Legacy Part 5 (Sunday, January 30, 2011)

Legacy Part 5 (Sky94 Service) [Listen Here]

This is the final part in the Legacy sermon series. The theme or topic to this sermon is compromise. To begin the sermon, Pastor Jason opened with Numbers 25:1-9, which reads:

While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the LORD’s anger burned against them.

The LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the LORD’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”

So Moses said to Israel’s judges, “Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”

Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000. (NIV)

Basically, what's going on here is that these Moabite women came into the Israelite camp, and the bottom line is the Israelite men started worshiping their god and sleeping with the women. A plague strikes the people and God tells Moses how to atone for the Israelites' sins and stop the plague. Then, this Israelite man parades this Midianite woman into his tent "right before the eyes of Moses." Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, sees this, grabs a spear, follows the two into the tent, and spears them through. The plague stopped, but 24,000 people had already died.

How did this happen? How did God's children get to this point where twenty-four thousand were killed for their sins? Let's rewind.

It all starts with Balaam. Balaam - a sorcerer - was not an Israelite, but he recognized the power of God. To make a long story short, Balak, king of Moab, summons Balaam and tells him to curse Israel. That way, when they attacked Moab, the Israelites would fail - Balak knew God was fighting for Israel and had seen what they'd done to the Amorites. After several attempts, Balaam is successful only in blessing Israel - he even curses Moab. Balak sends him away, but Balaam does give him one piece of advise: If you want to take down the Israeiltes, get them to compromise.

You see, the sin of the Israelites was not an instantaneous thing. The Moabite women came into their camp and started by just having dinner with the Israeiltes - harmless enough, so the Israelites thought. Then, the men started trying these women's religion. Finally, they had "yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor" [The Moabite god] and were sleeping with the enemy (quite literally).

According to Pastor Jason, there is a car commercial - GMC he thought - that says, "When you never compromise, you have nothing to hide." Most people, however, have many things they wish to hide, habits they don't want others to know about. A pastor who Pastor Jason knows would says that one of the best feelings in the world is to walk around with no regret or shame.

Compromise begins - regret and shame begin - by testing other religions, because that's what American culture (and I'm sure not just American culture) is. Last sermon (Legacy Part 4), Pastor Jason talked about knowing the enemies strategies. Here is another one. The enemy wants to get you to just get a taste of the culture. He knows that when you do, you will begin to compromise more and more until you have no idea how you got so far away from who you want to be.

Switching gears, let's take a moment to look at Phinehas. What would cause him to follow this man and woman into their tent and stab them through on the spot? Pastor Jason thinks Phinehas found his motivation in the people dying all around him. He had probably just watched his own friends fall dead and decided enough is enough; I'm going to end this right now. We face the same situation today. The enemy has drug our friends - our generation - into this culture and we're seeing people dying and tearing up their lives as a result. Well, enough is enough.

If it isn't apparent, the lesson in this sermon is to watch out for compromise. You can convince yourself of anything. It is so easy to rationalize an action you know is wrong to begin with. Now, Pastor Jason addressed a counterargument at this point. Isn't there forgiveness for my sins? Well, yes, of course. However, is it truly repentance if you deliberately disobey God because you know He's going to forgive you?

"Culture is striving to adopt you," Pastor Jason said. Culture promises this glamorous life that it can't deliver. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death," not because God's going to strike you down, but because sin can't produce anything but death in the end. Just as you can't get apples from an orange tree, you'll never get life from sin.

Pastor Jason encourages everyone to get real practical with this. Think: What does it look like in your life to live for God with everything? What compromises have you made in your life that keep you from God and how are you going to change that? Maybe you need to remove your computer from your room for the next month, because you haven't been visiting sites that would please God. Maybe you need to stop hanging around some friends who always manage to get you to disobey God. Whatever it looks like for you, now is the time to start living for God wholeheartedly.

Legacy Part 4 (Sunday, January 23, 2011)

Legacy Part 4 (Sky94 Service)  [Listen Here]
As you can see, I'm a little behind on sermons. This is the Sky94 sermon from three weeks ago.

Pastor Jason began this sermon with Genesis 3:6-9, which says:

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” (NIV)

Where are you? That is the question that this sermon is centered around. In your relationship with God, where are you?

