Our Way Out

1/27/08

 

 

(The following was used with a PowerPoint presentation, the asterisks indicate slide changes.)

 

 

*1 Cor. 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out…

 

*1 Cor. 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

 

*Our Way Out

 

Pray

 

Our way out is not as you might think.

 

People want an escape.

 

Just like the picture.  Lord Jesus, where is my fire escape!

 

*Christianity is not an escape from reality it is the answer to reality!

 

Problems don’t go away by ignoring them or excusing them or by denying that they exist.

 

*Genuine faith is not denial!

 

Some of you will remember back to the 70’s and 80’s how many were taught that to express true faith you had to make a positive confession.  Faith is positive, but this was distorted teaching.

 

If I break my arm I can say all day that my arm is not broken, but it is broken.  The answer is not in denying the fact that it’s broken but trusting God to take care of it.

 

*Christianity is not a mystical oasis to escape from reality but the power to engage it!

 

The Lord is opening my eyes more and more to understand the purpose of the church as never before.

 

One reason the majority of the church is powerless is because they don’t want to engage.

 

*For instance, many churchgoers use this phrase… “I have enough of the real world, that’s why I come here.”

 

Jesus never wanted His people to get the wrong idea.  He doesn’t want us to have the wrong idea today.

 

In the parable of the sower, Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that there is a cost in following Him…

 

*Mat. 13:21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

 

Following Jesus does not alleviate trouble…

 

*Jo. 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

 

No matter what kind of trouble we face, the Lord Jesus gives us a tremendous promise!

 

*Rom. 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  ³⁷No, IN ALL THESE THINGS we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced

 

*that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

The scripture says that in the last days, men will gather teachers around them who will tell them just what they want to hear.

 

*2 Tim. 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

 

This is what people don’t want to hear:

 

*Click for each one

 

1.     Being responsible

2.     Being accountable

3.     The necessity of repentance

4.     The necessity of forgiveness

5.     Living a righteous life

6.     Coming under the Lordship of Jesus Christ

 

*(Blank)

 

I was asked a very legitimate question this past week that deserves my addressing it with everyone.

 

The statement and question was this…

 

In questioning our approach in standing against various atrocities, is it our place to do that?

 

The point was made that Jesus walked this earth under the Roman Empire and yet He did not teach His disciples to stand against that empire or its ways.  The Roman Empire was definitely an evil empire.

 

*The disciples were not in a position to confront the Roman Empire, but they did confront the laws of their own nation.

 

The Jewish nation existed within the Roman Empire.

 

*Jo. 11:45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.  “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many

 

*miraculous signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

 

The Jewish nation had its own laws and ways and the believers confronted those laws that were wrong.

 

*Jo. 7:50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹“Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?”  ⁵²They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

 

*Acts 10:27 Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. ²⁸He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.

 

*Acts 21:27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, ²⁸shouting, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and

 

*defiled this holy place.” ²⁹(They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.)

³⁰The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut.

 

*³¹ While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. ³²He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

 

*Paul confronted the system!

 

That’s why they wanted to kill him!

 

The prophets of old constantly confronted the political system, the ungodly leaders and the injustices of the nation!

 

*We don’t escape the system, we engage the system.

 

We can be so religious that we don’t have an ear to hear what God is saying to the church!

 

William Wilberforce had an ear to hear what God was saying about the terrible injustice with slavery.

 

Abraham Lincoln had an ear to ear what God was saying about the terrible injustice with slavery.

 

Many who opposed both of these individuals were the religious people!

 

*Tell me this.  How can slavery be wrong when the Bible supports it?

 

You don’t want to use parts of the Old Testament in teaching men how to treat women!

 

*Gen. 19:1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. ²“My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”  “No,” they answered,

 

*“we will spend the night in the square.”  ³But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. ⁴Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. ⁵They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came

 

*to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”  ⁶Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him ⁷and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. ⁸ Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

 

Without a doubt, in the Old Testament times women were valued less than men!

 

*Lev. 27:1 The LORD said to Moses, ²“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate persons to the LORD by giving equivalent values, ³set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel; ⁴and if it is a female, set her value at thirty shekels. ⁵If it is a person between

 

*the ages of five and twenty, set the value of a male at twenty shekels and of a female at ten shekels. ⁶If it is a person between one month and five years, set the value of a male at five shekels of silver and that of a female at three shekels of silver. ⁷If it is a person sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekels and of a female at ten shekels.

 

What’s the point!

 

*The Word of God without the Spirit of God is a dangerous thing!

 

How do we resolve this prejudice in the Old Testament between the male and female?  With one verse!

 

*Gal. 3:26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, ²⁷for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

 

*(Blank) Abortion is not addressed in the Bible.  So what do we do ignore it?

 

That is the approach that mainstream Christianity takes!

 

Remember this statement from the beginning of the message…

 

*Christianity is not an escape from reality it is the answer to reality!

 

Problems don’t go away by ignoring them or excusing them or by denying that they exist.  Whether it be with your personal life or with our society.

 

*Don’t run—engage!

 

I want to bring this idea to the Lord’s Supper.

 

We can go through the motion.  We can be disengaged or we can be engaged.

 

The ultimate example of engaging was our Lord and Savior Jesus.  He didn’t have to do what He did, He did it willingly.  He could have escaped but He didn’t.

 

It was Jesus’ darkest hour and this is what He said…

 

*Mat. 26:50 Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. ⁵¹With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

⁵²“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.

 

*⁵³ Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”