Grace its beautiful

The Most Transformational Word

Remember the poor

Mark 4 1-20
Hunched over his desk penknife in hand, Thomas Jefferson sliced carefully at the pages of Holy Scripture and pasting them together to form a bible more to his liking.  The Jefferson bible. 

He was removing everything that went against what he wanted to do in life.  So he is taking the word and shaping it to his liking.

Now as I look around now see some of you are rightly horrified what arrogance. 

But let me ask you don’t we sometimes do this with the word of God in our own minds.

We leave out the bits that we don’t like. 

So what can this passage teach us about not leaving the bits of the word out we don't like?

What should we do with the Gospel word about Jesus.

The answer is my first and only point.

Real Christians accept the word and produce fruit.
Real Christians accept the word and produce fruit.
So what do real Christians do they accept the word and produce fruit.

And were am I getting this from well look with me at

20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
Did you notice that Jesus compares us to dirt or soil.  Notice that the seed is the word.

So what is this word that is sown?  Well lets go all the way back to mark 1 verse 15
The kingdom of God is breaking into the world as its king has arrived what will you do?

Will you accept the word ie believe that Jesus is lord of all of your life.

Will you produce fruit or repent or turn to him?

But I did that Clint I answered that alter call all those years ago.

See here in the passage jesus is not so interested in if you became a Christian but weather or not you are still one and will be one.
In the the verses before v20 we see 3 different kinds of dirt that all hear the word. 
And in each case there is no long term fruit.  Non of them. Accept the word and bear fruit.

Let me ask you are you still a real Christian hear today.   
Here is my concern for you and I.
Are we still accepting Gods word but more than that are you still putting it into pratice or bearing fruit or

Or Do you as we notice in verse 19 were it talks of letting the deceitful ness of wealth choaking and strangle the word causing it be under fruitful is this what we do.  Well as I meditate on that verse I realized that I am wicked. Don't you like me desire wealth and comfort more than what the word say in mark pick up your cross and follow me.  I want to come to college and get a nice middle class ministry posting in a leafy suburb.  But that is me giving into how money can lie to us and kill the word. Part of me bearing fruit must be dieing to that desire for wealth and working with the millions of poor people in our country.  Think of any inner city in Sa. Real Christians for the most part have left these areas to the prosperity Gospel.  No Jesus want me and others to hear just how poor he became to make me rich so that I may hear the word accept the word and bear fruit in those areas.

What about you.  Have you come to college looking for a comfortable middle class ministry placement.  Are you looking for wealth.  Been a pastor in Africa is good work I used to visit pastors in the eastern cape they live in the biggest house have the nicest cars.  Are you letting that desire for wealth choak the word.

Will you hear the word that says you need to follow jesus and give that up and minister to the poor. Hear the word accept the word and bear frui

letting the cares of the world stangle your accepting of the word.
This is my danger right now right now I I want to let my concern about my Mark assignment  become so all consuming that I am not loving my wife as I should like Christ loved the church.

What worries are preventing you from bearing fruit.  What word do you need to accept to counter it.  Right now pick apart of the word that deals with your concern and  accept it and think on it until your care subsides.

Purpose of God

making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which  he set forth in Christ

This is God's plan for the world will you be apart of Bringing all things under Christ are you under Christ.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s88/sh/bf3dfab0-5787-4b69-8e97-19a2a3338752/970b1e4f67a2f6a939074b10819b35b5 division prevents the word of god going out and disciples been made. deal with division because it will prevent people praying and working on the word. division is the key to preventing the word of G...

Bitesize Theology by Peter Jeffery

Bitesize theology by Peter Jeffery.
When you think of doctrine
Do you think of words that are hard to spell let alone understand.

Doctrine is simply a word to describe what the bible teaches and no believer should be afraid to grapple with it.

Only one body of truth and all believers need it all. This body of truth has words in it that have significance in their meaning.

Just as there is language of special significance used in surfing. Like surfs up dude. Check out that swell. How about those bowl waves off the peir. Or we road a six foot face reef break last week end.

Just like all those words are of special significance to surfer. So christians have words of special signifance. Like propitiation and justification.