In the last Legacy sermon, Pastor Jason talked about moving forward and how even in the midst of new trials and new miracles, the past still comes back to haunt you. Sometimes, it feels like you are never done running. In Exodus 15:22-24, it says,

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”(NIV)

The Israelites had just escaped slavery in Egypt. They had experienced the miracles of God and had walked right through the Red Sea. Now they entered the desert and could find no water. After three days of thirst, they come across water, but they couldn't even drink it. Have you ever built up hope in something (When "this" happens, things will get better...), but when you finally get it, you realize it didn't fix everything. Pastor Jason noted that the first thing that happens to the Israelites after they'd come out of this awesome miracle (the parting of the Red Sea) is that they struggled with bitterness.

A lot of times, bitterness leads to isolation. You let it build up inside of you and you just want to shut out the world [I know I can relate to that]. However, you can't overcome bitterness by yourself - and realizing this is really the first step to overcoming it. In fact, the enemy is counting on the bitterness to draw you into isolation. If you can overcome bitterness, you view life in a completely different light. However, this is easier said than done. That is why Pastor Jason recommends surrounding yourself with people who will hold you accountable and make sure you don't draw back into bitterness.

Exodus 17 describes the first battle faced by the Israelites after leaving Egypt. When the Amalekites attacked the Israelites, they attacked from the rear and tried to pick off the stragglers who were isolated from the rest. That right there, Pastor Jason claims, describes a crucial strategy of the enemy. In order to defeat an enemy, you have to study the enemy's strategies - and the Bible is laying it out in plain view. If you allow bitterness to draw you into isolation, you leave yourself open to the attacks of the enemy.

What does Moses do when the Amalekites attack their stragglers? He has Joshua gather an army and defend those who had fallen behind. Joshua and Moses were the only ones among the Israelites that the Bible says had a personal relationship with God. Pastor Jason asserts that what the church needs most is more "Joshua"s. A Joshua is someone who has a personal relationship with God and is willing to go back and defend the stragglers from the enemy. A Joshua is willing to reach out to those who have fallen behind and pull them out of bitterness and bring them back to the group.

Before I end this summary, I'd like to pose a few things Pastor Jason mentioned that should be considered.

When was the last time you spent time with God?
What does it mean to have a relationship with God? What does that look like for you and your life?
Relationships are a daily (not weekly) commitment. The gospel of Luke says to take up your cross daily.
Acts 11:26 says, "The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." The disciples were called Christians - not the believers, the disciples. The root of the word "disciple" is "discipline."

Legacy Part 3 (Sunday, January 16, 2011/Tuesday, January 18, 2011)

This sermon comes in two parts. Both Skyline and NexGen are doing this Legacy series. In the first two sermons in the series, Pastor Jason spoke at both and the sermon was more or less the same. However, in this week's installment, Pastor Jason spoke at Skyline, but Pastor Ellis spoke at NexGen. The two messages are different but support each other so nicely, I feel a need to provide both.

Sunday Night - Sky94 Service (Pastor Jason) [Listen Here]
When each new year comes around, most people try to get started on the right track. They make New Year's resolutions: to be healthier, to spend more time reading their Bible, to lose weight, etc. However, this usually doesn't work, just statistically speaking. The problem is not the person's intentions. Your heart may be on the right track; you want to improve. But Pastor Jason pointed out that a train can be on the right track without going anywhere. What that train needs is momentum. Pastor Jason pointed out something rather poetic about this train metaphor. The mechanism that starts a train is all set off due to a spark from the inside. And with that little spark, the train becomes a force so powerful no one can stop it.

This sermon focus on the book of Exodus. Let's begin by looking at Exodus 5:20-23, which says:

As they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them. The foremen said to them, "May God see what you've done and judge you—you've made us stink before Pharaoh and his servants! You've put a weapon in his hand that's going to kill us!"

Moses went back to God and said, "My Master, why are you treating this people so badly? And why did you ever send me? From the moment I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, things have only gotten worse for this people. And rescue? Does this look like rescue to you?" (The Message)

Moses had just made his first plea to Pharaoh for the freedom of the Israelites. However, Pharaoh responded by making the work of the Israelites more difficult. So, Moses turns to God in frustration. He even says to God, "Does this look like rescue to you?" At this point, Pastor Jason points out that it is okay to be honest with God. If you're mad, frustrated, overwhelmed, whatever you are feeling, tell Him.

