organization, an institution, or even a relationship with your spouse, your church, your family, without forgiveness. If you haven’t noticed, people are flawed. If you haven’t noticed, we sometimes fail each other. Sometimes we’re not all that we should be. And so this idea, this thought, this principle of forgiveness is something that is essential to our spiritual health. When we come to Philemon, we know that it is an overview of a letter that was written to the man named Philemon. He was a slave owner. I told the church that I will address that issue. I won’t be able to today. It would be just too complicated, but I want you at least to understand its context. Onesimus escaped. He ran away. In part of his leaving, he was most likely in charge of finances. He had some responsibility of taking care of the estate and the home and the house. But Onesimus had taken some finances. He had taken some property, and Philemon was very upset with him. And so the apostle Paul writes this letter to Philemon and saying, hey, look, I want you to forgive him. And he lays out for us some steps that help us in our relationships with one another to help us to achieve that beautiful picture of forgiveness, not only in that we have with each other, but with the forgiveness we have received from our Lord Jesus Christ. And the first principle is that he teaches is called reception. I want you to pick up with me in verse 8 and notice that the Scripture says, Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. I’m sending him back. You therefore receive him that is my own heart, whom I wish to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel, but without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. Again in verse 17 he says, If you then count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. Onesimus had an encounter with the apostle. Most likely somehow he ended up being maybe a prisoner like the apostle was a prisoner for preaching the gospel, for teaching the word of God. And now the apostle led him to Christ. And the apostle says, I want you to go back and make things right with Philemon. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him, to receive him back into the fellowship. Now the apostle is not trying to get Philemon to perform the correct action on the outside, but he’s trying to awaken Philemon’s heart to understand what a good relationship is that is rooted in biblical love. Look at verse 8. Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you, what is fitting, yet for love’s sake, I rather appeal to you. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him back because of this great love that we’re to have. And he is making the case to him that Philemon, listen, Onesimus is a different person. He’s not that same person who took some of your money, who took some of your property. He’s not that same person. He’s had an encounter in which he has received the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior. Why is it that the apostle should receive Onesimus? First, because of repentance. He says in verse 10, I appeal to you for my son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains. To Paul, Onesimus was a son in the faith. He came to Christ while Paul was a prisoner at Rome. Paul personally led him to Jesus Christ, and therefore he is saying because he has been willing to repent of his sins, because he acknowledges them, the key principle for us as we are receiving others back into our life who maybe have hurt us, disappointed us, let us down, is that when they take that step of repentance, we as brothers and sisters in Christ, as spouses, as parents, as children, we have this responsibility to recognize that God can change a heart. It’s easy to hold the past over someone, but when someone truly repents, that is repentance is turning away from your sin and turning towards Christ, we have that responsibility. And I know what you’re saying to me. This is very hard for me, pastor. But I want you to put your confidence and your trust in Jesus Christ. Now, the second reason is not only that he should receive him, but because of the transformation. Bileamon truly was changed. The very fact that he would show up back into the church was proof that Onesimus had changed. Look at verse 11. He says, who was once, meaning Onesimus was once unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. The word Onesimus means useful. And really, the apostle is making a play on words here because this word translated unprofitable and profitable could be useless and useful. Some translations of the Bible use those very words. In essence, what Paul is saying to them is that Onesimus, useful, useful was formerly useless, but now useful is useful. God had his hand on Onesimus and he had a plan and he was calling him to be in a relationship with God. And once he made things right with God, now Paul says you’re on this journey of making things right with others that you have hurt, those you have taken advantage of, those you have let down. You have this responsibility. And Paul’s point to Philemon is that Onesimus has been radically transformed by the grace of God. You and I should never look down upon the transforming power of the grace of God, that we should always make that effort. Look at verse 17. If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. The second step of forgiveness is restoration. We come down to verse 15 and he says, perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever. Paul is trying to say, look, God is at work even in our hurts. God is at work even in our disappointments. When people have let us down, God is using that for a purpose and maybe that God allowed all this to unfold with Onesimus so that A, Onesimus would come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your troubles are not without purpose. Your pain is within the scope of a sovereign God who has a plan. We are reminded of that great passage of Scripture in Genesis about Joseph. You know the story so well, how he was betrayed by his own brothers, how he was forgotten in prison, how he was falsely accused and stories and lies were made up about him. He was thrown into prison. He was finally elevated by God because in his heart, he never let it destroy him. And his brothers came because they were in need. And he said to them, but as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about as it is this day to save many people alive. It’s not that God causes our pain. It’s not that God causes our horrible experiences and our tragedies and abuses that we might experience, but I want you to remember that even in all those circumstances, God can turn it around for his good. He can turn it around for his glory. He can create restoration in our hearts. We’ve been talking a lot these last few weeks about why should I forgive? Because a lot of people aren’t motivated to forgive. And I told you last week, your motivation to forgive begins with the cross. Jesus forgave you. You and I have offended Christ. We have sinned against God. For all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. And because Christ gave his life and put no strings upon it, and he gave his life for us, and he went to the cross and bore our sins, and he took our punishment, and that if we’ll just simply repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that we can have eternal life. Our sins can be washed away and we can experience the genuine forgiveness of God. But let me tell you two other reasons why you should forgive. Number one, to be set free from your past. You see, Philemon was a Christian man who had been wronged, and God was calling him to put it all behind him, forgive and move forward. The apostle put it like this, forgetting those things which are behind. Some of you are still stuck in your hurts, your griefs, your grudges. You’re still stuck and you can’t seem to move forward in your faith and you can’t seem to get to the next level in your maturity, and I’ll tell you why, because you’re looking back. Wherever you are looking is where you’re going. That’s not only true physically, but it is true spiritually. You say, but pastor, you don’t understand, and here’s my long list. I get it, and we all got our list, and I know that some are worse than others, but here’s my point. What are your options? You wanna continue to deteriorate spiritually? Do you wanna continue to go in a direction that you are not only personally struggling and limiting your spiritual life, but as well as others? You see, you have to make a choice because forgiveness is not a feeling that you float into. It is a choice that you make. Again, the apostle says in verse 14, without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. Let me tell you something about choosing to forgive. You don’t just choose once, and then it’s done. Every time those emotions come back, every time that memory floods your mind, every time that you encounter that person, you have to make a choice by the power of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the word of God, choosing to forgive that person and moving forward in your life. What is the alternative? Bitterness, anger, hate? You see, carrying around unforgiveness is like carrying a sack of cement all day long. If you hold unforgiveness in your heart, you are walking around with a weight that God never intended for you to carry. Why should I forgive? I would say also to avoid bitterness. You see, the price of refusing to forgive is high. Unforgiveness produces hatred, bitterness, and anger in your heart. The Hebrew writer said this, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled. There’s a lot to unpack in this verse, but did you note he says, make sure no one fails to obtain the grace of God. You wanna put a lid on the grace of God flowing in your life? Be bitter, be angry. He also says that the root of bitterness, you see, bitterness is something that can take root in your mind and your heart. And once it takes root into your heart and mind, it is hard to get it out. It’s like those weeds in your garden, in your lawn, those beautiful dandelions that have been popping up lately. Have you noticed those? I’ve come to say I like dandelions. I can’t keep up with them, but you gotta go in there and root them out. Notice what he says, many become defiled. You see, it’s not just you. When you’re a bitter person, you’re impacting your children. You’re impacting your family, your grandchildren. You’re impacting your church family. When you become bitter, it’s contagious and it just begins to spread like wildfire and many become defiled all around you. As a matter of fact, some people will start saying, hey, I don’t wanna be around that person because all they do is vomit bitterness every time I talk to them. So it’s something we want to avoid and the antidote to bitterness is forgiveness. Now let’s talk about restitution, my final point. I told you it was gonna be short. Verse 17 and 18, these are the steps, not only that the one who is offended has to take, but the one who has done the offending. If then, verse 17, you count me as a partner, the apostle is saying, receive him as you would me, but if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. Restitution is taught in the Old Testament, New Testament. If you and I have ever found ourselves offending someone, we have a responsibility to make it right and to create that opportunity of restitution. Sometimes that restitution is something physical, tangible, perhaps even financial. Maybe you destroyed somebody’s property accidentally or purposely, I don’t know, but you have a responsibility to not only apologize for it, but to restore it to do restitution. Paul was offering to step up in a big way. Onesimus, who had a troubled life, found himself in prison again. He had probably been stealing. He had probably been a thief. He had probably done many things that led him to be in prison. But then he encounters the apostle. The apostle shares the gospel with him and disciples him. His life is transformed by the grace of God. And now he’s saying, look, your next level of spiritual maturity is you gotta go back and make things right. And so in this process, knowing that Onesimus maybe did not have much financial means, Paul is saying to Philemon, I’m willing to help him make it right. Put that on my account. It’s a beautiful picture because really the apostle was following the example of Jesus Christ who reconciled sinners to him and to God. And Jesus said, put that on my account. And friends, that’s where we have to remember is that we have been forgiven to forgive. Is there any sin that you and I have committed that was greater against God Almighty? Is there any sin that we can say, hey God, would you forgive me for all my sins? But God says, I’m only gonna forgive you for 90% of them. No, we are called to forgive one another. We are to understand the great example of our Savior. Now, let me just conclude with these thoughts, the danger of unforgiveness. There’s a lot, but I just wanted to give you two because of time. And the first danger is that if you choose not to forgive, you are giving Satan a foothold into your life. The Bible says, be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity. The devil would like to get a foothold in your life. He would like to destroy your life, your family’s life. He would like to break up your family. He would like to see it all crumble. He does not want the community, the church, your family to see the effective work of God’s grace in your heart as well as your family. He wants to blow it up. The Bible doesn’t tell us we can’t be angry because certainly there are things that we can be angry about because we are people and we are emotional, but we can’t let it lead us to sin. The question is not are you angry, but what are you doing with your anger? Are you channeling it in a godly way, in a positive way, in a biblical way that motivates you to be a better Christian and a better follower of Christ and a better husband and a better wife and a better child or a better parent, whatever the relationship may be? Are you letting the sun go down? Are you going to bed every night filled with anger and bitterness in your heart, holding on to the past and becoming even more angry as you go through life? Are you building walls, separating yourself? That’s the danger of unforgiveness. Another one is hindering your fellowship with God. That’s the second danger. You see, when my heart is filled with so much junk and stuff, then it limits my fellowship with God. It limits my connection with God. It limits my opportunity to experience the presence of God in my life and the power of God in my life. It puts a lid on my prayer life. That’s why Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer that we ought to pray, that we ought to pray that God would forgive us of our debts and that we would forgive those who are indebted to us. I mean, you can’t go long and far in life without being hurt and offended and upset, right? When our new members join our church, I always remind them, if you’re expecting to come to a perfect church, you’re at the wrong place. If you’re expecting a perfect pastor, staff, elders, deacons, and those who have served here, then you’re at the wrong place because somewhere down this journey, we will offend you. Some of it is most likely unintentionally, but you’re gonna get upset. You’re gonna get upset, and the question is, how are you going to let that affect your fellowship with God? Now, people say, Pastor, it’s just so hard. I get it. It’s a process. It’s steps. It’s a journey, and you keep moving forward. And I think the reason some people have a hard time to forgive, and I want you to hear me because this is so important to your steps to forgiveness, is that they confuse forgiveness with trust, and that is, yes, there are people who are abusive. There are people who have done said things that it’s just hard to forgive. I’m not asking you to trust them again. I would never, if a young lady came to me and said she’s in an abusive relationship, my first goal is to get her out. I want to protect her. If there’s any children, I want to protect the children. I would never say go back into that abusive relationship and continue the abuse. I would never say that, but I would want to counsel them both, and I would want to lead her, no matter what the relationship ends up being, is for her to learn to forgive, but I would say to her, it doesn’t mean you have to trust, and if you could learn that, that because God has forgiven you, that I must forgive others, and the options and the alternatives of not forgiving are destructive to my own self and my own family, and therefore I must learn, as hard as it is, to move forward in my faith and to forgive, but it’s okay. There’s nothing in the Bible, I’ve been looking, that says trust those. Trust is earned, and forgiveness is a gift, and we see this over and over again, and I’ll give you a quick example, and then we’ll close, is that if I came to you and I said, hey, I’d like for you to loan me $500. Could you loan me $500? I mean, there’s this great opportunity for me to go golfing in Myrtle Beach, and if I could just get that $500. I’m just 500 short. I know you gotta have more than 500 to go down there, but, and you said, all right, I’ll give the pastor $500, and you said to me, pay me back in a year, Mike. I said, gotcha. A year passes, I haven’t paid you. You’ve been texting me like crazy. You’ve been calling. I don’t answer your calls. You finally sent a certified letter and say, hello. You owe me $500, and I begrudgingly tell you that I can’t do it. I can’t give you the 500. You’re tired of messing with it, so you say, you know what, pastor, I’m just gonna forgive you of that debt. I’m gonna say, thank you so much. Oh, by the way, there’s another trip to Myrtle Beach, and I was just wondering if you’d loan me another 500. You see, you can forgive me for the past, but you don’t have to necessarily trust me for the future, and that would help you because it would help you be spiritually healthy, and it would help you to take positive steps, and if I would come down later in our relationship and our friendship, and I would once again earn that trust that you could trust me again, great, but just because you forgave me doesn’t mean you have to trust me again and slap over 500 more dollars. So it is true in your emotional life, your spiritual life. I wanna encourage you to remember that the apostle is not saying to Philemon, put him in charge of all your money again. Put him in charge of your household again. He’s just saying receive him as a brother in Christ and forgive him so he can continue to make things right with others just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Would you pray with me? When we think about the steps of forgiveness, it’s critical for us to recognize forgiveness is a gift. It is not something that we require others to earn from us, and God does not require you to earn his forgiveness, but by faith you receive it, and the grace of God is extended to you. So as you’re on this journey of forgiveness as God is teaching you to be a forgiving person, remember there are many reasons why we shouldn’t forgive, and we don’t deny that some of them are legitimate, but forgiveness is not earned. It is a gift given. As you think about your opportunity to learn more about forgiveness, make sure you check us out on our Facebook page, and in this page we have many opportunities for you to learn about principles of forgiveness. Hope Worth Having is the name of our Facebook page. Go ahead and pull it up and like us, and be a part of following our page as we continue to give you daily inspiration to help you to be faithful in your walk with Jesus Christ. This is Pastor Mike Sanders, reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post The Steps of Forgiveness Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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30:02

The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 2. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:1-7. True faith expresses itself in love, and not just in my love for God, but remember that Jesus taught us that the second commandment is like unto it, that you would love your neighbor as yourself. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and we’re excited to share God’s Word with you today all the way from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. This is Hope Worth Having. Thank you for tuning in. We’re continuing our study on the characteristics of a forgiving person. We’re in the book of Philemon. This is the New Testament, a very small letter that the apostle wrote, but a powerful message. So join me as we study together. Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. How do I know that my faith is real? You’re going to truly want to love God. You can’t get enough of Jesus, that your love for Him is not only intense, but it is passionate, and you long to please Him. You long to spend time with Him. You understand that God is calling you to love. When you read 1 John, when people come to me and they say, I’m not sure that I’m a believer, I’m not sure that I truly have the assurance of my salvation, I encourage them to take time to read through 1 John. And why would I tell them that? Because 1 John is really summed up like this, in that God is constantly challenging us to love Him and not to love the world. We’re commanded many times to not love the world, not love the things of the world. And you see the direction of your heart is a reflection of your heart. It’s not that you’re perfect. It’s not that you’ve got everything figured out. And it’s not that you even have all the answers. But the question you have to ask yourself, what is the direction of my heart? Is it a heart that loves God? Is it a heart that desires to please God and to serve God? This is the manifestation that you are a true disciple of God. Now, I also want you to see the second characteristic of a forgiving person. It is not only that they have a passion to please the Lord, but they have a passion to be patient with God’s people. I know some of you are saying, check, I got the first one, pastor. But this second one, I’m going to really struggle with. Hey, I want you to know I’m right there. Remember that, you know, I have to go through all this, putting this together. It’s torturous sometimes, putting a sermon together because God is, you know, attacking me. He’s working on Mike. Long before I come before you and have to present these wonderful truths that are in the Word of God, I’ve been wrestling with them. Some people say, what’s wrong with the pastor? Well, it may be that he’s under the heavy weight of conviction of the Word of God. It’s not that I don’t like you. It’s just that God has been working on my own heart. And I got to be ready and I got to be prepared personally to stand before you. But here is this second point that I want to bring to your attention about Philemon, is that he was a person who was patient with God’s people. The apostle brings this to our attention. And I want you to see up on the screen how I asked them to put it up there, because remember the apostle said, I’m hearing of your love. And it wasn’t just his love for God, but it was a love towards all the saints, not just the ones that are nice to him, not just the ones that work with him, not just the ones that cooperate with him, that Philemon is a leader in the church and he had a love. It was well known that he had a love towards all the saints and that the sharing of your faith may become effectively by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. Wow. That’s a lot to think about. But let’s break this down. In order for me to be patient with God’s people, I first, just like my relationship with God, I have to have a love for people. True faith expresses itself in love and not just in my love for God, which rightly so. And we are called to love God and this is where it begins. But remember that Jesus taught us that the second commandment is like unto it, that you would love your neighbor as yourself. Now some people like to run around and say, I’m in love with myself. It’s very obvious to us that you love yourself, but that’s not what Jesus was teaching. He was not saying that you should be in love with who you are and how great you are and how wonderful you are and what an amazing person you are. And I know your grandparents have been telling you ever since you came into this world, how wonderful and amazing you are. But friends, Jesus wants us to understand that when we love someone like ourself, that what he is saying that just as we care for ourself, as we make sure that our hair is combed, well at least most of us do, or we make sure that we’re clean or we make sure that we’re clothed, we’re making sure that we’re fed the basics and necessities of life, that the way you love your neighbor is to help care for them. That the way you care for yourself is how you care for others. That you might say to yourself, well, I mean, my neighbor’s doing better than me, Mike. And again, Jesus was asked the question, who is my neighbor? As if we did not know. But Jesus clarified that our neighbor is not the person who in America lives in the next lot next to us, but our neighbor is whoever is in need. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan and how there was this great need and this Good Samaritan was attacked by thieves and robbers and he was left there for dead and that it was the responsibility of us to take care of each other. And so whoever is in need is your neighbor, is the one you are to show love to. And so that’s how we define it and that’s how we understand it. And within the family of God, we are to love one another. And this shows that our faith is real. First John 3.14, remember, all throughout first John, John is bringing up our love and our hate. He’s telling us that we are to love God, hate the world in the sense of its system and the things that are destructive to our life. And he says in first John 3.14, we know that we have passed from death to life, meaning spiritual life. We know we’ve passed from spiritual death to spiritual life because we have what church or who he who does not love his brother abides in death. Now don’t be mad at the pastor because I’m just quoting the Bible, hard to process. And that’s why when we think about being patient with God’s people, we’re called to show that patience by loving them where they’re at. I’ll put it to you like this. My wife says to me sometimes, Mike, I love you, but I don’t always like you. Isn’t it hard to believe somebody wouldn’t like me? I’m just teasing. Pull yourself together, church. But what I want you to know that as we’re being patient with one another, there are times we may not like what they do or say, and we may not like their place in space that they’re at in their life. We may not always agree with them, and we certainly may not always affirm what they’re doing or not doing. But we always have an unconditional love, and we are patient with them. Are you with me, church? I know some of you might be struggling, but I want you to know in order to be patient with God’s people, you have to have this kind of a love for people. And I promise you, as I was stating earlier, I don’t even know if I finished the thought, but yes, we’re all going to offend each other. Yes, we’re all going to disappoint each other. Yes, we’re humans, and we fail each other. It’s part of life. Sometimes my children, when they were little, would say, that’s not fair, and I would just say, welcome to life. Let me give you a hug. Welcome to life. There’s a lot of injustices in this world. And yes, you may come to church, and somebody might say to you, I don’t like your haircut. And you say, no one would ever say that. Yeah, they say it to me often. And I just tell them, look, I’m just trying to hang on with what I got, amen? But what am I going to do? Am I going to have a meltdown? Am I going to cry? Am I going to kick and scream because somebody doesn’t like Pastor Mike’s hair? Hey, I don’t like Pastor Mike’s hair, amen? You know what I’m saying? I didn’t want to come in here and all plugged up on my head with new crops of hair. And you say, what happened to the pastor? It just keeps falling out. I want to tell you a story that’s funny, and it really doesn’t have anything to do with this sermon, but it just popped in my head. But I remember when my daughter was a senior at CVCS, and she was getting ready to head off to Davis College. I announced to my family I was going to shave my head. And my daughter said, Dad, please don’t do it till I get out of town and go to college. So I just remembered that. But anyways, isn’t that funny? So if we’re going to be patient, we got to love. But here’s another one. We got to share. Did you see that in the text there? Did you note what the apostle said in verse 6? Now, this is that very popular Greek word that we often have learned about, koinonia, which means to fellowship. It means to share. It means to partner with. The King James translates this as communicate. You know, that’s what it meant back in the old English. But now it means to share, to partner, to fellowship. And what I’m trying to teach you this morning is that we have to recognize that in the family of God, we’re called to share in this faith, share in this love, share in this common life as believers, this spiritual life, that we are mutual partners in the family of faith, and that we recognize in the family of God, there are people at different spaces. And maturity, and they are at different levels of their faith. Now think about this in your own family. There may have been times that you had a child that was elementary child, and you had another child that was in diapers. There are some of you that you have children that are teenagers, and then, rut-row, you got a new baby coming. And your expectations of the teenager were certainly different than your expectation of the little baby in diapers. And sometimes that could have caused friction in the church because they felt like you’re giving too much attention to the family, and you felt they were giving too much attention, not enough attention to the teenager. These things happen because we’re just trying to do life, and we’re just trying to keep our head above water. Can God’s people say amen? It happens in the church. Some of you, like one lady told me this week, she said, Pastor, I’m independent. She said, I really don’t need you. And she meant it in a positive way. She’s just independent. She’s not going to call me every second. And then I got some members in my church that call all the time. I remember when I first came to the Open Door Church, I won’t tell you the name or anything like that, but this person was calling me every day, talking to me, and it just would never be quiet. And every time I tried to interrupt them, they just talked right over my interruption. And one day they called me, and I was playing a video game with my boys, and we were playing, and I was losing, and this was important, and I had to beat my boys because this was the last threshold of what I had that I could actually beat them in. My very fatherhood and manhood was on the line. And this person called, and I tried to get them to, hey, let’s work on this later, and you know, and all that, and they wouldn’t stop talking. So I just put the phone down, finished the video game, won the game, picked it back up, and they were still going a mile a minute. It was awesome. Now, we got to learn to be patient with people, church. Some members are at different spaces. They have more needs. They’re maybe still working on some things in their life. Others of you, man, you’ve been walking with Jesus forever. You got it. You don’t have to always call the pastor. You don’t always have to have someone help you with this or that. When I first got saved, I feel bad because I was always calling my pastor, and I’d read the Bible, and I’d say, what does that mean? And I’d pick up the phone, and I’d call my pastor. Some of you don’t need that. Some of you do. It’s okay. We’re patient with one another. Sometimes we handle things great, and sometimes we don’t handle things great. But because we love one another and because we’re sharing in the fellowship with one another and because we’re sharing in the partnership and in the belonging to one another, we are patient with one another. Not only does Paul teach us that we should love and share, but we should have knowledge. Look again at the text. He says, by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. These things were true in the life of Philemon. He was a man who had the knowledge of God’s will. He had the knowledge of God’s word. He had the knowledge of God’s truth. We know that Philemon was a leader in the church of Colossae. Certainly, he could probably recall the words of the apostle in Colossians 1-9 when he said, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. God wants us to be maturing. He wants us to grow in the knowledge of who God is and the knowledge of his word and the knowledge of his will. When I first began pastoring, there were things that upset me and bothered me that today I’m like it’s no big deal. How does that happen? You grow, you learn, you experience, you understand, you learn not to make every molehill into a mountain. You learn how to handle things. You understand that sometimes people have different personalities and some people say things one way and other people might say it a different way. But you learn in this knowledge, this knowledge of God’s will, his word, his truth, his way, this knowledge that is imparted unto you as you are maturing in your faith. And so church, I want you to recognize in order for me and you to be patient with each other, you got to have a knowledge of the word of God. You got to have a knowledge of each other. You got to understand. I know how some of you are. I know as soon as I walk up to you, how you’re going to respond. I know how you’re going to handle things. I already know some of you are very excitable that as soon as there is a little ant crawling next to you in your pew, you are going to get very excitable and you’re going to start screaming and yelling, there’s a bug, there’s a bug, somebody get the bug. And I know others of you are just going to reach over and you’re going to step on it with your foot. And nobody’s ever going to know that that poor ant met its demise at the open door church. Everybody is different. They’re different. But we have this knowledge that helps us to be patient, that is effectively working in us as we are maturing and growing in the Lord. So we said, if we’re going to be forgiving people, we have to have the characteristic of making sure that we have a passion for pleasing the Lord and a passion to be patient with God’s people. But thirdly, a passion to provide for God’s people. We come down to verse seven and very quickly we’ll walk through this and we’ll see here some things that are true about Philemon. For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. So this is what he’s saying, is that Philemon being a leader in the church, he wanted to minister to the people. They may be at different levels of their maturity. They may be at different places in their walk with God, but he still had a passion to provide for them. Let me give you three things that people need. Three things that people need, and I don’t want you to ever forget this, this is not only true in your home, but it’s true in your relationships at the church. First of all, people need appreciation. They need appreciation. We go back and we see that the Apostle Paul in verse four, he said, I thank my God, mentioning of you always in my prayers. The Apostle Paul was a man who appreciated Philemon, but he also recognized that Philemon was a person who was astute to the needs of the people of God. That you and I are called to develop an attitude of gratitude for every person in this church family. If you wake up every day and you want to identify all of our weaknesses, my friends, the list is long, and let me give you a couple more that you forgot. It’s easy for a spouse to find fault with their other spouse. It’s easy for parents to rag on their children. It’s easy for us to come here as members and find fault with everything in this ministry. It’s true, my friends, I agree with you. Somebody forgot to put toilet paper in the bathroom. Well, that happened to me when I first came to the open door church, a lady came up to me and she was frantic. And she said, Pastor Mike, there is no toilet paper in the church bathroom. What are we going to do? Now, friends, I just got here, honestly. I didn’t even know who ordered the toilet paper. I didn’t know if anybody had been discipled to be designated to be the toilet paper provider. I didn’t know. And I looked at her and I said, what would you do at home? And she said, I would go get toilet paper. And I said, there’s the answer. Go get some toilet paper. You know what I’m saying? But what I’m trying to tell you is, yes, you can find fault with all of us. You’ll find fault with this sermon. I could tell you story after story, but I’m not going to take time to do that. But what I want you to know is this, if you want to provide for God’s people, be the kind of member who appreciates each other, even where we’re weak, even appreciating our differences. I mean, it’s been tough for me, but I’ve tried to appreciate that some of you actually are Pittsburgh Steelers fans and Philadelphia Eagles fans. But I still appreciate you, enjoy every time those teams lose, but I appreciate you. But you know, friends, if we’re going to be effective in this ministry, we got to understand that God wants to use our attitude of gratitude. Remember the Apostle Paul, he’s saying, I’m thanking God. I’m mentioning you in my prayers. I’m always praising God for the things that are true in your life. There are some good things. I know it’s hard to find it, but keep looking. But there are some good things. Everybody needs appreciation. If you want to be used of God, there is one way you can do that, and that is appreciate and affirm everybody. Show gratitude when you come to this place and let people know through notes, text messages, emails, and letters, and even verbally, let them know how much you appreciate what they do, what they’re sacrificing for the church, and just the love that they show and their faithfulness and obedience to God. Find ways to do that. The second thing people need is inspiration. The Apostle Paul’s life was an inspiration. It was no mistake that Paul started out his letter and said that he was a prisoner of Christ Jesus. Usually, the apostle would start his letters out and say that he was an apostle, that he was called of God, that he was always making the case for his apostleship to the church. But here, he starts out this letter to Philemon, I’m a prisoner, meaning that he possibly was under house arrest or some kind of confinement, whatever it might have been, that he was a prisoner. But Paul never saw himself as a prisoner of the government. He saw himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. He recognized that he was under the sovereign hand of God and that God was providentially working in his life. And if God had him in prison, if God had him under confinement, if God had him in house arrest, it was all part of the plan and purpose of God. And despite this imprisonment, the apostle was always showing mercy to others. He was showing kindness to others. He was showing good cheer to others. He was always concerned about others, and this is what he wanted to see in Philemon, and this is what God wants you to see in the church. I know some of you are walking through deep waters, and I know some of you have many challenges in your life, but I don’t want you to come here negative, and I don’t want you to come here beaten down on everybody. I want you to come and be inspirational, inspiring us to love God more and to love people more and to continue unto good works for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how we should come. And then we need to be refreshing. I know you had hoped I’d hurry up and get there. This was so true of Philemon. This word refreshed is a military term that described an army at rest from a march. What the church needs are people who are refreshing. There are certain people you and I avoid because they drain us. We see them out in the community, and we hide behind the bush. We jump in between the clothes at the store because we don’t want them to see us because we know what they’re going to do. They’re going to sap us of all energy for God. They’re draining, but there’s some people, as soon as we see them, we’re excited because they’re refreshers. They give us great rest. They’re renewing to us. They energize us for the Lord. We feel so connected to Christ in our conversations with them. The Bible teaches us that Philemon was a brother in Christ who refreshed others. Christian friendships are important in the church. Christian friendships are a gift from God. I want to encourage you to be the kind of friend who doesn’t dump on people, who doesn’t belittle people, who doesn’t always find fault with people, that even if we’re not all we should be, that our desire is to refresh one another when we gather as God’s people. Whether that’s one-on-one or whether that’s in a small group, a class, a Bible study, or whether it’s in a large group, that we are always striving to refresh one another. Why? Because people, whether it’s in the home, the work, or the church, people cannot grow in an environment where only their failures and weaknesses are seen and remembered. Some of you, you’re just too hard on your kids. You’re beating down on them so much they can’t wait to get out. You need to remember to be the kind of parent who is refreshing. Every time you see your brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t point out what they did wrong, but be like the Apostle Paul and point out what they did right. And be the kind of encourager that is refreshing. You say, well, somebody’s got to confront them. Well, first of all, all confrontation should be done privately. And if it reaches to that level, you should do it. And that’s fine, but in a way to restore our brothers, right, and our sisters. But you and I are called to encourage and refresh one another. And when people see you, what comes to their mind? There’s an encourager. There’s someone I want to talk to. There’s someone I want to give a hug to. There’s someone I want to shake their hand. Or do you see that people try to avoid you? Church, for a Christian to be unwilling to forgive is really unthinkable. And if we go on this journey learning about forgiveness through the book of Philemon, we have to ask ourselves the question, do we have the character that forgives others? Do we have the traits that are within us that will help us as we learn by the grace of God to be forgiving? Are these things true in our life? Would you pray with me? You cannot give what you have not received. And if you have not received the forgiveness of Christ, how could you give forgiveness to others? Real forgiveness. And so we encourage you to first be under the fountain of the grace of Jesus Christ and receive his forgiveness in your life. Even as a believer, we have the responsibility to confess our sins to God and to let his forgiveness cleanse us. The Bible says he will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And so we encourage you to first receive and thus you can give forgiveness to others. And so we hope that that’s a part of your message and your characteristics. If you’d like to learn more about forgiveness, check us out at HopeWorthHaving.com. We also have a YouTube channel entitled Hope Worth Having. And there you can see our live programming as well as archives of different sermons. There’s playlists of different topics, different books in the Bible. Take advantage of this YouTube channel for an opportunity to grow in your faith. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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30:02

The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:1-7. I don’t want you to think that somehow it’s some deep mystical magical formula that is going to help you to be motivated to be a forgiving person if you Question why you should forgive others. All you got to do is get to the foot of the cross Hello, this is pastor Mike Sanders welcome to hope worth having radio broadcasts We’re looking forward to studying the Bible together. And today we’re starting a new series called the characteristics of a forgiving Person we’re going to be looking into the book of Philemon chapter 1 of course, it’s only one chapter but a series of verses and we are looking forward to Looking at this all-important question relating to our relationships with other people So let’s get our Bible and let’s get to studying right now Want you to take your Bible this morning and I want you to go to the book of Philemon Now, I know you’re saying pastor Mike Philemon. Where is that? Well, let’s start in the New Testament and if you get to the book of Hebrews It’s right before the book of Hebrews if you run into Titus It’s right after Titus and so it’s towards the end of the New Testament You should find Philemon in my Bible. It’s just one page So be careful because every once in a while some of my pages of the Bible get stuck together and you might actually skip over Poor Philemon, but I want you to get there now We are beginning a new series a new study that I want to begin through the book of Philemon now It’s a very short letter and so it won’t take us long but it is a powerful message and there are certainly many things that must be addressed in this book and Today we’re going to talk about the characteristics of a forgiving person the book of Philemon the whole theme is forgiveness that’s the purpose of the letter is the Apostle is addressing Philemon who was a leader in the church and Philemon had a runaway slave named Onesimus Whom Paul had led to Christ while he was in prison as it happens Philemon his owner was a Christian and so most likely the Apostle led Philemon as well to Christ and Onesimus was Paul’s brother in Christ and So now Paul is writing to Philemon and he’s encouraging Philemon to receive Onesimus as an equal brother in Jesus Christ Philemon was not only a leader in the church, but the church actually gathered in his home We’ll read about that the church at Colossae met in his house in the early church many of the churches Gathered in either public places or they met in people’s homes they did not have the right to have ownership or Property and certainly in the infant stages of the church. There was so much happening that thinking about trying to have a building or a place where the church would own and gather Was very difficult But they met in Philemon’s home and we see this throughout the scriptures many believers opened their home for God’s people together and to be able to worship the Lord now Philemon is being instructed and appealed to By the Apostle Paul and the instruction is that he is to forgive Onesimus He is to accept him That he is to understand and receive him as a brother in the Lord’s Family now when we come to this passage This is a very difficult topic of forgiveness and in these few weeks that we’ll be together about this letter this book in the Bible we’re going to address what is forgiveness and How do we forgive what is not forgiveness? Sometimes people struggle. What are some of those obstacles that we have as believers to forgiveness someone once said That there can be no enduring relationships without forgiveness a husband and wife could never have many years of marriage without the willingness of both of them to be Forgiving and it’s the same way in the family of God What you’ll often see in the church is in America This is not true in other lands and other countries, but because there are so many gatherings of believers different places different buildings You go to some cities. There’s almost a church on every corner of That community and so as soon as somebody gets offended or they get hurt or they have a disagreement they run Rather than addressing those issues they run People like to run and they run from one church to the other now we understand that sometimes people might change a church for theological reasons or They may leave a church because of some of the ministries may no longer exist that they were receiving or needed We understand those things but in general We have to be careful that every time we have a disagreement with our brothers and sisters in Christ that we don’t fall into the trap of running to another church and We like to call them church hoppers and church shoppers and they run from church to church Thinking that no one will ever offend them in that new church. I like to tell our new members this It’s really a shocker to them when they take the membership class. I want you to know that somewhere somehow Someway pastor Mike is gonna upset you. How about that now? It’s not intentional I don’t rise up every morning and say how can I hurt their feelings? But what I want you to know that a there’s flesh on these bones. I mean, I’ve been married 30 I’m coming up on 34 years May 19th. And so I know that I’m not perfect But I want you to understand that whether it’s a relationship in the home or relationships in the church, the only way that these Relationships can work is that we have to be forgiving We have to be forgiving. I’ve served here for almost 20 years now and We’re in our 20th year. And how does that happen? I mean some churches have already been through four or five six pastors since I’ve shown up and How does that happen? Well, I would say to you that you are a very forgiving people But before you pound your chest don’t forget I’m a very forgiving pastor So in order for us to have a relationship this long it takes Grace, and it takes forgiveness. It takes God’s good work in each of our hearts So I don’t want you to misunderstand this passage. I don’t want you to somehow say well I’m gonna stay home during this tough lesson on forgiveness but I’ll tell you another topic that I want to address with you and that is what does the Bible teach about slavery and Why doesn’t the Bible? directly condemn slavery as A matter of fact when we read the scriptures we see that those who are slaves and those who are masters are given instructions on How to treat one another That’s sometimes very difficult for Unbelievers much less believers to process in their mind. So you hang in there. We will not address it today but we will be addressing this topic of slavery and how do we address this as Believers because it will be brought up in conversations It will be as you’re out there Witnessing for Christ brought up by many especially the younger generation as they try to understand why? The Bible does not condemn slavery so today I want to talk about the characteristics of a Forgiving person note with me again in verse 1 the Apostle says Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy our brother to Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer to the beloved at FIA Archippus our fellow soldier and to the church in your house Grace to you and peace from God and our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ I think my God making mention of you always in my prayers hearing of your love and faith Which you have towards the Lord Jesus and towards all the saints that the sharing of your faith May become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing Which is in you in Christ Jesus? for we have great joy and consolation or comfort in your love Because the hearts of the Saints have been refreshed by you Brother, remember that the Apostle is writing this letter So that he can encourage his dear brother in Christ Philemon to forgive Onesimus the Apostle ran into Onesimus not out on the street market or any particular place outside in the community, but he ran into him in prison and Amazingly the Apostle Paul being a great man of faith Was continuing to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ Somewhere in the midst of all that was happening in this prison The Apostle begins to have a spiritual conversation with Onesimus and helps him to understand that he is a sinner in need of a Savior Onesimus responds in humility and honesty before God and receives the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior Now I’m sure that Onesimus was telling the Apostle his story All of the details all of the mistakes and all the things that he had done we learned that Onesimus was a man who was a slave to Philemon and That he was a runaway slave not because somehow he was mistreated But because he had stolen money from Philemon the Apostle begins to disciple Onesimus and begins to train him that he needs to make things right with Philemon and that he needs to once again restore and do restitution to what he had taken from Philemon that is the whole background of This letter and the Apostle begins this letter not with condemnation to Philemon Not even to coming in there with a lot of pressure and a lot of demands upon Philemon But what we really see is that Paul is giving a favorable assessment of Philemon’s character It’s important for us to understand that because as the Apostle was teaching us about the character of Philemon He is also teaching us the kind of character we need Because if we’re to be a forgiving person, there are certain things that need to be true in our life if we’re a person of anger and bitterness and hate if we’re a person that as soon as we Disagree with somebody we torch the bridge and everything is over then we’re not going to have the characteristics of a forgiving person as We’ve already stated to you. There is no lasting relationships without forgiveness You can’t have a lasting relationship with your children without forgiveness and children can’t have a lasting relationship with their parents without forgiveness We understand that whether the Relationship is in the community at the job or in the church or in the home That there are no lasting relationships without forgiveness When we think about this great question of why? Why should I be a forgiving person? We can certainly come up with a lot of things that are true and they are healthy in your life But the bottom line for the believer as to why we should be a forgiving person is because Christ has forgiven us. I Don’t want you to think that somehow it’s some deep mystical magical Formula that is going to help you to be motivated to be a forgiving person if you question why you should forgive others all you got to do is get to the foot of the cross and Realize that you were not worthy. I am NOT worthy of any forgiveness that God might show upon us and When we think about our life and our journey of faith as we are trying to be fully devoted followers of Christ you know, there are many times that all of us have stumbled and We have fumbled and We have made bad choices We have had bad thoughts and our motives have not always been pure and we have stumbled in our effort to live faithfully for the Lord Jesus Christ But yet as we have already taken time in this service We have clung to that promise that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to do what church forgive us He not only forgives us, but he cleanses us of all of our unrighteousness that God is effectively and he is constantly working within me shaping me and Sharpening me to reflect the very image of Jesus Christ in this world and There is nothing more that’ll bring out the best of you and the worst of you Than having a relationship with another human being Because we are flawed people We are naturally and I’m throwing myself in there. I’m not picking on you But I want you to know we are naturally selfish We were like the old advertisement of Burger King. We wanted our way right away, man, I Went to the hospital this many years ago to visit one of our members and they were getting ready to have