SoulSing Rewind- May 31st Gott Life

Today we take a look at probably the most famous of the three parables in Matthew 25, the sheep and the goats.

For the past few gatherings of SoulSing we have been going through Matthew 25 looking at three parables of Jesus. All three of these stories have a context of the return of Jesus at the end of time. We know without a doubt that Jesus will return. We need to take this seriously. It is no trivial matter, for the salvation of the world will be made complete the day Jesus returns.

Jesus said that before he returns, the Temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed which came to pass in AD 70 by the Romans. Jesus also said that troubles will be evident all over the globe. We see this today. But when will he return? The answer is, we don’t know. In Matthew 24 Jesus says the following about his return, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” There is no use in us trying to predict when this will happen, but we can be sure that it will happen!

So far in our Gott Life series we have seen what it means to live the God life while we wait for the return of Christ by living expectantly, and living responsibly. We must be ready at all times for his return and we must be responsible for what he has given us by using our talents to glorify God and point others to Him.

This story tells the truth that while we wait for the return of Christ, not only are we to live expectantly, and responsibly, but we are to live compassionately.

What do we see in this story?

#1- Jesus promised that he will return.

When he does he will return in glory, he will command all graves to give up their dead, and he will gather all nations before him. Jesus will then separate humanity into two groups. Jesus will graciously commend those He welcomes for acts of service done for others.

Jesus calls us to live compassionately and make every attempt to meet the needs of others.

• Those who are received into the Father’s house are welcomed (“Come”, 25:34) solely because they are “blessed” by Jesus’ Father. They “inherit” (not “merit”) the “kingdom” prepared “for them” (not “by them”) before the beginning of time (when they were not present to help prepare it).

There is a difference between the basis of acceptance according to God and the basis of condemnation.

• Boasting is out; grace reigns supreme!

• The basis of acceptance God’s grace

• The basis of condemnation is rejection of Christian living.

• We do not perform deeds of service for the sake of reward, but to meet other people’s needs.

My words are not meant to be a guilt trip, but if you are feeling guilty, thank the law working on your heart. We need to understand that living the God life is not static, it is not easy, it is a call to action, a call to bring the love of God to a hurting world.

We have the unique opportunity here in this time, in this place. We have the freedom to worship and the freedom to share what we have with others. Living the God life brings us face to face with the realities we find in the world, the realities of sin, hunger, loneliness, great need, sickness and disease, imprisonment and so many other things and motivates us to action.

• Quote: “Faith becomes a living, busy, active, powerful thing, so that it does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked it has wrought them and is always engaged in doing them.” -Martin Luther

Who is that lonely person in your life that you can visit? Who are those who are needy in our city? Where do we see Jesus in his most distressing disguise, as Mother Theresa would say?

Perhaps you are lonely or sick or hurting. If you are here tonight and in need, I want you to hear these words, Jesus loves you and he died in your place. He is here tonight to take away your pain, to bring you what you need, to heal your diseases, to free you from the prison of sin.

Living the God life is not easy, but the hard work has been done for us by Jesus.

Living the God life does not mean doing more works, but coming to grips with grace and a God that loves us so much he sent his own son to die in our place. Once we are free from the prison of sin do we have the freedom to do the good things God has planned for us.

That is the God life!

The Super Man

Did you know that Superman and his father share the last name of "El"--the Hebrew word for "God"? Or that his Earthly parents were originally named "Mary" and "Joseph"? And that his archenemy is a villain called "Lex Luthor"--a name suspiciously like "Lucifer"? Who is this Super Man? Learn how the Superman storytellers based the story of Superman on the story of Christ and how Jesus is the true super-hero!

SoulSing Replay 1.25.09- "Lord Teach Me to Pray"

As Jesus taught his followers to pray he used the words that have come to be known as "The Lord's Prayer". This prayer has been used for centuries, memorized by millions and prayed during good times and bad. As we study this great example of prayer, we also ask God to teach us and to help us to understand prayer and our relationship with our Father. I ask you two questions...What do you think prayer is, and how does the Lord's Prayer help you to pray? Feel free to use the comment feature to express yourself. Have a wonderful week!!

