[Acts 4:10-12]
let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
{James Cha}
Saved from what?
Slavery to sin - John 8:34 (Romans 6:16-17)
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin."
Slavery to fear of death - Hebrews 2:14-16
and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
What is Islam?
Islam means submission to Allah
Muslim is someone who is submitted to Allah
Islam began with Muhammad, who lived in the 600's
He was a merchant, a teacher, and a warrior.
Who is Allah?
Jews believe in God revealed in the Old Testament
Christians affirm the God of the TO and believe in the Trinity as revealed in the NT
Muslims claim that their Allah is the same as the God of the Bible.
Islam
Allah is distant and impersonal.
Allah's loves conditional.
Salvation is based on scales. It is not guaranteed.
Muhammad himself did not know his eternal destiny.
Keep the 5 pillars.
Heaven is pictured as men sitting on couches being served wine by perpetual virgins; majority in hell are women.
Allah wants Islam to take over the world, even by force.
Muhammad viewed men as superior to women.
Muhammad had 13 wives; His youngest, Aisha, was 9 at the time of marriage.
Muhammad has no record of healing the sick or raising the dead.
Muhammad initially doubted whether the revelation he received was divine or demonic.
Muhammad died peacefully in the arms of his youngest wife, Aisha; buried in Medina.
Muhammad won a following by military victory and/or forced conversion.
Muhammad washed the swords of his followers.
Muhammad taught that Jesus was not God.
What does the Bible say about Muhammad? (1 John 2:22-23)
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
The Baha'i religion came on the scene at 1850 AD. They say that the previous religions have failed and they have newer revelation.
God is looking for a man or a woman
Of Conviction - John 15:1-7; Acts 4:18-20
Of Compassion - Matthew 5:43-48; John 13:34-35
"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him..." - 2 Chronicles 16:9 (ESV)
Feb 27, 2011
Feb 20, 2011
The Peacemaking Church: Conflict starts in the Heart
[James 4:1-10]
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
{Rev. Dwight Yoo}
Starting Principle - Get the log out of YOUR eye. (Matt 7:3-5)
The inclination of our hearts is to look others in a negative light. To see their faults and their failings. But this is a downward spiral. We can keep going and going in pointing out others faults because all of us are sinners. We will start to think others are worse than they are. But this is not what God wants us to do.
We are to look at our own faults and failings FIRST. What does that get us? We get a healthy sense of self-suspicion. When we get into certain situations, we will examine ourselves to see whether it is our sinful hearts leading us astray. James tells us that conflict starts in our hearts. The world tells us that the reason we have conflicts because of things outside... the traffic, our work, or a bad situation. This is why we are having conflict. BUT the Word tells us it comes from our heart. This is not referring to the organ, but when God talks about the heart, He is referring to the central control in our life. Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 15:19-24;
The desires and passions found in our hearts can be good as well as evil. These are the things that control and move us. Whether it is a desire to eat at Tyson's Bees or to have your children behave...
Let's take a peek at our hearts and how this works...
- i desire...
- (becomes) I Demand...
- (changes us) I JUDGE...
- (makes us) I PUNISH !
So desires that may be perfectly good become demands. And these demands become central to our satisfaction and happiness. They are now idols. They have taken God's place in our lives. Given time, when our demands are not met, they start to impact our relationships. We then begin to judge others according to whether they meet our demands or not. "SHE's a horrible friend." "My husband's so USELESS." Whether we say it or it is just in our hearts, we become overly critical of others. This is what James 4:11 says, "Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge." So then, when we become judges, we will then pass judgment and punish others become of their failures. We see others according to our kingdom rules and regulations. When they fail to meet your expectations or they are not meeting your "needs", you will give them the cold shoulder, shame them, or ignore them.
If you are giving people the cold shoulder or slandering others, it is a CLEAR sign that an idol is in control of your heart. When we punish others who are close to us, they do not want to love us more. It makes them hurt. It makes them get defensive, attack us back, or run away.
"double-minded" - James is telling us that we can only have ONE ultimate source of satisfaction and fulfillment. We cannot serve both God and money. We cannot serve both God and ______. (Friends, family, success, career, & spouse.) No matter what else it is, it will NOT satisfy. It will only disappoint. People are fallible, they will fail us.
We cannot simply remove an idol. Just removing an idol simply opens our heart to another idol. We must replace the idol with God. We must replace the idols of our lives with the desire to love & follow Jesus. Then our fears and anxieties will dissipate...
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
{Rev. Dwight Yoo}
Starting Principle - Get the log out of YOUR eye. (Matt 7:3-5)
The inclination of our hearts is to look others in a negative light. To see their faults and their failings. But this is a downward spiral. We can keep going and going in pointing out others faults because all of us are sinners. We will start to think others are worse than they are. But this is not what God wants us to do.