surgery and right there in the waiting room there was a big old sign and said it’s all about you and I want to tell them it’s not But I kept my mouth shut lest I be thrown out of the hospital And make the front page the pastor thrown out because he insists it’s not about you friends I want you to know as hard as it is for us to understand this that it’s not about us. It’s about the Lord Jesus It’s about us glorifying God. It’s about us living our lives for him So as Paul was making this big lift This big ask if you will to Philemon He begins to commend him He begins to encourage him and he teaches us the three characteristics that are needed If any of us are going to be a forgiving people What are the characteristics that we see in Philemon that need to be in us? Number one is that we need to have a passion for pleasing the Lord We need to have a passion for pleasing the Lord Do not think that somehow pastor Mike is brushing over the first few verses because I’m not we’ll come back to them But in relation to what I want to share with you, I want you to look at verse 5 The Bible says that the Apostle says of Philemon I’m hearing of your love and faith Which you have towards the Lord Jesus Philemon was a man of faith. He was a man of love. He was a man who not only had faith But he had this incredible love and so we learned that this is at the outset Should be the desire of every believer who understands that because we have been forgiven by Christ that we must be a Forgiving people but in order for us to forgive We need to have the characteristic of a desire and a passion to please the Lord What is it that helps us to please the Lord first is faith in the Lord We never are under the assumption that everyone that gathers with us truly has faith in Jesus Christ We never are under the assumption that people have all received Christ and trusted him as their Lord and Savior We recognize that even in the body and the family of God There can be those who have gone through the motions who have taken all the classes and they’ve done Everything that they’ve been asked for but they’ve never truly had faith in Jesus Christ the Apostle continues to hear positive reports about Philemon One of those things that he hears is that this is a man of faith That he is a man who has faith Towards the Lord Jesus Christ and I want you to see that and I want you to know that and when we think about faith I want you to remember not all faith is saving faith Did you hear me not all faith is saving faith you say pastor I believe I Believe well, I am convinced that there are many who miss heaven by 18 inches That is they have a head knowledge of Jesus Christ, but they have never in their heart fully Received Christ as their Lord if I could send out a warning to all parents and grandparents It would be to make sure that you are having healthy discussions with your children and your grandchildren About what is true faith? You don’t get to heaven because your parents are leaders in the church or that they are active in the church or they are Faithful in the church. You don’t get to heaven because of your parents and grandparents faith you get to heaven because you Truly in your own heart have received Christ as your Lord and Savior Saving faith isn’t just a head knowledge about Jesus. We know that the Bible tells us the demons believe also There is a distinction of what is saving faith and Yes, the demons believe and yes, they have this mental Acknowledgement and they recognize that Jesus is the Son of God and they recognize that Jesus was sent from the Father and he came to this earth and died on a cross and that he Resurrected the third day they have all that information But they have never experienced the transformation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Our hearts we are constantly Admonished by the Apostle that we are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. I Know some Christians they don’t like that and they have even expressed that to me when I preach on it And they tell me that I should not encourage people to examine the faith and I tell them I teach the whole Council of the Lord of God From Genesis to Revelation. I teach it all and I want you to know I’m not trying to create insecurity in your faith I’m not trying to cause you to doubt your faith I’m not trying to somehow Explain away some particular spiritual experience you may have had in your life But I want to make sure that you have a genuine relationship and faith with the Lord Jesus Christ saving faith is trusting in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life and It is necessary for salvation Saving faith is that I’m willing to turn away from my sin and I’m willing to turn to Christ for my salvation and If you’re just one of those people who said, you know, I got to get this person out of my life They keep talking to me about salvation They keep talking to me about Jesus and I just pray the prayer and I pray it so I can get them out So I can get mom and dad off of my back So that they will leave me alone and I can just say yeah, I prayed that prayer Well friends, I want you to know that’s not saving faith you must humbly come to God and be honest with him and Receive him as your Lord and Savior We see in Philemon that he not only had faith in the Lord, but he had a love towards Jesus Christ Look at the text again, and it says he talks about his love his faith Certainly he had a love towards Jesus Christ This is what I think is the greatest mark of a disciple That if you say you’re a true follower of Christ that it is love That is the supreme mark of discipleship It is not just something that pastor thinks about or has thought up or has dreamed up But it is actually the Word of God For the Bible teaches us that when Jesus was asked what is the greatest or we could put it this way the most important commandment in the Bible If you were to think of it this way You might think what is the bottom line of the Bible? The Bible says a lot and sometimes we can get lost in the weeds and trying to figure out this and that and what should we? Believe what shouldn’t we believe but really here’s the bottom line Matthew Jesus’s response was recorded in Matthew 22 verse 36 through 38 The question was master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him thou shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart With all your soul with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment How do I know that? My faith is real You’re gonna truly want to love God You can’t get enough of Jesus that your love for him is not only intense But it is passionate and you long to please him you long To spend time with him You understand that God is calling you to love when you read first John when people come to me and they say I’m not sure That I’m a believer. I’m not sure that I I Truly have the assurance of my salvation. I encourage them to take time to read through first John and Why would I tell him that because first John is really summed up like this in That God is constantly challenging us to love him and Not to love the world We are commanded many times to not love the world not love the things of the world and you see the direction of your heart is a Reflection of your heart. It’s not that you’re perfect It’s not that you’ve got everything figured out and it’s not that you even have all the answers But the question you have to ask yourself, what is the direction of my heart? Is it a heart that loves God? Is it at a heart that desires to please God and to serve God? This is the Manifestation that you are a true disciple of God now I Also want you to see the second characteristic of a forgiving person It is not only that they have a passion to please the Lord, but they have a passion to be patient with God’s people I Know some of you saying check I got the first one pastor but this second one I’m gonna really struggle with hey, I want you to know I’m right there Remember that you know, I have to go through all this putting this together. It’s torturous sometimes Putting a sermon together because God is you know attacking me He’s working on Mike Long before I come before you and have to present these wonderful truths that are in the Word of God I’ve been wrestling with them. Some people say what’s wrong with the pastor? Well, it may be that he’s under the heavy weight of conviction of the Word of God It’s not that I don’t like you it’s just that God has been working on my own heart And I got to be ready and I got to be prepared personally to stand before you But here is this second point that I want to bring to your attention about Philemon is that he was a person who was patient With God’s people the Apostle brings this to our attention and I want you to see up on the screen how I asked them to put it up there because Remember the Apostle said I’m hearing of your love and it wasn’t just his love for God But it was a love towards all the Saints not just the ones that are nice to him Not just the ones that work with him not just the ones that cooperate with him that Philemon is a leader in the church and he Had a love it was well known that he had a love towards all the Saints and that the sharing of your faith may become Effectively by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus Wow That’s a lot to think about But let’s break this down in order for me to be patient with God’s people I first just like my relationship with God. I have to have a love For people true faith expresses itself in love There are no long lasting relationships without forgiveness and that is what the Bible is teaching us when we think about the Characteristics of a forgiving person and whether it’s you forgiving someone or someone forgiving you We all stand in need of forgiveness from one another but the greater forgiveness that we need is found in Jesus Christ and we’ll never have a Forgiving heart if we ourselves have not received the forgiveness of Jesus Christ So we encourage you to humble your heart before him today and to receive him as your Lord and Savior And to acknowledge your sinfulness before him and as you repent and believe God will wash away your sins and give you a brand new start and then you’ll have the great opportunity to forgive Others as God has done a great work in your life Now we want to remind you that at hope worth having we have a website you can learn more about forgiveness More about the ministry more teaching of God’s Word. So check us out on hope worth having Dot-com that’s hopeworthhaving.com and learn more about this ministry and how you can grow in your faith This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having The post The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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30:02

Does God Send People to Hell Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Does God Send People to Hell Part 2. He will be reading out of Revelation 14:8-10,20:15. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Why would Jesus say that there was two ways? One built their life on the foundation of a rock, and another on the shifting sands of the world. Because you have a choice. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church. And we want to welcome you to our Hope Worth Having radio program. Thank you for tuning in today. And we’re going to continue our study on does God send people to hell? So I want you to get your Bible, and I want you to join me in Revelation chapter 14. As we answer this all important question. And that if he is a loving God, how could the doctrine of hell be true? This is an issue that troubles many people. It is so much of a hurdle for many people that they will just reject the doctrine of hell. They’ll just say there’s no way that the love of God is compatible with there being a place of hell for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Some even dismiss Christianity altogether and refuse to believe in Christ. Because they will not believe in a God that sends people to hell. Now some would say that if you believe in a God of love. If God wants all the world to be saved, and if he is not willing that any should perish. And if he gave his own son to die for our sins. How can it be that any would perish? Why wouldn’t everybody just be saved? What kind of love sends people to an eternal lake of fire? The Bible teaches us that God created hell. He originally created hell according to the gospel of Matthew. For Satan and his demonic angels who rebelled against him in heaven. A third of the angels were cast out of hell. But not only will we find that there are demonic angels in hell. But we will find that there are humans. God never intended that you and I, that humans would go to hell. But here we are. The Bible teaches us, Jesus says, there’s only two ways. There is the narrow way. And there is the broad way. The narrow way is those who believe in Christ. Those who follow God. Those who are fully devoted followers of Christ. And then the broad way is those who walk the way of the world. Live selfishly. Do what they want. Death could care less about God or Jesus. What nothing to do with Christ. The broad way would also include those who are religious. They are religious on the outside. But there is no relationship with Jesus Christ in their heart. Jesus said in Matthew 7. He said to those who were listening to him. Depart from me. You that work iniquity. For I never knew you. My friends, you get to heaven by who you know. Not by what you do. Jesus already did all the work on the cross. And you must have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That relationship may have high moments and low moments. It may have an ebb and flow to it. Not because of Jesus, but because of our hearts. And because sometimes of our struggles. And sometimes because of where we’re at in our faith, in our maturity. But I promise you, my friends. That if you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us. That whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall. Be what church? Yeah. And so that’s the most important thing. We’ll get back to that. And I’m jumping ahead of myself. Which I tend to do. My wife says, Mike, stick to the notes. Stick to the notes. So three perspectives on this question. That we have before us. Does God send people to hell? The first thing I want you to see this morning. Is that God’s attribute of love. Is consistent. With hell. We have a harmony of God’s love. And God’s justice. We have a harmony of God’s love. And this place that is called hell. And I think no better verse captures that. Than Romans chapter 5. In verse 8. In which the Bible says. God commended his love towards us. And while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. How much does God love you, my friends? So much. He wants to keep you out of hell. He gave his life for you. He took the punishment. He took the pain. He took. The very wrath of God upon him. So you and I do not have to. And that by faith in Jesus Christ. That is applied to our heart. Now the particulars may vary. From person to person. And society to society. But there is an agreement. Among all society. And most likely all people. That things that are wrong. Or what people do that are wrong. Should be punished. That evil must be judged. I mean. There is a sense of justice in each of our hearts. Right? Because that’s why you stand up. When you read the news. Or you see it on your social media feed. Or you see it on television. That’s why you stand up and say. It’s just not right. Where did that come from? For God has created within us. A conscience. And he has established within us. A moral compass. That the things that are wrong. Somebody’s got to stand up. And somebody’s got to say. That it’s wrong. And then it must be dealt with. We think about drug dealers. Rapists. Murderers. Serial killers. Corrupt politicians. Greedy people. Who get their way. And they push on people. Take advantage of people. And they create injustices. In our hearts. We know that they must be dealt with. And that they must be punished. I appreciate Brother Arnold reading Romans 5. Because it’s such a beautiful text to understand. Where you and I are at. And I want you to understand. That all of us. Are under the wrath of God. And condemnation. Because we are sinners. We are sinners. And I know some of you say. Man Mike. I’m a pretty good guy. I do all these things. And you’ve got your 10 good lists. That you’re doing. And I’m here. And I’m with you. And I’m glad that you’re doing those 10 things. But listen to me. Our righteousness. Doesn’t even come close to the righteousness of God. The prophet Isaiah said. That our righteousness is as filthy rags. And I know you don’t like me to talk about it. But it’s true. That you’ve got to understand. This is not the rag in your kitchen. That you’ve been washing dishes with. For the last 30 days. And I would recommend. That you put it in the laundry. Ladies. You’re killing us. And guys. I know. Not just ladies. Excuse me. I am so out of touch. I apologize. I apologize. But this is the rag. That the lepers would use. To wipe the pus. Off of their skin. Their skins would be filled with boils. They would wipe it off. And you would think. That somebody would come along. And they would give them a new rag. And they would put it in the laundry. And they would clean it up. But no. This is the same rag. That one leper. After another. Was used. To wipe. And they would come. And they would take that same rag. And wipe it again. All over their body. To wipe that pus off. And here’s what the bible says. To us. That our righteousness. The best of Mike Sanders. Is nothing. But a filthy. Leper. Rag. The best of Mike. Wow. I know that’s hard to swallow. In this self-esteem world that we live in. When everybody. Is so proud of themselves. And every once in a while. Somebody will tell me. And I was just talking to somebody. And they were telling me. How good they were. And I said. If you don’t say so yourself. Amen. The bible says. Let another man’s lips praise you. But we often jump in. And I find myself there. You know. I do something. And I say. Honey isn’t that nice. I mow that lawn. Look at that lawn. Isn’t that nice looking out there. And she reminds me. Let another man’s lips praise you. I said I was hoping your lips would. But here we are. We are sinners. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We’re all flawed. We’re not perfect. And this sin must be dealt with. It must be paid for. And the way that it is dealt with. Is through God’s holiness. And Jesus delivered us. And how did he do that? By going to the cross. Being our substitute. Taking our place. Isaiah 53 5 says. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes. We are healed. How is the love of God. And the holiness of God. How are they compatible. And how are they in harmony. Because though we are sinners. And though we deserve to be. In hell. Because of our sin. Out of great love. God has reached out to us. And he has provided a way for us. To experience the forgiveness. Of Jesus Christ. And that he has taken our punishment. On the cross. He has taken our pain. And if we would put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Then my friends. We can experience. The true love of Jesus. If you have ever doubted. Whether God loved you. I want you to look to the cross. If you have ever doubted. Whether God cares about your plight. Look to the cross. Because Jesus. On full display of love. He gave his life. For you and for me. Can God’s people say amen. Oh yeah I love it. Now. God’s provision for salvation. Should ever put to rest. The notion. That God’s love. And wrath. Or holiness. Are incompatible. I want you to understand that. Unlike us. God can do two things at once. Amen. I was taking prayer requests this morning. And some of the people that usually do that. We have a little Facebook thing. Where we keep track of our prayer requests for each other. In our Sunday school class. And Pastor Mike was listening. Hearing. Trying to type on his little phone. Trying to get it in there all by himself. And I told him. I said look you guys have got to slow down. Because I can’t take all this at once. It’s too many things going on. I got to slow down. One thing at a time. Ladies I’m not talking about just manhood. I know you ladies say well we do all kinds of things. At a time. I hear you. But God can love you. And God can still punish sin. Did you know that? It’s true. So the second thing I want you to consider this morning. Is how can a God of holiness. Admit sinful people. To heaven. Now the Bible says. That God loves us. But the Bible. Also declares that God. Is not only God of love. But he is a God who is holy. And someone says. Well Pastor how can a loving God. Send people to hell. Well let me just invert it for you. Because this is the greater question. I want you to consider. How can a God of holiness. Admit sinful people into heaven. That’s the greater question. That’s the most amazing thing. To me. That I’m not worthy of heaven. I’m not worthy of salvation. I am not deserving. I didn’t go to church enough. God would say to me. Hey Mike because you came. 50 times out of the year. Then you get a straight pass into heaven. That’s not how it works. Even if I came 52. And even if I could find a 53rd. And a 54th Sunday. And I came those extra times. And I got bonus points. It still would not be enough to get me into heaven. Because the best of Mike. Is nothing but a lepers rag. And therefore the greater question is. How does a holy God. Allow sinful people. Into heaven. Isaiah. When he was. In a moment of a crisis in his life. When the king. Who he administered to. Personally. And he had become great friends with. King Uzziah. Had passed away. It was devastating. Because it was a tragedy. It was a surprise. It wasn’t something that. He was in failing health. And all of a sudden king Uzziah is gone. And Isaiah is overwhelmed. With grief and sorrow in his heart. He shows up at the temple. In Isaiah chapter 6. And he is prostrate before the Lord. Weeping pleading with God. And just expressing his grief. And sorrow. And the bible teaches us that he saw God. High and lifted up. And around the throne of God. Were seraphims. Angels that were crying out. The scripture says in verse 3 of chapter 6. Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth. Is full of his glory. What you and I. Have to learn. It’s easy for us to want to. Put most emphasis on the love of God. But what we really need to do. Is balance our understanding. Of who God is. Yes he is a God of love. But friends we cannot forget. That he is a God who is holy. Think about this. In all of the bible. You’ll never find. The angels circling the throne. Crying out. Love. Love. But every time that we are given this picture. And this scene. Not only in Isaiah. But as well as in. Revelation. We see the angels crying out. Holy. Holy. In the Hebrew language. The repetition is a point of emphasis. It is not only a point of emphasis. But it is a point of priority. What I want you to know. And understand church. Is that the preeminent. Attribute of God. Is holiness. That it is out of his holiness. That all of his other. Attributes flow. That we must first. Know and recognize. That we have a holy God. Who is righteous. Who is just a God. Who is above us. Now think about this. The Hebrew word. For holiness. Has the idea of being a cut. Above. Sometimes. When I speak to the staff. I will always remind them. Leaders need to be a cut above. Leaders need to be a cut above. You say pastor. Why do you dress like. Why don’t you come in here like a slouch. Why don’t you come in here with your pajamas. And why don’t you come in here with your sweats. Now if that is you. You do you. I am not putting you down. But I am the pastor. And I am not going to come in. And I don’t want to offend anybody. And I don’t want to send anybody out. And upset. So I got to be careful what I say. And I know it is a different generation. But it is okay. As a leader. I want to be a cut above. Not better than. But when you think of God. It is not that we think of God. In terms of man. Kind. But we think of God. In terms of how the Bible has revealed him. He is a cut above us. He is a holy God. We cannot retreat from that church. And we cannot back down from that. And we cannot say well. Out of great compassion and love. We want to bring God down to us. Know my friends. I want you to exalt God in your heart. I want you to exalt him in your mind. I want you to revel in his holiness. And his greatness. And as A.W. Tozer said. His transcendency. And I know you are like. What is that? That is that God transcends. And he is above and beyond. All that we could ever imagine. And think. This is how great God is. And so the greater question is. How can a God of holiness. Admit sinful people to heaven. My third and final perspective. That I want you to consider this morning. When we ask the question. Does God send people to hell? My answer to you. Is God sends no one to hell. And that is that. Those who reject God. Choose to go to hell. They choose to go to hell. The notion that God sends people to hell. Might be accurate in this sense. That as we read in. Revelation 14 10. That they were cast into hell. Did you see that? They were cast into the lake of fire. Every once in a while. Somebody will say. I want to go to hell. No you don’t. And when that moment comes. And the smoke of that torment is. Coming up. I promise you. You will have to be cast. But what is it. That would lead to the casting. What is it. That would lead us to this point. It’s not that God sent anyone to hell. Because people send their. Selves to hell. By the choices. That they make. Ralph Powell is a bible scholar. And he said this. If the question is raised. How can a loving God send men. Or people to an everlasting hell. It must be replied. That God does not choose this destiny for men. They freely choose it for themselves. God simply concurs. In their self chosen way. And he reveals. The full consequences. Of their choice. God loves us. And he loves us so much. That he has reached out to us. To offer the opportunity. That we could avoid hell. That we could escape hell. But it is out of this love. That he also gives us. The freedom. To come. To make. Our choice. He is not willing that any should perish. But that all. Should come to repentance. Why would Jesus say. In Matthew chapter 7. Why would he keep saying. That there was two ways. And there were two people. One built their life on the foundation of a rock. And another person built it on the shifting sands. Of the world. Why does he keep offering these two options. Because he is saying. You have a choice. You have a choice. A musician named Marilyn Manson. Said I’m going to say. Hell would probably be more. Comfortable place for me. Because everyone I know would be there. I wouldn’t really. Be allowed to do anything in heaven. That would be any fun. And it’s sad. To read those words. Because. She has made that choice. The bible. Tells us in Jeremiah. That the prophet said. And now because you have done. All these works says the lord. And I spake unto you. Rising early and speaking. But you heard not. And I called you. But you answered not. You remember. The story of the great banquet. In Matthew 22. You remember that the man invited. Everybody to come to this great banquet. And nobody would come. And so he decided to go out. To the highways and to the hedges. He invited his family. He invited his friends. And they said no we’re not coming. So he went. And he invited everybody else in the world. It is a picture of God. Who has invited. All people to come. He is invited. The scripture says in Matthew 22 verse 3. He sent forth his servants to call them. That were bidden to the wedding. And they would not come. And I wonder how many people there are. That still will not come. No matter how many times. The offer is made. And the option is put before them. And the pleading is put before them. And the effort is made. To reach them with the gospel. Of Jesus Christ. That they will not come. To Jesus Christ. So the answer. To the question. Why would a good God send people to hell. Is simply this. He doesn’t. But he will let people go. To the place. That they choose. Hebrews 2. 