Easter Sermon: Romans 8: Apr 8, 07
Easter Sermon April 8, 2007 Romans 8:1-11
Big Idea: Through Christ we experience of more of life now and in eternity.
A magazine carried the story of a newlywed couple who had just arrived at their hotel on the first night of their honeymoon. They checked in at the hotel counter, took the elevator up to their room and to their great disappointment they found themselves in tiny cramped room. Frustrated and angry the new husband picked up the phone and called down to front desk, “Several months ago I reserved a honeymoon suite and I got stuck in this tiny room. I think you assigned us to the wrong room.” The front desk clerk said we’re terribly sorry, but we can’t move you because our hotel is completely full. The groom discovered that the couch in the room did pull out and become a bed, but not a very comfortable one. The next morning the bride and groom woke up tired, having not slept well. The groom went down to the front desk and give the hotel staff a piece of his mind. He slammed his fist on the counter, and said I booked a deluxe suite months ago for our honeymoon, and I ended up in tiny room last night, I want to see the manager right now… The manager came to the desk, the man expressed his frustration about being stuck in tiny room… when he had reserved a much better room. The manager said, what room were you in? The man gave the number… the manager said, “Would please come with me… they went up to room to room together… and walked in. The said did you ever open that door? The groom said no… we too tired to hang our clothes in the closet… the manger walked over opened the door which led not to a closet but to a huge room overlooking water. The room had a large ensuite bathroom with a Jacuzzi. It had a King sized bed, atop of which was a box of chocolate truffles, and bottle of champagne and two glasses and not congratulations on your wedding!
When the man arrived at the entrance to his room, he thought is this all there is? I wonder if as he and his bride were trying to sleep on the little sofa bed, they were thinking there’s got to be more, there’s got to be more…”
Like this groom we go through life saying… There’s got to be more… There’s got to be more than I am presently experiencing…
I was talking to a family recently… who have a lovely home, good job, 2 good kids, but the husband is saying… it’s seem like our whole revolves around paying our mortgage and saving for our retirement… there’s gotta be more…
There’s a yearning in the human that longs for more in life: more quality, depth, and meaning…
Easter is the greatest event in history because it has an answer for that yearning.
There’s also a yearning in the human heart for a longer life… it’s like when you to come to the end of a great movie, you long for the story to go on...
When we our mission team was in Cambodia a few weeks ago, we walked into one village where the matriarch and the de factor leader of the tribe was an older woman… and one of the North American staff with the Food for the Hungry in Cambodia said, “In your culture isn’t better to be older, because you more respected… the woman says, “Yes... better to be old in our culture.” The North American staff member then asked, “So why did you die your hair black?” “Because younger is better…”
There a force in people of every culture--even those that revere the aged--that makes people want to re-capture the fountain of youth and live forever… that why the whole anti-aging cosmetic and plastic surgery business is a multi-billion dollar deal…
People have a yearning for more of life in terms of quality of life and more of life in terms of quantity…
The great message of Easter is that there is more to life…more in terms of quality and meaning and more of truly longer lasting…
J.R.R. Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings, explained that every great story has the pattern of catastrophe…something bad happens and then eu-catastrophe something goods happens that undoes with the effects of the catastrophe…
In Star Wars movies, Darth Vader personifies the catastrophe that casts darkness, but Luke Skywalker and the Jedi warriors personify the eu-catastophe that casts light…
Tolkien explained to his friend and colleague C.S. Lewis that all the great myths and stories had this pattern of catastrophe and eu-catastrophe, but the Gospel was the one true myth or true story that actually happened in history… all the other myths and stories are simply echoes of this great, true story, that actually happened..
As a church we’ve been going through the book of Romans. The book of Romans describes the catastrophe that came into world as sin.
The Bible tells us in Romans 5 and other texts that this catastrophe of sin came to us through one person name Adam. As Adam made the decision (with Eve) to turn way from God, the one true of source of life in the universe, they contracted this spiritual virus called sin which separates human beings from the God, (as result of separating us from God sin) causes breakdown in relationships with ourselves, each other, the earth, despair, and death itself…
Like HIV or Sars comes into the world through a person (or some living being)… the sin virus came into the world through one person, Adam… that was the big of catastrophe for the human race… from which spring all the other catastrophes…
But the eu-eucatastrophe that we celebrate on Good Friday and Easter is the good catastrophe through Jesus Christ…
In Romans 5 we read that the sin virus came into the world and spread through Adam, but where sin spread increased the grace of God in increased even more through the work of God’s son Christ…
Through Adam the bad virus of sin spread that led to breakdown, despair and death, but through Jesus Christ came the good virus that leads to healing, hope, and life…
.
