Why does God give us so much?

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Look at all that we have been given in Jesus Christ; He determines to love us, adopts us, makes us holy and blameless, redeems, reveals His mystery, and gives us an inheritance that is even greater. Why would God give us so much? Scripture tells us it is for two reasons:

1. His glory. The more we are given, the greater the cross, the deeper His love, the greater His glory. As we gaze upon all He has revealed, all He has given, all He has provided we can only be in awe of all that He has done. He created us to find joy in His glory and to be satisfied in His glory. His glory is paramount.

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Jesus As Our Redeemer

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Jesus is not only our mediator, but also our redeemer. This is a big word that means one who pays the debt and picks up the tab. Don’t you love it when you go out to dinner and someone else picks up the bill? Or even better they tell you before you order so you can get the steak instead of the burger! You can always take me out to eat and be my redeemer 🙂

Because our spiritual debt is so great we need someone who can pay pick up the tab. Throughout Scripture there are examples of people who foreshadow the value of paying the debt for other people and Joseph is a great example. Joseph is loved by his father, but hated by his brothers and his brothers end up selling Joseph into slavery and leaving him to die. Through a number of events Joseph goes from being sold into slavery to leading Egypt to a place of power and position in the midst of a world famine.

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Jesus As Our Mediator

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At the cross Jesus says the words, “It is finished!” There are a number of implications of those words, however, one of them is that Jesus is our mediator.

A mediator is a judicial word for when there is disagreement. When we are unable to resolve conflict we will bring in a mediator to fairly represent both sides. Because of our spiritual debt there is conflict between us and God and we are in need of a mediator.

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Austin Garden Fair 2010

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Yesterday our church hosted a garden fair for the community. Why? Because people love gardens and our church just wants to serve the community. It was something fun and simple. We had local vendors from organic gardens, wild flowers, artists, landscapers just come out to create awareness for their business and help educated the community about gardens. You can go to www.austingardenfair.com for more details.

Spiritual Debt?

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This isn’t a popular concept in our culture today, but Scripture teaches us that all of humanity is born into spiritual debt. All of us have sinned against a Holy and Righteous God. It is eternal sin against an eternal God and carries an eternal debt. Colossians 2 describes us as being spiritually dead and having a certificate of debt against us. This is a certificate for a contest that you don’t want to win and yet all of us have excelled in running up an account of spiritual debt.

In our culture today we don’t understand spiritual debt but we understand financial debt. We live in a culture that thrives on debt. 40% of all Americans spend more than they make. Most people who have the new car, new house, new gadgets, also have new letters that come in the mail each week from their debt collectors.

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Why does Christianity have such a violent death in the cross?

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2 Corinthians 5:21, “21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

It was at the cross that Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf. In that moment Jesus becomes sin, our sin. He becomes the liar, the murderer, the thief, the pedophile, the molester, the adulterer, He becomes the wickedness of sin. It isn’t His sin, it is our sin, so that through faith we might become the righteousness of God.

It is at that moment that the eternal weight of sin is laid upon Jesus and it is literally crushing Him to death. People will say, “Couldn’t have God just simply overlooked sin?” If God is so loving and powerful couldn’t He simply forgive?”
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Life of Celebration and Suffering

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The Christian life is one of celebration and one of suffering. Most of the time we split the two. We have seasons of celebration like graduating from college, getting married, having kids, getting a job and there are presents, people, parties, and it is a lot of fun.

Then we have seasons of pain and suffering like sickness, loss of job, legal problems, obstacles, and relational strife, and during those time there is an absence of celebration. We tend to want to move through the season of suffering as fast as possible so we can get back to the celebration. Who wouldn’t?

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Isn’t the Sabbath just the old way?

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We can end up thinking the Old Testament was about keeping the 10 commandments and the New Testament was about Jesus playing with sheep and children. However, God is the same in the Old and New Testament and both are pointing to God’s work and us resting in His work.

In Exodus 20 we see the list of 10 commandments and it can look like God is just some mean boss up in heaven making us work to keep Him happy, but we forget in the previous verse it teaches us that God is the one who did the work.

In verse 2 it says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

The order here is very important to the gospel. Did God say here are some commandments and if you keep them I will deliver you? He is not saying obey me then I will save you. He is saying I have saved you, I brought you out of the land, I brought you out of the house of slavery, and now you get to obey me and experience the rest of my work.

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Should we participate in a Sabbath day?

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When it comes to the Sabbath it can be really confusing. In the original language the word Sabbath means “a day to cease from work”. I remember when I was a kid that most of the stores were closed on Sunday and it forced most people from commercial activity, however, today it is more odd for a store to be closed on Sunday.

I read an article about the first train in Scotland in 1842 running on a Sunday and people from local churches protested the train. One pastor is quoting as referring to the passengers on the train as people who bought “tickets to hell” because they were riding the train on a Sunday.

It doesn’t help when we look in Scripture and see Jesus seems to ignore the Sabbath, and there are a few passages in the New Testament that seem to discourage us from observing days, weeks, or season and as a result the Sabbath can be really confusing.

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Raising money to start a new church

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I am not that good at raising money, but there are a few things I have learned from the experience:

1. Boldness. Get over the awkward feeling of asking for money. It takes money and when you start a new church it will take money outside of the church. People are going to say “no” and that is okay.

2. Make a list. Write down everyone you have ever met and start praying about how God might want to involve them in what you are doing to start a new church.

3. Craft your vision. Be able to cast your vision in 30 seconds and expand up to 20 minutes, depending on the opportunity. Work really hard on the wording and be as clear and specific as possible without being deceptive. Every church planter wants to see the Kingdom of God expanded for His glory. What makes your vision different?

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We live in a busy world…

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Most of us ignore taking a day of rest and instead go 100mph, 7 days a week and constantly feel like there is a pressure to do more and get more accomplished. We find it difficult to sit still. We are constantly going from the moment we wake up till we fall asleep because it is hard to rest. If you are a student you could always study more, if you are a parent you could always be a better parent, if you are an employee we can always improve, our marriages could always improve and as a result we have created a culture of busy people. I thought of a few types of busy people to give us some examples:

The Hurried Person: First we have the hurried person. This person is always in a hurry. They talk real fast, they drive fast, and sometimes you will ask them why they are in such a hurry and they will say, “I am not in a hurry, I just have a lot to do.” You know you are talking to a hurried person because while you are talking to them they are always looking around or at their watch at the next thing they have to do.

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Desperation for Scripture

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What is the last thing you did out of desperation? Get to the doctor because you were desperate to get better? Go on a date because you were desperate to get away from your kids? Study because you were desperate to pass a test? Most of our desperation comes in moments because most of the time we are doing okay, but Scripture teaches us that all of humanity is desperate for God.

Here is why:

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