3 sends out a warning to us. How shall we escape. If we neglect such a great salvation. It was declared at first by the Lord. And it is attested to us. By those who heard. Friends I am here to tell you. How will you escape. I mean you have this great opportunity. But you keep saying no. And how will you escape. The results and the consequences. Of rejecting Jesus Christ. You say but listen. My parents are leaders in the church. My parents are active in the church. I cut my teeth on the pews. Of this church. Surely God would let me in. No my friends. God has no grandchildren. He only has children. And no matter who you are. Just as I always told my kids. As they were growing up. You don’t get to go to heaven. Because you’re the pastors children. You have to make a personal decision. With Jesus Christ. You have to follow Christ. Repent and believe. However you want to term it. The Bible uses many terms. Of what it means. But you must be sincere. You cannot ride. On the coattails of your family. You can’t ride on the coattails. Of the pastor an elder a deacon. Or any other church member. You must come to grips. And parents I want to tell you. And I am startled by this. By how many Christian parents today. Have never had a heart to heart. Conversation with their children. About where they’re going to spend eternity. You talk about being a missionary. And you talk about reaching the world. But why don’t you start in your own home. How many parents. Have a hundred percent assurance. That their child has responded to God. In an affirmative way. How many of you have sat down with them. And you say what do you mean pastor. I’m talking about one on one. Face to face. Not being afraid. To talk about spiritual things. To your children. Because I’m going to tell you. Nothing is more important. Nothing is more important. I mean I know you’ll talk to your kids. And you’ll say do you want to play soccer. Do you want to play baseball. Do you want to do dance classes. Do you want to be a ballerina. And I think all that’s wonderful. And I’m all in. But have you ever asked your children. Have you ever asked them. If you died today. Would you go to heaven. Have you ever asked your child that. Have you ever. There is nobody that has a greater influence. On that child than you mom. And you dad. And if it’s not important to you. I promise you. It’s not important to the kids. And you say well pastor they’re too young. My wife was five years old. When she came to Christ. When her mother sat her down. And talked to her about her faith. Friends. Kids are at different ages and maturity. So I’m all in. And all my kids were at different ages. But if there was anything that was most important to Terry and I. Is that all of our children. Would know Jesus Christ. And let me tell you this. I’m a grandpa now. And the most important thing. Is that all my grandkids. And if the parents won’t. And they do. But if the parents won’t. I will. I always told my kids when they were growing up. If you don’t have a plan I do. If you don’t know what to do with your life. I do. And I would say that to anybody. If you don’t know what to do with your life. And you’re in this limbo area. Friends I got a plan. I got a plan. And I know some of you don’t like that. But I just am so certain. That I know that God has a plan. For every person in this life. I may not know all the details. But I know that God has a plan. And we’re going to get on our knees. And we’re going to seek God. And we’re going to find that plan. And we’re going to be a fully devoted follower of Christ. Listen to me. Every day people choose to live their lives. Apart from God. And I want to tell you out of great love. God allows them. If they want to live apart from him. For all eternity. He will get out of their way. He has done what is necessary. For you to have eternal life. And now the question is. Have we responded? I know this morning that the truth is jabbing at you. And I know it’s uncomfortable. And I know this is one of those days. When you came to church. And you said man the pastor is laying it on us. But the only reason I’m doing it. Is because I believe hell is real. And I don’t want you to go there. And there’s only one other person. Greater than me. That cares more. And that. Is Jesus Christ. So I remind you this morning. In closing. That hell is there. But I also want you to know. The cross is there. And if you would just turn away from sin and self. And turn towards Jesus this morning. Heaven. Can be. Your home. Does God send people to hell? Well the truth is. We send ourselves to hell. God paves the way. For us to have eternal life. And we respond to that. And so I know that some people. Struggle with this question. And they even use it as a reason. Why they don’t believe. But I want you to know. That the most important question is. Not does God send people to hell. But the question is. Are you going to hell? Have you put your faith and trust. In the Lord Jesus Christ. And received him as your savior. And if you haven’t. You need to make that decision today. You need to respond to God. And it all begins by acknowledging. That you’re a sinner in need of a savior. And then believing in your heart. That Jesus died on the cross. For your sins. And rose again the third day. And calling upon him. And reaching out to him. And receiving him as your lord and savior. This is Pastor Mike Sanders. Reminding you that in Christ. There is hope worth having. The post Does God Send People to Hell Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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30:02

Does God Send People to Hell Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Does God Send People to Hell Part 1. He will be reading out of Revelation 14:8-10,20:15. If you have ever doubted whether God loved you I want you to look to the cross if you have ever doubted whether God cares about your plight look to the cross Because Jesus on full display of love. He gave his life for you and for me Can God’s people say man? This is hope worth having and this is your host pastor Mike Sanders looking forward to sharing the hope that is found in Jesus Christ today We are gonna be in Revelation chapter 14, and we’re gonna be addressing this question Does God send people to hell so I want you to think about that and I want you to join me as we study this incredible question this morning I Want you to take your Bible this morning and join me in Revelation chapter 14 We’re gonna be covering verse 8 through 10 plus chapter 20 So put your finger there in chapter 14 and make sure that you go ahead and look up chapter 20 and verse 15 Revelation 14 8 through 10 and Revelation 20 through 15. I want to read these verses and then kind of give you a quick overview of Revelation chapter 14 and Dive into this all-important question Does God? Send people to hell Now we have been studying This series about five questions about heaven and five questions about hell Last week we finished our fifth question about heaven and today is our final question about hell Not that there aren’t other questions and not that we would never come back and consider those questions But for our particular series and study that we have been doing for the last few weeks This will be the final question that we will address in this series Revelation chapter 14 verse 8 The Bible says and another angel followed saying Babylon is fallen is Fallen that great city Because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication Then a third angel followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the beast and his image and Receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand He himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God Which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation He shall be tormented with fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb Now I want you to go to chapter 20 verse 15 the last verse of chapter 20 The Bible says that anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire Revelation chapter 14 is an exciting chapter. It’s an interesting chapter When you study this chapter, you’ll find that verses 1 through 5 describes the fate of the hundred and forty four Thousand that you may have heard of before but perhaps out of context we know the Bible teaches us that after the rapture of the church is the emergence of the Tribulation period which is for seven years within that seven-year period God will raise up a hundred and forty four thousand Jewish evangelists who will crisscross the known world preach the gospel to every person and Every part of the planet there is no person that will not hear about The gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the death burial and resurrection of Jesus these men that God has raised up in the tribulation will be divinely sealed and Protected as they carry out their ministry You know that the Antichrist will be in full reign during the tribulation period He will make every effort to stop the hundred and forty four thousand Evangelists he will oppress them. He will oppose them. He will do everything he can to silence them Destroy them and to kill them but because they are sealed and protected by God his Plans meaning the plans of the devil and the Antichrist will be thwarted but as we study revelation 14 we see that eventually the Timing and the lifespan of these hundred and forty four thousand evangelists will come to a completion and Then the Antichrist will be allowed to take their lives in Verses 1 through 5 we see them in heaven We see them in the presence of Jesus Christ We jump down to verse 14 through 20 of chapter 14 and we see the horrific battle of Armageddon That will occur at the end of the tribulation Now when people read the book of Revelation They make the mistake of thinking everything from verse to verse to chapter to chapter is in chronological order But that’s not always true So keep that in mind as you’re studying the book of Revelation and if you’re like me Sometimes I have to have my study helps just to figure out where am I at in the midst of the tribulation? Thank God Realistically, I believe that we’ll be raptured before the tribulation period because we have not been appointed unto wrath and That the tribulation period is about calling the nation of Israel back to him. I hope your ears are open I hope your eyes are wide open I hope you’re hearing and seeing the signs of the times that are all around us one of the things that we know that is going to be a part of the beginning of the tribulation period is that there is going to be a peace agreement signed by the Antichrist for the nation of Israel and Promising them seven years of peace. Now. Why would that even be necessary? It is because all the nations will rise up Against the nation of Israel and they will want Israel to be destroyed The Bible gives a promise in Genesis 12 that if we will bless God’s people his chosen people the nation of Israel the Jewish people that if we will bless them Then he will bless us But we are in the midst of a time period in the nation of America where even our government opposes the nation of Israel You should not be shaken You should not be startled you should know that the signs of the times are upon us and That it won’t be long before Jesus calls the church home and we will be in the presence of God rejoicing enjoying all that he has promised us while the tribulation period is unfolding here on this earth We may not always like what we see we may not always agree with what we see But we need to have our spiritual antennas up and we need to be alert to what is happening so that we can make sure a that our heart is ready for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and That not only that we are spiritually ready on fire on the front lines Totally committed fully devoted followers of Christ not playing footsie with the world and not trying to keep the other foot inside The church but totally committed to Jesus Christ all in 100% Amen, go ahead but the second reason that our antennas need to be up is because we have a Responsibility to be a voice in the wilderness and we must tell our friends We must tell our family we must tell every person that crosses our path whether they are strangers or people that we know that the signs of the times are among us and we must be ready and We must implore them and plead with them to be spiritually ready for we are not ignorant of the schemes and the tactics of the devil So in verses 14 through 20 this battle of Armageddon that will occur at the end of the tribulation We get a little insight, but we jump back to verse 6 through 13 and it helps us to see the future The future that awaits for two distinct classes of people verses 12 through 13 tell us the future of the faithful servant of God who endures who is obedient who will not quit who keeps going on who gets up every day and is Committed to the cause and the purpose of Jesus Christ But in verses 6 through 11 we learn about the future of lost sinners a Future that the Bible describes as a place called hell the Bible describes this place as being a place where the cup of God’s indignation or It is a place of torment and fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels in the presence of the Lamb We go on and we could read in verse 11 and it talks more about this place where the Bible says in verse 11 that the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever and they have no rest day Or night who worshiped the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name You know that in the tribulation period the Bible teaches us that they will not be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast in Today’s terminology, we might say you can’t run to Walmart unless you have the mark of the beast You won’t be able to have your own business unless you have the mark of the beast. They’ll be buying and selling But it won’t be for those Who do not have the mark of the beast? Who are those who will refuse to receive the mark of the beast during the tribulation period? It is those who will come to Jesus Christ Who will believe in Christ? this is why your testimony now is so essential to your family and to your friends because as you are warning them as you are pleading with them as you are Instructing them about what is to come and the signs of the times that are all around us that even though they may Resist you now and they may mock you or even laugh at you and think I think dad has gone Over and has lost it There’ll be one day that when the rapture takes place and they cannot find you and They are left behind That the Bible says in Daniel 12 verse 2 that they’ll be running to and fro that is that they’ll be running everywhere they can to find the answers and Daniel was reminded by the Angels that the book of Daniel will be opened up and people will begin to understand what they’re going through what they’re Experiencing and they’re gonna say grandma’s, right? We need to give our life to Christ so much better to do it now than later can God’s people say amen So much better now for today is the day of salvation Don’t wait, but friends if you do choose to wait I want you to know that it’s not gonna be an easy road. It’s not gonna be an easy life You say well my life’s not easy now friends. It’ll be Thousands of times worse in the tribulation period because if you become a believer and follow Christ And you refuse to take the mark of the beast that you will fall into the category of Matthew chapter 25 when the Bible tells us That I was hungry and you fed me I Was thirsty and you gave me to drink I Was naked and you clothed me. Who are these people? I was in prison and you visited me Who are these people we think that they are people of today? Certainly applicable certainly something that is scriptural and we are taught in the scriptures But particularly in the context of Matthew 25 He is talking about the tribulation period and he is talking about those who refuse the mark of the beast and this is their plight And they will run to the hills they will have to hide from the Antichrist because his wrath will be upon this nation and he will want to destroy anyone who Believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and they will be thrown into prison They will not be able to eat or drink and they will not have any clothing and they will not be able to buy or sell Because they do not have the mark of the beast upon them and it’ll be those Who will step up and put their lives on the line to visit them to clothe them to minister to them They are the ones That God will honor and some will become martyrs and when you get to Revelation chapter 6 You see some of these martyrs around the throne and saying Lord, when will our blood be avenged? When will you make right every wrong that is happening in this world? God promises them that he will But it’ll be in his timing and his way and it’ll be in the scope of what he is doing in this nation and friends the Bible teaches us according to what we just read in Revelation that those who receive this mark and those who Refuse to follow Christ and those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ that they will be cast into the lake of fire We shared with you a few weeks ago That we do not believe this lake of fire is a metaphor We do not believe that it’s something that Jesus was speaking in symbolism, but rather it was literal that as Jesus describes The place called hell and as we read the scriptures over and over we are reminded that it is a place of Torment and it is a place forever and ever So we have this question About hell and it is an often-asked question whether God could be a loving God and That if he is a loving God, how could the doctrine of hell be true? This is an issue that troubles many people It is so much of a hurdle for many people that they will just reject the doctrine of hell They’ll just say there’s no way that the love of God is Compatible with there being a place of hell for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ some even dismiss Christianity altogether and refuse to believe in Christ because they will not believe in a God That sends people to hell now some would say that if you believe in a God of love if God wants all the world to be saved and if he is not willing that any should perish and if he gave his own son to die for our sins How can it be that any would perish Why wouldn’t everybody just be saved? what kind of love sends people to an eternal lake of fire the Bible teaches us That God created hell He originally created hell according to the gospel of Matthew for Satan and his demonic angels who rebelled against him in heaven a Third of the angels were cast out of hell But not only will we find that there are demonic angels in hell, but we will find that there are humans God never intended That you and I that humans would go to hell but here we are the Bible teaches us Jesus says there’s only two ways There is the narrow way and There is the broad way the narrow way is those who believe in Christ those who follow God those who are fully devoted followers of Christ and then the broad way is those who Walk the way of the world live selfishly Do what they want could care less about God or Jesus What nothing to do with Christ the broad way would also include those who are religious They are religious on the outside, but there is no relationship with Jesus Christ in their heart Jesus said in Matthew 7 he said To those who were listening to him Depart from me you that work iniquity for I never knew you My friends you get to heaven by who you know Not by what you do Jesus already did all the work on the cross and you must have a relationship with Jesus Christ that relationship may have high Moments and low moments it may have an ebb and flow to it not because of Jesus But because of our hearts and because sometimes of our struggles and sometimes because of where we’re at in our faith in our maturity But I promise you my friends that if you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ The Bible tells us that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be what church Yeah And so that’s the most important thing we’ll get back to that and I’m jumping ahead of myself Which I tend to do My wife says Mike stick to the notes Stick to the notes. So three perspectives on this question that we have before us does God send people to hell The first thing I want you to see this morning is that God’s attribute of love is consistent with hell We have a harmony of God’s love and God’s justice We have a harmony of God’s love and this place that is called hell And I think no better verse captures that than Romans chapter 5 in verse 8 in which the Bible says God Commend us his love towards us and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us How much does God love you my friends so much? He wants to keep you out of hell. He gave his life for you He took the punishment. He took the pain He took the very wrath of God upon him So you and I do not have to and that by faith in Jesus Christ that is applied to our heart now the particulars may vary from person to person and society to society But there is an agreement among all society and most likely all people That things that are wrong or what people do that are wrong should be punished That evil must be judged. I Stand up when you read the news or you you see it on your social media feed or you see it on television That’s why you stand up and say it’s just not right Well, where did that come from? For God has created within us a conscience and he has established within us a moral compass That the things that are wrong Somebody’s got to stand up and somebody’s got to say that it’s wrong and then it must be dealt with We think about drug dealers rapists murderers serial killers Corrupt politicians greedy people who get their way and they push on people take advantage of people and they create injustices in Our hearts we know that they must be dealt with and that they must be punished I appreciate Brother Arnold reaching reading Romans 5 because it’s such a beautiful text to understand Where you and I are at? And I want you to understand that all of us are under the wrath of God and Condemnation because we are sinners We are sinners and I know some of you say man Mike. I’m a pretty good guy I’ve do all these things and you got your ten good lists that you’re doing and I’m here and I’m with you and I’m Glad that you’re doing those ten things, but listen to me our righteousness doesn’t even come close to the righteousness of God The prophet Isaiah said that our righteousness is as filthy rags, and I know you don’t like me to talk about it But it’s true that you got to understand This is not the rag in your kitchen that you’ve been washing dishes with for the last 30 days And I would recommend that you put it in the laundry Ladies you’re killing us and guys. I know not not just ladies excuse me. I am so out of touch. I apologize. I apologize But this is the rag that the lepers would use to wipe the pus off of their skin Their skins would be filled with boils They would wipe it off And you would think that somebody would come along and they would give them a new rag and they would put it in the laundry And they would clean it up, but no this is the same rag that you would put in the laundry That one leper after another was used to wipe and they would come and they would take that same rag and wipe it again All over their body to wipe that pus off and here’s what the Bible says to us That our righteousness the best of Mike Sanders is nothing but a filthy leper Rag the best of Mike. I know that’s hard to swallow in this self-esteem world that we live in when everybody is so proud of themselves and Every once in a while somebody will tell me and I was just talking to something they were telling me how good they were And I said if you don’t say so yourself Amen the Bible says let another man’s lips praise you But we often jump in and I find myself there You know, I Do something and I say honey, isn’t that nice? I mow that lawn. Look at that lawn Ain’t that nice looking out there and She reminds me let another man’s lips praise you. I Said I was hoping your lips would But here we are Hmm, we are sinners for all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. We’re all flawed We’re not perfect and this sin must be dealt with it must be paid for and the way that it is dealt with is through God’s holiness and Jesus delivered us and how did he do that by going to the cross being our substitute? Taking our place. Isaiah 53 5 says he was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes We are healed. How is the love of God and the holiness of God? How are they? compatible and how are they in harmony because though we are sinners and Though we deserve to be in hell because of our sin out of great love God has reached out to us and he has provided a way for us to Experience the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and that he has taken our punishment on the cross He has taken our pain and if we would put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ Then my friends we can experience the true love of Jesus If you have ever doubted whether God loved you I want you to look to the cross if you have ever doubted whether God cares about your plight look to the cross Because Jesus on full display of love he gave his life for you And for me can God’s people say man. Oh Yeah, I love it now God’s provision for salvation Should ever put to rest the notion That God’s love and wrath or holiness are incompatible I Want you to understand that? Unlike us God can do two things at once. Amen. I Was taking prayer requests this morning and some of the people that usually do that We have a little Facebook thing where we keep track of our prayer requests for each other in our Sunday school class I know pastor Mike was listening hearing Trying to type on his little phone to get it in there all by himself and I told him I said look you guys have got to slow down because I can’t take all this at once It’s too many things going on. I got to slow down one thing at a time Ladies, I’m not talking about just manhood. I Know you ladies say well we do all kinds of things At a time I hear you but God can love you and God can still punish sin. Did you know that it’s true? So the second thing I want you to consider this morning is how can a God of holiness? Admit sinful people to heaven now the Bible says that God loves us But the Bible also declares that God is not only God of love but he is a God who is holy and And Someone says well pastor. How can a loving God send people to hell? Well, let me just invert it for you because this is the greater question I want you to consider how can a God of holiness admit sinful people into heaven? That’s the greater question That’s the most amazing thing to me that I’m not worthy of heaven I’m not worthy of salvation I am NOT deserving. I didn’t go to church enough God would say to me Hey Mike because you came 50 times out of the year then you get a straight pass into heaven. That’s not how it works The question is not does God send people to hell that should not shock us But what shocks us is that God would send anybody to heaven because who is worthy to be in heaven? Who is worthy to stand before a holy God and yet? God makes that possible through Jesus Christ and today if you have never received Christ as your Savior this is your moment and it’s as simple as ABC by Acknowledging your sin that you are a sinner in need of a Savior and that be you believe in your heart that Christ died on the cross for your sin and he rose again for your future and Then that you would call upon him and that you would surrender your life to him Whoever calls on the name the Lord shall be saved how wonderful and beautiful that is my friend Don’t go to hell go to heaven through Jesus Christ and believe in him if you have made that decision today go to our website, let us know and Contact us and let us know of your decision to receive Christ. We want to know God’s good work in your life Maybe you’re rededicating your life to him We encourage you to inform us of that so we can send you some materials that will help you in your journey of faith This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ. There is hope worth having. The post Does God Send People to Hell Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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30:02

