Category: Podcasts

Matthew 6:19-21
II Corinthians 8:1-9, 9:11b-15

Two men were stranded on a desert island. One, who seemed cheerful and upbeat was wealthy; the other was nervous and dispirited. He said to the first man, “Why are you so upbeat? Your money is not going to do you any good on this God-forsaken island. We’re both going to probably die here and you know darn well you can’t take it with you when you go!”

“Cheer up,” replied the first man, “We’ll be just fine.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because I tithe and I know it’s only a matter of time until my pastor finds me!”

Two weeks ago, my goal was to get us thinking about ‘money.’ I challenged all of us to consider whether or not money is, for us, an idol. We asked ourselves the question Jesus asked Simon Peter “Do you love Me more than these?” where we saw the ‘these’ referred to Peter’s friends, boats and nets, in other words, his ability to make money. I posed the question in the words of a song, “Do we love Jesus ‘more than anything, more than worldly wealth’?” We saw that Jesus gives us a clear choice in the matter: Who or what gets first place in our lives? God or money? We talked about the signs that indicate we might be in danger of putting money first over our relationship with God.

Last week: I began with the following three statements: “Money is a tool. Money is a tool that God has entrusted to us. Money is a tool that God has entrusted to us to use for His glory.”

I shared with the Biblical solution that brings peace to the Christian’s life because it also honors God: the 10/10/80 Plan; whereby we give the first 10% of our income to God, the second 10% goes into our own interest bearing savings account and then we live on the 80%.

And we saw in II Corinthians 9:7 that Paul encourages all of us to think these things through, make a decision about how much we want to give and then just do it, week in and week out.

If you missed either of those two messages, I highly encourage you to go to our website www.crosspointe.cc, plug in your headphones and give a listen.

With that as a reminder of where we have been, let’s hear the scripture reading for the day.

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Proverbs 21:20
Luke 16:13-15
II Corinthians 9:6-15

Before I read today’s scripture, I would like to do a little review of last week.

My goal last week was to get us thinking about ‘money.’

I challenged all of us to consider whether or not money is, for us, an idol.

We asked ourselves the question Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Do you love Me more than these?” where we saw the ‘these’ referred to Peter’s friends, boats and nets, in other words, his ability to make money.

I posed the question in the words of a song, “Do we love Jesus ‘more than anything, more than worldly wealth’?”

We saw that Jesus gives us a clear choice in the matter: Who or what gets first place in our lives? God or money?

And we talked about the signs that indicate we might be in danger of putting money first over our relationship with God.

If you missed that message, I highly encourage you to go to https://staging.crosspointe.cc/more-than-anything/, plug in your headphones and give a listen.

I hope that message you got you to thinking about this subject. For I told you last week that today I would point us in the direction of dethroning money in order to give God His rightful place on the throne.

After all, “God is holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” ¹ and because He is, “It Is the Cry of Our Hearts to Follow Him.” ²

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This week, members of CrossPointe’s Leadership Team shared their thoughts on the importance of worship.

Habakkuk 3:17-19
James 1:2-4

Let’s play a little Trivial Pursuit:
1. Who is known as the Bard of Avon?
William Shakespeare.
2. Which Shakespearean play is most associated with All Hallow’s Eve?
Macbeth.
3. What is the common name of the poem recited/sung by the three witches?
Double, Double, Toil and Trouble.
4. When it comes to troubles, the one-hit-wonder group, the Fortunes had a 1965 hit song that all of us can say amen to: You’ve Got Your Troubles, I’ve Got Mine.
5. One last trivia question: what Old Testament and what New Testament authors equate trouble with joy?
And the answer is: Habakkuk and James.

Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord!
I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights. (Habakkuk 3:17-19).

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. (James 1:2-4).

Notice James doesn’t say “If” trouble comes, but rather, “When.”

Troubles are as old as Adam and Eve, who I guess we can blame for all of ours.

Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Many, if not all of us, are experiencing some sort of trouble right now.