We are to look at our own faults and failings FIRST. What does that get us? We get a healthy sense of self-suspicion. When we get into certain situations, we will examine ourselves to see whether it is our sinful hearts leading us astray. James tells us that conflict starts in our hearts. The world tells us that the reason we have conflicts because of things outside... the traffic, our work, or a bad situation. This is why we are having conflict. BUT the Word tells us it comes from our heart. This is not referring to the organ, but when God talks about the heart, He is referring to the central control in our life. Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 15:19-24;
The desires and passions found in our hearts can be good as well as evil. These are the things that control and move us. Whether it is a desire to eat at Tyson's Bees or to have your children behave...
Let's take a peek at our hearts and how this works...
- i desire...
- (becomes) I Demand...
- (changes us) I JUDGE...
- (makes us) I PUNISH !
So desires that may be perfectly good become demands. And these demands become central to our satisfaction and happiness. They are now idols. They have taken God's place in our lives. Given time, when our demands are not met, they start to impact our relationships. We then begin to judge others according to whether they meet our demands or not. "SHE's a horrible friend." "My husband's so USELESS." Whether we say it or it is just in our hearts, we become overly critical of others. This is what James 4:11 says, "Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge." So then, when we become judges, we will then pass judgment and punish others become of their failures. We see others according to our kingdom rules and regulations. When they fail to meet your expectations or they are not meeting your "needs", you will give them the cold shoulder, shame them, or ignore them.
If you are giving people the cold shoulder or slandering others, it is a CLEAR sign that an idol is in control of your heart. When we punish others who are close to us, they do not want to love us more. It makes them hurt. It makes them get defensive, attack us back, or run away.
"double-minded" - James is telling us that we can only have ONE ultimate source of satisfaction and fulfillment. We cannot serve both God and money. We cannot serve both God and ______. (Friends, family, success, career, & spouse.) No matter what else it is, it will NOT satisfy. It will only disappoint. People are fallible, they will fail us.
We cannot simply remove an idol. Just removing an idol simply opens our heart to another idol. We must replace the idol with God. We must replace the idols of our lives with the desire to love & follow Jesus. Then our fears and anxieties will dissipate...
Feb 13, 2011
The Peacemaking Church: Live At Peace
James 3:13-18
Rev. Dwight Yoo
This is the second sermon in a series.
James writes this to a church in conflict. This church has a group of teachers that are saying the church should focus on this or that. This was not about heresy, it was probably more likely about something good. But there is a difference of opinion about what good things to focus on...
I feel our church is particularly susceptible to this. We can get too caught up in our causes and what we are passionate about. This, if left unchecked, can cause division and even for the church to fracture and split. James addresses those who claim to be wise and learned to show their wisdom by their works of faith. He tells them this would result in humility and meekness in their actions. The wise should be humble and meek...which was not the case here. Rather they were living contentious and antagonistic towards others in the church. How so? Consider how Jesus laid it all down laid it all down and lived humbly and meekly. We should follow in His footsteps. Conflict should be an opportunity to love and serve others. Not fighting to be right or trying to escape...but looking to benefit others. We should choose this over harsh zeal regardless of how great the cause. While the cause is good or your point is right, your actions are not spirit-led. The Spirit does not lead in this fashion. Not only this, but all this fighting and struggling to have our way...is demonic. James calls it DEMONIC. There is a time and place to take a stand for the right things in the right fashion. But by and large, it is destructive. Pure, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy, impartial, sincere, & open to reason...this is the way of the Spirit. Those who live like this will bring about a harvest of righteousness! Whether in marriage, parenting, at work, our in the church...there will be blessing. THIS IS WHAT WE ARE CALLED TO.
Rev. Dwight Yoo
This is the second sermon in a series.
James writes this to a church in conflict. This church has a group of teachers that are saying the church should focus on this or that. This was not about heresy, it was probably more likely about something good. But there is a difference of opinion about what good things to focus on...
I feel our church is particularly susceptible to this. We can get too caught up in our causes and what we are passionate about. This, if left unchecked, can cause division and even for the church to fracture and split. James addresses those who claim to be wise and learned to show their wisdom by their works of faith. He tells them this would result in humility and meekness in their actions. The wise should be humble and meek...which was not the case here. Rather they were living contentious and antagonistic towards others in the church. How so? Consider how Jesus laid it all down laid it all down and lived humbly and meekly. We should follow in His footsteps. Conflict should be an opportunity to love and serve others. Not fighting to be right or trying to escape...but looking to benefit others. We should choose this over harsh zeal regardless of how great the cause. While the cause is good or your point is right, your actions are not spirit-led. The Spirit does not lead in this fashion. Not only this, but all this fighting and struggling to have our way...is demonic. James calls it DEMONIC. There is a time and place to take a stand for the right things in the right fashion. But by and large, it is destructive. Pure, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy, impartial, sincere, & open to reason...this is the way of the Spirit. Those who live like this will bring about a harvest of righteousness! Whether in marriage, parenting, at work, our in the church...there will be blessing. THIS IS WHAT WE ARE CALLED TO.