SoulSing 9.28.08- Noise

noise is unwanted sound

which is why your parents call the music their kids like noise

but noise isn’t just about sound

it’s about information

noise is whatever drowns out or interferes with or conceals

meaningful information

sound engineers, radio engineers speak of two things, signal and noise

the signal is the message, the meaningful part of the transmission

the noise is all the unwanted stuff that interferes with your

ability to hear or decipher the signal

our lives are full of noise

too much information

too many messages that don’t add up to any coherent whole

all competing for our attention we can’t find the signal or make

any sense of our lives

and so we go into the desert to escape the noise

but then we can hear our internal noise

some of which is very gross especially during silent prayer

and some of which is subtle but more deeply disturbing

like tinnitus which is nerve damage to the inner ear resulting in a

permanent whistling or hissing noise inside you head that

you can never escape

and that’s just the physical noise inside us

but our heads are full of mental noise

the thoughts that won’t stop chattering that stupid song that

you can’t get out of your head that nagging worry about

something you said and didn’t say

that hurt and anger that you can’t let go of, churning inside you

when you’re supposed to be concentrating on work that dumb

joke that keeps making you giggle on the bus so that people

look at you strangely…

and when you’re alone you can’t pretend any more that any of

these were necessary

so you try and put them aside to pray

and now you become aware of spiritual noise

all those things that compete with god

distracting your attention towards selfish or worldly concerns

drowning out your attempts to hear god’s voice distorting the message

or making you lose bits like a cell phone passing under a bridge

sin is like a kind of spiritual tinnitus

the closer we get to god’s silence the more we are aware of

the unceasing whine inside ourselves

of want and need and hurt and self

trouble is we’ve lost the volume knob and anyway we’re

scared of silence because without all the activity and

distractions

we’ll have to face ourselves and God and we are frightened of

what we might find

but God longs to heal us

to still the oscilloscopes of our souls

turn the noise off

and give us peace

because only then

will we be able to hear

the music of heaven

Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

James 1:22-25 (MSG)

SoulSing Replay 3.30.08

Psalm 139

In Psalm 139 King David describes God’s character and what that means for us.

God knows all about us, he is OMNISCIENT

What we do

God knows it all. Every action we do is known by God.

What we think

God knew not only David’s actions but also his motivations.

What we say

Before David could even frame a word on his tongue the Lord was familiar with what he was about to say

David’s initial response to this staggering knowledge was that he was troubled. Like many who respond to the fact of God’s omniscience, he thought it was confining, that God had besieged him and cupped His hand over him.

Moreover, this kind of knowledge was out of David’s control—it was too wonderful for him.

It is uncomfortable to know that the holy God knows all our actions. But to those who are at peace with God through forgiveness of sins, God’s total knowledge is a comfort. God knows our weaknesses, not to take advantage of them but to help us overcome them. God knows our troubles not to exploit them but to helps us with them.

To be hemmed in by God’s knowledge and to have his hand on us can either be a comfort or a threat. Or response depends on one crucial relationship: are we trying to escape an angry judge or are we dear children in the arms of a loving father? It is faith that changes us from fearful sinners to confident children.

God is always with us, he is OMNIPRESENT

God is in heaven and in the depths

David seems like he is trying to find a place to hide from God. He first asserted that the Lord is present in the heavens above and in the depths

The Hebrew word that is translated as depths in the NIV is the word sheol. It is the place of the dead, the place of the grave. It is the opposite of heaven in location.

These opposites signify that all areas in between (are also in the Lord’s presence.

He can be found by the furthest ocean-- God’s hand will guide and support us wherever we go.

Moreover, if he could fly at the speed of light (the wings of the dawn) from the east across the sky to the west (far side of the Mediterranean Sea) he could not escape from the Lord.