What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven Part 2. He will be reading out of 1 Corinthians 15: 42-53. How is it that when we face death that we can keep going forward? It is because of the blessed hope that God has forgiven us of our sins and that whoever believes in the name of the Lord shall be saved, the Bible says. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders and we welcome you to the Hope Worth Having radio program. We’re delighted that you’re with us today. We’re looking forward to sharing God’s word with you and we hope that you’ll be really inspired to live for Christ in the days ahead. Now we’re back in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We’re still addressing that question, what kind of bodies will we possess in heaven? So let’s get right into it today. Now friends, there’s a lot of speculation. What will my resurrected body be like? I’ll be sharing a few of those things here in just a second, but I want you to understand we gotta be careful about being dogmatic. Draw the line where the Bible does, but don’t draw the line where the Bible doesn’t. I got people running around there saying, hey, we’re gonna be 33 and a half. Well, I’d love to lose 21 years, that’d be wonderful. But there’s nothing in the Bible that says that. The Bible actually says that you’ll be known as you are known. And so that’s quite a quandary, that’s quite a conflict. What the Bible says, look again at this verse, it should be up on the screen, that we will be like him. Now it is not saying that you’ll be the same age as Jesus when he died on the cross or when he was resurrected and ascended into heaven. But what it is saying, in qualitative state of having a glorified body, you will have the very same glorified body as Jesus Christ. So be careful. Again, I’ve done a lot of reading, a lot of researching, and everybody’s always saying, hey, we can’t be dogmatic about some of these things. And so some of you have children in heaven, and you wonder about your children. You wonder what will they be like. I believe this. They will be known as they are known. And some of you say, well, will I be able to hold my baby again? I am convinced that you will. Now I’m not going to be dogmatic about it, but I am going to say that I believe that one day in this great reunion, some of you have spouses, some of you have parents, and you have family members that are so dear to you, siblings that have been close friends to you, and you will know them as they are known. But here’s the beautiful thing. They will have a glorified body, a body that will not be subject to disease. It will not be subject to all the problems of this world. It will be a body that will be glorious, and it will be just like our Savior. Christ is the model for what will happen for all who are found and believe in Jesus Christ. So we know that the Lord’s glorified body was these things. And again, I encourage you to write this down. If you can’t write as fast as I can talk, I understand, but it is on the church app. All my notes are in there, and they are available to you, and you can follow along on this in the church app. But here’s the point. First of all, I want you to see that the glorious body that Jesus had was a body that was not bound by time or space. It is not bound by time or space. The things that I’m going to say to you about the glorious body of Jesus are backed up by Bible verses. They’re not speculative. They’re not just Mike shooting from the hip. They’re coming right out of the Bible. They’re coming right out of the Word of God. The second thing that we learn about the body of our Savior after his resurrection, that it was a body that can enjoy food and fellowship. That’s right. That even in the Gospels we see that in Jesus’ resurrected body he ate food. He fellowshiped with others. He was recognizable. He was knowable. He interact with living people. And I am convinced, friend, that we will enjoy food. People say, Why does God have us eat? Because he wants us to enjoy food. Now, some have enjoyed food more than others, amen, and maybe some need to push away from the table and need to maybe not eat and enjoy so much. But here’s what I want you to understand, is that when you get to heaven, why, there’ll be no calories. Oh, I’m just kidding. There’ll be the wonderful opportunity that Jesus talked about to his disciples before he was crucified and resurrected. He sat there and participated in the Passover, and he transitioned it from the Old Testament to the new covenant in Christ, and it was known as the Lord’s Supper or communion. And he said, This will be the last time on this earth that we will partake of this together until we meet again in heaven. Friends, you and I are going to gather around the great table at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and we will have a great feast, and we will enjoy. People say, What are we going to eat up there? Well, if you ask Dr. Dino Padrone, we’re having spaghetti, amen. If you ask our brother up in Syracuse, Conroy Lewis, who I just saw the other day, he would say, We’re having chicken up in heaven, Pastor. Friends, I don’t know what we’re going to have up in heaven, but I tell you this, it’ll be some of the best eating you’ve ever had. You say, Could it be better than my mother’s cooking? Oh, yeah, it’s going to be glorious because your mother’s cooking is the reason you have that big belly, okay? I’m teasing you, all right? So it’s a body not bound by time or space. It’s a body that can enjoy food and fellowship. It is a body that can never die. Now, friends, this is the hard thing for us. Our bodies are going to die. As a matter of fact, when we go back to our text, we are reminded that in verse 50 of chapter 15, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This body that you have right now, it’s not fit for heaven. How about that? And the reason it’s not fit for heaven is because it is a mortal body. It is a corruptible body. It is a body that is not designed for eternity. And that’s why you have to lay down this body. All of us are going to have to lay down this body. Now, we put so much emphasis on the body that it’s very difficult for us emotionally to lay down this body. But, friends, one day you are going to come to that moment where you lay down this body. It’s not that it’s the end of you because your soul and spirit lives forever. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Can God’s people say amen? But, friends, one day God’s going to raise your body. He’s going to remake it into an immortal, incorruptible body. Look again at verse 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be what, church? For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. That is what is waiting for us. That’s the body that Jesus had after his resurrection. Number four, I want you to learn that it is a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance. It’s a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance. Because it is a glorified body, it is a body that brings the utmost glory to God. There is a brilliance to this body. And, again, we provide these scriptures for you. I hope they’re up there on the PowerPoint or in the app, and you can research this, and you can study this, and see if the things that the pastor says is true. And I think you will find them to be. But just in that understanding of the body, this is enough to let me know that I want one of those bodies someday, man. I want that body. Now, the first thing that we learn together is that our resurrected body is gonna be like Jesus’ resurrected body. He is our pattern. He is our model. But, number two, the resurrected body of believers is a literal body. It’s not just a body that is spiritual. People say, well, we believe in the resurrection, pastor, but we don’t believe it’s a physical resurrection. We just believe it’s a spiritual resurrection. I wanna help you with that a little bit. First of all, I remind you, in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verse 39, again, Jesus said, in his resurrected body, behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see me, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have. If we’ve already concluded that our body is gonna be like Christ’s resurrected body, then Christ’s resurrected body was one in which he not only told him to see it, but he told him to handle it or touch it. He told him that it was a physical body. It was a body of flesh and bones. It was a body that had the flesh, a glorified flesh, and a glorified structure of the bones. It was a literal body, because the spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have. All saints will be reconstructed. We go back to verse 50, and again, I’m gonna read a few verses here just to help us out a little bit. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. How beautiful. Now, what does this mean? What does this mean that God is saying that we’re gonna have a literal body? Friends, I want you to understand that he’s helping us, and you go back to 1 Corinthians 15, and you go back and he talks about verse 44, that it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. What does this mean, pastor? What does this mean? What does this mean? He’s talking again, and I’ll bring more light to this, but again, he’s not talking about that it’s just gonna be a spirit, but it’s gonna be spiritual in that the Spirit of God is going to raise this body just like the Spirit of God raised our Savior, but it’s a body that is not like the body you have in this sense. It cannot experience death. It cannot experience decay. It cannot experience disease. Some of you say, man, I can’t see as good as I used to. Why would Glenn get up here and say, man, I love these new pew Bibles? I never had anybody say that before. Well, that’s because when he gets up here, he can’t see, and he has to keep getting closer and closer and closer, and some of you are doing that even at your home. You’re getting closer and closer, so we got larger print. Now, why did we get larger print? Because the pastor one day picked up one of these Bibles and said, man, I can’t read it. I can’t see, and I put the edict out there. Order some new pew Bibles and make sure that they’re larger font so we can read because us old people, well, not quite. I still have a year, according to Jerry. I’m 54. He only takes old people that are 55 and up, but he’s gonna make an exception for me. How about that? I can’t see that well, but he told me to drive the bus. We’re gonna have good times. Listen, your body is decaying, and we are experiencing things. People say, why is there disease in this world? Why is there cancer? Why does this thing happen to this person or that person? Friends, I’m just here to tell you, it’s not that they did anything wrong or that they did anything right. Maybe they shouldn’t have drank as much Mountain Dew as maybe the other person didn’t. I don’t know, but all I am saying is this, that these bodies don’t live forever, and they get diseased, and some of you, you woke up this morning, and your ankle hurts, and some of you, your hip hurts, and some of you, your shoulder hurts, and some of you, you’re still trying to find what you lost. You’re still looking for it because you got one of those extra parts, and so you went out there, and you said, give me that, where is that thing at? But anyways, our bodies don’t last forever. That’s what Paul means. All that’s going away. That’s going away. The third thing I want you to learn this morning is that the resurrection body is a glorified body of flesh. It’s a glorified body of flesh. Again, let’s go back to, I wanted to read verse 44. I was kind of getting a little bit ahead of myself, but here’s what I want you to see. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. To have a spiritual body is not to have a body that’s made out of spiritual stuff, but it is a body that God gives to us that is controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit. The idea behind the word spiritual in the Greek is one of control or one of guidance, not substance. Please understand that. I think Romans 8-11 helps us to see that. Look, Romans 8-11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, remember, who is it that raised Jesus from the dead? The spirit of the Father who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Now, look back at verse 37 of chapter 15. Look back there. Go ahead and join me. Look back at verse 37 and 38, and here, notice what it says. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that it shall be but mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain, but God gives it a body as he pleases and to each seed its own body. So again, the apostle takes time to make analogies, and he’ll use analogies of animals, and he uses analogy of the plant life and seeds, and he’s saying that our body is sown into the ground, just like a seed is sown into the ground. When you plant that seed into the ground, what emerges? Well, we hope, at least those of you that have a green thumb, we hope that a beautiful plant comes forward. I mean, you don’t want a dandelion, do you? You want a beautiful plant, a beautiful tree, something that is meaningful to you? Here’s what the apostle is doing. He is saying this. When God puts us in the ground, we are like a seed, and that what comes forth out of that when God brings the resurrection will be more beautiful than the seed. Your resurrected body will be more beautiful than the seed. This body is a seed that is gonna be sown into the ground. It will decay. Dust to dust, the Bible says. Ashes to ashes. It will decay. But one day, God is gonna take that, and he is going to fashion something more beautiful, something more glorious, something that is immortal, something that is incorruptible, and so these mortal bodies that we have will be changed into immortal ones, and our glorified bodies will shine like the brilliance of 10,000 suns. Some of you missed the eclipse. You forgot about it, but the eclipse, the sun was covered, and the brilliance of the sun was hard to see, but friends, hear me. When your body is glorified and immortal, it’ll have the glory and the shine and the brilliance of 10,000 suns. What a day that will be. Now, the final thing that I want you to learn this morning is that the resurrection body is a glorified version of the same body that died and was buried. All believers will wear a glorified body at the resurrection. The old body will become the new body, but it will be your body. You might say, how is this possible? Again, are you putting a lid on God? Are you limiting God and saying that he could never do this? Some people say, Pastor, what about cremation? Is there anything wrong with that in the Bible? No, there’s nothing. The Bible doesn’t really address it. I tell people you can do it the quick way or the slow way. You can put your body in the ground, and it’s going to eventually go back to dust to dust and ashes to ashes, or you can expedite things and go dust to dust, ashes to ashes as quick as you want. Let me tell you something. It doesn’t matter, because it will not hinder God, because he will take that, and he will fashion him a new glorious body for you. He will fashion a body that is beautiful. It’ll be your same body that you had, but it’ll be glorious. That’s why we will be known as we are known, because we will be identifiable. Jesus was identifiable. He was one that they could recognize, and they understood who he was. And so it is for you and I, as we interact with our loved ones in heaven, as we are in our resurrected state, people are going to say, I know that guy. I know that guy. Have you ever been somewhere and said, man, I know that person, but I can’t remember their name? I mean, the other day I was out there somewhere. Who knows where I was, but I was somewhere, and somebody waved, and I thought I knew them, but I didn’t know them, and I waved back, but they weren’t waving to me. They were waving to somebody else. Oh, you talk about embarrassing. You see, the Lord knows how to keep us humble, doesn’t he? And so there I was waving, thinking that I knew them and they knew me. Friends, if I can’t remember your name, I want you to know that you’re my buddy. I just say, hey, buddy, I can’t remember your name. I mean, you’re my buddy now, all right? And so that’s how we roll. But I’m just telling you that you and I are blessed in that God is gonna take our body, and he’s gonna resurrect it. He’s going to renew it. It is described in the Bible as something of a new creation out of an old creation. So again, we go back to verse 51, and I want you to see this, because it’s not like that God is not using your old body. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, and that’s a whole nother sermon. You people say, Pastor, what’s that mean? It’s a whole nother sermon. You got another couple hours? I didn’t think so, but just focus on this. We shall all be chained, okay? So that’s what he’s talking about. Look at verse 53. This current corruptible body, it’s incorruptible. This current mortal body, it becomes immortal. So that’s beautiful, and we think about that. 2 Corinthians 5.1 helps us to grasp this a little bit better. The Bible says, for we know that if our earthly house, which is our current body, this tent is destroyed. How is it destroyed? Just time could destroy it. Just got old. The tires are wore out. It’s just got old. We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That’s what God has for us. That’s what we’re thinking about, and so I tell people, would you be okay to lay down this tent of a body so that you could inherit an eternal house from God that’ll be more glorious, more beautiful, and it’ll be more functional, and it’ll never get tired? Did you know we’re gonna work in heaven? And I know that bums some of you out, because all your life, you’ve been working towards retirement. You’ve been waiting for the day that you could wake up, and every day is Saturday to you, and you’re retired. And one guy said to me, he said, I’m more busy in retirement than I was ever when I was working, Pastor. And that’s true, I understand that. But you’re maybe longing for that day that you don’t have to work, but guess what? When you get to heaven, you’re gonna work, but here’s the difference. You’re never going to be tired. You’re gonna have a job from God. You’re gonna have an assignment from God. It’s gonna be based on your faithfulness and obedience now. It’s gonna be based upon the gifts and talents he’s given you, and it’s gonna be based upon his plan for you. You’re gonna have a job. New heaven, new earth, the Bible says. New heaven, new earth. I’ve been asking God, why don’t you put me in charge of all the golf courses? Because I’m the worst golfer at the open door church. Not one member has ever let me win, not one. They’ve all came in, pounced on me, and destroyed me, and left me flailing in the wind. And not even my own kids would let me win. Their poor old, crepid dad, they’re out there. I said, hey, there was a day when I had to give up basketball. Then it was that day when Austin took that basketball, my oldest son, and we were out in the driveway, and he jumped up, and he dunked it right over my face. And he said to me, dad, I just posterized you. I said, what’s that mean? He said, that’s a picture that we could put on a poster. And I said, I’m done. And I thought, well, I’ll teach him how to play golf. I’ll teach him how to play golf. That’s something I could always beat him at, and that’s something that we could always do, even when dad is old and crepid. But you know what, friends? They destroy me. I mean, I try to get it out there 150, 200 yards. They’re out there knocking it 300 yards. And I’m still back at the tee when they’re up there at the green, ready to putt and say, come on, dad. We gotta hurry up. There’s people waiting behind us. I said, I’m just trying to find my ball. Where did it go? But friends, I want you to know that we are a blessed people because God is gonna take what we have, and he’s gonna give us this new body. And someone might ask the question, how can a Christian have so much confidence in the face of death? Because the Bible says here in verse 55, oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades or hell, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. And then the apostle says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Now look, he’s saying, don’t quit. Keep going forward. How is it that when we face death and we face the struggles and the problems of this world that we can keep going forward? It is because of the blessed hope, and the blessed hope is not only inclusive that we have our salvation, that God has forgiven us of our sins, and that whoever believes in the name of the Lord shall be saved, the Bible says, but we also have the hope that we’re getting brand new bodies. We’re getting brand new bodies that are going to be glorious and immortal. How else can we have hope and confidence in the face of death? It is because what the Bible says here that death no longer has a sting, and hell no longer has a victory. And how is that, friends? Because we still do funerals, and still people die, and still we deal with the problems of suffering and the sting seems to be so evident in our lives. Let me tell you how it is by illustrating it this way. One time, a bee got into the car of a father and his son, and the son was melting down, freaking out, yelling, and screaming. And the dad said, calm down. He said, Dad, there’s a bee, and I don’t want it to sting me. He turned around, grabbed the bee, took the sting, and let the bee out the window. And he said, Son, the bee no longer has a sting. Jesus Christ went to the cross for your sins and my sins, and he took the sting. He took the poison of death and the curse of sin and the curse of the law and the demand that sin be paid for and punished on the cross. Jesus took it for you, and he took it for me. My friends, there’s coming a day when Jesus will raise our bodies up, and not only will the sting be taken away spiritually, but it’ll be taken away physically, and it’ll all pass away, and you and I will not understand death anymore because we will know no death. And when the Bible describes heaven, that it is a place there is no sorrow, there is no sadness, and there is no more. May it be true in your heart that you have applied the work of Christ to your heart in which he took the sting of death away, and you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior. ♪♪ It’s quite amazing when you think about the resurrected body. We talked about it being eternal, immortal, but incorruptible, a body that does not decay. How wonderful is that? You’re not gonna wake up with arthritis. You’re not gonna wake up with pains. You are going to enjoy the blessedness of a brand-new, immortal, incorruptible body. We hope today that you will continue to go to our website and sign up for our newsletter. HopeWorthHaving.com is where you can sign up for the newsletter, and you can find out what things are going on, what events, activities, and ministries are going on at the Hope Worth Having ministry. So take advantage of that, and we look forward to hearing from you. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven. He will be reading out of 1 Corinthians 15: 42-53. Some of you have spouses, some of you have parents, and you have family members that are so dear to you, siblings that have been close friends to you, and you will know them as they are known, but here’s the beautiful thing, they will have a glorified body. It’s time for Hope Worth Having radio program. My name is Mike Sanders, senior pastor of the Open Door Church, and we’re excited that you could join us. Today we are going back to a study on heaven, and so the question before us is, what kind of bodies will we possess in heaven? We’re gonna be in 1st Corinthians 15 verse 42 through 53, and what will our bodies be like? That’s a great question, so let’s get into the Word of God and find out. Let’s take our Bibles this morning and let’s go to 1st Corinthians chapter 15. 