Lifepoint Church

Sept 27, 2009

Summary of impressions

Esther Ellis

The NIV version of James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” I do not believe that once we have come to God, he has to move to come near to us. Notice that it says first we must come to God and then he will come near to us. If I could change that verse, I would change it to say, “Come near to God, and he will be near to you.” Because in my heart, I do not think that God ever moves away from us. It is always us who moves away from him. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” - Matthew 16: 24 &25 The film Pastor Mike showed on Sunday, “Go” by Jackie Pullinger really touched me and I have watched it several times since then. I believe it correlates with the most important predecessor of v.8 where it says in v. 7, “Submit yourselves, then, to God.” Jackie says, “The principle of the Gospel is this: The Gospel always brings life to the receiver, and death to the giver. If the Gospel brought death to Jesus why would we think that in preaching the Gospel it would be any less for us? ...but for us, life is never ordinary. …Jesus was not sentenced to die by his Father. He was allowed to choose… God the Father had this extraordinary plan for winning you and me for eternity by having is son killed. But his son voluntarily responded. No, it’s not so easy for him to respond. In fact he spent his whole life practicing. And even the night before, it was still difficult for Jesus. And he said, ‘God is there another way?’ And I know many, many people in the church ask, ‘Is there another way?’ Normal Christians live a normal Christian life: go to meetings, jump up and down on stages while we are exhausted and dying… I think we’re all called to give up our lives. Would you like to do this with us? We’d really like some help. The poor people all over the earth, they are the poorest people… the most number of people world-wide who’ve never heard about the love of a Lord Jesus Christ are desperately poor and they are not going to come here to hear the Gospel, we have to go there. So…why haven’t people gone? … Those poor aren’t going to hear about Jesus on tv, they haven’t got electricity… There’s no other way to serve him except giving up your life, and this is voluntary. This is not a death sentence at all, we are not sentenced to death, we’re just privileged to answer his call.” There is no other way to draw near to God, except to actively lay down our lives for him every day. It is a continuous process that we must partake in. Christianity is not a passive religion, it is very active. It does not call for laziness. It calls for much thought and activity. Every day we must pray continually (1 Thess. 5:17), we must continually submit ourselves to the Lord, and we must continually fight off sin. Verse 7 of James also says that we are to “resist the devil…” In v. 8 it says we are to “wash your hands…purify your hearts.” The biggest obstacle that keeps us from the Lord, if not the only one, is our sin and sinful nature. “Flee from the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” -2 Timothy 2:22 There are a few times the Bible (1 Tim 6:11, 1 Cor 6:18 & 10:14) tells us to flee from our sin. If you look up “flee” in the dictionary, it gives you these results: 1. To run away, as from danger or pursuers 2. To move swiftly, fly, speed 3. Evade, escape, shun Notice, God doesn’t say “walk away from” sin, he says flee. We must run as fast and as far as we possibly can to flee from our sin so that we may draw near to him. In drawing near to him, we are to flee from sin and ask for his forgiveness. If sin is the only thing that keeps me from God, then possibly that is why it first says submit and resist the devil, and then draw near to God, and then finally once my sins are washed clean, he can be near to me. In v.7 it also says that when we resist the devil, he will flee from us. How amazing it is to know that when we resist the devil in the name of our Lord and Savior, he will flee from us, as if running away from danger. Just like Pastor Mike said, Jesus is a deposit in which we can draw from. In the name of Jesus we have all power and authority to live like he has called. What if? What if we lived for him? What if we truly believed acted as if all authority under heaven is given to us through Jesus Christ? How different would the world be today? How different would you be? “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” -Matthew 18 & 19 I love how he uses the word go. Just as Jackie Pullinger said… They are not going to come to us, we must go to them. We must make disciples of all nations. But first we must be disciples ourselves. Take a close look at the word, “disciple.” Notice that when you take off the “e” and add “ine” you get the word “discipline.” A key factor in being a disciple is practicing discipline. You must make time for God. You must study, you must learn, and you must be active in your faith. (Heb. 6:1) This is something we should want to do out of our love for Christ, but it is also something we must be disciplined in. When I don’t feel like waking up early one morning to study God’s word, I must be disciplined enough to get myself awake. We must take authority over our lives and fight off the distractions of the enemy, because there are some every day. “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive our demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hand on sick people, and they will get well.” Mark 16:17,18 How many of us are truly living like we believe that we have this much authority in the name of Jesus? The name of Jesus is power. “The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” – Mark 1:15 Like Pastor Mike said, many of us focus on our future Christianity, but it is now! The time to act is now because we do not know how long we have. And those people aren’t going to come to us, we must go to them. It is our duty as Disciples of Christ, to go out and preach the good news. We should wait on him every day and ask him to show us how we can further his kingdom. We must operate in the fullness of the Christian life, everyday, not just Sunday.