THE DIFFERENCE GOD MAKES PART 5

THE DIFFERENCE GOD MAKES PART 5

 

Today is the fifth and final installment our series "The Difference God makes in your life." I believe that it is important to have a series like this because the most important thing you believe in life is what you believe about God.  It affects every other area of your life.  It affects how you deal with your past.  It affects how you face the future.  It affects how you live today.  What you believe about God affects every other area of your life. 
 

Over the past several weeks we have spoken about the difference that God and religion makes in the way that we live our lives. When we first started speaking about this we looked at in weeks past I spoke about the moral laws and guidance that God gives. When we ground our conduct in God we can stand tall and confident, to do the right thing when the right thing may hard, inconvenient, unpopular or expensive.

 

 

I also spoke of a sense of community that God gives us. God doesn't just call people to Him but calls people to reach out to each other - to consider our neighbours feelings and to love our neighbour.

 

 

Further I told how God takes our lives seriously. It is only to God; it is only to the church that we can come with our entire lives, our joys, our sorrows, our celebrations and our shames. God takes our private pains and joys and allows us to share them with God and with our Christian brothers and sisters.

 

 

Last week we spoke about how God gives us the power to be human in a world that tries to strip the humanity from us. In a world that sets us against each other, God compels us towards kindness. In a world where we are surrounded by strangers, God tells us that they are our neighbours. In a world full of fear, God compels us to love. In a world where our worth is measured in dollars and cents, God's measuring sick measures our compassion and mercy. When the world calls on us to be the best and to look out for number 1, God calls to something greater than just individual achievements and satisfying our pleasures. In a world where we can get cancer, alstymers, or MS regardless of how nice we are or the way we live our lives, God gives us understanding, perspective, and comfort.

 

All these things affect how you live your life in there here and now, but God’s love for you and God’s interest in you is not just confined to the here-and-now. God’s love for you and God’s interest in you transcends the grave and so God sent His Son to give us purpose, peace, and power to live on on Earth and also to open the doorway to Heaven so that when our time on this world is ended, our time with God will begin again in a brand new way. As our Bible passage for today says:  ¹⁶"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,^[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

I remember one time I was reading my reading this exact passage on a plane. The nosy guy sitting next to me looked over and said "That's the craziest claim I've ever heard, I don't need God to give anyone for me," he claimed. "I've led a good life. Held a good job. People respect me. My wife loves me. I don't need God to give me his son."

Perhaps you agree. You appreciate the teachings of Jesus. Admire his example. But no matter how you turn it around, you can't see the significance of his death. How can the death of Christ mean life for us? The answer begins with a heart exam.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9 NKJV). The Spiritual Cardiologist scans our hearts and finds deep disease: "For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly" (Mark 7:21-22).

If you want some examples of this, just turn on the television news … another swarming in Halifax, another shooting in Moncton, another home invasion on the Miramichi.  

This generation is oddly silent about sin. Late-night talk shows don't discuss humanity's shortcomings. Some mental health professionals mock our need for divine forgiveness. At the same time, we rape the earth, squander nonrenewable resources, and let 24,000 people die daily from hunger or hunger-related causes.' In these "modern" decades we have invented global threats of nuclear holocaust and terrorism, and have reinvented genocide and torture. The twentieth century saw more slaughters than any other century in history—from the Ottoman massacre of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I to the 1990s slaughter of 3 million people in Rwanda and Sudan. Lurking between them: the Ukraine terror famine, Auschwitz,  Soviet Gulags, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the Cambodian killing fields. Wars and genocides took more than 200 million souls in one hundred years!

Barbarism apparently is alive and well on the planet Earth. Deny our sin? Our heart problem? It's universal.

And it is personal.

Do a simple exercise with me. Measure your life against these four standards from the Ten Commandments. Heaven's applicants should score well on God's basic laws, wouldn't you agree?

 

 

"You must not steal" (Exod. 20:15 TLB). Have you ever stolen anything? Not even from work?

 

 

"You must not lie" (v. 16 TLB) Those who say they haven't just did.

 

 

"You must not commit adultery" (v. 14 TLB). Jesus said if you look at a woman with lust, you've committed adultery in your heart (Matt. 5:28).

 

 

"You must not have and gods before me" Not money, not work, not sports, not yourself, not even family.