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verse 42 through 53 will be our text. As you’re turning there, I remind you that we’ve been in this series of five questions about heaven and five questions about hell, and this is the last question on heaven. We are addressing it today, and that is simply the question, what kind of bodies will we possess when we are in heaven? What kind of bodies will we possess? Now, when we come to 1st Corinthians chapter 15, we are reminded that the purpose of this chapter is the apostle wants to answer questions that the leadership of the church has sent to him about specifically the resurrection. Now, unfortunately, there were some in the church at Corinth who did not even believe in any kind of a resurrection, and then there were those that only believed in a spiritual resurrection but not a bodily resurrection. So it is with those questions and thoughts and understanding that the apostle writes 1st Corinthians chapter 15 under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. Now, sometimes when we think about bodily resurrection, it’s hard for us to conceive it. It’s hard for us to fully understand it. We taught you many weeks ago that when our loved ones leave this world and they are promoted to heaven, their soul and spirit goes to be with God. The Bible tells us to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We have the misconception that sometimes the body, soul, and spirit immediately goes to be with God, but that’s not true. Just the soul and spirit. There will be a resurrection. Jesus taught us that he would raise us up in the last day. The apostle Paul said, the dead in Christ shall rise. There is coming a time when the soul and the spirit and the body will be reunited in a resurrection, and then there will be that body, soul, and spirit living with God throughout all of eternity. Yet some are of the persuasion that there will never be a uniting of their soul and their spirit, and that their body will always remain in the ground, and it will never be resurrected. But I want you to know that the teaching of the resurrection of the body of the believer in Jesus Christ is a foundational teaching in Christianity. It is central to the Christian’s blessed hope. We believe without a doubt that not only did Jesus Christ rise from the tomb, that Jesus Christ bodily was resurrected, but we also believe that we, as followers of Christ, will one day experience the same resurrection, which takes me to my first point that I want us to learn as we try to understand what kind of bodies will we possess, and that is that Jesus’ resurrected body is the pattern or the model for our resurrected body. Now, let’s pick up in verse 42, and let’s begin to read together in this passage. The Bible says, So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam, which is referring to Christ, became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward, the spiritual. The first man was on the earth made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven. And was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust. And as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly. Verse 49, And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. Now, this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Now, I want you to go back to verse 49 again, and I want you to see this emphasis that the apostle makes as he says to us, and as we have borne the image of the man of dust, which is Adam, and he says, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man, which is Jesus Christ. In essence, what the apostle was teaching us, that our resurrected bodies will reflect the resurrected body of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We jump back to verse 23 of chapter 15. Just back up for me, if you will. As the apostle was teaching about the resurrection, he is teaching the order in which the resurrection will take place, in that there are many different resurrections in the scripture. We’ve taught you that before, and we went through those different resurrections. But here, the apostle reminds us of that order, verse 23, but each one in his own order, Christ, the firstfruits. Afterward, those who are Christ at his coming, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God, the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. Go back to verse 23, that phrase, Christ, the firstfruits. What is he talking about, the firstfruits? The farmers in the Middle East, when they would see the firstfruits of their crop, they would understand, not that it was the first resurrection in order relating to, I ran the race and I was first, but rather the first in quality. He was talking about, this will be the kind of resurrection that you will have. You will have the same resurrection that Christ has had. We know that Jesus was not the first to be resurrected. If we’re students of the Bible, we know that Lazarus himself, in John chapter 11, was resurrected before Jesus Christ. We go back to the Old Testament and we’re reminded that Elijah the prophet laid over a child and that child was resurrected from death. So we’re not talking about first in the sense of, I ran the race and I was first, but we’re talking about the firstfruits, the first kind of resurrection. What’s the distinction between the resurrection of Christ and all resurrections that had preceded the resurrection of Christ? It is simply this, that the resurrection of Christ was a resurrection unto life. And all other resurrections before that were resurrections unto death. Meaning, yes, Lazarus was resurrected, but Lazarus had to die again. But when Christ was resurrected, he was resurrected forever and he is alive forevermore. And what the apostle is saying is that your resurrection is going to be like the resurrection of Christ. And that in this understanding that it is the firstfruits, that is that all resurrections that come after the resurrection of Christ are resurrections unto life. So Jesus’s resurrection, as well as his body that was resurrected, is a pattern for us. And again, verse 49 certainly teaches us that as we have learned. So the body is destined to perish, but the Bible tells us it will be made like the body of our Lord. You say, what do you mean? Well, again, Philippians 3.21, the Bible says, who will transform our lowly body. Let me just stop there. That our body that is limited a body that you now live in that is selfish and sinful, a body that is subject to disease and viruses, a body that is not immortal or incorruptible, but a body as much as you dislike it, it is dying every day. And I know that many of you are doing everything you can to keep your body new and to somehow find the fountain of youth. But friends, time will catch up with you as it has everybody. And so when the apostle says in Philippians 3.21, who will transform our lowly body, we understand that, that it may be conformed to his glorious body that is the body of Jesus according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. When the Bible says he is able to subdue all things to himself, it is talking about the authority of Christ, and it is talking about the power of Christ, meaning that God not only has the authority to raise your body, your lowly body, and to transform it into a new body, he has the power to do that. And you say, I don’t know, Mike, I don’t know if I can embrace that. I don’t know if I can believe that. Are you telling me the God of this universe who created the heavens and the earth, and he from the dust of the earth created Adam and Eve, you’re telling me that he cannot raise our bodies into a new resurrected body? Oh, friends, I’m here to tell you that God is able, and he can do great and mighty things. You and I will one day be changed perfectly. Our loved ones who love Jesus Christ, and their soul and spirit is even now in the presence of God, enjoying all the blessings that come with that, one day they will be changed perfectly. Their bodies will. When this change comes, God will remake us into the image of our glorified savior, Jesus Christ. Hang on to this verse. First John 3, two says, beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is. So much to unpack in just this verse. Don’t have enough time, but let me just give you a few things to remind you. It has not appeared as yet what we will be. Now, friends, there’s a lot of speculation. What will my resurrected body be like? I’ll be sharing a few of those things here in just a second, but I want you to understand, we gotta be careful about being dogmatic. Draw the line where the Bible does, but don’t draw the line where the Bible doesn’t. I got people running around there saying, hey, we’re gonna be 33 and a half. Well, I’d love to lose 21 years, that’d be wonderful, but there’s nothing in the Bible that says that. The Bible actually says that you’ll be known as you are known. And so that’s quite a quandary. That’s quite a conflict. What the Bible says, look again at this verse, it should be up on the screen, that we will be like him. Now, it is not saying that you’ll be the same age as Jesus when he died on the cross, or when he was resurrected and ascended into heaven, but what it is saying in qualitative state of having a glorified body, you will have the very same glorified body as Jesus Christ. So be careful. Again, I’ve done a lot of reading, a lot of researching, and everybody’s always saying, hey, we can’t be dogmatic about some of these things. And so some of you have children in heaven, and you wonder about your children. You wonder what will they be like? I believe this, they will be known as they are known. And some of you say, well, will I be able to hold my baby again? I am convinced that you will. Now, I’m not gonna be dogmatic about it, but I am gonna say that I believe that one day in this great reunion, some of you have spouses, some of you have parents, and you have family members that are so dear to you, siblings that have been close friends to you, and you will know them as they are known, but here’s the beautiful thing. They will have a glorified body, a body that will not be subject to disease. It will not be subject to all the problems of this world. It’ll be a body that’ll be glorious, and it’ll be just like our Savior. Christ is the model for what will happen for all who are found and believe in Jesus Christ. So we know that the Lord’s glorified body was these things. And again, I encourage you to write this down. If you can’t write as fast as I can talk, I understand, but it is on the church app. All my notes are in there, and they are available to you, and you can follow along on this in the church app. But here’s the point. First of all, I want you to see that the glorious body that Jesus had was a body that was not bound by time or space. It is not bound by time or space. The things that I’m gonna say to you about the glorious body of Jesus are backed up by Bible verses. They’re not speculative. They’re not just Mike shooting from the hip. They’re coming right out of the Bible. They’re coming right out of the word of God. The second thing that we learn about the body of our Savior after his resurrection, that it was a body that can enjoy food and fellowship. That’s right. That even in the Gospels, we see that in Jesus’s resurrected body, he ate food. He fellowshiped with others. He was recognizable. He was knowable. He interact with living people. And I am convinced, friend, that we will enjoy food. People say, why does God have us eat? Because he wants us to enjoy food. Now, some have enjoyed food more than others, amen? And maybe some need to push away from the table and need to maybe not eat and enjoy so much. But here’s what I want you to understand is that when you get to heaven, why, there’ll be no calories. Oh, I’m just kidding. There’ll be the wonderful opportunity that Jesus talked about to his disciples before he was crucified and resurrected. He sat there and participated in the Passover and he transitioned it from the Old Testament to the New Covenant in Christ. And it was known as the Lord’s Supper or communion. And he said, this will be the last time on this earth that we will partake of this together until we meet again in heaven. Friends, you and I are gonna gather around the great table at the marriage supper of the Lamb and we will have a great feast and we will enjoy. People say, what are we gonna eat up there? Well, if you ask Dr. Dino Padrone, we’re having spaghetti. Amen? If you ask our brother up in Syracuse, Conroy Lewis, who I just saw the other day, he would say, we’re having chicken up in heaven, pastor. Friends, I don’t know what we’re gonna have up in heaven, but I tell you this, it’ll be some of the best eating you’ve ever had. You say, could it be better than my mother’s cooking? Oh yeah, it’s gonna be glorious because your mother’s cooking is the reason you have that big belly. Okay? I’m teasing you. All right, so it’s a body not bound by time or space. It’s a body that can enjoy food and fellowship. It is a body that can never die. Now friends, this is the hard thing for us. Our bodies are going to die. As a matter of fact, when we go back to our text, we are reminded that in verse 50 of chapter 15, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This body that you have right now, it’s not fit for heaven. How about that? And the reason it’s not fit for heaven is because it is a mortal body. It is a corruptible body. It is a body that is not designed for eternity. And that’s why you have to lay down this body. All of us are going to have to lay down this body. Now we put so much emphasis on the body that it’s very difficult for us emotionally to lay down this body. But friends, one day you are going to come to that moment where you lay down this body. It’s not that it’s the end of you because your soul and spirit lives forever. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Can God’s people say amen? But friends, one day God’s going to raise your body. He’s going to remake it into an immortal, incorruptible body. Look again at verse 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible. And we shall be what church? For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. That is what is waiting for us. That’s the body that Jesus had after his resurrection. Number four, I want you to learn that it is a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance. It’s a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance because it is a glorified body. It is a body that brings the utmost glory to God. There is a brilliance to this body. And again, we provide these scriptures for you. I hope they’re up there on the PowerPoint or in the app and you can research this and you can study this and see if the things that the pastor says is true. And I think you will find them to be. But just in that understanding of the body, this is enough to let me know that I want one of those bodies someday, man. I want that body. Now, the first thing that we learn together is that our resurrected body is gonna be like Jesus’s resurrected body. He is our pattern. He is our model. But number two, the resurrected body of believers is a literal body. It’s not just a body that is spiritual. People say, well, we believe in the resurrection, pastor, but we don’t believe it’s a physical resurrection. We just believe it’s a spiritual resurrection. I wanna help you with that a little bit. First of all, I remind you in the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, verse 39. Again, Jesus said in his resurrected body, behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see me, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have. If we’ve already concluded that our body is gonna be like Christ’s resurrected body, then Christ’s resurrected body was one in which he not only told him to see it, but he told him to handle it or touch it. He told him that it was a physical body. It was a body of flesh and bones. It was a body that had the flesh, a glorified flesh, and a glorified structure of the bones. It was a literal body because the spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have. All saints will be reconstructed. We go back to verse 50, and again, I’m gonna read a few verses here just to help us out a little bit. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. How beautiful. Now, what does this mean? What does this mean that God is saying that we’re gonna have a literal body? Friends, I want you to understand that he’s helping us, and you go back to 1 Corinthians 15, and you go back and he talks about verse 44, that it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. What does this mean, pastor? What does this mean? What does this mean? He’s talking again, and I’ll bring more light to this, but again, he’s not talking about that it’s just gonna be a spirit, but it’s gonna be spiritual in that the Spirit of God is going to raise this body just like the Spirit of God raised our Savior, but it’s a body that is not like the body you have in this sense. It cannot experience death. It cannot experience decay. It cannot experience disease. Some of you say, man, I can’t see as good as I used to. Why would Glenn get up here and say, man, I love these new pew Bibles? I never had anybody say that before. Well, that’s because when he gets up here, he can’t see, and he has to keep getting closer and closer and closer, and some of you are doing that even at your home. You’re getting closer and closer, so we got larger print. Now, why did we get larger print? Because the pastor one day picked up one of these Bibles and said, man, I can’t read it. I can’t see, and I put the edict out there. Order some new pew Bibles and make sure that they’re larger font so we can read because us old people. Well, not quite. I still have a year according to Jerry. I’m 54. He only takes old people that are 55 and up, but he’s gonna make an exception for me. How about that? I can’t see that well, but he told me to drive the bus. We’re gonna have good times. Listen, your body is decaying, and we are experiencing things. People say, why is there disease in this world? Why is there cancer? Why does this thing happen to this person or that person? Friends, I’m just here to tell you it’s not that they did anything wrong or that they did anything right. Maybe they shouldn’t have drank as much Mountain Dew as maybe the other person didn’t. I don’t know, but all I am saying is this, that these bodies don’t live forever, and they get diseased. And some of you, you woke up this morning and your ankle hurts, and some of you, your hip hurts, and some of you, your shoulder hurts, and some of you, you’re still trying to find what you lost. You’re still looking for it because you got one of those extra parts, and so you went out there and you said, give me that, where is that thing at? But anyways, our bodies don’t last forever. That’s what Paul means. All that’s going away. That’s going away. The third thing I want you to learn this morning is that the resurrection body is a glorified body of flesh. It’s a glorified body of flesh. Again, let’s go back to, I wanted to read verse 44. I was kind of getting a little bit ahead of myself, but here’s what I want you to see. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. To have a spiritual body is not to have a body that’s made out of spiritual stuff, but it is a body that God gives to us that is controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit. The idea behind the word spiritual in the Greek is one of control or one of guidance, not substance. Please understand that. I think Romans 8-11 helps us to see that. Look, Romans 8-11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, remember, who is it that raised Jesus from the dead? The spirit of the father who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Now, look back at verse 37 of chapter 15. Look back there. Go ahead and join me. Look back at verse 37 and 38, and here, notice what it says. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that it shall be, but mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as he pleases and to each seed its own body. It’s quite amazing when you think about the resurrected body. We talked about it being eternal, immortal, but incorruptible, a body that does not decay. How wonderful is that? You’re not gonna wake up with arthritis. You’re not gonna wake up with pains. You are going to enjoy the blessedness of a brand new, immortal, incorruptible body. The apostle describes that in 1 Corinthians 15. We encourage you to go even further in our study and go deeper and just contemplate and think about what it means to possess a new body in heaven. It’s gonna be glorious. We hope today that you will continue to go to our website and sign up for our newsletter. HopeWorthHaving.com is where you can sign up for the newsletter and you can find out what things are going on, what events, activities, and ministries are going on at the Hope Worth Having ministry, so take advantage of that. And we look forward to hearing from you. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

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30:02

Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 2. He will be reading out of Revelation 20: 7-10. When God promotes you as a believer, Jesus has the authority to bring you through those beautiful gates and into the presence of God and reunited with your family and your friends. Can God’s people say amen? Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church. This is the Hope Worth Having radio program. Thank you for tuning in. We’re excited that you could be with us today. And we’re going to continue our topic on hell. And the question is, are the fires of hell literal? We’re in Revelation chapter 20, verse 7 through 10. And let’s open our Bibles and let’s get into study this interesting topic. Those who have refused to believe in Christ even now are in a what we might refer to as a temporary hell. We have taught you about the five different names for hell. The New Testament often refers to this temporary hell as Hades, sometimes even Gehenna. And it is a place in the Old Testament was called Sheol, and it was the abiding of the dead, the place of the dead. And that is a place that they go as believers who have trusted in Christ for their salvation. The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Can God’s people say amen? And so we are in the immediate presence of Jesus Christ, and we are enjoying all the blessings and rewards that God has for us. But those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, they are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. What awaits for them is not only a hell that is separated from God, but a place that the Bible refers to as the Lake of Fire. The Lake of Fire, the eternal destination of the devil and all of his demons and those who reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Now, the question before us this morning, as we have been learning about hell in the Bible, is are the fires of hell literal? There are many, even within evangelical Christianity, who would say to you that when the Bible refers to hell, it’s all figurative, that it is not literal or it is not even real. Well, I want to share with you, first of all, the argument for a literal fire. Note again that Jesus said in Matthew 25, verse 41, Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. You understand that the devil rose up against Almighty God. You understand, we’ve already taught you that the Scriptures teach us that the devil was filled with pride in heaven and he was cast out and a third of the angels with him. These are his demonic forces that are crisscrossing this world, causing so much chaos in this world. The devil’s desire, Jesus taught us, was to kill and to destroy. Never forget that it is the devil’s desire to destroy your family, to destroy your life, and to destroy your testimony, and to make a mess of this world. I think he’s doing a pretty good job. I hate to say that. I hate to say that. The world is in chaos, the world is in confusion, but it is only setting the table for the Antichrist to come in with all the solutions and all the answers and claim to be the one who can bring peace. But it’s a pseudo, it’s a false, it’s a fake peace. We know that. That’s why I tell you that Jesus taught us this. He taught us what it would be like and what the circumstances and what the environment would be like before his return, which would be at the end of the tribulation. But Jesus describes this day of judgment in Matthew 25, and he describes those who are cast into this lake of fire as an everlasting fire. You remember that we taught you that the Bible describes hell also as Gehenna, and Gehenna was an actual burning place outside of Jerusalem. It was in the valley of Gehenna, and it was adjacent, just south of Jerusalem, and it was a place where we might call it a burn pile. Now, every once in a while, I might drive around our county and different people will be burning trash, and the smoke gets everywhere, and I start hacking and coughing, and they mess me up for at least two weeks, amen? Trying to figure all that out. The church used to have a burn pile, and finally the fire department said, please stop. Please stop burning all that trash. You say, where would all that trash come from? Well, if you have a Christian school of 500 students, there is a lot of trash. Don’t be upset, students, but I’m just saying there’s a lot of wear and tear. There’s a lot of food. There’s a lot of eating. There’s a lot of paper plates. There’s a lot of stuff that has to be thrown away, and it has to be gotten rid of, and sometimes we would burn some of that trash. I want you in your mind to understand that there was a place south of Jerusalem called Gehenna. As Jesus spoke about hell, he would reference this burn pile, this place where it was constantly burning. It was such a massive place of burning. They not only put their trash there. The pagans would put their dead bodies in this burn pile, and it was just constantly burning and burning, and Jesus is referencing to us that he is teaching about hell, that it is a place of fire. It is a place where there is constant burning. Now, one might ask two questions relating to that, which I think are really good questions, and I appreciate that there is thinking going on, amen? It’s good to see people come into the church and not take their thinking cap off and to have some good questions, but we know, first of all, Jesus described hell as a place of outer darkness, and yet he describes it as a place where there is an eternal fire. We know that fire gives off light, and so how is this possible that fire could be literal, and yet it be a place of outer darkness? Well, friends, there is some kind of a unique fire that God is going to create that does not give off light. The second question you might have about this being a burning fire is we know that fire consumes. It consumes, and yet Jesus described this place of eternal fire in hell as a place that does not consume. You remember Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom, which was one of the names that was often referred to. The rich man was there in this burning place. Lazarus was Abraham’s bosom, and there the rich man looked up, and he wanted just a drop of water on the tip of his tongue because the fire, the flames that he was in, and so Jesus is helping us to understand that this unique fire is not going to be exactly like the fire that you and I see and that we use for cooking, or we might use to burn trash, or we might use it in some other fashion, but it is a unique fire that is everlasting, and definitely it is punishment, and definitely people can sense it. They can see it. They can feel it, and it has an impact upon them because the Bible is so clear about that, that it’s definitely a place, though, that does not consume. Now again, someone might say, well, our bodies. You know, I taught last week about how one day as believers, that when we die, our soul and spirit is separated from our body, and we go into the presence of heaven, and then one day there’ll be a resurrection. Your body is not immediately in heaven when you get there, but your soul and spirit is with Jesus Christ. Your body comes. Remember at the rapture, the Bible says, the dead in Christ shall rise, and your soul and spirit is reunited with this new body, this glorified body. The Bible describes all this in 1st Corinthians, and it is a glorified body that is resurrected. So your soul and spirit is reunited, and now you’re in heaven with body, soul, and spirit. Now this was put out there, and of course, sometimes I read. I know I shouldn’t, but I read the social media sometimes, what people saying, and people just saying, no, there is no resurrection of the dead. You know, in my mind, I don’t respond, but in my mind, I got to think, does anybody read the Bible anymore? Because the Bible not only teaches us that believers’ bodies will be resurrected, but the Bible teaches us that unbelievers’ bodies will be resurrected. So what is unique in this final stop for unbelievers in this lake of fire is that not only will their soul and spirit be there, but the Bible teaches us in John chapter 5 that the unbelievers’ body will be resurrected, and that they will be cast into the lake of fire, soul, spirit, and body into this lake of fire. Jesus said in Matthew 13, verse 41 and 42, the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now if you believe that the fire is symbolic or that it is something that is metaphorical in describing the punishment of those who reject Jesus Christ, I propose this question to you. Do people use symbols because the reality is less or more than the symbol? I want you to think of like this. If I were to say that my wife is the diamond of my life, I’m not limiting her to a diamond’s value. I’m just saying that she’s even more than a diamond to me. I’m trying to illustrate. So we use symbols, we use metaphors in our life, and if Jesus, if for any reason, if he were to somehow say, I’m gonna use the fire as a metaphor, do you think that he meant that that was just the limitation of that metaphor of the punishment? I think it’s even worse. I think Jesus was wanting us to know and understand that hell is even worse than what can be described in the human language. The teaching of hell is meant to appall us. It is meant to fill us with godly fear. It is designed to shake us. It is designed to persuade us that though heaven will be better than what we could ever dream, hell will be worse than what we could ever imagine. And so I am a strong believer that the fire in hell is literal. Now let’s understand the literal interpretation because I believe it is the most straightforward understanding of the scriptures. There are many times people like to come to the Bible and rather than believing what it says, they want to explain it away. They want to explain away the horror of hell. They want to explain away the punishment of hell because in their mind they cannot conceive. And I’m here to tell you I believe that it’s even worse than what Jesus said. That the human language limited him to how horrible hell is. Now the Bible describes hell as a place of fire. I’ve already read you several verses but here’s another one Luke 16. Then he cried and said, Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. As we mentioned to you already, it is this flame of fire that is tormenting this rich man. It is not consuming him but it is tormenting him. Hell is described as a place of fire and darkness. We see this again in the book of Jude and we see it again in Matthew chapter 8. So my question is simply this, why not take the Bible at face value? Why not let the Bible simply speak for itself? What is the testimony of the Bible? I know that there are people with many letters after their names and before their names and maybe underneath and maybe on top of their names and they’ll come out and tell you. I mean I just read an article by a scholar who claimed that hell, A, was not real and the fires were just metaphorical. But I’m here to tell you that this is what the Bible says. Now you have to make a decision. Revelation 20 verse 15 says whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. I read that verse and I believe it and I believe that God meant what he said and that he says what he means. Now I know that Jesus used illustrations and I know that he used symbolism to get his point across. You remember that Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 5 that if your hand offends you, cut it off. He said that if your eye offends you, pluck it out. I do not think that Jesus was saying that you and I need to literally cut our hands off or even pluck out our eyes, but what he is saying is that whatever is causing you to sin, whatever is leading you down the path that you are sinning against God, get it out of your life. Perhaps even a person, get them out of your life. And for some of you, it might be that you need to take that cell phone and you need to cast it as far as the east is from the west. Amen? I didn’t get a lot of amens. Whatever it is, the devil knows our weaknesses. He knows what temptations are most effective upon us and there are times that you and I need to be alert to that. If there are things that are hindering us from following Christ obediently and honoring him in our life, we need to get those out and I think that Jesus was speaking in that way. I think he was explaining in that way. Jesus said, I am a door. He didn’t mean he was a literal door. He was saying, I am the entryway to heaven. I am the way to heaven. Jesus said that he was the way, the truth, and the life and no man comes to the Father but through him. And so we understand when he describes that symbolism and he uses it often, but when it comes to hell and understanding the context of his teaching, I do not see any effort on Jesus’s part to use the fires as something as being symbolic or metaphorical. The other reason that I believe in a literal fire is not only that I believe what the Bible says and I believe it is the most straightforward in what God is teaching us, is that a figurative interpretation of the fire undermines biblical authority. Again, I’m just pounding you with one verse after another and you have to make this decision. Is the Bible right or the Bible wrong? Is the Bible true or the Bible false? Revelation 21 8, but for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. I don’t think there’s any figurative interpretation of this. I think this is literal and I think for me to deny this is to deny the Bible, is to deny what the Word of God says. In effect, we are setting ourselves above Scripture and we are putting ourselves in a position and saying that we have the right to judge Scripture. That we have the right and the authority to decide what the Bible says and I think that’s a huge mistake in our life and it will lead down to a path of us becoming liberal in our thinking and application of the Word of God. Again, the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 33 14, the sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has ceased the godless. Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with the everlasting burning? Jude 1 7, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulge in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serves as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. So again, Jude says, hey, Sodom and Gomorrah is a example to us. Here’s my question, if you don’t believe in the literal fire, do you believe that God literally destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Do you believe that he destroyed them in the fire? That he judged them for their immorality? It’s important for us to realize that we can’t say, well, in this part of the Bible, it was literal, but this part is not. We have to take the Bible at face value and we have to say this is what the Bible says and that God literally meant that he would punish unbelievers with eternal fire. Now, what I think is the most important part of my message to you this morning, I know it’s a lot to digest and I know there’s many different ways that you might have questions and we’re glad to work on those with you, but we only have so much time and I know you don’t want to stay all day listening to me teach on hell, amen? Here’s what I want to leave you with, how can I avoid hell? I believe hell is real and I believe the fire is real. I believe that the torment, punishment is real and it certainly is a place that we want to avoid. The Bible is very clear on how a person can avoid going hell after death. God promises that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ, trusting him alone as their Savior will be saved. That great classic verse, John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting what church? Life. The other day I was driving a bus helping a friend out and this little boy, he’s probably second or third grade, but he was a mess and you know when these kids they become a mess they have meltdowns sometimes. Maybe they didn’t get their Count Chocula that morning, I don’t know, but he was causing a lot of problems so I made him sit in the front row, the front seat I should say, and he’s dialoguing with me while I’m driving trying to pick up these kids and he’s talking to me and he’s just telling me he doesn’t understand why he’s got to sit up here and he just doesn’t think that’s fair and I’m just like, buddy, if you don’t obey this is your punishment. And so somehow, of course he calls me Pastor Mike, Pastor Mike, we went to church, my family and I went to church. I said, well that’s good. He said, I learned a Bible verse at church. I said, tell me what it is. He said, I can’t remember where it is but for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Is there not a better verse to teach a young child that they can avoid hell, they can escape hell by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not only good for children but it’s good for every one of us. And that is that we are called to believe on Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ possesses all authority over hell. Revelation 118, Jesus said, I am he that lives and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of hell and of death. And here’s what he means, I have the authority. Jesus has the authority to determine who goes to hell and who goes to heaven. Jesus has the authority. And my friends when you come to Jesus Christ in sincerity and you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he has the authority to bring you into the presence of God upon your death here. When God promotes you as a believer, Jesus has the authority to bring you through those beautiful gates and into the presence of God and reunited with your family and your friends. Can God’s people say amen? Yes. He has that authority. So what is the purpose? Why does the Bible teach about hell? I think first of all, he teaches us about hell to guide us to turn to God’s grace, to lead us to that moment where we are ready to receive Jesus Christ. Hell is God’s warning and it is a most merciful act that God is giving to us. If you and I were realizing that a bridge was out on a particular road and you saw someone heading down that road, you would say the bridge is out, don’t go there, turn around. That would be the most merciful thing that you could do. If you were to drive by and see a house on fire, you would want to do everything you could to get inside and let those people know that their house is on fire. It is the most merciful thing that you could do. The most merciful thing that God could do is to tell you that there is a place called hell. It is a place of eternal, everlasting fire and it is a place that people go to that deny or reject Jesus Christ. It is out of great mercy that God sent not only his son to provide the way for us to have our sins forgiven, but to provide a way for us to avoid that eternal punishment of hell. People say, well, don’t teach on hell, Mike, you might scare them. Where might we scare them to? Because my question is this, if the fear of God, the terror of the Lord shakes you to the point that you would humble yourself to God and you would repent of your sins and give your life fully to Jesus Christ, wouldn’t that be wonderful? Don’t be afraid to teach on hell to your children, to your grandchildren, to your friends and your neighbors. Don’t be afraid to do that. But always remember what Ezekiel the prophet wrote on behalf of our Lord when he said, say to them, as I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel? Friends, God is saying to every sinner today that even though we deserve to go to hell, God is declaring that if we would put our trust in Jesus Christ as our savior, that he will deliver us from hell and we can avoid hell and by simply trusting in Christ, we can live in heaven with Jesus Christ forever. So I have this question, are you relying fully upon Jesus Christ for your salvation? So the answer is yes. The fires of hell are literal and it is something that we need to remember. I know that there is a lot of intellectuals and liberals who are going to deny that the fires in hell are literal because they want to soften hell or they don’t even believe in hell. But my friends, we are here to proclaim the truth. We will not bend to the culture or bow down. We will continue to proclaim God’s Word, the full counsel. Not just the positive, but also the negative. Not just heaven, but also hell. And so we have been studying about hell and most importantly, I want to make sure that you do not neglect so great a salvation. That the only way to escape hell and the wrath of God and the punishment of sin is to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And I pray that these words and this message and God’s truth will awaken your heart and bring you to full repentance. That God would grant you faith and repentance and that you would believe in your heart that Christ died for your sins, rose again the third day, ascended into heaven, and is at the right hand of the Father. I want to thank you for standing with our radio program. I want to thank you for your support. I want to thank you for those who send me kind notes and those who help keep us on the air. And we just want you to know we have not forgotten you and we appreciate all that you do. And know this, that we are committed to the Word of God and proclaiming it to the ends of the earth. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Faith, Philosophy and Spirituality 4 months

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Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 1. He will be reading out of Revelation 20: 7-10. Satan is destined for defeat and that’s why we as believers, no matter how much opposition we have, we are people of joy and we are people of confidence and we are people of faith because we know the end of the story. Hello and welcome to Hope Worth Having radio program. This is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Today, we’re beginning a new series entitled, Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Revelation chapter 20 verse 7 through 10 is our text. We’ve been teaching on heaven and you have to teach on hell because like heaven, hell is real and what does that mean when the Bible describes these fires and how does that apply? So let’s grab our Bible and get into this passage. Get your Bibles out. I want you to turn to Revelation chapter 20 this morning. Revelation chapter 20 and we’re gonna be covering verse 7 through 10 and of course some other assorted verses. Today, we are in the midst of a series. We’re picking back up on that series. If you remember that we were teaching before on five questions about heaven and five questions about hell and today we’re on that fourth question about hell and so we’ve already had four sermons on hell. You have one more to endure and I admire you because most churches could not even endure one sermon on hell, much less four headed to number five. So thank you church. Our goal when we preach on hell is we are not gleeful. We are not happy about hell but we want to send out a message of warning and we also want to make sure as believers that we understand what the Bible teaches us about hell. So we come to Revelation chapter 20 and verse 7 through 10. The And will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth Gog and Magog to gather them together to battle whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the Saints and the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beasts and the false prophet are and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Perhaps the most striking image of hell is that it is a place of everlasting fire. The Bible refers to this terminology the lake of fire. It is specifically mentioned in Revelation chapter 19 and of course in our text today and if you go on down further again in verse 14 it is referred to the lake of fire as the second death. Now to understand what we’re reading this morning let me just give you a little bit of context. At the end of a thousand years now you say a thousand years what are you talking about? I’ve shared with you Church that there are what we might refer to as dispensations and that there is now the dispensation of grace. Some people call it the dispensation of the church in which we have this great responsibility to take the good news of Christ to every person on every part of the planet. This is our responsibility to get the good news but the Bible tells us that there is going to be a rapture. That is the believers are going to be one day caught up. Jesus was asked in Matthew chapter 24 what would be the signs of his second coming. Jesus described those signs. You can read about them. We’ve taught on them but I want to tell you that we can already start to see the tea leaves of those signs and if we can already see some of these signs emerging in our communities and cultures and our land how much closer are we to the rapture of the church. We have to be cognizant of the fact that Jesus is coming again but you do not have to be discouraged because the Bible says we’re going to be raptured out of here which leads us into the tribulation period which is going to be for seven years. Now I know that people debate and people question and people sometimes struggle with what I just taught you but I always remind them though you and I may have some differences on timing and particulars about the rapture and the tribulation period I’m telling you my friends you cannot deny that it’s in the Bible. You just can’t but I am of the persuasion that we’re gonna be raptured out of here as believers. There’s gonna be a seven-year tribulation and then we are going to experience the second coming of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ will establish his kingdom on this earth for a thousand years the Bible says that he will rule and he will reign for a thousand years with his saints. That would be you and that would be me that would be all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for a thousand years. One might wonder why? Why would Jesus do it this way? Well there are many prophecies in the Old Testament that are yet to be fulfilled and I want you to remember that in those thousand years Jesus Christ will do just as the prophets said that the Messiah will sit in the seat of Jerusalem the beloved city and he will rule and he will rule with righteousness and he will come as a king that second time the first time he came as a lamb to give his life for for each of us he came to give his life and to pay the penalty of sin on the cross and then he would be resurrected but friends I want to remind you that Jesus is coming and when he comes that second time he will rule with justice and peace as believers sometimes we get so frustrated with the lack of justice in this world we are so upset about what is wrong in this world but I want to remind you that one day Jesus will make every wrong right and we can rejoice in that wonderful truth then the Bible tells us that during that thousand years Satan will be bound he’ll be bound for a thousand years where we picked up in our text in Revelation 20 and verse 7 through 10 we are seeing that after that thousand years Satan will be released and then he’ll be defeated again and he’ll be cast into the lake of fire the Bible says for all of eternity Satan is destined for defeat it is revealed in our text today it is recorded in our text today that Satan will not get the last laugh and that’s why we as believers no matter how much opposition we have how much pushback we have in this world we are people of joy and we are people of confidence and we are people of faith because we know the last end of the story we know how it’s all gonna end in that Jesus Christ has not only won the victory at the cross but he will continue that victorious March in his second coming and then he will eventually cast the devil into the lake of fire and all those who do not believe or reject Jesus Christ will be cast into the lake of fire the Bible teaches us in verses 10 through 15 that Christ will judge all the unbelievers Jesus referred to that in Matthew chapter 25 where the sheep and the goat are separated it is called the great white throne of judgment you and I as believers will not be at the great white throne of judgment because we have already put our trust in Christ and Jesus already took our punishment on the cross he absorbed the wrath of God on our behalf and therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus when we are judged it is about rewards it is about our faithfulness it is about our obedience to God and we are rewarded for all that we have accomplished and been a part of in the kingdom of Christ so we rejoice in that but when you read verse 10 through 15 understand this is about the great white throne judgment and God judging those who have rejected him and rebelled against him sadly the Bible says he’ll be casting them all into the lake of fire after that he will usher in a new heaven and a new earth which you can read about in Revelation 21 and 22 those who have rejected Christ right now those who have refused to believe in Christ even now are in a what we might refer to as a temporary hell we have taught you about the five different names for hell the New Testament often refers to this temporary hell as Hades sometimes even Gehenna and it is a place the Old Testament was called Sheol and it was the abiding of the dead the place of the dead and that is a place that they go as believers who have trusted in Christ for their salvation the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord can God’s people say amen and so we are in the immediate presence of Jesus Christ and we are enjoying all the blessings and rewards that God has for us but those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life they are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life what awaits for them is not only a hell that is separated from God but a place that the Bible refers to as the lake of fire the lake of fire the eternal destination of the devil and all of his demons and those who reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior now the question before us this morning as we have been learning about hell in the Bible is are the fires of hell literal there are many even within evangelical Christianity who would say to you that when the Bible refers to hell it’s all figurative that it is not literal or it is not even real well I want to share with you first of all the argument for a literal fire note again that Jesus said in Matthew 25 verse 41 then shall he say also unto them on the left hand depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels you understand that the devil rose up against Almighty God you understand we’ve already taught you that the scriptures teach us that the devil was filled with pride in heaven and he was cast out and a third of the angels with him these are his demonic forces that are crisscrossing this world causing so much chaos in this world the devil’s desire Jesus taught us was to kill and to destroy never forget that it is the devil’s desire to destroy your family to destroy your life and to destroy your testimony and to make a mess of this world I think he’s doing a pretty good job I hate to say that I hate to say that the world is in chaos the world is in confusion but it is only setting the table for the Antichrist to come in with all the solutions and all the answers and claim to be the one who can bring peace but it’s a pseudo it’s a false it’s a fake peace we know that that’s why I tell you that Jesus taught us this he taught us what it would be like and what the circumstances and what the environment would be like before his return which would be at the end of the tribulation but Jesus describes this day of judgment in Matthew 25 and he describes those who are cast into this lake of fire as an everlasting fire you remember that we taught you that the Bible describes hell also as Gehenna and Gehenna was an actual burning place outside of Jerusalem it was in the valley of Gehenna and it was adjacent just south of Jerusalem and it was a place where we might call it a burn pile now every once while I might drive around our county and different people will be burning trash and the smoke gets everywhere and I start hacking and coughing and they mess me up for at least two weeks amen trying to figure all that out the church used to have a burn pile and finally the fire department said please stop please stop burning all that trash you say where would all that trash come from well if you have a Christian school of 500 students there is a lot of trash don’t be upset students but I’m just saying there’s a lot of wear and tear there’s a lot of food there’s a lot of eating there’s a lot of paper plates there’s a lot of stuff that has to be thrown away and it has to be gotten rid of and sometimes we would burn some of that trash I want you in your mind to understand that there was a place south of Jerusalem called Gehenna as Jesus spoke about hell he would reference this burn pile this place where it was constantly burning they even it was such a massive place of burning they not only put their trash there the pagans would put their dead bodies in this burn pile and it was just constantly burning and burning and Jesus is referencing to us that he is he is teaching about hell that it is a place of fire it is a place where there is constant burning now one might ask two questions relating to that which I think are really good questions and I appreciate that there is thinking going on amen it’s good to see people come into the church and not take their thinking cap off and to have some good questions but we know first of all Jesus described hell as a place of outer darkness and yet he describes it as a place where there is an eternal fire we know that fire gives off light and so how is this possible that fire could be literal and yet it be a place of outer darkness well friends there is some kind of a unique fire that God is going to create that does not give off light the second question you might have about this being a burning fire is we know that fire consumes it consumes and yet Jesus described this place of eternal fire in hell as a place that does not consume you remember Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom which was one of the names that was often referred to the rich man was there in this burning place Lazarus was Abraham’s bosom and there the rich man looked up and he wanted just a drop of water on the tip of his tongue because the fire the flames that he was in and so Jesus is helping us to understand that this unique fire is not going to be exactly like the fire that you and I see and that we use for cooking or we might use to burn trash or we might use it in some other fashion but it is a unique fire that is everlasting and definitely it is punishment and definitely people can sense it they can see it they can feel it and it has an impact upon them because the Bible is so clear about that that it’s definitely a place though that does not consume now again someone might say well our bodies you know I taught last week about how one day as believers that when we die we our soul and spirit is separated from our body and we go into the presence of heaven and then one day there’ll be a resurrection your body is not immediately in heaven when you get there but your soul and spirit is with Jesus Christ your body comes remember at the rapture the Bible says the dead in Christ shall rise and your soul and spirit is reunited with this new body this glorified body the Bible describes all this in 1st Corinthians and it is a glorified body that is resurrected so your soul and spirit is reunited and now you’re in heaven with body soul and spirit now this was put out there and of course sometimes I read I know I shouldn’t but I read the social media sometimes what people saying and people just saying no there is no resurrection of the dead you know in my mind I don’t respond but in my mind I got to think does anybody read the Bible anymore because the Bible not only teaches us that believers bodies will be resurrected but the Bible teaches us that unbelievers bodies will be resurrected so what is unique in this final stop for unbelievers in this lake of fire is that not only where their soul and spirit be there but the Bible teaches us in John chapter 5 that the unbelievers body will be resurrected and that they will be cast into the lake of fire soul spirit and body into this lake of fire Jesus said in Matthew 13 verse 41 and 42 the Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth now if you believe that the fire is symbolic or that it is something that is metaphorical in describing the punishment of those who reject Jesus Christ I propose this question to you do people use symbols because the reality is less or more than the symbol I want you to think of like this if I were to say that my wife is the diamond of my life I’m not limiting her to a diamonds value I’m just saying that she’s even more than a diamond to me I’m trying to illustrate so we use symbols we use metaphors in our life and if Jesus if for any reason if he were to somehow say I’m gonna use the fire as a metaphor do you think that he meant that that was just the limitation of that metaphor of the punishment I think it’s even worse I think Jesus was wanting us to know and understand that hell is even worse than what can be described in the human language the teaching of hell is meant to appal us it is meant to fill us with godly fear it is designed to shake us it is designed to persuade us that though heaven will be better than what we could ever dream hell will be worse than what we could ever imagine and so I am a strong believer that the fire in hell is literal now let’s understand the literal interpretation because I believe it is the most straightforward understanding of the scriptures there are many times people like to come to the Bible and rather than believing what it says they want to explain it away they want to explain away the horror of hell they want to explain away the punishment of hell because in their mind they cannot conceive and I’m here to tell you I believe that it’s even worse than what Jesus said that the human language limited him to how horrible hell is now the Bible describes hell as a place of fire I’ve already read you several verses but here’s another one Luke 16 then he cried and said father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame