An Illustration for our Sinful Nature

My wife just sent me this article about a man who committed a carjacking, only 20 minutes after being released from prison: https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-back-bars-carjacking-16-year-girl-20/story?id=75901321

It made me think of our sinful nature and its persistence (Psalm 51, Jeremiah 17, Romans 5, Ephesians 2), as well as Paul’s frustration in Romans 7 about frequently returning to the sin he hates. This story could also illustrate the ongoing battle of the flesh vs. Spirit in Galatians 5.

One thing I know that I would need to guard against in using this illustration is making it humorous. Although the story is definitely ironic, I wouldn’t want to encourage people to laugh at this man’s sin, to mock his situation, or to swell up with pride in our own hearts about how we think we aren’t like him. But for the grace of God, there go I.

Learner’s Permits and Shadows Pointing to Christ

I’m preaching tomorrow on Colossians 2:16-23, where Paul tells us to reject shadows and hold to Christ, the Substance of our faith. One example of “shadows” is the set of Old Testament regulations, which New Covenant believers are no longer bound by. The book of Hebrews takes pains to show that the Old Covenant was a copy or shadow of the real covenant instituted by Jesus and his completed work. Paul encourages believers in Colossians to hold to Christ as the only Way of access to God.

One illustration of this principle is the learner’s permit for new drivers. Teenagers get these and work under supervision to learn how to drive safely on their own. There are specific restrictions to a learner’s permit – limitations on what hours they can drive, as well as requirements for an adult driver of a certain age to be in the car at all times. Finally, after around a year of the limited learner’s permit, the young person can get the full driver’s license, with all the rights and privileges that go with it. Why, after getting that, would they go back to the learner’s permit? Why would they go back to that which was just a shadow of their full freedom? That’s how nonsensical it is for believers to try to go back to that which was only meant to point to Christ. Christ alone is the Substance of our faith, and he alone provides access to God, forgiveness, and eternal life. Don’t hold to anything instead of Jesus, or in addition to Jesus.

This could illustrate Colossians 2, but also Ephesians 2, Hebrews 4, Hebrews 8, and Hebrews 10.

Final Prayer Guides from Acts

I’m catching up on posting some of these prayer guides from our church’s Wednesday prayer gathering.  Posted below are the last two guides that we used from the book of Acts.  I went through that book of Scripture and found every passage with an occurrence of prayer, and used those passages to guide our own prayers.  There ended up being 17 weeks of those guides.  Here are weeks 16 and 17.  I hope they are helpful to you!  They could be used in an individual or group prayer time.

Prayer in Acts, Part 16 – Prayer Meeting 05112016

Prayer in Acts, Part 17 – Prayer Meeting 05182016

 

 

Tags: Prayer, Prayer Meeting, Acts, Paul, Gospel, Evangelism, Love, Faith, Sovereignty, Miracles, Hospitality, Encouragement

Prayer in Acts, Part 5

Tonight we are walking through Part 5 of our study on prayer in the book of Acts.  We are doing this study at our church’s Wednesday night prayer meeting – letting each instance of prayer in Acts guide our own prayer time.

Tonight’s entire study is from Paul’s (Saul’s) conversion story in Acts 9.  Both Paul’s and Ananias’s conversations with God are prayers, and they illustrate the importance of listening during our times as prayer.  The prayer guide is attached below.  God bless you!

Prayer in Acts, Part 5 – Prayer Meeting 02032016

Tags: Prayer, Prayer Meeting, Acts, Acts 9, Paul, Saul, Ananias, Gospel, Conversion

Greater Love Hath No Man

I just saw this article online.  The link below is to a story from last night about a 15-year-old boy named Zaevion Dobson who, in the midst of a gang shooting, jumped on top of three little girls to protect them from bullets.  He died from his injuries, and all three girls were saved from harm.  Amazing, selfless love.  I’m praying that God will bless and comfort his family.

Here’s the link: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/crime-courts/Police-investigating-2-shootings-in-7-hours-362913061.html

This is an incredible illustration of Jesus’ words in John 15:13 about the greatest love being shown through laying down one’s life for his friends.  It also would powerfully illustrate many passages about Jesus’ sacrifice for us, like John 10:11, Romans 4:25, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 5:2,  1 Peter 3:18, and many more.

You could also share this illustration with youth who don’t think that they can make a difference before they are adults.  Zaevion Dobson proved that wrong.

 

Tags: Love, Sacrifice, Redemption, Gospel, John 10, John 15, Romans 4, Romans 5, Ephesians 5, 1 Peter 3, Youth

Berlin Wall

Every time I read the second half of Ephesians 2, I think of the Berlin Wall.  The Berlin Wall is a great illustration of Christ tearing down the dividing wall of hostility, but not just because there is a wall that gets torn down in both instances.  There are so many more parallels between the two events that offer ripe illustrative material.  Here are three:

1) The Berlin Wall brought oppression, bondage, and imprisonment, just like sin did to us.  Christ liberates us from sin just like the tearing down of the wall liberated the East Germans.

2) The Berlin Wall brought disunity and division between people who had once been family members, friends, and neighbors – just like sin brings division, strife, war, and disunity between all people and even in the Church (if we aren’t living according to the truth of the gospel).  Christ defeats that disunity and creates “in Himself one new man…resulting in peace” (Eph. 2:15, HCSB).  Jesus brings this unity to ALL believers from ALL backgrounds – see Galatians 3:28.

3) After the Berlin Wall came down, the celebration was epic.  After the gospel brings us forgiveness, adoption, and reconciliation with God and one another, our lives should erupt in worshipful living and singing.

 

Could be used with: Isaiah 60, Matthew 28, Acts 1, Acts 15, Galatians 3, Ephesians 2 (and large parts of the whole book of Ephesians), Revelation 5 (especially verses 9-10)

Getting to the Root of the Problem

My Honda Pilot’s map light went out, and you don’t realize how much you use those until they die.  I didn’t know how to change the bulb, so next time I went in for some other maintenance work, I asked the service representative to have it fixed.  He comes back a little bit later and tells me that it is not a bulb problem; instead, the socket itself has a short and needs to be replaced.  It would’ve been over $1oo and I was already having some other expensive work done, so, needless to say, my map light is STILL out.

I could have replaced bulbs in that map light 100 times, but until I got down to the real problem, the map light would not have worked.  The bulbs not lighting up was just a symptom of a deeper problem.  We try a lot of things to give us happiness, forgiveness, peace, and fulfillment, but nothing is going to work until we get past the symptoms and deal with the ROOT of the problem.  Only the gospel of Jesus Christ does that.  The Holy Spirit has to come in and rip out that old nature (like the shorted-out socket) and put in a whole new nature.

This could work with Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36, 2 Corinthians 5 (especially verse 17), Hebrews 8, and a lot of other passages dealing with sin, regeneration, and the gospel.