Adam served as the first member and representative of the human race and the sin virus flowed through him to the whole world, but Jesus also called the second Adam was also a representative of the human race and through him healing, and life followed…. (change powerpoint)
Jesus Christ lived the perfect life which we humans beings were called to live, and then when he was 33 years he died on a Roman cross bearing in his body the punishment for the sins we deserved--so we could be set free from our sins and so we could receive what Jesus deserved eternal life now and in the future….
When Jesus died on the cross for our sins… he was acting as a representative of the human race and on the cross he was bearing all sin of people who lived on what come to be known as Africa, Asia, the South and North America, Europe, Australia and Antarctica…
When Jesus died he wasn’t just dying as an individual, but Jesus as our representative was dying for us…
When Jesus rose from the dead… since Jesus was acting on behalf as Jesus the individual, but because he was the one who represented representative of the human rac---it was a sign that all who unite their lives to Jesus would rise from the dead as well.
Because Jesus represented us as part of the human race….. it meant that when he died on the cross it meant that he bore our sins on the cross that he was bearing our sins… and when he rose again, because he was representing the human race, it meant that not just Jesus, but all who join their lives to Jesus would on the final day of judgment would rise from the dead…
A number of years ago a rookie playing for the professional basketball team the Chicago Bulls was interviewed by a reporter after the game. The reporter said, this evening your teammate Michael Jordan scored 66 points and you scored one point… how would you asses this game? The rookie replied, I will always remember tonight as the night where Michael Jordan and I combined for 67 points…
As the rookie saw it that Michael’s victory had become his victory, so it is with Christ’s victory… because Jesus represented, the human race… when he died he was able to bear our sins in his body, but when rose again it guaranteed that if we join our life to his we will one day rise again from the dead…
The book of Daniel 12 at end of the age, at the final judgment people will rise from their graves and those who belong to God will experience eternal life… If our life is joined to Jesus we will rise at the end of time and experience eternal life…
So Easter answer the yearning for more of life… longer life, eternal life.
This is why the apostle Paul says in Romans 8
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Paul is saying those who join their lives to Christ are not under condemnation from God, because God allowed the sin of the world to laid on Jesus Christ, God condemned sin the sin of the world that Jesus bore in his body, so through his sacrificial death we’ve been set free from sin’s power to condemn and damn us before God.
And vs. 2 tells us through the work of Jesus Christ we’ve been set free from death itself because if the Spirit of God comes to live in us, the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, we too will be raised from the dead.
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Later in Romans in Romans 8 Paul talks about Jesus’ resurrection being a kind of first among many who would be resurrected and glorified.
Easter promise we will live longer… eternally…
But resurrection life, is a life animated by the Spirit of God which raised Jesus from the dead, is a new kind of life that we can begin to experience NOW…
Jesus said in John 5:24 24 "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” One of the clearest signs that we have truly experience homecoming is that we are experiencing resurrection life NOW…
There is a difference between resuscitated life and resurrection life.
There are times when people have near death experience and are resuscitated… There are very rare occasions when people die and like Lazarus are miraculously raised from the dead… but when a person resuscitates physically, there life may largely go on like before…
But when a person experiences the Spirit of entering their lives as a result of being joined to Christ, they are not just resuscitated, but they experience a new quality of life… a life animated by the Spirit of God… and New Life doesn’t just happen way out in the future… but it begins to happen now…
I know this has been true for me…
When Jesus first came into my life as teenager, my over-riding priorities were two fold and related: one was to excel in sports and second was to be in the tough and cool crowd…at school… Whenever a someone not cool tried to sit with our clique… a person in our group or me would walk up to kid tell to leave our space…
When Christ came into my life, Christ began to heal the insecurity that made me like that turn a person into a snob… and I began… spending with a kid who was not considered very cool that we used force our circle who tried to sit with us… but who was on spiritual quest…
One day a student in our school named Vincent approach me in the stair well look both ways and then whispered, how come you’re not hanging with the tough and cool crowd?