as we mentioned to you already it is this flame of fire that is tormenting this rich man it is not consuming him but it is tormenting him hell is described as a place of fire and darkness we see this again in the book of Jude and we see it again in Matthew chapter 8 so my question is simply this why not take the Bible at face value why not let the Bible simply speak for itself what is the testimony of the Bible I know that there are people with many letters after their names and before their names and maybe underneath and maybe on top of their names and they’ll come out and tell you I mean I just read an article by a scholar who claimed that hell a was not real and the fires were just metaphorical but I’m here to tell you that this is what the Bible says now you have to make a decision Revelation 21st 15 says whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake fire I read that verse and I believe it and I believe that God meant what he said and that he says what he means now I know that Jesus used illustrations and I know that he used symbolism to get his point across you remember that Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 5 that if your hand offends you cut it off he said that if your eye offends you pluck it out I do not think that Jesus was saying that you and I need to literally cut our hands off or even pluck out our eyes but what he is saying is that whatever is causing you to sin whatever is leading you down the path that you are sinning against God get it out of your life perhaps even a person get them out of your life and that for some of you it might be that you might need to take that cell phone and you need to cast it as far as the east is from the West amen I didn’t get a lot of amen whatever it is the devil knows our weaknesses he knows what temptations are most effective upon us and there are times that you and I need to be alert to that if there are things that are hindering us from following Christ obediently and honoring him in our life we need to get those out and I think that Jesus was speaking in that way I think he was explaining in that way Jesus said I am a door he didn’t mean he was a literal door he was saying I am the entryway to heaven I am the way to heaven Jesus said that he was the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but through him and so we understand when he describes that symbolism and he uses it often but when it comes to hell and understanding the context of his teaching I do not see any effort on Jesus’s part to use the fires as something as being symbolic or metaphorical the other reason that I believe in a literal fire is not only that I believe what the Bible says and I believe it is the most straightforward in what God is teaching us is that a figurative interpretation of the fire undermines biblical authority again I’m just pounding you with one verse after another and you have to make this decision is the Bible right or the Bible wrong is the Bible true or the Bible false revelation 21 8 but for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death I don’t think there’s any figurative interpretation of this I think this is literal and I think for me to deny this is to deny the Bible hell was not created for you and me but for the devil and his angels unfortunately many refuse to believe and follow Jesus Christ and so the Bible tells us that if we do not believe in Christ that we will be cast into the everlasting lake of fire and we understand this to be literal we understand this to be as God describes it in the book of Revelation we understand also that there’s a lot of symbolism in the Bible and so we’re not ignorant to that but we know that Jesus described hell as a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth I pray today that you will not go to hell but that you would turn your life and fully surrender to Jesus Christ receive him as your Lord and Savior and that you would faithfully follow him we don’t preach on hell to scare people but we do preach on hell to warn people that there is a place that we should shun a place that we should not go to and we should strive to receive Christ as our Savior and go to heaven now I want to encourage you to make sure that you check out our YouTube channel if you go to youtube.com then type in hope worth having you’ll see an assortment of opportunities where we have been teaching the Bible doing some Q&A some interviews and I want you to take advantage of that by checking out our YouTube channel I know you’ll be blessed in doing that this is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Faith, Philosophy and Spirituality 4 months

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What Will We Do in Heaven? Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Will We Do in Heaven? Part 2. He will be reading out of Revelation 21: 1-3. That’s why Jesus says your sorrow will turn into joy. And I am assured of this, that the depth of your sorrow and the loss of your loved one will one day manifest itself in the height of joy that will be unspeakable in your heart. Welcome to Hope Worth Having. My name is Mike Sanders and I’m the host of Hope Worth Having. I also serve as the senior pastor of the Open Door Church and I am delighted that you would join us and tune in today. We are continuing our series on what will we do in heaven. And so we’re in Revelation chapter 21, verse 1 through 3. I want to get right into the message today. And so join me as we begin. Joyful rest. What will we do in heaven? We will enjoy joyful rest. But let me help you understand this joyful rest because it’s really not the rest that you’re thinking about. Revelation 14, 13 says this, that I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them. When we study the book of Hebrews, a significant theme is the rest that we find in Jesus Christ. Many of you are familiar with the Old Testament and how God taught the people that they were to take a Sabbath and that they were to once a week rest. And that was on a Saturday. They would rest. There would be no work. There would be no activity. They were just simply to dwell upon God and they were to rest. And for many, many years in our communities, in our American culture, you couldn’t do anything on a Sunday. You would be labeled as the worst Christian in America. I had achieved that label one Sunday. And this was during COVID. And I want you to know, as horrible of a person as I am, that I was on a Sunday outside mowing my lawn. But you got to understand my schedule was heavy and there wasn’t one day during the week. And so it was either going to get up to my nose or we get her mowed. Amen. And my wonderful neighbor, who I’ve been inviting to church and inviting to come, and he’s come a few times and I hope he’s not here this morning, but I do want him to be here. But I’m telling a story on him. But he came flying over to my yard. Pastor Mike, what are you doing? And I said, what? He said, my grandpa said you can never mow your lawn on Sunday. That it’s against the Bible. And I said, well, I appreciate your grandpa, but the Bible does say when the ox is in the ditch, you got to do what you can to get the ox out. And the ox was in the ditch. Now there’s nothing wrong with mowing your lawn on Sunday. If you want to mow it today, go ahead. And when you’re done, come on over to mine and mow mine as well. You might as well be blessed beyond measure. But anyways, what I’m saying is that people embrace this idea of Sabbath and rest, that even it became a part of our culture and our traditions within the church and with the way that we did things. Now we know that the Bible teaches us that Christ is the fulfillment of all the symbols and the shadows, if you will, and the imagery that was in the Old Testament and that Jesus Christ is now our rest. That we find our rest in Christ. He is the one that brings spiritual rest. He is the one that brings true rest in our life. And we rest in Christ for our salvation. We no longer are trying to work ourselves to heaven, but we are resting in the work of Christ on the cross through the resurrection and our faith in Jesus Christ that now brings us to become the people of God. And there’s a lot we can talk about that. But I’m simply just helping make the case that this idea of rest is taught in the Bible. But when we read this text in Revelation 14, verse 13, we should not see the word rest as one of inactivity. But rather here he is talking about that we have the relief from the burden of all the challenges and the afflictions and the sufferings of life. And that’s exactly what the passage means is the believer will rest from their labors. That the believer who has been fighting the good fight of faith, the believer that has been marching forward in Christ, even against opposition, even dealing with the temptations of the flesh and the struggles of society and the problems of life and even the physical challenges that one might have to experience in life as their health deteriorates as they get older. The Bible is teaching us that they can rest from all of that struggle and they can rest from all of those challenges. It does not mean when you go to heaven that you’re going to sit on a cloud, play a harp and just sleep all day. And I know that sounds very enticing to some of you. You would just love to sleep all day. But that’s not what heaven is. Heaven is a place where the Bible describes to us back in our text if we’ll look in verse 4 of Revelation 21 that God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying and there shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. If we were to invert this verse we would say that life is full of pain and life is full of sorrow and life is full of death and life is full of crying and tears and the Bible is reminding us that the struggle of life the challenges of life and the obstacles of life is one day coming to an end for the believer in Jesus Christ. And we will no longer have to fight the good fight of faith and we will no longer have to push ourselves to keep on keeping on for Jesus Christ and we will no longer have to bear the weight and the burdens of trying to comfort those who are hurting and who have lost loved ones. And we will no longer have to cry ourselves to sleep and we will no longer have to feel the emptiness of grief in our hearts as we miss our loved ones dearly. One day church you will rest from all of that sorrow and you will be in the presence of God enjoying the beautiful presence and majesty of God and you will rest from your labor for God. How beautiful is that? I want us to understand this. Would you take your Bible and go to 2 Thessalonians? Now if you just back up from Revelation you’re gonna bump into 2 Thessalonians not too far but 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 in verse 6 and again I think we’re given a little insight into what God is saying is coming for the believer and even what some of your loved ones have already experienced and are experiencing. In verse 6 of chapter 1 the Bible says, Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you. Now let me just stop there. Just a side note. We’re out there living for God and sometimes there’s pushback and sometimes there’s opposition and sometimes people aren’t as cooperative and sometimes people make it difficult and sometimes people are antagonistic because of our faith in Jesus Christ. We were talking about this in Sunday school with the young adults and how we suffer in this world but that God has called us not to fight evil with evil but our response is goodness. Our response is kindness. Our response is that those who trouble us we trust in God because we believe that God will make right all that is wrong in this world. Now we like to get ahead of God, don’t we? I mean perhaps maybe the hardest word for Christians is wait. We don’t like to wait and how I know this is that I observe how some of you are driving out there and how irritated you get but I’m among you. I find myself frustrated. We don’t like to wait but when it comes to those who trouble us and persecute us or even push back on us or make it difficult for us as we’re trying to live for Christ the Bible says God is gonna repay and so we must whether it’s here or later we must trust God that He will repay in His perfect timing. He will deal with all the injustice in this world. We strive to live our life with justice and integrity and character and honor and glory to God but we trust Him. Look at verse 7 and to give you who are troubled what does that word say? Rest. See I love that because it’s a battle living for God. If you think following Jesus Christ means your life is easy you are sadly mistaken and why is it that some start out like shooting stars for Christ and all of a sudden they disappear on us it is because they responded in emotion to God and they were under the impression that somehow their life would be easier and when they found themselves in the midst of trouble and the midst of a trial and in the midst of antagonism they retreated. But the true believer perseveres and the true believer keeps going on and the true believer never gets weary in well-doing because they keep pushing forward for the Lord Jesus Christ and you are given a promise that God will give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. Again, not the rest of I get to grab my pillow and lay down it’s the rest that I don’t have to fight the fight. I don’t have to get up tomorrow and keep pushing for the cause of Jesus Christ. Every day is a new set of problems every day is a new challenge but there is coming for the believer this rest that we’ll experience in heaven it’s the Christian rest it’s not the absence of activity but it is the completion of our spiritual journey it is the end of the struggle with the flesh it is the end of the struggle with the world it is the end of the struggle with the devil. It’s easy to get faint-hearted as you serve God. I mean, you don’t even have to wrestle with the devil you don’t even have to wrestle with your flesh you don’t even have to wrestle with the world Sometimes we end up as believers wrestling with each other, amen. We’re like brothers and sisters in Christ. Whoa, what a thought. We’re like brothers and sisters who are playing with their toys, and that’s my toy, and grandma gave that to me, not to you. And that’s my pew, and that’s my ministry, and that’s my classroom, and we dare not share with anybody else, amen. It’s mine, and we wrestle, and we struggle, and you wonder what happened to the pastor’s hair. He’d been pulling his hair out ever since he became a pastor, because Christians will fuss and fight, and do everything they can, sometimes ignorantly, foolishly, maybe through immaturity. But there’s coming a day there’s not gonna be a burden of fighting the fight. It’s all gonna be gone. This morning you may be wrestling with temptations in your hearts, and you’ve been trying to overcome this temptation, and it has been dragging you down, and you have a good set of days and weeks, and then all of a sudden, bam, the struggle is so real. There’s coming a day we’re never gonna be tempted again, church. We are gonna be in the presence of God. Can God’s people say amen? Well, let’s move on. Number three, we will engage in physical activities with physical bodies. Now, here’s where I want you to understand, again, what I was telling you in my intro, is that when we leave this earth now, before the rapture of the church, our bodies are not with us. Our bodies are not with us. They are not with our loved ones, and so I know we imagine that they might be up there doing certain things relating to their bodies, but they’re not, because our bodies are not with us immediately. Death is the idea of separation. The body is separated from the soul and spirit, and so soul and spirit is promoted into the presence of God. The body is laid in the casket, or it is there in its ashes, and the Bible says dust to dust and ashes to ashes, and there that body is, but the soul and spirit is in the presence of God, but when the resurrection happens and the dead in Christ, 1 Thessalonians 4, you can study it on your own, when that happens, then we are gonna experience brand new bodies, and one day God is gonna give us a new heaven and a new earth, and he will make all things new, including our bodies. How many of you need a new body? Amen. And one day, others of you will join us in needing a new body. We know that through the modern day doctors and scientists that they can give you a new hip. They can give you a new knee and a shoulder, and perhaps one day they’ll give you a new brain through AI. Who knows? But eventually, what I want us to understand that all of these things that are created do not compare to the original model, amen? And they’re not as good. Yes, they are supplements so that we don’t hurt as much, and maybe we can walk a little bit better without so much pain, and they help us, and we’re not against it, and if you need a new hip, go get one. All right? But one day, you’re getting a brand new body, top to bottom, amen? The Bible says in Philippians 3, verse 21, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. So God is gonna make all things new, including our bodies, and we wonder what will that body look like? Now we’re in the range of speculation, and I wanna help you out a little bit because I hear some of you wandering around and speaking dogmatically, like you know what our body’s gonna look like in heaven, like you got it all figured out. But let me tell you something. There’s many speculation. So again, some of you have children in heaven. There is one speculation that the Bible says when we see him, we will be like him. The scripture says that. What does that mean? Does it mean that we will have a body like Jesus when he, in his glorified state, resurrected at the age of 33 and a half, and that our children that are in heaven will have bodies of 33 and a half? Some believe that, but there’s nothing that affirms this. I don’t know of any scholar, any theologian that thinks this dogmatically and conclusively. Others believe that our children would remain in the state that they are and that we will be reunited because we will be known as we are what? Known. And so if you never knew your child as a 33-year-old person, an adult, then you would not know them in heaven, and yet the Bible says we will be known as we are known. All I can say to you this morning is I do not have the exact answer as to the age of your body. The age won’t matter in heaven, but the point being is I do know that we will be like him, and I do know that we will be known as we are known, and what all does that mean in heaven? Well, let’s wait until we get there, amen? And the rest that have already figured out life and you know everything, then we’ll just, we’ll love you in grace, amen? But God gives us a new body, and our loved ones are blessed with new bodies, and all of us who love Jesus Christ are given new bodies, and the question is why would God furnish us with a body and set us on a new earth and give us physical properties if we’re not going to put that body to good use? So God is going to use us. There will be many activities that we will have in our new bodies, and to understand some of the things that we might do in our new bodies, you would certainly study the life of Christ as in his glorified body, as what was his life like after he was resurrected, because Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that we will have glorified bodies, and certainly we know that there’ll be eating and drinking in the kingdom of God, and I think that’s important. You say, pastor, why would you bring that up? Well, because it dominates a lot of our life, right? We enjoy eating. Now, the question is what are we gonna eat? Well, it just depends which pastor you ask. If you ask Dr. Dina Padron, you’re having spaghetti. If you ask Pastor Mike, we’re having chicken, and others might say we’re having prime rib, and others might say no, there’s nothing in the Bible that talks about eating meat. The Bible does talk about the tree of life that will bear fruit every month and it’ll be healing to the nations. Now, what does that mean? Are we gonna get sick in heaven? Wouldn’t you like to be able to just go to a tree and eat a nice piece of fruit and then your flu would go away? Wouldn’t you like that? Well, friends, you’re not gonna get sick in heaven, so what does it mean when it says the healing of the nations? It’s the Greek word of the idea of therapeutic, and I think that it’s gonna have a therapeutic effect upon us, and it’s gonna be meaningful, and it’s gonna be beautiful, and it’s gonna be something that is very important to us that as we eat this fruit from the tree of life and it just bears it every month, and we just enjoy it, and it’s just gonna be like, this is awesome. This is great. But the Bible doesn’t talk about any particular meat that I’m aware of. Some people say we’re gonna be vegetarians. If we are gonna be a vegetarian in heaven, I’m gonna need God to do a great work in my mind. Okay, I’m just gonna be honest with you, and I’m just being real with God, and I know maybe some struggle with that, but it’s true because we enjoy. God gave us the ability for something to be enjoyable, and we always know that when we have fellowship with one another, many times there are refreshments, there’s food, and this kind of becomes the center of what we’re doing in our relationship. Jesus said in Luke 22, 30, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. We are definitely gonna be eating and drinking. We’re gonna be learning. We already talked a lot about that. We’re gonna be rejoicing. We’ve talked about that. We’re gonna be serving. We’re gonna talk more a little bit about that. There’s a lot of things that we are gonna be doing in heaven. And that takes me to my fourth point that I wanna share with you this morning is that we will enjoy social interaction with one another or fellowship with one another. One of the things we’ll be doing in heaven is fellowshipping with each other. Now, we will remember our past relationships, and we will continue to recognize one another in the eternal state, and we will not only worship God personally, but we will worship God corporately together with our family, with our friends who love Jesus Christ. It’s gonna be so beautiful. I cannot express to you enough of how much that is going to mean to you and that you’re gonna be with your family. We understand there’s no marriage in heaven, but that does not change the fact that we won’t know each other in heaven and that we won’t fellowship with one another in heaven and that we won’t interact with one another in heaven. And this time, when I say, what’s for dinner, hon, she’s not gonna be mad at me because nobody gets offended in heaven. Isn’t that great? I mean, like, you could really tell what you’re thinking. You know, sometimes we have to filter what we think and don’t say it because if you really say what you’re thinking, you’re gonna be in big trouble, buddy, right? You might really get upset. Somebody might really get upset. And so we have to be careful. But in heaven, the fellowship is gonna be sweet. It is gonna be enjoyable. It is gonna be a blessing. And we’re gonna interact. Jesus Christ was comforting his disciples and he was consoling them about the fact that he would be leaving soon. But Jesus said most assuredly in John 16, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. And what he meant is that one day there’s gonna be a reunion of Jesus and his disciples. There’s gonna be a reunion in our relationships. Remember what I told you? What’s most important in life is relationships, your relationship with God and your relationship with others. And that’ll mean more to you than what your career title is. And maybe what you did and accomplished here on this earth, it’ll mean more to you to be with your family and to be with your friends that love Jesus Christ and to never have to sorrow again that they have been separated from you by death. That’s why Jesus says your sorrow will turn into joy. And I am assured of this, that the depth of your sorrow and the loss of your loved one will one day manifest itself in the heights of joy that will be unspeakable in your heart. Jesus consoles us with the hope of an eternal reunion with our loved ones at the appearing of our Savior. The final thing I wanna share with you in thinking about what will we do is that we will exercise responsibility and service to God. God will give us responsibility in this new earth, in this new heaven. Jesus said in Revelation 7, 15, therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them. And there’s much to be said and much we could dissect, but here’s what I want you to know. We’ve already taught you a little bit about this, that Jesus said, to whom much is given, much is required. And so we have this responsibility that we’re to be faithful and obedient to God on this earth and that that will translate into the new heaven and the new earth for us. And the things that you are gifted in and the abilities that you have and the skillsets that God has endowed you with will again transfer to your responsibilities in heaven. And so when you think about the things that you enjoy and the things that you’re passionate about and the things that you enjoy doing, friends, you will be able to do those things in the new heaven and the new earth. And the one contractor raised his hand in a Q&A service one time with me and he said, Pastor Mike, I’m a builder. Do we get to build in heaven? And I said, certainly, in Isaiah 65, it teaches us in that millennial kingdom and in that new heaven and new earth that we will be building. Here’s what I want you to understand. Imagine living life for God at its height and doing the things that you enjoy and are gifted in and have abilities for and that you will live that out every day, but there’ll be no sin, there’ll be no sorrow, there’ll be no sadness, there’ll be no suffering. Do not think of yourself or your loved ones just floating around looking for something to do, but know that as the scriptures teach us, there will be much for you to do in heaven and you will serve God day and night and you will be active for the Lord Jesus Christ, but there’s not gonna be pushback, there’s not gonna be a fight, there’s not gonna be temptation, you’re not gonna get weary, you’re gonna say, man, those little kids need to pick it up because they’re slowing down, they can’t even keep up with me, I’m 500 years old. You will have the energy of the Lord and you will live with the Lord forever, you will worship him, you will serve him, you will fellowship with your loved one and let me tell you what your life is going to be like in heaven. Loving God and loving and nothing will stop you or interrupt you, loving God and loving people. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. We’re talking about what we’ll do in heaven, but the most important thing is, will you be in heaven? And the only way that you can get to heaven is through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by me. So if you have not put your faith in Christ, if you believe God is calling you, then all you have to do is repent and believe in Jesus, that is to turn away from your sin and your selfishness and to turn towards Christ and what he did on the cross for you. The Bible says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I hope that’ll be true in your life. Have you checked out our podcasts? Yes, we put out a regular podcast and you can go to hopeworthhaving.com and you can look at those podcasts, you can listen to different topics and different passages of the Bible and take advantage of that opportunity. I hope you’ll be encouraged through that and it’s something that’ll continue to strengthen your faith. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having. The post What Will We Do in Heaven? Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Faith, Philosophy and Spirituality 4 months

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