Note the subtle shift in thinking in verse 10

God’s presence then began to take on a new meaning for David, as if the light were dawning on him. Now, he stated, the hand of the Lord would lead and comfort him.

He shines forth in the darkness

David developed the theme of light a little further. The darkness might bruise him (probably referring to the oppressive nature of darkness). But David could not be concealed from God, for darkness and light are the same to Him because of His omniscience and omnipresence.

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." (John 3:19-21)

As sinful people we want to hide from the light but we don’t see that the darkness can bruise us. It can hurt us.

When we live in the light we are living in the glow of Easter. The brilliance that clothed the angels and the open tomb will one day adorn us as well.

Easter living is living in the light. Because of Jesus resurrection we no longer have to worry about the darkness for he has overcome the darkness.

Isaiah 9:2

The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death

a light has dawned.

Jesus has promised to be with us and his presence is guaranteed by his resurrection. He is present in bread and wine. He is present when he gathers us around his word. He is an ever present help in times of trouble.

GOD can do all things for us—He is OMNIPOTENT

God creates and arranges our bodies within the womb: He knows us before we are born.

The thought that darkness cannot conceal anyone from the Lord (vv. 11-12) brought to David’s mind this meditation in verses 13-18: God knew all about him when He created him in his mother’s womb. Since God can create a person, He certainly knows him intimately and is with him everywhere.

He schedules each day of our lives before we are born and He records our every day in his book

Then David stressed certain features of God’s superintendence over him. In the womb he was woven together (lit., “embroidered”; cf. “knit,” v. 13, suggesting his veins and arteries). When he was being formed in the womb he was as remote to the human eye as the lower part of the earth. But God saw every detail. David’s frame means his skeleton and his unformed body is his embryo. Moreover, God prerecorded all the days of the psalmist before he was even born.

He thinks wonderful and innumerable thoughts about us constantly

This thought led David to conclude that the Lord’s plans for His people are most precious and in fact are innumerable. They are also most relevant, for each morning when he awakened; God was still with him, extending His thoughts toward him.

The thoughts of God motivated him to send is son. He loved the world so much that he sent Jesus to bring us back from the grave of sin to be with him. We can be confident that we are with God.

Now that we know our status before God we can come to him with our requests.

David has two requests:

“O God, if only you would destroy the wicked!” (139:19–22)

Search me, O God, and know my heart” (139:23–24): He wants God to test him and point out anything that offends him.

The psalmist petitioned God to slay the wicked men who were trying to kill him. These enemies apparently were taking the name of the Lord in vain, using it for an evil purpose. Because they were God’s enemies, David affirmed that they were his enemies too and that he would have nothing to do with them. To hate them meant to reject them to disavow any association with them.

This is a declaration of loyalty that echoes the pledge required by ancient Near Eastern kings of their vassals: “With my friend you shall be friend, and with my enemy you shall be enemy.” 14 century BC treaty between Mursillis II a Hittite king and Tette of Nuhassi.

David concluded this psalm with a prayer for God to search and test him in order to prove his loyalty.

God would also know if the psalmist had any offensive way (lit., “way of pain,")

David closes not with pride but with humility. He recognizes that without forgiveness he too would fall under the wrath of a holy God. David circles back to the beginning of the psalm and asks that the Lord would use his knowledge of David to cleanse him from every evil way which would lead him away from God. For sinners the only solution to God’s holy anger against sin is the love of God. This love moves him to salvation rather than destruction. This love opens the way of life everlasting.

Only because of the power of Christ living in us can we lead lives that have no offensive ways. Jesus is the one who leads us in the way everlasting.

Search me…
Know me…
Guide me…
Hold me…
Make me…
Send me…
Save me…
Show me…

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SoulSing Replay 2.24.08

We can all be in service to one another. Johnny found a simple way to serve others. Will you be a Johnny today? If not perhaps arrogance has gotten into your life.