 

 

The choices we make, the reactions we have, and the temptations we fall into have real and substantial ramifications on our character, our lives, and the lives of our friends, family, and the people who enter our lives. It also tells us that no matter how hard we try we are going to make mistakes.

 

 

What are the wages of sin? What is the inevitable result of our heart problem? According to Romans 6:23 ²³For the wages of sin is death, that is the eternal ramifications for our lifestyle. Left untreated they are terminal. But if you read on it says but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. How do we receive this gift of eternal life? Again take a look at our Bible passage for today: ¹⁶"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life … ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. We receive this gift simply by believing in God and believing in His Son. When we accept Jesus into our hearts and seek a relationship with Him our sins are forgiven and our debts are paid in full.

A lot of people refuse to accept that the way we live our lives have eternal consequences. Despite what Jesus says in the Bible, it is commonly believed that if God is a loving God then He would save everyone. In His days in the flesh 2000 years ago and as the Risen Lord today Jesus calls on us to follow Him, yet many people have no desire to do so. They don’t want anything to do with God. He speaks and they cover their ears. He commands and they scoff. They don’t want Him telling them how to live. They mock what He says about marriage, money, sex, or the value of human life. They regard God’s son as a joke and His death on the cross as utter folly. They spend their entire lives telling God to leave them alone and at the moment of their final breath, Jesus honours their lifetime request.   

Is this unfair? He has wrapped caution tape on hell's porch and posted a million and one red flags outside the entrance. To descend its stairs, you'd have to cover your ears, blindfold your eyes and, most of all, ignore the epic sacrifice of history: Christ, in God's hell on humanity's cross, crying out to the blackened sky, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46).

But a description might read like this: God, who hates sin, unleashed his wrath on his sinfilled son. Christ, who never sinned, endured the awful forsakenness of hell. The supreme surprise of hell is this: Christ went there so you won't have to. Yet hell could not contain him. He arose, not just from the dead, but from the depths. "Through death He [destroyed] him who had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Heb. 2:14 NKJV).

Christ emerged from Satan's domain with this declaration: "I have the keys of Hades and of Death" (Rev. 1:18 NKTv). He is the warden of eternity. The door he shut, no one opens. The door he opens, no one shuts (Rev. 3:7).

THANKS TO CHRIST, THIS EARTH CAN BE THE NEAREST YOU COME TO HELL. BUT APART FROM CHRIST, THIS EARTH IS THE NEAREST YOU'LL COME TO HEAVEN.

A friend told me about the final hours of her aunt. The woman lived her life with no fear of God or respect for his Word. She was an atheist. Even in her final days, she refused to permit anyone to speak of God or eternity. Only her Maker knows her last thoughts and eternal destiny, but her family heard her final words. Hours from death, scarcely conscious of her surroundings, she opened her eyes. Addressing a face visible only to her, she wept, "You don't know me? You don't know me?"

I often wondered if she was hearing the pronouncement of Christ from Matthew 7:22-23: ²²Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' ²³Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:22-23)

Contrast her words with those of a Christ-follower. The dying man made no secret of his faith or longing for heaven. Two days before he succumbed to cancer, he awoke from a deep sleep and told his wife, "I'm living in two realities. I'm not allowed to tell you. There are others in this room." And on the day he died, he opened his eyes and asked, "Am I special? Why, that I should be allowed to see all this?"

Facing death with fear or faith, dread or joy. "Whoever believes in him shall not perish . . ." God makes the offer. We make the choice.”

¹⁶"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,^[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

 If you are wondering wonder what the difference is that God makes in your life, I leave you with the last phrase from our creed. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us, we are not alone, thanks be to God. 

THE DIFFERENCE GOD MAKES IN OUR LIVES PART 4

THE DIFFERENCE GOD MAKES IN OUR LIVES PART 4

 

 

Today is the fourth installment of this series called "The Difference God makes in your life." Ray was an atheist friend of mine who was also one of the nicest, most generous people I knew. This conversation that I had with Ray brings up some very fundamental questions_

If religious belief and church attendance don't necessarily make you a good person, and nonattendance and rejection of religion don't necessarily make you a bad one, what is the point of being religious? What does the religious person get nut of his or her faith that the nonreligious person has to do without? Is there something we would all be better off having, or something that only some people - the weak and the insecure, the spiritually inclined - need, and the rest of us can do without? For the religious mind and soul, there is no question about the existence of God, but the question, really for the atheist, agnostic, and Christian, is what difference does God and religion make in the way that we live our lives?