The only explanation for myself in that moment was that Christ was in my life… so I’ve become a Christian….
The Bible when the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you… you come to life in a new way and the fact that the Spirit lives in you is a guarantee that you will rise from the dead!
And the good news of Easter is that that new life can begin now…
And I’ve invited a couple of people in our community who are experiencing that new life, this Easter life to come and share now…
Joe Scale:
It was one year ago today that I was baptized hear at tenth publicly committing my life to Christ, so when Ken asked me to share today about the changes which have happened in my life since I became a believer, my gut reaction was, “oh bugger, they’re keeping tabs on me”. How ever it’s turned out to be just what I needed because it’s forced me to do a lot of praying and to take the time to actually reflect on the work that God has done and is doing in my life. You see lately I’ve been doing a bit of the old Vancouver “I’ll make my self busy so I feel important” trick, so just like would happen in any relationship I’ve felt a bit distant from God.
Any way, when I first became a believer in Christ the changes in my life were quite dramatic. Up until that point I had been completely focused on rugby, you could say that rugby was my God. I was playing in a professional league in England which was a great achievement for the standard I was at. But I still had I huge drive to play at an even higher level for an even better team because at the end of the day, it wouldn’t have mattered how well I did I was just chasing a fullness that rugby obviously wasn’t going to give me. I was so hungry for success in fact, that like a lot of aspiring athletes I took steroids to give me that extra advantage over my competition. Also, as often goes hand in hand with rugby, I was a big time binge drinker, going out and getting hammered most Saturday nights, some times getting into a scrap and always looking for a random girl to spend the night with. The thing is that for nearly all the time I was living this way it didn’t feel right, even though it was very much the accepted thing to do in the culture I was in, I still knew inside me that there was some thing missing but I didn’t know any thing else. I even tried to stop that life style on several occasions but was unable to. How ever back in July 2005 when I gave my life to Christ it did stop, just like that. I had no more emptiness to fill so steroids, drink, and sleeping around weren’t needed any more. I had finally accepted gods love and there really is nothing which can compare to that so all the other highs I’d been chasing were shown to be the empty vessels that they are.
I’d really like to say “that’s it, I’ve become a reformed character and life is perfect now” but I don’t think that would be very honest of me. The fact is that although God did give me the strength to turn from the really destructive aspects of my life, I do still sin. I really hate sinning, the guilt I take on makes me feel further from God. I’m sure I read some where in the bible that we have the holy spirit so there is no more reason to sin, well I know I have been given the holy spirit because I felt it when I first believed and have done other times since but like I said I do still sin. This is the struggle that I have been dealing with for a while, a slight self resentment because of my inability to be Christ like in my life, thankfully during these last few days of reflection I was able to get a bit of perspective on where I am. I mean the sins I’m worried about are things like disliking people I meet, being short tempered with my fiancé or being judgmental about guys in sport cars. These are all wrong thoughts or actions and far from the glory of God, but the fact that I see these as wrong and desire to change, where as two years ago I wouldn’t have given them a second thought, I think that does bring glory to God.
Ken asked me what was the biggest change with in me that I have experienced since I gave my life to Christ, I think I would have to say that it is my desire. I no longer desire worldly success, recognition or alcohol. All I really desire is to be the person God created me to be, unfortunately it doesn’t happen often enough but when it does happen it’s like I can feel God’s pleasure and for that period of time I’m truly alive. I have to be careful of what I say coz there are a lot of people here who know a lot more than I do but I wonder if that’s what the holy spirit does, gives us that desire, I don’t know, but it’s brilliant.