Arrogance... It can blind us from seeing things for what they really are. It can give us a false sense of security. It has a way of creeping in without our knowledge. It may start out as confidence but at some point something changes.

I think we all have battled with arrogance. We all have become a little too overconfident. When arrogance and bickering creep into the body of Christ the first thing that goes is service. When we get so comfortable and wonder what we can get out of the church is exactly the place where bickering can begin and where service ends.

I want to take a page from the corporate world and give you some simple truths to good service. These truths were developed with the idea of improving customer service but I think we can apply them to Christian service.

1. Great Service Inspires Stories

Whether is it positive or negative we let others know our experience. Jesus’ service on the cross has inspired generations of storytellers. Four stories of his life have been preserved for us in the Gospels. Does your service inspire stories?

2. Great Service Uses Outside-the-Box thinking

Where would we be without the thinking that has produced things like the printing press, the personal computer? Jesus was an out-of-the-box thinker. He took a rag-tag group and formed them to be servants to the world. Are you thinking out of the box?

3. Great Service is Active

The attendant the goes the extra mile, the server that attends to your needs during a meal, the employee that takes your bag without expecting anything in return. Active service makes a lasting impression. Jesus was active in ministry, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, making the blind see. His service to others made a lasting impression. Is your service active?

4. Great Service Starts with a Clear Vision

Knowing what you want to do and how to do it gives service a great chance of success. Jesus took the vision of his father when he took on flesh and came to serve not to be served. Do you have a clear vision for service?

5. Great Service Requires that Everyone Catch the Vision

When a company wants to improve its customers service everyone must be on board. After Jesus went back to heaven he sent the Holy Spirit who fanned the flames of service and the message was spread. In Acts we see the effects of the vision being caught. Have you caught the vision?

6. Great Service Surprises People

When have you been surprised by service? The ministry of Jesus was surprising. He came as a king yet did the work of a servant. He was God but came as a baby. He came to rule but he went to a cross. He was dead, but rose again. It is time to surprise someone?

7. Great Service Begins with Anyone

Anyone can make a difference. No matter what you do or where you live, no matter what skills you have or what experiences you posses. You can make a difference. Jesus chose the downcast, the undesirable, the plain, and the unworthy to be his messengers. Where can you serve?

8. Great Service Goes the Extra Mile

Those who go the extra mile are remembered. Jesus went the extra mile for us. His service to us was above and beyond what we could imagine. Have you gone the extra mile?

9. Great Service Brings Customers Back

What brings you back to a business? Jesus’ service brought us all back from sin. Left in our sin and selfishness we would be lost, but Jesus finds us and brings us back to his loving arms. Does your service bring people back?

10. Great Service Comes from the Heart

Service cannot be coerced, or forced, it comes as an extension of who we are.God loved the world so much he send his son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. How is your heart?

Because of the service of Jesus to us we can be in service to others. We get to be the hands of Jesus offering help to those who need it, bringing love and compassion. You know the service that Jesus’ hands brought to us was not simply a formula or a recipe but his service actually brought the comfort and peace that it promised. May our Lord’s passion motivate us to show compassion in service to others.

SoulSing Replay 1.27.08

Go The Distance!!





We all long for a place of welcome. Where crowds will cheer when they see our face. To find such a place mythology tells us about a boy who became a god and thus earned an Olympic welcome. History, which is always far more interesting than mythology, tells us about the God who became a boy and thus earned us an eternal welcome. In Jesus Christ, God went the distance, the distance we could not go. Our fall was complete. Sin corrupted our very nature. The distance between creature and creator was too far for us to navigate. So God, in Christ, went the distance. From Heaven to earth. From sinless life to sacrifice for sin. From the grave to the glory of Easter morn. Now, through faith in Jesus, we have the promise of a great warm welcome that awaits us. Since that welcome is ours, since the promise belongs to us, we can along with St. Paul go the distance; "fight the good fight, keep the faith and finish the race."

Need some more inspiration? Look at Team Hoyt!!