However, what does God tell Moses to do, to tell the people? Move forward.

Move forward. That is God's response to a lot of our situations - though most of us don't like that answer. When we're struggling, when life becomes overwhelming, our inclination is to tell God, "I'm going to stay right here until you do something about my problems, God." God's response? "Move forward." "But God, I can't. Fix it, God." "Move forward."

Many times, it doesn't make sense. We don't understand how moving forward will help anything. But honestly, since when has God ever made sense. He rarely does what people expect Him to do. That's part of what makes Him so wonderful.


Moving ahead in the story a little to right after the Israelites are freed, Exodus 14:5-16 says:

When the king of Egypt was told that the people were gone, he and his servants changed their minds. They said, "What have we done, letting Israel, our slave labor, go free?" So he had his chariots harnessed up and got his army together. He took six hundred of his best chariots, with the rest of the Egyptian chariots and their drivers coming along.

God made Pharaoh king of Egypt stubborn, determined to chase the Israelites as they walked out on him without even looking back. The Egyptians gave chase and caught up with them where they had made camp by the sea—all Pharaoh's horse-drawn chariots and their riders, all his foot soldiers there at Pi Hahiroth opposite Baal Zephon.

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw them— Egyptians! Coming at them!

They were totally afraid. They cried out in terror to God. They told Moses, "Weren't the cemeteries large enough in Egypt so that you had to take us out here in the wilderness to die? What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt? Back in Egypt didn't we tell you this would happen? Didn't we tell you, 'Leave us alone here in Egypt—we're better off as slaves in Egypt than as corpses in the wilderness.'"

Moses spoke to the people: "Don't be afraid. Stand firm and watch God do his work of salvation for you today. Take a good look at the Egyptians today for you're never going to see them again.

        God will fight the battle for you.
      And you? You keep your mouths shut!"

God said to Moses: "Why cry out to me? Speak to the Israelites. Order them to get moving. Hold your staff high and stretch your hand out over the sea: Split the sea! The Israelites will walk through the sea on dry ground. (The Message)

 
At this point, the Israelites are leaving Egypt and they come to the Red Sea. At the same time, Egyptian soldiers are heading their way to bring them back to slavery. With a huge expanse of sea in front of them, and the Egyptians behind them, the people begin to regret leaving at all - more than that, they're fairly certain they will die.

Moses, though he keeps a calm and assured front to the Israelites is crying out to God for help. It may appear to the people that he has everything together, but his heart is crying out in panic.


What is God's response to Moses? Move forward. With a giant sea in front of him, that's probably not what Moses wanted to hear. However, as many of you may know, through Moses, God parted the Red Sea and the Israelite people walked between the pillars of water to safety.

If there are things in your life that you're wanting to overcome, sometimes all God will tell you is to move forward. He is always with you, and will see you through your struggles, but sometimes you just have to move forward. Pastor Jason pointed out that when the Israelite people left Egypt, they thought they were finally free from slavery. They came to the Red Sea and suddenly there was a new obstacle to overcome. If that was not enough, the past they thought they'd escaped came back to haunt them - the Egyptian soldiers were right on their tail.

It's like those times, you try to change your life, you finally get beyond your past, and now you're on to facing a new challenge, when suddenly something from your past comes back. You find someone who knew you in the past and all they can see is who you used to be. No matter how you try to tell them you're different now, all they can see is your past. Just like the Israelites, you're now fighting on two fronts. However, God will tell you, "Move forward."

As the book of Exodus continues, the Israelites continue to face struggle. The ironic thing is that time and time again, they decide it would have been better if they had stayed in Egypt. Egypt. Where they were slaves. Where they were beaten and forced into hard labor. And they want to go back. With each struggle they face, God continues to deliver them, but each time, they are certain they will die and wish to go back to being slaves. The point to be made here is that in the heat of the moment, Pastor Jason notes, you are not always rational. There are times of panic, when you want to go back to the past, because that was comfortable, but when God says, "Move forward," you need to make that decision to move forward. - which sounds a lot like what was discussed in Legacy Part 2 with Ruth and Orpah.

