The Church At Brierfield

God wants us to be completely available to Him.  If we are then He will do works through us that we cannot imagine.

One reason we are not available to Him is that we tend to have plans for our own lives.  To be fully available we have to be ready to give up or change those plans.  Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a perfect example of complete availability to God.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.  (Luke 1:26, 27, NLT)

Mary had plans for her immediate future.  She was engaged to Joseph and they would be married soon.  Yet, God had an opportunity for her that she would have never imagined for herself.

Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.

“Don’t be frightened, Mary,” the angel told her, “for God has decided to bless you! You will become pregnant and have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” (Luke 1:28-33, NLT)

God offered Mary the opportunity to become the mother of Jesus, the savior of the world and the Son of God.  It is hard to imagine how overwhelming and exciting this would be.  God had an amazing plan for Mary.  What kind of plan does God have for each of us?

Often times when considering doing something for the Lord, we wonder whether or not it can be done.  Mary wondered the same thing.  Her situation seemed physically impossible.

Mary asked the angel, “But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin.” (Luke 1:34, NLT)

The answer Gabriel gave to Mary is very similar to the one God gives us today.

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she’s already in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:35-37, NLT)

His answer was basically that the Holy Spirit will accomplish God’s plan in you.  Within our own abilities, very few thing are possible.  Yet with God, nothing is impossible.  It is interesting that he gave Mary an example of a similar situation to encourage her.  If we look around we will also be encouraged by God working through others.

Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true.” And then the angel left.  (Luke 1:38, NLT)

Mary immediately made herself fully available to God.  Gabriel gave her news that would completely change her life but she was available to do what ever God wanted.

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,

When people reject God and exchange Him for other things, God will give up on them and let them do what ever they want.  At first this may sound like fun, God will let you do what ever you want, but the end result is not good.  The problem is that what people naturally want is impure, immoral, and selfish.  These are the sorts of things that God will punish.

The basic problem with people is that our hearts are full of lusts, desires and cravings for what is forbidden.  As a result, when God stops restraining us and lets us follow our hearts, we always destroy ourselves with sin.

The result of God turning people over to the desires of their lustful hearts is that they dishonor, despise and shame their own bodies.  They all get together in groups to do things that are disrespectful and shameful to their bodies that God created in His own image.

Romans 1:23 – Romans 1:25

The lives of people are full of difficulties.  This world we live in has been corrupted by sin and cursed by God.  Yet, Jesus has provided a way for us to overcome this world and have peace in spite of the difficulties.

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.  (John 16:33‚ NLT)

Jesus taught us many things so that we might have peace in Him.  This peace may or may not be something we experience.  If we believe and do the things He taught us then we will experience His peace.  If we do not then we will not experience His peace.

In this world we will have many difficulties and much sorrow.  There is no doubt about whether we will experience these kinds of things.  Anyone who teaches otherwise is contradicting Jesus.

In spite of the difficulties, there is no need to despair.  In fact, Jesus commands us to cheer up, have courage, and take heart.  Why?  Because He completely won the victory against sin.  By His death on the cross for the sin of people and His resurrection from the dead He defeated and conquered sin once and for all.

Even though we will experience difficulties in this world, we do not need to despair.

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.  (Rom. 8:37, NLT)

Sermon by Joe Clark on Sunday, September 6, 2009.

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and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man–and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

People who reject God tend to exchange Him for something else.  He is perfect and never fails or diminishes in any way.  Yet, what ever we exchange Him for always fails or diminishes over time.  Trading God for anything or everything is always a net loss.

Throughout history, from primitive to modern times, people who reject God present themselves as the wise ones.  Their supposed wisdom is usually focused on man or nature.  Today, many people who reject God focus on humanism or environmentalism.  Humanism is exchanging God for man and environmentalism is exchanging Him for birds, animals, and creeping things.