Leila Larsen:
For those of you who don’t know yet, I was baptized here last week. I mentioned that I was first introduced to God by a boy that I really liked. I think at first I was trying to get to know God because I wanted to get closer to this guy. So when I finally turned to God and gave my life to Him, I felt a little ashamed, like I hadn’t done it properly, like I’d used God just to get closer to this person. So I would always hesitate in telling others my testimony, because I thought it was weak and girly, and just kind of silly. But then I realized that that couldn’t possibly be God making me feel this shame. He knew that that was the way to get me to pay attention and see His love. So that brings me to my first big change. I think one of the most important changes God has made in me is showing me who I am. I am the body of Christ
“I think one of the most important changes God has made in me is showing me who I am. I am now am a daughter of God and Christ’s Spirit lives in me and I am free in Christ. I don’t need to be embarrassed or ashamed; instead I can embrace my differences and feelings because God made me this way for His purpose. Something I have been talking a lot about with my roommate lately: the way I used to feel like I always needed to be who everyone else wanted me to be. It’s hard to wear a mask but it is so much easier to be who God made you to be. I can throw away that mask I used to put on for everyone, and just shine. And I just fell like it’s such a weight off my shoulders, its so freeing.
I feel like God by joining me to the strong, shameless, awesome person of Jesus Christ, has freed me to become my real self.
Another big moment for me happened a little while ago: I was sitting on the bus and I had just read about how God had made us His image, and I looked over at this girl sitting across from me and I just felt this overwhelming love for her, it was so weird, I’d never felt anything like that before. I mean who ever just spontaneously feels love for a stranger? But I think that’s so exciting, how God brings us to love one another and share His Love.One of the things I struggled the most with, when I first met God, was forgiveness. I had gotten myself into a really ugly situation with a person last April and by November I still hadn’t forgiven them or myself really for all the horrible things we had done to each other. And no matter what anybody said to me or how hard I tried to forgive, and I tried in many ways, I just couldn’t do it. And I was so bitter about it. So at the end of last year, in my Alpha course, all the girls for together to pray for healing for each other. I remember sitting on that floor, and they were all praying for me and for my heart to forgive, and I was crying, but through all that I realized that that is how you are given strength. It is not through what other people tell you or how many ways you try to accomplish something, it’s about what God gives you and asking for that gift in prayer and in believing in Christ. Shortly after, we forgave each other and I remember that night as the happiest night, not only because I had retrieved a friend, but because I knew that God was good and God was with me, in this community of Love.
As God has worked in Joe and Leila bringing new life now, it’s sign that they will experience resurrected life in then. So it is you… if you join life to Christ… you not only longer life, eternal life in the future, but eternal life now… that is the promise of Easter.
Word re: Alpha…and baptism
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
Big Idea: Through Christ we experience of more of life now and in eternity.
A magazine carried the story of a newlywed couple who had just arrived at their hotel on the first night of their honeymoon. They checked in at the hotel counter, took the elevator up to their room and to their great disappointment they found themselves in tiny cramped room. Frustrated and angry the new husband picked up the phone and called down to front desk, “Several months ago I reserved a honeymoon suite and I got stuck in this tiny room. I think you assigned us to the wrong room.” The front desk clerk said we’re terribly sorry, but we can’t move you because our hotel is completely full. The groom discovered that the couch in the room did pull out and become a bed, but not a very comfortable one. The next morning the bride and groom woke up tired, having not slept well. The groom went down to the front desk and give the hotel staff a piece of his mind. He slammed his fist on the counter, and said I booked a deluxe suite months ago for our honeymoon, and I ended up in tiny room last night, I want to see the manager right now… The manager came to the desk, the man expressed his frustration about being stuck in tiny room… when he had reserved a much better room. The manager said, what room were you in? The man gave the number… the manager said, “Would please come with me… they went up to room to room together… and walked in. The said did you ever open that door? The groom said no… we too tired to hang our clothes in the closet… the manger walked over opened the door which led not to a closet but to a huge room overlooking water. The room had a large ensuite bathroom with a Jacuzzi. It had a King sized bed, atop of which was a box of chocolate truffles, and bottle of champagne and two glasses and not congratulations on your wedding!
When the man arrived at the entrance to his room, he thought is this all there is? I wonder if as he and his bride were trying to sleep on the little sofa bed, they were thinking there’s got to be more, there’s got to be more…”
Like this groom we go through life saying… There’s got to be more… There’s got to be more than I am presently experiencing…
I was talking to a family recently… who have a lovely home, good job, 2 good kids, but the husband is saying… it’s seem like our whole revolves around paying our mortgage and saving for our retirement… there’s gotta be more…
There’s a yearning in the human that longs for more in life: more quality, depth, and meaning…
Easter is the greatest event in history because it has an answer for that yearning.
