“The Privilege of Prayer”  Ester 5:1-3

Introduction: A little man from a little country no one cared about, asked to speak to President Kennedy about his country. The man was unknown and deemed unimportant, he was turned away. The little man was Ho Chi Minh, and the little country was Vietnam. How might our history be changed if Kennedy had taken that meeting. We see it today as well. Important leaders, powerful people, and business people, that are impossible to get a meeting with or even a telephone call from. This was Ester’s situation. So I start with Ester to help us understand and use the privilege of prayer.

1. Going before the king
               A. Easter
                              a. serious, as life or death
                              b. not a right but a gift
               B. Isa 6:5-7
               C. Eze 1:27-28
               D. Hebrews 4:16  “approach the throne of Grace”
               E. Matthew 6:6  “Your Father who sees what is done”
               F. Matthew 18:20 “there I am with them”
               G. you have been given the privilege of coming to the throne of God every time you pray

2. This is a powerful tool
               A. Mac and I, the engagement party
               B. Ester was offered up to half the kingdom
               C. John 15:7 & 16 “Given whatever you wish, whatever you ask for in My name”
               D. 1 John 5:14&15
               E. James 5:13-16
               F. this kind of power is not to be taken lightly, a knife, a gun, your SSN#
               G. Take care how we use it

3.  Seriously use it
               A. Eph 6:18 “pray on all occasions with all kinds of Prayers”
               B. 1 Thes 5:17 “Pray without ceasing”
               C. Phil 4:6&7 “do not be anxious about anything,

Conclusion: We have been given a great privilege in prayer, use it seriously, use it often, use it for your family, friends, church, town, and the people you share life with every day.

John 3:31-36 The norm is wrath

John 3:31-36

Last week I talked about the need for Jesus to become greater and for us to become less. I now follow up with the reason behind it. It starts with the classical philosophy question of what is the human condition. How do we stand before God without Jesus? Most of the people we run into today believe most people are good and are going to heaven unless they do something really deserving. Hell is reserved for axe murders, terrorist bombers’, people who shoot up schools and the guy who cut you off on the hwy. But this passage tells us a different story.

1. Wrath is the norm
            a. vs. 36 God’s wrath remains on him.
            b. wrath s the norm not the exception.
            c. eternal wrath or hell is the default destination.
            d. Wide is the path that leads to destruction.

2. Whoever believes has eternal life vs. 36
            a. I am the way, the truth, and the life……

3. desperation
            a. 1987 Jessica McClure fell down a well and the TV was glued to the rescue efforts as they drilled a parallel well shaft to save her.
            b. Miners trapped in a mine, people rescued during the 911 attack.
            c. the list of desperate situations we see in the news every day.
            d. But never a report of the eternal desperate conditions that surround us every day
            e. Do we sense the lostness of the people we meet every day?
            f. Do we realize the amazing gift Jesus has given us?
            g. Do we understand the amazing gift that Jesus wants us to give to others?
            h. We should live with a desperation in our hearts and minds to reach the people around us while we can.

If we sense this desperation we will take action. Attend church so you can build strength with other, attend adult Sunday School and Bible studies to learn all you can. Support your church so it can reach people you cannot. Pray diligently for people in your life, petition God on their behalf. Bring Jesus forward and you become less. We must do this; because “whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” You may be their only hope.

John 3:22-30 “He must become greater”

John 3:22-30 “He Must Become Greater”

John is at a crossroad in his ministry. He has prepared the way, introduced Jesus, The crowds have come to him. Now people come to John and they present a challenge that we all face, as individuals and as a church and the answer is critically important. The answer will determine if we reach our families, neighbors, and coworkers for Jesus. It will determine if our church grows or shrinks. In one short sentence John summed up the key to successful Christian living and ministry.

1.”He must become greater; I must become less”
A. temptation to defend his greatness
B. To defend or maintain our way
C. Ministry started long before you came and will continue long after you’re gone

2. John focused on the Gods’ goal
A. chose ministry over self
B. allow it to move forward beyond us
C. Michel Jordan and the Bulls
D. John chose the success of the work of God over His own comfort and success

3. Choosing to bring Jesus forward
A. Two parts of you, the ego (I) and the Holy Spirit
B. We must know Jesus
C. Paint what you see
D. Make yourself aware of choice times
               a. a family situation
               b. something at work
               c. the choices of life
E. Choose to bring Jesus forward

What is our life about? What is our church about? Is it about God’s goals and desires or our own? Are we more concerned about our comfort and glory or about reaching the lost and broken of this world. John gives us the answer. “He must become greater; we must become less.