How to be a spiritual millionaire. That's what this book is all about. Understand ing the spiritual truth in richs us beyond believe.

Chapter 2 God (geting to know God)

If we don't understand who God is we can forget about understanding the rest of the truth about him

What is God like? or what are his attributes.

Well firstly He is holy.
He has no sin and evil in him. He is morally perfect.

God is sovereign. He rules over every thing and every one. He has complete freedom to do as he sees fit.

God is the God of providence. So there is no luck or chance in God world. God is always doing something.
God is good. So we can trust him.
God is love. By understanding doctrine we should be bought closer to a God who love us.

Chapter 4 Jesus

Jesus is special.
He couldn't just be a man because he who be a sinner like you and I and need a saviour as we do.

Son of man
Jesus had to become a man in order to make atonement for our sin. He died in our place so that he might destroy satan.


Son of God
In Jesus God becomes a man. Giving up heaven and taking on a human nature and identified with us. So he suffered like we do

He is both fully god and man.

Jesus the Saviour.
He saved us from the results of sin.

Chapter 5 the Holy Spirit.

He is not an it.

His ministry.
He applies salvation to us by convicting us of sin.

His fruit.
The holy spirit goes on work in us producing Christ like fruit.

His gifts
We cannot further the gospel with out his gifts.

Chapter 6 The Trinity
Trinity simply means threeness. The threeness of God how cool is that. Its very hard to explain in the

Trinity at work.
They created the world.
They all play apart in our saving.
God the father planed it
Jesus did it dieing in our place.
God the spirit applies it.

Chapter 7 Sin breaking the law of God.

Our crooked and twisted nature refuses to stay inside Gods boundaries and leaves us well short of Gods standards.

Gods wrath.
Gods holiness makes hell as inevitable as his love makes heaven. Gods wrath is a right and necessary reactiow against moral evil.

Chapter 8 Atonement (God dealing with sin)

Old testment full of pictures of the atonement of Jesus.
This attoment was planed by God. Secondly it was not hit and miss.

Old testament Pictures of Jesus.
The passover and the day of Atonement.
The day of attonement. Shows substitution and propitiation.

Substitution.
Jesus Body broken for you blood shed for you. Innocent for us who are guilty

Propitiation.
Jesus faced Gods wrath at our sin and guilt and fully paid for it so God could look favorably on us.

Blood
Referrs to Jesus sacrificial death.

Chapter 9 Grace (Gods mercy to the undeserving.

What is Grace.
Grace is the free unmerited,undeserved favour of God to sinners. Grace depends on the merit of Jesus not on my merit and can therefore never lose its power

Chapter 10 Regeneration.

Born again to enable responsed to God. A new nature is given. Got it first comes regeneration and then repentance and belief. No repentance is possible with out being born again. The Holy Spirit must regenrate us.

Chapter 11 Repentance and Faith.
No repentance with out faith.

Repentance.
Must break with the past and live in future only to please God in every area of life.

Faith trust in the Lord Jesus. Faith hears the truth of the Gospel believes in certain facts and acts upon it.

Ongoing repentance.
Repentance is a daily experience.

Do the teachings of Jesus dominate my whole life?

Chapter 12 Reconciliation.

Bring together of two people together by removing the hostility between them.

Chapter 13 Redemption

Redemption means to set free from the slavery to sin by the payment of a ransom.

The world has put in bids for our soul offering sex money fame power and all other items in which it traffics. But Jesus our faithful bridgroom and lover entered the market place to buy us back. He bid his own blood.

Chapter 14 Justification

Jesus through his actions takes away condemnation but also gives us righeousness. We are not made rightous rather we are declared rightous in Gods eyes.

Chapter 15 adoption

Paul borrows this term from the first century legal system.

God makes us part of his family through his son. Justification clears the way for adoption. God wants his adopted children to reflect his character.

We as believers or as loved by God as his only son. This means that we share will share in all Jesus glory. Why not reflect that now in our day to day lives putting off the old self and putting on the new self.

Chapter 16 Union with Christ

Each believer is united to Christ in a living vital dynamic union with Jesus not in a theoretical way. We are in a relationship.