There’s also a yearning in the human heart for a longer life… it’s like when you to come to the end of a great movie, you long for the story to go on...
When we our mission team was in Cambodia a few weeks ago, we walked into one village where the matriarch and the de factor leader of the tribe was an older woman… and one of the North American staff with the Food for the Hungry in Cambodia said, “In your culture isn’t better to be older, because you more respected… the woman says, “Yes... better to be old in our culture.” The North American staff member then asked, “So why did you die your hair black?” “Because younger is better…”
There a force in people of every culture--even those that revere the aged--that makes people want to re-capture the fountain of youth and live forever… that why the whole anti-aging cosmetic and plastic surgery business is a multi-billion dollar deal…
People have a yearning for more of life in terms of quality of life and more of life in terms of quantity…
The great message of Easter is that there is more to life…more in terms of quality and meaning and more of truly longer lasting…
J.R.R. Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings, explained that every great story has the pattern of catastrophe…something bad happens and then eu-catastrophe something goods happens that undoes with the effects of the catastrophe…
In Star Wars movies, Darth Vader personifies the catastrophe that casts darkness, but Luke Skywalker and the Jedi warriors personify the eu-catastophe that casts light…
Tolkien explained to his friend and colleague C.S. Lewis that all the great myths and stories had this pattern of catastrophe and eu-catastrophe, but the Gospel was the one true myth or true story that actually happened in history… all the other myths and stories are simply echoes of this great, true story, that actually happened..
As a church we’ve been going through the book of Romans. The book of Romans describes the catastrophe that came into world as sin.
The Bible tells us in Romans 5 and other texts that this catastrophe of sin came to us through one person name Adam. As Adam made the decision (with Eve) to turn way from God, the one true of source of life in the universe, they contracted this spiritual virus called sin which separates human beings from the God, (as result of separating us from God sin) causes breakdown in relationships with ourselves, each other, the earth, despair, and death itself…
Like HIV or Sars comes into the world through a person (or some living being)… the sin virus came into the world through one person, Adam… that was the big of catastrophe for the human race… from which spring all the other catastrophes…
But the eu-eucatastrophe that we celebrate on Good Friday and Easter is the good catastrophe through Jesus Christ…
In Romans 5 we read that the sin virus came into the world and spread through Adam, but where sin spread increased the grace of God in increased even more through the work of God’s son Christ…
Through Adam the bad virus of sin spread that led to breakdown, despair and death, but through Jesus Christ came the good virus that leads to healing, hope, and life…
.
Adam served as the first member and representative of the human race and the sin virus flowed through him to the whole world, but Jesus also called the second Adam was also a representative of the human race and through him healing, and life followed…. (change powerpoint)
Jesus Christ lived the perfect life which we humans beings were called to live, and then when he was 33 years he died on a Roman cross bearing in his body the punishment for the sins we deserved--so we could be set free from our sins and so we could receive what Jesus deserved eternal life now and in the future….
When Jesus died on the cross for our sins… he was acting as a representative of the human race and on the cross he was bearing all sin of people who lived on what come to be known as Africa, Asia, the South and North America, Europe, Australia and Antarctica…
When Jesus died he wasn’t just dying as an individual, but Jesus as our representative was dying for us…
When Jesus rose from the dead… since Jesus was acting on behalf as Jesus the individual, but because he was the one who represented representative of the human rac---it was a sign that all who unite their lives to Jesus would rise from the dead as well.
Because Jesus represented us as part of the human race….. it meant that when he died on the cross it meant that he bore our sins on the cross that he was bearing our sins… and when he rose again, because he was representing the human race, it meant that not just Jesus, but all who join their lives to Jesus would on the final day of judgment would rise from the dead…
A number of years ago a rookie playing for the professional basketball team the Chicago Bulls was interviewed by a reporter after the game. The reporter said, this evening your teammate Michael Jordan scored 66 points and you scored one point… how would you asses this game? The rookie replied, I will always remember tonight as the night where Michael Jordan and I combined for 67 points…
As the rookie saw it that Michael’s victory had become his victory, so it is with Christ’s victory… because Jesus represented, the human race… when he died he was able to bear our sins in his body, but when rose again it guaranteed that if we join our life to his we will one day rise again from the dead…
The book of Daniel 12 at end of the age, at the final judgment people will rise from their graves and those who belong to God will experience eternal life… If our life is joined to Jesus we will rise at the end of time and experience eternal life…
So Easter answer the yearning for more of life… longer life, eternal life.