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Psalm 40:1-5
Luke 15:11-24
Romans 3:20-25a

October 1993, Gatlinburg, Tennessee; three construction workers and their boss are in a bar after work discussing bad odors. You know the ones: rotten eggs, skunk scent, what’s your favorite? And the boss says, “The worse odor has got to be an outhouse.”

He was so convinced he was right that offered $1,000 to anyone who would spend an entire night in an outhouse. How many of you would have done it? By the way, did I mention that in order to collect the money you would have to spend the entire night lowered into the pit of the outhouse? Now how many of you would have done it?

One of those construction workers said that he would gladly dive head-first into that stuff for the $1,000. But the boss said that wouldn’t be necessary. And so it was that at sundown October 16, 1993, his two co-workers and his boss lowered their adventurous friend into the slimy, smelly, stench of a well-used outhouse. After about two hours, in which he said he was tempted to toss his cookies many times, the guy said, “The smell sort of grew on him.”

Sunrise the next morning, the same three who took turns staying awake all night to ensure that the prisoner remained such, threw their perfumed buddy a rope and hauled him out. As the boss handed over a check, he noted his employee just couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.

What’s a story like that got to do with anything? Hang on; you’re about to find out.

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Luke 7:36-50
Luke 15:1-3, 8

Do you remember the Beatles?

Most of us thought John Lennon had it all; fame, money, girls! We thought he lived a charmed life; a kid from the hicks, Liverpool, nothing good ever came out of Liverpool, makes it big. He lives a glamorous life; instantly recognized all over the world.

And yet despite his fortune and fame, he could describe himself as a Nowhere Man. He had been under pressure to write another hit song. Spent 5 hours late one night trying to come up with something but nothing came. And he began to think, I’m a nobody, a nowhere man, my whole life has been tied up with music but now I can’t think of a thing to write about. “I thought of myself sitting there, doing nothing and getting nowhere.” ¹

Lennon’s explanation places the song in a category of his other self-deprecating songs: I’m Down, I’m a Loser, I’m Only Sleeping, I’m So Tired, I’ll Cry Instead.

It’s surprising to many that when John Lennon thought about himself, he often concluded that he didn’t matter. Why? Because he didn’t matter to his father who left him when John was 8 years old. He didn’t matter to his mother Julia, who didn’t want to be a mother and so handed John over to her sister Mimi to raise.

The resultant pain was expressed in Lennon’s song, Mother, which contains the words, Mama you had me, but I didn’t have you, Father you left me, but I didn’t leave you; and a five-time repeated phrase at the end of the song that grows in painful intensity: mama don’t go, daddy come home. ²

He’s a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody. Doesn’t have a point of view, knows not where he’s going to, isn’t he a bit like you and me? ³

Isn’t he a bit like you and me?

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Luke 15:1-32

The following “Dear God” letters indicate kids have the funniest ideas of who God is and what He is like:

Dear God,
Thanks for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.
Joyce

Dear God,
My mommy told me what You do. Who does it while you’re on vacation? Jenny

Dear God,
Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t You just keep the ones You got now?
Jane

Dear God,
Are You really invisible or is that just a trick?
Lucy

Dear God,
I bet it is hard for You to love all of everybody in the whole world, there are only four people in our family and I can never do it.
Nan

I have a hunch that there are some big kids here who believe just about the same thing as that last one; those who wonder how God can love everyone, those who wonder how God can love people who with intentionally do wrong, those who wonder how God can love them.

Who is God and what is He like? It may be true that for some of us God is distant and a stern-looking god who prefers to intimidate rather than love. Many others picture God with a white beard and robe to match and if you don’t follow the rules, watch out for thunder and lightning! Maybe God is a teacher handing out grades based upon our performance: Said a word I shouldn’t have: C-. God couldn’t love me. Watched an “R” rated movie D+. God couldn’t love me. Took home paper towels from work: F. Surely God couldn’t love me.

On the other hand, some of us are like the Pharisees Jesus was addressing, thinking I deserve an A. After all, here I am in church, again, so I’m pretty sure God loves me, but for the guy out there right now mowing his lawn; he can forget it. God certainly doesn’t love him.

So who is God, and what is He like?