Why choose to move forward? Well, Pastor Jason utilized a quote from "The Dark Knight" to make this point. Right after Batman nearly kills the Joker, but instead saves his life, the Joker says, "This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object." However, this is a paradox. If there is an immovable object, there can be no unstoppable force - if the object can't be moved, the force will have to stop. But think about the reverse. If there is an unstoppable force, there is no such thing as an immovable object. Sometimes, the obstacles in our life seem like they're immovable objects. We see no way to overcome them. But remember, our God is an unstoppable force. There is no such thing as an immovable object.

Looking back at that train metaphor, the train starts with a spark from the inside. Inside you is all you need to overcome any challenge - not because of who you are, but because of God's power inside of you. Romans 8:11 says:

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. (NLT)

The power that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. That is an unstoppable force. Death, which has not been overcome by any man, was no match for the power of the Holy Spirit. Because of this, you can always move forward. Never stop.

Tuesday Night - NexGen Service (Pastor Ellis)
The title of this sermon is called "The Breaking Point" and is about how worshipers leave a legacy. However, it's also about moving forward. There are times in you life when little things trip you up. The way Pastor Ellis illustrated this point was through those times when Satan tricks you into doing something, and then makes you feel bad about it. It's those times, when you know you've messed up - and Satan continues to drive that point home in your head - that make you want to recoil from God.

Pastor Ellis noted that right after Adam and Eve sinned, they were ashamed and hid. Do you have those times where you know you've done something wrong and you're so upset or disgusted with yourself that all you want to do is hide from it. You don't want to come to God; you're ashamed. It's those little things, like little pegs that hold you in place, that keep you from God. He wants you to come to Him. No matter what you've done, He wants you to be dependent on Him.

How can you do that? Worship. Pastor Ellis defined worship rather poignantly. He called it declaring dependency on God. Worshipers leave legacies when they declare to God that they are dependent on Him and on Him alone and they live as one dependent on the Lord. Pastor Ellis gave an acronym to better understand how worshipers leave legacy. That acronym is LEGACY.

Lead
Endure
Give Up
Appropriate Your Attitude
Care About Others
Yield

Lead
A bit tautologically, Pastor Ellis declared, "Leaders lead." Similarly, worshipers lead. There is a lot of noise in this world. A worshiper's voice has to be heard over all of that, so that people will hear the name of God above all the meaningless chatter of the world.

Endure
God will ask you to endure - to move forward - through difficulties, and in doing so you will become a person better equipped for God's work. This is because enduring brings forth patience and strength, Pastor Ellis claimed.

Give Up
If you are to be a worshiper of God, you have to give up something to make time for Him. The world may see it as pointless - why would you give up a Sunday to go to church or forgo a party or hobby to read your Bible or serve God? But when you give up things for God - in worship to Him - he makes you a world-changer. Again, more than slightly tautologically, Pastor Ellis pointed out that to be a disciple, you have to be disciplined. While this seems like an obvious statement, too many people take up the attitude of "I can be a disciple any time I want to." Discipleship takes work, training, and time. You have to put in work when no one else does. That will set you apart from those who believe God's word but do not act on it - something the book of James focuses on heavily.

Appropriate Your Attitude
Basically, as Pastor Ellis put it, suck it up. Know when and when not to get angry. There are times for righteous anger; however, it about knowing when to speak and when to remain silent. Pastor Ellis used an example from "Remember the Titans." At one point, the coach tells the team something along the lines of, "Any two-year-old can throw a tantrum. Football is about harnessing that anger to accomplish something." Learn to harness your emotions, your passions, to use them for God's purpose - and so they will not control you.

Care About People
People can be intimidating. Pastor Ellis acknowledged this. However, take comfort in the fact that it is not your job to fix anyone. It's not even your job to help them overcome anything, because we are not the answer. God, Jesus Christ, is the answer. It is our job to present God to people. It is His job to fix them. However, someone is much more receptive to listen to someone who cares about them than someone who doesn't.

Yield
Yielding is allowing someone else's movement before your own. This doesn't mean you don't get to move. It means allowing someone to move before you. Worshipers are called to yield to God's movement - to His plan. He knows your dreams, but for everything there is a time.