This is why the apostle Paul says in Romans 8
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Paul is saying those who join their lives to Christ are not under condemnation from God, because God allowed the sin of the world to laid on Jesus Christ, God condemned sin the sin of the world that Jesus bore in his body, so through his sacrificial death we’ve been set free from sin’s power to condemn and damn us before God.
And vs. 2 tells us through the work of Jesus Christ we’ve been set free from death itself because if the Spirit of God comes to live in us, the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, we too will be raised from the dead.
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Later in Romans in Romans 8 Paul talks about Jesus’ resurrection being a kind of first among many who would be resurrected and glorified.
Easter promise we will live longer… eternally…
But resurrection life, is a life animated by the Spirit of God which raised Jesus from the dead, is a new kind of life that we can begin to experience NOW…
Jesus said in John 5:24 24 "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” One of the clearest signs that we have truly experience homecoming is that we are experiencing resurrection life NOW…
There is a difference between resuscitated life and resurrection life.
There are times when people have near death experience and are resuscitated… There are very rare occasions when people die and like Lazarus are miraculously raised from the dead… but when a person resuscitates physically, there life may largely go on like before…
But when a person experiences the Spirit of entering their lives as a result of being joined to Christ, they are not just resuscitated, but they experience a new quality of life… a life animated by the Spirit of God… and New Life doesn’t just happen way out in the future… but it begins to happen now…
I know this has been true for me…
When Jesus first came into my life as teenager, my over-riding priorities were two fold and related: one was to excel in sports and second was to be in the tough and cool crowd…at school… Whenever a someone not cool tried to sit with our clique… a person in our group or me would walk up to kid tell to leave our space…
When Christ came into my life, Christ began to heal the insecurity that made me like that turn a person into a snob… and I began… spending with a kid who was not considered very cool that we used force our circle who tried to sit with us… but who was on spiritual quest…
One day a student in our school named Vincent approach me in the stair well look both ways and then whispered, how come you’re not hanging with the tough and cool crowd?
The only explanation for myself in that moment was that Christ was in my life… so I’ve become a Christian….
The Bible when the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you… you come to life in a new way and the fact that the Spirit lives in you is a guarantee that you will rise from the dead!
And the good news of Easter is that that new life can begin now…
And I’ve invited a couple of people in our community who are experiencing that new life, this Easter life to come and share now…
Joe Scale:
It was one year ago today that I was baptized hear at tenth publicly committing my life to Christ, so when Ken asked me to share today about the changes which have happened in my life since I became a believer, my gut reaction was, “oh bugger, they’re keeping tabs on me”. How ever it’s turned out to be just what I needed because it’s forced me to do a lot of praying and to take the time to actually reflect on the work that God has done and is doing in my life. You see lately I’ve been doing a bit of the old Vancouver “I’ll make my self busy so I feel important” trick, so just like would happen in any relationship I’ve felt a bit distant from God.
Any way, when I first became a believer in Christ the changes in my life were quite dramatic. Up until that point I had been completely focused on rugby, you could say that rugby was my God. I was playing in a professional league in England which was a great achievement for the standard I was at. But I still had I huge drive to play at an even higher level for an even better team because at the end of the day, it wouldn’t have mattered how well I did I was just chasing a fullness that rugby obviously wasn’t going to give me. I was so hungry for success in fact, that like a lot of aspiring athletes I took steroids to give me that extra advantage over my competition. Also, as often goes hand in hand with rugby, I was a big time binge drinker, going out and getting hammered most Saturday nights, some times getting into a scrap and always looking for a random girl to spend the night with. The thing is that for nearly all the time I was living this way it didn’t feel right, even though it was very much the accepted thing to do in the culture I was in, I still knew inside me that there was some thing missing but I didn’t know any thing else. I even tried to stop that life style on several occasions but was unable to. How ever back in July 2005 when I gave my life to Christ it did stop, just like that. I had no more emptiness to fill so steroids, drink, and sleeping around weren’t needed any more. I had finally accepted gods love and there really is nothing which can compare to that so all the other highs I’d been chasing were shown to be the empty vessels that they are.