In weeks past I spoke about the moral laws and guidance that God gives. When we ground our conduct in God we can stand tall and confident, to do the right thing when the right thing may hard, inconvenient, unpopular or expensive.

I also spoke of a sense of community that God gives us. God doesn't just call people to Him but calls people to reach out to each other - to consider our neighbours feelings and to love our neighbour.

Further I told how God takes our lives seriously. It is only to God; it is only to the church that we can come with our entire lives, our joys, our sorrows, our celebrations and our shames. God takes our private pains and joys and allows us to share them with God and with our Christian brothers and sisters.

 

Finally, God gives us the power to be human in a world that tries to strip the humanity from us. In a world that sets us against each other, God compels us towards kindness. In a world where we are surrounded by strangers, God tells us that they are our neighbours. In a world full of fear, God compels us to love. In a world where our worth is measured in dollars and cents, God's measuring sick measures our compassion and mercy. When the world calls on us to be the best and to look out for number 1, God calls to something greater than lust individual achievements and satisfying our pleasures^.. In a world where we can get cancer, alstymers, or MS regardless of how nice we are or the way we live our lives, God gives us understanding, perspective, and comfort.

I am reminded of a story of two friends who experienced a death in their lives. On the day of the wake the first friend arrived at the second friend's home so they could go together. The second friend was not ready to go and was crying inconsolably. The second friend said that she wasn't going to the wake. The first friend was shocked at this announcement and said she had to, that this was a way to celebrate the life of the deceased and to both give and receive comfort. The second friend continued to cry and said "What should I celebrate? The wife he'll never marry? The books he never finished? The children he never had? It is okay for you to go, you have God. I ... I have nobody."

This is perhaps the most significant difference between a Christian and a morally committed atheist. We can both be good and kind people, honest, helpful, and generous. We can both work for peace and racial harmony. The difference in our religious commitments comes when we have exhausted ourselves in caring for the hurt and grieving, when we have fought the demons of injustice and bigotry and they seem lust as strong as when we started, when our husband or wife or child dies or becomes sick. How do we go on giving, how do we go on living when we have nothing left to give or our purpose for living disappears?

The atheist for all that they may be a good person, believes that strength and love can only come from within. There will come times when they look for more and may well find that they have run dry. We have the advantage of believing in a God beyond ourselves, a God who renews our strength when we turn to him, who replenishes our capacity to love, to care, and to work. It is God who gives us the strength to face each new day when we thought the sun would never come up again. It is God who gives us the ability to go forth again, again, and again into an often unfair world and share our strength with others who need it.

In a world without God we would be all alone - no one to help us when we had to do something hard, no one to forgive us when we had disappointed ourselves or others, no one to replenish us when we had come to the point of using ourselves up, and no one to promise us that, even when it was all over it is not truly over.

In his days of the flesh Jesus walked this earth and healed the leper, he fed the hungry, and he loved the outcast. Everywhere he went in this world, even to the cross, he sought out the broken of spirit, the battered of body, and the humbled of soul and gave them the power to be human again. He loved and welcomed the outcast. He healed the leper. He fed the hungry. He comforted the downtrodden. Everywhere He went he gave people what they needed to be human and to live bravely, fully and meaningfully in this world. As Jesus said in our scripture passage today “I have come to give life, and to give it abundantly.”

Our Lord is now the Risen Lord and is still with us this day. Christ is still there comforting our sorrows, giving peace to the heart, and strength to our soul. In the brightest of day or the darkest of night Christ is with us helping us to reclaim our humanity and to live as humans in this often unfair world. This is the power of God. This is the purpose of religion. This is the duty of the church. When we ask who needs God, the answer is we all do.

Why do Christians ignore some Old Testatment Texts and not others?

Is the Bible Inconsistent with Itself?