This next story is coming a little out of sequence from the original sermon, and I normally try to avoid telling other people's stories on this blog, but I feel this story illustrates a powerful point. It turns an abstract concept into something very concrete. Pastor Ellis describes how at his work, he does not have the key to get into the main room in which he works. Instead, he has the key to get into his boss's office to get the key that leads to the main room. Though he does not have the key to get to what he needs, he has the key that will get him the key he needs.

Similarly, we don't always have, in our possession, what we need to accomplish the bigger goal. We may be lacking the strength, the knowledge, the power, whatever it is - we do not have that second key so we can't go straight into the work of God. However, we all have the key that will grant us access to the tools - the second key - that we need to reach that bigger goal. What is that first key? Worship. It may take time. We can't get to that main room as fast as we'd like, but we will get there - and when we do get there, when we begin to do God's work in this world, amazing things happen. The point is you can't do it by your own power. Worship declares your dependency on God, and when you are ready to humble your heart and give Him full control, you can finally access the tools you need to do His greater work.

Legacy Part 2 (Sunday, January 9, 2011)

Legacy Part 2 (Sky94 Service) [Listen Here]

In the previous sermon of this series, Pastor Jason talked about adopting this battle for our generation as our own and using the gifts God has given you for His kingdom. Basically, he wanted us to be constantly leaving a legacy in the name of Christ. This week, the focus shifts ever so slightly. Instead of just telling us to leave a legacy, Pastor Jason addresses how to leave a legacy. He urges us to become part of legacy that's greater than ourselves - namely the legacy of Jesus Christ - so we are no longer trying to leave a legacy for ourselves but for something greater than ourselves. This legacy is two thousand years strong and is the greatest legacy in the history of the human race - no matter from what perspective you look at it.

Pastor Jason asserts that when you follow a world-changer, you become a world-changer. By that logic, if you follow Christ, you will become more like Christ- something Jesus asks us all to do.

The last sermon focused on the story of Esther. This time, we examine the story of Ruth. Ruth 1:11-17 states:

But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD’s hand has turned against me!”

At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Were you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” (NIV)

First, a little background on the passage. Naomi, her husband, and her two sons, in order to escape famine, moved to Moab. While there, Naomi's two sons married two Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. Tragically, while they're in Moab, Naomi's husband and her two sons die, leaving Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah as widows. Now, in that culture, when a woman marries, she "marries the family" so to speak. On paper, the customs and even gods - or in this case God - of the family becomes her own. When Ruth and Orpah's husbands die, however, they are no longer bound by this.

Deciding to return home to Bethlehem, Naomi tells Ruth and Orpah to return to their homes and to their gods. She has no more sons for them to marry, so they are no longer bound to her or her God. Orpah does just that; she returns home. Ruth, on the other hand, "clings" to Naomi - the passage says. Ruth tells Naomi, "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God."

Pastor Jason counts this as the defining moment for Ruth. Because she was married to a Jewish man, she followed Yahweh - God. But that was only on paper. Pastor Jason doubts she genuinely worshiped Yahweh. This is similar, he points out, to many Christian youths. They are Christian only by the virtue that their parents are and, therefore, drag them to church. They don't actually follow Jesus - most don't know what that even entails - and their actions certainly don't speak to a Christian lifestyle. However, there is a defining moment in all these youths lives much like the one faced by Ruth. Generally, this time comes when they go off to college and no longer have their parents making sure they go to church and such. It is during this time, they must decided whether they are going to adopt this religion as their own.

That's exactly what Ruth did. While Orpah went back to her gods, her old lifestyle, Ruth said to Naomi, "Your people will be my people and your God my God." It is in this moment that Ruth adopts Yahweh as her own God. This decision had impacts on Ruth's life that she could never have imagined. Naomi makes it very clear she had nothing to offer the young women. There is no certainty in Naomi's future; in fact, a widow's life was very hard in this society where women were very dependent on the males in their life. Still, Ruth chose to stay with Naomi. Because of this decision, Ruth meets Boaz, who "happens" to be a kinsman-redeemer of hers - the bottom line being he secures the land owned by Naomi's husband and marries Ruth so the two women now have support. However, even more incredibly, Ruth gives birth to Obed; from Obed comes Jesse; from Jesse comes David. Jesus is from the lineage of David. Because Ruth chose to cling to Naomi instead of going back to what was comfortable in her own town, she became a part of the greatest legacy known to humankind.