John 3:16-21 “The Wicked Agreement”

John 3:16-21 “The Wicked Agreement”

Have you wondered why the world is so messed up? Why people reject the love of Jesus and keep on sinning. The first part of this passage is one of the most famous in all scripture. The second part of our scripture tells us the truth about our world and gives us understanding into the work of the church and each of us as individual believers.

1. The wicked agreement
A. The World as God sees it
B. You provide cheep cotton and we overlook slavery
C. I overlook your pollution company and You give me a job
D. You sell me Jean for $20. I over look child labor and labor conditions in China
E. You overlook my drinking and I overlook adultery
F. John 3:19
G. TV repair and the 500 watt light
H. the offensiveness of light

2. The Light and the Cure
A. Gods’ plan John 3:16&17
B. John 3:21
C. Matthew 5:14 – 16

3. What should we do
A. Hold out the light
B. Show people there is another way to live
C. Albert, Mario, Rosy
D. Phil 2:15&16
E. The Olympic flame

Do you really see the world as God sees it? A world of darkness? It is up to you to hold up your light. It is up to us as a church to hold up our light. People will through up their hands and say turn that out. Keep it shining and soon their eyes will start to adjust and ever so slowly their vision comes to them and they will see a new way a different way to live, because your light has shown them the way.

John 3:9-15

John 3:9-15 lifted up for all

Heroism usually happens in a moment. A cop or a fireman respond to a call and then comes a moment of choice, draw your weapon or run in the building. A soldier in a fire fight, runs in for a buddy or dives on a bomb. While they know the choice may come they don’t know for sure it will come. And they don’t have time to think about who they are saving and why. But Jesus did have the time. He had the time, knew the hearts of the people, and from that perspective Jesus walks His entire life on the road to the cross.

1. Lifted Up
a. The strange conversation only understood at the end of the book
b. Numbers 21:5-9
c. Jesus lifted up for all to see
d. Jesus knew, walked His whole life knowing

2. Jesus still needs to be lifted up
a. I never talk to Jen because I don’t want to talk religion.
b. every day you lift up your picture of Jesus
c. tongue wagging and finger pointing
d. faith as a backpack
e. church as a small town board meeting

3. A New Picture of Jesus
a. faith as Chocolate cake
b. Church as a campfire
c. God’s Word as a cup of hot coffee in a living room of friends

Jesus walked every day of His life deliberately toward the Cross. That is heroic. We need to walk deliberately each day holding up our picture of Jesus. Who He is and What He is about. Every day we lift up our picture of Jesus, we only get to choose what that picture looks like.

John 3:1-8

John 3:1-8  “Wherever It Wills”

We all know people we would like to see become believers. People who we pray for and hope for and yet they never seem to come around to believe. We wish for some magic formula that would be said like an incantation that would open the minds and hearts of nonbelievers. There are booklets and sales pitches that have been developed that sometimes work. In this passage we learn something important about faith.

Jesus seems to be a master of strange conversations, and His conversation with Nicodemus is one of them.

1. I believe you are from God

2. No one can see the kingdom unless they are born again
A. Jesus is saying “Nicodemus you have been born again”
B. Jesus is saying “Nicodemus you need to be born again”

3. What is born again mean
a. the need for a spiritual rebirth
b. coming into a whole new world
c. to know there is a physical reality and a spiritual reality
d. 1 Cor 2:14

4. How does it work?
A. the wind blows wherever it wills
b. so it is with people born of the Spirit

A life event, a friendship, a song on the radio, a Sunday school lesson, a Bible found in a motel.

Business men, little children, High school student on a youth trip, a junkie in a gutter, a drunk on a bar stool, a person who has attended church every Sunday for years.

5. How do we live this
a. Always be ready 1 peter 3:15
b. Never count someone out
c. do not be afraid to take a chance.

John 2:17-25 Gaining Peace and Understanding

John 2:17-25 

1. The disciples do not understand.
A. His actions 2:17
B. what He said 2:22, 16:18
C. Events and their own actions John 12:16
D. even at the empty tomb John 20:9

2. The Questions and events
A. Events that change us
B. find a new job
C. move to a new home
D. Make a new friend
E. Loose and old friend
F. People who die
G. People we fall in love with
H. Why God, How can you use this,
I. Caught up in the stream of life.

3. Gaining understanding
A. “If You Will Build It He will Come”
B. The Holy Spirit will 14:25&26
C.  John 16:12-14
D. Eph 1:17 Keep Asking
E. James 1:5 Asking

Life is a complex jumble of events that do not seem to make sense to us. Yet in the tangle of things God is at work. Through prayer the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to see, our mind to understand, and give our heart hope and peace.