 

 

Just this week the President of Maritime Conference placed this comment on social media “If you're gonna use the *argument* "because it says so in the Bible!" to explain why you think being gay is a sin, you better also believe that wearing blended fabrics, or being nearsighted in church, is a sin too. Just sayin'.”  I have to say that I find it frustrating when I read or hear columnists, pundits, or journalists dismiss Christians as inconsistent because “they pick and choose which of the rules in the Bible to obey.” What I hear most often is “Christians ignore lots of Old Testament texts—about not eating raw meat or pork or shellfish, not executing people for breaking the Sabbath, not wearing garments woven with two kinds of material and so on. Then they condemn homosexuality. Aren’t you just picking and choosing what they want to believe from the Bible?”

It is not that I expect everyone to have the capability of understanding that the whole Bible is about Jesus and God’s plan to redeem his people, but I vainly hope that one day someone will access their common sense (or at least talk to an informed theological advisor) before leveling the charge of inconsistency. However, when the President of Maritime Conference is making these kinds of statements it is far more concerning as this issue should have been part of a minister's education and it has been dealt with almost 2000 years ago and was written about and discussed by Paul and many others since then.

The issue of homosexuality aside, let’s get back to considering the larger issue of inconsistency regarding things mentioned in the OT that are no longer practiced by the New Testament people of God. Most Christians don’t know what to say when confronted about this. Here’s a short course on the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament:

The Old Testament devotes a good amount of space to describing the various sacrifices that were to be offered in the tabernacle (and later temple) to atone for sin so that worshippers could approach a holy God. As part of that sacrificial system there was also a complex set of rules for ceremonial purity and cleanness. You could only approach God in worship if you ate certain foods and not others, wore certain forms of dress, refrained from touching a variety of objects, and so on. This vividly conveyed, over and over, that human beings are spiritually unclean and can’t go into God’s presence without purification. 

But even in the Old Testament, many writers hinted that the sacrifices and the temple worship regulations pointed forward to something beyond them. (cf. 1 Samuel 15:21-22; Psalm 50:12-15; 51:17; Hosea 6:6). When Christ appeared he declared all foods ‘clean’ (Mark 7:19) and he ignored the Old Testament clean laws in other ways, touching lepers and dead bodies. 

But the reason is made clear. When he died on the cross the veil in the temple was ripped through, showing that the need for the entire sacrificial system with all its clean laws had been done away with. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice for sin, and now Jesus makes us “clean.” 

The entire book of Hebrews explains that the Old Testament ceremonial laws were not so much abolished as fulfilled by Christ. Whenever we pray ‘in Jesus name’, we ‘have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus’ (Hebrews 10:19). It would, therefore, be deeply inconsistent with the teaching of the Bible as a whole if we were to continue to follow the ceremonial laws. 

The New Testament gives us further guidance about how to read the Old Testament. Paul makes it clear in places like Romans 13:8ff that the apostles understood the Old Testament moral law to still be binding on us. In short, the coming of Christ changed how we worship but not how we live. The moral law is an outline of God’s own character—his integrity, love, and faithfulness. And so all the Old Testament says about loving our neighbor, caring for the poor, generosity with our possessions, social relationships, and commitment to our family is still in force. The New Testament continues to forbid killing or committing adultery, and all the sex ethic of the Old Testament is re-stated throughout the New Testament (Matthew 5:27-30; 1 Corinthians 6:9-20; 1 Timothy 1:8-11.) If the New Testament has reaffirmed a commandment, then it is still in force for us today.

Further, the New Testament explains another change between the Testaments. Sins continue to be sins—but the penalties change. In the Old Testament things like adultery or incest were punishable with civil sanctions like execution. This is because at that time God’s people existed in the form of a nation-state and so all sins had civil penalties. 

But in the New Testament the people of God are an assembly of churches all over the world, living under many different governments. The church is not a civil government, and so sins are dealt with by exhortation and, at worst, exclusion from membership. This is how a case of incest in the Corinthian church is dealt with by Paul (1 Corinthians 5:1ff. and 2 Corinthians 2:7-11.) Why this change? Under Christ, the gospel is not confined to a single nation—it has been released to go into all cultures and peoples. 

Once you grant the main premise of the Bible—about the surpassing significance of Christ and his salvation—then all the various parts of the Bible make sense. Because of Christ, the ceremonial law is repealed. Because of Christ the church is no longer a nation-state imposing civil penalties. It all falls into place. However, if you reject the idea of Christ as Son of God and Savior, then, of course, the Bible is at best a mish-mash containing some inspiration and wisdom, but most of it would have to be rejected as foolish or erroneous.