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Matthew 6:19-24
I Corinthians 15:50-16:4

“Now concerning the collection?”

“Now concerning the collection?” What kind of mumbo jumbo is this; moving from discussing the most astounding news the world has ever heard, the historical resurrection of Jesus and the future resurrection of His children to this mundane matter of collecting money?

“Now concerning the collection.” There must be some mistake here. Surely the Apostle Paul would never presume to talk about salvation and money in the same breath!

“Now concerning the collection.” The nerve of the guy. Hasn’t anyone ever told you Paul, there are three things we don’t talk about in this family: religion, politics, and money!

In fact, a recent survey asking people what they don’t talk about in families indicated that money beat out politics and religion; 44% admitting they don’t talk about money, 35% politics, and 32% religion. The topic of money even beat out talking about death which came in second at 38%. ¹

But no, Paul places the matter “concerning the collection” right in the heart of the Gospel message because that is precisely where it belongs! Paul’s instructions to the Corinthians and to us ‘to give’ is not an afterthought, is not a separate part of the letter that was added after he was finished with the heart of the matter because this invitation to give to the Lord’s work IS THE HEART OF THE MATTER!

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Matthew 25:14-30
I Corinthians 15:51-58

Talk about someone needing a little encouragement! A pastor whose sermons were very long and boring, announced one Sunday that he had been called to another church and that it was Jesus’ will that he leave that week. Whereupon the song leader got everybody up to sing, “What a Friend we have in Jesus.”

Last week, we began a brief series on the topic of ‘encouragement,’ using as our text Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, “Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up” (I 5:11).

We noted that although there is a real need for any kind of encouragement, Biblical encouragement isn’t focused on complementing someone’s pedicure or telling them how good their homemade salsa tastes. Indeed Paul’s counsel to ‘encourage one another’ follows a discussion about the hope we should have in Christ for life beyond the grave.

With that in mind, Biblical encouragement is always shared in the hopes it will, in some way, accomplish one of four objectives:

1. Encourage people to embrace faith in Jesus as Savior,
2. encourage people to become more like Christ in behavior,
3. encourage people to trust that God always has their back
   as Paul encouraged the Thessalonians,
4. encourage people to know that God is using them in some way for the purposes of helping Him build His Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

It is concerning this last objective that I would like to offer some Biblical encouragement to you today and next Sunday as well. That is, I want to encourage you to know that God is using you in some way for the purpose of helping Him build His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Specifically, as we serve Him.

I want to encourage you to know that God is using you in some way for the purpose of helping Him build His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

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I Thessalonians 5:1-11

Speaking of encouragement who is more in need of it in this story; the wife or the husband or the marriage counselor they made an appointment with because they felt their marriage needed a shot in the arm? The wife was hurt and upset and as she began to recount her loveless life, tears filled her eyes and her lips started quivering. It wasn’t long before the wise counselor realized what the problem was, so without saying a word he took her by the hands, looked in her eyes for a long time, smiled, and then gave her a big hug. A change immediately came over her face; she softened and her eyes lit up. Stepping back, the counselor said to her husband, “See, that’s all she needs.”
The husband pulls out his Daytimer and says, “Great, I’ll bring her back to see you every Tuesday and Thursday.”

Regardless if we are husbands or wives, parents or children, brothers or sisters, friends or colleagues; to experience all the joy that relationships have to offer requires copious amounts of . . . ENCOURAGEMENT!

The practice of encouraging others is a key ingredient in experiencing harmony in any relationship. And giving encouragement can do more than yield harmony; encouragement can go a long way toward bringing about a positive transformation in another person’s life.

That’s why a change immediately came over the face of the wife in that story, that’s why her eyes lit up. Because encouragement can lead to a changed for the better life, for both the person giving and receiving it.

That’s why Paul encourages the Thessalonians to encourage one another. The word translated here in I Thessalonians as ‘encouragement’ occurs 106 times in the New Testament. ¹ It literally means ‘to call to one’s side;’ ² almost always with the intention of telling someone something positive. The word is more often translated ‘comfort’ than ‘encourage’ though you will agree that comforting words are encouraging words, and vise versa.

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