Ruth became part of the legacy of Jesus, and she wasn't even a Jew. Pastor Jason points this out to emphasize the point that God tends to use people that destroy most people's social preconceptions. In fact, there are only two other women that are noted in the lineage of Jesus - both of them were prostitutes. God tends to use the people who have been kicked to the curb and get back up.

Pastor Jason emphasized a particular point in this story. Both Orpah and Ruth are in a lot of pain when this whole event goes on. They each just lost their husband, their father-in-law, and their brother-in-law. The way our generation deals with pain - which may not be unique to our generation, but a fact nonetheless - is to cause more pain. Teens and young adults are cutting and committing - or try to commit - suicide as ways to escape the emotional pain they feel. Nothing hurts worse that emotional pain, so physical pain seems to be the only remedy. It's familiar - you know what to expect from physical pain; it distracts from the emotional pain. Not knowing how to fix their pain, many people try to the only way they can think of.

At this point, both these young women are in a lot of pain. Let's look at Orpah's decision. Orpah decides to go back to her own town. She returns to what's familiar. Sometimes, it seems like a better idea to go back to what is familiar. People will turn back to old addictions, abusive relationships, and other harmful things because they know what to expect from that. Going forward, changing lifestyles is unfamiliar. They may even feel abandoned by God, and fall into the "Where was your God, when I was hurting" mentality. But if they go back to those old habits, those old situations, at least they know what to expect.

On the other hand, Ruth "clings" to Naomi. It says in the passage, "but Ruth clung to her." This decision changes her life forever. Ruth refused to go back; she knew she had to keep going forward. There was no promise of a better life if she went forward, but she "clung" to Naomi nonetheless. Pastor Jason asserts that everyone needs a Naomi - someone to disciple you, to guide you. Additionally, when you face pain, make it make you "cling" to God. Trying to solve it for yourself will not work. You need to come to that place where you say, "You are God; I am man. I'm helpless without you." When you reach that place, where you can live completely and wholeheartedly for God, is when you join the legacy of Christ.

There are many Christians that pretend like they have it all together on their own. In reality, no one has it all together. Everyone needs God. That's okay. Cling to Him. Because when you do that, you will become a part of Jesus' legacy. When you're a part of the legacy of Christ, you can't help but leave a legacy yourself.

Legacy Part 1 (Sunday, January 2, 2011)

Legacy Part 1 (Sky94 Service) [Listen Here]

Pastor Jason kicked off the first sermon of 2011 by asking the congregation, "What will be your legacy this year?" Most people want to leave a legacy when they die, but Pastor Jason urges us to leave a legacy each year. What do you want to be known for this year? What legacy will you leave for the kingdom of God. Martin Luther King Jr. left one of the most well known legacies in the history of this nation, because he did what he did not for himself, but for a people.

This sermon revolves around the legacy of an influential woman in the Bible's history: Esther. Specifically, the event that take place in Esther 3:1-4:14 (don't worry, I'll summarize all the important events):

After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.

Then the royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s command?” Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.

When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talents of silver to the king’s administrators for the royal treasury.”

So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. “Keep the money,” the king said to Haman, “and do with the people as you please.”

Then on the thirteenth day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman’s orders to the king’s satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring. Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would be ready for that day.

The couriers went out, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered.

When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

When Esther’s eunuchs and female attendants came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther summoned Hathak, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.

So Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to instruct her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.

Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”

When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”(NIV)

A little background on this story. Ruth, a Jew, was currently the queen of Babylon (a city in which she was a captive and did not want to be queen of). She was originally an orphan and being raised by her cousin Mordecai. When King Xerxes of Babylon's wife lost her queenship, Xerxes ordered all the virgins in the area be brought before him. Ruth, who was very beautiful, was selected as the new queen. The passage above picks up when Mordecai insults Haman by refusing to bow or kneel to him. Enraged, Haman asked the king for permission to kill Mordecai's people, the Jews. When Mordecai finds out that the Xerxes gave Haman the go ahead for his plan, he sends a message to Ruth, asking her to stop the king. Her response was that she was unable to do that, because the king had not summoned her. If anyone appeared before the king without being summoned, that person would be put to death - unless the king pardoned them. Mordecai warned his cousin that she shouldn't expect to be spared from Haman's edict even though she was in the king's palace. In fact, he asserted that she was gifted with her position for just a time as this.