Romans 1:22 – Romans 1:24

The Spirit of God lives within every person who believes on Jesus.  He is there to guide us into all truth.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:13a, NLT)

What is all truth?  All truth is everything that God wants us to know about.  There is no reason for us to not know God’s mind concerning our lives because the Holy Spirit’s job is to guide us to that knowledge.

He will not be presenting his own ideas; he will be telling you what he has heard.  (John 16:13b, NLT)

Interestingly, the Holy Spirit does not speak for Himself.  He acts as a translator of sorts.  Jesus tells the Holy Spirit what the Father wants us to know and the Holy Spirit tells it to us.

He will tell you about the future.  (John 16:13c, NLT)

The Holy Spirit reveals to us the future.  He revealed many things about the future through the new testament writers.  John, who was present when Jesus spoke this, saw much of the future during a vision on the island of Patmos.  He wrote the vision down in what we call the book of Revelation.  Today, the Holy Spirit reveals to us the future through these writings.

God is not limited to only reveal things about the future that He has revealed before.  If the Father wants us to know something new about the future then Jesus will tell that to the Holy Spirit and He will reveal it to us.  We need to be careful not to put God in a box that limits what He can and will do.

He will bring me glory by revealing to you whatever he receives from me. (John 16:14, NLT)

The Holy Spirit glorifies and shows respect to Jesus by being His translator.  We each receive direct revelation from the Holy Spirit of the things Jesus tells Him for us to know.

Professing to be wise, they became fools,

Interestingly, many people who reject God do so from a position of wisdom.  They are too sophisticated, educated, intelligent, modern, and scientific to believe in a supernatural God.  They declare people who do to be ignorant, foolish, and weak.

The irony is that their supposed wisdom is really foolishness.  By their “wise” declarations and philosophies they prove themselves to be fools.

Fool is a harsh word but all who reject God will one day meet with the much harsher reality of His judgment.  Would that all people be truly wise, believing on Jesus and repenting of their sin.

Romans 1:21 – Romans 1:23

There is much more to living than the physical life everyone enjoys.  Jesus said, “I have come that [you] may have life, and that [you] may have it more abundantly.”  (John 10:10b)  He was speaking to people who were already physically alive so He had much more in mind.  The abundant life He was referring to is physical life plus spiritual life.

Every living person has physical life but not everyone has spiritual life.  In fact, everyone who does not believe on Jesus is spiritually dead.  Jesus said, “Because I live, you will live also.”  (John 19:19b)  Jesus is the only source of spiritual life and He gives it to those who believe on Him.

When we first believe on Jesus, we go through a spiritual transformation.  We are changed from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive, from adequate life to abundant life.  Paul described it as follows.

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  (Rom. 6:4)

Amazing things happen at the moment we believe on Jesus.  Spiritually we are buried with Christ.  Then we are raised from the dead just like He was 2000 years ago.  As a result we, have a new kind of life available to us, a supercharged abundant life.

Unfortunately, most believers do not experience this abundant life because we don’t consider it to be real.  As a result, life continues after believing on Jesus much as it did before.  How do we experience this life?

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Rom. 6:11)

We must “reckon”, come to the conclusion, and believe that we really died to sin are are now alive to God.  We have to realize that we are now living our life in Jesus with His life available to us.  We must deny ourselves, take up cross daily, and follow Jesus.  (Luke 9:23)  We must realize it is no longer we who live but Jesus who lives in us.  (Gal 2:20)

because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Even though God intentionally revealed Himself to mankind in creation and everyone can clearly see Him there (Rom. 1:19, 20), people still do not glorify and honor Him as God.  Instead, they choose to give the glory to random chance.

He has blessed us with life, love, children, friendship, pleasure, creativity, beauty, food, and every other good thing.  Yet, people are not thankful to Him for His blessings.

Refusing to glorify and thank God for creation people become foolish in their thinking.  Rather than acknowledge Him they come up with new explanations of how the universe came into existence.  The result is an empty view of life.  A life full of futility rather than hope.

The end result of refusing to acknowledge God is a dark heart, an inability to see and understand God in His creation.

Romans 1:20 – Romans 1:22