So where does this leave us? There are only two possibilities. If Christ is God, then this way of reading the Bible makes sense and is perfectly consistent with its premise. The other possibility is that you reject Christianity’s basic thesis—you don’t believe Jesus was the resurrected Son of God—and then the Bible is no sure guide for you about much of anything. But the one thing you can’t really say in fairness is that Christians are being inconsistent with their beliefs to accept the moral statements in the Old Testament while not practicing other ones.

One way to respond to the charge of inconsistency may be to ask a counter-question—“Are you asking me to deny the very heart of my Christian beliefs?” If you are asked, “Why do you say that?” you could respond, “If I believe Jesus is the resurrected Son of God, I can’t follow all the ‘clean laws’ of diet and practice, and I can’t offer animal sacrifices. All that would be to deny the power of Christ’s death on the cross. And so those who really believe in Christ must follow some Old Testament texts and not others.”



 

 

WHAT IS GOD CALLING US TO DO: PART 2

A couple of weeks ago when we began this series called “What on Earth and I here for?” We are having this series because this question gnaws at us. Is there something I should be doing with my life? Is there something I am missing from my life? Or is life something I just make up as I go? Well, whenever I have a question about life, I go to the Creator of Life. I go to God. If I have a question about my new car I go to the Owners Manual, written by people who created my car, for life I go the Bible, inspired by God, the one created life. In our first sermon we answered the question, Is God calling me to do something with my life? We answered that with a yes. However, we also said that this calling is unique to you and your situation. I can’t tell you what it is because that calling is between you and God. However we also said that there are 5 things that God wants us to do with our lives. Last week we said that the first thing God is calling you to do is to be loved. God’s first calling for you is not to do something, not to offer something, and not to sacrifice something. The first thing God is calling on you to do is simply receive something … His love … and we spoke about how God’s love for you can transform your life. 

Today we are going to talk about the second thing God is calling us to do with our lives.

As you may recall from past weeks I was born a product of an adulterous affair. My father was married … just not to my mother. In order to avoid a scandal, my mother moved away from Glace Bay and the very fact I was even born was hidden from pretty much everyone. Because of the shame surrounding my birth and because I lived so far away from Glace Bay, I didn’t know any of my father’s family and, with the exception of my mother’s mother, I didn’t know any of my mother’s family either. In addition, my mother was an alcoholic. As such, we moved around quite a bit. I remember going to 7 different schools in 8 years. This meant that I was always the “new guy.” I didn’t have a lot of friends and there came a point in time when I just stopped trying because we would just move again. Even when classmates and such were friendly to me, I was afraid to invite over to my house because I didn’t know what condition my mother was going to be in.    

Because of all of this, I have always felt like an outsider. Whether it was in school, in social situations, or at family gatherings, I have always felt like I was on the outside looking in. However I remember one day when my grandmother sat me down and went through an old family album with me. It seemed that I shared a trait or mannerism with pretty much everyone in that book. I could sing like my grandfather. I laughed like old uncle Harry. I had uncle Tommy’s quick wit. That was a magical afternoon because it was then that I actually felt connected to something. I discovered that I was part of something larger than myself. I actually felt like I belonged on this earth … that I indeed had a family.

I bring this up because this is God’s second calling for your life … God is calling on you to belong. The Bible says this: Ephesians 1 “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.”  John 1 says ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

God doesn’t intend for us to live life alone. We can’t fulfill God’s purposes for our lives on our own, so He has called us to belong to the family He created to love and to be with Him in eternity. The English word “church” in the Bible’s original Greek means “called out.” We are called out of the world into God’s family.

Church is not something you go to.  Church is something you belong to.  It is not an event and it’s not a location.  Church is a relationship. It is a relationship between us and God, between us and each other, and between us and the world. One person cannot be a church. The church is people who have a relationship with God and with each other.

God designed his church as the only way the deepest needs in our lives can be met. Now throughout the Bible the church is often called different things. It’s called the church is called a family.  The church is called a temple.  The church is called a body.  The church is called a flock.  And the church is called a garden. Each one of these have profound implications for your life.  If you understand the five meanings of these five metaphors you will understand how the church was designed, God’s family was designed, to meet your deepest needs in life. 

1.      In God’s family I learn my true identity.

Who am I? That is probably the most important question we can ask? Who am I? What is my place in this world? What is my role?  