Our old self is dead killed with jesus on the cross. Sin does not master us any more because we are in Christ. Therefore although we sin we must not let sin dominate our lives.

If you are in christ you can't loose that.

The whole of your salvation depends on your union with Christ.

Chapter 17 sanctification.
(become who we are in Christ)
First lets be clear we are sanctified in Christ. But we are being sanctified by God.

The process of sanctification frees us from the power of sin and its rule in our life. It is a here and now process.

Is your life changing as a christian or are you seeing no growth?

Sanctification means that the power of sin is being overcome in us by God as he makes us more and more like him.

If you looked at your life this year verses last year are you growing in fighting sin.

Chapter 18 election

Election what is it: God saving by his grace some guilty sinners whom he has chosen.

Jesus did not just come to make salvation possible. He came to save a specific people...

Chapter 19 eternal security

We as Christians are saved by Jesus and kept by him. Nothing can separate us from his love.

The security of the sheep rests firmly on the Good Shepard.

Chapter 20 the second coming.

The coming of Jesus will be personal and physical.

Three views of Jesus coming back.
Post millennialism Jesus will come back following the 1000 years

Pre millennialism christ will come back before the 1000 years

A millennialism no actual 1000 years.

The question is will you keep looking to Jesus no matter what you believe about the millennial argument.

Gratitude, Greed, and Grumbling

The totality of God’s gifts is much more than we deserve. Though many Christians would nod their heads in agreement, few live as though it were actually true. Rather than gratitude for God’s grace we exhibit greed for our own gain. The difference between these two outlooks influences and directs every aspect of life:

	Gratitude	Greed
Attitude	Humility (Phil. 2:3)	Grumbling (Phil. 2:15)
Perspective	Grace: “I am a sinner who deserves death but Jesus paid the price and gave me his perfect righteousness.”	Entitlement: “I am a good person who deserves heaven—plus a comfortable, pain-free existence in the meantime.”
Desire	Jesus is enough to satisfy my life.	Jesus is not enough. I want wealth / fame / comfort / power as well.
Money	God gives. Therefore my money is his, and I use it to glorify him.	I earn. Therefore my money is mine, and I use it however I please.
Possessions	Contentment: I have enough.	Covetous: I never have enough.
Church	I serve as a member of God’s family.	I am served as a consumer.
Job	Work heartily for the Lord, cultivating thanks for God’s provision. (Deut. 8:17,Col. 3:23)	Work begrudgingly for the man, becoming bitter and jealous against others. (James 3:16)
Family	A blessing to embrace	A burden to escape
Future	Eternal: optimistic/hopeful (2 Cor. 4:7–9)	Temporal: pessimistic/anxious
Worship	Time, energy, and resources go to God.	Time, energy, and resources go to me.
Identity	Jesus and his achievement	My abilities and my achievements
Giving	Generous	Guilt- or gain-motivated (or non-existent)

Which column more accurately describes your life? In which areas are you encouraged? Where do you need to repent and seek forgiveness? Your church, your small group, and your family are following your example, for good or ill.

People who are obsessed with Jesus are risk takers

People who are obsessed with Jesus take risks.

People who are obsessed with Jesus aren't consumed with their personal safety and comfort above all else. Obsessed people care more about Gods kingdom coming than their own lives being shielded from pain or destress.

You just have to look at the life of Paul to see this. He was beaten he was ship wrecked etc. As a nation as people built in our culture is no you can't do that or this because you will be un comfortable. You have to have a bond a new car a nice house medical aid pension a stable Job and providing for my kids when I die. All good things but in our culture they are sometimes even in Christian circles they become absolute things.

Look at Paul in Phil 4 v11 to v12.
This book is all about living a life worthy of the gospel. Look at how Paul lives this out practically. He say I have learn to be content in what ever situation. Why? v13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Jesus gives Paul strength Jesus sustains Paul. Our obsession with comfort and safety should be turned in an obsession for Jesus.

What this means:
If I suffer if I am uncomfortable if I am hard pressed. I need to look to Jesus for strength.

Resolved.
The pray more in every situation even when I am comfortable.

Look to my lord for strength not to the world.

Dwell apon 1 Peter 1 v6 that all discomfort and suffering is just temporary in light of eternity.