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Feb 6, 2011
The peacemaking church: Conflict provides opportunities
{Rev. Dwight Yoo}
We will be covering a book "the peacemaker" by Ken Sande for eight weeks. This is not a complete departure from James, but it is certainly not an expositional series. We wish to focus on a specific core value for a season. In this case, we want to focus on Gospel Community.
What happens when the church does not handle conflict well?
Spiritual growth suffers - Ephesians 4:1-16
Marriages suffer - Ephesians 5:22-33
Friendships suffer - Proverbs 17:17;18:24
What if, by God's grace, we get this right?
Spiritual growth and renewal
Powerfully redemptive, long-lasting, world attracting marriages, families, and friendships
A Gospel community, whose relationships display the power of the Gospel to an unbelieving world.
That was the intro to this series. Now the sermon.
Matthew 5:9
The church should be a community of peacemakers in a world of conflict.
Conflict: "A conference in opinion or purpose that frustrates someone's goals or desires."
Conflict is not all bad. Even the apostles had them. There are two major bad responses.
Escape: aka peace-faking. This is self-centered. The person hates the situation and wants out. There is denial of any problem. They may run away from these situations. If they go to an extreme, they may choose to commit suicide.
Attack: aka peace-breaking. This is also self-centered. This person wants to always be right. They are convinced that the other person is the problem. Assault of either the emotional or even physical attack. They may litigate, take you to court. Taken to the extreme, they may murder others. This can be just pretending someone does not exist. Completely ignoring them.
KYRG - KISS YOUR RELATIONSHIPS GOODBYE.
The best and biblical response?
Peacemaking: It is about we. Directed towards finding just and mutually agreeable solutions to conflict. There is a covering over and overlooking of small sins. There is reconciliation over more serious sins. And for seriously contentious issues, there is mediation and even arbitration.
Three opportunities from conflict
Glory for God
Trust Him - Proverbs 3:5-7
Obey - John 14:21
Imitate - Philippians 2:1-7
Acknowledge - 1 Peter 2:12
Serve others
Put others first - Luke 6:27-28;36
Meet others needs
Show others where they need to grow - Galatians 6:1-2
Introduce them to Jesus - 1 Peter 3:15-16
Set an example of healthy conflict resolution (your kids are watching.)
Grow to be like Christ
Romans 8:28-29
We will be covering a book "the peacemaker" by Ken Sande for eight weeks. This is not a complete departure from James, but it is certainly not an expositional series. We wish to focus on a specific core value for a season. In this case, we want to focus on Gospel Community.
What happens when the church does not handle conflict well?
Spiritual growth suffers - Ephesians 4:1-16
Marriages suffer - Ephesians 5:22-33
Friendships suffer - Proverbs 17:17;18:24
What if, by God's grace, we get this right?
Spiritual growth and renewal
Powerfully redemptive, long-lasting, world attracting marriages, families, and friendships
A Gospel community, whose relationships display the power of the Gospel to an unbelieving world.
That was the intro to this series. Now the sermon.
Matthew 5:9
The church should be a community of peacemakers in a world of conflict.
Conflict: "A conference in opinion or purpose that frustrates someone's goals or desires."
Conflict is not all bad. Even the apostles had them. There are two major bad responses.
Escape: aka peace-faking. This is self-centered. The person hates the situation and wants out. There is denial of any problem. They may run away from these situations. If they go to an extreme, they may choose to commit suicide.
Attack: aka peace-breaking. This is also self-centered. This person wants to always be right. They are convinced that the other person is the problem. Assault of either the emotional or even physical attack. They may litigate, take you to court. Taken to the extreme, they may murder others. This can be just pretending someone does not exist. Completely ignoring them.
KYRG - KISS YOUR RELATIONSHIPS GOODBYE.
The best and biblical response?
Peacemaking: It is about we. Directed towards finding just and mutually agreeable solutions to conflict. There is a covering over and overlooking of small sins. There is reconciliation over more serious sins. And for seriously contentious issues, there is mediation and even arbitration.
Three opportunities from conflict
Glory for God
Trust Him - Proverbs 3:5-7
Obey - John 14:21
Imitate - Philippians 2:1-7
Acknowledge - 1 Peter 2:12
Serve others
Put others first - Luke 6:27-28;36
Meet others needs
Show others where they need to grow - Galatians 6:1-2
Introduce them to Jesus - 1 Peter 3:15-16
Set an example of healthy conflict resolution (your kids are watching.)
Grow to be like Christ
Romans 8:28-29
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