Most of our identity comes from our relationships and the relationships we have with our parents and grandparents. As parents and grandparent what do we do? We try to instill in our children good values, teach them right from wrong, we try to show them love and affection so they know they are loved, we try to put them in sports and push them to join groups and encourage them to learn so they can build confidence skills and experiences that are fun and will help them along their way.  We tell them stories about our lives and our family’s lives so they are rooted in a history and they know where they came from. We help build a positive identity. And when they come home crying because of what some bully might have said, or come home broken hearted after a breakup, or dejected because they failed at something they really tried hard at what do we do? He hug them and build them back up … we repair their identity. And when they start hanging around with the wrong crowd or start doing things that will bring them to no good, we reach out and to them before they get lost.  Our family has a great impact on our identity, who we are and how we see ourselves.

But you know what, not everyone comes from families whose parents and grandparents are loving and caring. My family was broken. My family was almost non-existent. And you know what, even the best families can only take us so far on their own, but here is the good news, there is more to your family then just your Earthly family.  Ephesians 2:19 “You are members of God’s very own family… and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.”

When you belong to the church, when you belong to the family of God you begin to learn who you truly are. Through the scriptures that are read, through the sermons that are preached, through the messages in the music that we sing, through the sacraments that we engage in, through the Bible Studies we attend, and through the fellow believers, our brothers and sisters I Christ who surround us in the pews, we begin to learn how God sees us, we begin to learn who we truly are.  

Who are you? Who does God say you are?

You are a beloved child of God. Let that sink in. Regardless of how you were treated at home, regardless of how your parents made you fee, you are a beloved child of God. You are loved. You are cared for. Your life is important to God. You are not a stranger to God. You are not alone in this world. The heavenly Father loves you and sees you as one of his children:

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1, NIV)

You have a loving, protective Heavenly Father who keeps watch over you and is always ready to listen when you want to talk with him.

Who are you? Who does God say you are? You are forgiven.

I don’t know how many people I have met are staggering under a heavy load of guilt because of something they did, something they said, or someone they disappointed. I know people have been carrying around unfair expectations that other have put on them and are being crushed under the weight of being blamed by others for things that have happened in their life; when they look in the mirror they see themselves as a failure, or a burden, or an anchor around their families neck. But that is not how God sees you. God sees you as forgiven. God sees your life as a joy. God doesn’t see your past failures, God sees your future victories.  

"All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." (Acts 10:43, NIV)

Always remember that God didn’t make you to be perfect, He made you to be human. You don’t to earn His forgiveness or earn His love. It is already there. God sees you as forgiven. Your job is to accept that gift.

Who are you? When you belong to the family of God you are a person of hope. When tragedy hits and you feel as if life is closing in on you, God sees you as a person of hope. No matter how bleak the situation, Jesus is with you through it all.  Hope is not based on what we can muster up. It's based on the One we have hope in: Our Father in Heaven. If your hope feels weak, remember, child of God, your Father is strong.

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV)

When you belong to the church, when you belong to the family of God you begin to learn who you truly are. Through the scriptures that are read, through the sermons that are preached, through the messages in the music that we sing, through the sacraments that we engage in, through the Bible Studies we attend, and through the fellow believers, our brothers and sisters I Christ who surround us in the pews, we begin to learn how God sees us, we begin to learn who we truly are.  When you see yourself as God sees you, it will change your entire perspective on life. It's not pride or vanity or self-righteousness. It's the truth, supported by the Bible. Accept the gifts God has given you. Live knowing you are a child of God, mightily and wonderfully loved.

A lot of families, to advertise their identity they have a symbol or they have a family crest.  Scottish families have a tartan that defines their families.  Do you know what God’s tartan is? It’s baptism.  Being baptized is the public symbol that says I’m not ashamed to say I’m a part of the family. If you haven’t been born again into the family of God I strongly encourage it.

That’s the first metaphor – I’m in a family and my family helps me understand my true identity. 

There’s a second metaphor that God uses to describe the church.  He says the church is like a temple.

It’s like a temple.  In other words it’s like a building that is erected for God’s glory.  It’s a building where God’s presence shows up.  Where God is loved.  Where God is honored and worshiped.  The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 3:16 “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and his Spirit lives in you?”  He’s talking to the church.