I’d really like to say “that’s it, I’ve become a reformed character and life is perfect now” but I don’t think that would be very honest of me. The fact is that although God did give me the strength to turn from the really destructive aspects of my life, I do still sin. I really hate sinning, the guilt I take on makes me feel further from God. I’m sure I read some where in the bible that we have the holy spirit so there is no more reason to sin, well I know I have been given the holy spirit because I felt it when I first believed and have done other times since but like I said I do still sin. This is the struggle that I have been dealing with for a while, a slight self resentment because of my inability to be Christ like in my life, thankfully during these last few days of reflection I was able to get a bit of perspective on where I am. I mean the sins I’m worried about are things like disliking people I meet, being short tempered with my fiancé or being judgmental about guys in sport cars. These are all wrong thoughts or actions and far from the glory of God, but the fact that I see these as wrong and desire to change, where as two years ago I wouldn’t have given them a second thought, I think that does bring glory to God.
Ken asked me what was the biggest change with in me that I have experienced since I gave my life to Christ, I think I would have to say that it is my desire. I no longer desire worldly success, recognition or alcohol. All I really desire is to be the person God created me to be, unfortunately it doesn’t happen often enough but when it does happen it’s like I can feel God’s pleasure and for that period of time I’m truly alive. I have to be careful of what I say coz there are a lot of people here who know a lot more than I do but I wonder if that’s what the holy spirit does, gives us that desire, I don’t know, but it’s brilliant.
Leila Larsen:
For those of you who don’t know yet, I was baptized here last week. I mentioned that I was first introduced to God by a boy that I really liked. I think at first I was trying to get to know God because I wanted to get closer to this guy. So when I finally turned to God and gave my life to Him, I felt a little ashamed, like I hadn’t done it properly, like I’d used God just to get closer to this person. So I would always hesitate in telling others my testimony, because I thought it was weak and girly, and just kind of silly. But then I realized that that couldn’t possibly be God making me feel this shame. He knew that that was the way to get me to pay attention and see His love. So that brings me to my first big change. I think one of the most important changes God has made in me is showing me who I am. I am the body of Christ
“I think one of the most important changes God has made in me is showing me who I am. I am now am a daughter of God and Christ’s Spirit lives in me and I am free in Christ. I don’t need to be embarrassed or ashamed; instead I can embrace my differences and feelings because God made me this way for His purpose. Something I have been talking a lot about with my roommate lately: the way I used to feel like I always needed to be who everyone else wanted me to be. It’s hard to wear a mask but it is so much easier to be who God made you to be. I can throw away that mask I used to put on for everyone, and just shine. And I just fell like it’s such a weight off my shoulders, its so freeing.
I feel like God by joining me to the strong, shameless, awesome person of Jesus Christ, has freed me to become my real self.
Another big moment for me happened a little while ago: I was sitting on the bus and I had just read about how God had made us His image, and I looked over at this girl sitting across from me and I just felt this overwhelming love for her, it was so weird, I’d never felt anything like that before. I mean who ever just spontaneously feels love for a stranger? But I think that’s so exciting, how God brings us to love one another and share His Love.One of the things I struggled the most with, when I first met God, was forgiveness. I had gotten myself into a really ugly situation with a person last April and by November I still hadn’t forgiven them or myself really for all the horrible things we had done to each other. And no matter what anybody said to me or how hard I tried to forgive, and I tried in many ways, I just couldn’t do it. And I was so bitter about it. So at the end of last year, in my Alpha course, all the girls for together to pray for healing for each other. I remember sitting on that floor, and they were all praying for me and for my heart to forgive, and I was crying, but through all that I realized that that is how you are given strength. It is not through what other people tell you or how many ways you try to accomplish something, it’s about what God gives you and asking for that gift in prayer and in believing in Christ. Shortly after, we forgave each other and I remember that night as the happiest night, not only because I had retrieved a friend, but because I knew that God was good and God was with me, in this community of Love.
As God has worked in Joe and Leila bringing new life now, it’s sign that they will experience resurrected life in then. So it is you… if you join life to Christ… you not only longer life, eternal life in the future, but eternal life now… that is the promise of Easter.
Word re: Alpha…and baptism
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
posted by Shigematsu at 12:45 PM
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