#8 The New Self

series: Love Incorruptible

title: The New Self

date: June 11, 2017

teacher: Jacob Bender

scriptures: Ephesians 4:17-32, Matthew 7:12, Ecclesiastes 7:2, 2 Corinthians 5:14, 

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This section begins by working on the issue of ME. The issue of YOU. 

Paul tells us to put OFF the old self… put away everything that used to be us… the former life… the corruption… the greed that drives most of our lives. Put it all away. 

That used to be your life… That is not your life anymore. 

You have learned Christ… Christ has done something NEW in you. 

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#8 Retaliation

series: Red Letter City

titles: Retaliation

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: June 5, 2016

scriptures: Matthew 5:38-42, Matthew 7:11, Exodus 21:23-25, Galatian 2:9, Matthew 7:12, Joshua

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On Friday Dawn and I drove down to Ann Arbor to visit Matt and Chavonne in the hospital... Their daughter, baby Charlotte was born, and she is just the sweetest thing. She was born, I think a whole two months early, so she is just absolutely tiny and so so precious. And I just need to say this about Matt and Chavonne. I have never in my life seen two believe glow the way that they were glowing that day. The peace. The excitement, and the love in their eyes toward this absolutely precious child was just amazing. 

And I can’t explain it. I know that, their pregnancy was very difficult. They went through some really hard circumstances, things that I could not even begin to imagine… and I know that the whole pregnancy was to a degree plagued with some fear and so to at the end of it all be holding this amazing child obviously was such a sign of the grace of God and an amazing hope for the future. 

Jesus says something a little later in the sermon on the mount, and we will get to it in a couple of months, but he says this:

“if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”

and I thought about that when I saw the way that Matt held his daughter. and the look on his face, and the way everything toward Charlie was unconditional love… and as strange as this sounds…  it made me realize something about violence. and the way that we treat each other. The same way that Matt looks at his daughter, God looks at all of his children. and I think that for most of us, we want to always know that we can come to God knowing that no matter what we have done, he still looks at us with that same twinkle in his eye. That same unconditional love. 

and not only that… but there are millions of other Matt’s in the world. People who think the world of their children. Who would do anything for them. And in every situation that you find yourself in, in which you are paired AGAINST another person… that person is someone’s child. That person has a world of people that he has touched merely by being born…. 

and that person is a child of the living God. 

and if we approach every situation and every confrontation that we are faced with from that perspective, perhaps it would be easier than you think to do what Jesus asks of us here in this revolutionary sermon.

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#4 Anger

series: Red Letter City

title: Anger

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: May 1, 2016

scriptures: Matthew 5:21-26, Psalm 145:8-9, 1 John 4:8, Ephesians 4:25-27, Ecclesiastes 7:9, Hebrews 12:14-15,  Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, Ephesians 2, 1 John 4:19-21

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This is an issue that a lot of people deal with… and for most of us, the way we deal with it is to stuff it. The problem is that the things you stuff tend to grow roots in the grounds of your heart… Hebrew calls it a “root of bitterness,” - what happens is, if you never process your feelings, you will get so used to having them that you will begin to justify them. Because they will feel natural to you. And what Jesus is saying here is that when that happens, things can get very ugly very very quickly. 

and then there is this: 

A lot of people have what I call an “Angry God syndrome.”

They have this idea in their head that God is mad at everybody all the time… and they paint this picture of a God who is upstairs waiting, rubbing his hands together in excitement, licking his lips in anticipation of the moment when he gets to finally bring judgment on our nation, and on this group of people, and on this type of person. and the bible does talk about God being angry with wickedness, and there is plenty of talk in the bible about God’s judgment…

But here is the issue.

and this is why the sermon on the mount is so incredibly crucial to our lives... Because people believed all sorts of things about God back then… things that were not right. 

Things that were not love. 

“God is love.”

— 1 John 4:8

AND people today believe all sorts of things about God that are not right. Things that are not love.

and whatever you think that God is like, if you truly believe you are a follower of him then you are going to try and be that… Isn’t that what Jesus says in Luke? A disciple is not better than his teacher, but he will be like him. 

So we have this nation of “Christians” who want to be like God…

but they think God is angry all the time!

and this leads to all sorts of problems. Because if God hates this type of person, then you can hate this type of person. 

Because we are just trying to be like God. 

So… as people who have Jesus in our lives… who are disciples of Jesus and who want to be more like the God that we serve… I think that it is incredibly important that we understand what God is like. 

Does God ever get angry? Yes.

Is God living in a constant disposition of anger toward the world? No. 

the rest is in the sermon. 

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