Why did God choose a temple as one of the illustrations of what it’s like to be in his family in the church?  Because in a building, all of the connected parts support each other.  This is the second benefit that you get from being a part of the family of God. 

2.      In God’s temple I’m supported by others. 

I’m not out there on my own.  I’m not a lone ranger.  I’m not by myself.  In the strongest structure of a building we support and we hold each other up.  In a building all the connected parts hold each other together. 

There are going to be some times in your life when you need other people to hold you together.  You’re going to need them to hold you together because you’re falling apart. That is what like being part of the church. If you’re not in the building of God, the temple of God, the family of God, the church of God what is going to help hold you up when the forces of life are tearing you down? You’re going to fall apart.

The Bible says in Ephesians 2 “In Christ the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in [Jesus] you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”  So together, we altogether form the family of God and we form the temple of God. Together we support one another and bring stability to our lives.

What is the temple of God?  A building.  A disconnected frame has no support, it has no stability.  Stability is the second greatest need in your life.  You need identity and you need stability.  You need to be a part of a family to understand your identity and you need to be a part of God’s temple to get the stability where we support and connect to each other.  You weren’t meant to go through life alone. 

Let me give you a third metaphor.  The third description of the church in the Bible is it is a flock.

It is a flock, like a flock of sheep.  We’re God’s family – we learn our identity.  We’re in God’s temple – we’re supported by each other.  And in God’s flock we’re banded together. 

Psalms 100:3 says this, “God made us and we are his.  We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” 

Probably you’re thinking, I’m a sheep in a flock?  That doesn’t sound too appealing.  Because we live in suburbia we’ve never seen a sheep and we have no idea how well sheep are taken care of.  So let me read you what Jesus said about shepherds and flocks and sheep.  John 10, “I am the good shepherd.  And the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.  A hired hand runs away because he cares nothing for the sheep. But I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and my sheep know me.  I lay down my life for my sheep.  They listen to my voice and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they will never perish.  No one will ever be able to snatch my sheep out of my hand.” That is a flock I want to be part of.

I’m God’s temple.  I’m God’s family.  And I am in God’s flock. 

Why did God choose a flock of sheep as an illustration of what the church is like?  Because…

3.      In God’s flock I’m protected and I’m cared for. 

I’m not on my own.  I have other people looking out for me.  I enjoy safety and security because I’ve got a shepherd.  And that makes me more confident.  And that makes me less anxious and less fearful.  I know that God is protecting me because I’m in his flock. 

When is that important?  When I’m being beat up in the business world.  When my family or my marriage is being strained to the breaking point.  When I’m facing a personal crisis or a terminal illness.  I need to know that someone is protecting and caring for me. 

Not just God cares and protects you but in the flock of God we help each other.  What you need in your life is you need some people who will step up to bat for you when you need them.  You need some people who walk into your life when everybody else walks out of your life.  Do you have anybody like that?  That’s what the church is for.  We are to walk into each other’s life when everybody else walks out.  I don’t know how many times I have heard “I don’t know what I would do if it wasn’t for my church family. That’s what it means to be in the flock of God. Here’s what the Bible says, Galatians 6:2, “Share each other’s troubles and problems, and in this way you obey the law of Christ.”

What is the law of Christ?  Love your neighbor as yourself.  When you hear of someone going through a hard time and you pray for them, or you visit them in the hospital, or send them a note or call them on the phone with an encouraging word, or offer a drive to church, then you have just shepherded the flock. I have had people in this church come to me and tell me that they have felt your prayers when they have been in a crisis and that was such a comfort to them. There is protection and care in God’s flock.

You need to be a part of a family to understand your identity and you need to be a part of God’s temple to get the stability where we support and connect to each other.  We need to be part of a flock where we can band together and be protected.

God made you to love you, that is His first calling on your life, but He also wants you to learn to love Him back. How do you show your love for God? Well, you learn about Him, you worship Him, and you love the things that God loves – and does God love? People – Love your neighbour as yourself.

Where can we go to hear about God? The church. Where can we go to be surrounded by believers? The church. Where can we go to deepen our faith? The church. Where can we go to practice our faith? The church. Where can we go to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ? The church.     

We are called to be loved and the second calling in our lives is to belong to the family, the temple, the flock … we are called to belong to the church of God.