Pastor Jason asserted that today we are facing a similar situation in this nation. It may not be to the point that people in the United States are being killed for being a Christian, but there is a battle for our generation. Just as Haman wanted to wipe out an entire people, there are several groups of people fighting to wipe out the church, so they might have control over the next generation - our generation. Christianity is currently the most persecuted religion in all the world, and experts say it is on the verge of dying out.

Looking at the passage in Esther, what was it about the Jewish people that Haman wanted so back to wipe them out? He tells King Xerxes, "There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them." Haman hates the Jews because they are a people set apart from everyone else.

Pastor Jason stated his wished people could still say that about God's people, that there was something about them that was set apart. We are called to be in this world, but not of this world. He recognized that Jesus did hang out with the sinners and the tax collectors. However, he also noted that Jesus changed sinners; we tend to hang out with sinners and become sinners.

With this sermon, Pastor Jason calls us to two things - to adopt this battle as our own and to use your gifts not for yourself but for the kingdom of God.

Adopting the Battle as Your Own
When Esther tells Mordecai that if she went to the king, she could be put to death, Mordecai's response was, "Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish." Pastor Jason echoes this warning. Do not think that because you are already secure in the kingdom of Heaven, that because you go to church somehow this battle will pass you by. There is a famous quote by Pastor Martin Niemöller that says:

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

If you don't speak up for your generation - for your God - now, there may be no one left when they come for you. And they will come for you.

If you are not convinced that we're facing a battle, Pastor Jason recommended reading a book called "Battle Cry for My Generation" by Ron Luce. The first course of action for both the homosexual and abortionists' agenda was to discredit the church. They knew, that if they could silence the church, they would win the battle. Pastor Jason asks why the people inside the church refuse to see that there is a battle, when those outside the church are calling it a battle. We have things like the battle over Proposition 8 here in California, which really isn't about rights. In the end, it's about overturning a law in order to control the church - telling pastors what they can and cannot preach. Already in Canada, pastors can be arrested for preaching from certain parts of the book of Romans. That's Canada, not some Middle Eastern country on the other side of an ocean. Canada.

Those outside the church know. If they can control what the church preaches - or more importantly, tell them what they can't preach - then they've won this generation. Now is the time for the body of Christ to rise up and take this battle on. One of Pastor Jason's favorite quotes is: "All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." So this year, find a burden for your generation. Find standards in God's truth and stand for them. As the saying goes, "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."

God has Given you Gifts, but They're Not for You.
Esther was given a gift; she was very beautiful. It was not a gift she wanted. Because she was beautiful, she ended up queen of a country she didn't even like - a captive. But as Mordecai told her in the final line of his message, "And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?" If God hadn't given her that gift, she would not have been in the perfect position to save her people from the hand of Haman.

Every person has a gift that is meant to be used for God's kingdom. Even if you haven't yet discovered what that gift is yet, you have one. Not one person alive today was an accident - despite what their parents might say - because when God created you, He had a specific purpose in mind.

For a young woman in the 1800s, Amy Carmichael, her gift was brown eyes. Those brown eyes saved hundreds upon hundreds of young girls from sex trafficking in the Hindu temples of India. Because she was inexplicably born with brown eyes, though the rest of her family had blue eyes, she was able to disguise herself as an Indian woman and sneak in and save these girls one at a time. Growing up, Amy Carmichael hadn't wanted brown eyes - blue eyes like her family's were what were considered beautiful - but those brown eyes were God's gift to her for His kingdom.

In The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Father Christmas (Santa) gives the children gifts. The thing about it was, he gave them these gifts before they had any use for them. They hadn't accepted the battle for Narnia as their own. God has done the same for you. He's given you a gift that you may have had no use for yet, but when you adopt His battle as your own, you will discover how to us it.

All too often, people use the gifts God gave them for their own purposes. How many of today's popular singers started out as worship leaders in their church? God gave them this gift, but it was not meant for them. Still, they use it selfishly and many of them end up ruining their lives.

It's time for Christians to stop playing church. We must enter into this battle for our generation now. Pastor Jason is letting out the call for everyone in this generation to leave a legacy for God. Make your life be like a crime scene. So that people know where you have been, because they can trace the Love of Christ you leave behind.